Priorities

I had an interesting week. I think what happened to me, looking back, I think I actually had a global attack. And so it's an attack that kind of went away, and then it's just kind of been lingering for this last two weeks.

And so I'm back and forth about how to try to deal with it. But I'm OK here this morning. I'm just not weaker.

But Bible says when I'm weak, then am I strong. So it's always good to be weak. I find these last two weeks have been very little temptation.

When you're physically weak, things like the devil just can't get at you as much as he does when the flesh is really up. And so I am coveting your prayers. And also, I want to just mention, and Brother John will do this after the message, we would like to pray for Ben before he leaves today, to pray over him and send him forth.

So all right, let's take our Bibles and turn to John chapter number 21. We've only got two more messages, and we'll be finished with the Gospel of John. I have a list here of message topics.

And so if you would like to hear a message topic, feel free to share that message topic. You can write it on the board up here. And then we'll do a couple of those, and then we'll jump into the book of Acts.

All right, here in John chapter 21, I'm going to start reading in verse number one. I'm just going to walk down through this passage. We talked a little bit about it in the children's lesson and bring out some lessons for us.

And I know this one is, yes, it's for the ladies, but it's in large part for the men, young men, men, those who are the providers. And it's always easy for us men to get involved and set priorities in a way that is not the way God wants us to set them. And I think that Peter is challenged with that.

Priorities. Priorities are important in life. Priorities are important in Christianity.

So starting in verse number one of John 21, it says, after these things, Jesus showed himself again to the disciples at the Sea of Tiberias, and on this wise showed he himself. Let's pray and then we'll start. Heavenly Father, we acknowledge you this morning.

Praise your help, grace, and strength be upon us, Lord, and that the word of the Lord could benefit, edify, and encourage each one of us, Lord. Even as someone shared this morning that we could go further, Lord, that you would woo us further, that you would draw our hearts into a deeper walk and a greater commitment to the will of God and the purposes of the Lord Jesus Christ. Lord, we acknowledge today that without you we can accomplish nothing.

So we ask your help and your grace. In Jesus' name, amen. Well, there is a period from the resurrection of Jesus and the first appearance, which was there to Mary Magdalene, a 40-day period.

The book of Acts says that Jesus walked amongst man for 40 days. He would appear to a group of people and then disappear, and he would appear to another group and disappear, and he would disappear at different places. He would show himself alive after his resurrection for a period of 40 days.

Of course, to the disciples, he appeared the first day of his resurrection. There in the evening they were huddled in that little room, and he appeared to them. They were frightened, and he tells them, Now as my Father has sent me, even so send I you.

and he breathes on them, and he says, Receive the Holy Spirit of God. And then he leaves, and about eight days later we're told that he appears again to the disciples. Thomas was not there the first time.

Now Thomas is there, and Jesus appears a second time to them. And he asks Thomas, remember the story, to reach hip of thy hands and thrust it into my side, and be not faithless, but believe. But I want you to think about this for a minute, that maybe you're one of these disciples, you've just gone through this traumatic crucifixion, you've just been startled by the resurrection, you don't even believe that's occurred, and then Jesus appears, and then he disappears for eight days.

Eight days is a long time. You know, what are you going to do for eight days? And then he appears suddenly again, and you see him again, and then he disappears again, and maybe not until another 20 or 25 days do you see him again. And so this period of 40 days, and I don't mean to make excuses for the disciples, but this period of 40 days is somewhat confusing for them.

Still confusing for them. Actually, in the book of Acts, chapter 1, they're going to ask a question even close to the time when Jesus will ascend. And they're going to ask Jesus, you know, are you still going to establish this kingdom, give Israel the kingdom? And so they still didn't understand that.

So there's a lot of things that are going on in their mind. And you and I can look back on it, and we can see how clear it is. You know, hindsight is 20-20.

But they are looking forward, and they cannot see very clearly what's going on. In verse number 2, there was together Simon Peter and Thomas called Didymus, and Nathanael of Cana of Galilee, and the sons of Zebedee, and two other disciples. Simon Peter saith unto them, I go a fishing.

They say unto him, we also go with thee. They went forth and entered into a ship immediately, and that night they caught nothing. Now, I don't know if you're a man here, you probably understand this.

I can understand it. Peter's a little bewildered. He's just kind of waiting.

He's kind of in limbo. And when those things kind of happen, you don't know what to do. You just fall back on the thing that you're comfortable with.

And I think Peter said, I'm just going fishing. I know how to fish. I've fished for all my life, and I don't know how this thing's working out.

You know, we've only seen the Lord twice, and I don't know what's going to happen, but he says, I'm going fishing. And of course, most of the disciples, or a lot of the disciples were fishermen, and they jump in, and they say, we're going with you. And so there's seven of them that decide to go out on this boat and to go fishing.

Now, if you're like me, you know when things are difficult, the comforting, the routine, the things that fit well, you have that fits your hand well, that's a nice, comfortable glove, you tend to fall back on. You know, a lot of people find comfort in work. They find comfort in routine, and when things get out of order, they go back to their comfort level or comfort zone.

Thank you. So, there's a good chance here that Peter is just going back to, I just need to go back to what I'm used to. And the smell of fish.

You know, I love being out there in Galveston, in the Gulf of Mexico, fishing with a cast net. It can be addictive. I mean, the smell of fish.

Some of you probably don't like that. I learned to love the smell of fish. The salt water.

And although I was not actually out on the water, I'm sure that these guys, they love fishing. They love doing their work. They love laboring.

So, their heart is to, at least for now, is to go back and do some fishing. Now, I'd like you to turn to Luke chapter 5 with me here. I'm going to read you a verse, and I'll be in Luke here in a minute.

I want to go back and remind you of something that Jesus told them three years earlier. I'm going to read in Matthew. You can go to Luke.

In Matthew 4, verse 18, it says, And Jesus, walking by the Sea of Galilee, saw two brethren, Simon called Peter, and Andrew his brother, casting a net into the sea, for they were fishers. That was their occupation. And he said unto them, Follow me, and I will make you fishers of men.

Now, Jesus is representing here what I'm going to ask you to do is to lay down your fishing of fish and pick up your fishing of men. Verse 20, And they straightway left their nets and followed him. And going on from thence, he saw other two brethren, James the son of Zebedee and John his brother, and his ship was Zebedee their father, mending their nets.

And he called them, and they immediately left the ship with their father and followed him. Now, I understand that this is the first time that Jesus actually meets these disciples and calls them out of their occupation, out of fishing, and he asks them to follow him. And so they leave their nets.

They leave the boat, and they go with him. Now, there's only one place in the Bible that I could find where I could even hint that Peter was back to fishing. And that is found here in this passage in Luke that I ask you to turn to in Luke chapter 5. But Peter's life has not been a life of fishing these last three years.

Peter's been walking with Jesus. He's not been doing fishing. He's been fishing for men.

And he's been in training, preparing for the Lord's departure, and him being one of the heads of the church. But here's another story in Luke chapter 5. I'd like to read down through this one. It came to pass that as the people pressed upon him to hear the word of God, he stood by the lake of Gennesaret and saw two ships standing by the lake.

But the fishermen were gone out of them and were washing their nets. This seems to be a different one than I just read. And he entered into one of the ships, which was Simon's, and prayed him that he would thrust out a little from the land, and he sat down and taught the people out of the ship.

Now when he had left speaking, he said unto Simon, Launch out into the deep and let down your nets for a draw. In other words, I've rented your fishing boat for a short time here. I'm going to pay you.

Launch your boat out and let your nets down and I'm going to give you a great catch. Simon answering said unto him, Master, now that means to me that this is probably very early, very early in the life of Peter following Jesus. Maybe a month into Peter following Jesus, he's still going back sometimes and fishing.

He hasn't been able to break away possibly from his love of fishing. Verse 5, Simon answering said unto him, Master, we have toiled all night and have taken nothing. Nevertheless, at thy word I will let down the net.

And when they had this done, they enclosed a great multitude of fish and their net break, and they beckoned unto their partners which were in the other ship that they should come and help them. And they came and filled both the ships so that they began to sink. When Simon saw it, he felled and at Jesus' knees saying, Depart from me for I am a sinful man, O Lord.

For he was astonished and all that were with him at the drought of the fishes which they had taken. And so also was James and John the son of Zebedee which were partners with Simon. And Jesus said unto Simon, here again, Fear not, for henceforth thou shalt catch men.

And when they had brought their ships to land, they forsook all and followed Him. Now I see there's two different events here. They're very early in the ministry of Jesus.

It seems like one day Jesus came and said, Peter, follow Me. And Peter left his fishing and took off and followed Jesus. And maybe after a week or two, little Anne sees, I'm going to just go back and do a little fishing.

So he's back fishing and Jesus shows up and says, hey, I need to borrow your boat. So Peter allows him to borrow the boat. He preaches from the boat and then tells Peter to launch it out and He's going to give him a great catch.

Peter doesn't believe it. And Jesus then does that very thing. Peter's really convicted about his unbelief.

And again, the Lord affirms here to him, Fear not, for henceforth thou shalt catch men. Now, God is trying. By the way, this is not just a message for some disciples.

It's a message for all of us. It even has a message for the ladies here, I believe, because God has a great purpose in life. You know, God didn't save us.

He didn't send His Son into the world to die on the cross, to suffer, to be raised again the third day, to give you eternal life so that you could put your nose to the grinder and just make money and work and do your business for the rest of your life and plug into a church somewhere and simply be a pew sitter. God never intended that for our life. Would you all agree with me on that? I got a few amen's.

Salvation is much greater. And I know that there are people, I've faced them throughout the years, that they will say, you know, well, these words are for only these disciples. What you're sharing today has nothing to do with me.

Well, then, what about the other words Jesus said to His disciples? Are they not for you? Well, I'll tell you that they are for all of us because Jesus told His disciples these words. He says, go and teach your disciples everything that I taught you. So, what I'm teaching you, I want you to convey to those who believe and those who are followers.

So, I believe in provision. I'm not against provision. But I will say this, there's a greater purpose in life than provision.

If you're the kind of person that all you do is labor for money and providing, and I will say this, if that's the most important aspect of your life, and that's your passion, you're going to hear from Jesus in just a little bit what He thinks about that. Well, let's keep reading. We'll get down to that here in a minute.

Go back to John. We're going to go back to John. John 21 and verse number 4. But when the morning was now come, Jesus stood on the shore, but the disciples knew not that it was Jesus.

Then Jesus saith unto them, Children, have you any meat? They answered Him, No. And He said unto them, Cast the net on the right side of the ship, and you shall find. They cast therefore, and now they were not able to draw it for the multitude of fish.

I can imagine the murmuring and mumbling that's going on in that boat. They just fished all night, caught nothing. Who is this guy? They didn't even know it was the Lord at that point.

Who is this guy? I'll just throw it over. And of course, they throw it over. And now it says, they were not able to draw it for the multitude of the fishes.

Therefore that disciple whom Jesus loved saith unto Peter, It is the Lord. Now when Simon Peter heard that it was the Lord, he gird his fish's coat unto him, for he was naked and did cast himself into the sea. Now Peter is naked here.

That's not a good thing. I don't know what naked here means. It maybe means he just had a loin cloth on.

It could mean he had like a swimming suit on. But either nakedness or a swimming suit is nakedness anyway. And so he realizes in the presence of the Lord that he needs to cover himself.

He covers his body and jumps in to the water. But no one should also remember that the Lord doesn't say the things to him about his nakedness. I don't think the Lord appreciates this.

You know, oftentimes in life I think in this conversation that's about to happen between Jesus and the disciples, somebody's going to be sitting there saying, when's the Lord going to talk about the nakedness issue with Peter? Well, you know there's so many more bigger issues to talk about with Peter. And the truth of the matter is, in many of our lives, oftentimes we want to talk about the nakedness issue. But really some of the bigger issues or some of the issues that we're going to talk about here, we oftentimes don't really like to talk about those.

And those are the ones that Jesus would like to get to the very heart of our life. Well, let's keep reading. Verse 8, And the other disciples came in a little ship, for they were not far from land, but as it were 200 cubits, dragging the net with fishes.

And as soon as they had come to land, they saw a fire of coals there, and fish laid thereon and bread. And so the Lord here, He already has things provided. He already has the bread.

He already has the fish. He's already got the fire cooking. And He's got a meal prepared for them.

Verse 10, Jesus said unto them, Now here's an object lesson. He's preparing. Bring of the fish which you have now caught.

And so there's an object lesson He wants to teach. So Peter goes down, grabs this great net of fish. It's 153.

I don't know how much that had to weigh. That's a lot of weight. Peter must have been a strapping individual.

Maybe there's others helping him. And he drags that whole net full of fishes, and he plops it there right beside the Lord. So the Lord is going to use this 153 fish for an object lesson.

And it's one, hopefully, that Peter and the other disciples are not going to forget any time soon. By the way, let me throw this in here because it's a problem that we have. And it gets to the very heart of what the Lord is going to address.

We tend to make idols. Matter of fact, at the end of 1 John, John closes his letter in 1 John with this, My little children, Christians, my little children, keep yourselves from idols. And oftentimes we think of that as oh, those are those trinkets they must have worshipped on ledges and in different places.

No, keep yourselves from idols. You know, idolatry is something that humanity is very easy to slip into. And it wasn't long after the creation that man became idolatrous.

God made man to walk with Him. God made man to worship Him supremely, to have Him as the center of their life, to honor Him and to serve Him. And then on the side, God gave man some wonderful things.

He gave man a family, a wife and children. He gave man work. He set him in a garden.

And He told man to tend the garden. It's a good thing for you. He gave man food.

Here's fruits from these trees. You can have food to eat, whatever you'd like. He gave man pleasure.

Many things God gave to man. And you know what happened? When man lost his connection with God, God no longer became the supreme thing of his life. And man turned away from the supreme thing and made these other things the supreme things in their life.

And man began to worship pleasure, sexual immorality. Man began to worship family. Man began to worship work and labor.

Man began to worship food. Man took the things that God made and gave them for His blessing and turned them into an idol. You know why? It was because they lost track of who was supreme in their life.

So as they walked through the garden, God was supreme. He was the center of their life. They had the work on the side.

They had the family. They had the pleasure. They had the garden and all the fruits.

And it was a beautiful thing in its proper balance. But when they lost touch with God, all of a sudden, the work became the thief. The family became the big thing.

The food became the big thing. And everything that God was creating for their good became an idol to them. That's a tendency in human nature.

Because once your heart departs from the Lord or once your heart is moving from God, it's going to attach itself to something. Well, let's keep reading. Verse 12, Jesus saith unto them, Come and dine.

There's a song. Come and dine, the Master calleth. And none of the disciples durst ask Him, Who art Thou? Knowing that it was the Lord.

So they understand who this is now. Jesus then cometh and taketh bread and giveth them and fish likewise. So there's plenty of food.

There's plenty of provision. By the way, God can provide for all of us. Do you agree with me on that? God can provide for each one of us.

We ought not to make that the center thrust of our life. That work and labor is the center focus of what we do. God is able to provide.

There is a passage in the Bible that says, Seek ye first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these other things shall be added unto you. Verse 14, this is now the third time that Jesus showed Himself to His disciples after that He was risen from the dead. And we come here to this object lesson and this is the main thrust of our discussion this morning.

They're sitting around this little breakfast meal and the Lord is serving. And He's called Peter to pull all these fish up and they're right there. Probably some are still flopping around in the net.

So, verse 15, Jesus asked Peter a question. So when they had dined, Jesus saith to Simon Peter, Simon, son of Jonas, lovest thou me more than thee. And right there is a question to check out Peter's heart as far as, Peter, do you love me? Am I the great love of your life? Or is fishing still the great love of your life, Peter? Let's just be honest.

Is it me? You know, Peter, if you love fishing, if that's your passion, Peter, then that's idolatrous, Peter. Simon, son of Jonas, lovest thou me more than these? Is your love for me more than these fish? He saith unto him, Yea, Lord, thou knowest that I love thee. Now He doesn't say, I love you more.

And then Jesus responds to him. He saith unto him, Feed my land. Feed my land.

Now you notice here the Lord is trying to direct His attention away. Remember when He called him out of fishing, He said, follow Me and I'll make you fishers of men. Henceforth you shall search for men.

And now He is calling him to a different work. Now, oftentimes when you preach on this kind of subject, people say that you're trying to encourage people to drop their vocation. I believe that we ought to provide.

I believe we ought to be providers for our families. But I also believe that that provision ought to take a place way down here in reference to our desire to build God's kingdom and serve the Lord Jesus Christ. And when these things get like this, then there becomes a real issue and the same issue here that Jesus is addressing with Peter.

You know, it's been my experience for many years is that people tend to have plenty of time and plenty of motivation and plenty of energy to go fishing and to catch fish and to even spend all night fishing and to fish and fish and fish in order to provide. But then when it comes to building the church, there's very little motivation or energy to get that accomplished. And so here, the Lord is encouraging Peter to feed my land.

It's time, Peter, for you to move your heart away from your vocation and move your heart to where you're going to be blessed in eternity. I'm going to bless you. You know, if you'll give your heart to this, the building of my kingdom, bless you throughout all eternity.

I can reward you throughout all eternity. Now, don't get me wrong. I believe you ought to provide.

Although I will say this, I think most of us are well provided for. Would you agree with that? I think so. We have some who come from Africa and a whole different world there.

And I know you know that, but do we have to have such a high standard that we have to work and work to such an extent? Well, there's something in here I want to bring out. Probably most of you know this. When Jesus, in verse 15, says to Simon Peter, Simon, son of Jonas, this next word, love us, is the Greek word agape.

Agape. Agape thou need more than these. And the word agape is the strong word for love.

It's the high word for love. God so loved the world. It's a very strong sacrificial commitment word.

It's the high word. When it talks about God is love, it's God is agape. So, Simon, son of Jonas, love us thou need.

Do you agape me more than these? He saith unto him, yea, Lord, thou knowest that I love thee. Now, Peter responds with a word underneath this, and it's a word phileo. We have Greek students here that can help me.

But phileo is a word that has to do with, well, we get the word Philadelphia from it, kind of like a brotherly affection, a kind affection towards someone. And it's a lower level than this idea of agape. And so, Jesus says to him, Simon, son of Jonas, do you agape me more than this? And Peter responds, yea, Lord, you know that I phileo you.

Like he couldn't from a clear conscience say, Lord, I love you. I love you. As a matter of fact, I don't know why I'm going back to this.

Let's keep reading here. Verse 15 says, So when the undying Jesus saith unto Simon, Peter, Simon, son of Jonas, Lovest thou me more than these? So when you see the Lord, He's probably turning to these fish here. Do you love me more than this? I know you were out all night last night.

You've got passion! We talk a lot about passion. Mary Magdalene, a woman of passion. Passion is born out of love.

Love brings passion. I've told you this the last few weeks. You show me what someone is passionate about, and I'll show you what they love.

Agree with me on that? You show me what someone is passionate about, and I'll show you what they love. It's very simple. And so Mary Magdalene was passionate about Jesus.

And here Peter is showing some real passion. For his fishing. Do you love me more than these? Is your greatest passion in the world my work or this work? And that's a question we ought to ask each other.

If the Lord would draw us into a meal and fit down, I don't know what He'd have to bring. He'd bring my painting brushes, or He'd bring my occupation. Maybe He'd bring your business up to the fire.

He'd bring it all up here for a minute. Just drop it down right there. Your tools, just drop it right there.

Let's just eat for a minute. And then He looks at you and says, you know, brother Bob, Bob, do you love me more than this? Love me more than this? And if you do, feed me. Now I realize, and a lot of people do this, that Peter could have just kept being a fisherman and he could have put a few Jesus Saves bumper stickers on his boat, you know? And I'm sure he probably would have felt good about it.

I've got a Jesus Saves bumper sticker on the back of my boat. And if someone asks me about it, I'll tell them about the Lord. And I don't want to make light of that.

I think that's a good thing to do. But the Lord was not calling Peter into putting a bumper sticker on the back of his boat and continuing on in his passion. A lot of people do that.

They continue on in their passion and they attach a few Christian things onto their passion and make it Christianized. You know, they tried to do that for me and I didn't understand it. As a young man, I was converted and people would come to me and say, God has given you a talent.

That talent is golf. You have a passion for it. Why don't you take that passion that you have and then bring Jesus into the passion? And so you can go out and be a PGA Tour golfer and put on the side of your golf bag Jesus Saves or write Scripture verses and you can be a testimony to Jesus all over the world.

These golf events are on television all over the world. And I thought, yeah. That's what I could do.

I could continue playing golf and I could put Jesus into my passion. But I come to find out it doesn't work like that. And that's not the will of God.

And so Jesus is not asking Peter to put a bumper sticker on or to sprinkle his business with Christianity. He is asking him to move his passion away from fish and fishing into his ministry. That which he had called him to from the very beginning.

Verse 16. He saith unto him again the second time, Simon, son of Jonas, lovest thou me. Agape thou me.

He saith unto him, Yea, Lord, thou knowest that I phileo thee. He saith unto him, Feed my sheep. Feed my sheep.

This is where I want your patience. I want your patience in my work. I want your love in the building of my kingdom.

I want your love in the edifying of the body of Christ. I think it's wonderful for you men to work and provide. I've tried to provide over the years.

But I have definitely over the years not made provision for God. And you all know my schedules over the years. Two or three weeks, two or three days a week working and two or three days a week out in the ministry, out in the fields, trying to win souls, spend time feeding the sheep.

And I trust that you all, as you have observed my life over the last 20 or 10 years, you've not felt in any way that my passion is painting houses. I hope not. But you would know that I have a passion for the church, to feed and to care for the church of the Lord Jesus Christ.

And again, I'm a long way from perfect. I find a lot of encouragement just to be honest with you in this passage. If you love me, feed my sheep.

At least it encourages me to the point where, Lord, I must love you at least a little bit because it is my heart's desire to feed the sheep, to teach His sheep the truth. Verse 17. Now, the Lord's going to say something here that's going to really kind of trouble Peter.

Verse 17, He saith unto him the third time, Simon, son of Jonas, phileoeth thou me. Oh my. So now Jesus lowers the level here from agape down to phileo.

It's like, Simon, do you even have a brotherly affection, a kindly affection towards me? And it says here in verse 17, Peter was grieved because He said unto him the third time, lovest thou me, or phileoeth thou me. And He said unto him, Lord, thou knowest all things. Thou knowest that I phileo thee.

Lord, you know the truth. I mean, I do have a tender affection for you. Yes, you know the truth.

I'm not agape. I'm not there, but Lord, you do know I phileo thee. And I think there's a lot of people like that in that condition.

Yeah, I love the Lord. I mean, ask Him the questions you love. Yeah, I love the Lord.

Well, is it a great passion of your life? Well, I don't know if I would say that. But I love the Lord. I go to church.

I give money in the offering. Sure, I love the Lord. Well, how much time do you spend this week in His Word? Well, that's an interesting question.

But you know, truly, and what God is trying to do here with Peter is to show Peter that just like it was in the creation of the garden, life is about having God at the center. And all the things that God has given us are on the outside. And family and work and food and pleasures, these are small in comparison to our love and patience for the Lord Jesus.

It's the balance of life. Once you get these other things out of balance, some people get pleasure. No sexual immorality becomes the center of their life.

It consumes them. Some people are consumed by work. They're consumed by their business.

It consumes their life. So these things become idolatrous. So finally, he says, feed my sheep.

Feed my sheep. I want your passion in life to be my sheep. Let me ask you this here for the sake of making some application.

Just think about it. Maybe the Lord can bring it to your attention. When Jesus said this, Simon, put your name in here.

Simon, son of Jonas. Jerry, son of Ronald. Do you love Me more than these? What is the these in your life? What is the these? You know, I realize with some mothers it could be the children.

Remember Jesus said, if you love Me, father, mother, wife, children, more than Me, you're not worthy. More than Me. In other words, you've got things way out of balance.

I gave you that wife not to idolize her. I gave you those children not to make idols out of them. I gave you the ability to make wealth not to make an idol out of it.

I'm supposed to be your God. Not these things. So what is the these things in your life? And if Jesus were asking you that today, do you love Me more than these? Now I realize, and you all probably know this, that Paul made tents.

And you see on occasion him talking about how he has to labor day and night to do the things of the Kingdom of God and to support the people that are with him. I realize Paul is single. But you know, it's interesting that you never would have found out that Paul made tents apart from another individual's testimony.

Luke gives testimony that Paul was a tent maker. Paul never made mention of it. He wasn't concerned about the business.

It was not his passion. He had to do it because he needed to provide. His passion was Jesus Christ.

So I'm certain that Peter and his disciples are back and forth about am I going to be a fisher of men? Or am I going to be a fisher of fish? I think this is the point where they cross over because the Lord is going to say something very startling to them here in a verse or two. They're going to cross over. They're going to make a full-fledged commitment before the Lord here ascends in a few days before them.

I guess what I want to do or share with you this morning is that we ought not to be the type of individuals who fish for a living and plug into a church somewhere. Can I hear an amen to that? I'm going to fish. And that's where my passion is going to be.

That's where my time is going to be spent. My energy. And we'll just plug in somewhere into a church.

I don't think that's going to cut it. I'm not going to be blessed of the Lord. Well, let's keep going on here because this is some very sobering words here that Peter's going to hear after he hears the last, Feed my sheep.

Verse 18, Verily, verily, I say unto thee, When thou wast young, thou girdest thyself, and walkest whither thou wouldest. But when thou shalt be old, thou shalt stretch forth thine hand, and another shall gird thee and carry thee whither thou wouldest not. Now, the Lord is telling them what's coming in the future.

You're going to follow Me. You're going to feed My sheep. And I'm telling you ahead of time that you're going to get old, and you're going to stretch forth your hand.

You know what He's telling you? It goes on to say in verse 19, This speak He signifying by what death ye should glorify God. What sobering words, Peter. Hey, Peter.

You're going to be crucified by God. You're going to die in crucifixion. By the way, I looked up this morning.

Historically, A.D. 64, under Nero, Peter was crucified. But history says that Peter chose to be upside down. He said he's not worthy to be crucified this way.

He wants upside down. And so he was crucified upside down. But Jesus told him.

He was an old man, by the way, also. Jesus told him when you're old, you're going to stretch forth your hand. And I'm going to gird you.

I'm going to help you and carry you. Whither thou wouldest not. This speak He signifying by what death ye should glorify God.

And when He had spoken this, can you imagine this meeting? They're sitting there around this table. All this is happening. And when He had spoken this, He said unto him, Follow.

Now those are the first words that Peter heard three years earlier. The first thing he heard from Jesus was follow me and I'll make you a fisher of men. Three years later, he's back and forth.

Fisher of fish, fisher of men. Who am I going to make my passion? Jesus appeals to him. Follow me.

I'm thankful here this morning that we know the account that Peter did surrender his being and his heart and he gave his life for the feeding of the Lord's sheep and the building of the church. So I want to recommend that to us from the Word of God and I want to just ask the question of each one of us. Put in your name here.

Do you love Jesus Christ more than what? And you know once you say that, you say, oh no, I love Jesus more than that. You ought to ask the people around you. Does this person have the passion for the Word of Jesus in this world? A greater one than what passion has for these other things.

Whoa. You know, it's one thing to say, I love you Lord. It's another thing to demonstrate with passion.

So we could all sit in this meal. We could all hear these words and we could all hear the Lord say, do you love me more than these? And I don't know what your these are. I know as a young man when I was 21, 22 years old, my these were money and business and sports and golf and all the things I wanted to do in life and I had passion for these things.

But I had to come to the place also where I said, Lord, I love you more than this stuff. I'm getting older too. I'm trusting the Lord to gird me and carry me where I would have stopped.

So are we following Him? We've come to the end here of this. Lord, we wrote one more message and then we'll close next week, Lord willing. I'm all for provision.

I'm all for pleasure. I'm all for family. I'm all for labor.

All the things God has given us. I'm all for the good food that God has given us. Just don't take those things God has created and given to man as a lesser love and let those things become the supreme passion of your life.

Alright, let's have a word of prayer. We'll close this morning.