Gone Fishing John 21:1-4 Pastor Daniel Reese

Well, good morning.

If you have your Bibles, John chapter 21 seems a little less full than last week.

John 21 · chapter mention

That's all right.

Well, I was not a Disney kid growing up.

It wasn't until my sister was born she grew up a little bit where I actually watched a

Disney movie.

So when I broke my leg I was stranded on the couch for a couple of weeks.

And so we watched about six in a row.

Now I don't know what your Disney threshold is, but I found out that mine is about four

movies.

That's when I about top out and get to a place where I feel like it was slowly stealing

my will to live.

But it wasn't until college that I ever went actually to a Disney movie in a movie theater

and it was The Lion King.

It was a re-release and things like that.

And I'll never forget sitting there and there was a time where Mufasa falls and he's not

getting up.

And I'll never forget watching the movie in between two seats.

I see an adorable little face of a little kid who turned to his father and went, why

is he not getting up, daddy?

And I remember going, that's the saddest thing I've ever seen.

I'm like, Disney, why?

Why?

You think about the children, right?

But more than that scene, there was another scene that stood out to me.

Do you remember when, do you remember Simba and how it impacted him?

Was his dad's death his fault?

No, no, there were bigger forces at playing that.

And yet he knew in the midst of all of that chaos of things going on, he disobeyed his

father's will and had disrespected the king.

And so when tragedy unfolded, what did he do?

He ran.

And there was a land that needed him.

There was a people that were hurting and needed his help, but he was far away.

Where was he?

Hanging out with his buddies.

The need is over here.

All these things needed his attention and he was over here.

Was it a terrible life?

No, it wasn't.

He made some friends, he made a little warthog, Hakuna Matata, all those things.

But the tragedy was over here and there was need and he was far away and he tried to cover

up his shame with distraction.

Now why do I mention that to you?

Because in ministry, I see a lot of people right there.

There was a passion for Jesus.

Maybe it was in high school.

I mean, all the time people tell me things like they'll ask me, what do you do?

And I'll tell them I'm a pastor.

And they're like, oh dude, I was in young life.

And then they kind of look around and go, yeah.

And you can tell that somewhere in their life, they derailed.

And I can see a shame cover them.

That there was a time where they were chasing.

And there was a time where they were pursuing.

And then something happened.

A decision happened.

Series of decisions and some social pressure.

And then now they've been living years in a place far from where God meant for them to

be.

Now, I don't know about you, but my youth camp experience was all kinds of crazy.

I would go to camp as a kid and for the first three or four days, there were all these people

like living crazy.

Smoking cigarettes, drinking 40s.

I mean, I had a weird youth group experience.

But by Thursday night, everybody got saved.

And the band was playing and people would be emotionally drawn in.

The speaker would go.

And then at the end, we'd lock pinkies and be singing Friends Are Friends Forever.

You know the song, right?

And then we always have open mic night.

And all of us would take turns getting in front of the mic and saying, I'm never going

to do that anymore.

I'm going to share Christ with everybody in my school.

Friends making promises.

And I can't think of a single one of us that didn't go home.

And within two weeks, broke every promise.

And we find ourselves sitting on the floor surrounded by our addictions going, I don't

know what happened.

I don't know what went off.

But I can guarantee most of us, if not all of us, lived through our high school experience

feeling a dense, a deep sense of shame.

And it led us into complete ineffectiveness for the kingdom of God.

And some of you have been living there for years.

For some of you, it's just been happening this week.

You took some wrong turns and now you begin to wonder, what does God think of you?

And so this morning, I want to answer that question.

What does God do with a group of people who make promises and then they start to make decisions

that lead us far from storming the gates of hell?

What does He do with us?

What does He think of you when you fail big time?

Well, I want us to look at the life of Peter.

Now I know all of you probably know who Peter is.

He was a disciple of Jesus.

He walked closely by him.

Peter was the guy who was kind of all heart and maybe not so much head.

He just really doesn't think things through very well.

He was kind of a ready aim fire kind of guy, which isn't always a bad thing.

It makes a great full back, right?

You don't need a guy who thinks through all that.

Just put your head down and go.

Like that's kind of who Peter is.

And so there are some times that it really helped him to be wired that way.

Like in a major moment in Jesus' life, when he looked at his disciples and went, who do

you think I am?

Peter's the first one, right?

He's the first one to fire.

He said, I think you're the Son of God.

Good job, Peter, right?

Good job.

But a couple seconds later, he starts giving Jesus advice.

He's like, hold on Messiah, you got this thing all wrong.

And he starts telling him how to live his own life.

Peter's not always thinking things through, is he?

Like in the Garden of Gethsemane, he's falling asleep.

And Jesus just wants him to pray, but he's not into it.

He's not feeling it.

So he wakes up and suddenly sees all these troops around Jesus.

All this commotion.

And they have weapons and there's flames and there's all this going on.

And Peter gets up and he pulls out a sword, right, ready to attack him.

He's trying to end a guy's life and he gets to lobe.

That's all he gets.

He just gets a lobe.

He's trying to end a guy and gets a lobe.

I mean, he's not a real organized human being, is he?

And Jesus tells him to knock it off.

They arrest Jesus and take him to the courtyard and they beat him and mock him and Peter follows

him.

And there in that moment, when all this adrenaline is sapped out, he sits around a fire and a

little girl goes, hey, don't you know that guy?

Don't you know him?

And he just says, no, I don't.

And he's asked again a little while later, are you sure?

Because you kind of look like that dude that used to walk with him.

You kind of look like him.

And he's like, no, I don't.

The third time, right, to prove that he's not really one of those holy people.

He starts cussing like a sailor just to show them I'm not like him.

I don't know anything about him.

And in that moment, not only does the rooster crow.

But the book of Luke says that in that moment, Jesus looked him dead in the eye and he could

sense that shame and Peter left and he cried.

The sad thing is, I think a lot of us know what that feels like, don't we, to violate

not only our own conscience, but what we know is the expressed will of God.

And so what's God going to do with people like us?

Well, I'm going to invite Luke up here.

Luke's going to read our passage this morning in John chapter 21.

John 21 · chapter mention

And so I'm going to invite you as he comes to read the first few verses of this chapter

to stand as we honor the Lord's word together and then we'll dive into this.

After this, Jesus revealed himself again to the disciples by the sea of Tiberius.

And he revealed himself in this way.

Simon Peter, Thomas, called a twin, Nathaniel, of Canaan, Galilee, the sons of Zebedee and

two other of his disciples were together.

Simon Peter said to them, I'm going fishing and they said to him, we will go with you.

They went out and got into the boat, but that night they caught nothing.

Just as day was breaking, Jesus stood on the shore, yet the disciples did not know that

it was Jesus.

Jesus said to them, children, do you have any fish?

They answered him, no.

And he said to them, cast the net on the right side of the boat and you will find some.

So they cast it.

Now they were not able to haul it in because of the quantity of fish.

That disciple whom Jesus loved therefore said to Peter, it is the Lord.

Simon Peter heard that it was the Lord.

He put on his outer garment for he was stripped for work and threw himself into the sea.

The other disciples came in the boat dragging the net full of fish and they were not far

from the land, but about a hundred jugs off.

Let's pray.

Father God, thank you for this day.

Thank you for Luke.

Thank you for his willingness to read your word today.

I pray God as we examine this familiar story that you will just open our hearts to hear

from you today.

We thank you for what you're doing in this place.

Your name is pray.

Amen.

Thanks Luke.

So this passage, this is after Jesus has been resurrected.

He's appearing to his disciples and it's confusing to them.

They don't understand it.

He's not hanging around, but it's getting some expectation and some hope built up into

the people.

And so he shows up to the girls once the book of Mark says that he comes to his ladies'

disciples and he tells them, hey, tell the boys and Peter to meet me in Galilee.

And so the disciples, they go to Galilee and when they arrive there meaning to wait on

Jesus, Peter makes a decision in verse three.

Peter who has walked far from God, who he swore he would love forever arrives back to

the sea of Galilee and says, I'm going fishing.

Now, now, now, why would he go fishing?

You've got to look at who is speaking and what they're saying.

This is Peter saying, I'm going fishing.

It would be like for me to later today to walk up to my wife and say, hey, I'm going

to go play some basketball.

Her mental image of me going to go play some basketball would be me putting on my shoes,

going to the Y and just trying to dribble and get the ball into the hoop.

That is what her picture would be.

But we all remember if you're old enough, back in the 90s, after that tragic situation

with baseball, Michael Jordan, he comes to this press conference and he says the exact

same thing.

I'm going to go play basketball.

And that meant a whole different thing, doesn't it?

I don't think anybody in that crowd or that was watching on TV thought for a second, oh,

he's going to go put some shoes on and go shoot around with his kids in the driveway.

We knew, right?

This is Jordan.

This is a career move.

This is millions of dollars.

This is a new direction.

And so here you've got Peter, who is a fisherman for all of his life.

That is what he grew up doing right up until the moment that Jesus says, hey, you know

what?

You used to do this.

You used to do this for a living.

Now I want you fishing with me.

And so Peter looks in this moment and I think he sees he's denied his Lord.

He's heard rumors of him coming around and he doesn't know if he's still qualified for

the game.

And so he takes a regressive step backwards, right?

He goes back to the familiar.

He's not going on mission trips anymore.

He kind of fell out of the Bible study deal and he's not going back to the places that

he used to go.

He says, hey, I'm going fishing.

I think shame has pulled him in a different direction.

And it's interesting.

It's interesting to me.

He's not alone.

It says in verse three that the other said, we will go with you.

It's funny how people kind of rationalize their sense sometimes and go, well, this is

just my life.

It's my life.

Well, it's never just your life.

We're all knit together.

You're an influencer.

Peter is a leader and they get out of the boat with him.

And then it says in the universe three, they went out and got into the boat, but that night

they caught nothing.

Why did they catch nothing?

We're going to find out later, but it's God.

He's God messing with his people and that's what he does.

Is he going to let you waste your life?

No.

He's got a plan for you.

And so he begins by complicating things.

It says in verse four, early in the morning Jesus stood on the shore in the midst of their

frustration of not catching anything all night.

Jesus is going to enter the scene again, but it says, but the disciples did not know that

it was Jesus.

Now why didn't they know?

What's going on with that?

Have you ever noticed that?

Whenever Jesus shows up after the resurrection, people are not recognizing him.

Does a resurrected body look different?

Do they not believe it's Jesus?

Is he disfigured because Revelation tells us that the only person in eternity that will

bear his scars is Jesus?

What is it?

Do you know what it is based on my understanding of the Scripture?

I think it's a sense of humor.

I mean, you see it one chapter earlier when Mary Magdalene runs in and she sees two angels

dressed in white.

There's no mistaking who they are.

And she says, where's the Lord?

You're like, he's not here.

And so she turns around and she looks right at Jesus and he says, why are you crying?

He knows why she's crying.

Who are you looking for?

He knows who she's looking for.

Why is he doing that?

And then you see she keeps the conversation going.

Well, I'm looking for my Lord and I can't find him.

And you're like, why is she not figuring it out?

It's him.

Why can't she not see this?

It's later that in the text it's because she thought he was the gardener.

Why?

I think it's because Jesus was messing with the bushes.

Having this conversation.

Hey, who are you looking for?

You know, I think that's what it was.

And it wasn't until Jesus looked at her and said, marry, that she knew it was Jesus.

You see it in the book of Luke.

Two disciples are walking along the road to Emmaus and he comes walking along and he hears

them talking about what's been going on in Jerusalem.

And he says, hey, what are you talking about?

What's going on?

They say, you've got to be the only person in Jerusalem who doesn't know what's been

happening these last few days.

And he goes, what things?

He knows what things, right?

And he goes, they start telling him about his own death.

And then he's like, oh, that's interesting.

Wait a minute.

Wasn't that meant to fulfill prophecies in Scripture?

And then he begins to unpack the Old Testament to them, still not letting them know who he

is.

And then it says they arrive at their destination and he pretends that he's going to walk further

until they invite him to dinner.

And it says right in that moment he breaks bread.

He's like, hey, dudes, it's me.

Now that's a loose translation.

And then he's gone.

He just disappears.

And so he waits until the seven mile trip is over.

And then they're like, that was Jesus.

And they run back another seven miles to go where the other disciples are hiding.

And they're like, we saw Jesus.

The others are saying, I'm not sure if I believe you.

And then right there in the middle of the panic, it says that Jesus just appears to

them and says, peace be with you, which I think is funny because it terrifies them and

does the exact opposite of what Jesus says.

Right?

Peace be with you.

And they just kind of freak out.

And in that moment to prove that he's really resurrected from the dead, he's like, they

saw him die and he's back to life.

And he goes, do you have any fish?

They go, yeah.

And he just starts eating.

This is how I know the Bible is true because nobody would make that up.

Nobody would make up that story.

I'm back from the dead.

And for my next trick, does anybody have a piece of salmon or whatever fish they had

there?

Right?

So what's Jesus doing when he comes up to this guy's?

No fish.

And he walks back to them looking, verse five, it says he called out to them.

He says, hey, don't you have any fish?

Do you?

And he basically says, hey, the lifestyle that you've been following, it's not really

working out for you, is it?

What you're doing is not really working out for your best, is it?

And I love their answer.

It's just one word.

No.

I mean, you can hear and feel the tension in it.

They're like, can't he see the net?

I mean, who is this guy?

Because they don't know it's Jesus yet.

And yet in verse six, he said to them, throw your net on the right side of the boat and

you will find some.

When they did, they were unable to haul the net in because of the large number of fish.

Now this isn't the first time we've seen this, is it?

Jesus said the exact same miracle before, but when did he do it?

When he first called Peter.

And it was in that moment, Scripture tells us that Peter hit his knees and said, get

away from me, Lord.

Get away from me.

I'm not a good person.

And Jesus says, that's not what I'm here to do.

He said, I'm here to change your life.

You follow me because I'm going to make you a fisher of men.

Now, why is that significant here in John 21?

Because that's how the relationship began.

That's how the beautiful moment where Jesus looked Peter in the face and says, you're

coming with me.

You're coming with me.

And now Peter has denied him in front of God and everybody.

How do you feel when you do that?

How do you feel at 2 AM when you just did the thing you promised you would never do

again?

How do you handle that situation?

Well, Peter sitting on the boat and Jesus makes the decision to recreate the exact miracle

where he called Peter into a relationship to begin with.

I mean, isn't that a beautiful picture?

It's not Nathaniel's miracle.

There's no fig tree here.

It's not Matthew's miracle.

There's no tax booth.

This is Peter's miracle, the exact same way.

You see, John knew what was happening.

He knew how Peter felt.

He saw the miracle being recreated.

So he grabs Peter.

Do you see what's happening here?

That's the Lord.

And so what does Peter do?

I love verse 7.

He says, as soon as Simon Peter heard that it was a Lord, he ran away.

He grabbed his outer garment around him for he had taken it off and jumped into the water.

So he doesn't run from God.

He runs towards him.

And I love it because this is sweet Peter again, right?

This is him not thinking things through and he pulls a forest gump, right?

In the middle of this.

And I love it.

Like, listen, all the movies I've ever seen, people take off their clothes to jump into

the water.

Not Peter.

No, let me get my jacket on and then I'm going for it.

I mean, I don't know how it works back then.

And I love that you can see the relationship here.

This passes between the disciples as well because listen to John and verse 8.

You see this all throughout the scriptures as this interplay.

They're in a relationship with one another.

Verse 8, the other disciples followed in the boat, towing the net full of fish, for they

were not far from the shore, about 100 yards.

So John saying, we weren't far from the land.

They were dragging the net of fish.

See John, who was a little bit more of a thinker, is like the rest of us kind of like rode three

times and we were on the shore.

Thanks for nothing, Peter, right?

I mean, that's kind of what's going on here.

And in verse 9, it says, when they landed, they saw a fire of burning coals there with

fish in it and some bread.

I love that.

Does Jesus need our help?

No, he does not.

And yet in verse 10, he says, bring some of the fish that you caught.

He doesn't need us, but he lets us be a part of it anyway.

In verse 11, it says, so Simon Peter climbed back into the boat and dragged the net ashore.

It was full of large fish, 153.

But even with so many, the net was not torn.

And Jesus said to them, come, come any breakfast.

Come any breakfast.

So how does Jesus respond to the wayward disciple?

How does he teach those who loved him and swore allegiance to him and yet have fallen back

into sin?

Does he condemn?

Does he scream?

Does he beat you?

No.

He cooks breakfast.

You know, it's easy to hear the testimony of the person who was a horrible mess before

they came to Christ and then came to Christ and their lives are wonderful.

That's so convenient.

But do you know what's the really tough testimony?

Those who came to know Christ early and are then making a horrible mess of their lives

when we know better.

That's a real hard story, isn't it?

That's different.

That's Peter's story.

And how does Jesus come to him?

How does Jesus respond to him?

He's not the voice that stands up and beats you down.

He says, come and sit with me.

To have someone sit at a meal with you is to invite them into a relationship.

And Jesus says, you haven't lost connection with me.

You haven't lost that.

Let's sit together.

Now that's grace.

And when God comes to you in your sin, even today, he does it with grace.

That's the arm that he always extends first.

And for some of you, that voice that whips you in your head, that beats you, I think

far too many of us ascribe that to the Lord.

He doesn't do it that way.

There's a beautiful parallel in the Old Testament, in the prophet Elijah.

He's this great servant of the Lord.

Brought the whole nation back to the Lord, where they were worshiping other gods.

He's the one who stepped forward and proclaimed the name of Yahweh all by himself.

Fire came down from heaven.

He prayed for no rain, and it doesn't rain for three years.

He was a powerful minister of God.

And then he found out that the queen wanted to kill him, so he just ran.

He ran into the middle of the desert.

Not the best PR for God, right?

After he's done all these other things.

And when he's exhausted, he says, God kill me now.

Wipe me out now.

And when God comes to him, does he wake him up?

Does he wake him up and just start kicking him and go, what's the matter with you?

Get your life together.

No, it says an angel shakes him awake, and there's some fresh bread and some water.

And he says, eat.

This journey was far too much for you.

And so he eats, and he goes back to sleep.

He wakes him up again, feeds him again, and lets him sleep some more.

And it's after that rest where there's this tenderness where he says, what are you doing

here Elijah?

What are you doing here?

God will always come to you with grace first.

He extends the hand of kindness.

He loves you.

If you're his kid, he cherishes you.

And when you sin, is he pleased with it?

Of course not.

But he doesn't come with a hammer.

He comes with grace.

And his kindness is what leads us to repentance.

And so it's interesting, he comes to him with the, Jesus comes to Peter with his display

of this first miracle.

Telling him, the relationship with me, it's intact.

So he recreates that scene.

But it doesn't stop there.

He's going to recreate a second one.

You see it in that word charcoal fire.

Did you notice how odd it is that he calls it a fire of charcoal, or a charcoal fire in

verse 9?

Why does it say that?

Well, the truth is it's a really weird word for fire.

I mean you get fire all over the Bible, but the word charcoal fire, you only get twice.

It only shows up twice in the whole Bible, both in the book of John.

One is in this moment.

The other is the fire Peter was sitting around when he denied even knowing Jesus.

So Jesus is going to recreate two moments.

The moment we came to love each other and walk together and the moment that you really

screwed up.

He's going to recreate these moments.

Isn't that interesting here?

That's what grace does.

He takes him to that moment and says, you're mine.

You're safe.

But we've got to deal with this moment in the past.

We've got to deal with this other thing.

And that's what grace will do.

Will grace pass over sin?

No.

Grace will make you deal with it.

He doesn't beat us, but he calls us to repent.

And that's what he'll do with Peter.

Look further in the passage where it says, when they have finished breakfast, Jesus said

to Simon Peter, Simon, son of John, do you love me more than these?

That's interesting.

I don't know if Peter caught on with what was happening when he saw the charcoal fire.

Part of me thinks that he does.

Like he saw that and went, oh, crud.

Like I have a feeling that he probably had a hard time eating breakfast that morning

because there was a sing in his stomach.

Maybe he missed it.

I don't know.

But I think verse 15 gives it to him when he calls him Simon, son of John.

Because if you look in the Bible, he only calls him that four times.

And every time he calls him Simon, son of John, it's these major moments in his life.

It's like when your mom calls you by your full name.

When you get middle named, you know I better be paying attention right here, right?

And so it's kind of like that moment.

So he looks at him and says, Simon, son of John, do you love me more than these?

Verse 15, he said to him, yes, Lord, you know that I love you.

He said to him, feed my sheep.

He says to him a second time, Simon, son of John, do you love me?

He said to him, yes, Lord, you know that I love you.

He said to him, tend my sheep.

He said to him the third time, Simon, son of John, do you love me?

Peter was greed, it says, 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.

Jesus said to him, feed my sheep.

Every time I read that, when I was younger, I always saw Jesus was kind of being mean,

kind of picking on him because he's walking him through three denials again, right?

With a do you love me?

Like I feel like Jesus was kind of picking on him.

Jesus is like, do you love me?

Yeah, are you sure?

Yeah, because your track record doesn't show that.

Are you sure that you love me?

Are you sure?

Make sure you're paying attention to what I'm asking you.

Make sure you're paying attention to what I'm saying and how you're answering.

And he says, you know I do, right?

Peter says, you know I do.

And he says, feed my sheep.

If you think about that, this isn't Jesus picking on him because what direction is he pointing?

He's pointing to the future.

It's a call back to ministry.

Do you love me?

Yes, then let's go.

Then let's get back after it.

There's more to do.

There's hurting people.

There's sheep.

Sheep are confused animals and they get lost a lot is what Jesus is telling them.

Come with me and let's go.

Help people.

Stop wallowing.

Stop feeling guilty.

Stop being the victim.

Let's get back to work.

Let's get past it and let's move on.

And so I think Jesus is saving his life here.

I think Jesus is doing a miracle in Peter's life here because if he hadn't done that to

him then every time that Peter was sitting around a fire, do you not think that moment

of his denial would come back to him?

Do you not think that every time the rooster crowed, he would remember how he looked Jesus

in the eyes and remember that shame?

I think Jesus is rescuing him by saying, do you still see that I love you?

Do you still see that we're in this together?

Okay, then let's go back to this place of brokenness and let's revive it.

Let's make this horrible place a place of life, this charcoal fire.

For some of you, you walked in here and the weight of guilt is on you.

Yeah, you're still coming to church but the fire of pursuing Christ's glory in this world

is gone.

And so when it's time to pray here, you don't really pray, you just kind of look at your

feet.

When it's time to sing, you just kind of just look around and check your watch to see how

much longer we have.

And when it comes to seeking God on your own, in your house, you just can never seem to

find the time to do that.

The passion's gone.

And because when you think about Him, all you can think about is that guilt.

All you can think about is the bad decisions that you've made.

Can I tell you something?

He's going to call you and he's going to say, you're still mine.

You haven't lost that but we've got to deal with this.

We've got to deal with this issue.

He's going to keep taking you back to that sexual addiction saying, let's get that out

of here because I want you to be free so that you can help chase the others.

So you can help the others but we've got to deal with this sin.

We've got to deal with this addiction.

He's going to take you to your obsession with your image.

When you look in the mirror, when you look at others in their Instagram filters and he's

going to say, you've got to get past that.

You can never help others if you can't look past yourself.

He's going to keep taking you to that place of pain until you deal with it because he's

mean.

No.

No.

So you can move past it and it won't dominate your experience in this world.

And so for some of us, it's going to be very uncomfortable.

My hope for you is that the most spiritual, most Christian thing you'll do this week is

to find a trusted Christian friend and confess.

These are the sins that have got my mind all mixed around.

These are the sins that are keeping me from having a passion for Jesus.

Can I just talk to you about them?

Will you pray with me?

Will you hold me accountable?

Because there's work to be done.

There's sheep out there in this world in a lot of pain.

And anytime Jesus mentions sheep, he mentions it because they're lost.

They're scattered.

They're confused.

They don't even know what they're doing.

Sheep are the most helpless animals in all of creation.

They have no natural defense systems whatsoever.

None.

Any other animal, some can bite you.

Some can run fast.

Some can inflate themselves and shoot out needles.

Some have distinct sprays.

There's this lizard that can shoot blood out of their eyes.

I mean, that's good enough for me.

That's gross.

I'm not going to touch that one.

Everything has a defense system except for sheep.

And Jesus looks at the lost world and he says they're just like sheep.

They have no idea how to find water unless someone helps them.

They have no idea how to keep away from the sins of the dark if someone doesn't come rescue

them.

Do you think that describes junior high?

Do you think that describes high school?

Do you think it describes so much of the world who is lost in the darkness and too many of

us?

Too many of us who name the name of Jesus are not dominated by his passion to heal the

world.

We are dominated by the guilt of a sin we committed who knows how long ago.

And he says the time is over, Peter.

The time is over.

Don't let your mistakes dominate your existence where you just hide behind comforts and don't

seek my great mission.

He's saying no more fish, Peter, sheep.

And it's the same with us.

No more fish.

No more comfort.

Sheep.

My prayer for you today is that you would not let the sins of your past dominate you but

that you would let him heal you.

It's what he did with Jonah.

He said Jonah, rise, go to Nineveh.

What did Jonah do?

He arose and he fled to Tarshish, the complete opposite direction.

Did God ditch him?

And he said, well, there goes Jonah.

Amos, you ready to tap in?

Micah, you out for this?

He didn't do that.

He sends that storm into Jonah's life.

And for some of you, he's been rocking your boat.

He's rocking your boat.

And when he starts to drown, he sends a fish to rescue him.

Now, is a fish the most comfortable means of transportation?

I don't think so.

I'm guessing not.

And for some of you, the way he's going to rescue you from your addictions is not going

to be comfortable.

But he praises God when he hits the shore.

And God dropped him right back at Nineveh and said, let's move.

Let's go.

Let's go find some sheep.

Let's bring some light into a dark place.

And for some of you, that's the exact motion he wants from you.

Don't waste this week.

Don't waste your life letting your sins of the past dominate how you see yourself in

a hurting world.

Let's get past them.

Let's go.

Let's feed sheep.

There's a hurting world and they need us.

And what I love about Easter is that sometimes it wakes people up, right?

Sometimes it wakes people up and they stay away from church, but then they come back

and they hear about his grace and it ignites that passion again.

It's like a reset button, right?

And so my challenge to you as we get ready to take communion is how are you living life

comfortably where you're going back to the familiar?

And maybe Jesus has brought you back to the church because he wants to create that same

miracle in you so that you walk out of here not going back to the comfortable, but going

to go get some sheep.

So I'm going to pray for us.

We'll take communion together.

Give you time to think about that.

Amen?

Let's pray.

Father, I pray that you will put charcoal fires around us this morning.

That you will help us understand that we are welcomed with grace, but we've got to deal

with our sin before we can go get the lost world.

So Father, I pray that as we get ready to take communion, that you will reignite the

passion that we once had, that we will not be defined by our past anymore.

But our focus will be on you completely.

So God, give you this time.

Do what you will.

Amen.

Amen.

Amen.

Amen.

Amen.

Amen.

Amen.

Amen.

Amen.

Amen.