[SPEAKER_00]: Welcome to the preaching ministry of the Agopic Baptist Church in George South Africa.
[SPEAKER_00]: Good morning.
[SPEAKER_00]: Good to see you today.
[SPEAKER_00]: Just a little bit.
[SPEAKER_00]: Bless you.
[SPEAKER_00]: Bless you by being here today.
[SPEAKER_00]: And we're speaking together.
[SPEAKER_00]: Turn with me, if you will, to John chapter 21, we're going to begin here in this last chapter of John and see what the Lord has for us this morning.
[SPEAKER_00]: Read down three verse 14.
[SPEAKER_00]: If you'd like to look there with me in John chapter 21, beginning in verse one.
[SPEAKER_00]: After this, Jesus revealed himself again to the disciples by the sea of Tiberius, and he revealed himself in this way.
[SPEAKER_00]: Simon Peter, in Thomas, called the twin, Nathaniel of Cane of Galilee, the sons of Zebadi, and two others of his disciples were together.
[SPEAKER_00]: we will go with you and they went out and got into the boat but that night they caught nothing.
[SPEAKER_00]: Just as the day was breaking Jesus stood on the shore yet the disciples did not know that it was Jesus and Jesus said to them children do you have any fish?
[SPEAKER_00]: They answered him no.
[SPEAKER_00]: He said to them cast the net on the right
[SPEAKER_00]: So they cast it, and now they were not able to haul it in because of the great, because of the quantity of fish.
[SPEAKER_00]: And that disciple whom Jesus loved, therefore said to Peter, it is the Lord.
[SPEAKER_00]: And when Simon Peter heard that it was the Lord, he put on his outer garment for he was stripped for work and threw himself into the sea.
[SPEAKER_00]: And the other disciple came in the boat, dragging the net full of fish, for they were not far from the land, but about a hundred yards off.
[SPEAKER_00]: And when they got out on land, they saw a charcoal fire in place with fish laid out on it and bred.
[SPEAKER_00]: And Jesus said to them, bring some of the fish that you have just caught.
[SPEAKER_00]: So some in Peter went aboard and held the net ashore full of large fish, 153 of them.
[SPEAKER_00]: And although there were so many, the net was not torn.
[SPEAKER_00]: And Jesus said to them, come and help breakfast.
[SPEAKER_00]: Now none of the disciples there asked him, who are you, for they knew it was the Lord.
[SPEAKER_00]: This was now the third time that Jesus was revealed to the disciples after he was raised from the dead.
[SPEAKER_00]: Our fathers, we come to your word this morning.
[SPEAKER_00]: I pray that you would, indeed, help us, that we might be able to worship you this morning.
[SPEAKER_00]: You'll be able to receive your word.
[SPEAKER_00]: Allow the Spirit of God to direct and guide us in your will.
[SPEAKER_00]: May you be honored in Christ's name.
[SPEAKER_00]: Amen.
[SPEAKER_00]: Well, if you've ever been out on a boat, on the water, or maybe in some other kind of floating device or something, you know that there's a natural drift that takes place.
[SPEAKER_00]: The water and the waves or the currents in the wind will just naturally push you in one direction or another.
[SPEAKER_00]: And so if you want to go in a certain direction, you have to be intentional about keeping yourself on course because of this tendency to drift away from where you intend to go.
[SPEAKER_00]: Organizations and ministries have this tendency to drift and they refer to that as mission
[SPEAKER_00]: It is the gradual shift away from your original purpose or goals and it leads to a loss of a focus, a loss of identity even as to who you are, what you're about.
[SPEAKER_00]: Well, we see this tendency also in the church to drift from our
[SPEAKER_00]: from our purpose, and that can happen.
[SPEAKER_00]: Not only on a collective basis as a church, a body, but also as individuals, each of us have this tendency.
[SPEAKER_00]: And you can think about the natural tendencies of our sinful flesh and the pull of the world.
[SPEAKER_00]: And we can naturally drift away from the direction that the Lord has for us and His purpose for us if we are not careful and beyond our guard against that tendency.
[SPEAKER_00]: And I believe this passage that we have before us this morning is the Lord reminding the disciples of their mission.
[SPEAKER_00]: and the work that God had called him to be and also to do.
[SPEAKER_00]: Notice in verse 14, there John said, this was the third time that Jesus had revealed himself to them after the resurrection.
[SPEAKER_00]: And we're not totally sure what John means by this third time.
[SPEAKER_00]: Some take it to mean this was the third day that Jesus had revealed himself to the disciples.
[SPEAKER_00]: or others would say that was the third time that he appeared to the group or part of the group of the disciples.
[SPEAKER_00]: Or at least it's the third time that John records that Jesus had revealed himself to them.
[SPEAKER_00]: In any case, we see seven of the disciples together.
[SPEAKER_00]: Verse two, they've traveled
[SPEAKER_00]: And evidently, these seven are waiting around for the others to arrive and for Jesus to come again and meet with them.
[SPEAKER_00]: And so we see listed here Peter and Thomas and Nathaniel and the sons of Zabadi, which is James and John,
[SPEAKER_00]: so that they would refer to you and to me.
[SPEAKER_00]: And it's certainly true that it's the Lord records this account for us through John.
[SPEAKER_00]: He would have us to see what the Lord was teaching them and to learn from the lesson also and to apply it to our own lives.
[SPEAKER_00]: Well, Peter, as you know, and we've learned from his character,
[SPEAKER_00]: And so we see him saying, I'm going fishing and the others there with him saying we will also come with you.
[SPEAKER_00]: And it's very likely that all of these, all of this seven were also fishermen, you know, some of them were for sure, but in the others most likely as well.
[SPEAKER_00]: And there is various opinions about Peter's decision here and the other's decision to go
[SPEAKER_00]: One thing to keep in mind that when we talk about fishing is not the leisure kind of fishing that we usually associate with fishing.
[SPEAKER_00]: Now for them, this was their work or had been their work, it was their means of living.
[SPEAKER_00]: And so some would see this decision by Peter and the others as a departure from God's calling upon their life.
[SPEAKER_00]: and there was a return to their old life and abandonment of the Lord's mission for them.
[SPEAKER_00]: Well, on the other extreme abuse is the view that, well, this was a very positive thing and that Peter was just keeping himself busy and they were providing a means of income during this time of transition.
[SPEAKER_00]: I think that the reality falls somewhere in between those two views.
[SPEAKER_00]: I don't believe that there's any indication that their actions were sinful or wrong.
[SPEAKER_00]: But I do believe that there was a potential for danger here as these men go back to their old trade of fishing.
[SPEAKER_00]: There's a potential for them to become diverted.
[SPEAKER_00]: Or we could say to drift from their mission at the Lord had called him to and had planned for them.
[SPEAKER_00]: I thought about what I was in university and Bible University and preparing for the ministry.
[SPEAKER_00]: There were many, many young men that were ahead of me or in the same class classes with me.
[SPEAKER_00]: that, you know, we most of us had to work some kind of work in order to stay in school.
[SPEAKER_00]: And some of those, some of those man got jobs and they were pretty good jobs and they were doing quite well.
[SPEAKER_00]: And some didn't finish their studies and just went into that trade.
[SPEAKER_00]: And some did finish their studies, but they just continued working and never really
[SPEAKER_00]: went into the ministry and we can't judge the individuals that may have been exactly what the Lord wanted them to do.
[SPEAKER_00]: But you have to wonder if some got diverted from what the Lord had intended from for them in the ministry.
[SPEAKER_00]: Well, in the end of verse 3 says that they
[SPEAKER_00]: They called nothing, and as I was reading about this, someone, you know, was going to give me some insight into the Greek word here, translated nothing, and they said, this Greek word means nothing.
[SPEAKER_00]: And so we see these men,
[SPEAKER_00]: out at night, which was the best time for them to catch a fish, especially with a net, because the fish would come closer to the surface when it was at night.
[SPEAKER_00]: And these men, they were professionals, they knew how to catch fish.
[SPEAKER_00]: And besides that, this was their home fishing area, the Sea of Galilee,
[SPEAKER_00]: The name Tiberius, the other name for the Sea of Galilee.
[SPEAKER_00]: And I can imagine that these men would have tried all their favorite places as they tried to catch some fish, but nothing, nothing worked.
[SPEAKER_00]: And you know, there's a, I've never fished with a net before, but,
[SPEAKER_00]: Obviously, there's a difference between fishing with a lion and some bait and trying to lure fish to take the bait and throwing a net out.
[SPEAKER_00]: I mean, there's been times when I've been fishing and didn't catch anything or maybe just something small or one or two.
[SPEAKER_00]: But to have a net and fish, you know, all night and not catch anything.
[SPEAKER_00]: That must have been
[SPEAKER_00]: pretty demoralizing, pretty difficult.
[SPEAKER_00]: But it wasn't just bad luck.
[SPEAKER_00]: I don't think it was just bad luck that these men had fished all night and not called anything.
[SPEAKER_00]: I believe the Lord was supernaturally intervening and making sure that all their best efforts had failed.
[SPEAKER_00]: And the reason is the Lord wanted to teach them something about
[SPEAKER_00]: his work that he had for them.
[SPEAKER_00]: Something that would be a powerful reminder for them in an object lesson for them in the days and weeks and months and years to come.
[SPEAKER_00]: As far as we know, this was the first time that they had been back out on the water fishing since that time some three years ago or before.
[SPEAKER_00]: when the Lord had called them, and they had left everything to follow Him.
[SPEAKER_00]: And so that night, they must have thought about or remembered that last time they had gone fishing.
[SPEAKER_00]: On that night, night also they had called nothing.
[SPEAKER_00]: And you just have to believe that they, you know, whether they talked about it or not,
[SPEAKER_00]: verse four says that when they was now breaking Jesus did on the beach and yet the disciples who did not know that was Jesus in verse eight tells us that they were about about 200 cubics from the shore and that comes out to about 90 meters so just a little less than a rugby fields length and as you can imagine early morning there would probably been some
[SPEAKER_00]: And so it would be difficult to make out someone from that distance, so they weren't sure who that person was.
[SPEAKER_00]: And verse 5 says that Jesus called out to them, children, do you have any fish in the sentence?
[SPEAKER_00]: Their expects a negative answer.
[SPEAKER_00]: So this question and some of the translations add to that sentence the tag do you in order to communicate that this is the sentence's expectation.
[SPEAKER_00]: So the idea would be children or lads you don't have any fish do you.
[SPEAKER_00]: Um, don't you love it when someone asks you something like that when it's obvious that you don't.
[SPEAKER_00]: But, uh, they, they didn't, um, they didn't understand.
[SPEAKER_00]: Or must have thought, how does he know?
[SPEAKER_00]: Because he's too far away to know that they don't have any fish.
[SPEAKER_00]: And so there, there I believe, was the first clue that, um,
[SPEAKER_00]: of concerning who Jesus is, is that He knows who they are, He knows that they don't have fish.
[SPEAKER_00]: And Jesus, obviously, is not asking to be informed.
[SPEAKER_00]: He wants them to acknowledge that they have failed.
[SPEAKER_00]: He must acknowledge that they don't have any fish and they answer no.
[SPEAKER_00]: In verse 6, he says to them, cast the net on the right side of the boat and you will find some.
[SPEAKER_00]: And I can imagine that these men would have been reluctant to listen to this voice from the shore.
[SPEAKER_00]: I mean, the day's breaking, they've been out all night, and they're probably on their way back to the shore, empty handed and probably a bit dejected
[SPEAKER_00]: failure to catch anything, they've fished all night, they've tried everything, they've tried all the best places, and there's no reason to believe that the right side's better than the left side.
[SPEAKER_00]: And why should they listen to this person on the shore?
[SPEAKER_00]: I mean, after all, they are the professionals.
[SPEAKER_00]: And so they're not inclined, I don't believe, to listen, but there
[SPEAKER_00]: Maybe in his voice, maybe they're thinking about that time before just three years ago.
[SPEAKER_00]: And so they obey, they listen, and they they cast their net.
[SPEAKER_00]: I wanted to go back to Luke chapter five.
[SPEAKER_00]: If you'd like to look with me, I want to read that account because they're connected.
[SPEAKER_00]: And I believe the Lord is drawing a line between that first time
[SPEAKER_00]: Jesus had called them to be, and to do, in Luke chapter 5, beginning in verse 1.
[SPEAKER_00]: Now it happened that while the crowd was pressing around him and listening to the Word of God, he was standing at the edge of the lake of Ganesha, it was another name for the Sea of Galilee.
[SPEAKER_00]: And he saw two boats lying at the edge of the lake and the fishermen having gotten out of them and was washing their nets.
[SPEAKER_00]: He got into one of the boats which was Simon's or Simon Peter and asked him to put out a little wave from the land and he sat down and began to teach the crowd from the boat.
[SPEAKER_00]: And when he had finished speaking, he said to Simon, put out into the deep water and let down your nets for a catch.
[SPEAKER_00]: And Simon Peter answered and said, master, we labored all night and called nothing.
[SPEAKER_00]: But at your word, I will let down the nets.
[SPEAKER_00]: And when they had done this, they enclosed a great quantity of fish and their nets began to break.
[SPEAKER_00]: So they signaled to the partners in the other boat for them to come and help them, and they came and filled both of the boats so that they began to sink.
[SPEAKER_00]: But when Simon Peter saw this, he fell down at Jesus' knees saying, go away from me Lord for I am a sinful man.
[SPEAKER_00]: For amazement had seized him and all his companions because of the catch of the fish, which they had taken.
[SPEAKER_00]: and James and John Suns of Deb Zepadi, who were partners with Simon, were also likewise amazed, and Jesus said to Simon, do not fear, from now on, you will be catching men.
[SPEAKER_00]: And when they had brought their boats to land, they left everything and followed him.
[SPEAKER_00]: That night or that day when they had made their commitment to follow the Lord, they'd left everything to go with him.
[SPEAKER_00]: And this was the mission that God had commissioned them with to be fishers of men or to catch men.
[SPEAKER_00]: To go back to John 21 in verse 6, we see there that they listen to this voice,
[SPEAKER_00]: from the shore, and they cast their nets.
[SPEAKER_00]: And then they were not able to haul it in because of the great number of fish.
[SPEAKER_00]: And so as they're struggling with this great catch of fish, they must have looked back to the shore to see who this person was.
[SPEAKER_00]: And John says to Peter, it is the Lord.
[SPEAKER_00]: And that's a good place to be, isn't it?
[SPEAKER_00]: To recognize the Lord and His work and what He's doing, what He wants to do in our lives, to acknowledge Him.
[SPEAKER_00]: And it is something that we've seen in these two men, John is quick to perceive and Peter's quick to act.
[SPEAKER_00]: And so Peter grabs his outer garment,
[SPEAKER_00]: jumps into the water to get to the the Lord as fast as He can.
[SPEAKER_00]: And He leaves the others to get the boat and to pull the net in back to the shore.
[SPEAKER_00]: He just can't wait to get there.
[SPEAKER_00]: And as Jesus had told them three years before, He says, for now, from now on, you will be catching men.
[SPEAKER_00]: And this is still their mission.
[SPEAKER_00]: But as they will learn about their mission, it involves more than just evangelism as the following passage will focus on Peter in the fact that he is to be a pastor.
[SPEAKER_00]: He is to be a shepherd to the flock of God.
[SPEAKER_00]: would prove to be very important for them and teaching them, reminding them as they set out and just a short time for their ministry of proclaiming the gospel, leading people to the Lord, convincing through the Word of God and the power of the Spirit of God.
[SPEAKER_00]: that men are lost without Christ and need to turn to the Lord and be saved and to teach those young believers how to live for the Lord and to follow the Lord and there's a very important part of the ministry for all of us is that we also should learn this lesson, I believe that Jesus is teaching them.
[SPEAKER_00]: the title that I have for this message is don't forget your mission.
[SPEAKER_00]: Don't forget your mission.
[SPEAKER_00]: I could have also titled it don't fail your mission.
[SPEAKER_00]: Don't fail your mission.
[SPEAKER_00]: And one sure way to fail in our mission for the Lord is to go in our own strength, our
[SPEAKER_00]: Without the Lord, and I believe this is one of the things that the Lord wants them to put together here.
[SPEAKER_00]: As Jesus said earlier, it taught them by the analogy of the vine and the branches, remember John 15, that hold a long section about the vine and the branches.
[SPEAKER_00]: He says in verse 5,
[SPEAKER_00]: You can do nothing.
[SPEAKER_00]: And so the lesson here and the reminder here, these men were professional fishermen.
[SPEAKER_00]: But as they learned before and they reminded now that they can't even catch fish without the Lord.
[SPEAKER_00]: And how much more is that true in their spiritual ministry, their spiritual mission is
[SPEAKER_00]: And it's just as true for us today in our work, in our efforts to serve the Lord and to follow Him, and to serve Him, we need to depend upon Him.
[SPEAKER_00]: You know, God doesn't need us to do His work.
[SPEAKER_00]: Sometimes we think too much of ourselves and we think, well, you know, if I don't do it, you know,
[SPEAKER_00]: But the reality is, it's God's work, God will do His work.
[SPEAKER_00]: But God has chosen us to be involved in His work.
[SPEAKER_00]: And it is a great privilege that we can serve Him and be part of what He is doing.
[SPEAKER_00]: And so in that regard, we work together with the Lord.
[SPEAKER_00]: And He calls us and He leads us and He enables us to be able to serve Him.
[SPEAKER_00]: You know, Jesus could have caused the fish to jump into the boat as they're out there.
[SPEAKER_00]: And that would have been an amazing thing as well.
[SPEAKER_00]: But the men, the disciples, they had to cast the net.
[SPEAKER_00]: And they had to do the hard work of pulling the net and getting it back to shore with the boat.
[SPEAKER_00]: And so they had to obey the Lord.
[SPEAKER_00]: and they had to do what God had given them to do and in their obedience God blesses and God enabled.
[SPEAKER_00]: And so when they arrive, they see that Jesus has already cooking some fish and bread there on the fire.
[SPEAKER_00]: He didn't really need their fish.
[SPEAKER_00]: But then he says to them, bring from the fish that you've
[SPEAKER_00]: And so Peter, he goes over and he pulls in the net more to the shore so that they can get the fish and bring them.
[SPEAKER_00]: And we're told that they counted.
[SPEAKER_00]: They were all large fish, which is also a miracle in of itself.
[SPEAKER_00]: Usually, you know, fishing with the net, you would get small big and all different kinds.
[SPEAKER_00]: But these are all large fish 153, I don't think there's any significance to the number some of the, you know, record their brains trying to figure out what the 150 three represents.
[SPEAKER_00]: But I believe it's just the detail that gives witness to the fact that John is an eyewitness.
[SPEAKER_00]: He was there and he knew the actual number that they counted, which was it would have been a normal practice for these fishermen as they
[SPEAKER_00]: divide the prophets among themselves, and so it is with the work of the Lord.
[SPEAKER_00]: The Lord provides, He does His work through the Word of God, through the power of the Spirit of God, but as Paul writes in Romans 10, verse 14 and 15, how will they hear without a preacher?
[SPEAKER_00]: and how will they preach, unless they are sent.
[SPEAKER_00]: And so God has chosen to use us in His work.
[SPEAKER_00]: And He blesses and He enables us to be able to serve Him.
[SPEAKER_00]: And so we work and dependents upon the Lord.
[SPEAKER_00]: And I see two dangers here.
[SPEAKER_00]: The one is self-confidence.
[SPEAKER_00]: It's easy for us to begin thinking that we can do some spiritual work by our own ability.
[SPEAKER_00]: It's easy to let pride come in and think that we have this talent and we have this ability and we've learned some things and we've got some skills and it's easy to begin taking credit.
[SPEAKER_00]: On the other hand, there's a danger of lack of confidence and I'm
[SPEAKER_00]: I'm thinking that, you know, there's some, sometimes when we feel like we can't serve the Lord because we're just not, we're just not able.
[SPEAKER_00]: We're not smart enough.
[SPEAKER_00]: We don't have enough experience, we don't have an ability or I can't do this or I can't do that.
[SPEAKER_00]: And what it comes down to many times is a lack of confidence in the Lord.
[SPEAKER_00]: I'm thinking, well, just let someone else do it.
[SPEAKER_00]: The reality is God has a work for all of us.
[SPEAKER_00]: It's not all the same exactly, but it's all headed in the same direction, isn't it?
[SPEAKER_00]: It's all in service for the Lord, and there's different roles that each of us can serve the Lord in.
[SPEAKER_00]: And so we can look to the Lord with the confidence that he
[SPEAKER_00]: is in control and he's able to bless us and we must humbly submit to him, acknowledging that we don't understand why he wants us to cast the net on the other side of the boat sometimes.
[SPEAKER_00]: Why he wants us to do it this way or that way, but just obey him.
[SPEAKER_00]: I give our head, you know, to hand out the copy of our church's mission statement.
[SPEAKER_00]: And I want you to just have a copy of that.
[SPEAKER_00]: It's brought enough to represent collectively our mission as a church, but it's also specific enough that it is a mission for each of us.
[SPEAKER_00]: as in our service for the Lord because it is the command of the Lord coming from Matthew 22.
[SPEAKER_00]: And so this mission statement says to love the Lord with your whole being and others as your self.
[SPEAKER_00]: And that's a summary statement of verse 37 and 39 where Jesus said to them,
[SPEAKER_00]: You shall love the Lord, your God, with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind.
[SPEAKER_00]: This is the first and great commandment, and the second is like it, you shall love your neighbor as yourself.
[SPEAKER_00]: And that was a response to a question about what is the greatest command from the word that they had at the Old Testament.
[SPEAKER_00]: And so Jesus summarizes God's purpose, God's will for us to love the Lord with our whole being.
[SPEAKER_00]: That's what those words mean, and if you look at different quotations, those words might shift a bit to refer to our whole being, all of our strength, all of our mind, all of our hearts, all
[SPEAKER_00]: And it's just talking about our full commitment of our person.
[SPEAKER_00]: And the second is to love your neighbor as yourself.
[SPEAKER_00]: Now, some have especially been impacted by secular pop psychology.
[SPEAKER_00]: I have thought that Jesus is commanding us to love ourselves so that we can love others, but that is not what the passage says.
[SPEAKER_00]: It's not what the verse says, and it's not what the rest of the scriptures teach.
[SPEAKER_00]: The scriptures teach in a soon that we do love ourselves, centrally, most of the time, we care too much about ourselves.
[SPEAKER_00]: We thank too much about ourselves, and we love ourselves too much, because in our flesh, we become very selfish.
[SPEAKER_00]: is that the way you care and love for yourself, that's the way you should think about others.
[SPEAKER_00]: And that's for your radical distinction, isn't it?
[SPEAKER_00]: Well, in the mission statement, there's some values listed there that flow out of that statement.
[SPEAKER_00]: Those dual commands, some values.
[SPEAKER_00]: In the first in loving the Lord with our whole being,
[SPEAKER_00]: the Word of God.
[SPEAKER_00]: And for us that our believers, we want to know God's Word.
[SPEAKER_00]: We not only want to know God's Word, we want to learn so we can obey so that we can teach, we preach.
[SPEAKER_00]: We want to be very careful in what we sing and what we teach and how we believe.
[SPEAKER_00]: and we want to be as close to God's word as we can get and by God's grace, that's what that's what we'll do.
[SPEAKER_00]: And secondly, we value worship.
[SPEAKER_00]: And in the modern vernacular of worship has been reduced to praisinging and the the song time of the service.
[SPEAKER_00]: That's the worship.
[SPEAKER_00]: And if there's time, we'll have a little message too.
[SPEAKER_00]: You know, that's the kind of the typical mindset in many places.
[SPEAKER_00]: But worship is about serving, worship is about honoring and obeying the Lord.
[SPEAKER_00]: And as you study Old Testament, New Testament, the concept of worship, yes, music is involved, but music is only a part of worship.
[SPEAKER_00]: It is our...
[SPEAKER_00]: is our service to the Lord and how we lift Him up and our hearts and minds to honor Him, through our lives, through our words, through our life.
[SPEAKER_00]: Thirdly, we value holiness.
[SPEAKER_00]: God is called us to be His people, His set-apart people, and that the root of holy is this word to be sanctified or set apart for the Lord.
[SPEAKER_00]: And so we value that and we want to pursue that.
[SPEAKER_00]: Notice that at the end of this section, the Lord invites them to come and to eat.
[SPEAKER_00]: And there is, there is in this eating, this together, a fellowship.
[SPEAKER_00]: There's a, I believe what John is talking about, John 17,
[SPEAKER_00]: concept of abiding in his letter.
[SPEAKER_00]: One John, as well, you see this emphasis on abiding in him, abiding in Christ, abiding in the presence of the Lord.
[SPEAKER_00]: This fellowship with the Lord, this loving Him means that we love to be in His presence.
[SPEAKER_00]: We love to be in the Word, where we hear from Him.
[SPEAKER_00]: We love communicating with Him in our prayers.
[SPEAKER_00]: That is something that we want to develop.
[SPEAKER_00]: We want to grow in and the Lord grows us to love Him more by His Spirit.
[SPEAKER_00]: Well, the second part here is in loving others as ourselves.
[SPEAKER_00]: There's some values there that I think are biblical.
[SPEAKER_00]: We value genuine humility and compassion.
[SPEAKER_00]: We see that emphasis, especially in Paul's writings, as he teaches us all the one and others, and how we're to focus on not just our needs, not just what we want, not just what makes us happy, not what just what we think we need, but to look beyond ourselves, to see the needs of others.
[SPEAKER_00]: And to see if there's some way I can be involved in encouraging, helping,
[SPEAKER_00]: Secondly, we value spiritual growth and discipleship, and that's a part of loving others is wanting to come along beside them and help them also grow and their knowledge of the Lord and their following the Lord and walking with the Lord, the spiritual growth.
[SPEAKER_00]: And so this is the body reaching out to others with the good news of the Lord Jesus Christ, part of God's mission, part of God's calling upon all of our lives, and that we look for ways in which we can impact others with the gospel with the good news.
[SPEAKER_00]: And then lastly, we value fellowship.
[SPEAKER_00]: and they were thinking about in the context of local church primarily, not that you can't fellowship with believers outside of the local church, but there's one of the reasons we have the local body, the Lord gave us the body so that we can impact and be involved in each other's lives and so the fellowship, even as something as simple as having tea after the service and just
[SPEAKER_00]: that is part of God's plan for us, not to be isolated, not to isolate ourselves, but to maybe sometimes even go outside of our own wants, our own personality.
[SPEAKER_00]: I'm the kind of person that being around a lot of people tires me out.
[SPEAKER_00]: Some people would, you know, get energized by a lot of people, and they're like, I just love that so much, and I'm thinking, yeah, I love it, but I'm tired.
[SPEAKER_00]: I'm just like, I'm tired.
[SPEAKER_00]: I'm tired of making conversation, tired of trying to figure out what to talk about.
[SPEAKER_00]: You know, it's not in my personality, but I have trained myself and the God is giving me grace to care about people and to be around people, and to create situations where I can be around people.
[SPEAKER_00]: Without that, you're not impacting, you're not impacting people where they live, where they walk.
[SPEAKER_00]: And so fellowship, don't neglect that part.
[SPEAKER_00]: And you can think, in this analogy, this lesson that Lord gave them and fishing that they had to work together.
[SPEAKER_00]: The previous time back in Luke, Luke 5, the boats are sinking or the one, there's too much, and then the other boat comes and they had to work together, and the nets are breaking.
[SPEAKER_00]: These kind of lessons would have reminded them that in this spiritual mission, the Lord has for them, they needed to work together.
[SPEAKER_00]: They needed each other.
[SPEAKER_00]: It's not a mission all by yourself.
[SPEAKER_00]: It's a mission together with brothers and sisters in Christ.
[SPEAKER_00]: So don't forget your mission.
[SPEAKER_00]: Don't fail your mission.
[SPEAKER_00]: Turn to the Lord.
[SPEAKER_00]: Look to Him.
[SPEAKER_00]: Go in His strength, work, and dependents up on Him.
[SPEAKER_00]: Father, thank you for the reminder from your word this morning
[SPEAKER_00]: The fact that you had called these men, and that you had some specific purpose for them, but their purpose for them is not that different from your purpose for each of us.
[SPEAKER_00]: Yes, we have different callings and different responsibilities, but Lord each of us have been called to do the work of the ministry in our own ways.
[SPEAKER_00]: the ways that you would provide and lead and guide and give opportunity.
[SPEAKER_00]: I pray that you had helped us to see it, help us to serve, help us to do.
[SPEAKER_00]: But all at the same time, remembering that we need your grace, we need your help.
[SPEAKER_00]: Because without you, we are like those men out on the
[SPEAKER_00]: So, Father, we look to you today, we acknowledge our need, we confess our sin, and we turn the freshness of you to you, and depend upon you asking for your grace, for your strength, for the filling of your spirit that enables us to be able to serve you and to do this work that otherwise is impossible for us to do.
[SPEAKER_00]: We thank you in Jesus' name, Amen.