[SPEAKER_00]: Welcome to the preaching ministry of the Agape Baptist Church in George South Africa.
[SPEAKER_01]: Good morning church.
[SPEAKER_01]: Good morning.
[SPEAKER_01]: If you would, please turn it through to John chapter 21.
[SPEAKER_01]: We continue our study in John, John 21.
[SPEAKER_01]: And as an introduction to this passage of scripture, which we're going to be focusing on verses 15 through 19.
[SPEAKER_01]: 15 through 19.
[SPEAKER_01]: It's an introduction.
[SPEAKER_01]: I'm going to go ahead and read what we studied last week.
[SPEAKER_01]: Because it really is one continuation of a story.
[SPEAKER_01]: So as an introduction, let's read.
[SPEAKER_01]: We're going to begin in verse 1 of chapter 21.
[SPEAKER_01]: We're going to read through those opening verses.
[SPEAKER_01]: And we're going to jump into the following section of verse 15.
[SPEAKER_01]: John 21, verses one through 19.
[SPEAKER_01]: After this, Jesus revealed himself again to the disciples by the sea of typeburious and revealed himself in this way.
[SPEAKER_01]: Simon Peter, Thomas called the twin, Nathaniel of Canaan and Galilee, the sons of Zebidi and two others of his disciples were together.
[SPEAKER_01]: Simon Peter said to them, I am going fishing.
[SPEAKER_01]: They said to him, we will go with you.
[SPEAKER_01]: They went out and got into the boat, but that night they caught nothing.
[SPEAKER_01]: Just as day was breaking, Jesus stood on the shore, yet the disciples did not know that it was Jesus.
[SPEAKER_01]: Jesus said to them, children, do you have any fish?
[SPEAKER_01]: They answered him, no.
[SPEAKER_01]: He said to them, cast the net on the right side of the boat and you will find some.
[SPEAKER_01]: So they cast it.
[SPEAKER_01]: That disciple whom Jesus loved, therefore said to Peter, it is the Lord when Simon Peter heard that it was the Lord.
[SPEAKER_01]: He put on his outer garment for he was stripped for work and threw himself into the sea.
[SPEAKER_01]: The other disciples came in the boat, dragging the net full of fish.
[SPEAKER_01]: For they were not far from the land, but about a hundred yards off.
[SPEAKER_01]: When they got out on land, they saw charcoal fire in place with fish laid out on it and bred.
[SPEAKER_01]: Jesus said to them,
[SPEAKER_01]: So Simon Peter went aboard and hauled the net a sure full of large fish, 153 of them, and although there were so many the net was not torn.
[SPEAKER_01]: Jesus said to them, come and have breakfast.
[SPEAKER_01]: Now none of the disciples dared ask him who are you.
[SPEAKER_01]: They knew it was the Lord.
[SPEAKER_01]: Jesus came and took the bread and gave it to them and so with the fish.
[SPEAKER_01]: This was now the third time that Jesus was revealed to the disciples after He was raised from the dead in our passage for this morning in verse 15.
[SPEAKER_01]: When they had finished breakfast, Jesus said to Simon Peter, Simon, son of John, do you love me more than these?
[SPEAKER_01]: He said to him, yes Lord, you know that I love you.
[SPEAKER_01]: He said to him, feed my lambs.
[SPEAKER_01]: He said to him a second time, Simon, son of John, do you love me?
[SPEAKER_01]: He said to him, yes Lord, you know that I love you.
[SPEAKER_01]: He said to him, Tind my sheep.
[SPEAKER_01]: He said to him the third time, Simon, son of John, do you love me?
[SPEAKER_01]: Peter was greed because he said to him the third time, do you love me and he said to him, Lord, you know everything, you know that I love you.
[SPEAKER_01]: Jesus said to him, feed my sheep.
[SPEAKER_01]: Truly truly I say to you, when you were young, you used to dress yourself and walk wherever you wanted, but when you are old, you will stretch out your hands and another will dress you and care you where you do not want to go.
[SPEAKER_01]: This he said to show by what kind of death he was to glorify God.
[SPEAKER_01]: And after saying this, he said to him, follow me.
[SPEAKER_01]: Let's go to the Lord and prayer.
[SPEAKER_01]: And please pray with me.
[SPEAKER_01]: But the Lord would open the scriptures to your heart.
[SPEAKER_01]: I cannot do it.
[SPEAKER_01]: I cannot open your heart.
[SPEAKER_01]: I cannot plunge into the depths of a soul.
[SPEAKER_01]: Only God can through his spirit and his word as it is preached and proclaimed and spoken.
[SPEAKER_01]: So please pray with me.
[SPEAKER_01]: Heavenly Father.
[SPEAKER_01]: We love you.
[SPEAKER_01]: Every Christian here can honestly say, yes, Lord.
[SPEAKER_01]: Yes, Jesus, we love you.
[SPEAKER_01]: It lords so many of us have been and are being tempted to drift, to be distracted, and to love other things.
[SPEAKER_01]: Some of us are even being tempted to walk away from
[SPEAKER_01]: because of something that has happened, whether it be our own sin or the sins of others, or just pain, Lord, and serving you, we have most likely all of us been tempted to walk away from serving you, though we love you in our hearts.
[SPEAKER_01]: So Father, I ask that you would convict this by your words, that you would pick us up and brush us off
[SPEAKER_01]: and that you would commission us for service as a church.
[SPEAKER_01]: There is no such thing as a Christian that you have just left the wallow in the gutter.
[SPEAKER_01]: No such thing.
[SPEAKER_01]: You are pursuing us, Lord.
[SPEAKER_01]: You are calling us, encouraging us, convicting us, growing us into the likeness of your son for your glory and for our joy.
[SPEAKER_01]: Because as you are glorified as our God and our Savior,
[SPEAKER_01]: We are swept up in the glory of God and filled with joy, and in you we receive every good thing that was ever created for men.
[SPEAKER_01]: And so Lord, I ask that for every person, every Christian sitting here, or that you would not leave us in our self-pity, or in our doubts, or in our heart, that that you would pick us up Lord and commission us for service.
[SPEAKER_01]: And Lord, if there is anyone here today who has never said,
[SPEAKER_01]: was never confessed to you as that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, the Savior of the world, and that God exists, and that you reward those who diligently seek you.
[SPEAKER_01]: Lord, I pray that today would be that day, and that they would stop pursuing empty vain things in this world, but instead would come to the lover of their souls, would come to the
[SPEAKER_01]: and who would restore women to live godly lives, lives they were created for.
[SPEAKER_01]: Would you do this, Lord, in Jesus name?
[SPEAKER_01]: Amen.
[SPEAKER_01]: So what's going on in this text?
[SPEAKER_01]: First we're gonna see that,
[SPEAKER_01]: This is a follow-up passage to Peter's denial.
[SPEAKER_01]: This is what's happening.
[SPEAKER_01]: This is in John's gospel.
[SPEAKER_01]: This is Peter's restoration.
[SPEAKER_01]: Jesus is calling him and restoring him.
[SPEAKER_01]: He is commissioning him.
[SPEAKER_01]: And three times, Jesus is going to ask the question, do you love me in three different ways?
[SPEAKER_01]: Three times Peter is gonna confess his love for the Lord Jesus Christ.
[SPEAKER_01]: And three times Jesus is going to commission Peter for service.
[SPEAKER_01]: And then at the very end, Jesus tells Peter the outcome of loving Jesus and confessing Jesus.
[SPEAKER_01]: We'll see that at the very end, what is the outcome of loving Jesus and confessing Jesus in this world?
[SPEAKER_01]: What is that gonna look like?
[SPEAKER_01]: So first, the question,
[SPEAKER_01]: Do you love me?
[SPEAKER_01]: The first time Jesus asks this question, he adds the phrase more than these and a lot of ink has been spilled on answering the question, what or who is he talking about?
[SPEAKER_01]: Do you love me more than these?
[SPEAKER_01]: There really are only two options, two good options.
[SPEAKER_01]: There are others, but there are really only two good possibilities.
[SPEAKER_01]: The first is,
[SPEAKER_01]: Peter, do you love me more than these other disciples?
[SPEAKER_01]: Love me.
[SPEAKER_01]: That's a very good possibility.
[SPEAKER_01]: Do you love me Peter more than the other disciples?
[SPEAKER_01]: Love me.
[SPEAKER_01]: And this would fit with the story line of the book.
[SPEAKER_01]: If you add this, compare this question or contrast this question next to all of Peter's confessions of even though all of them abandon you, I will not abandon you.
[SPEAKER_01]: No matter if I have to die for you and all of them are running away and fear, I will die with you.
[SPEAKER_01]: This is right after that.
[SPEAKER_01]: And so it's possible Jesus is asking, do you love me Peter more than these other disciples love me?
[SPEAKER_01]: The other good possibility is the question, Peter, do you love me more than these fish lying here in the
[SPEAKER_01]: which is really what Jesus is asking is, do you love me more than your career, more than prosperity, more than money, more than economic advancement, more than your purpose of life up until now?
[SPEAKER_01]: Peter's a little bit older, he's probably in his 30s, he has a wife, he has a mother-in-law.
[SPEAKER_01]: He is married, he has probably been fishing for some time
[SPEAKER_01]: Peter, do you love me more than your purpose for life up until now?
[SPEAKER_01]: I'm personally convinced, it's the fish.
[SPEAKER_01]: That was my first reading as Peter says, I'm a go-in-fishing.
[SPEAKER_01]: I'm going, and I also will go with you, and this is right after that.
[SPEAKER_01]: Peter, do you love me more than the fish and everything he's fish?
[SPEAKER_01]: Laying here on the sand, 153 of them, large ones worth quite a lot of money this catch that you guys just dragged in.
[SPEAKER_01]: Do you love me more than this?
[SPEAKER_01]: The strongest reason for why I believe it's the fish is because of Peter's answer.
[SPEAKER_01]: Remember he has denied the Lord three times and he ran scared just like all the other disciples.
[SPEAKER_01]: But Peter answers this question Peter, do you love me more than these Peter answers yes, Lord?
[SPEAKER_01]: You know that I love you.
[SPEAKER_01]: Peter answers yes, therefore I have a hard time imagining that he's thinking about comparisons between him and the other disciples.
[SPEAKER_01]: I personally struggle with that.
[SPEAKER_01]: I could be wrong when we see the Lord we will know.
[SPEAKER_01]: But for this morning, let's consider the question, Peter, do you love me more than this, this, this fish, everything that fish represented in his life, everything, it's a huge part of his life.
[SPEAKER_01]: Let's consider that question.
[SPEAKER_01]: Just a few verses before Peter had said to the other disciples, I am going fishing.
[SPEAKER_01]: And last time we were in John, we considered the dangers of spiritual drift.
[SPEAKER_01]: That's well, two weeks ago what we looked at.
[SPEAKER_01]: The dangers of spiritual drift of drifting away from God's purpose for your life as a Christian.
[SPEAKER_01]: Of becoming discouraged by difficulty and failure, that's happened in many Christians, or being enticed by prosperity and wealth to drift.
[SPEAKER_01]: Drifting away from God's call, got purpose, from serving the Lord, from loving Him, the cause of the temptations, the temptation to be discouraged, or the temptation to pursue something else as the goal of your life.
[SPEAKER_01]: There are many possibilities for what's going on in Peter's heart as he jumped back into that boat to go fishing.
[SPEAKER_01]: We're not exactly sure what's going on in his heart and mind.
[SPEAKER_01]: But we all know the appeal of our own comfort zones.
[SPEAKER_01]: I've just going back to those things that I feel happy when I'm here.
[SPEAKER_01]: I enjoy this.
[SPEAKER_01]: This is what I've always done.
[SPEAKER_01]: We know the appeal of just going back to those things.
[SPEAKER_01]: These things are activities that make us feel at home or safe or purposeful.
[SPEAKER_01]: So having a purpose is huge for many of us.
[SPEAKER_01]: Feeling like I'm making a difference, or I have a purpose is huge.
[SPEAKER_01]: I think that's definitely probably what's going on in Peter's heart, is purpose.
[SPEAKER_01]: Be feeling purposeful, feeling good at something.
[SPEAKER_01]: I never liked that first day of walking into a new job.
[SPEAKER_01]: You know what?
[SPEAKER_01]: As I felt inadequate.
[SPEAKER_01]: I felt like I was terrible at this and I went home feeling like I just want to on the drive home I'm a you know, I'm a full grown man, but all I want to do is cry on the drive home Just like this is so humiliating so exhausting so defeating I'm the worst employee in that company because it's my first day and I don't know what's going on I'm faking it till I make it.
[SPEAKER_01]: I never like that feeling To some degree that's probably this defeated feeling
[SPEAKER_01]: that Peter has been experiencing after his denial after his failure, and he's like, I'm going for shit.
[SPEAKER_01]: I'm going back.
[SPEAKER_01]: We know the appeal of our own comfort zones and this purposefulness.
[SPEAKER_01]: We all know the appeal.
[SPEAKER_01]: of getting a reward from a hard day's work, so maybe the monetary part of this is possible, as part of it.
[SPEAKER_01]: We all know the appeal of that, especially men, if you remember that first good paycheck, you got that first return on really hard work.
[SPEAKER_01]: I'm not talking about the five-year-old, like it's a 50-rand from his dad.
[SPEAKER_01]: That felt good, but we all know,
[SPEAKER_01]: didn't really work 50 rounds worth of worth that day, five-year-old.
[SPEAKER_01]: I'm talking about that day when you got that first big significant return for your work, that is a good feeling.
[SPEAKER_01]: I actually think it is a good feeling to have a return for work.
[SPEAKER_01]: It is good.
[SPEAKER_01]: It's God-given that many of you have also felt the temptation to continue making money at the
[SPEAKER_01]: of serving the Lord the way you know.
[SPEAKER_01]: He wants you to.
[SPEAKER_01]: He's calling you to.
[SPEAKER_01]: Maybe not all of us have felt that tug.
[SPEAKER_01]: But if you know the appeal of money and that that paycheck, then you have felt the temptation that comes along with that good.
[SPEAKER_01]: How the devil twists the good of a return for hard labor.
[SPEAKER_01]: He twists and say, why don't you just keep working a little bit more and just make a little bit more?
[SPEAKER_01]: and if you stay open on a Sunday and don't go to church you can imagine how much more you could make and yes you could close down at four or five and go home and love your kids and your family and have enough time to read the Bible at dinner with your kids.
[SPEAKER_01]: Disciple your wife but what if you stayed up until six seven eight nine and then you go home and you keep
[SPEAKER_01]: I think most of us have probably felt some sort of that pool, that temptation to keep working, to get more and more gain in this world.
[SPEAKER_01]: We don't know what's going on in Peter's heart, but if Peter's heart is anything like mine, let me just open it up, be completely frank with you.
[SPEAKER_01]: When I fail the Lord,
[SPEAKER_01]: I don't give up my love for him.
[SPEAKER_01]: I don't say, why don't love the Lord anymore?
[SPEAKER_01]: Because I feel, no, no, no, no, no, that's not what goes on in here.
[SPEAKER_01]: I still love the Lord, but because of my own failures, I intended each time I fail to give up on serving the Lord.
[SPEAKER_01]: I'm just gonna, you know what?
[SPEAKER_01]: This whole serving Jesus saying, evangelizing, discipling, teaching, encouraging, whatever it might be.
[SPEAKER_01]: This is just too painful to keep doing.
[SPEAKER_01]: I think I'm just gonna go back to making money.
[SPEAKER_01]: Make sure that I take care of my family.
[SPEAKER_01]: I love the Lord.
[SPEAKER_01]: I'm going to heaven.
[SPEAKER_01]: I'm not gonna deny him that man's serving him.
[SPEAKER_01]: This is just too costly, too painful.
[SPEAKER_01]: That's what my temptation is whenever I fail the Lord.
[SPEAKER_01]: Whenever I'm discouraged, whenever I'm wallowing in my own self-pity.
[SPEAKER_01]: because of my pride, of having to confess my own sin, go to others, tell them I was wrong, man, that is not fun.
[SPEAKER_01]: So, to some degree, Peter is discouraged and possibly tempted to give up on this whole idea following Jesus actively serving the Lord and maybe tempted to go back to just doing what he's good at, fishing.
[SPEAKER_01]: You know, I've met so many Christians,
[SPEAKER_01]: who stopped serving the Lord because they failed in some way.
[SPEAKER_01]: They were discouraged because of their own failures, or even more common, as I have met many Christians who gave up on God's church and gave up on serving the Lord in any visible way because someone else failed them.
[SPEAKER_01]: Whichever reason it was, I failed, I'm humiliated, I'm embarrassed, I'm going to go back to fishing.
[SPEAKER_01]: Or if it's you or a sinner, you or unkind or the church hurt me bad, therefore, I'm going to retreat back from serving the Lord in a new, visible way, any meaningful way.
[SPEAKER_01]: And I'm just going to take care of me myself and mine.
[SPEAKER_01]: There was a run-in with sin and that person retreated back to what was comfortable for them to do in the world.
[SPEAKER_01]: They stuck out their neck and service to Jesus, but then they failed, or other Christians failed them, and they experienced pain.
[SPEAKER_01]: That's what happens.
[SPEAKER_01]: When we experience pain, our temptation is just to draw back.
[SPEAKER_01]: If I stick my hand into the fire and I feel the heat and it starts to burn my hand while I'm
[SPEAKER_01]: Okay, okay, I don't need gloves.
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, I was like, but we jerk it back.
[SPEAKER_01]: We retreat because of pain How many Christians are currently in retreat from obeying the Lord and service because they ran into some kind of pain It is our natural human response to retreat to draw back and
[SPEAKER_01]: and to just kind of lick our wounds for a while, which a week of licking our wounds can turn into a month, which turns into two years, which turns into a lifetime of just sitting there.
[SPEAKER_01]: Whenever the church comes up, we start looking that wound again and saying, Ouch, that still hurts.
[SPEAKER_01]: You can truly turn into a Christian who, if you ask them,
[SPEAKER_01]: They about the Lord He says, oh I love the Lord.
[SPEAKER_01]: There is a heaven.
[SPEAKER_01]: I'm going there.
[SPEAKER_01]: But in their lives, their focus is me, my wife, my children, or my grandchildren.
[SPEAKER_01]: But the rest of God's church will just have to make it on their own.
[SPEAKER_01]: I certainly have no intention of wasting any more of my time and energy, only to be rewarded with so much pain in the end.
[SPEAKER_01]: Although they might not say it in those words, that is the way they're living, and they're true Christians, but they're Christians who ran into pain and have retreated back into the fortress behind their walls and their fences in their church, in their home, and they do church online.
[SPEAKER_01]: This is extremely prevalent in our society today.
[SPEAKER_01]: But what my hope is is that all of us
[SPEAKER_01]: all of us would put ourselves in Peter's Simon Peter's feet shoes right now.
[SPEAKER_01]: On that beach, sitting with all the other, these other disciples sitting around and Jesus is here.
[SPEAKER_01]: And Jesus asks you the question, do you love me?
[SPEAKER_01]: Do you love me?
[SPEAKER_01]: He didn't ask, are you perfect or sinless?
[SPEAKER_01]: He didn't ask, has anyone sinned against you recently?
[SPEAKER_01]: He didn't ask, he didn't ask, has the church ever caused you pain?
[SPEAKER_01]: Jesus asks, do you love me?
[SPEAKER_01]: That's what he asks.
[SPEAKER_01]: And with that question, there is so much proclamation going on.
[SPEAKER_01]: Jesus is asking a question, but he is saying so much with a question.
[SPEAKER_01]: He is saying with a question, Peter, take your eyes off your own failures, or the failures of others, whatever your condition might be.
[SPEAKER_01]: Take your eyes off human failure and look at me and determine,
[SPEAKER_01]: Do you love me to the extent that you would make less money, that you would face your own failures, confessing your own brokenness to another human being?
[SPEAKER_01]: Most of us don't mind confessing our sin to God, but confessing it to another human being, I don't think so.
[SPEAKER_01]: That's what our heart whispers to us.
[SPEAKER_01]: Do you love me, Peter?
[SPEAKER_01]: to the extent that you will continue serving me in this world no matter what pain you experience.
[SPEAKER_01]: While doing it.
[SPEAKER_01]: Friends, this isn't written in Holy Scripture as a history lesson of Peter's life.
[SPEAKER_01]: It is, it is true.
[SPEAKER_01]: This really happened.
[SPEAKER_01]: These are the words of God.
[SPEAKER_01]: This is history, but that is not primarily why it's written to us.
[SPEAKER_01]: This is written to convict our hearts, to encourage us, to demonish us in the faith.
[SPEAKER_01]: If you are spiritually drifting, which we saw two weeks ago, or if you are discouraged to do to your own sins, Peter right now, or if you're tempted to give up on the church because you painfully found out that we are no more than a family of saved sinners,
[SPEAKER_01]: We don't become saved and perfect.
[SPEAKER_01]: No, we are saved.
[SPEAKER_01]: So that we can begin the process of crucifying our flesh.
[SPEAKER_01]: That's the rest of our Christian life.
[SPEAKER_01]: Is nailing our sinful desires on a cross and keeping it there for the rest of our lives.
[SPEAKER_01]: It is going to try and crawl off of that cross.
[SPEAKER_01]: It's going to rip its hands out of the nails and try to come back down off the cross.
[SPEAKER_01]: And daily we are called to nail it back up there and keep it there and guard it so that it doesn't we do not get it room to get a grip on us again.
[SPEAKER_01]: Crucify the flush.
[SPEAKER_01]: That's the Christian life.
[SPEAKER_01]: So we are saved sinners who are in the process of crucifying the flush.
[SPEAKER_01]: But many
[SPEAKER_01]: Gave up on serving the Lord and gave up on His church when they ran into that first really painful experience that that person next to me in my own church who's a member There is still a sinner I give up I guess I'm not doing this anymore So many people I at home today because of that
[SPEAKER_01]: But Jesus doesn't ask Peter.
[SPEAKER_01]: Are you a sinner?
[SPEAKER_01]: He asks them, do you love me?
[SPEAKER_01]: And even discourage Christians who are sitting at home right now would answer, yes Lord, of course I love you.
[SPEAKER_01]: Because Christians have been changed.
[SPEAKER_01]: We're born again.
[SPEAKER_01]: We have love for Christ because He loved us first.
[SPEAKER_01]: And He made us new.
[SPEAKER_01]: So discourage Christians sitting at home today, we'd still answer, yes Lord, I love you.
[SPEAKER_01]: And that's also how Simon Peter answers.
[SPEAKER_01]: Look with me at his confession.
[SPEAKER_01]: Three times, he says yes, yes, Lord, you know that I love you.
[SPEAKER_01]: But hidden in this answer is the hint of Simon Peter's remaining guilt and discouragement.
[SPEAKER_01]: So it's hidden there.
[SPEAKER_01]: There's a hint of it.
[SPEAKER_01]: Jesus twice asks Simon Peter, do you agapas or agape me?
[SPEAKER_01]: That's where the name of our church came from.
[SPEAKER_01]: It's this holy God-like love that would sacrifice for another, even die for them.
[SPEAKER_01]: Do you, do you a God-bay me?
[SPEAKER_01]: And this usually describes this highest kind of love.
[SPEAKER_01]: The kind of love that when you look at this thing, because you a God-bay it, you treasure it.
[SPEAKER_01]: You will sacrifice other things that are maybe even good in order to have this thing you treasure.
[SPEAKER_01]: That's what this word typically represents.
[SPEAKER_01]: That's what Jesus asks, do you agafame me?
[SPEAKER_01]: But each time Peter responds, he says, yes, Lord, you know that I feel oh or fuleo you.
[SPEAKER_01]: This is a very close word.
[SPEAKER_01]: They're used sometimes even interchangeably, but typically it's a step down from agapé.
[SPEAKER_01]: It's more of this deep affection.
[SPEAKER_01]: It is a good thing, but it's not quite what Jesus asks.
[SPEAKER_01]: He's saying, are you a God-pay-me?
[SPEAKER_01]: Peter takes a step back.
[SPEAKER_01]: It seems...
[SPEAKER_01]: I...
[SPEAKER_01]: I thought, oh, yes Lord.
[SPEAKER_01]: I thought, oh, you I've deep affection for you.
[SPEAKER_01]: He says that each time.
[SPEAKER_01]: It's hard to know for sure what John is emphasizing by recording these words and that it's changed, it's slightly different words, but it seems like Peter is hesitant to claim the highest form of love for Jesus so shortly after being unwilling to dive with him.
[SPEAKER_01]: He said, I will die with you and then he ran.
[SPEAKER_01]: But no matter how Peter feels at this moment, Jesus has determined to restore Peter to meaningful
[SPEAKER_01]: So Jesus gives Peter three opportunities to confess His love before the other disciples.
[SPEAKER_01]: Three confessions which are meant to counter Peter's three denials.
[SPEAKER_01]: Yes, Lord, you know that I love you.
[SPEAKER_01]: Before the crucifixion, Peter kept challenging the Lord as if the Lord didn't know what was going to happen or exactly what the Lord was talking about.
[SPEAKER_01]: Think with me with Matthew 16, Peter took Jesus aside and rebuked him for saying that he was going to Jerusalem to be killed by the Jews.
[SPEAKER_01]: Peter rebuked Jesus and said, no way is that happening?
[SPEAKER_01]: We won't let you die there.
[SPEAKER_01]: Then again, in Matthew 26, Peter denies Jesus's prophetic word,
[SPEAKER_01]: But on the night of his betrayal, his disciples would all abandon him.
[SPEAKER_01]: They would all run.
[SPEAKER_01]: And Peter says that is not going to happen.
[SPEAKER_01]: No, I will not abandon you.
[SPEAKER_01]: Then again, that's in that same conversation.
[SPEAKER_01]: Jesus warns Peter and says, Peter, you are going to deny me three times.
[SPEAKER_01]: and Peter says, even if I must die with you, I will not deny you.
[SPEAKER_01]: He kept rebuking or arguing with the Lord about what the Lord knew would happen, about what he was saying.
[SPEAKER_01]: But notice, Peter's confession now in John 21.
[SPEAKER_01]: Look at his confession.
[SPEAKER_01]: Peter says twice, yes, Lord, I love you.
[SPEAKER_01]: Yes, Lord, you know that I love you.
[SPEAKER_01]: You know, Lord,
[SPEAKER_01]: You know all things.
[SPEAKER_01]: And then the third time when Peter's struck to the heart, because Jesus changes his question now, Jesus says, Simon, Son of John, do you fullet owe me?
[SPEAKER_01]: Do you have a strong affection for me?
[SPEAKER_01]: Peter's struck in his heart.
[SPEAKER_01]: Do you truly have more, this is this more natural kind of love for me?
[SPEAKER_01]: Peter responds, Lord, you know everything, you know everything, you know everything, you know that I love you, he is not arguing with the Lord anymore.
[SPEAKER_01]: He says, you know everything.
[SPEAKER_01]: Peter is learning that Jesus does not need him to advise him or question him, Jesus knows everything.
[SPEAKER_01]: And Jesus, in that moment, could look into the heart of this 30-year-old, burly, hard-headed, hot-tempered fisherman with all the tan skin, you know, you spend years out on a fishing boat, you're going to be brown.
[SPEAKER_01]: Good.
[SPEAKER_01]: He looks at this hardened man.
[SPEAKER_01]: who like to do things by the strength of his arm and the persuasiveness of his voice and his presence.
[SPEAKER_01]: And he can look at this man, he can see in his heart, Peter does love his Lord.
[SPEAKER_01]: Yes, Lord, you know everything, you know that I love you.
[SPEAKER_01]: Peter didn't need his raise his voice this time or make oaths or get in Jesus' face to convince him with the strength of his personality.
[SPEAKER_01]: Peter knew that Jesus's sight pierced into his soul and that Jesus could see his love.
[SPEAKER_01]: And Christian, if you're sitting here this morning, discouraged and broken, hurt and pain, doubting, know that Jesus can see straight into your heart.
[SPEAKER_01]: He can see if he has created love in your heart.
[SPEAKER_01]: You can see it though, it'd be small though, it'd be an ember that still needs to be flamed into a growing fire.
[SPEAKER_01]: The Lord can see you're love for Him.
[SPEAKER_01]: He has not given up on any one of His sheep that have even a flicker of love for Him, because you belong to Him.
[SPEAKER_01]: He sees.
[SPEAKER_01]: And this is what Jesus is response implies.
[SPEAKER_01]: So look at me at Jesus' response, this commission of Peter.
[SPEAKER_01]: Because this response implies, yes, Peter, I do know.
[SPEAKER_01]: I do know that you love me.
[SPEAKER_01]: So feed my sheep.
[SPEAKER_01]: Jesus says, feed my sheep.
[SPEAKER_01]: If Peter didn't love Jesus, then Jesus wouldn't have commissioned him.
[SPEAKER_01]: So Jesus is looking into his heart and saying, I see, I know.
[SPEAKER_01]: Get up from your pity party, Peter.
[SPEAKER_01]: This is a Peter pity party.
[SPEAKER_01]: Sorry, just thought of that.
[SPEAKER_01]: We all know what that's like.
[SPEAKER_01]: We have all had our own version of that.
[SPEAKER_01]: pity parties.
[SPEAKER_01]: But Jesus says to him, get up from your pity party and serve me.
[SPEAKER_01]: You may feel broken, run over, beaten into a pulp by life and worthless for my cause.
[SPEAKER_01]: I've met a couple Christians who, in that moment, that's Aleppo.
[SPEAKER_01]: I am so broken, so incapable of be perfect that I am worthless for the cause of Christ.
[SPEAKER_01]: But though you might feel that way, Jesus says, if you love me, then I want you to serve me.
[SPEAKER_01]: I want you.
[SPEAKER_01]: I want you to get up, confess your sins, begin following me.
[SPEAKER_01]: I want you to serve me."
[SPEAKER_01]: That's what Jesus said.
[SPEAKER_01]: Think about this Peter, live face to face with God walking among us.
[SPEAKER_01]: And he denied him three times, surely he should be cast into the other depths of hell for that.
[SPEAKER_01]: Jesus says, do you love me?"
[SPEAKER_01]: Peter says, yes, Lord.
[SPEAKER_01]: In all my weakness and messiness, I do love you.
[SPEAKER_01]: Serve me.
[SPEAKER_01]: Get up.
[SPEAKER_01]: Follow me.
[SPEAKER_01]: Serve me.
[SPEAKER_01]: I do not think anyone in this room can top Peter in the
[SPEAKER_01]: I just don't think you can.
[SPEAKER_01]: Your sins look very different than him, I'm sure.
[SPEAKER_01]: And maybe they are terrible.
[SPEAKER_01]: But you can't top Peter.
[SPEAKER_01]: He's looked Jesus in the face, walked with him, and then denied him three times.
[SPEAKER_01]: If you love him, Jesus looks at you and says, get up.
[SPEAKER_01]: Confess your sins.
[SPEAKER_01]: So this is what Jesus' commission implies that he sees and he's calling Peter to continue serving him because he loves him.
[SPEAKER_01]: And how is it that Peter must serve Jesus?
[SPEAKER_01]: Jesus has told them, I'm leaving and you can't follow me right now.
[SPEAKER_01]: Jesus right now is at the right hand of the Father.
[SPEAKER_01]: But we love him.
[SPEAKER_01]: What does Jesus want Christians to do with our love for the God-man sitting at the right hand of the Father?
[SPEAKER_01]: What is He want us to do with our love?
[SPEAKER_01]: Jesus says to Peter, feed my sheep.
[SPEAKER_01]: A Peter is going to be one of the apostles, one of the ones who laid the foundation of the church, evangelist, teacher, leader of the church.
[SPEAKER_01]: Feeding his sheep clearly means
[SPEAKER_01]: teaching them the words of Jesus.
[SPEAKER_01]: Making disciples teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you.
[SPEAKER_01]: Who are the sheep?
[SPEAKER_01]: Scripture is a clear.
[SPEAKER_01]: We know this throughout John that the sheep of Jesus are all true believers past present future.
[SPEAKER_01]: God knows them by name and He's given them to Jesus.
[SPEAKER_01]: Jesus says, I will win my sheep and I will keep my sheep and I will glorify my sheep.
[SPEAKER_01]: Nothing will change that.
[SPEAKER_01]: So Jesus is calling Peter to get on board his mission to win people.
[SPEAKER_01]: To win people into the flock of God,
[SPEAKER_01]: then to care for them, to feed them with the words of God, to guard them against the temptations of the devil and the lies of false teachers, which the Bible called wolves that will come and attack the flock of God.
[SPEAKER_01]: When them keep them, guard them, teach them is a clear emphasis of this.
[SPEAKER_01]: Guard them and feed them and shepherd them is the picture here with the word of God.
[SPEAKER_01]: Why do we spend so much time praying the words of God, reading the words of God, singing the words of God.
[SPEAKER_01]: A long time is spent on preaching the word of God, it seems like he keeps getting longer and longer.
[SPEAKER_01]: I'm working on that.
[SPEAKER_01]: But why?
[SPEAKER_01]: Why do we do that because the words of God from His Spirit as His Spirit takes the words of God as they are spoken and thought about and meditated on and sang.
[SPEAKER_01]: And some the Spirit takes them and He breaks our chains to the lusts of this world.
[SPEAKER_01]: He takes the words of God and He breaks our chains of doubt.
[SPEAKER_01]: He takes the words of Jesus and he makes something new out of dead men and women lost in this world in darkness.
[SPEAKER_01]: He turns on the lights and he makes people new by grace are you saved through faith and this is not your own doing.
[SPEAKER_01]: So many of you can testify that when the light of love for Jesus of delighting in Jesus and faith came on,
[SPEAKER_01]: You weren't looking for him then?
[SPEAKER_01]: I remember the story of R.C.
[SPEAKER_01]: Sprawl.
[SPEAKER_01]: He said that his conversion testimony is that he went back into the dorm room to go buy some cigarettes from the vending machine.
[SPEAKER_01]: All he desired were cigarettes.
[SPEAKER_01]: And a young man said to him and his buddy, Hey, why don't you guys sit down with me for a second?
[SPEAKER_01]: Spoke the gospel to them.
[SPEAKER_01]: R.C.
[SPEAKER_01]: Sprawl, the man who's gone on to be with the Lord now, was saved.
[SPEAKER_01]: What was he going after?
[SPEAKER_01]: What was he seeking?
[SPEAKER_01]: Secrets?
[SPEAKER_01]: But God was seeking him.
[SPEAKER_01]: God was pursuing him as one of his lost sheep that he was going to bring in to the fold of Jesus.
[SPEAKER_01]: And when the words of God were spoken, and the spirit of God penetrated into his soul, he was saved.
[SPEAKER_01]: That is the power of God through the words of God wielded by the Spirit of God.
[SPEAKER_01]: And God's will is that men and women, boys and girls, 10-year-old, 7-year-old little girls that we all together, whether you are 7 or 70, that we would speak and testify of the words of God.
[SPEAKER_01]: No, we are not apostles.
[SPEAKER_01]: even taking this, this feed my sheep into it, applying it directly to pastors.
[SPEAKER_01]: Yes, that is true, but I'm not an apostle.
[SPEAKER_01]: I didn't lay the foundation of the church in my own blood.
[SPEAKER_01]: That's what the apostles did with Jesus Christ as the chief cornerstone.
[SPEAKER_01]: I am a preacher, and yes, this is applicable to me.
[SPEAKER_01]: Ten them, guard them, give them the defense from the Word of God to fight against temptation, and to defend themselves from the wolves, and if they're being of overrun by wolves, to get out the staff of my Word and beat back the wolves.
[SPEAKER_01]: Yes, this is applicable to pastors, but church is not just for pastors.
[SPEAKER_01]: In whatever way God has gifted you Christian,
[SPEAKER_01]: And in whatever way God is calling you to serve him Christian, if you love me, serve me, get up.
[SPEAKER_01]: Don't retreat.
[SPEAKER_01]: Don't let pain cause you to jerk yourself back from my church and my people on the lost.
[SPEAKER_01]: You will experience pain in this world.
[SPEAKER_01]: But take heart, I have overcome the world Jesus says.
[SPEAKER_01]: Expect pain.
[SPEAKER_01]: don't be surprised by it, keep your eyes on me, love me, serve me, expect pain.
[SPEAKER_01]: Does that sound discouraging to you?
[SPEAKER_01]: Well, let me round out the full picture he says, love me, serve me, expect pain.
[SPEAKER_01]: And if you do this, then I will fill you with so much joy,
[SPEAKER_01]: For eternity, it begins now.
[SPEAKER_01]: I can testify now that even in the midst of pain, there is great joy in this life for a Christian who's serving Jesus out of love from their heart.
[SPEAKER_01]: In the midst of pain, there is great joy from God, and He will fully complete that on the day.
[SPEAKER_01]: When we stand face to face with Him, we cannot even imagine the choice that God has prepared for those who love Him.
[SPEAKER_01]: and who live out that love through service to other people.
[SPEAKER_01]: That's how we live out our love for Jesus.
[SPEAKER_01]: We cannot go wash his feet right now.
[SPEAKER_01]: I cannot break an alerbaster flag and I don't have hair long enough, but I could wash his feet with something, but you know what, I can't do that now.
[SPEAKER_01]: I can't.
[SPEAKER_01]: only way I can love Jesus right now is by loving you, my children, I wife, a family, yes, but you, his sheep.
[SPEAKER_01]: And the lost, those who he will bring in, that is the only way you and I can love Jesus
[SPEAKER_01]: It's by loving one another with my hands and feet.
[SPEAKER_01]: That is how I can love Jesus, by loving you.
[SPEAKER_01]: His sheep, He says, He loves you so much and you are so much a part of Him.
[SPEAKER_01]: He calls us His body.
[SPEAKER_01]: He is the head.
[SPEAKER_01]: We are His body.
[SPEAKER_01]: And when I come and serve you, Jesus says,
[SPEAKER_01]: It is no different than if you got on your hands and knees and wash my feet.
[SPEAKER_01]: If you do it for a lane, for a run, for sock, with Iamariki, for Jonathan.
[SPEAKER_01]: There is no difference.
[SPEAKER_01]: So please, my friends, do not become so discouraged.
[SPEAKER_01]: or so hurt in your heart that you stop loving Jesus with your life.
[SPEAKER_01]: Because if you retreat from God's people, you stop serving them.
[SPEAKER_01]: You have stopped serving Jesus.
[SPEAKER_01]: That is what is clearly taught in this passage and in many others.
[SPEAKER_01]: In the New Testament.
[SPEAKER_01]: In 1 John 420,
[SPEAKER_01]: 1st John 420.
[SPEAKER_01]: If anyone says, I love God and hates his brother, he is a liar.
[SPEAKER_01]: Okay.
[SPEAKER_01]: I don't hate very many people so I'm good.
[SPEAKER_01]: Next verse, next phrase.
[SPEAKER_01]: 4.
[SPEAKER_01]: He who does not love his brother, whom he has seen, cannot love God, whom he has not
[SPEAKER_01]: who does not love.
[SPEAKER_01]: So this isn't just you can't hate other Christians.
[SPEAKER_01]: This is you must love other Christians.
[SPEAKER_01]: We're not just talking about warm, cozy feelings.
[SPEAKER_01]: It's rarely what the Bible's talking about when it uses the word love.
[SPEAKER_01]: Your feelings are essential.
[SPEAKER_01]: Emotion is imperative for the
[SPEAKER_01]: Yet those feelings and emotions are always connected with our activity in the body and with the mind and with the word with our words.
[SPEAKER_01]: For He who does not love His brother whom He has seen cannot love God whom He has seen.
[SPEAKER_01]: And this commitment we have from Him, whoever loves God must also love His brother.
[SPEAKER_01]: We love God, we serve as sheep, we serve people.
[SPEAKER_01]: Jesus also calls all Christians, all his followers, his disciples, saying, love one another as I have loved you.
[SPEAKER_01]: That's Jesus' commission to each and every one of us.
[SPEAKER_01]: It doesn't matter how busy your life is, or how sinful you have been in the past, or how hurt your feelings are because of the church's failures.
[SPEAKER_01]: Jesus calls all of us to get up, stop wallowing in self-pity.
[SPEAKER_01]: put aside your pride, forgive your brother and sister from your heart, the Bible says, and serve Jesus by caring for his sheep, his body, the church.
[SPEAKER_01]: We don't evangelize the lost and serve one another because I'm just such a lovely person.
[SPEAKER_01]: and you're just such lovely people and when we get together we're hoping that all of our loveliness is just going to combine into this little utopia of a little heaven on earth.
[SPEAKER_01]: That is not the church.
[SPEAKER_01]: That's what retirement villages are for.
[SPEAKER_01]: And you all know how well that's working out.
[SPEAKER_01]: no, that's not the church.
[SPEAKER_01]: And if that is what you're looking for when you come to church, you're going to be sadly mistaken.
[SPEAKER_01]: We are saved sinners here.
[SPEAKER_01]: We confess our sins to one another here.
[SPEAKER_01]: We admit our weaknesses and assume that we will have plenty of opportunities to practice forgiveness.
[SPEAKER_01]: If you step into this church, you are asking God to give you an opportunity to be
[SPEAKER_01]: That's what you should be walking in here thinking in your heart.
[SPEAKER_01]: God sanctify me.
[SPEAKER_01]: Make me more like Jesus.
[SPEAKER_01]: Have others sin against me and give me the opportunity for give them.
[SPEAKER_01]: So that I will have an opportunity to exercise my crust-like muscles.
[SPEAKER_01]: That's Christianity.
[SPEAKER_01]: That's getting together.
[SPEAKER_01]: That's fellowship.
[SPEAKER_01]: That's worshiping together.
[SPEAKER_01]: That's getting down and serving others.
[SPEAKER_01]: You are asking God.
[SPEAKER_01]: to give you opportunities to practice for give this.
[SPEAKER_01]: And opportunities to make mistake.
[SPEAKER_01]: It's going to happen.
[SPEAKER_01]: I can't remember how many times someone's come up to me after the service and in love said, hey Daniel, that wasn't actually the right way to pronounce that English word.
[SPEAKER_01]: And I'm just like, I didn't really say that, did I?
[SPEAKER_01]: They're like, yeah, you did.
[SPEAKER_01]: I'm just like, can we delete that recording?
[SPEAKER_01]: Please, I don't want to permit record with that.
[SPEAKER_01]: No, we are not a heaven on earth here.
[SPEAKER_01]: We are safe sinners.
[SPEAKER_01]: We keep on serving each other, even when no one says thank you.
[SPEAKER_01]: And even when all we've gotten in a while is criticism.
[SPEAKER_01]: We keep serving.
[SPEAKER_01]: We also evangelize the lost here.
[SPEAKER_01]: We evangelize the lost, knowing and expecting that their hearts are sick and desperately wicked.
[SPEAKER_01]: That's what the Bible says.
[SPEAKER_01]: sick and desperately wicked.
[SPEAKER_01]: They are children of wrath and condemn to hell without God and without hope in the world just like we were.
[SPEAKER_01]: That's why we, that's what we think in our minds when we evangelize the loss.
[SPEAKER_01]: I'm not going to evangelize someone because they're wealthy or influential because if they start giving ties from their massive paychecks, we'll be able to build a building
[SPEAKER_01]: They'd be really, they'd be really interested in hearing the gospel.
[SPEAKER_01]: No, friends, no, their hearts are sick and desperately wicked.
[SPEAKER_01]: They are condemned to hell and without hope.
[SPEAKER_01]: Just like we were, we evangelized with that as our expectation and we expect that kind of response unless God intervenes.
[SPEAKER_01]: We should not be surprised when they throw our service to them.
[SPEAKER_01]: I'd love to them when they throw it back in our face as if we just poured out garbage into their front yard.
[SPEAKER_01]: They pick it up, throw it back as.
[SPEAKER_01]: We should expect that.
[SPEAKER_01]: That shouldn't be a surprise while we anticipate and hope for and plead with God to do miracles.
[SPEAKER_01]: But the big question this morning is why?
[SPEAKER_01]: But why?
[SPEAKER_01]: Why jump headlong into the sea of human messiness and keep swimming even when it gets hard and causes me pain and deep personal pain.
[SPEAKER_01]: Why keep swimming?
[SPEAKER_01]: Why keep going after people in love?
[SPEAKER_01]: Why?
[SPEAKER_01]: Why subject myself to more relational pain?
[SPEAKER_01]: Why confess my sins to others?
[SPEAKER_01]: Why participate in my own financial impoverishment?
[SPEAKER_01]: Think about that one.
[SPEAKER_01]: Why hurt my bank account by giving joyfully to the Lord?
[SPEAKER_01]: Why?
[SPEAKER_01]: Why do then?
[SPEAKER_01]: Answer is because we love Jesus.
[SPEAKER_01]: we love Jesus.
[SPEAKER_01]: We love Him because He first loved us dying for our sins on the cross and calling us to Himself while we were still His enemies.
[SPEAKER_01]: The Bible says, He made us new.
[SPEAKER_01]: He imputed His righteous life to us.
[SPEAKER_01]: He gave us peace with God, and He completed the adoption paperwork so that we can now call His Father our Abba.
[SPEAKER_01]: Our Father.
[SPEAKER_01]: Abba.
[SPEAKER_01]: It's that personal name that only a little boy would call his daddy.
[SPEAKER_01]: Abba.
[SPEAKER_01]: Father.
[SPEAKER_01]: That's looking back at what God has done for us.
[SPEAKER_01]: But we also look forward and anticipation and joy of all He has promised.
[SPEAKER_01]: Every eternal good created for human delight has been promised to us in and through the salvation and reign of Jesus Christ our Lord.
[SPEAKER_01]: And whether or not we experience good right now, it doesn't matter, doesn't matter.
[SPEAKER_01]: by faith we believe he will do what he has promised.
[SPEAKER_01]: It is this delight in Jesus as our greatest treasure, which drives our service.
[SPEAKER_01]: We delight in what he delights, we desire what he desires, we love what he loves, and we know that Jesus loves his church.
[SPEAKER_01]: Past present future, He loves them all.
[SPEAKER_01]: He's changing us from the inside out.
[SPEAKER_01]: When we were made a new creature, he awakened loves that we didn't have before.
[SPEAKER_01]: And now we begin to love what he loves.
[SPEAKER_01]: Therefore, we love his church.
[SPEAKER_01]: We love those already in the church.
[SPEAKER_01]: Those who are sitting here, those who are saying, yes, I believe, and I'm here to worship him.
[SPEAKER_01]: We love you.
[SPEAKER_01]: We love one another.
[SPEAKER_01]: and we love those who are still to be added.
[SPEAKER_01]: So we go out and we look for them.
[SPEAKER_01]: We give the gospel to everyone and anyone hoping that more of Jesus's sheep will be added today.
[SPEAKER_01]: Because Jesus loves them and we love him and he is growing our love for others.
[SPEAKER_01]: In conclusion, your life and death will glorify God.
[SPEAKER_01]: That's the outcome of this.
[SPEAKER_01]: If you love Jesus, you confess Jesus and you serve Jesus.
[SPEAKER_01]: then your life and death will glorify God.
[SPEAKER_01]: It's not gonna be easy.
[SPEAKER_01]: The service to other people.
[SPEAKER_01]: I call the arena for serving Jesus a sea of human messiness.
[SPEAKER_01]: It's true.
[SPEAKER_01]: If you've tried to serve Jesus by loving other people, you have felt that.
[SPEAKER_01]: It's a sea of human messiness that we jump into and keeps swimming even when it's hard and painful.
[SPEAKER_01]: But that's just for the ordinary days.
[SPEAKER_01]: That's just an ordinary day for a Christian life, for a Christian.
[SPEAKER_01]: The sea of human messiness is full of things like disagreements, people gossiping about us, harsh words, cold shoulders, selfishness, rejection, pride.
[SPEAKER_01]: These are the type of things that we are crucifying.
[SPEAKER_01]: but it's not dead yet, so you're gonna run into those things in the church.
[SPEAKER_01]: You're definitely gonna run into the outside of the church, but you will also run into them in the church, because we are still in the process of fully crucifying the flesh.
[SPEAKER_01]: So this is normal for a Christian experience these things.
[SPEAKER_01]: But other times, serving Jesus will be more like waiting into sharp,
[SPEAKER_01]: This is the case for Peter.
[SPEAKER_01]: Jesus told him in verse 18, truly, truly I say to you, when you were young, you used to dress yourself in a walk wherever you wanted.
[SPEAKER_01]: But when you are old, you will stretch out your hands and another will dress you and carry you where you do not want to go.
[SPEAKER_01]: This Jesus said to show what kind of death Simon was to glorify God.
[SPEAKER_01]: And after saying this Jesus said to Simon, follow me.
[SPEAKER_01]: Christian history tells us that after Simon Peter had proclaimed the gospel, guarded the church and topped the words of Jesus for many years, giving his life as an evangelist to the lost, that the world rewarded Simon Peter by arresting him and crucifying him on a wooden cross.
[SPEAKER_01]: Our motivation for serving the body of Jesus cannot be to gain their admiration, to gain their thanks,
[SPEAKER_01]: or love in return for our selfless service.
[SPEAKER_01]: If you go to another and seek to serve them for what that person can give you, you are going to be terribly disappointed as a servant of Christ.
[SPEAKER_01]: We cannot serve seeking what that person's gonna do for me.
[SPEAKER_01]: Praise me, thank me, become my friend.
[SPEAKER_01]: Give me a purpose or make me feel special.
[SPEAKER_01]: We cannot do that.
[SPEAKER_01]: The driving force of our service must be our love for Jesus.
[SPEAKER_01]: Jesus said to Peter, do you love me?
[SPEAKER_01]: Feed my sheep.
[SPEAKER_01]: And Jesus says to all of us, do you love me?
[SPEAKER_01]: Serve my people in the way that I have called and gifted you for service.
[SPEAKER_01]: When our living is motivated by delight in Jesus, then our lives will glorify God.
[SPEAKER_01]: and our deaths will glorify God, whether you are nailed to a cross like Peter or die in a car crash at 20.
[SPEAKER_01]: Or peacefully pass after 90 years of service or your body is eaten from the inside out by cancer.
[SPEAKER_01]: And you die early before your time.
[SPEAKER_01]: Either way,
[SPEAKER_01]: your life and your death will glorify God if you live this kind of life.
[SPEAKER_01]: It will.
[SPEAKER_01]: We glorify God when we testify that our bodies are comfort and this life itself are small treasures in comparison to the treasure we will meet face-to-face on the other side of death.
[SPEAKER_01]: That is why we serve one another.
[SPEAKER_01]: It's not to build a church.
[SPEAKER_01]: to gain other supplies, not to get the glory that comes from it, but it's because we believe there is a God and we're gonna see Him one day and we love Him and man I want to be about what He loves so that when I see Him I can see the joy on His face and I can be swept up in the joy of our God that although I was a broken sinner, I
[SPEAKER_01]: With so many flaws and I had to rip in so many times I kept getting up because I loved Jesus and I've repented of my sin and I kept serving his people out of love for Jesus.
[SPEAKER_01]: Let's pray to God.
[SPEAKER_01]: Family Father, thank you for your work.
[SPEAKER_01]: I pray that your spirit will do your work in our hearts today.
[SPEAKER_01]: Thank you for this church.
[SPEAKER_01]: There are so many in this congregation who are already about what we've studied today.
[SPEAKER_01]: Thank you, Lord, for their selfless service, where they love Jesus and that is evident to all of us and they are serving us well.
[SPEAKER_01]: Thank you for them, Lord.
[SPEAKER_01]: May you bless them and give them great joy in this life and we know in the next.
[SPEAKER_01]: It Lord, many of us,
[SPEAKER_01]: Have to some degree or another, retreated back from pain or difficulty or hurt.
[SPEAKER_01]: Oh, Lord, would you convict us of this and show us that to love one another is to love Jesus?
[SPEAKER_01]: And may that change us and give us a new zeal, Lord, to serve one another.
[SPEAKER_01]: In Jesus name.
[SPEAKER_01]: Amen.