John Chapter 21:7-10

If you think your happiness is going to come from a better job, or better pay, or a better house, or a better car, man, quit believing the lie. Because even when you get those things, you're going to find out that they're really empty if you don't have Jesus. But if you pursue Jesus, if you follow Jesus, you're going to find happiness.

You're going to find the Lord. The best things in life aren't things. Now, I know this sounds really un-American, doesn't it? Non-consumerish? But that's the reality. We need to understand there is a multi-billion dollar industry to make you discontented with your life.

Do you understand that? When you watch television and those commercials come on, do you think they're trying to make you feel good and happy about where you are in life right now? No way, because you can be sitting there watching television, you can be perfectly content with what God has given you, but all of a sudden you watch a 30-second commercial and you go, I don't have one of those.

And something that you didn't need before, now you're unhappy that you don't have. Welcome to Cross the Bridge with David McGee. David is a senior pastor of The Bridge in Kernersville, North Carolina. As followers of Christ, it's important to understand that we need to live for more than just ourselves. Today, Pastor David McGee discusses why this is so important as he continues in the Gospel of John chapter 21.

Here's David McGee with part three of his teaching, Fissures of Men. Now, we're in John 21, and if you remember what was going on in the start of John, the disciples were supposed to be up in the mountain waiting on Jesus. Well, they ended up on the Sea of Galilee fishing, and Jesus shows up and says, hey guys, what did you catch?

And you have to admit they've caught nothing. And then Jesus tells them to cast the net on the other side of the boat, and all of a sudden they've got a net full of fish. And so that's kind of for context's sake, that's what's going on. And let's pick it up in verse seven, John 21, verse seven. Therefore that disciple whom Jesus loved said to Peter, it is the Lord. Now when Simon Peter heard that it was the Lord, he put on his outer garment, for he had removed it and plunged into the sea. Now verse eight, but the other disciples came in the little boat, for they were not far from land, but about 200 cubits, dragging the net with fish.

Now this is curious to me. Peter jumps out of the boat, but what we're going to see in verse 11 is that Peter does help with a harvest, and it kind of shows us something. I wonder if there were any disciples that were in the boat that just kind of sat there and didn't do anything. Sat there and said, okay, well you all hauled the fish in. I'll eat them, but I'm not going to help you. Catch them.

No, I don't think there were. Why? Well, that's just not a kingdom mindset. That's not a kingdom mentality. We need to understand that we need to lose the worldly mentality, look out for number one, and begin to adopt the kingdom mentality that says we're all in this together, and we want to reach as many people as we can while we can. And that's a different thing for all of us, because we've been taught from a young age, you look out for number one, and it's dog eat dog and all these things. But we're called, by the word of God, to serve with one another.

And see, this is the thing. We've gotten into spectator Christianity. We've gotten into, oh, you might call it armchair Christianity. You know, there's armchair quarterbacks. These are the guys that, you know, you watch the football games on Sunday, and you come up with what he should have done and what he could have done, and it's probably a little easier to think while you're sitting in your armchair than it is with 350-pound guys bearing down on you. But we have all these neat ideas about how they should have done these things. Well, Christianity has a lot of armchair Christians, and that they sit back and they criticize.

They don't actually do anything. The gift of criticism, if it's a gift at all, it's a cheap gift, and it's very common. Now, what the Lord desires is for us to engage and to be involved. You see, the world is looking on, and they hear what we're saying about Jesus, but they're looking for us to be engaged and active in serving the Lord. They're looking for this love that we're talking about.

They're looking for the reality of Jesus and what we do and the way we live, caring about one another, caring about the Lord. Jesus put it like this. Matthew 9, verse 37, 38, He said to His disciples, The harvest is so great, but the workers are so few. Pray to the Lord who is in charge of the harvest, and ask Him to send out more workers for His fields. Pray for these workers in the harvest.

Let me ask you a question. Do you pray like this? Jesus is giving the instructions here. He didn't say, hey, listen, if you feel like it, if you have the time, if you're not doing anything else, then pray this prayer. No, it says in that Luke 10 passage, it says, These were His instructions to them, just to the disciples.

No, I think it's to all of us. So if you prayed this prayer, if you haven't, let me encourage you to pray this prayer. Lord, send out more workers into the harvest, because there's not enough workers. Notice Jesus didn't say, pray for the harvest, that more people would come. He said, pray that more people would be workers in the harvest. Let me encourage you to pray this prayer. But also, let me explain what's going to happen as you pray this prayer. As you pray the prayer, Lord, send out more workers in the harvest, you're going to begin to realize that, guess what?

You are a worker in the harvest. See, the Lord wants to use all of us, not just me as pastor or staff or elders or deacons or whatever, He wants to use all of us. And we need to reject this, well, 5% of the people are called to actually do something for God. No, we're all called to do something for God. You realize every one of us is in full-time ministry?

Every one of us. I know we look at people who are on staff at a church or in ministries, we look at them full-time ministry, we use that term, we throw it around. They're professional Christians and stuff. But you know, God desires to work through all of our lives, each and every person in here. He can do it. He wants to do it. And He's looking for us to partner with Him. So I encourage you to pray that prayer. He says in John 4.35, Do you think the work of harvesting will not begin until the summer ends four months from now?

Look around you. Vast fields are ripening all around us and are ready now for the harvest. The harvesters are paid good wages and the fruit they harvest is people brought to eternal life. What joy awaits both the planter and the harvester alike. May the Father help us to realize that we are workers in the harvest.

And as we see the fruit and the harvest coming in here, we need to begin to do just that. And I think there was a moment in this boat. I think they were out, they were fishing, so what were they doing? They were looking for fish.

They didn't find any. But then they found the fish. Jesus said, Cast a net on the other side and you'll get a bunch of fish. And I think there was probably a moment in time when the disciples said, Okay, I got a bunch of fish. And where that used to satisfy them, it didn't anymore.

See, something had changed. Now, some of us can relate to that because maybe we were engaged in the pursuit of success or whatever before, maybe even after we were a Christian, and we tried to go back to that. We tried to live according to those same things that we used to think and we used to believe, and it was very empty. Some of you may have found success, and when you got it, it was like, What's this? It's empty. This is nothing. What do I do now? It's kind of like a dog chasing the car.

What does he do with it when he catches it? And that's the way success is to some of us in our version. And the Lord is saying, You know what? Forget about all that.

Because you know what? You're not going to just be happy with fish anymore. If you think your happiness is going to come from a better job or better pay or a better house or a better car, man, quit believing the lie. Because even when you get those things, you're going to find out that they're really empty if you don't have Jesus. But if you pursue Jesus, if you follow Jesus, you're going to find happiness.

You're going to find the Lord. The life lesson here, the best things in life aren't things. The best things in life aren't things. Now, I know this sounds really un-American, doesn't it? Non-consumerish, but that's the reality. We need to understand there is a multi-billion dollar industry to make you discontented with your life. Do you understand that? When you watch television and those commercials come on, do you think they're trying to make you feel good and happy about where you are in life right now? No way, because you can be sitting there watching television. You can be perfectly content with what God has given you, but all of a sudden you watch a 30-second commercial and you go, Oh, have one of those.

Oh, look, and if I get five, I get a deal. And something that you didn't need before, now you're unhappy that you don't have. That's what they do, and it's very effective. And it pulls on our heart, doesn't it?

You know, the telephone commercials of just a few years ago, in 30 seconds, people that you don't know, paid actors, and at the end of 30 seconds, you're getting tearful because she called home. If that doesn't show you that it's very effective, man, nothing will. And this whole industry is set up around you being discontented with your life so that you buy their product. But we have a God that loves us so much, He doesn't want us there cheaply satisfied. And He tells us how we can find true joy and happiness and find the real meaning of life. The question is, will we listen?

He lays it out very plainly. Matthew chapter 10, 38 says, if you refuse to take up your cross and follow me, you're not worthy of being mine. If you cling to your life, you will lose it. But if you give it up for me, you will find it.

In Matthew 16, he says it again another way. If you try to keep your life for yourself, you will lose it. But if you give up your life for me, you will find true life. And how do you benefit if you gain the whole world but lose your own soul in the process? Is anything worth more than your soul? And again, Luke 17, 33, whoever clings to this life will lose it. And whoever loses this life will save it.

Are you winning or losing? Are you giving yourself away or are you trying to live for you? That's an unchristian-like way of life. It's not a follower of Jesus who lives for himself. A follower of Jesus looks for opportunities and looks for ways to express themself to give themself away. That's not the exception. That's supposed to be the rule. See, a lot of us try to figure out how we can get God to fit into our life.

That's backwards. What we should be asking is, God, what do you want me to do? How do you want me to serve you? How can I begin to make a difference in people's lives?

That's what we're supposed to be asking. See, it's not about living the good life. It's about living the God life. That's the next life lesson. Don't be satisfied with the good life, but with the God life. As a follower of Jesus, I want to see what the Lord wants me to do. It's not like a cosmic salad bar that you show up and you begin to pick and choose with God. Well, God, give me that Grace Burger, but please hold the humble servant thing.

That leaves a bad taste in my mouth. That's not the way it's supposed to work. And somehow we've begun to think that the Lord wants to come into our life and straighten everything up nice, neat, and tidy. That's not what he wants to do. You realize one of his first things in our life is to come over and turn some tables over? Because it's like, oh, that doesn't belong there. What's this doing in here?

Has that ever happened to anybody else or is that just me? No, that's what the Lord wants to do. Why? Because we've set it up all wrong. And he wants to come in and make it right. And he says, here's one of the ways you do that. Remember how your life used to revolve around you?

You can't do that anymore. That's not the way a follower of Jesus does. Somehow, again, we get into this living the good life, and God wants to bless us.

Don't mistake what I'm saying. But there's a matter of priorities that Jesus is establishing with these guys, and we can take encouragement, because guess what? These guys aren't spent three years with him. You'd think, okay, they got it. Well, no, they don't have it. He was just gone for a little bit, and guess what? They fell apart. I don't know what you want to do.

I don't know what you want. Let's go fishing. They needed to be reminded, and Jesus did just that. He wanted to send them on this glorious adventure. We'll be right back with more from David McGee on Cross the Bridge. Right now, here's a word from associate pastor D.A.

Brown. We want to take just a minute to pray for a few cities in our listening audience, specifically Gallup, New Mexico, and Las Cruces, Portales, Roswell, Tularosa, and Binghamton, New York, and Oswego. God, we thank You for these listening in these cities right now. We pray that You would pour Your Spirit out on them, Lord, that they would have faith to trust You and what You're wanting to do in their life. We pray if there's people, Father, who have yet to put their trust in You, that today would be the day, that they would say yes to the death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus Christ for them. Lord, we pray for those in leadership positions, that You would anoint them, that You would give them wisdom and discernment, Lord, that they would look to Your Bible for answers and form their conclusions accordingly. Lord, we pray that You would pour Your Spirit out on these cities. In Jesus' name, amen. Amen.

Thank you, brother. And now, let's get back to David McGee as he continues teaching verse by verse. Verse nine, then as soon as they had come to land, they saw a fire of coals there and fish laid on it and bred. Jesus had what they were looking for. He wanted to give them what they were looking for, but again, He needed to remind them of priorities. See, we've gotten into this twisted thing of thinking that God is this crusher of dreams and that God wants you to do something that you would just be miserable doing. I mean, how many times have you heard something like that? Well, you know, I hate the cold, so if I asked God what He wanted to do with my life, He'd probably send me to Alaska.

We've adopted things like that, and that's far from the truth. That's far from the truth of what this word says. Ephesians 3.20 says, Now the Him who is able to do exceedingly abundantly above all that we ask or think according to the power that works in us. Does that sound like a dream crusher? The New Living Translation in this verse says, Now glory be to God, by His mighty power at work within us, He is able to accomplish infinitely more than we would ever dare to ask or hope. That's our God, not a dream crusher, a dream giver. And the Lord has probably given some people here dreams about things they might accomplish for them, and the Lord wants to fulfill those dreams. Well now, pastor, where do you get this dreams and visions stuff?

From the book. Acts chapter two, verse 17, 18 says this. This is what I will do in the last days, God says. I will pour out My Spirit on everyone. Your sons and daughters will proclaim My message. Your young men will see visions, and your old men will have dreams. Yes, even on My servants, both men and women, I will pour out My Spirit in those days, and they will proclaim My message.

What an awesome couple verses. And who's that promise to? Well, it's everybody. It talks about young men, talks about old men, talks about men and women. If you're a man or a young man or a boy, raise your hand. I'm not gonna do anything, raise your hand, it's okay. And then it talks about women, so if you're a woman, raise your hand, or a young girl, all right. So praise God, that includes you. Now if you didn't raise your hand either time, we need to talk to you after service.

We'll try to help you through this thing. But here we have men and women, and God says, I'm gonna pour out My Spirit on them. I'm gonna bring visions and dreams to pass. And He doesn't say, I might do this. He says, this is what I'm gonna do.

This is what I will do in the last days. So how did we ever come to the twisted place that, well, Lord, if I step out and serve you, I'm just gonna get punished. Lord, if I step out and serve you and begin to put you and others at the center of my life, then things are just not gonna go well.

That's not the truth. The fact is, God says when you do that, you're gonna find out what it's all about. And until you're unwilling to do that, that joy and that peace is probably gonna elude you.

Why? Because see, the deal is, if you've come to Jesus to ask Him to forgive you of your sins, life's changed. It's different. It's forever different.

You can't ever be satisfied with the old things again. God loves you too much. And He wants to begin to change your life.

He wants to do that. And if you're dragging your feet, then you're straddling the fence. And brothers and sisters, let me tell you, you're not gonna find any joy there. As a matter of fact, you may be more miserable than before you got saved.

Why? Well, before you got saved, you didn't know that you were supposed to be living for the Lord and giving your life away. Once you come to the Lord and say, forgive me of my sins, you start digging in this word, and Jesus says, you know what, give your life away, then you know. And you'll never be cheaply satisfied again. And it can stunt your Christian growth.

If you keep yourself at the center of your life. That's not the plan of Jesus. His plan is for you to give yourself away. He makes it very plain. Notice the way that Jesus loves on them.

Think of what He could have said and what He could have done and, you know. And He shows up. They're doing something they're not supposed to be doing.

They're in a place they're not supposed to be in. And Jesus shows up and just gently kind of reminds them. See, that's what He does to us. As you come in here Sunday morning, He just kind of gently reminds you. He doesn't, he doesn't do that.

You know, look at the way He, I mean, you know, if I was Jesus, and this is probably all the proof that you'll need that I'm not, if I was Jesus, it would have been different. You know, they're out in the middle of the lake. Hey, guys, what are you doing? We're fishing. You ain't supposed to be fishing. Check the bottom of your boat.

Yeah, it's not there anymore, is it? Yeah, just all I need to teach you a little lesson. No, He didn't do any of that. Tells them how to catch fish, find what they're looking for. Then they come back and He's got coals there and fish on it and bread. And again, it's this fire of coals.

That's an interesting term. The only other place in Scripture we find it is in the place that Peter was around the fire of coals when he denied the Lord. And notice what he doesn't say to Peter. Hey, Peter, see these coals?

Remind you of anything? He doesn't say that. As a matter of fact, the bulk of this chapter, and we'll get into this next week, is Jesus restoring Peter publicly. Look what He says in verse 10. Jesus said to them, Bring some of the fish which you have just caught.

Again, the mercy and the grace of God. Look what He doesn't say. Hey, I know you're good for nothing. I didn't catch anything before I helped you, but then I helped you, caught a bunch of fish. Why don't you bring those fish?

He didn't say that. He says, Bring of the fish which you've just caught. You understand there's a mystery to me. The Lord wants to partner with us to bring in a harvest. He wants to partner with you to bring in a harvest. Then He looks and He says, The fish which you caught somehow gives us credit, gives us eternal rewards for just simply doing what He's asked us to do.

Oh man, this is good stuff. The fish which you just caught. And now notice, at what point in this fishing process do you think they cleaned the fish? It was after they caught them. You ever tried to clean a fish before you caught it? It can't work very well, huh? Do you understand some people who approach Christianity like that?

They tell people, Hey, you know what? You need to get your life cleaned up. You need to get things together. And after you get things together, you can come to church and God will bless you.

Where do you get that? No, we catch the fish. God cleans the fish. Do you understand that? God never put us in charge of cleaning. We can't do it. You can't do it in your own life, if you'd be honest.

I mean, God has to help each and every one of us. That's the reality. The fishing thing kind of falls apart in one place, though. See, in fishing, in real life, what you do is you catch a live fish and then you what?

As you bring it in, you kill it, right? Well, that's kind of backwards. See, what we get to do is we get to catch dead fish and we get to see them brought back to life. That's what we get to see. Isn't that a cool thing?

It's even more than that. You see, God wants to work in our lives to accomplish that. Do you understand that? It's not just that he's saying, Hey, you guys go do this. He's saying, you know what, we're going to do this.

I'm going to work in you. Remember what he said to the disciples? Follow me and I will make you become fishers of men. He never said, look, you need to study fishing. You need to get one of those radar things and some kind of fish smellilator or something, you know, and then you, no, he's just, follow me.

And as a byproduct, what's going to happen? You're going to become fishers of men. See, if I ask you why you were here, a lot of people would have a lot of different answers. Well, he made me, she made me, my parents made me come, my kids made me come and I came because my neighbor was just bugging me to death so I finally came.

No, no, no, no, no. You're here because God is at work in your life. That's why you're here. Whether you know him yet or not, maybe you're here this morning, you've never asked him to forgive you of your sins. You're here because God is at work in your life.

God is drawing you to himself and he's done that this morning. The Bible puts it this way in Philippians 2, 12 and 13. It says, therefore, my beloved, as you have always obeyed, not as in my presence only, but now much more in my absence, work out your own salvation with fear and trembling. That verse used to scare me to death, Philippians 2, 12, because whenever I would share with somebody, hey, hey, I'm struggling with this or I've got a problem with this, they'd say, work out your own salvation, fear and trembling.

It was actually years later that I read verse 13. It says, for it is God who works in you both to will and to do for his good pleasure. You understand what that's saying? Even the fact that you wanna do right, it's not you. That's God. The fact that you wanted to be here this morning, that's not you. That's God.

Now let me ask you a question. Which are you gonna get, this is really, this is liberating if you'll grab ahold of this. Which one are you gonna get more excited about, the fact that you might have done a little something good or the fact that the living God, creator of the universe, is active in your life?

That's exciting. Then not only is he gonna give me the willpower but the power to do the things that he's asking me to do. Friend, do you know for sure that your sins have been forgiven?

You can know right now. I wanna lead you in a short, simple prayer, simply telling God you're sorry and asking him to help you to live for him. Now God wants you to pray this prayer so much that he died to give you the opportunity and the ability to ask him to forgive you.

Please pray this prayer with me out loud right now. Dear Jesus, I believe you died for me, that I could be forgiven. And I believe you were raised from the dead, that I could have a new life. And I've done wrong things. I have sinned. And I'm sorry. Please forgive me of all those things.

Please give me the power to live for you all of my days. In Jesus' name, amen. Friend, if you prayed that prayer, according to the Bible, you've been forgiven. You've been born again. Jesus said he would not turn anybody away who comes to him.

And he came for those people who knew they needed forgiveness, those who were sick, not the righteous. So congratulations, friend. You just made the greatest decision that you will ever make. God bless you. If you prayed that prayer with David for the first time, we'd love to hear from you. You can visit crossthebridge.com to receive our First Steps package with helpful resources to help you begin your walk with Christ.

Or you can write to Cross the Bridge at P.O. Box 12515, Winston-Salem, North Carolina, 27117, and share how God is working in your life. You know, the Bible tells us that the free gift of God is eternal life in Jesus Christ our Lord. But it does cost for us to come and bring that message to you and to others in your neighborhood through radio, through the Internet, and through the mobile technologies that God has gifted us to be able to use. So if you'd like to support this ministry, please go to crossthebridge.com, click on the donate button, and ask God how much he would have you give, either on a one-time basis or a continuing basis each month to help ensure that the teaching of God's Word continues to go out through Cross the Bridge.

Thank you so much. Well, DA, before we go, what are some ways that we can bless our listeners? Each day you can wake up with encouragement from Pastor David through the Word of God with his email devotional, life lessons to consider, a daily reading plan, and a thought to meditate on throughout your day from the heart of David McGee. Those are terrific, and it's easy and it's free. So folks, sign up today at crossthebridge.com. Thanks again for listening, and join us next time as David McGee continues teaching verse by verse in the Gospel of John.