November 23, 2025 - Dr Mark Turman - Thankful for Resurrection Hope

20251123 - Dr Mark Turman - Thankful for Resurrection Hope

00:00 Introduction and Thanksgiving Greetings
00:33 Remembering Loved Ones
02:38 Prayer of Gratitude and Grief
06:27 Conversation on Hope with Tim Altman
09:25 The Story of Jesus and the Miraculous Catch
12:45 Reflecting on Gratitude and Hope
16:54 The Importance of Ruminating on God's Promises
26:39 Relying on Jesus for Strength and Guidance
35:29 Jesus' Commitment to Eternal Relationship
45:23 Closing Prayer and Thanksgiving Wishes

Chapters

• 0:00 Introduction and Thanksgiving Greetings
• 0:33 Remembering Loved Ones
• 2:38 Prayer of Gratitude and Grief
• 6:27 Conversation on Hope with Tim Altman
• 9:25 The Story of Jesus and the Miraculous Catch
• 12:45 Reflecting on Gratitude and Hope
• 16:54 The Importance of Ruminating on God's Promises
• 26:39 Relying on Jesus for Strength and Guidance
• 35:29 Jesus' Commitment to Eternal Relationship
• 45:23 Closing Prayer and Thanksgiving Wishes

Transcript

[00:00:00] Introduction and Thanksgiving Greetings

Well, good morning everybody. Good morning. Happy Thanksgiving. Hope you're having a at least one great meal, if not several. And, uh, we wanna talk about, uh, a special meal this morning, but, uh, this is a particular time of year. Uh, and so I wanted to just take a moment, uh, in this season of gratitude to recognize that it is, for many of us, at least at some point in our lives, usually several point in our lives where this time of year is a mixture of both gratitude and grief.

[00:00:33] Remembering Loved Ones

And so what I wanted to ask is. Uh, before we look at God's word this morning, is there somebody in your life that will be missing this year? Uh, so over the last, let's just say 24 months, um, is somebody been called home to heaven and they won't be a part of the normal rhythms of celebration that you have known.

Um, and you just like to remember them, uh, this morning? Anybody? Have anybody in that category? Yes, in the back. Um, my brother, his name is Thomas Walsh, passed away in May. All right. Thanks for that. We'll, remember him, my brother, John Rod hamburger. 24 hours from right now. We were putting his ashes in the Gulf of America.

Wow. Passed away September 1st. Okay. Thank you for that doc. Yeah. Somebody else. Somebody you know that's grieving. My brother.

Okay. I remember him. Yes. Sister-in-law. Katie, I'm sorry. My sister-in-law. Katie. Okay. That passed away? Yeah, at the age of 64. Wow. Okay. Yes. Uh, my friend from college, um, her family will celebrate, uh, her husband and three kids will celebrate without her for the first time this year, losing cancer. Wow. Okay.

Gerald, my sister, Rosemary Graves. Okay. Alicia or, um, Sheila, you're now Alicia. Dennis Ho. Dennis Hollabaugh. We want to remember her or remember him and Paula for sure.

Somebody you know that's grieving. Maybe they weren't a part of your direct relationship, but. You know, somebody else that's grieving.

[00:02:38] Prayer of Gratitude and Grief

Alright, let's, let's pray together. Father, on this beautiful day in this incredibly beautiful spot we come into what our culture has so beautifully, uh, encouraged us to do, which is to come into a season of Thanksgiving, of gratitude, of just relaxing for, uh, a few days and just. Celebrating the goodness of who you are and what this life is about.

Lord, we are so oftentimes enamored with what's broken around us, what frustrates us, what scares us, uh, what even angers us. It is so good to be reminded by you and by our calendar that we are very blessed people, and that is especially true of us who gather here. At PK Chapel, Lord, we come in the midst of that overflowing awareness and gratitude for all the blessings that that we can call to mind and should call to mind.

We also remember that this is a time of sadness in many ways for those that have been mentioned already this morning. And for others that we will likely think about over the next several days as we gather. And Lord, we want to just lift them up to you in a very special way. Those, uh, folks that are here with us this morning and the larger circle of relationships that are represented by each of these that have been named this morning, God, we just wanna ask that in the midst of their grief.

They would also be flooded with gratitude for the people that have been lost in these last few months, the lives that they lived, the blessings that they brought to each person and to the world. And God, we pray that in the midst of that sadness, as we cry, tears at the loss of our loved ones, even as you cried tears.

Over the death of your friend Lazarus. God, we know that you are acquainted with grief. We know that you care. And God, we know that in Jesus you came to overcome that grief and that death. And so Lord, we just gratefully thank you that you are the Lord of life. You are the Lord of hope. You are the Lord of an eternal and secure future.

And Lord, we pray that that would not only be our joy, that it would not only give us peace, that it would give us anticipation for being reunited with you face to face, reunited with our friends and our family who have gone before us, and God urgent, even more joyfully, gratefully urgent to show and to tell people around us about you.

And about the miracle of Christmas and Easter and kingdom and future and promise. God help us to hold those things in our hearts every day and help us to clinging to that promise that you are the king and the victor over sin and death and that our future. Is not growing more dim. It is growing more bright with every passing moment.

And Lord, help us, help us to hold that joy and to share that joy even as we grieve for a time. In Jesus' name we pray and everyone said together. Amen. 

[00:06:27] Conversation on Hope with Tim Altman

Let's talk about hope for a minute. I was in a really great conversation with a guy named Tim Altman. Uh, the last few days, uh, some of you may recognize the name Dawson McAllister.

Any of you ever heard that name? Dawson McAllister was, uh, as he described himself, the oldest living teenager, uh, because beginning in the sixties he had a great, great passion for trying to communicate the, the message of Jesus to young people, to teenagers. And so back in the seventies, uh, he pioneered the way for what we today call talk radio.

He had a talk show that would come on at 10 o'clock at night and would go to two in the morning because he knew that's when teenagers would be lonely. That's when teenagers would be fearful. That's when teenagers might be desperate enough and tired enough to actually tell you their real thoughts. And so he was one of the first, especially in Christian radio, where people could listen to him, give advice over the radio, and they could call into the show and they could get some guidance, some biblical guidance, and then if they wanted to talk more, they had a call center that would take those teenagers and continue to talk to them and make sure that they got the kind of encouragement and possibly additional resources such as counseling and that type of thing to help them.

Get to a better place of hope. So the Inheritor of Dawson McAllister ministry from the seventies, eighties, and nineties is a website that you can still find called The Hope Line, the hope line.com, and it's available to anybody, but it is particularly focused on teenagers between the ages of 15 and 25.

Let's just say the leader of that ministry today is Tim Altman. It. And so we had a conversation. I host a podcast and some of you found that podcast called Faith and Clarity, and this conversation you can listen to if you want to. But at the beginning of it, I asked Tim, give me your gut level definition of hope, and he said, hope is simply having confidence in your future.

That's what hope is really about. And when you lose confidence that your future is going to be good, at least as good as it is today, and hopefully better, when you lose that certainty, you have lost hope. Well, I believe that Jesus wants you to have a confident, certain, and secure hope, and among all the things that you and I have to be thankful for, that is one of the best things to celebrate.

The confident hope of a bright and eternal future with God. 

[00:09:25] The Story of Jesus and the Miraculous Catch

Now, I wanna talk to you this morning about that from the Gospel of John chapter 21, what is called the epilogue of John's. Biography of Jesus. So if you have it on your phone or the Bible in front of you, we'll put the text up on here. This is one of those parts of the story of Jesus that you would think we would be talking about in a few months when we get to Easter.

So if this feels like Easter at Thanksgiving, there's absolutely nothing heretical about that. Okay? Matter of fact, we need the hope of Easter in every season, especially. When we are grieving. So if you find that in your Bible or you wanna follow along in the screen, on the screen, John 21, beginning the first verse, A short story out of the resurrection appearances of Jesus, if you would, in honor of God's Word.

And it'll help you follow the screen a little better, Stan. And I'll read aloud this little short story. It says this. After this, this is after Jesus was crucified and resurrected. After this, Jesus revealed himself again to his disciples by the sea of Tiberius, he revealed himself in this way. Simon Peter Thomas called Twin Nathaniel from Cana of Galilee, Zebedee's sons, and two others of his disciples were together.

I'm going fishing. Somebody in this room might have said that or will say that in the next few days. Around here, I'm going fishing. Simon Peter said to them, we're coming with you. They told him. They went out and got into the boat, but that night they caught what? Nothing. Every real fisherman knows that frustration.

When daybreak came, Jesus stood on the shore, but the disciples did not know it was Jesus. Friends, he, Jesus called out to them. You don't have any fish, do you? No. They answered, cast the net on the right side of the boat. He told them, and you'll find some. So they did and they were unable to haul it in because of the large number of fish.

The disciple, the one Jesus loves, said to Peter, it is the Lord. When Simon Peter heard that it was the Lord, he tied his outer clothing around him for he had taken it off and plunged into the sea. Since they were not far from the land, about a hundred yards away, the other disciples came in the boat dragging the net full of fish.

When they got out on the land, they saw a charcoal fire there with fish lying on it and bred. Bring some of the fish you just caught. Jesus told them. So Simon Peter climbing up and climbed up and hauled the net ashore full of large fish, 153 of them, even though there were so many, the net was not torn.

Come and have breakfast. Jesus told them. None of the, oh, none of the disciples dared ask him, who are you? Because they knew it was the Lord. Jesus came, took the bread and gave it to them. He did the same with the fish. This was now the third time Jesus appeared to the disciples after he was raised from the dead.

You may be seated. Wow. 

[00:12:45] Reflecting on Gratitude and Hope

I don't know what you're most thankful for this year. I hope that there's a lot. For you to be grateful for. We prayed for Jordan Wheatley a little minute ago. Thank you Margaret Ann for that. I was texting back and forth with, uh, his wife Christine, and then with him after the surgery, they successfully rebuilt his leg with a 3D printer, creation of a portion of the bone in his leg that had been lost in the accident a few months ago.

I don't know if you've been able to keep up with this story, but one of the things that Jordan shared with me was that when they started the surgery, they found a rock still in the lower part of his existing leg bone that had not been identified and cleaned out when they were working to triage his injury.

And the surgeon was astounded that that rock had not caused a massive infection. Further destroying his leg. Now, I don't know what you're gonna think about 2025 and what you're going to remember and what you're gonna be thankful for, but what do you think the Wheatleys are thinking about in Lubbock the next few days?

What do you think they'll remember etched deep into their soul about what 2025 meant in terms of trauma and in terms of recovery? God wants you to have a confident hope about your future, a certainty about where your life is headed in the short and the long term. And as we think about that, I want you to remember three words through this Thanksgiving week.

I want you to remember the word ruminate. Do you know what it is to ruminate? You do it all the time. The second thing I want you to remember is to rely, what does it mean to rely more deeply on Jesus in every way? And then lastly, I want you to remember the word relationship, the ultimate promise of eternal life.

All of those are contained in this story as Jesus appears to those disciples. On the Sea of Tiberius, also called the Sea of Galilee. None of us is ever really sure why they call it a sea, because it's really just a large lake, but they love to call it the Sea of Tiberius or Galilee, and he appears to them beside a lake and fixes them breakfast.

Wow. What a story about 10 appearances or so of Jesus after the resurrection. Sometimes it was to an individual like Mary Magdalene. Sometimes it was to a couple of people like Peter and John sometimes The book of Corinthians says it was as many as 500 people. Theologians debate why Jesus didn't appear to thousands, why he just chose these particular audiences.

But Jesus left us a sufficient amount of ev of evidence that the resurrection was real. And the theologians that would come behind him, and the apostles that had known him personally realized that Jesus' resurrection was the key that would unlock the door to an eternity with God. For all of those that believed and trusted in him, they came to believe that as their ultimate hope.

But Jesus comes in this appearance. There is absolutely. I want you to go back at some time and reread these 14 verses. I want you to pay attention as we walk through it for a few minutes this morning. Listen to the detail, listen to the precision of this recounting, because that's one of the ways that God works through the pen of the Apostle John to convince you this is not a fairytale.

This really happened and the details helped to support that. 

[00:16:54] The Importance of Ruminating on God's Promises

One of the things that we learn about our secure future is that it is something that we need to think about often and deeply. We need to ruminate on it Now. If you've ever worried about anything, you know what it is to ruminate. To just let it roll over in your mind over and over and over again.

I don't know if you've learned to do this, but I certainly have. I've learned to ruminate to the point of catastrophizing almost everything. These two sitting here, I've ruminated over them from the days before they were born, and I still ruminate over them. And the three additional ones that come behind them.

I just ruminate. And sometimes if I'm not thinking well, if I am fearful, if I am tired, if I'm this or that, I can catastrophize about their lives and about mine in all kinds of ways. That's just human nature. But here's the deal. If you have the ability to worry, if you have the wor, the ability to fret, if you have the ability to catastrophize you actually, with the help of God can turn that around into a positive so that you are mulling over not the things that you're afraid of, not the things that you're worried about, but the things of God that he has promised to you for your life and for your future.

You can replace your worry. Positive rumination. You can chew on it. That's literally what the word means. If you see a cow out around, as you go in and out of the harbor or anywhere else around pk, you see them chewing their grass. They are ruminating on it, and I could give you a description of how they chew the cud.

That would not really inspire you for lunch in a little while. Okay? If you're a farmer or a rancher, you know what I'm talking about. They set out to go fishing. Now, if you study this passage, you'll find out that this was probably the most debated and criticized fishing expedition that ever happened because theologians are divided about whether or not.

Peter and his friends are obeying or disobeying Jesus. Are they in this moment when they are in Galilee? Having been in Jerusalem for Passover, they have witnessed the, the crucifixion of Jesus. They have had early indications at least two, that Jesus is alive. Some of them have seen him in the upper room.

Some of them have seen him in the garden of, of where he was buried. But they just don't know what to make sense of this. And some people, some theologians, really respectful theologians say, you know what? They are running away from the revelation of Jesus. They are running away from the call of Jesus to be his witnesses to the world.

That's one way that you can read this story. Others take exactly the opposite view. Jesus had told them that when he was resurrected, they should go back to the region in the north of the Galilee and they should wait for him there. And many people say they have just done what Jesus commanded and they are waiting for his next instructions.

That's the way I prefer to read the story, that they are back in a place of familiarity. Capernaum at the end, the North end of the Sea of Galilee, or the Sea of Tiberius, that was Peter's hometown. And I think they have simply gone there because Jesus told them to go there and Jesus has allowed them in this moment of astounding revelation and confusion.

He's allowed them to go home, back into the familiar so that they can think this through. Now it, it might seem mundane to you and I, 2000 years later. Resurrection is a big deal. It is a profound thing. How many people have you seen come from the dead and have a meal with you? This is a big deal, and you could understand why they would be struggling to wrap their soul and their mind.

That this guy who they saw brutally murdered on a cross is now walking around letting people put their hand into the holes in his hands and in his side and in his feet. That takes a little bit of time to grasp. God will give you that time. He wants you to have the opportunity. To process this, to reflect upon it, to remember it, to hear it, to ponder it, because these things are the core of our soul, these things of faith.

Life and death. Joy, and hope, sin, forgiveness, heaven, hell, all of these things of faith, hope and love, all of these things are the profound core of our life. They were at the motivation in the middle of the Civil War when Abraham Lincoln decides to declare the first official celebration of Thanksgiving.

He is weighted down with these core truths and ideas, and he says, in the midst of this bloody encounter, we must stop and we must be thankful. Life is good, even though it's hard at times. It is beautiful, even though we struggle with it. And here Jesus steps into the world to be our savior and to be our resurrected hope.

Maybe you need some extra time this week to just take a walk with Jesus. To have a conversation with him that doesn't end all week long, and to try to work out some of these deep and profound truths. The core of which is he is the resurrected victor over sin and death. He is preparing a kingdom and a home for all of his followers, and he is coming again, perhaps as soon as today to take all of those people home to his kingdom.

I mean, you can hear this in the scripture. On one occasion, the Apostle Paul is arrested for his faith, and he's being put on trial before several prominent leaders. One of them in Acts 26 is a guy named King Agrippa, and Paul says in his testimony, why King? Why do you consider it incredible that God raises the dead?

Well, I think King Agrippa was struggling because raising the dead is a big deal. But if you believe that there is a God in heaven who created everything that you see and experience. Then if God can create the northern lights and the stars that we appreciate, and the beautiful suns sunrise that me and my grandson watched this morning, if you can appreciate that, God can do that.

Why is it a big deal for him to resurrect life and start it all over again? So ruminate on these things, you can get a sense of their struggle, right? They get to the shoreline with this. Net full of fish and they pull it up and Jesus already has breakfast going, and I love this statement. They dared not ask him if it was really him.

You could, you could almost see them. They're just, they're just wiping their eyes and they're sitting there going, am I seeing what I'm seeing? Am I hearing what I'm hearing? Am I smelling what I'm smelling? Is this real? Is this real? Took him some time. You get a similar account in Matthew's Gospel, Matthew chapter 28.

Jesus is going to appear to them the last time before he goes to heaven, and he reminds them of their co mission that they are to go into all the world as his witnesses, and they are to teach people the way of salvation and baptize them in celebration of that faith and teach them to continue to observe.

But it says that when they met Jesus on this hill in Galilee, it says that they saw him. And yet some doubted they couldn't quite yet get their mind around a resurrected savior who had secured their hope. A w Tozer, the great theologian says this, what a person thinks about God is the most important thing about him.

I hope you'll have some great time to think about the deep things of God and especially. The resurrection promise of Jesus for your future hope, because God will give you that time. One of the great assurances of the Bible is what Paul was inspired to write to the Philippians. In Philippians chapter one, verse six, he says, he who began a good work in you, the good work of faith.

He will finish it on the day of his coming. Take some time. To think deeply, to ruminate on the promises of God and let them make you thankful. 

[00:26:39] Relying on Jesus for Strength and Guidance

The second word I want you to think about is the word reliance. You, you get a sense of that in this story. They went and fished all night because that was the best way for commercial fishermen particularly, uh, to get a great catch.

But they have fished all night and Jesus calls out to them across the length of a football field. Hey guys. Hey friends. Catch anything. He said the question in just a way to indicate that he knew what the answer was. Catch anything? Nah, it's a dry run. If you know your bible well, you know that this is an immediate throwback to a very similar experience that Peter and some of his friends had had about two, two and a half years ago with Jesus found in Luke chapter five.

But Jesus calls out in a friendly voice. It didn't have to be a friendly voice, but he calls out to them in a friendly voice. They don't yet recognize him, perhaps because he just supernaturally hid his identity, which he did for a time. In some of these appearances, it could have been that it was simply early twi or early morning daylight, and they couldn't make out across a hundred yards.

What it looked like. It might have been that this beautiful early morning fog that sometimes rolls across the Sea of Galilee. I've personally seen it. Sometimes that fog is there. Maybe they could kind of see his silhouette, but they couldn't quite make out his full image. We don't know how Jesus exactly hid himself in this morning, but he calls out and you have to wonder.

You have to wonder, did Jesus try his East Texas accent at this moment? So that they wouldn't immediately recognize his voice, but he calls out, Hey, did you catch anything? Nah. And Jesus says, well throw the net one more time on the other side. And here comes the amazing step of faith. Now, these are experienced fishermen, at least several of them are Peter, James, and John, and fishermen.

Well, fishermen can be stubborn. Perhaps a little arrogant. Now, if that's you, I apologize. But we know from the previous story that Peter was a little bit that way because when Jesus asked him to put his net down in the middle of the morning, two and a half years earlier, Peter argued with him and said, Lord, or in that case, Jesus, we've been at this all night, caught nothing.

This is not gonna work. But out of deference for Jesus as an emerging leader and rabbi and teacher out of respect for him. In that story of Luke five, Peter allows the nets to be thrown in one more time. And what happens? Well, there's a miracle that happens. And maybe now two and a half years later, these seven men have spent enough time with Jesus knowing that anything is possible.

They put their net back in the water and they can't get the net back in the boat. It's overflowing now because they start to recognize in these quiet events of the morning and this small conversation, they start to realize that anything is possible in the limitless power, power of Jesus. And without that power, you and I are likely to accomplish nothing.

Nothing that really matters. Anyway, they start probably recalling in their mind what they had heard from Jesus in the upper room just a few weeks earlier, that the relationship that they have with God is like that of branches to a vine. The only way that they can thrive, the only way that they can flourish, the only way that they can actually become the people that Jesus and his father dream of them becoming.

The only way that any of that can ever happen is if they stay committed and dependent and relying upon him consistently. And that would certainly be true for the mission that Jesus was calling them to. There's no way that they would ever be successful fishing for the souls of men and women and children.

They would never be sufficient and powerful witnesses unless they consistently chose to live out this life as a branch connected to him as the vine. Unless they depended on him over and over and over again. They would never, ever be able to communicate the gospel in a convincing and attractive way. To the people who so desperately needed it.

They had learned it in the first miracle of Luke five on this same stretch of beach and this same piece of water, but they finally heard it again from the resurrected Jesus, that if they would just simply choose to be dependent on him, they would have nothing to fear. They would have all kinds of opportunity to be the witnesses that he wanted them to be and that they longed to be heard a really great conversation this week about this really wonderful, terrifying thing called artificial intelligence.

Just seems like it's taking over the world. Part of this hour and a half long conversation. Said that you need to know that in places out in California and around the world, that people like, uh, Sam Altman, not Tim's brother by the way, but Sam Altman and Mark Zuckerberg, the head of Google, the head of of Apple, that in the hallways and offices of those giant tech companies, they are having enormous conversations.

About this thing called ai, and in some ways they seem to be scared enough that people like Sam Altman have gone to Congress and sat and given testimony and actually begged get this. They have begged Congress to regulate their industry because even they are concerned about where this stuff could lead.

Part of this conversation said that, you know what? In the AI world of today, there are three kinds of people. There are scouts who are saying, you know what? We just need to swim out in this water carefully, cautiously. We need to learn what this can do because if we're learning it, you can bet people around the world are learning it, and we need to be in the front.

If we can be. We need to scout the way and learn how to use this technology in the safest way possible. There are others who are called accelerators who are like, you know what, this is the greatest thing. This is what human beings were always meant to do and to discover. We should go as fast as we can.

We can cure cancer. We can cure a LS, we can cure all kinds of things, famine and, and home. We can cure every human ill if we just accelerate artificial intelligence. Guess what? The third group's called? They're called doomers. The Doomers believe that there is at least the potential, if not the probability, that artificial intelligence will threaten human existence.

Now, if you think those people are kind of just always the whack jobs, the guy who is considered the father of artificial intelligence is kind of in the DOR class. So take heart. Aren't you encouraged that you came to church?

Do you think that the resurrected Jesus is in any way afraid of artificial intelligence? Do you think our savior who suffered the most brutal beating and death that could ever have happened to a human being and then came back from the grave, is worried about any human technology that has ever been or ever will come down the pipe?

I don't think so. The key to this rely on him every single day. One last thing and we're done. 

[00:35:29] Jesus' Commitment to Eternal Relationship

When you think about your future, I want you in this story to see how committed Jesus is to the eternal relationship that he died and rose again to make possible. Just think about how this could have played out.

While you're thinking about that, let me ask you this, are you good with numbers? What I mean by that is, is are you good at remembering numbers? I became aware of the importance of a telephone number when I was about seven or eight years old, and in our town, they changed our phone number for some reason, and that was a big deal in our house because, well, the telephone was a big deal then and now.

And we had to learn that new phone number, but from about the age of seven to now, I knew that if I picked up any telephone in the world and I dialed 5, 6, 1, 2, 9, 3, 5, somebody with my same last name was going to answer 5, 6 1 2, 9 3 5. And then when my parents said, you know what too many of y'all's friends are calling, too many people want dates and too many of you're calling for dates.

We have to have another phone for the kids. And so we added an upstairs phone, and I still can tell you that number 5 6 1 2 9 2 1. And it was almost earth shattering and overcoming when they said, well, we need to add three digits to the front of this number so that you know we can have more worldwide calling.

And we thought, we'll never be able to remember 10 digits instead of seven. It became 9 0 3 5 6 1 2 9 3 5, and if you would dial that number right now, you will wake up my brother from his sleep, and I would love for him to get like 50 phone calls in the next hour. Okay, 5, 6, 1 2, 9, 3, 5. I'm not very good with numbers.

Judy and I were out the other day and she needed to write down. Her phone number and my phone number on a form, and she looked at me and she's like, what's your phone number? She said, I never look at your number. I just, I just look at your face and I touched my phone. Are you good with numbers? I don't know why, but a couple of years ago, I just, I figured out how to memorize my social security number.

No, I'm not gonna tell you what it is. I memorized my wife's social security number. I have my Texas driver's license number. I can remember all of those numbers, but I'm usually not very good with numbers. Do you think that these seven men ever forgot that there were 153 fish in this net? Now, I'm not a fisherman.

I keep thinking I should become a fisherman. But I gotta tell you the whole process that I've experimented with a little bit, it just bores me to death so far. But out here at this lake, I really don't have any business water skiing anymore. I should become a fisherman, but I just can't get myself up for it yet.

Do you think these seven fishermen who probably all had spent their life. Not only feeding their families, but providing for all of the other needs of their lives. Do you think they ever forgot the number? 153

Peter dives into the water. The rest of them make it to shore. They couldn't wait to see how fast they could get to Jesus, and when they get to the shoreline. He's already got breakfast going. We don't know where the fish came from or the bread or the fire for that matter. Did Jesus just walk by and snap his fingers and there was the breakfast going?

Who knows? But listen again, it says they were so stunned they couldn't even dare to ask if this was real. I think I would've been exactly like that. What. This is no longer Easter Sunday. This is no longer the upper room where we got the door locked, and we're afraid if we're gonna get outta town with our lives.

This is, this is weeks later, and Jesus is standing on the beach with a fire and a meal.

You can appreciate how difficult to comprehend this. It must have been. It didn't have to go this way. Jesus could have been harsh. He could have rebuked them that they were all fishing instead of praying. He didn't have to provide them breakfast. If we really thought about this story, shouldn't it have been the other way around that they would've been preparing a 10 course meal for the resurrected king of glory?

Listen to the invitation. Come and have breakfast. Come and have breakfast.

What's the best meal you've had recently? What's the best meal you're expecting to have in the next couple of days? We got some great steaks from around the corner here at the trading post last night. Then we topped it off with what I consider to be the best apple pie on the planet. It was a darn good meal, but just the warmup act for what's coming in the next couple of days.

Judy and I threw a strange set of circumstances, ended up in a very special meal on Thursday night, a meal at downtown Dallas that we had no business being at by the way. But through a strange set of circumstances, we ended up in this place called the at and t Performing Arts Center, and we had a meal not simply at that venue, but on the stage where all kinds of a list entertainment happens all through the year.

But you know what? The food didn't make it the best. The thing that was most outstanding about this meal. Besides the food and the venue was the fellowship we had around the table and the entertainment that came afterward. We had a guy that did the cover songs to Billy Joel for an hour, and if you'd closed your eyes, you would've thought Billy Joel was sitting at the piano.

That's a pretty dog on good meal right there. I had a friend come to town about a month ago. We miss him greatly. He and his wife were are some of our closest friends. They moved to the Chicago area. We get to see them about twice a year, and two of my buddies got prepared for this other buddy of ours to come to town.

One of my buddies went and got a steak that, I'm not kidding, you was at least this thick and they spent two hours perfectly preparing this steak. One for each of the four of us. It is by far the best steak cooked at a home that I have ever had. Thomas and I have had a raspberry filet at Labis in for in Lubbock, which is something you ought to check into when you're out that way.

But this was a home cooked steak. It was fabulous. But you know what? The stake was not the best part. The best part was sitting around with those three buddies of mine. Who have done the last 30 years of life together and would do literally anything for each other, including taking a bullet. What's the best meal you've recently had or hoped to have this week?

Somehow? I don't think it was the fish somehow. I don't think it was the bread. Somehow, I don't think it was the beautiful lakeside setting like we had at Stephen Tricia's house a couple of weeks ago as wonderful and as beautiful and as fabulous as it as it was at Stephen Tricia's house. I mean, we showed these pictures to our staff at Dentist and Ministries and all those young people were just gaping in awe that, that we get to do this kind of thing out here at the chapel.

But you know what? I think the best thing about this meal on the site, sea of Tiberius, how could it not be that they were sitting there with the resurrected Lord of Hope? Wow. So my invitation on behalf of Jesus to you this morning, it's be like, Peter, grab, grab your. Close and jump in the water and swim as fast as you can.

Even if you find yourself like Peter, not really sure where you stand with him today because, because that conversation comes later. Or maybe you'll be like those other six rowing that boat as fast as you can for a hundred yard sprint. Dragging along every blessing and every burden that you've ever carried in your life, and you're just trying to get to Jesus as fast as you can because you know there's absolutely no one else like him.

[00:45:23] Closing Prayer and Thanksgiving Wishes

Let's pray together. Jesus, we thank you for this beautiful day and this great celebration of gratitude, all of which you deserve, and of which you are worthy. Every breath that we breathe, every beat of our heart, every single blessing that we enjoy comes from your hand, including, including the promise of everlasting life with you and with your forever family, some of which is gathered right here in this room.

God, as we miss and grieve those that we have loved who have gone on ahead of us. Into your presence. We look forward with great anticipation and joy knowing, knowing in the deepest part of our soul that because you live, we will also live and we are grateful. In Jesus' name we pray, everybody said amen.

Amen. And happy Thanksgiving. Have a great week. Great to be with you.