SPEAKER_00: This podcast is the ministry of Grand Parkway Baptist Church, helping people know, enjoy, and glorify God.
SPEAKER_00: For more information about Grand Parkway, visit Grand Parkway.org.
SPEAKER_02: Pray together.
SPEAKER_02: Father, we uh we uh add our voice to the voice of everyone in the Bible who says, Worthy is the Lamb who is slain.
SPEAKER_02: Uh Lord, there's nothing that you're not worthy of.
SPEAKER_02: There's not a sacrifice that we could bring that's too big.
SPEAKER_02: There's not a response that we could have that's disproportionate to who you are.
SPEAKER_02: Uh and so, Holy Spirit, lead us into the truth today.
SPEAKER_02: Illuminate the scripture.
SPEAKER_02: We've not come to have an experience, we've come to get understanding, which is why Proverbs says, though it costs you all you have, get understanding.
SPEAKER_02: Lord, our church is not designed to be the experience people have on Sunday.
SPEAKER_02: Our church is here to equip the saints for the work of ministry so that they're the experience that people have in the workplace and in the grocery store and at the playground and in the cul-de-sac in the neighborhood, and over a cup of coffee, as someone comes to the end of themselves and the beginning of both God and gospel.
SPEAKER_02: That's why we're here today.
SPEAKER_02: For you to make of us those kinds of people, God.
SPEAKER_02: We're not here for pity, we're here because of love.
SPEAKER_02: And so, Lord, just kind of brood over us.
SPEAKER_02: Speak a word to everyone in this room that shapes, informs, and impacts who we are and how we are.
SPEAKER_02: This is our prayer we offered in Jesus' name, and everyone said Amen.
SPEAKER_02: Amen.
SPEAKER_02: You can have a C if you got a Bible.
SPEAKER_02: I invite you to take it and open it up to John chapter 21.
SPEAKER_02: John chapter 21.
SPEAKER_02: I want to talk to you this morning about the essential things.
SPEAKER_02: The essential things.
SPEAKER_02: This is our last sermon in the book of John, and everyone said, uh, yes, I'm sorry I wasn't here last week.
SPEAKER_02: Uh yes, I know you're probably like, could you please start over again?
SPEAKER_02: But no, I cannot.
SPEAKER_02: Uh we have to get on to other things.
SPEAKER_02: I wasn't here last week, and some of y'all, and not that it's any of your business, but you email me and go, where are you?
SPEAKER_02: Kanye only comes to town once a year, people, okay?
SPEAKER_02: A man gotta have some priorities.
SPEAKER_02: I ain't saying she's a gold digger, but anyway, uh you white people have no idea what I just said.
SPEAKER_02: Uh anyway, and I was in Dallas doing the wedding.
SPEAKER_02: Uh we're in John chapter 21.
SPEAKER_02: We'll finish it today.
SPEAKER_02: I'll start reading verse 15.
SPEAKER_02: I'll read all the way down to verse 25.
SPEAKER_02: In John chapter 21, it's really an epilogue.
SPEAKER_02: It's kind of a wrap-up summary of the entire uh gospel of John.
SPEAKER_02: Uh and basically deals with two things provision and then Peter.
SPEAKER_02: He said, What do you mean provision?
SPEAKER_02: The disciples kind of freak out when Jesus says, Hey, it's expedient that I must go in John chapter 14.
SPEAKER_02: Not because they're worried about Jesus leaving, they're worried about what does this mean for us?
SPEAKER_02: Who's going to care for us?
SPEAKER_02: Who's going to provide for us?
SPEAKER_02: Who's going to take care of us?
SPEAKER_02: And so, and sometimes, I mean, Jesus kind of winks at us in the Bible.
SPEAKER_02: They're worried about provision.
SPEAKER_02: And then Jesus shows up in John 21.
SPEAKER_02: I talked about this a couple weeks ago.
SPEAKER_02: He's on the beach, they're out there fishing.
SPEAKER_02: He says, Hey children, do you have any fish?
SPEAKER_02: The Bible's already told us they fished all night and caught nothing.
SPEAKER_02: And they're like, No, we ain't got anything.
SPEAKER_02: Jesus says, Cast out on the other side of the boat.
SPEAKER_02: They cast in so many fish that they just can't pull the net in.
SPEAKER_02: Then they realize, uh-oh, it's Jesus.
SPEAKER_02: Have you ever blown it so bad you were afraid to come to church?
SPEAKER_02: Yes, yes, one sinner in the front row.
SPEAKER_02: The rest of you are like, oh yes, Kim Bosabe, that's me.
SPEAKER_02: Uh yeah.
SPEAKER_02: They were like, oh man, it's Jesus.
SPEAKER_02: We're out here fishing.
SPEAKER_02: And he said we'd be fishers of men, and we're just settling for catching fish.
SPEAKER_02: And so Peter jumps up and Peter comes running to the shore, like, whoa! Now let me ask you this.
SPEAKER_02: Uh, this is free.
SPEAKER_02: If there's room on your row in the middle, would you scoot and come each other scoot in uh to make room, make it easier for people to kind of slide in?
SPEAKER_02: I know some of you aisle people, this is not a southwest flight, okay?
SPEAKER_02: Feel in the middle row.
SPEAKER_02: Yes, you've flown that before.
SPEAKER_02: You've flown before.
SPEAKER_02: That way, people that come in a little bit late, they can just slip in and slide in.
SPEAKER_02: Anyway, back to Peter.
SPEAKER_02: And so he what he does is provision.
SPEAKER_02: They're worried about provision.
SPEAKER_02: They get to the shore.
SPEAKER_02: Jesus has already got breakfast prepared.
SPEAKER_02: He's like, You guys hungry?
SPEAKER_02: How about some breakfast?
SPEAKER_02: And bring some of the fish that you caught.
SPEAKER_02: I'm gonna involve you in this process.
SPEAKER_02: And today we're gonna talk about Peter and how he restores Peter.
SPEAKER_02: Provision and Peter.
SPEAKER_02: Why?
SPEAKER_02: Because the gospels, Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John are four different men that walked with Jesus, they were around Jesus, they were eyewitnesses to everything they saw.
SPEAKER_02: They didn't make it up and just, oh, this would sound good.
SPEAKER_02: Hey, put this in here.
SPEAKER_02: Uh, and so they all write from a different perspective.
SPEAKER_02: John writes to Jewish people who don't believe in Jesus.
SPEAKER_02: They're religious, but they don't have a relationship with God, which, by the way, is some of you in this room.
SPEAKER_02: Y'all are like, oh, what are you talking about, Willis?
SPEAKER_02: Uh yeah, religion will not save you, it won't change your life one bit.
SPEAKER_02: Matter of fact, religion will make your life worse.
SPEAKER_02: A relationship with God changes everything.
SPEAKER_02: And so John is writing to religious people who did not have a relationship with God.
SPEAKER_02: Okay?
SPEAKER_02: And in this last section here, he really focuses on Peter.
SPEAKER_02: Why?
SPEAKER_02: Because after the gospels is the book of Acts.
SPEAKER_02: The book of Acts tells about the birth of the church, the rise, and the historic consequential spread of Christianity.
SPEAKER_02: And the central person to that in Acts chapter 2, versus Acts chapter 12, is a man named Peter.
SPEAKER_02: And so how does he go from being a guy that's like, I don't know him?
SPEAKER_02: Shut up, girl.
SPEAKER_02: I have no idea who Jesus is, to being a man who preaches a sermon in Acts chapter 2, and 3,000 people become Christians.
SPEAKER_02: Yes.
SPEAKER_02: That's what we'll talk about today.
SPEAKER_02: So when I say the established things, on the way out, the gospel of John is so consequential, he establishes three realities on the way out the door.
SPEAKER_02: John chapter 21, I'll start reading verse 15.
SPEAKER_02: When they had finished breakfast, Jesus said to Simon, Peter, Simon, son of John, do you love me more than these?
SPEAKER_02: He said to him, Yes, Lord, you know that I love you.
SPEAKER_02: He said to him, Feed my lambs.
SPEAKER_02: He said to him a second time, Simon, son of John, do you love me?
SPEAKER_02: He said to him, Yes, Lord, you know that I love you.
SPEAKER_02: He said to him, Tend my sheep.
SPEAKER_02: He said to him the third time, Simon, son of John, do you love me?
SPEAKER_02: Peter was grieved because he said to him the third time, Do you love me?
SPEAKER_02: And he said to him, Lord, you know everything.
SPEAKER_02: Mark that phrase in your Bible.
SPEAKER_02: Be careful what you say to Jesus, because he'll require you to experience it.
SPEAKER_02: We'll come back to that.
SPEAKER_02: Oh, Lord, you know everything, Jesus' life.
SPEAKER_02: Now that you've said that, uh, Lord, you know everything.
SPEAKER_02: You know that I love you.
SPEAKER_02: Jesus said to him, Feed my sheep.
SPEAKER_02: Truly, truly, I say to you, when you were young, you used to dress yourself and walk wherever you wanted, but when you were old, you will stretch out your hands, and another will dress you and carry you where you do not want to go.
SPEAKER_02: This he said to show by what kind of death he was to glorify God.
SPEAKER_02: And after saying this, he said to him, Follow me.
SPEAKER_02: Peter turned and saw the disciple whom Jesus loved following them, the one who also had leaned back against him during the supper and said, Lord, who is it that is going to betray you?
SPEAKER_02: When Peter saw him, he said to Jesus, Lord, what about this man?
SPEAKER_02: Jesus said to him, No Zero Z, it is if it's my will that he remain until I come, what is that to you?
SPEAKER_02: You follow me.
SPEAKER_02: So the saying spread uh abroad among the brothers that this disciple was not to die.
SPEAKER_02: Yet Jesus did not say to him that he was not to die, but if it is my will that he remain until I come, what is that to you?
SPEAKER_02: This is the disciple who is bearing witness about these things and who has written these things that and we know that his testimony is true.
SPEAKER_02: Now there are also many other things that Jesus did.
SPEAKER_02: Were every one of them to be written?
SPEAKER_02: I suppose that the world itself could not contain the books that would be written.
SPEAKER_02: And so there's three things on the way out the door in this kind of some of this epilogue to the Gospel of John that get established.
SPEAKER_02: The first one is this that God uses people who have blown it.
SPEAKER_02: Like my wife said to me one time, oh, I had a wreck in the parking lot, which means her door dinged the car next to her.
SPEAKER_02: That ain't a wreck, okay?
SPEAKER_02: That's an excuse to go park somewhere else.
SPEAKER_02: But I digress.
SPEAKER_02: Uh when I say you've blown it, I don't mean, well, I didn't read my Bible every day this week.
SPEAKER_02: I mean, I dinged the door next to me.
SPEAKER_02: I mean I put it in the ditch so bad, I think this thing is total.
SPEAKER_02: We should just walk away from it and burn it to the ground.
SPEAKER_02: So let me ask you this question so I can see who I'm talking to today.
SPEAKER_02: If you've really blown it before in your life spiritually, say amen.
SPEAKER_02: Okay, so I'm talking to people that understand this.
SPEAKER_02: All right.
SPEAKER_02: So God uses people that have blown it.
SPEAKER_02: Why do I say that?
SPEAKER_02: Because I want to establish two things I want you to understand about blowing it.
SPEAKER_02: Number one, permission versus authority.
SPEAKER_02: Permission versus authority.
SPEAKER_02: See, when we blow it, we give ourselves permission by staying secretive, becoming more devious, more addicted, more deceptive, more permissive.
SPEAKER_02: We get a burner phone, we change our cell phone, we hide our phone or whatever.
SPEAKER_02: And what you when you do all that, here's what you're doing: you're building an idol to your appetites instead of an altar to your responsibility.
SPEAKER_02: Let me say that again.
SPEAKER_02: You build an idol to your appetites.
SPEAKER_02: You're kind of like, well, you know, I prayed for God to take this away and God didn't take it away, so it must be God's will.
SPEAKER_02: That's just you being ruled by your appetites.
SPEAKER_02: Men, the difference in men and boys is boys are ruled by their appetites, men are ruled by their understanding.
SPEAKER_02: Big difference in those two.
SPEAKER_02: I'm not saying as a man you won't have appetites, but they don't have power over you.
SPEAKER_02: Hear me now, you have dominion over them.
SPEAKER_02: Because as Psalm 16 says, God's crowned you with glory and honor and giving you dominion over everything that He's created.
SPEAKER_02: That means yourself.
SPEAKER_02: You're never at the mercy of just what you feel and things that kind of go through your head, okay?
SPEAKER_02: And so when I say permission versus authority, when you give yourself permission, you're talking yourself into what you were never created for.
SPEAKER_02: And that's not the worst part.
SPEAKER_02: Here's the worst part you're talking yourself out of everything you were created for.
SPEAKER_02: Let me say that again.
SPEAKER_02: When you give yourself permission to continue in things that you know aren't right, you're just like, well, you know, hey, I mean, we're continuing adults.
SPEAKER_02: I'm not hurting anybody, this doesn't involve anybody else, blah, blah, blah.
SPEAKER_02: Whatever excuse or justification you have, when you give yourself permission, you're talking yourself into what you were never created for, which is bad enough.
SPEAKER_02: But what's even worse is you're talking yourself out of everything you were created for.
SPEAKER_02: Here's how you know that's happening.
SPEAKER_02: Your life is characterized by powerlessness and absence instead of power and presence.
SPEAKER_02: It's kind of like you feel you back out of the driveway tomorrow and you're like, you just feel like, oh, why is everybody so happy?
SPEAKER_02: It's not even Thanksgiving yet.
SPEAKER_02: I tell you what, Sunday 99's playing Christmas songs already.
SPEAKER_02: What's wrong with this world?
SPEAKER_02: And everybody seems to have this kind of sense of something more so than you.
SPEAKER_02: Because deep inside you know that you've so grieved the Spirit of God you can't even feel God anymore.
SPEAKER_02: So I want you to understand when it comes to blowing it, permission versus authority.
SPEAKER_02: Second thing I want you to understand is now versus afterwards.
SPEAKER_02: Um look at verse 15.
SPEAKER_02: When they had finished breakfast.
SPEAKER_02: Now, if I ask you to pick out the most powerful word and that little sit that little phrase right there, when they had finished breakfast, five words, what would you pick?
SPEAKER_02: Finished.
SPEAKER_02: No, they when they had finished breakfast.
SPEAKER_02: Now, why is that so powerful?
SPEAKER_02: Because Peter had blown it in front of all these people, all these disciples, and Jesus restores him in the context of everybody.
SPEAKER_02: He he he blew it in the context of all the disciples.
SPEAKER_02: Jesus restores him in the context of everybody.
SPEAKER_02: When they, when they see, he i it in the context of they, Jesus sends a very clear message to him.
SPEAKER_02: Uh remember back in John 13?
SPEAKER_02: This will sound familiar.
SPEAKER_02: Let me just read it to you.
SPEAKER_02: In John 13, uh Simon Peter said to him, Lord, where are you going?
SPEAKER_02: And Jesus answered him, Where I am going, you cannot follow me now, but you will follow me afterward.
SPEAKER_02: Peter said to him, Lord, why can I not follow you now?
SPEAKER_02: Uh I will lay down my life for you.
SPEAKER_02: And Jesus answered, Will you lay down your life for me?
SPEAKER_02: Truly, truly, I say to you, the rooster will not crow till you have denied me three times.
SPEAKER_02: Now, when I say now versus afterwards, look at right there.
SPEAKER_02: You said, Where do you get that?
SPEAKER_02: Right here in John 13.
SPEAKER_02: He says, Where I am going, you cannot follow now.
SPEAKER_02: But you will follow afterwards.
SPEAKER_02: Now, some people, I've heard people preach this and it's dead wrong.
SPEAKER_02: They say, Oh, he's talking about after Peter dies and he's in heaven.
SPEAKER_02: I'm like, we're gonna be following Jesus, we're in heaven, we're gonna be enjoying God when we're in heaven.
SPEAKER_02: So he's not talking about dying and after heaven when it's a lot easier.
SPEAKER_02: What he's talking about is Peter's failure.
SPEAKER_02: There's things in life that you cannot experience until you fail really well.
SPEAKER_02: Some of y'all are like, That explains my college days.
SPEAKER_02: Some of you are like, I got nothing because you're a perfectionist.
SPEAKER_02: You're driven by your performance.
SPEAKER_02: And Jesus would say to you what he says to Peter, you can't follow me now.
SPEAKER_02: Because where I grew up in East Texas, they would say, You're too cocky.
SPEAKER_02: Or they would say, A boy's got too much starch in his pants.
SPEAKER_02: I remember hearing old men at the barbershop talk about young men.
SPEAKER_02: I tell you what, God's gonna take some starch out of that boy's pants.
SPEAKER_02: I had no idea what that meant, but everybody laughs.
SPEAKER_02: I was like, Yeah, yeah.
SPEAKER_02: I'm like seven years old.
SPEAKER_02: Yeah, yeah.
SPEAKER_02: I'm not seven anymore.
SPEAKER_02: I understand that.
SPEAKER_02: See, that's what Jesus says to him.
SPEAKER_02: Hey, you cannot follow me now.
SPEAKER_02: Why?
SPEAKER_02: Because you're competitive and you're you're you're you're you're ruled by comparison.
SPEAKER_02: Peter always likes to distinguish himself.
SPEAKER_02: That's what he does in John 13.
SPEAKER_02: Oh, all these people, they may forsake you and fall back, but not me, Jesus.
SPEAKER_02: I'm your man.
SPEAKER_02: I'll die for you.
SPEAKER_02: Jesus, like, really?
SPEAKER_02: You'll die for me?
SPEAKER_02: That sounds great because Peter's the kind of guy, it's like the person that gets on Facebook or Instagram late at night and compares your life to everyone else's.
SPEAKER_02: How do they afford that house?
SPEAKER_02: Oh my gosh, they've remodeled everything in their house.
SPEAKER_02: How much did this cost?
SPEAKER_02: Or you get on Instagram and you're like, oh, how many vacations can they take a year?
SPEAKER_02: And your husband's trying to watch football, and you're like, Can you believe this?
SPEAKER_02: And you're like, babe, I don't care about that.
SPEAKER_02: That's not even.
SPEAKER_02: Somebody asked me not long ago, because y'all think I'm kidding.
SPEAKER_02: I'm not on any social media and not for a spiritual reason.
SPEAKER_02: I'm just lazy.
SPEAKER_02: And I don't want to compare my life to other people's.
SPEAKER_02: I went to a friend's house last night for coffee and dessert, and he's he's a carpenter, okay?
SPEAKER_02: Give me a break.
SPEAKER_02: That's what you're supposed to do.
SPEAKER_02: His wife's like, well, you know, when you're a carpenter, your husband's a carpenter, your house gets fixed last.
SPEAKER_02: And so my friend starts showing my wife all the stuff he's done, and she's like, Oh, can you believe that?
SPEAKER_02: Oh, Charlie remodeled their pool house, and now it's a bunk house and blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah.
SPEAKER_02: She's going, um, Charlie, jumbly, jumbly, jumbly.
SPEAKER_02: We got in the truck.
SPEAKER_02: I said, Well, Charlie can't preach.
SPEAKER_02: My wife's playing dumb.
SPEAKER_02: She's like, Wait, how about gonna be like?
SPEAKER_02: She goes, Oh, did you see that staircase?
SPEAKER_02: It flips up, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah.
SPEAKER_02: Yes, I saw it.
SPEAKER_02: And they've got sliding barn doors.
SPEAKER_02: And oh, Kim got those barn doors in roundtop.
SPEAKER_02: I don't know where roundtop is.
SPEAKER_02: What does roundtop even exist?
SPEAKER_02: We should go to roundtop sometime and go antiquing.
SPEAKER_02: Kill me now.
SPEAKER_02: How about you and Kim go to Roundtop and go antique?
SPEAKER_02: I mean, Roundtop's not even a city.
SPEAKER_02: That's a myth.
SPEAKER_02: It's like North Dakota.
SPEAKER_02: I've never met anybody from there.
SPEAKER_02: I think it's a CIA plot, okay?
SPEAKER_02: No, they have a they have an antique festival in Roundtop every year.
SPEAKER_02: I can't I cannot hear what you're saying, babe.
SPEAKER_02: No, because I love my house, I go to Charlie's house, then I hate my house.
SPEAKER_02: That's what comparison does to you.
SPEAKER_02: By the way, social media is just a platform for comparison.
SPEAKER_02: That's all it is.
SPEAKER_02: By the way, I get I'll get scientific on you.
SPEAKER_02: Anxiety has gone through the roof in people since the advent of social media.
SPEAKER_02: Because you're content until you see, you're like, oh my gosh, they're skiing.
SPEAKER_02: They went to Hawaii in the summer and now they're skiing.
SPEAKER_02: Then you look at your husband and you think, why don't you make more money?
SPEAKER_02: If you had a better job, we would be skiing right now.
SPEAKER_02: But we're sitting here eating Fritos and Bean dip and trying to make it look satisfying.
SPEAKER_02: Peter's that way.
SPEAKER_02: So if you struggle with comparison, there's people in the Bible that did.
SPEAKER_02: Which is later on in John 21, John the beloved disciple, walks down the beach, and Peter's like, What about him?
SPEAKER_02: He's so ruled by comparison he can't even hear what Jesus is saying.
SPEAKER_02: So he misquotes what Jesus says, and this rumor gets out that, oh, John's never gonna die.
SPEAKER_02: All Jesus said was, hey man, don't worry about him.
SPEAKER_02: If I want him to remain until I come, what's that to you?
SPEAKER_02: You follow me.
SPEAKER_02: Peter doesn't want to focus on following Jesus.
SPEAKER_02: He wants to focus on comparing himself to everybody else.
SPEAKER_02: He's the guy that's got to compare himself and make sure I stand out from everybody else in the room.
SPEAKER_02: Because now, versus afterwards, now being this competitive, comparison-based person you are, you cannot follow me.
SPEAKER_02: That's gonna keep you.
SPEAKER_02: You just can't do it.
SPEAKER_02: And then Jesus says, but you will afterward.
SPEAKER_02: Look at me.
SPEAKER_02: God has a confidence in failure that you and I don't have.
SPEAKER_02: That's why some of you perfectionists are like, oh, I've never, I've never failed at anything.
SPEAKER_02: You're a liar, or you've yet to reach your spiritual potential.
SPEAKER_02: Afterwards, when you're broken over your sin and you don't trust in yourself anymore, you're not cocky, like Kid Rock used to sing about.
SPEAKER_02: You're a broken, humbled man.
SPEAKER_02: Jesus says, now, afterwards, you you you're gonna get there.
SPEAKER_02: You're gonna get there.
SPEAKER_02: Why the emphasis on now versus afterwards?
SPEAKER_02: Afterwards, what he's referring to is his failure.
SPEAKER_02: Ask yourself today, have I ever failed so well that it changed the way I follow Jesus?
SPEAKER_02: Have you ever failed so badly that it affected the way you follow Jesus?
SPEAKER_02: Second thing that gets established in John 21 is that we will all experience what we believe.
SPEAKER_02: Look at verse 18 or verse 17.
SPEAKER_02: Peter was grieved because Jesus says to him a third time, Do you love me?
SPEAKER_02: So he said to him, Lord, you know everything.
SPEAKER_02: You know that I love you.
SPEAKER_02: Now I told you a few minutes ago, be careful what you say to Jesus, because he will require it of you.
SPEAKER_02: This is not a one-off deal.
SPEAKER_02: Remember the rich young ruler, he came to Jesus.
SPEAKER_02: You know, Lord, Lord, what must I do to inherit eternal life?
SPEAKER_02: Jesus said, You know the commandments, honor your mother and father, love your neighbor as yourself, blah, blah, blah.
SPEAKER_02: And the guy spouted off to Jesus and goes, All these I've kept since I was a little kid.
SPEAKER_02: And Jesus in his mind is like, Oh, so you love your neighbor as much as you love yourself?
SPEAKER_02: And he applied his knowledge to him.
SPEAKER_02: He said, Well, I tell you what you do.
SPEAKER_02: Give all your stuff to your poor neighbor, then come follow me.
SPEAKER_02: You know, well, easy now, Jesus.
SPEAKER_02: I mean, come on now.
SPEAKER_02: Who are you, Bernie Sanders?
SPEAKER_02: We're not a socialist here, are we?
SPEAKER_02: No, Jesus is like, you just out of your little cookie-eating mouth, just said, I love my neighbor as much as I love myself.
SPEAKER_02: Good, give him all your stuff.
SPEAKER_02: Never mind.
SPEAKER_02: The Bible says he walked away sad because he had a lot of stuff.
SPEAKER_02: Now, the emphasis is not, oh, yeah, get the guy that's got a lot of stuff.
SPEAKER_02: Hey, stop hating people that have more than you.
SPEAKER_02: Maybe they're just willing to work harder.
SPEAKER_02: You're like, I prefer socialism.
SPEAKER_02: No.
SPEAKER_02: You will never become, this is free, a little sidebar.
SPEAKER_02: You will never become the person you could be as long as you rely on other people more than you rely on God.
SPEAKER_02: I don't care who you vote into office.
SPEAKER_02: It ain't gonna it never gonna be the nirvana they tell you it's going to be.
SPEAKER_02: But Peter, back to Peter, Peter says to him, you know, Lord, you know everything.
SPEAKER_02: And he says, Okay, okay, if I know everything, let me just expect, let me pull the curtain back and tell you the degree to the things that I know.
SPEAKER_02: Look at verse 19, verse 18.
SPEAKER_02: Truly, truly I say to you, when you were young, you used to dress yourself and walk wherever you wanted.
SPEAKER_02: But when you're old, you will stretch out your hands, and another will dress you and carry you where you do not want to go.
SPEAKER_02: This he said to show by what kind of death he was to glorify God.
SPEAKER_02: And after saying this, he said to him, Follow me.
SPEAKER_02: So what happens is Peter says, You know, Lord, you've asked me three times, you know, do I love you?
SPEAKER_02: Lord, you know everything.
SPEAKER_02: And Jesus said, takes that opportunity to say, Let me just pull back the curtain and tell you all that I know.
SPEAKER_02: I know how you're gonna die, and I want you to get this in your head, Peter.
SPEAKER_02: So see, therefore, not just for Peter, but for us, once Jesus displays the basis of his knowledge, then the question before us today is, can I follow Jesus for the rest of my life?
SPEAKER_02: And when it comes time to die, can I die in a way that glorifies God and not me?
SPEAKER_02: Can I die in a way that everyone doesn't take up an offense for me that I'm actually dying?
SPEAKER_02: That they're like, oh man, that guy got 55 years.
SPEAKER_02: God didn't owe him a day.
SPEAKER_02: Glory to God.
SPEAKER_02: Let's eat some potato salad.
SPEAKER_02: We don't die well in America, folks.
SPEAKER_02: It's hard to die well in America.
SPEAKER_02: Uh I went to a celebration of life service this past week.
SPEAKER_02: It was great.
SPEAKER_02: We celebrated.
SPEAKER_02: Where we sat?
SPEAKER_02: Oh, absolutely.
SPEAKER_02: It wasn't this glib.
SPEAKER_02: But there's a sense of, oh yeah.
SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
SPEAKER_02: This is a well-lived life.
SPEAKER_02: And this is what Jesus is saying to Peter.
SPEAKER_02: Hey man, when you're young, you came and went wherever you wanted.
SPEAKER_02: When you get old, someone's gonna take you by the hand.
SPEAKER_02: You're gonna need them carrying angels that they advertise on TV to come button your shirt up and feed you oatmeal.
SPEAKER_02: You still look you gonna love me then, Peter?
SPEAKER_02: You still gonna follow me then?
SPEAKER_02: Or when it gets hard, are you gonna get mad at me and step away?
SPEAKER_02: Because what Jesus is saying is even death is intended to glorify me.
SPEAKER_02: Think of it like this, because it's hard to talk about death, you know, because you're like, dude, come on.
SPEAKER_02: I don't want to talk about death.
SPEAKER_02: My sister-in-law's coming for Thanksgiving.
SPEAKER_02: That's death right there.
SPEAKER_02: And by the way, she's still the same selfish person she was last year.
SPEAKER_02: She's bringing nothing but some empty Tupperware to haul back some leftovers.
SPEAKER_02: Y'all gonna eat that?
SPEAKER_02: You're gonna be in the pantry.
SPEAKER_02: Oh my gosh.
SPEAKER_02: It's your sister.
SPEAKER_02: Get out there and face her.
SPEAKER_02: And Jesus ain't coming.
SPEAKER_02: And she's gonna drink your wine too while she's here.
SPEAKER_02: Enjoy yourself.
SPEAKER_02: Anyway.
SPEAKER_02: Hey, when you apply this truth, here's what I want to do this morning.
SPEAKER_02: Just take that little phrase, Lord, you know everything.
SPEAKER_02: Lord, you know everything.
SPEAKER_02: When you apply that to your life, what stirs up in you?
SPEAKER_02: Because I want all of us when we pray for the next seven days, I want every prayer to begin with, Lord, you know everything.
SPEAKER_02: Let that inform and affect what you're fixing to say to God.
SPEAKER_02: Because sometimes you pray like you're informing God.
SPEAKER_02: Like, God, I think you've kind of forgotten what it's like down here.
SPEAKER_02: Somebody bring you up to speed.
SPEAKER_02: Okay?
SPEAKER_02: Just saying.
SPEAKER_02: But if you just said, Lord, you know everything.
SPEAKER_02: I just sat with that phrase and just jot down some questions that stirred up in me.
SPEAKER_02: Lord, you know everything.
SPEAKER_02: If that's true, would I worry about the things I currently worry about?
SPEAKER_02: Lord, you know everything.
SPEAKER_02: Would you fear the people and things you fear?
SPEAKER_02: Would you lie anymore?
SPEAKER_02: Would you trust God more?
SPEAKER_02: Would you covet anymore?
SPEAKER_02: Would you be a more authentic person?
SPEAKER_02: You say, What do you mean when I be a more authentic person?
SPEAKER_02: Pretens is rebellion against reality.
SPEAKER_02: When you realize that God already knows, you lose the energy to fake it anymore.
SPEAKER_02: You're just like, hey, who am I trying to convince here?
SPEAKER_02: Would the way you worship God change?
SPEAKER_02: And if so, how?
SPEAKER_02: If you just, oh Lord, you know everything.
SPEAKER_02: Lord, you know everything.
SPEAKER_02: See, we will all experience what we believe.
SPEAKER_02: Peter says, Oh Lord, you know everything.
SPEAKER_02: You know I love you.
SPEAKER_02: And Jesus says, you know what?
SPEAKER_02: I know that you love me, but let me tell you what else I know.
SPEAKER_02: And it's not intended to stir up fear in Peter, it's intended to stir up wonder and trust and faith.
SPEAKER_02: That's why Peter, Jesus ends with, Oh, by the way, now get back to following me.
SPEAKER_02: Follow me, the one who knows everything.
SPEAKER_02: And stop following yourself who doesn't know anything.
SPEAKER_02: Thirdly and finally, what gets established in John 21 is the gospel is authentic, authoritative, and sufficient.
SPEAKER_02: Starting there in verse 20, having established the authority of Peter, he now established the authenticity and authority of this gospel.
SPEAKER_02: He's recording by reminding us that he, John, was an eyewitness to these things.
SPEAKER_02: Quite often in our intellectual and pseudo-enlightened age, I get in conversations with people and they attack the veracity, the truthfulness of the Bible.
SPEAKER_02: Well, the Bible's just written by men, the Bible's just a book, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah.
SPEAKER_02: It's ad nauseum it goes on.
SPEAKER_02: And I'm just like, yeah, the Bible was recorded by men, but you know what kind of men the Bible that God used to record the Bible?
SPEAKER_02: No.
SPEAKER_02: Eyewitnesses.
SPEAKER_02: It wasn't like made up.
SPEAKER_02: They didn't sit around in a room and go, Well, this sounds good.
SPEAKER_02: We will control the masses with this.
SPEAKER_02: No, this is what John says.
SPEAKER_02: Peter verse 20 turned and saw the disciple whom Jesus loved following them, the one who also leaned back against him during the supper, and he said, Lord, who is it that's going to betray you?
SPEAKER_02: When Peter saw him, he said to Jesus, Lord, what about this man?
SPEAKER_02: Jesus said to him, If it is my will that he remain till I come, what is that to you?
SPEAKER_02: You follow me.
SPEAKER_02: You notice the theme here?
SPEAKER_02: Jesus is taking Peter's face and pointing him back to, you follow me.
SPEAKER_02: Stop looking around and see what else is doing.
SPEAKER_02: You just focus on following me.
SPEAKER_02: That's all I've called and created you to do.
SPEAKER_02: You follow me.
SPEAKER_02: He goes on and he says, so the saying spread abroad among the brothers that the disciple was not to die.
SPEAKER_02: Yet Jesus did not say to him he was not to die.
SPEAKER_02: But if it is my will that you remain until I come, what is that to you?
SPEAKER_02: See, when you suffer from comparison, you miss what Jesus is really saying, and you represent Jesus as saying what you wish he would say.
SPEAKER_02: Because it typically justifies your comparative nature.
SPEAKER_02: Verse 24, this is the disciple that John outs himself.
SPEAKER_02: This is the disciple who's bearing witness about these things, who has written these things, and we know that his testimony is true.
SPEAKER_02: Now, there are also many other things that Jesus did, where every one of them to be written, I suppose that the world itself could not contain the books that would be written.
SPEAKER_02: I'm talking to a guy standing at the airport one time, I'm reading the Bible, and he says, You really believe all that?
SPEAKER_02: And here's my concern.
SPEAKER_02: We'll talk about this more in the new year.
SPEAKER_02: Here's my concern that the culture's more ready to have authentic conversations than we are.
SPEAKER_02: And so when someone pops off like that, we're like, oh, I'm sorry.
SPEAKER_02: Did this trigger you?
SPEAKER_02: Let me put this away in my briefcase.
SPEAKER_02: And I just kind of said, Hey, let's occupy our space out of our identity and with authority.
SPEAKER_02: He says, You really believe all that?
SPEAKER_02: I said, Oh, I believe every bit of it.
SPEAKER_02: And I don't have to believe all of it for it to be consequential.
SPEAKER_02: There's just a few things I believe that have wrecked my life.
SPEAKER_02: I mean, so you believe all of it.
SPEAKER_02: I believe it from Genesis to Maps.
SPEAKER_02: He's like, I don't get it.
SPEAKER_02: I said, Genesis is in the front, maps is in the back.
SPEAKER_02: I believe the missionary journeys of Paul back there.
SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
SPEAKER_02: I believe all of that.
SPEAKER_02: I mean, this is 21st century.
SPEAKER_02: I mean, the Bible's just written by men after all.
SPEAKER_02: And I said, some point, I don't know if we'll get there in this conversation because I'm fixing board a plane.
SPEAKER_02: Some point you got to ask yourself why you want to disqualify the Bible.
SPEAKER_02: It's not because you have a problem with the Bible, you have a preference for the kind of life you want to live, and the Bible probably calls that sin.
SPEAKER_02: It's a lady sitting over in the little seat and there, and she's just rocking back and forth.
SPEAKER_02: She's like, Mama.
SPEAKER_02: And he's like, so, uh, and I said, Yeah, the Bible was recorded by men.
SPEAKER_02: It wasn't the Bible says that men spoke as they were carried along by the Holy Spirit.
SPEAKER_02: They they just recorded what the Holy Spirit breathed out so we would have a record.
SPEAKER_02: And so there's probably a personal lifestyle that you live, a certain thing that you do that the Bible calls sin.
SPEAKER_02: By the way, let's reclaim the word sin in 2020.
SPEAKER_02: Yeah, let's stop being so cowardly and just say with a smile on you say, Oh, that's terrible.
SPEAKER_02: That's horrible and it's sinful.
SPEAKER_02: Uh, but and here's why.
SPEAKER_02: Because the Bible told us back in John chapter 1 that he says about God took on flesh and moved into the neighborhood.
SPEAKER_02: He says, and we beheld his glory as the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth.
SPEAKER_02: You don't need grace if you don't have truth.
SPEAKER_02: We live in a culture that just says, hey, grace, grace, grace.
SPEAKER_02: If there is no truth, why do you need grace?
SPEAKER_02: If there is no standard that we've all sinned and fallen short of, why do you need grace?
SPEAKER_02: You can't have it both ways.
SPEAKER_02: You're smart people.
SPEAKER_02: And so I just use sin.
SPEAKER_02: Not in a sin.
SPEAKER_02: I said, Oh, you probably got some sinful lifestyle stuff going on, and you're attacking the Bible instead of repenting.
SPEAKER_02: In other words, stop me if it sounds familiar, you're building an idol to your appetites instead of an altar to your responsibility.
SPEAKER_02: And so he's like, oh, and I said, Yeah, I said, yeah, the Bible, what kind of men, the Bible was recorded by men?
SPEAKER_02: What kind of men recorded the Bible?
SPEAKER_02: He goes, I don't know what you're saying.
SPEAKER_02: I said, eyewitnesses.
SPEAKER_02: Eyewitnesses.
SPEAKER_02: People that was like, hey, this is what John is saying here.
SPEAKER_02: This is what I mean when I say this is authoritative, it's it's it's sufficient, it's authentic.
SPEAKER_02: What do you mean?
SPEAKER_02: He says, Well, uh uh, don't you think there's things that happen that aren't in the Bible?
SPEAKER_02: I said, actually, the Bible is so confident of its authority, it says that multiple times.
SPEAKER_02: It says crazy things like Jesus did a lot of things that are not in this book.
SPEAKER_02: Like, for example, and I told him one, I'll tell you what I told him.
SPEAKER_02: I said, there's a book called The Apocrypha.
SPEAKER_02: It's about the intertestamental period, and it's stories about Jesus, we couldn't verify them as valid, and so they didn't make it into the canon of scripture.
SPEAKER_02: Like there's a story in there where Jesus was a little boy, like nine years old, that him and his friends are down by the river and they're making animals out of clay.
SPEAKER_02: Jesus makes pigeons, and his friends are all standing there, oh, he made a camel, and they're all laughing.
SPEAKER_02: And Jesus just looks at him, doesn't say a word, looks at his pigeons, and claps his hands, and his pigeons fly away.
SPEAKER_02: And I'm like, I wish that was in the Bible.
SPEAKER_02: And that guy's like, shut up.
SPEAKER_02: What book is that in?
SPEAKER_02: I said, it's in a book called the Apocrypha.
SPEAKER_02: It's not, it's non-canonical.
SPEAKER_02: He goes, What does that mean?
SPEAKER_02: I said, It means I'm smarter than you.
SPEAKER_02: He goes, No, come on, man, I really like you.
SPEAKER_02: And I said, I think you're digging me.
SPEAKER_02: I can tell.
SPEAKER_02: I said, if you were in, if you lived in my city, would you come to my church?
SPEAKER_02: And he went, Well, you pastor a church?
SPEAKER_02: No, I just I'm the chaplain of the airport.
SPEAKER_02: I just hang out here and have these conversations.
SPEAKER_02: And I said to him, I said, Hey, here's the deal.
SPEAKER_02: Right now, you're trying to decide if I'm lying or not, and I really do pastor a church.
SPEAKER_02: And you're enjoying this, not because I'm great, because you were created to be set free by the truth.
SPEAKER_02: What you're enjoying is not a man, it's the freedom that comes from the truth.
SPEAKER_02: My friend over there, ma, oh yes, yes, yes, yes, yes.
SPEAKER_02: And he's like, uh.
SPEAKER_02: So there's things I said, yeah.
SPEAKER_02: And I reference at the end of the Gospel of John, he says that the world, if we wrote down everything, and I think this, what would you not write down?
SPEAKER_02: I mean, don't you think the disciples got in bed almost every night and looked at each other like, hey, hey, Jesus is outside talking to his father.
SPEAKER_02: Did y'all see that today?
SPEAKER_02: I mean, what in the world?
SPEAKER_02: Are you kidding me?
SPEAKER_02: The cat walked on water.
SPEAKER_02: Is anybody dysregulated by this?
SPEAKER_02: I was triggered in my inner man.
SPEAKER_02: Peter, you got any more anti-anxiety meds?
SPEAKER_02: Jesus is making me kind of jumpy.
SPEAKER_02: Peter's like, no, I ain't sharing, dude.
SPEAKER_02: He scares me to death.
SPEAKER_02: I don't know what he's gonna say next.
SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
SPEAKER_02: And I said, hey, by the way, uh, it's the end of the Gospel of John, but also at the end about John chapter 20, the end of that chapter.
SPEAKER_02: He says that Jesus did many other things that are not written in this book.
SPEAKER_02: But these things are written.
SPEAKER_02: I said, the Bible's sufficient.
SPEAKER_02: He goes, What do you mean Bible's sufficient?
SPEAKER_02: You may be here today thinking, well, I think the Bible's a great thing, it's a, but it's sufficient.
SPEAKER_02: John chapter 20, verse 31, he says, these things, Jesus did many things that are not written in this book.
SPEAKER_02: Okay?
SPEAKER_02: It's not a blow-by-blow description of the life of Jesus because there'd be so many books because his life was so consequential, because he was the Son of God.
SPEAKER_02: But he said, These things are written.
SPEAKER_02: Jesus did many other things that are not written in this book, but these things are written.
SPEAKER_02: So that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that by believing you may have life in his name.
SPEAKER_02: Let me break that down for you in a way that you can get your head around it.
SPEAKER_02: When you say, What do you mean?
SPEAKER_02: That he says that, hey, you may believe that Jesus is the Christ.
SPEAKER_02: That's a question of identity.
SPEAKER_02: You cannot go through the gospel of John without grappling with the identity of Jesus.
SPEAKER_02: Is he really the Son of God?
SPEAKER_02: Because John lays his cards on the table in John 20, 31 and says, Hey, these things are written that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ.
SPEAKER_02: So you got to ask yourself, what am I?
SPEAKER_02: Do I believe he's the Messiah?
SPEAKER_02: He's the promised one, he's the one that the whole entire Old Testament looks forward to.
SPEAKER_02: And so it comes on the scene early in John's gospel, and John the Baptist says, Behold the Lamb of God that takes away the sins of the world.
SPEAKER_02: Is he this Passover lamb that we've been going through the ritual observing, and now God sends us the reality?
SPEAKER_02: That's what the Bible's asking you today.
SPEAKER_02: Secondly, he says, the Son of God, this is a question of authority.
SPEAKER_02: The first one is a question of identity.
SPEAKER_02: Is he really who the Bible says he is?
SPEAKER_02: Secondly, the Son of God is a question of authority.
SPEAKER_02: One of the things people ask Jesus all through the gospel of John, by what authority do you do these things?
SPEAKER_02: And he would say, I have no authority of my own.
SPEAKER_02: I only do what I see the Father doing.
SPEAKER_02: And then lastly, he says that by believing you may have life in his name.
SPEAKER_02: That by believing you may have life in his name.
SPEAKER_02: Christianity, hear this, and we're and we're done.
SPEAKER_02: Christianity is not just forgiveness for living life in your name, it's a whole different way of doing life.
SPEAKER_02: I beat this drum over and over, so I want to close the Gospel of John by telling you what I told you before.
SPEAKER_02: In John chapter 1, it says, talks about Jesus.
SPEAKER_02: It says, in him was life, and this life was the light of all men.
SPEAKER_02: I told you from the very first sermon I preached that in the Gospel of John, you hear this distinction between bios and Zoe, two Greek words for life.
SPEAKER_02: Bios is biological existence.
SPEAKER_02: I went to work, I paid my bills, I bought a new truck, I had dinner with my wife.
SPEAKER_02: Nothing wrong with any of that.
SPEAKER_02: Enjoy all of it to the glory of God.
SPEAKER_02: But that's bias.
SPEAKER_02: That's not why Jesus came.
SPEAKER_02: This life that is the light of all men, that makes people in airports come and just kind of warm their hands around a stranger.
SPEAKER_02: And then when they say, hey, we're boarding, you know, 1 through 30 for Southwest Flight, blah, blah, blah, you get up and go, hey man, I enjoy talking.
SPEAKER_02: You gotta go?
SPEAKER_02: Yeah, I love you, but I ain't missing a plane for you.
SPEAKER_02: You ain't gotta go home, but you gotta get up out of here.
SPEAKER_02: This is this life.
SPEAKER_02: He says, Hey, these things are written so that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, identity, the Son of God, authority, and that by believing you may have life in his name.
SPEAKER_02: Here's the thing.
SPEAKER_02: If you hear anything, hear this.
SPEAKER_02: Christianity is not an excuse for life in your name.
SPEAKER_02: It's not an excuse for the way you live, it's an invitation to experience a totally different life.
SPEAKER_02: So much so, it uses a totally different word in the Greek language, Zoe.
SPEAKER_02: Zoe.
SPEAKER_02: What is this life?
SPEAKER_02: I close with a definition of this life that Jesus makes available that's on display in the Gospel of John.
SPEAKER_02: Zoe is the absolute fullness of life, both essential and ethical, which belongs to God, life real and genuine, a life active and vigorous, devoted to God, blessed.
SPEAKER_02: In the portion, even in this world, of those who put their trust in Christ, but after the resurrection, to be consummated by new ascensions, among them a more perfect body and to last forever.
SPEAKER_02: This is why John, look at me, I'm done.
SPEAKER_02: This is why John ends John 21 and he says, Hey folks, I'm not making this up.
SPEAKER_02: I was an eyewitness.
SPEAKER_02: I was the guy walking on the beach that Peter looked at and said, What about him?
SPEAKER_02: Jesus said, Hey, Nosy Rosie, don't worry about him.
SPEAKER_02: You'll follow me.
SPEAKER_02: If I want him to remain until I come, what's that to you?
SPEAKER_02: Oh, I'm gonna write that down and put it on Facebook.
SPEAKER_02: John's never gonna die.
SPEAKER_02: And Jesus is like, hey, yay, yay.
SPEAKER_02: Just more religious superstition.
SPEAKER_02: That's all we need.
SPEAKER_02: And John says, Hey, there's so many things Jesus did.
SPEAKER_02: We wrote them down.
SPEAKER_02: Libraries couldn't contain it all.
SPEAKER_02: But what is written here is sufficient, it's authoritative, and it's authentic.
SPEAKER_02: So you could come to the right conclusions about who God is.
SPEAKER_02: Who is he?
SPEAKER_02: Is he really the Messiah?
SPEAKER_02: We start Advent next Sunday.
SPEAKER_02: We're gonna celebrate the incarnation.
SPEAKER_02: That light came into the darkness because God didn't want us to be orphans and alone.
SPEAKER_02: He's the Son of God, it's authoritative.
SPEAKER_02: And that by believing you have life in his name.
SPEAKER_02: Whose life is your name in today?
SPEAKER_02: Let's pray together.
SPEAKER_02: If you're a guest, just relax.
SPEAKER_02: We like to teach the Bible and then give you some soul space to think about it.
SPEAKER_02: And this guy, Peter, totally blew it.
SPEAKER_02: In front of some other disciples of Jesus.
SPEAKER_02: And Jesus, who because John told us he's full of grace and truth, Jesus comes and restores him in the context of all these men and says, Hey, I don't need perfect people.
SPEAKER_02: I need men that understand the degree to which they've screwed it up.
SPEAKER_02: I can work with this.
SPEAKER_02: Because now I get all the glory.
SPEAKER_02: Because everybody knows this person is consistently inconsistent.
SPEAKER_02: And so if you're here today and you've blown it, you don't get to just walk off in shame and hide in the dark.
SPEAKER_02: Because the God of the universe is just waving his big windmill arms of grace, saying, Oli Ollie and Free, come out, come out wherever you are.
SPEAKER_02: Stop using all of your energy to hide.
SPEAKER_02: And start using that energy to be known.
SPEAKER_02: Because you're knowable, you're lovable, and you're forgivable.
SPEAKER_02: That's Christianity.
SPEAKER_02: That's this Zoe life we talk about.
SPEAKER_02: I'm a voice of prayer, and then we're gonna spend some time thinking.
SPEAKER_02: Some questions come up on the screen.
SPEAKER_02: I'm gonna try to write them down.
SPEAKER_02: You can just take a picture with your phone.
SPEAKER_02: Let me pray.
SPEAKER_02: God, thanks for the gospel.
SPEAKER_02: It's so provocative.
SPEAKER_02: It provokes us to think about things we wouldn't by nature think about.
SPEAKER_02: We want to excuse ourselves and say, you know what?
SPEAKER_02: I'm just a screw up.
SPEAKER_02: And you say, no, no, no, come back.
SPEAKER_02: You're there on the beach, just showing up, kind of saying, Hey, here I am.
SPEAKER_02: I know you're worried about provision.
SPEAKER_02: Got a little hot breakfast.
SPEAKER_02: So, Holy Spirit, I pray for anybody in this room that's trying to write themselves out of the story, that they'd feel themselves being written back into the story.
SPEAKER_02: Because that's the God that you are, and that's the life we get to live.
SPEAKER_02: Hover over us as we think about this now in Jesus' name.
SPEAKER_02: Father, we're grateful that you show up on days and in ways that we don't always want you to.
SPEAKER_02: Sometimes it's just a phrase out of somebody else's mouth that we weren't ready for because it's convicting.
SPEAKER_02: Sometimes it's just your presence on the beach just smiling, asking questions of us you already know the answer to, like, hey children, do you have any fish?
SPEAKER_02: And we can smell what you're already cooking there on the beach, and we're just we feel dirty inside because yet again we went to the party we said we'd never go back to and did what we said we'd never do again.
SPEAKER_02: And you want to have breakfast, you don't want to beat us up.
SPEAKER_02: We don't have many friends like that, God.
SPEAKER_02: And so we choose isolation over community because it just feels more familiar.
SPEAKER_02: It's not right and it's not better.
SPEAKER_02: But even in isolation, there's Jesus.
SPEAKER_02: So, Holy Spirit, just brood over us.
SPEAKER_02: Provoke us to action.
SPEAKER_02: We're not gonna blame people for what they didn't do.
SPEAKER_02: We're gonna do what we know we're supposed to do.
SPEAKER_02: That's the way a man handles his business.
SPEAKER_02: That's the way a woman handles her business.
SPEAKER_02: That's the way a little girl becomes a young woman by being responsible.
SPEAKER_02: So, Holy Spirit, just brood over us today.
SPEAKER_02: Thank you for the gospel of John.
SPEAKER_02: I feel like we're saying goodbye to an old friend today.
SPEAKER_02: But the beauty of the Bible is that every time we open it up, it's got something to say to us.
SPEAKER_02: And so we're gonna rest in its authority, its authenticity, and its sufficiency, and we're better for it.
SPEAKER_02: So we say thank you, Lord.
SPEAKER_02: Your word never goes out and comes back void, and it accomplishes the purpose for which you sent it.
SPEAKER_02: So we say thanks in Jesus' name when everyone said.
SPEAKER_02: Amen.
SPEAKER_02: If you're a guest, I want to say thanks for being part of our service.
SPEAKER_02: Hopefully you had a chance to fill out one of those guest cards in the seat pocket in your row.
SPEAKER_02: Uh in just a moment, when you dismiss, if you'd just drop it in one of those boxes by the doors, that'd be great.
SPEAKER_02: And if today's the day you worship God through obedience or generosity, that's where you'll take care of that as well.
SPEAKER_02: We got some things going on in the life of our church we want you to know about.
SPEAKER_02: And so pay attention now to our video announcements.
SPEAKER_01: Here's a look at what's happening at Grand Parkway Baptist Church.
SPEAKER_01: Lay pastors are leading men among the brothers at our church.
SPEAKER_01: These are men of integrity and theological orientation, who can be a resource to you should you need someone to pray with you, speak into a problem, or serve as a listening ear.
SPEAKER_01: To find a full list of our lay pastors, check out our website.
SPEAKER_01: Midweek studies and the midweek meal will resume in January.
SPEAKER_01: Before the busyness of the season begins, begin praying and planning now for how your family will make midweeks a priority.
SPEAKER_01: Our desire is for each of you to move forward from the large gathering on Sunday morning to the more face-to-face and life on life environments where you can know and be known.
SPEAKER_01: Midweek studies and our midweek meal are a great place to start.
SPEAKER_01: If you're ready to make Grand Parkway your church, make plans to be a part of Starting Point, where you can find out the story of your church and its mission.
SPEAKER_01: Registration will open soon.
SPEAKER_01: New devotionals are available in the lobby and by each exit.
SPEAKER_01: Feel free to take one to help you in your prayer and study.
SPEAKER_01: If you would like someone to pray with you, or you have a question about anything you have seen or heard today, some of our pastors and elders will be available at the front of the stage after our service.
SPEAKER_02: We'd like to conclude our service with a spoken blessing.
SPEAKER_02: So would you stand on your feet, please?
SPEAKER_02: Hold your hands out.
SPEAKER_02: In him was life, and this life was the light of all men.
SPEAKER_02: This same life resides in you.
SPEAKER_02: Depart now and be that light.
SPEAKER_02: In the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit.
SPEAKER_02: Amen.
SPEAKER_02: Bless you.