John Chapter 21:7-15

What do you think the disciples felt as they sat down with Jesus on the beach that morning?

I think I know. I think they were overwhelmed with joy. When just moments ago they had been so unsure, wondering, they sat with Jesus and they had great joy. This whole thing of, you know, come to God and He's going to make you miserable is just, that's something the devil made up.

You know, and then the church introduces these things like you can't eat meat on Friday and, you know, and you take personal vows of poverty and, you know, if you follow God then you got to go live in some convent or monastery. Yeah, that's not in here. I've looked for it.

It's not in there. It's a way of let's be miserable for God. God never said, come follow me and I'll make you miserable.

He says, here, give me your heaviness. I'll give you some joy. Give me your sadness. I'll give you gladness. Give me your ashes.

I'll give you beauty. Welcome to Cross the Bridge with David McGee. David is a senior pastor of The Bridge in Kernersville, North Carolina. While the world may offer so many things to us, only Jesus can bring us great joy. Today, Pastor David describes this great joy and how we can receive it as he continues in the Gospel of John chapter 21.

Now here's David McGee as he concludes 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 7. John 21 verse 7. 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 8. 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. Then as soon as they had come to land, they saw a fire of coals there and fish laid on it and bred. 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. You caught a bunch of fish. Why don't you bring those fish?

He didn't say that. He says, bring of the fish what 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 call 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? 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? I shared a couple weeks ago that I like crabbing. If you've never done it, to me it's a lot more exciting than fish.

You throw out a fish here or a chicken bone or something and you throw a string out and you pull it up. If you're in the right spot, there's like a crab or two that follows it up on the bank and you swoop it with the net. I'll never forget when I first started dating Nora, I took her crab and I was like the crabmeister of this particular place. My relatives, whenever I went going crabbing, they were like, all right, especially my great aunt. She was like, oh, she made crab salad and all these different things.

So we went this one time and I took a five-gallon bucket and quit when I filled it up and it usually only took an hour or two. So I took Nora and them crabbing and the first thing I knew something was wrong is when she started naming the crabs. I was like, well, that's different. I don't usually name the crabs. Then she said, how do you kill them before you boil them?

Boiling seems to do it. Then she made this really long face and I was like, oh. So I ended up setting the crabs free. That was the last time I actually went crabbing. But the hard part was I was trying to figure out what I was going to tell my great aunt because she'd always get excited when I went crabbing and work out recipes and all this stuff. So I'm sitting here trying to kick the bucket over or something.

So I walk in with an empty five-gallon bucket and she goes, where's the crabs? Nora goes, he let them go. He what?

He let them go. But, see, we get to see people that were dead and we see them come alive in the Lord. What an awesome, awesome thing. And that's what God wants to do in us. 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'll, no, he's just follow me.

And as a byproduct, what's going to happen? You're going to become fishers of men. Verse 11, Simon Peter went up and dragged the net to land full of large fish, 153. And although there were so many, the net was not broken.

And Simon Peter must have been a big guy to drag this net onto the beach. And it's 153. It's an interesting number. You know why it's 153? No, I don't know either, you know. But if you know, if you want to email me, I mean, yeah, I dug in the, I love numbers and getting into stuff like, I couldn't come up with something. And I didn't want to make anything up.

That wouldn't be good. So, you know, if you have theories, I'd love to hear them. But it was a bunch of fish. I mean, I've never caught 153 fish. What were they out there looking for? They were out there looking for fish. What did Jesus give them? Fish.

Guys, don't miss this. Jesus had what they needed. But he had to remind them of what the priorities were supposed to be. Now, I imagine there were some frustrating moments on the boat that night. As they cast the net out and pulled it in. And they cast the net out and they pulled it in. Nothing. On and on this went. Some of you may be experiencing this in your life.

Casting the net out and pulling it in and it's empty. And the Lord's trying to remind you of his priorities for your life. God wants to bless you. We serve and know a blessing God. He desires to bless you. But he also wants your priorities to be right. See, and some of you may be wondering, why is God not blessing me in this area? Or why am I struggling in this area?

Why am I struggling financially? And you know what? Make sure you're not neglecting what God has already told you to do with what God has already given you.

And we don't talk about this a whole lot. But here's the life lesson. God wants to meet your needs. God wants to meet your needs.

Understand. And even beyond your needs. But God doesn't want to meet your greeds.

It's not that God wants to give me an unlimited spending free on the shopping channel. But he does want to meet my needs. But he wants me to have my priorities in line. What's the priorities? God first. Not God second or third or fourth or fifth.

God first. To love the Lord our God with all our heart and all our mind and all our soul. And Jesus actually said to do anything else is to be like the pagans.

In Matthew 6 he says, why be like the pagans who are so deeply concerned about these things? Your heavenly Father knows all your needs. And he will give you all you need from day to day if you live for him. And make the kingdom of God your primary concern. Now that verse 33 is the new King James says, but seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness and all these things shall be added to you. Now a lot of us read that verse and go, well that's an oversimplification.

Let me assure you it's not. That if you make God and serve in the Lord your priority, God will bless you beyond what you're able to imagine. But if you don't do that, you can actually withhold the blessing that God wants to give you.

Now I know this teaching's been abused, but there's a reality to it. As a matter of fact in Malachi chapter three verse eight, strong words, says will a man rob God yet you have robbed me. But you say in what way have we robbed you? In tithes and offerings.

You were cursed with a curse for you have robbed me even this whole nation. Bring all the tithes into the storehouse that there may be food in my house and try me now in this says the Lord of hosts. If I will not open for you the windows of heaven and pour out for you such blessing that there will not be room enough to receive it. This is the only area that God's just try me.

Test me. See if I'm faithful in this. And if you've never taken that step of faith to obey this scripture and give God the first fruits, let me encourage you to do that. Because God wants to bless you but if your priorities are out of whack it can hold his hand.

And I'm not talking about any weirdness and certainly this teaching's been butchered. But if you make God your priority, God will look after all your needs. That's what he says in his word.

Notice too that Jesus used what was in their hands. I like that. He didn't say well you guys got the wrong net. As a matter of fact what you need is fish and pull.

You need this that and that. He didn't say boy you got a net throw it on the other side. You understand that he does that throughout scripture? He went to Moses. Moses what you got in your hand?

Rod? Okay we'll use that. Cana what you got water pots? Okay fill him with water. You got water? Yeah well fill him water.

I'll come do something. God wants to use whatever you have in your hands, wherever you are right now in your life to do amazing things. And sometimes we start to think well if I had this or if I could do this or if I knew this or if I didn't know this or if I hadn't done this then God could use me. God wants to use you right where you are. But he wants you to partner with him.

He wants you to be active with him. 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. Hey we want to pray for a few cities in our listening audience right now. Specifically Seneca Falls, Windsor, New York and also Brown Summit, Burlington, Eden and Elizabeth City, North Carolina. God we thank you for the people tuning in right now in these cities. We pray that you would pour your Holy Spirit out on them. Lord we pray for those who are not listening but who live in those cities.

God I pray that they would trust in you. Lord that they would hear your gospel and that they would say yes to Jesus. Lord we pray that people will get plugged in Bible teaching churches. And Lord we pray for those in leadership positions in these cities, that you give them wisdom and discernment and they also will look to your Bible for answers on how to lead.

Lord please bless these cities and may there be revival. 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 12. Jesus said to them, Come and eat breakfast, yet none of the disciples dared ask him, Who are you, Lord, knowing that it was the Lord?

Well, why don't you stop and consider something here. Jesus wants to have breakfast with them. Jesus at this point has died and been resurrected. He is in his resurrected form.

He doesn't need to eat. Why is he doing this? He's wanting a fellowship with the disciples. And he's wanting them to know everything's okay.

Everything's okay. Do you understand that the Lord wants you to know that? He wants you to be reassured. If you're following him, if you've asked him to forgive you of your sins, he wants you to know that it's okay.

There's an interesting thing, and let me just throw this out there. Occasionally somebody will come to me and say, You know, Pastor David, I'm just really unsure of my salvation experience. I said the prayer, I went with a prayer like you, but I'm just, I don't know.

I'm just not reassured. You know the first question I ask them? Are you serving?

Because I've noticed a parallel. We're not saved by serving, please understand that. We're saved simply by asking. They asked the Lord, they said, What must we do to do the works of the Father? You remember what Jesus said?

Receive and believe. Once you do that, though, the fruit is supposed to come. And one of the ways the fruit comes is by serving the Lord. And while I've talked to many people who needed to be reassured that weren't serving the Lord, it's very few and far between that somebody that's serving the Lord asked for that reassurance.

Why? They see the fruit in their life. They see the evidence. And just like, you know, if there was an apple tree that didn't have any apples on it, it would wonder if it was an apple tree. A Christian who doesn't have any fruit in his life is gonna wonder, Did this really happen?

But a believer that has fruit in his life, he knows, look, there's fruit. Praise God. Something happened.

Something changed. And Jesus enjoyed fellowship. And then, you know, I enjoy fellowship.

I enjoy fellowship and I enjoy food. You guys should invite one another. And then maybe you're sitting there going, Well, nobody's invited me. Well, you invite somebody. You take that initiative. You invite somebody to go do something, to go eat lunch or something.

And watch, you'll get invited. Proverbs puts it like this. A man who has friends must himself be friendly, but there's a friend who sticks closer than a brother. What do you think the disciples felt as they sat down with Jesus on the beach that morning? I think I know. I think they were overwhelmed with joy when just moments ago they had been so unsure, wondering. They sat with Jesus and they had great joy.

That's the next life lesson. Jesus brings us great joy. Jesus brings us great joy. This whole thing of, you know, come to God and he's gonna make you miserable is just, that's something the devil made up.

You know, and then the church introduces these things like you can't eat meat on Friday and, you know, and you take personal vows of poverty and, you know, if you follow God, then you gotta go live in some convent or monastery. You know, that's not in here. I've looked for it.

It's not in there. It's a way of let's be miserable for God. God never said come follow me and I'll make you miserable.

He says here, give me your heaviness. I'll give you some joy. Give me your sadness. I'll give you gladness. Give me your ashes.

I'll give you beauty. That's what he wants to do in our lives. That's what he wants to do in your life. Can't remember if I told this or not, but there's, you know, this one guy was in a monastery and he took this vow of silence and the guy, the leader there said, well, you can say two words every five years. So he came after five years and he said, that's hard.

And I said, okay, well, there's your two words. You know, now you gotta be silent for another five years. So he comes back another five years and he goes, food cold. And the guy goes, okay, you know, all right. So then he comes after another five. He's been there 15 years. He comes back the other five years and says, I'm leaving. The guy looks at him and says, well, that's good.

You've done nothing but complain since you've been here. See, you don't read, but you don't read vows of poverty or vows of silence or anything. Jesus wants to give us joy of fellowshiping with one another. And yes, there'll be hard times and there'll be tough times, but that joy of the Lord will bring you through. Verse 13, Jesus then came and took the bread and gave it to him and likewise the fish. This is now the third time Jesus showed himself to his disciples after he was raised from the dead. Jesus wanted to fellowship with them.

There should be a desire to fellowship with one another. Verse 15, so when they'd eaten breakfast, Jesus said to Simon Peter, Simon, son of Jonah, do you love me more than these? And he said to them, yes, Lord.

You know that I love you. And he said to him, feed my lambs. He might have feed my sheep in the King James. I'm wondering at this point what the other disciples are doing, what they're thinking. Because keep in mind, they, you know, people talk. They knew about Peter's denial. They knew what had happened. And they probably thought that Jesus was going to deal very harshly with Peter and his denial. And I think as soon as Jesus said, you know, they're sitting around and all of a sudden Jesus says, Simon Peter? And I think all the disciples were like, ooh, it's lightning time. I'm gonna step back. Everybody step back from Peter, man.

The thunderbolts are about to fly. But what did Jesus do? He said, Peter, do you love me more than these? Now there's two schools of thought here. One is he was talking about the fish.

I think that's probably the accurate one. Do you love me more than this? Are you willing to have me as your number one priority? Could be he was talking about more than the other disciples as well, I'm less sold on that one, but could be because remember when Peter had said, you know, though everybody else leave you, I won't leave you. And he says, Peter, do you love me? And Peter doesn't say, well, I love you more than these. Peter's a changed man at this point.

He's been humble. He says, Lord, you know I love you. And what does the Lord say? Feed my sheep.

You know, that's interesting. Now Peter had been through a hard time, obviously, with the denial and the stuff going on and I'm sure the disciples were probably reluctant to let him back in the group, to be honest. But what did Jesus not say? Jesus didn't say, well, Peter, Peter, you need a break. Well, Peter, you need some inner healing.

That's not what he said. He said, Peter, give your life away. Feed my sheep.

Live for others. See, Jesus wanted to turn the table over that Peter thought it was all about Peter. Just like he wants to turn your table over that has you thinking it's all about you. There's probably people in here this morning who think, well, I'm gonna sit on the sidelines until I get my healing. Do you understand really the biblical model of therapy is to get you quickly to a place where you can pour your life out?

Because once you start doing that, guess what's not happening? You're not thinking about you anymore. Do you understand most of our sins come into our life because we're thinking about us? Think about it.

The nature of sin is what? Selfish. Jesus says, I don't want you living like that anymore. And the moment we begin to pour ourselves out, we're thinking about Jesus, we're thinking about others. We're not thinking about ourself anymore. Now, some of you may be sitting there going, well, yeah, but I've been wounded and I'm hurt and I don't think highly enough of myself as I should.

Wait a minute. Pride is not necessarily thinking more highly of yourself than you should. Pride is thinking of yourself too often and more often than you should.

Good or bad or indifferent. It doesn't matter. God doesn't want your thoughts swirling about you. Your heart, your mind, your soul about God. That's difficult.

Well, let me take one step further. That's impossible without the Lord. But the Lord says, you know what, I'll put the desire in you to want to do and to do this.

The people that pour out their lives here, such a blessing to watch them. They've discovered this. That as they do this, as they give their lives away, they found it. And they realize that while they were clinging to their life, they were losing it. So Jesus comes and he gives us his choice.

Your way, my way. How's your way been going as it's revolved around you? I was miserable when my life was like that. And the Lord said, give your life away and you'll discover what it's all about.

And it was a scary thing. But I've discovered that Jesus told me the truth and he's wanting to speak to you guys this morning. Maybe some are in here and they've not yet asked the Lord to forgive them of their sins, or maybe there's some in here that have asked him to forgive them of their sins, but their priorities have gotten out of whack. It's understandable, it's okay, in the sense that I understand it, but Jesus doesn't want to leave you like that. Thinking about him more, thinking about others more.

Colossians 3, 2 says this. Let heaven fill your thoughts. Do not think only about things down here on earth. Where are your priorities?

What are you thinking about? There's a saying, and I really hate it. Well, they're so heavenly minded, they're no earthly good. In my years of roaming around this earth, I've never met that person.

What I have met is that some people are so earthly minded, they're no heavenly good. Jesus gives us his choice. It's not about you, it's not about success, it's not about the fish or the dollars or the house or the cars or the jobs. It's about me. And when you begin to give your life away, you'll discover this. If that describes you this morning, I think the Lord is desiring action on your part, not for some huge commitment, just, you know, Lord, sorry, sorry I got distracted. Sorry that I placed other things in the middle of my life where you were supposed to be.

Sorry that you weren't number one. You know, the Lord knows that it happens very easy. Look how gracefully he deals with the disciples. He's wanting to deal with us as gracefully this morning. Friend, do you know for sure that your sins have been forgiven?

You can know right now. I want to lead you in a short, simple prayer simply telling God you're sorry and asking him to help you to live for him. 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. 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, D.A., 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.