Speaker 1: Hey, this is Stephen Ferdick.
Speaker 2: I'm the pastor of Elevation Church and this is our podcast.
Speaker 2: I wanted to thank you for joining us today.
Speaker 1: Hope this inspires you. Hope it builds your faith.
Speaker 2: Hope it gives your perspective to see Gods moving in
Speaker 2: your life. Enjoy the message what enjoy to be with
Speaker 2: you today.
Speaker 3: My name is Larry Bryan, one of the pastors here
Speaker 3: at Elevation Church.
Speaker 1: But all my friends call me ld and.
Speaker 3: My wife and I had the distinct privilege of being
Speaker 3: one of the original eight families eighteen plus years ago
Speaker 3: to start Elevation Church with Eric, my friend here and
Speaker 3: I saw Jay Raven around here. And when we started
Speaker 3: the church eighteen years ago, my wife and I moved
Speaker 3: into our house on a Friday night right when the
Speaker 3: church started, went to the hospital the next Wednesday, had
Speaker 3: our first born son. Here's a picture of how it
Speaker 3: started eighteen years ago. I think we got a picture
Speaker 3: to pop up there. That's my boy, Corbyn Charles Brye
Speaker 3: and I remember when we took him to e Kids
Speaker 3: Children's Ministry the very first I Miss Marie Neil was
Speaker 3: the first volunteer to hold him.
Speaker 1: She's still holding.
Speaker 3: Babies eighteen years later at Elevation Blakeney.
Speaker 1: Thank you, Marie Neial.
Speaker 3: Thank you to all the Eat kids, Heather and Anthony,
Speaker 3: and all the people that have sown into my son
Speaker 3: and all of our kids. I think the unsung heroes
Speaker 3: of this ministry are the people that show up every week,
Speaker 3: that serve our children and raise them up.
Speaker 1: And now this is my son, this is now, this is.
Speaker 3: Just a couple of weeks ago, my man, my boy.
Speaker 1: Yeah.
Speaker 3: And so on the day he was born, my wife Janet,
Speaker 3: when she was pregnant, we weren't pregnant, she was pregnant.
Speaker 3: She would listen to the same songs every day in
Speaker 3: the morning, and there was a song by Chris Tomlin.
Speaker 1: What was it, honey?
Speaker 3: It was how Great is Our God? Do I remember
Speaker 3: that old song? She would listen to it every day
Speaker 3: and he would jump in her belly. He would do
Speaker 3: like cartwheels. And on the day he was born, he
Speaker 3: was not jumping to that song. My wife got real
Speaker 3: freaked out.
Speaker 1: She calls me.
Speaker 3: Turns out the cord was wrapped around his neck and
Speaker 3: that was his way of telling us, you need to
Speaker 3: come take me. He arrived Emergency Sea section. Like an
Speaker 3: hour or so later, my wife calls me. I'm trying
Speaker 3: to hold it together and I'm freaking out, like.
Speaker 1: Babe, it's gonna be okay. And I got off the phone.
Speaker 3: First person I called was Pastor Stephen, and I can't
Speaker 3: tell you what he told me, but I do remember
Speaker 3: how he made me feel. He made me feel like
Speaker 3: God was with me. He's in it, fighting for me,
Speaker 3: and God is not against me. Thank you, Pastor Stephen
Speaker 3: and Pastor Holly for eighteen years faithfully doing that in
Speaker 3: this house.
Speaker 1: We love you, We honor you.
Speaker 3: Hey, let me give you the passage I want to
Speaker 3: preach from today. It's two verses, Mark chapter one, Verses
Speaker 3: sixteen and seventeen. This is the word that God has
Speaker 3: given me. This is my assignment to deliver it to
Speaker 3: you today.
Speaker 1: I've been praying that you.
Speaker 3: Would be good soil, because this is good and when
Speaker 3: good seed meets good soil, it produces a great harvest
Speaker 3: for his glory.
Speaker 1: Mark Chapter one.
Speaker 3: This is Jesus walked by the sea of Galilee. He
Speaker 3: saw Simon and his brother Andrew casting a net into
Speaker 3: the lake, for they were fishermen. Come follow me, Jesus said,
Speaker 3: and I will send you out to fish for people
Speaker 3: one more time. Let me pray, Father, this is good seed.
Speaker 3: Sons and daughters of this house and watching online around
Speaker 3: the world are good soil. Take your good seed, put
Speaker 3: it in the soil of their heart. Produce a harvest
Speaker 3: of righteousness for your glory.
Speaker 1: Amen.
Speaker 3: Amen, let me give you the title. Then you can
Speaker 3: have a seat. This is the title for today, Destiny
Speaker 3: and Direction. Look at your favorite person around you, give
Speaker 3: them a hogins say.
Speaker 1: Destiny and Direction.
Speaker 3: Thank you, worship team. This is an incredible story because
Speaker 3: many things are happening in this scene at the same time.
Speaker 1: Peter Andrew Simon. Well Simon, he's Simon.
Speaker 3: Simon is a part of him that's parting on on
Speaker 3: Saturday night. But Peter's the side of him that's praising
Speaker 3: on Sunday morning. You know, because all of you got
Speaker 3: a little bit of a little bit of Simon in you,
Speaker 3: then you also got some some Peter in you.
Speaker 1: That's that guy.
Speaker 3: He's out casting nets. I don't know what he did
Speaker 3: the night before, but Jesus shows up on the scene
Speaker 3: an ordinary day in Peter's life that encounters a radical
Speaker 3: savior that's about to change the trajectory of his life.
Speaker 3: He did not know that was gonna happen when he
Speaker 3: set out on his day. At the same time that's happening,
Speaker 3: Jesus is also establishing his earthly ministry. He's saying it
Speaker 3: is time to go. He's prepared himself for the assignment
Speaker 3: of going to the cross, and now he's gonna pick
Speaker 3: the team to follow him. And he shows up and
Speaker 3: he's walking along and it says he sees Simon, he
Speaker 3: sees him casting a net into the lake. Because another
Speaker 3: thing that's happening at that moment. You have no idea
Speaker 3: what God's doing on you row. You have no idea
Speaker 3: the stories that are ending and beginning. And God is
Speaker 3: doing something significant in our midst today. Oh, if we
Speaker 3: would perceive in the spiritual realm what God is doing
Speaker 3: in this place. And because Jesus is about to establish
Speaker 3: kingdom culture, say kingdom culture. You see the culture of
Speaker 3: the world when someone would find a teacher or a rabbi.
Speaker 3: That's what Jesus is about to become to these these disciples,
Speaker 3: is He's about to become their teacher, their rabbi in
Speaker 3: that culture. The way that a rabbi would be selected
Speaker 3: wouldn't be the rabbi would not.
Speaker 1: Come to you.
Speaker 3: Oh no, he would never stoop so low as the
Speaker 3: step into your lowly place. Rabbis would stand at a distance,
Speaker 3: and people would come to him and beg, oh, please please,
Speaker 3: could I be your student?
Speaker 1: Could I learn from you?
Speaker 3: And they would say, well, show me how smart you are.
Speaker 3: That's the culture of the world. That is religion trying
Speaker 3: to prove that you should be picked. Some of you
Speaker 3: are exhausted because you have lived your whole life trying
Speaker 3: to prove that you should be picked. And Jesus is
Speaker 3: about to establish kingdom culture on earth as it is
Speaker 3: in heaven. That's what he's bringing into the kingdom on
Speaker 3: earth as it is in heaven, because it's the upside
Speaker 3: down culture. The first shall be the last, and the
Speaker 3: last shall be the first. And Jesus comes to them,
Speaker 3: and he comes to you, and he sees you.
Speaker 1: He sees all of you. He sees what you did,
Speaker 1: he sees.
Speaker 3: Where you're doing right now, and he sees what you're
Speaker 3: going to do in the future. And he comes to
Speaker 3: you and he picks you. That's the kind of God
Speaker 3: that we have, that's the kind of savior that we have.
Speaker 3: He pushes through all of the stuff and he comes
Speaker 3: to you because he's establishing kingdom culture, and it's beautiful.
Speaker 3: And he takes the criteria that none of us would
Speaker 3: have ever used to pick his first disciples, none of
Speaker 3: us would have been tall enough, good enough, smart enough.
Speaker 3: When Jesus says, I am doing something new, something different,
Speaker 3: and I think that same spirit is happening in this
Speaker 3: place today. Now, this guy named Simon, who would later
Speaker 3: be called Peter, he writes two books of the Bible.
Speaker 3: So when Jesus shows up in Mark one, Simon would
Speaker 3: have been Peter would have been about mid twenties, late twenties,
Speaker 3: and he would write two books of the Bible, first
Speaker 3: Peter and second Peter.
Speaker 1: And in Second Peter.
Speaker 3: The very last words he writes some forty years later
Speaker 3: after this incident, looking back on his life, looking back
Speaker 3: on all of the high points and low points.
Speaker 1: Remember when when.
Speaker 3: Jesus saw him casting a net into the lake, and
Speaker 3: Jesus came to him, remembering the denials, remembering standing up
Speaker 3: on pentagons, reminding him of all the places where he
Speaker 3: got it right and got it wrong. He looks back
Speaker 3: with wisdom, and he pens the very last words of
Speaker 3: his second letter. This is his last letter, his last words.
Speaker 3: And there's something about your last words. There's something about
Speaker 3: the wisdom of your life looking back on it, when
Speaker 3: you want to give somebody the wisdom to say, if
Speaker 3: you only remember one thing, this is it. He writes
Speaker 3: this in Second Peter three eighteen. He says, but grow
Speaker 3: in the grace in knowledge of our Lord and savior,
Speaker 3: Jesus Christ. Peter gives this profound wisdom. Looking back, he says, grow,
Speaker 3: say grow. Some of us are working hard to grow
Speaker 3: our bank account, but are growing in the grace. We're
Speaker 3: growing our followers, but are we growing our faith?
Speaker 1: That's what I want to talk about today.
Speaker 3: And Peter says, I want you to grow in the
Speaker 3: grace and knowledge. You see, when you have knowledge without grace,
Speaker 3: your self righteous. I'm trying to prove how smart you are.
Speaker 3: But grace without knowledge is a leaky bucket because you
Speaker 3: can't hold what God reveals to you. And Peter speaks
Speaker 3: to two distinct offices. Jesus is so much, he's indescribable,
Speaker 3: but he speaks of two distinct roles that Jesus must
Speaker 3: occupy in your life.
Speaker 1: First is as Savior.
Speaker 3: The second is that Lord, because the Savior determines the
Speaker 3: destiny and the Lord sets the direction.
Speaker 1: That's what I want to talk about for a few minutes.
Speaker 3: As we begin a relationship with Jesus, we got to
Speaker 3: grow in that relationship with Jesus. It's called progressive revelation.
Speaker 3: Progressive revelation. I've got my twelve year old daughter, she
Speaker 3: will turn thirteen next week, Miss Carson here, she's amazing.
Speaker 3: She's my favorite child that I'm looking at right now.
Speaker 3: We've got four, which every one is in front of me.
Speaker 3: Is my favorite kid. So progressive revelation is this. She says, Daddy,
Speaker 3: I love you. She drove with me to church this morning,
Speaker 3: She's like, Daddy, I love you. I remember dropping her
Speaker 3: off in kindergarten first.
Speaker 1: And she's like, Daddy, I love you.
Speaker 3: But now when she gets around some of her middle
Speaker 3: school friends, she's like, Dad, I'm like, you better say
Speaker 3: you love me. But I know that she'll graduate from
Speaker 3: high school one day and she'll say, Dad, I love you.
Speaker 3: She'll get married one day and on the night before
Speaker 3: her wedding, or as I get ready to walk her
Speaker 3: down the aisle, she'll look at me and says, dad,
Speaker 3: I love you. Then, but she holds her firstborn child,
Speaker 3: she will look at me and say, Dad, I love you.
Speaker 3: She's used the same word her whole life, but her
Speaker 3: understanding has changed over time. That is agressive revelation in
Speaker 3: our relationship with Jesus. Some of us are stuck in
Speaker 3: a flannel revelation of Jesus. You have not upgraded your
Speaker 3: definition of Jesus in a very long time. And that's
Speaker 3: what God is trying to do today. He's trying to
Speaker 3: upgrade your definition because you're living in an outdated revelation.
Speaker 3: And Peter is saying, I need you to grow in
Speaker 3: the grace of Jesus, your Lord and Savior. If we
Speaker 3: fast forward to one of the pivot points of Peter's journey,
Speaker 3: and that's who we're really going to focus on today,
Speaker 3: is this character Peter. In Matthew chapter sixteen, it says this,
Speaker 3: starting in verse thirteen, when Jesus came to the region
Speaker 3: of cesarea Philippi, he asked his disciples, who.
Speaker 1: Do people say the Son of Man is? Now?
Speaker 3: This is about two years after Peter started Jesus on
Speaker 3: the journey.
Speaker 1: He's been walking with him for a while. This is
Speaker 1: not brand new.
Speaker 3: He's been seeing the miracles, he's heard the sermons, he's
Speaker 3: been there, done all this stuff. And now Jesus is
Speaker 3: flipping the script, and he's asking him who do they
Speaker 3: say that? I am question for you, for those of
Speaker 3: you who claim Christ. If your words are paint and
Speaker 3: your life is a canvas, what portrait of Jesus are
Speaker 3: you painting.
Speaker 1: To the world.
Speaker 3: If I were to go into the environments around you
Speaker 3: and see the people closest to you, what would they
Speaker 3: say about Jesus?
Speaker 1: Who is Jesus?
Speaker 3: Because some of you need to understand, you are the
Speaker 3: only Jesus some people will ever see.
Speaker 1: Who do they say? He did not give you that
Speaker 1: job for an income.
Speaker 3: He gave you for influence. God puts you in that
Speaker 3: place to exert his influence.
Speaker 1: For his glory.
Speaker 2: Oh.
Speaker 3: I love what Jesus is doing here because he's flipping
Speaker 3: the script. He's pushing out the casual Christianity, and he's
Speaker 3: forcing the complacency to come to the surface because you
Speaker 3: cannot live at that place and love Jesus at the
Speaker 3: level that he's called you to.
Speaker 1: And he flips the.
Speaker 3: Script and now he continues in the conversations and he
Speaker 3: flips it. He says, but what about you? Who do
Speaker 3: you say that I am? I love this question, who
Speaker 3: do you say that I am? All of humanity hinges
Speaker 3: on this one question. All of scripture is pointing to
Speaker 3: one person, and his name is Jesus. In the Old Testament,
Speaker 3: Jesus is concealed, and in the New Testament.
Speaker 1: Jesus is revealed. This is all about.
Speaker 3: Jesus, and the gospel writers says, they pen the story
Speaker 3: of Jesus going through humanity. It's what created the casual
Speaker 3: crowd to come to Christ because they're asking, are these
Speaker 3: miracles really happening? But then the critics and the skeptics
Speaker 3: are saying, what did he say? But then the Pharisees
Speaker 3: and the teachers of the laws are all saying, who
Speaker 3: does he think he is? Than even herod king, herod
Speaker 3: pilate kings and people in authority who would say.
Speaker 1: Are you a king?
Speaker 3: All of creation has been asking the question who is Jesus?
Speaker 3: And it's the question that Jesus brings his disciples to
Speaker 3: in this moment, and he asks him very point to
Speaker 3: who do you say that I am? And I think
Speaker 3: my assignment today is to ask everybody under the sound
Speaker 3: of my voice. The most important question you could ever ask,
Speaker 3: because your destiny is determined by a decision, and the
Speaker 3: decision is who is Jesus. It's not about being a
Speaker 3: good person. It's not about trying harder. It's not about
Speaker 3: religious attendance. It's not about scripture reading. It is about
Speaker 3: who is Jesus. Who is your Jesus. He's the Alpha
Speaker 3: and the Omega. He's the author and perfector of our faith.
Speaker 3: He is the bright in morning star. He is the cornerstone.
Speaker 3: He is the great high Priests. He is the head
Speaker 3: of the Church. He is the Holy One. He is
Speaker 3: the Great i Am. He is Jehovah, he is Emmanuel.
Speaker 3: He is our Redeemer, our prophet, and our Savior. And
Speaker 3: in this moment in verse seventeen, here is in verse sixteen.
Speaker 1: Simon Peter answered.
Speaker 3: You are the Messiah, the son.
Speaker 1: Of the Living God.
Speaker 3: Jesus replied, blessed her, you, Simon's son of Jonah. For
Speaker 3: this was not revealed to you by flesh and blood,
Speaker 3: but by my Father in heaven.
Speaker 1: You are the Messiah.
Speaker 3: It means savior, redeemer, and what Jesus came to save
Speaker 3: you from is not your bad decisions, a bad marriage,
Speaker 3: or a bad job. He came to save you from
Speaker 3: your sins. That's why he had to die, to save
Speaker 3: you of your sins, to.
Speaker 1: Redeem you from it.
Speaker 3: Oh, but some of us come to church because we
Speaker 3: feel bad, and we follow Jesus for two years and
Speaker 3: I got the Bible.
Speaker 1: But have never seen him as the Messiah.
Speaker 3: And it's beautiful from the Scripture says this was not
Speaker 3: revealed to you by flesh and blood, but by Father.
Speaker 1: What he's saying is the grace you see.
Speaker 3: You and I are dead in our sin. We're born dead.
Speaker 3: The scriptural the definition that Theologians have agreed to throughout
Speaker 3: time is dead means you're dead dead. It means you're
Speaker 3: so dead you cannot make a live choice. It means
Speaker 3: that you if you don't come to God because it's
Speaker 3: a good idea or it's a cool emotional thing that
Speaker 3: somebody got stirred up inside of you. Know, what it
Speaker 3: means is that right now the grace of God is
Speaker 3: going forward, and some of you are leaning in because
Speaker 3: when I picture this scene, because this is the scene
Speaker 3: where Jesus became the Messiah of Peter, he had been
Speaker 3: walking with him for two years. But he had never
Speaker 3: been forgiven of a since, I think until that moment,
Speaker 3: Because in that moment, the grace of God, the spirit
Speaker 3: of God made him go. Oh, the Messiah, he was
Speaker 3: a revelation.
Speaker 1: It says this.
Speaker 3: It says this in Ephesians chapter two, verse eight, it says,
Speaker 3: for it is by grace that you have been saved
Speaker 3: through faith.
Speaker 1: This is not from yourselves. It is a gift of God.
Speaker 3: So the grace of God goes forth, and the grace
Speaker 3: is what enables you to consider him. The grace is
Speaker 3: what enables you to look at him now. Faith is
Speaker 3: your response to the grace that you just received. Some
Speaker 3: of you have been coming to church for a very
Speaker 3: long time, but you have resisted the grace, standing on
Speaker 3: the outside because you feel like I'm too dirty, I've
Speaker 3: done too much to clean myself up before I come
Speaker 3: to God. You'll come to elevation every week, you'll sit
Speaker 3: in the same seat, but you have not trusted in
Speaker 3: Him as your Lord and savior. You've stood at a distance.
Speaker 3: Peter traveled with Jesus for two years, but this is
Speaker 3: the moment that his destiny was secured in the hands
Speaker 3: of his savior because he said, you are the Messiah,
Speaker 3: and I believe the grace of God is leaning into
Speaker 3: your heart right now, and for some of you it
Speaker 3: is beating out of your chest. And God is saying,
Speaker 3: will you respond to the grace that is going forward?
Speaker 3: It is by grace through faith. Faith is your response.
Speaker 3: Will you receive it? You can't save yourself, but will
Speaker 3: you receive the grace? And normally we would give an
Speaker 3: invitation for salvation at the end of the experience. I'm
Speaker 3: not gonna wait till then because i wanted to do
Speaker 3: it right now and I'm not gonna bring the band up.
Speaker 3: There's gonna be no pad behind this. And what I'm
Speaker 3: gonna do in just a second at all of our locations.
Speaker 3: So I'm gonna ask all of you who need to
Speaker 3: begin a relationship with Jesus to stand to your feet.
Speaker 1: I'm in just a second.
Speaker 3: And some are like, oh my gosh, you're gonna make
Speaker 3: me stand with Yes, he died a very public death
Speaker 3: for you.
Speaker 1: He did. He died a very public death.
Speaker 3: And the reason I want some of you to stand
Speaker 3: is because you're sitting.
Speaker 1: Down in sin and I need you to remember that.
Speaker 3: The next time the voice of the enemy tries to
Speaker 3: get you to sit in that sin.
Speaker 1: You can stand and say, no, I have been redeemed.
Speaker 3: I have been forgiven my Jehovah, Jirah, my Jehovah nieces
Speaker 3: Jehovah Shaba. He changed me, He's redeemed me. This is
Speaker 3: not emotionalism. This is not me being a good motivational speaker.
Speaker 3: I'm not that good. But the grace of God is
Speaker 3: that good. And so at all of our locations in
Speaker 3: online this is for you too. And if you need
Speaker 3: to stand to place your faith in Jesus, I'm gonna
Speaker 3: ask you, with the count of three, without hesitation, to
Speaker 3: boldly stand. I know, all eyes open, normally we do
Speaker 3: every head bout every no eyes open, eyes wide open,
Speaker 3: clear conscience, making a commitment to follow Jesus. No longer
Speaker 3: doing it in the shadows, standing out in the life. Surprise,
Speaker 3: they're already standing here at balance high. If you need
Speaker 3: to place your faith in Jesus, stand to your feet. One,
Speaker 3: two three, stand up, Oh my soul, hey, stand to
Speaker 3: your feet. All of our locations, someone at Lake Norman,
Speaker 3: someone in Raleigh right now, stand to your feet, stand
Speaker 3: to your feet. Come on, stay standing stay standing, stay standing.
Speaker 3: In all of our locations, I don't know what it
Speaker 3: looks like other way. We're right here, so many are standing. Hey,
Speaker 3: stay standing, stay standing. Here's what we're gonna do. We're
Speaker 3: gonna say you pray together, stay standing, stay standing. We're
Speaker 3: gonna say a pray together, out loud. There's nothing magical
Speaker 3: about these words. But the Bible says, when you confess
Speaker 3: with your mouth that Jesus is Lord, and believe in
Speaker 3: your heart that he was raised from the dead, you
Speaker 3: will be saved. And if you have placed your faith
Speaker 3: in Jesus and you're around these people, oh and be
Speaker 3: praying for him, be praying with me. But there are
Speaker 3: a couple of people. You haven't stood yet. And what
Speaker 3: I want to tell you, standing doesn't save you. Jesus
Speaker 3: saves you. But standing is our response to take a stand.
Speaker 3: So if you need to still stand, stay to your feet.
Speaker 3: Right now, church family, let's say this prayer out loud,
Speaker 3: eyes wide open, clear conscience, knowing that we are following
Speaker 3: Jesus as our savior. Pray this with me. I believe
Speaker 3: that Jesus Christ is the Son of God who died
Speaker 3: on the cross and rose from the grave. To forgive
Speaker 3: me of my sins. I give you my life, I
Speaker 3: give you my sin, I give you my shame. Forgive me,
Speaker 3: and I'll spend my life following you. Now, give God
Speaker 3: the biggest praise you can give.
Speaker 1: Him in this place.
Speaker 3: Hey, if you're around those people, hug them, high five them,
Speaker 3: let them know that they're not alone. We're proud of you.
Speaker 3: Come on, give them a hug. Don't let them be alone.
Speaker 3: All all oak since church families surround him. Love on them.
Speaker 3: Do it, do it, do it in that beautiful in
Speaker 3: that beautiful. Oh, you can sit back now, but you
Speaker 3: can stand up anytime you need to.
Speaker 1: Is God not good?
Speaker 3: Oh, my soul, Your destiny, Your destiny is connected to
Speaker 3: a decision. And the decision is who is Jesus. He's
Speaker 3: a fairy tale of figment of their imagination or is
Speaker 3: a fictional character. No, for some of you, he just
Speaker 3: became your messiah, your savior. That's exactly what Peter said
Speaker 3: to do. Grow into grace. Is Jesus our savior and Lord.
Speaker 3: But here's the reality. It's easier to trust Jesus with
Speaker 3: my destiny than my direction. It is so much easier
Speaker 3: to say one day by and by Jesus will trust
Speaker 3: you with that, but trust you with the hero And now, ooh,
Speaker 3: that's so much harder.
Speaker 1: Why is it hard.
Speaker 3: To trust Jesus with the direction of our lives? You see,
Speaker 3: saved is used in multiple boys. I was saved meaning
Speaker 3: there was a moment that Jesus became.
Speaker 1: Your Oh, you are the Messiah.
Speaker 3: That moment for some of you, that moment just happened
Speaker 3: June thirtieth. Side note, today is my birthday. The best
Speaker 3: birthday present I could ever have is to be with
Speaker 3: my church family. And so in scripture, thank you. In
Speaker 3: scripture you were saved. You will be saved, meaning you
Speaker 3: will see him face to face and he will say
Speaker 3: either well done, good and faithful servant, or depart from me,
Speaker 3: for I never knew you. You see, religious activity does
Speaker 3: not matter in that moment. That's why you gotta have
Speaker 3: this moment that the revelation of God. The grace is
Speaker 3: you are the Messiah, and the faith is I choose
Speaker 3: to receive it. I was saved. I will be saved
Speaker 3: being made like him one day when we see it.
Speaker 1: But between these two, I'm.
Speaker 3: Being saved the sanctification. This is trusting Jesus with the
Speaker 3: direction of our lives? Why is it so hard to
Speaker 3: trust Jesus with the direction? And I want to show
Speaker 3: you from Peter's life why he struggled with this fundamental
Speaker 3: faith issue, Because to say, Jesus one day, by and by,
Speaker 3: but I got my plan, I got my goal, I
Speaker 3: got my thing. Now would you bless my thing in Jesus' name?
Speaker 1: If I'm honest, I live in that.
Speaker 3: Place anybody else would you confess with me that you
Speaker 3: Why do we struggle with that? And I'm going to
Speaker 3: go to a story in Peter's journey that I think
Speaker 3: so poignantly paints a picture of the tension that we
Speaker 3: face of why is it hard to trust Jesus with the.
Speaker 1: Direction of our lives?
Speaker 3: In Mark chapter six, it says the apostles gathered around
Speaker 3: Jesus and reported them all they had done and talk.
Speaker 1: Let me give it a little context.
Speaker 3: Up to Mark chapter six, Jesus had been performing miracles,
Speaker 3: he'd been casting out demons, he had been preaching the
Speaker 3: word of God. Then he eventually he gets to the
Speaker 3: point that he's prepping his disciples for when he would leave,
Speaker 3: because he says, after I go, it must continue on.
Speaker 3: So those of you, the ones that I picked that
Speaker 3: I revealed myself to, It is gonna be your assignment
Speaker 3: to do what I have been doing.
Speaker 1: So he sends them out like Noah's.
Speaker 3: Art principal two by two, and they're gonna go cast
Speaker 3: out demons. They're gonna preach uh, and they're gonna they're
Speaker 3: gonna perform miracles. And now they come back to Jesus
Speaker 3: like googly little school kids, like.
Speaker 1: Jesus, look what we did. We talked to demons.
Speaker 3: And here's the reality of what I was reading that
Speaker 3: scripture this morning. I saw some of us living beneath
Speaker 3: the authority Jesus gave us. Why are you living underneath
Speaker 3: that oppressive spirit? When God give you authority over it?
Speaker 1: Stop it, stop it. Start standing in the authority he
Speaker 1: has given you.
Speaker 3: I'm not talking about walking into work slapping your boss
Speaker 3: in the fore and say get out demon. I'm not
Speaker 3: saying dumb stuff, but I am saying God will give
Speaker 3: you the strength to endure up under it. Quit wilting
Speaker 3: underneath it. Stand in the authority He's given you. It's
Speaker 3: insulting when you act like that.
Speaker 1: Stop it.
Speaker 3: So they go out and then they come back to Jesus.
Speaker 3: And now they're like reporting to.
Speaker 1: Them, Jesus, it was amazing. We cats out David's it
Speaker 1: was incredible. Ha ha, And then verse thirty one.
Speaker 3: Then because so many people were coming and going, they
Speaker 3: did not even get a chance to eat.
Speaker 1: They were hungry.
Speaker 3: He said to them, come by yourselves to a quiet
Speaker 3: place and get some rest. So they went away by
Speaker 3: themselves in a boat to a solitary place.
Speaker 1: Now let me pause there.
Speaker 3: Jesus says, you're tired, you're hungry, you're exhausted. Come on,
Speaker 3: let's go get some rest a quiet place by ourselves.
Speaker 3: What picture are you seeing in your head? Like, we're
Speaker 3: gonna get on a boat. This is gonna be amazing.
Speaker 3: We're gonna go to a B and B get some
Speaker 3: R and R. I'm gonna get a manny petty. I'm
Speaker 3: gonna put my feet up in a hammock. This is
Speaker 3: gonna be freaking amazing.
Speaker 1: Okay, I need some resp.
Speaker 3: Yes, what image of rest comes to mind some mom
Speaker 3: or dad? You've been working all week in a job
Speaker 3: you don't even like, and you're like, if I can
Speaker 3: just get to Friday night, I'm gonna get some rest.
Speaker 3: And you got this picture of rest in your head,
Speaker 3: of what you think it's going to be. But then
Speaker 3: you come home, the kids are running around the house, naked,
Speaker 3: stuff is burning on the stove, the dogs are barking.
Speaker 3: It is complete chaos. Do any of you look at
Speaker 3: that and go like.
Speaker 1: Oh?
Speaker 3: Because all of us have an image of what we're expecting.
Speaker 3: But what do we do and what we pictured doesn't
Speaker 3: line up with what we see. Because the story continues
Speaker 3: with the disciples here, he says, But many who saw
Speaker 3: them leave and recognize them, and ran on foot from
Speaker 3: all the towns and got their ahead of them. This
Speaker 3: is the feeding of the five thousand. When Jesus landed
Speaker 3: and saw such a large crowd, he had compassion on
Speaker 3: them because they were like sheep without a shepherd, began
Speaker 3: to teach them many things. Jesus had compassion for them.
Speaker 3: What the disciples feel for the crowds?
Speaker 1: Contempt, frustration? Are you freaking kidding me?
Speaker 3: Jesus?
Speaker 1: Question for you.
Speaker 3: Jesus says, let's go to a quiet place by yourselves,
Speaker 3: to a solitary place and get some rest.
Speaker 1: They get across the lake.
Speaker 3: Does this line up with anybody's picture of what you
Speaker 3: thought rest would be? No, But what do you do
Speaker 3: when it doesn't line up with what you thought it
Speaker 3: would be? So question, was Jesus lying to them?
Speaker 1: Like it was just like who doing them to?
Speaker 3: Like I just need to get in the boat, say
Speaker 3: I'll lie to you just to get you here. No,
Speaker 3: Jesus is incapable of lying.
Speaker 1: He is truth.
Speaker 3: He is truth personified. He by deafine is truth. He
Speaker 3: is the truth. Did Jesus just not what was waiting
Speaker 3: for them on the other side of the lake. No,
Speaker 3: he's omniscient, he's all knowing. So he knew what was
Speaker 3: on the other side of the lake, and he did
Speaker 3: not lie to the disciples. So how do you explain
Speaker 3: the discrepancy? They had a different definition of rest. And
Speaker 3: here's where it's so hard to trust Jesus with the direction,
Speaker 3: because when you have a different definition, you won't trust
Speaker 3: the direction. You see, when Jesus says, let's go to
Speaker 3: a solitary place by yourselves to get some rest, it's
Speaker 3: the same word that is used of Jesus in Mark
Speaker 3: chapter one. It says he was baptized and then he
Speaker 3: was driven by the spirit into the wilderness. You see
Speaker 3: what you and I call wilderness. God calls rest. Jesus
Speaker 3: was taken to the wilderness because the wilderness is the
Speaker 3: place that you experience grace. Because the only way you
Speaker 3: experience grace is when you get to the end of
Speaker 3: yourself and you.
Speaker 1: See the beginning of God.
Speaker 3: Oh, Jesus is taking them to the wilderness, not to
Speaker 3: punish them, but to speak to them, because.
Speaker 1: The wilderness is the place.
Speaker 3: That gives you the grace that you start with, I can't,
Speaker 3: but you can. Grace is what gives you the ability
Speaker 3: to look at a situation.
Speaker 1: You want to run from and you say I won't.
Speaker 3: But God, nevertheless, your will be done. Grace is what
Speaker 3: gives you the capacity to say I'm not, but you are.
Speaker 3: They had a different definition.
Speaker 1: Pastor Tim.
Speaker 3: When you lead so much, you lead so well in
Speaker 3: our church, leads our next gen teams, phenomenal leader. As
Speaker 3: a leader, don't settle for common language, push for unity
Speaker 3: of definition. Because I was doing marital counseling a couple
Speaker 3: of years ago with a young couple just been married,
Speaker 3: like six or eight months, and they both come in
Speaker 3: and their arms crossed, just not like you, they love
Speaker 3: each other, They just don't like each other. And they said,
Speaker 3: we just don't communicate very well. And I asked the wife,
Speaker 3: I said, how do you define communication? She goes, I
Speaker 3: think about him all day long when he's at work,
Speaker 3: and I wonder what he's doing and how he's feeling,
Speaker 3: and how is experiencing all of those things. And I
Speaker 3: cannot wait till the moment he walks in the door,
Speaker 3: and I just want him to share the deepest, darkest
Speaker 3: parts of his stars. Don't spare any detail. Give me
Speaker 3: everything that happened in your day, and ask him how
Speaker 3: was your day? And all he said is fine. She
Speaker 3: had a definition of communication. I asked him to find communication.
Speaker 1: He said, we just need to have more sex.
Speaker 3: You'll never have unity when you've got different definitions. You
Speaker 3: might have a common word, but you don't have a
Speaker 3: common definition. I just gave somebody mertal counseling in here.
Speaker 1: Praise the Lord. Won't God do it?
Speaker 3: But you won't trust God with the direction when it
Speaker 3: doesn't line up with your definition. And that's where the
Speaker 3: disciples are at. And it's this amazing journey of some
Speaker 3: of you that you're sitting in a situation. You didn't
Speaker 3: think it would look like this, he said. I wanted
Speaker 3: to get married, and this isn't what I picture.
Speaker 1: And I wanted so.
Speaker 3: Much to get out of high school to be my
Speaker 3: own person, But now I got the dysfunction, and this
Speaker 3: isn't what I thought it was going to be. And
Speaker 3: what happens is when it doesn't line up according to
Speaker 3: your definition, you withhold and you don't trust God with
Speaker 3: the direction anymore, not because you don't love God, you
Speaker 3: just don't want to be disappointed anymore. That's what I
Speaker 3: saw for some of you holding on to this updated definition. Maybe,
Speaker 3: just maybe, Holy Spirit, would you upgrade somebody's definition in
Speaker 3: here a good marriage, Define it sacrificial rather than receiving
Speaker 3: what would be an upgraded Definitely take whatever area you're
Speaker 3: frustrated in right now, God, upgrade their definition. Let them
Speaker 3: see it differently, let them see it as you see it,
Speaker 3: not as we've defined it, but let us see it
Speaker 3: as you see it. And now the disciples have been
Speaker 3: watching Jesus preach for about nine hours, nine hours. It
Speaker 3: started about nine in the morning. Now Peter's gonna come
Speaker 3: to him at six in the evening. They've been sitting back.
Speaker 3: They're like, oh my gosh, good summon, LJ. Can you
Speaker 3: please play the ham and B three and close this
Speaker 3: thing up?
Speaker 1: Can we shut this thing down?
Speaker 3: Because the disciples, remember, they're hungry, they're tired, they're exhausted,
Speaker 3: and they're looking at the whole scene, and I think
Speaker 3: they're resenting everything that's going down.
Speaker 1: Jesus had compassion. They did not.
Speaker 3: So finally they all nudge Peter like you're the obnoxious.
Speaker 1: One, go say something to him.
Speaker 3: By Verse thirty five says by this time it was
Speaker 3: late in the day, so the disciples came to him.
Speaker 3: This is a remote place, they said, and it's already
Speaker 3: very late. Send the people away so they can go
Speaker 3: to the surrounding countrysides and villages and buy themselves something
Speaker 3: to eat. But he answered them, you give them something
Speaker 3: to eat.
Speaker 1: In this most interesting scene, because here's the reality.
Speaker 3: The wilderness means desolate places, but also desolate people. Jesus
Speaker 3: brought them to the wilderness to see the wilderness, and
Speaker 3: their wilderness was the people without a shepherd. That's why
Speaker 3: he had compassion on them. And they come to Jesus. Hey,
Speaker 3: Jesus is late in the day. Can you send them
Speaker 3: away to give them something to eat? She said, I've
Speaker 3: been feeding him for five hours I've been feeding it
Speaker 3: for nine hours. I've been feeding him since I stepped
Speaker 3: off the boat. I've been feeding them the bread of life,
Speaker 3: the word of God. You just haven't seen it because
Speaker 3: you were so starving in the carnal flesh. You could
Speaker 3: not see what I was doing in the spirit. Here's
Speaker 3: the reality. The reason you couldn't see me feeding them
Speaker 3: is because you were feeding yourself. Why is it so
Speaker 3: hard to trust God with the direction? Because you're feeding
Speaker 3: the wrong things. And Jesus says to him, you give
Speaker 3: them something to eat. He said, we don't have anything,
Speaker 3: and he goes, you're right, because you've been feeding your
Speaker 3: doubt and you're insecurity. You've been feeding all of your
Speaker 3: cardinal stuff since we got here. You're right, you don't
Speaker 3: have anything for them to eat. But I'm good and
Speaker 3: I'm great, and I'm going to feed the people, and
Speaker 3: I'm going to use your frustrated heart to serve them.
Speaker 3: So take the bread and break it. And Jesus fed
Speaker 3: the people. But the miracle was not for the five thousand.
Speaker 3: It was for the disciples, and they did not see
Speaker 3: it because they had the wrong definition of what rest
Speaker 3: looked like. You see the kingdom culture, the upside down
Speaker 3: culture that Jesus is establishing is those who were fresh others,
Speaker 3: would they themselves be refreshed?
Speaker 1: One person, thank you.
Speaker 3: And then, if you skip a couple of verses, Jesus
Speaker 3: finishes the miracle. He puts the disciples on the boat,
Speaker 3: and he sends them back across the lake.
Speaker 1: In chapter six, verse.
Speaker 3: Fifty one, it says this, Jesus, he goes up to
Speaker 3: the mountaintop. He's up there praying, And there they're rowing
Speaker 3: back across the lake to where the journey began. It's
Speaker 3: taking of five times as long, and they're only going
Speaker 3: gone half as far. It speaks to them doing it
Speaker 3: in their own flesh and in their own frustration, into
Speaker 3: their own flesh. And verse fifty one it says this says,
Speaker 3: then he climbed into the boat with them.
Speaker 1: The wind died down. They were completely amazed.
Speaker 3: You've never heard this verse before fifty two, for they
Speaker 3: had not understood about the loaves.
Speaker 1: Their hearts were hardened.
Speaker 3: What did the conversation sound like on the boat after
Speaker 3: they fed the five thousand? Oh, look at Jesus up
Speaker 3: there on the mountain. Thinks he's better than us. You're
Speaker 3: just gonna sit up there, and now we gotta roll back. Oh,
Speaker 3: now here you come walking across the water. Finally you
Speaker 3: showed up.
Speaker 1: Jesus. We've been doing this all day, haven't you seen us.
Speaker 3: We're still hungry, we're still tired. And they were offended.
Speaker 3: The reason some of you cannot feed someone around you
Speaker 3: has been feeding your own offence.
Speaker 1: And here's the thing.
Speaker 3: Because Jesus, immediately after he said I'm the Messiah, he
Speaker 3: began to talk about I must go to the cross
Speaker 3: and die, and then he gave him these marching orders.
Speaker 3: If anyone would come after me, he must pick hip
Speaker 3: his cross daily, deny himself and follow me. It's a
Speaker 3: cheat code just to follow the direction can only happen
Speaker 3: with a denial. And now one of the pivot points
Speaker 3: in Peter's journey where all this thing comes full circle.
Speaker 3: Here you see in Luke chapter twenty two, this is
Speaker 3: we fast forward in the timeline of our savior. We're
Speaker 3: going to go to We're gonna go to the Last Supper.
Speaker 3: This is the Thursday night meal. It's about six pm.
Speaker 3: Jesus would hang on across Twelve hours later is when
Speaker 3: he would be sentenced, and then he would be crucified,
Speaker 3: and at this last supper he looks at at Peter.
Speaker 3: He says this in verse thirty one, he says, Simon, Simon.
Speaker 3: Anytime you see a name repeated in scripture, it's a
Speaker 3: Hebrew term of intimacy. When you read a double name,
Speaker 3: read it as a whisper. What it means that God
Speaker 3: is close Moses Moses.
Speaker 1: Simon Simon.
Speaker 3: He doesn't call him Peter. It's very important you see
Speaker 3: that he called him Simon, Simon Simon. Satan is asked
Speaker 3: to sift you as weak. And if that's me, my
Speaker 3: eyes get really wide.
Speaker 1: Like what been calling for me by name?
Speaker 3: Yeah, because he sees how deadly you can be when
Speaker 3: you're when you're following the direction. He sees the weapon
Speaker 3: you can become in the hands of a master. But
Speaker 3: when you don't follow the direction, it's the people that
Speaker 3: you're leading that get punished. And he says to him,
Speaker 3: Satan's asked you, but I have prayed for you, Simon,
Speaker 3: that your faith may not fail.
Speaker 1: Oh.
Speaker 3: If I just stopped there, Jesus is praying for me
Speaker 3: by name. I'm good, I'm covered. I pray that your
Speaker 3: faith would not fail. But then he said to him,
Speaker 3: and when you turn back, strengthen your brothers. But he replied, Lord,
Speaker 3: I'm ready to go to prison and to death. Jesus answered,
Speaker 3: I tell you, Peter, before the rooster crows today, you
Speaker 3: will deny three times that you know me. Here's the
Speaker 3: truth of what I want to tell you today. Your
Speaker 3: destiny is connected to a decision, but the direction is
Speaker 3: directed by the daily denials of self. If anyone would
Speaker 3: come after me is pick up his crossing daily and
Speaker 3: follow me. This is what Jesus is saying to him.
Speaker 3: He says, you're gonna deny me three times. Peter, You're
Speaker 3: gonna deny me. And what happens is you're gonna want
Speaker 3: to walk away from me. But when you turn back,
Speaker 3: it means when you repent and come back the right direction,
Speaker 3: strengthen your brothers. You know what the word strengthen means.
Speaker 3: There means to feed connect the dots. Earlier to feeding
Speaker 3: of the five thousand, Peter was only feeding himself, which
Speaker 3: he didn't see how he could feed the people. And
Speaker 3: Jesus is trying to connect some dots here. The only
Speaker 3: way that you're gonna be able to feed somebody else
Speaker 3: is if you deny yourself.
Speaker 1: Here's the reality. The direction of your life is daily.
Speaker 3: It is multiple times every day you're gonna come to
Speaker 3: these crossroads, and the direction will be determined by do
Speaker 3: I deny Jesus or do I deny myself.
Speaker 1: That's where life comes down to.
Speaker 3: The direction of your life is connected to the denial.
Speaker 3: Let me ask it the opposite side. What are you
Speaker 3: feeding that God told you to starve? If you want
Speaker 3: something to die, starve it, starve it, Holy Spirit.
Speaker 1: Make it plain in this house today.
Speaker 3: Some of you are feeding self deprecation, and that's what's
Speaker 3: going to grow.
Speaker 1: Some of you are feeding greed and envy.
Speaker 3: You're feeding insecurity, You're feeding the assuming the worst of others.
Speaker 3: You're feeding those lustful thoughts. You're feeding gossip and slander.
Speaker 3: And what God is trying to tell you is the
Speaker 3: direction of your life is connected to the denial in
Speaker 3: your life. If you want something to die, starve it.
Speaker 3: I want to make it plain. What is the thing
Speaker 3: that God told you to starve? Deny that thing? Can
Speaker 3: I be really honest? I am addicted to my opinion,
Speaker 3: I said it. I am so addicted to my opinion,
Speaker 3: Like if I almost feel like sometimes if I don't
Speaker 3: share my opinion, I get like a visceral response, like
Speaker 3: I'm gonna throw up, Like no one has ever been
Speaker 3: one of the Gospel by my opinion, no one has
Speaker 3: ever been redeemed because of my opinion. Yet I can
Speaker 3: become so addicted to my opinion to start an opinion
Speaker 3: an anonymous club. Anybody else want to join my opinion club?
Speaker 3: Thank you for a few to only be up here
Speaker 3: by myself. What would it look like if you went
Speaker 3: into twenty one day opinion fast? You want that thing
Speaker 3: to die, starve it. I don't want it to be
Speaker 3: in ethereal, deny yourself. I want it to be very practical.
Speaker 3: What are you feeding that God said you need to
Speaker 3: starve that thing? Write it down in your phone, write
Speaker 3: it down in that piece of paper, that pen you're
Speaker 3: gonna steal anyway, Just.
Speaker 1: I'm serious.
Speaker 3: Here's what God told me to tell some of you.
Speaker 3: An unnamed enemy will never be defeated. You only hide
Speaker 3: your friends, and you expose your enemies. And what happens
Speaker 3: is when you do not expose that thing, you make
Speaker 3: it a friend. God will not deliver you from your friends.
Speaker 3: He will deliver you from your enemies, What do you
Speaker 3: need to starve? Now we fast forward, Jesus goes to
Speaker 3: the cross. Peter denies Jesus three times, just like he said.
Speaker 3: And in one of the Gospels it says that Peter
Speaker 3: saw Jesus and he wept bitterly because his direction he
Speaker 3: felt like had been so derailed by his denial of Jesus.
Speaker 3: He went back to where it all began. He went
Speaker 3: back to being a fisherman. And I love the fact
Speaker 3: that our Savior said, I cannot.
Speaker 1: Leave you like that.
Speaker 3: Oh, he sees you and the beauty of the grace
Speaker 3: of God as it comes to you, and it calls
Speaker 3: you by name. And as Jesus saw Peter out fishing,
Speaker 3: he called to.
Speaker 1: Him, here's the image I need you to see.
Speaker 3: As you're going your direction and you're denying Jesus, because
Speaker 3: you're not denying yourself. The grace of God is still
Speaker 3: calling your name, is still calling your name. And when
Speaker 3: it said Peter, Simon, Simon, when you have turned back
Speaker 3: means to repent. Jesus, I've been feeding that thing. Forgive me.
Speaker 3: I've been going my own direction. Forgive me.
Speaker 1: And then you come back and strengthen your brothers In.
Speaker 3: John twenty one, we have this intimate story of Jesus
Speaker 3: coming to Peter him and he calls him in and
Speaker 3: he has a meal waiting for him on the shore. Oh,
Speaker 3: it's just this beautiful picture of the grace of God.
Speaker 1: And he comes to him.
Speaker 3: In verse fifteen, it says, and when they had finished eating,
Speaker 3: Jesus said to Simon, Peter Simon, son of John, do
Speaker 3: you love me more than these?
Speaker 2: Yes?
Speaker 1: Lord, you know that I love you. Jesus said, feed
Speaker 1: my lambs.
Speaker 3: Jesus would ask him three times, one for each of
Speaker 3: the denials. But I think what's even better there is.
Speaker 3: Peter responds three times with the word lord. You see,
Speaker 3: I showed you the moment where Jesus became the savior.
Speaker 3: This is the moment where Jesus became the lord, because
Speaker 3: the Lord determines the direction.
Speaker 1: And he asked Peter, Peter, do you love me?
Speaker 3: And he goes, you know that I love you. There's
Speaker 3: three different words to describe love. And Jesus asked, do
Speaker 3: you agape me?
Speaker 1: Do you love me like your lord?
Speaker 3: Peter responds back with you know that I love you? Fileoh,
Speaker 3: I love you like a brother. You see, Jesus is
Speaker 3: a gracious he's correcting his definition because he asked him
Speaker 3: a second time. I didn't ask you if you loved
Speaker 3: me like a brother. I said, do you love me
Speaker 3: like your lord? Feed my sheep. There's something so much
Speaker 3: deeper going on here. It's significant that he gives him
Speaker 3: three times the opportunity to respond, Lord, and then again
Speaker 3: Jesus said, Simon, do you love me? He answered, yes, Lord,
Speaker 3: you know that I love you. Take care of my sheep.
Speaker 3: The third time he said to him, Simon, son of John,
Speaker 3: do you love me. Peter was hurt because Jesus asked
Speaker 3: him a third time do you love me? He said, Lords,
Speaker 3: you know all things. You know that I love you.
Speaker 3: Jesus said, feed my sheep. This would not have been
Speaker 3: the first time that Peter would have heard you feed them.
Speaker 3: Remember back to the feeding of the five thousand.
Speaker 1: You give him some deed. I don't have anything.
Speaker 3: You're right, you don't have anything because you've been feeding yourself.
Speaker 3: But now you went to the wilderness with your own despair.
Speaker 3: You went to the wilderness because of your own decisions.
Speaker 3: You went to the wilderness because you went back to
Speaker 3: old things, and you denied me. But I love you
Speaker 3: so much. I came to the wilderness to bring you
Speaker 3: out of it. That's how good our God is. And
Speaker 3: three times he asked him, do you love me?
Speaker 1: Do you love me? Here's how I picture the whole scene.
Speaker 1: The second time and the third time.
Speaker 3: Peter's face is down because you can't he can't even
Speaker 3: look himself in the eyes, let alone look Jesus in
Speaker 3: the face. I pictured Jesus reaching in and grabbing Peter
Speaker 3: by the chin at that table and lifting his chin,
Speaker 3: and he looks grace in the face.
Speaker 1: Do you love me? Feed my sheep?
Speaker 3: You didn't have anything to feed him the first time.
Speaker 3: Now what you just ate the grace. That's what you're
Speaker 3: going to go feed. That's why I called you out
Speaker 3: better three times?
Speaker 1: Do you love me? Do you love me? Now? Feed
Speaker 1: my sheep?
Speaker 3: Used him the word lord three times, And then verse eighteen,
Speaker 3: he says, very truly, I tell you, when you were younger,
Speaker 3: you dressed yourself and went where you wanted.
Speaker 2: You.
Speaker 3: See, maturity is not a product of age. It's a
Speaker 3: byproduct of direction. Some of you are very old, and
Speaker 3: you are so immature into faith because you have gone
Speaker 3: your own direction where you wanted to go. You picked
Speaker 3: up your outfit and you did what you wanted, and jesuys,
Speaker 3: I will not love you any less, but you will
Speaker 3: not be aware of how much I love you when
Speaker 3: you live like that, and you can't feed anybody else
Speaker 3: when you've been feeding yourself. And the reason that you're
Speaker 3: putting on that new outfit is you're trying to cover
Speaker 3: that old part of you that only I.
Speaker 1: Can Only I can cover that where you want it.
Speaker 3: But here's the moment that Jesus became the lord of
Speaker 3: Peter's life. But when you are old, you will stretch
Speaker 3: out your hands and someone else will lead you, or
Speaker 3: someone else will dress you and lead you to where
Speaker 3: you do.
Speaker 1: Not want to go.
Speaker 3: Lord, I don't know if I want to go that direction.
Speaker 3: You'll either deny Jesus or you'll deny yourself. And the
Speaker 3: beauty of our God is he'll bring you back to
Speaker 3: that point again and again and again and again, and.
Speaker 1: Someone else address you lead you. Do you not want
Speaker 1: to go?
Speaker 3: Jesus had this to indicate the kind of death by
Speaker 3: which Peter would glorify God, and then he said, follow me.
Speaker 1: I thought Jesus only.
Speaker 3: Asked Peter wants to follow him, follow me. I'll make
Speaker 3: you fishers of men. The first time was to learn
Speaker 3: how to fish. The second time was to learn how
Speaker 3: to feed. And when Jesus becomes the lord of your life,
Speaker 3: you start being more concerned with feeding others than feeding yourself,
Speaker 3: saying you feed at all of our locations.
Speaker 1: I'm going to pray for you in just a second.
Speaker 3: And as I was praying for everybody in our church,
Speaker 3: I kept getting this image of people feeling like, but LB,
Speaker 3: you don't know. I got these big decisions in life.
Speaker 1: I got these big decisions I need to make.
Speaker 3: Here's what I have looking back as an old man.
Speaker 3: The direction of your life is controlled more by the
Speaker 3: small daily denials than the big decisions. It always is,
Speaker 3: because here's the image I want to give you. When
Speaker 3: my kids were young, I would take him to the
Speaker 3: beach and the waves would come in at an angle,
Speaker 3: and so every time they would go out and surf,
Speaker 3: they would just get pushed out just a little bit.
Speaker 3: And they go out and surf, and they just get
Speaker 3: pushed up shore just a little bit, and they go
Speaker 3: out and surf again. They just just little little, little,
Speaker 3: little little directional shifts and they just get pushed up shore,
Speaker 3: up shore, and ten minutes later they're way over here
Speaker 3: and they wonder how did I get her?
Speaker 1: No one of those was a big decision.
Speaker 3: It was small self denials that were not show us it.
Speaker 3: But the grace of God calls your voice, and he says, Peter,
Speaker 3: when you come back, strengthen your brothers. Making Jesus the
Speaker 3: savior of your life is a one time decision. He
Speaker 3: holds you in his hand. No man can take you
Speaker 3: from it. If you can't save yourself, you can't unsave yourself.
Speaker 3: But the decision for him to be Lord is a daily,
Speaker 3: many times a day, daily decision. Will I deny him.
Speaker 1: Or will I deny me?
Speaker 3: But I want to challenge you at a very practical level,
Speaker 3: what's the thing you've been feeding.
Speaker 1: That God said, I need you to starve deny that thing.
Speaker 3: As you do that, that will be the grace that
Speaker 3: you will feed the others. Father, I thank you that
Speaker 3: your word is true, it's strong, it's right, it's powerful,
Speaker 3: it's effective. I pray for everyone and the sound of
Speaker 3: my voice who made a decision today that trust Jesus
Speaker 3: as their savior. Hallelujah and amen they're calling is an election, sure,
Speaker 3: and you hold them in their hands.
Speaker 1: Nobody can take you from it.
Speaker 3: But the decision to let you be lord of our
Speaker 3: lives is a many times a day decision. Make it
Speaker 3: plain in our lives. Show us one area that we
Speaker 3: have been feeding that you have called us to starve,
Speaker 3: Give us the grace in that space to deny that
Speaker 3: thing rather than to deny you. And every time we
Speaker 3: deny ourselves, we receive more of your grace, not to
Speaker 3: be kept to ourselves, but to be given out to
Speaker 3: the world. Father, we love you, we honor you, we
Speaker 3: praise you, we thank you, and all God's people said, Amen,
Speaker 3: come on, let's put our hands together, Come on us.
Speaker 2: Thank you for joining us. Special thanks to those of
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Speaker 2: bless you.