Stop Comparing Journeys

This is the lesson that was taught at CTCC. With the theme of camp being "I catch, He cleans," We spent time learning about the process of Jesus cleaning and what that entails.

Transcript

SPEAKER_04 0:21

And good afternoon, y'all. It's Bland Crane, the Preacher Man here, and we are so excited to be back with the Preacher Man Podcast Sermons and Lessons. Today we are getting caught up. We've been away for about a week. We've um been away at uh to Central Texas Christian camps where we had over uh about 166 campers and staff uh total there uh spending the week learning about the Lord, uh encouraging, building one another up, playing games, playing sports, just uh having a really, really wonderful week of camp. We had good weather. We uh were able to baptize six campers, and uh two of them were from um Northcrest, where we worship. And we were very, very thankful. So the theme of camp was um, and we talked about this in the last podcast, was um I catch he cleans. And so what we did was we were trying to really split that uh uh statement into two sections. And so some of the lessons and some of the devotionals were about uh being fishers of men, uh how Jesus used um how Jesus caught and then cleaned um the person who was telling their story. Uh and then in the Bible class we focused on the other side of that. How does the cleaning process work for Jesus? What does Jesus do when he's cleaning up these people who we we've caught? Um each Bible class teacher had one lesson and it was the same, and he taught the same lesson every day. He just rotated through the grade levels. And so um my lesson for camp was the idea of stop comparing the journeys. And it was based on uh John 21, where Jesus is reinstating um one way or another way of looking at it, and we talk about it in the lesson, is restoring um Peter to um be able to do the work, changing his status, if you will. And then there's the question of what is to become of John, who was close by and following them as they were um having this conversation. The idea of the club class was to say this that um what Jesus does for you will be in general the same thing that he does for everybody, but the journey might be a little different uh for each of you. And that involves this um concept of developing one's own faith. And um and we really talk about that a lot too, but we that we spent the t we we spent the time in Bible class breaking down and looking at um John 21 and the story of uh Jesus restoring Peter, and then answering the question, What about John? What are we gonna do what what what are you going to do with or what are you gonna do for John? And in many ways, Jesus says, What what does that matter to you? I just want you to follow me. So we're gonna go ahead and start this Bible class up. This is Stop Comparing the Journeys based on John chapter 21. And this is the third time, I believe, that um I did this Bible class, and I felt like that this would be the best time to record it because um we were in we were in an indoor setting and there wasn't a lot of wind and and other things that would be picked up on the sound level. So um after we get done with the lesson, we will definitely uh have a few closing thoughts and uh hope you enjoy it.

SPEAKER_03 5:09

Yay!

SPEAKER_04 5:12

Are you excited? Okay, so um many of you are I guess Lisa didn't want to be in here. Many of you are uh returning campers, and so all of many of you have been going to camp here for a while. Many of you uh go to church, so um I'm gonna just skip the introduction unless you just want me to do it for posterity and let you know, you know. So she's new, okay. Well, my I my name is Bland Crane. I preach at Northcrest. And uh, but the reason why everybody calls me preacher man is because that's a lot easier to remember than Bland Crane. So I understand. Um I just tipped on your backpack. I'm sorry. So uh I got that out of the way. Um really excited about being back into Bible class teaching, hadn't done it in a while. So uh y'all might have to bear with me. This is only my third attempt to teach this lesson. So well, hopefully we'll uh we'll do I'll do better at the third time's a trial, right? So uh get out your Bibles or turn on your Bibles, whatever device you're using to get your Bible, and we're gonna be in John 21. John 21, it's the last uh roughly the last chapter in the Gospel of John. And before we get started, um wanna talk about a couple of things. This this story is a really a conclusion of a previous story, and if you um are a Bible reader and things like that, you'll probably pick up real quick what's going on here. And but we need to but we need to discuss this part so we can jump into the second part. And uh, and uh so that's why we're gonna look at this. So if uh you can someone would help me out and read the start start at verse start at verse 15, and then I'll I'll tell you when to stop. Someone want to read John 21, 15 for me? Starting starting in verse 15. Thank you, Janus.

SPEAKER_01 7:51

When they had finished eating, Jesus said to Simon Peter, Simon, son of John, do you love me more than these? Yes, Lord, he said, you know that I love you. Jesus said, feed my lamb. Again, Jesus said, Simon, son of John, do you love me? He answered, Yes, Lord, you know that I love you. Jesus said, Take care of my sheep.

SPEAKER_04 8:09

Okay, stop right there. Keep your finger on 17, or I'll let someone else jump in on 17. Either way. Why do you think Jesus was asking John this question twice? And here in a minute we'll see a third time asking Peter, one of his apostles, if he loved him. anybody? Okay. So let's uh let's um let's backtrack our story a little bit here. Um we uh many of us here know about the the Jesus installing communion at Passover, right? They're up in the upper room. He does the bread and the cup and uses Passover to bring in a new covenant that we call today communion or the Lord's Supper. After that, they go to the Mount of Olives, they spend time there, right? And during that time period, Jesus makes the prediction one more time. Oh, there's somebody sitting way back up there in the wall. I didn't see you back there, hi. Um, so he makes it more and more time that he's going to be betrayed, he's gonna go to the cross, he's gonna die, he's gonna come back in three days. And our favorite apostle Peter, disciple Peter, gets to talking big. How many, how many of y'all here have ever uh talked big before? You know, big talk, you know, like out playing sports, or you do something really cool, man. Yeah, I'm you know, just trying to really, you know, change things up because what Jesus was saying was kind of you know bad news, sad news, and then you know that Peter didn't want Peter didn't Peter didn't want that energy, right? So he says, Lord, I'm I'm gonna go with you all the way to the end. I'll try I'll go with you all the way to the end. And Jesus tells Peter before the rooster crows, you'll deny me three times. Y'all remember that? Okay, good. So, sure enough, that takes place. That's what happens. Peter is in a courtyard, he is trying to stay warm by a charcoal fire, and three different occasions, three different people come up to Peter and basically say, You were with that man, um, or they would say, I saw you with that man because um you were the one who cut off that guy's ear in uh the Mount of Olives. Y'all remember that story, right? Peter draws his sword and I think he missed really and was cut off the ear. Jesus put it back on. Pretty cool story. And then someone says, Well, I think you're with G, I think you're with Jesus because you're a Galilean. I can tell by your accent, you're a Galilean. And the Bible says that when that happened, Peter swore. Now, I don't think he was saying that Peter was cussing, I think he was trying to like, you know, uh uh, you know, stack of Bibles, I swear, I've never met this man, Jesus, and when that happened, the rooster crows. And the Bible says Peter ran off and wept, cried like a big old baby because what Jesus predicted actually came true. All right. Who had uh we had 17? You want to do it when you read some more, or you want somebody else do it? Anybody want to read 17? Go ahead.

SPEAKER_00 12:08

Peter was hurt because Jesus asked him the third time, he loved me. He said, Lord, you know all things. You know that I love you. Jesus said, Eat my sheep.

SPEAKER_04 12:18

Okay, stop right there. So, not twice, but three times, Jesus asks Peter, Simon, uh, uh, do you love me? And this time it says that he was hurt. And he says, Lord, you know all things, you know that I love you. And Jesus says, Tend my sheep. I don't think it's a coincidence, and neither should you, that Jesus was making Peter or getting Peter to acknowledge his love for him three times after the fact that Peter denied Jesus three times. That's not a coincidence. So let's talk about that for a little bit. What does it mean to restore something? Bring it back. Bring it back from what? How many of you here uh are part like in uh in a in a town or a community where they'll have these like you know holiday festivals and they'll do all these things, they'll have uh little kids' rides and they'll have a they'll have a car show. How many have you ever seen the car shows? And you'll have these cars from all different time frames, and and they are gorgeous looking cars, right? They got a great paint job, they got all the original parts to the car. Uh they're good, they're chromed out, you know, they got the they got good, they got nice wheels on them, just real pretty cars. What you probably don't know is that that car probably was found under a canopy or under a tarp in an old barn somewhere, just collecting rust. And the guy who restored that car saw the value in it, pulled it out, bought it, loaded it up on his trailer, took it back in his garage, and started to meticulously work to replace the missing parts, taking care of the places where there was rust, um finding out what if the if the motor was running and if what we needed to get the motor the motor to work, and then painting it and getting it ready to be, and then what this guy did was he was restoring this car. So restoring is taking something that is old, it still had or used up, maybe broken, not in good shape, but the person doing the restoring sees the value in that piece of equipment or that desktop chair or that car and commences to work on it to bring it back to its original beauty and form. That's what it means to restore something. I would submit to you this morning that that's exactly what Jesus was doing for Peter. Now, this whole week we're focusing on I catch, he cleans. And we we've got to understand some things when it comes to what part we play and what part Jesus plays. So it's a safe, so it's a it's a safe assumption to understand that part of Jesus' cleaning process is to restore that person back to what they originally could be. Yes, there is the idea, and there is the understanding of this idea of creating something new out of something old. We all understand that when someone gets saved, gets baptized, decides to commit to Christ, that they become a new child of God, that they're washed, their sins are washed, they're brand new. But there's also a restoring process to this. And when you have been a Christian for X amount of time, you are constantly being restored by Jesus. Because we live in a world that will beat you up, chew you out, and leave you for dead. And when we turn back to Christ for help, when we continue to be dedicated to the work that Jesus put in front of us, then the restoration process is ongoing. So that's what Jesus was doing with Peter. But here's the problem with all this. What did so Jesus asks Peter a question? What's the question? It's in the Bible, it's in there. You just talk about it. Huh? Do you love me? And Peter says, Yes, Lord, I love you. What does Jesus tell Peter to do next? Someone over here is tell me. What does Peter what does Jesus tell Peter to do next? Feed sheep. Now wait a minute, wait a minute. I thought Peter was a fisherman. Was I wrong about that? When Jesus found him, what was Peter doing? Huh? He was fishing. So why in why why in the world would Jesus want Peter, after he just got through restoring him, why would Jesus want Peter to switch occupations? Anybody? Do you think Peter knew the first thing about being a shepherd? Probably not. How many of you how many of you here have uh uh done uh livestock showing? Showed heifers, showed goats, showed sheep, chickens, rabbits, all that good stuff. Does fishing have anything to do with raising livestock? No. Fishing's fish is now the one of the reasons why fishing is so fun is because fishing is easy. Breathe them in, take them off the hook. If you want to keep them, you string them up. If you want to give them, throw them away, you put them put it back in the water and go catch another one. Raising sheep or goats, goats are not as bad. But I'm here to tell you, I have spent a lifetime around sheep. Believe me when I tell you, sheep are the most dumbest creatures on the face of this earth. Am I wrong? Did you know that if a sheep falls down and it falls down on the side of a hill, and its legs are pointing uphill, that sheep can't get up. It'll just lay there and wind up become buzzer and become and die. A sheep can get itself tangled up, caught up in so many messes. They are stubborn, they are obstinate, they are just knuckleheads. And yet, not only did Jesus ask Peter to switch occupations, go from being a fisherman to being a shepherd, but he also, Jesus also compared me and you, and a lot of other people to sheep and goats. There's a reason for that. I don't think it's a coincidence. So why the switch in occup why the switch in occupations? Why do you think Jesus wanted Peter to uh uh give a uh to consider himself a shepherd and not a fisherman?

SPEAKER_02 21:08

Okay, like more easier, but like way more difficult. You have to like watch out the predators, you have to watch like where the babies are going or where the other pack is going, so you'll have to like go all the way around to like in the beat.

SPEAKER_04 21:25

Yeah, that's exactly right. Why else do you think Peter or Jesus wanted Peter to switch occupations and become a shepherd and not a not a fisherman? More responsibility, more responsibility. That's exactly right. Wow man, if I had some star stickers, I would put one on your forehead. Good for you. He's keep on, keep on, he's our shepherd right now.

SPEAKER_03 21:54

It's showing him how he leads us. Uh huh. He takes care of us and gives us everything. Even though we're stubborn and we don't listen all the time, he takes care of us and he leaves us.

SPEAKER_04 22:06

You've been looking at my notes, haven't you? Oh, high five. Good job. That's a great answer. Jesus chose and asked Peter, and really the other, and if when you go into the if you go into Acts and read about the start of the church at Pentecost and all these things, all these men who were following Jesus were getting an upgrade in their professionalism and in their job. They were going to be church builders, they were going to be missionaries, they were going to be doing things for the Lord as when Jesus leaves. So Jesus is transferring the responsibility, like she said, onto them. In many ways, that same thing applies to you and I today. Yes, we catch. Yes, Jesus cleans. But discipleship is a relationship between someone who has been a Christian for a while, working with someone who is a brand new Christian in Christ. And that's where the challenge starts for us. All right, so let me ask you a question. What does it mean? And I've heard it said two ways. So I'm going to give you both both names. What does it mean to be a nosy Rosie or a nosy Nelly? What does that mean? Huh? Being up in other people's business. I couldn't have said it better myself. Good job. What what what uh what so so how do we as disciples now of Christ, how do we keep that that um ability to help, to guide, to be a shepherd to our new Christian friends, our new brothers and sisters in Christ, but not be a nosy rosy or a nosy nelly. How do we do that? Do I know communication? I agree with that. That's a very important aspect of that. What else? Someone over here. Who said boundaries? Good job. Expound on that a little bit. Right, right. No, that that that's perfect. That's a great answer. We don't want to be nosy rosies. We want to be brothers and sisters in Christ. We want to be able to make sure that they are developing their own relationship with Jesus based off what they've been reading about in the Bibles, what they've been praying about in their praying, what they've been doing on, like when they go to church on Sunday with you, or when they're going to worship on Sunday, whatever it is, you want to be beside them, but not all up in their business. I can almost promise you that Isabella became a Christian because she heard the same message that I heard way back when, when I was 13 years old in Abilene, Texas. But her walk with Christ is going to be different than my walk with Christ. But we're on the same road. We're on the same journey, but we came to Christ differently. And is well, how is it so different? Well, for one thing, she's a lot younger than I am. Her experiences now may not be the same experiences that I experienced when I decided to become a Christian. I'll tell you what, to this day, I often I often sometimes try I'm guilty of second-guessing myself. Maybe I should have waited a little longer to get baptized and stuff like that, but I wouldn't trade it for, I wouldn't trade it for a minute. The decision that I made, I'm confident in. And I know that you are too when it comes to what you've done in your life. Part of being a good disciple is, yes, knowing your boundaries, but also knowing where Jesus is in your walk, but also knowing where Jesus is in their walk. And it's a real simple process. If if I if I if I were able to bring my bicycle, y'all seen me riding around on my bicycle?

unknown 27:23

Yes.

SPEAKER_04 27:28

So the wheel of that of my bicycle, my two wheels, there's something in the center of that wheel. Anyone want to tell me what that is? Huh? Well, gears, yeah, but generally it's a it's called a spoke, right? Right? Or the or the spokes are the are the rods that go from the outside tire to the center of the wheel. Right? So it's a hub. Now, if our Christianity was like that bicycle tire, where do you think Jesus is supposed to be in uh in that area of that bicycle tire? Huh? In the eye, where huh? Who said what? Who said sinner? You did. Good job. Yes, that's exactly right. Jesus is supposed to be in the middle. Everything, now, and and look, you can you can almost find this in Bible verses. Everything, even in the Old Testament, I challenge you. Anything in the Old Testament or the New Testament, it all points to Jesus. You think about it. Think about the Old Testament. The message of the Old Testament, the Messiah is coming, Jesus is coming. And then you get the four Gospels, Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John, right? The message in the Gospels, the Messiah, Jesus, is here. And then you have the book of Acts all the way to Revelation, the message is the same. Jesus is coming back. Everything points back to Christ. So McKenna, by the way, my second favorite McKenna, is her journey and my journey are the same. She came to know Christ differently, though, than I did. Now, if it were my total responsibility to make sure that McKenna was doing things right, I don't try to, I'm not going to try to police, be the be the church police and say, now, McKenna, you need to do this and not that. You need to go here and not there. Okay? That's not how that works. In many ways, the best way to be a disciple for someone who's new to the faith, or who's maybe uh there's an age difference. You know, the reason why there's a lot of adults up here spending time with you guys and in your campers is so is because we want to be good disciples for you. And the best way we can do this is by being examples to you. Are we going to mess up and make mistakes? You better believe it. Do we as uh older Christian people uh sin and fall short of the glory of God every day? You better believe it. But we're still on the same journey. So by setting those examples, you too can do that. It's the very same thing because I I know it's been said, but I'll say it again: there are people, there are young people watching you every day. They're watching how you play sports, they're watching how you dress, they're watching how you act when you're around your friends, they're watching what you're doing when you're being by yourself. Because when they grow up, they want to be just like you. Tell you a funny story about this. So my brother, my oldest brother Terry, and some of you who go to who've been in North have probably heard this story before, my oldest brother Terry was I I wanted to be, I mean, just like him. I wanted to do everything just like him. And I wasn't the only one. Terry was not one of those fashion dress-up kind of guys. He would wear, if if he was, if he let t-shirts, wrangler jeans, and cowboy boots every day. He dressed for comfort, not stop. But Terry also had the habit of carrying a can of uh Copenhagen snuff in his back pocket. When you have when you when you wear uh jeans with with Copenhagen in the back pocket, you develop what they call the skull ring, right? And he had a lot of pants, a lot of Wrangler jeans that had that skull ring in the back end of his pocket, back pocket. But he would want to wear jeans and Wrangler jeans to church on Sunday. And so my mom would make sure that when he came in and was wearing what they were, she would say, Hey, you need to go change those breeches because you got that Copenhagen ring sticking out in that man. I don't want anyone seeing that. I want your jeans to look nice and clean and and and new. Sometimes Terry'd have to go change his Wranglers. Well, one day he got past it. And one day he actually forgot to take his Copenhagen out of his back pocket. And he went to church one Sunday with his Wrangler jeans, his skull ring, and a can of Copenhagen in his back pocket. And mom didn't catch it. Kerry wasn't trying to be rebellious. He just grabbed a pair of jeans and put them on and force a habit, you know. We all we all do that. We grab our keys, we grab our wallets, we you know, doom, doom, doom, doom, doom, go. After church on Sunday, another mother from our church back at Highway 36 called my mom and said, Pat, that's my mom. Pat, you won't believe what little little Johnny did today. She goes, What happened? He goes, after he saw what your son Terry was wearing, he went into his dad's toolbox and grabbed a roll of electrical tape and stuck it in his back pocket. Because the little boy thought that Terry, his hero, carried electrical tape in his back pocket. He didn't know it was Copenhagen. And so, uh, and she thought that was just so cute. That was just so cute. Well, mom hung up the phone real nice, but when she hung up the phone, she was not happy. And she literally went up, went to Terry's room and grabbed almost every pair of his Wrangler jeans and threw them in the trash and went up and buying some more because she did not want that example to be listened up and brought up again on Sunday morning. I don't want this to be a pressure thing for you guys, okay? Because you're I would no one here expects perfection from anybody. We do expect there to be a little bit more of a conscious effort to remember some things. And one of those things that you need to remember is you're being watched. You're being watched, you are setting an example for little ones to follow you. And some of you are going, Well, I didn't sign up for that. Sorry, Charlie. That's just the way the cookie crumbles sometimes. Because when you become a Christian, you become part of a family. And families have these kinds of relationships. All right. I'm going to get off Peter for a little bit. We're going to switch gears. So the next thing that happens in this story that we want to talk about takes place in verse 20. Does someone want you to read verse 20 for me? I'll read it. So starting in verse 20, Peter says this. It says, Peter turned and saw the disciple who Jesus loved following them. That's John, the writer of the Gospel of John. The one who also leaned back on his chest at the supper. John is giving a reference to the time that took place during communion. Peter in verse 21, seeing him, said to Jesus, Lord, what about this man? And Jesus said to him, If I want him to remain until I come, what is that to you? Follow me. Anyone want to take a guess at what Jesus was telling Peter? What do you think Jesus was telling Peter with that sentence? Trust him. Trust the process. What else? Jesus was telling Peter, hey Pete. You don't need to be worried about John. I just restored you. I just asked you to switch occupations. You've got plenty of things to deal with. John is good. He's okay. All you need to worry about is following me. That's the same message that Jesus tells us when we are fighting the urge to not be disciples of Christ, but be spiritual police officers, making sure that so-and-so is minding their P's and Q's and doing things right. Sometimes we now, and I don't want to confuse anybody here, okay? If one of your friends who's a Christian is acting like a knucklehead and you see them acting like a knucklehead, there are ways for you to do it right and say, hey man, you're acting like a knucklehead. We need to stop. That's not being spiritual police. That's being a good disciple. That's being a good Christian friend. That's being a good brother and sister in Christ. But when we start trying to get them to act like us, then they're not developing their own faith. When we start trying to get them to do the things that we think are right, then they're not following Jesus. Who are they following? And I, you know, I I I anytime I get asked to teach a Bible class, especially for the youth or young people, um one, I consider it very humbling because it still means that uh some people think I still have uh some things that I can teach the young people. And two, um just love being around those kids. They were very attentive, they were very um talkative, they had a lot of discussion. And a lot of the discussion may not have taken in by taken in Bible class, they have opportunities to be in um in in the air in the afternoons at camptown, they have opportunities to be in um groups called reflection groups. And sometimes the uh things that were talked about in the Bible class are what's brought up in reflection groups, and so just to get that feedback and just to get that that time to spend with those is always a blessing. We concluded that lesson with some very um understand uh very um uh accurate closing thoughts. And they went a little something like this. When we start when when we start focusing on comparisons, when we start acting like spiritual police, um which I talked about in the class, when we start trying to control the people, uh, what happens is is that it leads us into the temptation to start to become more judgmental. Um and that comparison between us and them, the new Christian, the one that Jesus just cleaned, it uh doesn't really promote faith building. So when we try to manage others instead of loving them, walking alongside of them, um knowing that the journeys might be different, but just being in their lives, being that example, leading by example, we we we we start trying to become faith managers. And a part of me wonders if we can't even having a difficult time managing our own faith, what makes us think we can manage someone else's? You know, if you look through the Bible, you'll see where Jesus uh does uh some really amazing things in large groups of people. His Sermon on the Mount, there was hundreds of people there listening to him. Um He fed five thousand people with two loaves and a and uh th and three fish. Um He fed four thousand people uh uh in another situation using the almost the same thing, using the same amount. So when Jesus is working in groups, things can be very impactful. But we can also see where Jesus deals with individuals and when when dealing with individuals, those relationships and those things that Jesus builds with one-on-one time I'm I'm I'm I I would think about the woman at the well. Um Jesus and Nicodemus, Jesus and Lazarus, Jesus and Zacchaeus, those kind of situations um uh we can see where the the individu dealing with individuals is something that is very, very special and something that very that Jesus was very, very good at. And so when we are noticing when we can see Jesus working in someone's lives, then we have to be we willing to say, I trust in God, and I trust Jesus with this person's and it's not gonna be knowing that it's not gonna be on my timeline, it's gonna be on theirs. Our job as disciples. As mentors, if you will, our job as fishermen, and sometimes and when we tra if we are fortunate to tr to transition like Peter did from being a fisherman into a shepherd, our job is obedience and not supervision. One of my favorite sayings is that you might be the only Bible someone else reads. And so the a part of following Jesus, which is something that we all want to do. We we we that's that's the claim, you know. We want to follow Jesus, we want to reflect Jesus, we want to be Christ's ambassadors. Part of following Jesus means that we are going to trust Him not only with our journey, but with someone else's too. And we can just sit back and watch that person grow and see how their faith develops as well as ours. We would love to hear from you, and we would love to get uh some emails from you. If you uh have a question or a comment about anything that's been said on the show, both from this podcast or from some other podcast, I would love to hear from you. You can contact me through email. Uh my address is preacherman1178 at gmail.com. That's preacherman1178 at gmail.com. Um who knows? Your comment, your question might make it onto the podcast. Might be just a segment in itself to talk about whatever it is that is uh that you want to address or answer the question that you ask. Um really had a good time at camp. I was really glad to be back. Um uh tune in uh next because I'm I'm just uh downloading and uploading podcasts as fast as I can. Um I got one more podcast to post, and that was from last Sunday's sermon on the uh titled A The Chord, A Chord of Three Strands, where we look at the traditional uh wedding uh Bible verse where uh in Ecclesiastes, where Solomon says a chord of three strands is not so easily broken. It's the start of a new series of lessons on our fix our faith series that we're going through all year long this year. And um as soon as I can uh wrap this one up, I will start working on it and get it posted for your listening pleasure. This is the Preacher Man. Uh, hope you have a great weekend. Be safe out there. Fourth of July is around just around the corner, and I hope you will enjoy it and celebrate 250 years of being a red-blooded American. This is the Preacher Man signing off. Hope you have a blessed day, and always remember who you are and whose you are.