Yahweh Sees You

My name is Pastor O, Pastor Otis Amy, one of the pastors here at Midtown Church.

I used to say that I bounced around between both campuses, but I've been primarily in Sacramento as I oversee.

For those that don't know, we have a midweek service on Thursday night that I oversee that has shifted two weeks ago to being a young adult service.

And it's been so powerful to see that 18 through 35-ish range come together.

Uninterrupted worship.

There's nobody coming and doing announcements.

Then there's a more concise, brief word, and then they have a time where they instantly break out into groups and talk about what they just heard, talk about life, pray together, connect, share information, and number uh phone numbers.

It's been powerful to see what the Lord has been doing there.

So I haven't been here as often.

But I know we've been in this sermon series called Why Church.

We've been in the book of Ephesians, and I was going back and forth through was I gonna talk about the full armor of God in Ephesians 6, which may be what Pastor Tyrone or whoever's preaching here next Sunday preaches, but I wanted to talk about a parallel story and Jesus being in the water, being in a boat, and Jesus being on the shore.

So the title of the message this morning is Yahweh Sees You.

Yahweh Sees You.

There may be times in your life where you feel like he doesn't, but this this sermon, this message for me is just some simple, powerful reminders for the church.

So um I was gonna ask a rhetorical question, but I know the answer is yes, yes, and yes.

Have you ever felt overwhelmed and exhausted?

Yes.

Yes, right now.

Uh it happens to me, and usually when it happens, it's an indicator that I haven't really been abiding and spending time with the Lord, that I've been operating in my own strength.

So there are three times every week where I expect to be dog tired.

That's every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday, because those are the days that I go downstairs to Sack State and I work out and I lift heavy weights and I put the stress on my body, and so a few hours later, I expect to be tired.

Um, those are the days that, for those of you that work out, that micro damage happens.

That's when the stress from the weights you're lifting causes microscopic tears in your muscle fibers.

So when you rest, your body sends nutrients and proteins to fix those damage fibers.

Your cells fuse those fibers back together and make them stronger and more prepared to handle future stress.

This is why you're typically able to lift a little bit more the next workout or the next week when you come back again.

You're able to endure a little bit more.

So if you're tracking with me, what does this have to do with your faith journey?

In the same way that your physical muscles grow over time because you repeatedly challenge them, your faith and your knowledge and your wisdom grow by constantly allowing yourself to be uncomfortable.

Even as I stood in the back right now, right?

Uh uh, I'm I can't sing, or I can't sang, but I'm I'm a worshiper because I understand what scripture says that he inhabits the praises of his people.

I believe there'll be a powerful move of God when we all learn to corporately worship, whether you think you can sing or not, because he is worthy to be praised, and he promises that he will inhabit.

He will come and live, he will come and take up residence when we all get together and worship him.

So the other day I found myself unusually exhausted.

All I could think about was taking a nap, like literally anywhere.

And I don't know about you, but I can take a nap literally anywhere.

Uh matter of fact, I know this, so when I drive, I never close my eye.

I never take it like this.

So I'm scared, I'm I'm gonna wake up dead.

Um I don't.

Even when I'm on a plane, I don't, I don't, you know, I used to say, I'm gonna wait till we get to 30,000 feet, it's gonna make that doom, I'm gonna cut my iPad out.

I don't even do it no more.

I just go to just go to sleep because you know that's what's gonna happen.

When you wake up 30, 40 minutes later, then watch a movie, do whatever.

I don't even I don't even try.

But something interesting happened last week.

My wife came home.

This day I was unusually tired and exhausted, and we began having a deep conversation.

She's talking about how she stepped out on faith and started this Bible study with some ladies and how it's going and the book of Jude and how we have to rely on the Lord and some other things.

So two things happened in that moment.

Uh, I felt my my body, which previously felt exhausted, ready to take a nap, started to come alive.

I felt it as she was speaking to me, as we're talking about the living word of God.

My exhausted body started coming alive.

So I took account of that uh because I invited Jesus into the situation, into the conversation, I felt my body coming alive.

So, what else?

Why church?

This is the the the sermon series.

Because a part of being the church are these gatherings that we have where we come together to worship God, to use our God-given gifts to serve one another, but also to invite him into whatever we're going through.

I didn't realize it in that moment when I was exhausted, but I in in I had invited him, his presence into what I was going through.

And what does it say?

Uh Isaiah 40 and 31 Those who hope in the Lord shall renew their strength, they shall mount upon wings like eagles, they shall run and not get weary, they shall walk and faint not.

In that moment, I felt a renewal of strength.

So, what also happened in that moment, unfortunately, was that I realized I had not been practicing what I preached all the time.

Which is what?

Abide.

Abide in the Lord.

So let me give you an analogy.

Um, when I go to the gas tank, I'm just speaking for myself, but I would assume this of everybody here, you usually fill it all the way up.

Back in the day in the Bay, when we was broke, broke, we might have put just five on.

That's all I got.

I still need some sugar.

Matter of fact, go go ask the neighbor for some sugar and eggs.

Go put five, seven dollars in the tank.

That's all that we had in our pinto, in our station wagon, right?

Uh but nowadays, as an adult, I'm sure when you go to the gas tank, you feel all the way up.

What am I saying?

Sometimes, spiritually speaking, we do what we did back in the day when we were broke, we just put five on it.

We say, you know what?

I'm in a rush.

I got these kids I gotta get ready.

I don't uh uh I don't really have time.

You don't say this out loud.

I don't really have time for you, Lord.

I'm just gonna put five on it.

What I mean by this is your Bible app, every day there's a scripture.

You'll just read that one scripture, maybe post it to Instagram and be like, I'm good for the day.

I put you first, Lord.

Uh and I'm not saying anything at all is wrong with that because it's not.

But maybe you're in a season of life where the Lord is saying, I don't need you to put five on it.

I need you to fill all the way up.

Because there's some things that you are gonna be going through that you're gonna deal with, that you have no idea that's gonna happen today.

You can't just put five on it.

You need to fill that tank all the way up because you cannot pour out if you are not filled up.

So there's two parallel stories, again, just two points today.

Point number one will be the longest point in Luke 5 and John 21 that we'll examine this morning and they'll highlight why I share what I just did in the intro.

In Luke chapter 5, Jesus' ministry is just beginning.

Luke 5 · chapter mention

He had been tested in the wilderness, he had fasted for 40 days and forty nights.

Then Satan rose up on him when he's hungry, when he's tired.

Then after this, after he overcomes the enemy, he's rejected in his hometown of Nazareth.

Then he's left, he leaves from there, and he goes and heals a lot, he goes and heals lots of people, even driving out demons from many of them.

So now it's time for him to begin his ministry by calling his first disciples.

And that's where we'll pick up the story.

So point number one is if you're following along, this in Luke chapter five, the scripture should be on the screen.

It's time to go deeper.

It's time to go deeper.

In Luke chapter 5, verse 1, it says, one day, as Jesus was standing by the lake of Gennesareth or the Sea of Galilee, the people were crowding around him and listening to the word of God.

Luke 5:1

So let me paint this picture because it sounds the people were crowding around him.

No, this is a multitude of people.

It could have been thousands of people crowding around Jesus.

You remember the story of the woman with the issue of blood?

It said there were so many people crowding around Jesus, he was almost going to be crushed.

So picture this a multitude of people.

Jesus is at his back at the seashore.

Um, let me say this, to paint a clearer picture.

To them, Jesus is like Santa Claus.

Right?

Nobody cares what dude they hired at the mall to go uh dress up in a clown suit.

All they want is I want to take a picture and I want to get a present.

This is essentially in these times how a lot of these crowds and audiences treated Jesus.

They didn't, they wanted presence, not his presence.

Right?

They didn't want to learn about the purpose that he had for them.

They just wanted to be blessed.

So he has all these gifts, primarily healing.

So they're hearing, oh, this brother's over here healing people.

Bring everybody to him.

And did he bless them?

Did he heal them?

Yes, he did.

They were focused more on the gifts and not the giver.

So in verses 2 through 3 it says, He saw at the water's edge, so he's dealing with this crowd, this multitude, and he's still able, he's Jesus, to see that there's two boats behind him.

He saw at the water's edge two boats left there by the fishermen who were washing their nets.

He got into one of the boats, the one belonging to Simon or Peter, and asked him to put out a little from the shore.

Then he sat down and taught the people from the boat.

So here we find Jesus dealing with this large crowd, this multitude, but he's still able to see two boats behind him.

He sees two, but he gets into Peter's boat.

Don't miss this.

This is Jesus.

We don't have the capacity to do what he does here.

Oftentimes we come home, and especially if you have kids, you're overstimulated, you're overwhelmed, you want to just go veg out somewhere, and there's nothing wrong with that.

Jesus doesn't do that.

And we'll see how large his capacity is because he's literally God.

He exists outside of time.

He sees them.

He sees them.

I don't know who needs to hear this today, but even in the midst of your pain, your loss, your discouragement, whatever you're going through, we serve a God who sees you.

He has eternal bandwidth.

Why do I say that?

He's dealing with this large multitude, but behind him are two fishermen.

What does he know?

Because he's Jesus.

He's able to deal with all of them and heal all of them.

He knows that they're dealing with failure.

What have they just come back from doing from fishing all day long?

And how much have they caught?

Nothing.

So they're washing their nets, probably bummed out, like, man, we're going to try again tomorrow.

Cleaning their boats, man, we're going to try again tomorrow.

And Jesus says, I see you.

I'm dealing with all this.

I still have the bandwidth to see you.

I know what you're going through.

And here's the next thing.

You still have to invite him to be a part of it.

So he says, I'm going to get on your boat.

You have to invite him into your boat.

Whatever that means to you this morning, you have to allow him to come into the situation.

He easily could have been like, bro, get off my boat.

He's like, no.

Allow him to be a part of it.

Allow him, welcome him in.

He knows Peter's problem and he gets on Peter's boat.

He doesn't run from it like we might do.

Why, church?

Because sometimes we need these simple yet powerful reminders from the pulpit or from wherever, from someone you're sitting next to, that God's promises and plans will always be bigger than our problems.

The Lord always sees you, but will you allow him to get onto your boat?

In verses 4 through 6, it says, When he had finished speaking, he said to Simon, Put out in the deep water and let down the nets for a catch.

Simon answered, Master, we've worked hard all night and haven't caught anything, but because you say so, I will let down the nets.

When they had done so, they caught such a large number of fish that their nets began to break.

Once we allow the Lord into our situation, we have to be willing to go into deep waters with him.

There's a movie that my kids watch.

I've legit probably seen it from start to finish at least 20 times.

Moana, and uh, like he wants to take you into the unknown.

So Jesus steps into this vessel, this boat.

But understand this vessel, this boat currently visually to them represents failure and discouragement.

And he invites Peter and his crew into deep waters.

This is why we must constantly abide so we can discern what the Lord is doing or may be saying to us.

Because when you know for sure that Jesus Christ is trying to come into your situation, your boat, your car, your life, whatever that means to you right now, you better let him do whatever he's trying to do because it is a kingdom setup.

For some of us, this can be our biggest issue at times.

We get so distracted cleaning our nets, meaning we're focused on our current failure or problems or task or chores or whatever it is.

When Jesus is saying, Stop for a minute, spend some time with me, let me take you into deep waters.

That we miss what he's trying to do.

They accept Jesus' invitation.

Again, why church?

I'm gonna say this several times, because it's an opportunity for people to hear the gospel and do what they did, accept Christ's invitation for transformation, for salvation, for supernatural empowerment.

To accept this invitation is to follow him.

Could it be that you're in a season of life where you're going to the gas pump and only putting five on it?

He's saying, uh, my son, my daughter, that is not enough.

Where your only chance to make it through, whatever it is that you're going through, or something that you may not even know you're gonna have to deal with and go through, is to fill all the way up.

We have way too many battles that we're fighting to survive all day on a two to three-minute checklist Devo, like here, I did it.

Could it be that what God has for you in this season is gonna be found in deeper waters?

Where he's saying, You're gonna have to sacrifice, you're gonna have to make some time to get away from the usual.

Just to make it plain, the deep waters are away from the crowd.

Again, there's this multitude.

He's saying, No, no, no.

Let's get out into the water, let's push out into the deep where we can't hear the noise, where we can't be with the distractions, where it's just me and you.

And I want to hear about your problems.

I want to hear about what you're going through.

And I'm gonna offer you some solutions.

This is where God can help you wrestle with your complicated issues and help make them plain.

It's where we can focus on what he's trying to teach us.

Let me explain why it makes no sense that he asked them to do this.

But what he is essentially is saying, you can trust me.

So, in the context of this time in the Sea of Galilee, is that during the day the fish would be in deep waters, but at nighttime, in the evening, the fish will come on the shore.

So you have this brother who's not a fisherman saying, Let's push out into the deep at nighttime and try to catch some fish.

They had already been trying to catch fish all day long in the deep.

Now they're on the shore, so they have to be going through what we probably would be going through in our mind.

Like, hold on, um, we haven't caught anything, we've already cleaned the nets, we're just gonna wait till tomorrow.

If we are gonna fish, we should fish right here.

You want us to go out into the deep.

Interesting.

And so we see two different Peters.

In the second point, you're gonna see a different Peter.

If you know anything about Peter, his brother's volatile, his brother's impatient, he's the type of brother where you want to have like maybe one of those friends.

Where if something jumps off, he's like, ah, cuts off the Roman soldier's ear, doesn't even ask.

Hops out into the boat in the water, starts walking on water, like doing all these things.

This is who we're dealing with in this story.

And Peter does.

He has something to say about Jesus' instructions.

He's like, hold on, fam.

We've been fishing all night and haven't caught anything, but it seems like he catches himself.

And he says, Oh, hold on.

But because you said it, we'll do it.

He has a rebuttal, but because you said it, we'll do it.

Why?

Church.

It's so that we as a family, as a body of believers, don't allow this to happen.

Too often, there's a few people doing almost everything in the church in terms of serving and giving.

And there's a majority, unfortunately, in the people that uh in the church of people that don't serve at all.

When we come together as a family, I have people that would tell me, like, bro, you're doing too much.

Could it be in this season that maybe God is trying to tell you the same thing?

Maybe tell you that I didn't even ask you to do all that.

I didn't ask you to come and serve at every single service, to be a part of every single thing.

When you go into deep waters, you can spend time with him.

And he can tell you, this is what's good, this is what's God.

Because everything that's good is not God.

Oh, trust me, I'm I'm I'm a recovering yes to everything God.

I still struggle with this sometimes.

I remember the day where I said, oh no, this has to change.

Because I used to get asked, I still get asked, go speak to this Pop Warner team, go speak to this team.

And I used to be like, yes, that sounds like a good thing to do.

And I remembered it was a Vacaville High, uh, no, not even Baccaville High, Vacaville like Pop Warner team.

And it was like, can you come talk to them at 6 p.m.?

And I'm like, yes, I'll be there.

So I'm driving out there, leaving my wife to attend to all the needs of the house and the kids.

And as I'm talking to them at 6 p.m., consider the traffic, causeway, all those things.

While I'm talking to them, I'm like, I'm giving them my testimony, and something inside of me says, Bro, what are you doing?

Why are you here right now?

Is this good?

Yes.

Is this God?

No.

I didn't ask you to do all that.

So I have to draw back into deep waters and say, God, during this season, what is it that you want me to do?

I'm having those conversations with God right now because I have a lot going on.

What is it that you really want me to do?

What Jesus is teaching them in this moment is that He is able to do anything because He created everything.

You don't have to worry about the fish.

I created them.

I can make them start walking on land and hopping your nets.

Right?

I created the water, I created the seas, I created that wood that you made the boat.

You can trust me.

Why is he telling them this?

Because prosperity gospel preachers will use this and say, if you just let him in the boat, he'll make you.

That's not even what it's about.

It's not about prosperity, it's about purpose.

Because what he's really pointing them to is I'm using this as an analogy to show you that you can trust me because you're not gonna fish for fish, you're gonna fish for people, for men.

And you can trust me wherever I tell you to go, like being in deep waters is not, it may not always make sense, but you can trust me.

Why?

Because you're with me.

You're with me.

Verse 6 says, When they had done so, when they had listened to him, they caught such a large number of fish that their nets began to break.

See, this is the flow that we should want to perpetually live in.

This is that Matthew 11, 28 through 30, come to me, lifestyle.

Come to me, all you who are weary, and carry heavy burdens, and I will give you rest.

Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for my burden is light and my yoke is easy.

There should be a picture on the screen of what a yoke looks like.

If you've ever read that scripture, it says, what does this mean?

A lot of times they use agricultural terms.

And you put the two yoke of oxen together.

You could picture, you can tell which one in that picture looks like it would represent God.

The one that's looking at them like, come on, keep up.

But he's saying, Come with me.

Imagine you're working with God.

You're yoked with him, not with the world, not with your own thoughts and opinions.

You're working with him.

Living in that flow where things just seem to be supernaturally easy.

You look to your left and like, oh, I'm walking at the pace of grace.

I'm with God.

He just keeps opening up these doors.

Even when there's trials and situations and circumstances, I can feel his presence with me.

He says, Let me teach you.

And then when you're tired, I will give your soul rest.

This is the flow that we want to be in.

Yes, we can live uh perpetually in the state of resting in Jesus even while we're working.

See, we should want the things of God.

We should want the things that he's doing in our life.

We should live in this state to where people see what's going on in our lives and they know that we don't have the ability to make happen what's happening, so we can point them right back to Christ and say, It's not me, it is the Lord.

And it should make them want to say, I want to know more about this God that you serve.

I want to follow him.

Not for the blessings, not for the gifts, because I want to learn more about this giver.

I want his heart, not what's in his hand.

All of them left everything to go follow Jesus.

Now, this just hit me.

Think about this.

You haven't caught anything.

Now you have the biggest hall of your life.

So imagine you sell homes, you're showing homes all night, all of a sudden you sell a$10 million house, and then you say, you know what?

He's better than the bag.

I'm leaving everything, everything to go follow him.

He's saying, I can and I will make the miraculous happen.

Alright, don't get caught up on the fish.

Get caught up on the savior.

Second point.

Last point.

Look at somebody and say, let Jesus cook.

Point number two is finding let Jesus cook.

Towards the end of Jesus' ministry, so we're we're we're skipping now to John 21.

Yeah, like I said, this is a parallel story, you're gonna see some similar things.

Towards the end of Jesus' ministry, we find Him back on the shore again and back with Peter.

By this time, Jesus had been crucified, he had been buried, he had been resurrected.

He appears first to who?

To a woman, to Mary Magdalene, then about 500 people, he appears to his disciples.

And now he's essentially on his I'm back to her.

So in John 21, verse 1 through 5, it says, Afterward, Jesus appeared again to his disciples by the Sea of Galilee.

John 21:1–5

It happened this way.

Simon Peter, Thomas, also known as Didymus, Nathaniel from Cana in Galilee, the sons of Zebedee, and two other disciples were together.

I'm going to fish, Simon Peter told them, and they said, We'll go with you.

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

Early in the morning, Jesus stood on the shore, but to catch this, but the disciples did not realize that it was Jesus.

He called out to them, Friends, haven't you any fish?

No.

They answered.

Like I said in the beginning, these are parallel stories, and we see an obvious similarity here.

Again, they hadn't caught anything.

Here we see Jesus on the shore again, but they don't know it's him yet.

So it makes this even more powerful.

I don't know if you caught this.

Jesus did not have to do them like that.

He knows they ain't caught no fish.

He's like, hey, hey, y'all.

Y'all got any fish?

Again, we see the strain and toil of man's efforts to produce in their own strength.

Sometimes I would uh venture to believe that we are exhausted because we have been trying to live life in our own strength.

I got some strength, I got some knowledge, I got some wisdom.

Let me go do this on my own.

And you realize I ain't got nothing.

When Jesus is invited into the situation, everything changes.

That's what you see all throughout scripture.

In verse 6, he said, or he said, now keep in mind, they do not know it's Jesus yet.

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.

He gives them fishing instructions from the shore, but there's a difference this time.

Do you guys have you guys caught what the difference is?

In Peter in the first time, and Peter now?

After he's gone through some things, maybe been humble a little bit.

You don't hear a rebuttal.

You do not hear a, hey, but we did it like this.

Well, since it's you, we'll go ahead.

They don't even know it's the Messiah yet.

But you can see there's this shift in Peter.

Where they immediately hear the instructions from some guy, I'm sure, that they don't even know it's a savior yet, and they do it.

And they're blessed for doing it.

This shows us that Peter might have changed over time in community, experienced some transformation, gone through some hardships, through some trials, maybe denied Jesus once or twice or three times.

Why church?

Because we can also experience transformation in community over time, in small groups, worshiping together, serving together, going to sisterhood and snacks.

James said the brothers need some snacks.

Serving those in need in community together over time.

Verse 7 says, then the disciples whom Jesus loved, the disciple whom Jesus loved, it's crazy because John's writing this talking about himself.

Jesus loves me.

Then the disciple whom Jesus loved said to Peter, It is the Lord.

It is the Lord.

As soon as Simon Peter heard him say, It is the Lord, he wrapped his outer garment around him, for he had taken it off and jumped into the water.

This miracle opens John's eyes, which prompts him to shout out, It is the Lord.

Immediately, Peter does the most peter thing that he could do and says, I'm jumping in the water, right?

He jumps in the water.

But check this out.

This is so incredible, you guys.

In verse 9 through 10, it says, When they landed, they saw a fire of burning coals there with fish on it and some bread.

Jesus said to them, Bring some of the fish you have just caught.

So I'll stop there.

Really, just verse 9.

So Jesus is on the shore cooking.

The Greek word for charcoal fire is used just two times in John's gospel.

Please go with me.

The first time is in John 18 and 18.

Charcoal fire.

What is Peter doing in John 18 and 18?

Warming himself by the fire, denying Jesus three times.

This time is just before Jesus restores Peter by asking him three times Do you love me?

The first charcoal fire is when he denies the Savior.

The second charcoal fire is when the Savior restores him.

So upon Peter coming on the shore, this is Jesus' way of reminding him, hey, I'm not like this, I'm not like Satan, I'm not like the enemy.

I'm not gonna remind you of what you did to shame you, to have you spiraling into depression.

I'll remind you of what you did because I'm gonna take you higher.

I'm gonna take you to a new level where you come with me if you invite me in.

I'm just gonna show you here's where you were, but it's time to go up.

But God wants to uplift us.

Peter, you denied me by a fire.

Now I'm gonna restore you by a fire, and I'm going to leave a fire within you.

How do we know this?

Because Jesus says, it's good that I go.

I'm gonna send the paraclete, I'm gonna send the helper, the Holy Spirit, the master comforter, the teacher, the counselor.

And he does that.

And what happens on the day of Pentecost?

Who's the one that preaches the sermon?

It's Peter.

And how many fishers of men, 3,000 people come to faith on that day.

So going back into the deep waters and him giving that example was foreshadowing this.

Don't worry about fish.

Just like you don't got to worry about men.

By faith, allow the Spirit to speak through you and trust me for the results.

But Peter's repentance is what makes way for his restoration.

I don't want you guys to miss that.

There's times where I have to, we should live a lifestyle of repentance.

Well, there's times where I say, God, I was off.

I try to put five on it today.

I need to spend more time with you.

I'm sorry for trying to live life in my own terms, for trying to be the CEO of my life.

His repentance made way for his restoration.

Here's the final thought.

Did you cook the rice?

This will make sense in about 60 seconds.

There's a famous sushi chef documentary that came out in 2011 on Netflix called Jairo Dreams of Sushi.

The then 85-year-old owner, Jairo Ono, was a sushi master that owned a tiny 10-seat, three-star Michelin restaurant in a Tokyo subway station.

So one of the main themes in this uh film is this Japanese concept of shokunen, which means dedication of craft.

So any aspiring sushi chef, they had to apprentice for 10 years.

This is an arduous process.

Aspiring chefs, the first few months, maybe up to a year, all they did was clean.

Like you coming and serving here saying, I want to leave a small group, I want to do this.

No, for the first year, you just come lay down these mats, clean the bathrooms.

After a year, we'll let you start greeting people.

Don't touch no mic.

Just serve.

Then they graduate after a year or so to making rice.

This can be for three to five years.

Learn how to cook the rice.

Learn how to put the vinegar in it so it doesn't go against the grain.

Learn how to clean it properly.

Learn the right weights and measurements for three to five years.

See, they don't learn how to even prep sushi.

They don't even get to touch a knife for the first five years.

Why am I sharing this as we close?

Because if the rice is not good, nothing is good.

Alright, you guys aren't filling me up.

Why church?

Church always reminds me to keep the main thing, the main thing.

Seek ye first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and the sushi roll will be good.

You gotta get the vertical right before you think about the horizontal.

Our issue sometimes is that we want to create this elaborate sushi roll with everything on it without ever cooking the rice, without ever learning how to keep the main thing, the main thing.

Or we just want to cook the rice halfway or take shortcuts.

And we do this sometimes in our walk with Christ.

I'm not gonna fully cook this morning.

I'm not gonna get filled up.

I can just wash it off one time.

So I got all kinds of starch in that rice.

You just spend some time cooking the rice.

Learn the main things first before you try to graduate and do all these other things.

The rice is the most important part.

Starting your day with the Lord is the most important part.

It's the just like the rice is the foundation of a roll.

And if the rice isn't good, nothing else is good.

If you do not spend time with the Lord, nothing else is good.

If you're empty, nothing else is good.

And you find yourself how I was last week, exhausted.

I did not cook the rice.

In John 21 and 25, this is who we're dealing with.

Jesus, it says, Jesus did many other things as well.

If every one of them were written down, I suppose that even the whole world would not have room for the books that would be written.

I share that with you to make this point.

This is the God that we serve.

Our Lord and Savior did so many things in three to three and a half years.

That it says the world wouldn't even have enough space to cover the books that would be written about all that he did in three, three and a half years.

This is who's inviting us into a relationship.

This is who sees us, who sees what we're going through.

So I'm gonna close by saying this: don't overthink it.

Cook the rice, do the basic things, do the simple things.

Just last week we had a, I spoke at Sack State to have a chapel every Tuesday.

It's powerful for athletes.

And they said there'll probably be about 50 to 70 athletes there from the 21 sports.

Simple, keep it simple.

God put on my heart, literally that afternoon, text one of the young ladies on the track team that I know, serves at her church, and is influential even as a freshman.

That was my only role.

I text her, hey, come check out this uh chapel.

She said, I didn't know about it, I don't have social media.

I said, Oh, it's here, it's at the athletic center at 7, 7, and 8 o'clock.

She said, Can I bring my friend?

She's not an athlete, though.

I said, Sure, you can bring whoever you want to bring.

So she brings her friend.

In the moment, I'm finishing up the chapel, which is like a 20-minute, more of an extended devo.

Holy Spirit, present the gospel.

Lay out the gospel.

About seven athletes raise their hand.

And I see this young girl's friend raise her hand and give her life to Christ.

This is why church.

Two people that know the Lord, that serve at the church, just being obedient to the simple call of Jesus.

That's why we have to go into deep waters, accept this invitation so we can hear his voice.

Something simple, send a text message.

This past week I've been sending voice uh texts, encouraging text to people.

And uh I sent it to one young lady and and I and I like a 60-second message at like 8 o'clock.

She didn't see it till like 8:30 p.m.

She said, Thank you for sending this to me right now.

I needed to hear this right now.

And in my mind, I'm like, girl, I'll send this to you at 8 a.m.

But she saw it exactly when she needed to see it.

What was my role?

Simple obedience.

Inviting God onto my boat, into my boat, allowing him to speak to me to get away, like Jesus did in the deep waters, and then have the faith to do what he's calling us to do.

Amen.

Father God, I thank you and praise you for who you are.

You are the good, good father that we sang about.

You are great, Father God.

Thank you for this opportunity now for us to receive prayer with our prayer team as they come up.

For those of us that need to be challenged in this way, where maybe we've been the CEO of our own lives, operating in our own strength.

I know there's some of your sons and daughters here today today that are exhausted, that need to recalibrate and spend some time in deep waters with you so they can hear clearly what you are trying to get them to see and do in this season of their life.

Because once we do that and we operate with a supernatural strength, one that refreshes us, one that encourages, that re uh renews us, reinvigorates us.

We thank you and praise you for that, Lord, that we can come to you whenever, that we can learn from you and yoke up with you and live life perpetually resting in you, even while we work.

And so we thank you and praise you, dear Lord, even for these simple yet powerful reminders that you see us and you know what's going on in our lives and in our hearts.

So get us right, Father God, so that we can represent you well.

We thank you and praise you, Lord, in Jesus' name.

Amen.