How many times have we been relying on God, and God's trying to tell us something, and then we don't really understand what he's saying. We don't really understand what's going on. And all of a sudden, we speak out of the past, or we speak out of what we know, or we speak out of our own understanding, and we put on our glasses, and we look at stuff a certain way. And out of looking at it that way, we come up with a conclusion that we know deep in our hearts that it's true.
[01:05:49]
You know, there's a cost at each exit we get off on. And the cost is different. This last week, we went to Yellowstone and drive all the way across Wyoming. We killed a whole lot of bugs. We left them all in Wyoming at every gas station we went by. But, you know, if you're driving up to Wyoming, when you cross the border, you hit the truck stops, and gas was like $2 .50. $2 .52. And then, you know, we still had plenty of gas, and we just kept driving, and you got to Chugwater, and we wanted to stop. And Christy goes, hey, you should just fill up the car while we're here. So we pulled up to the pump, and they ran inside to use the restroom and get a drink and stuff. And I look at the pump, and it was like $4 .60 a gallon. Why? Because there's nothing in Chugwater. There's nothing for 100 miles in either direction. And that's what they get for gas there. But see, then you get a little bit farther down the road. You get to Casper, and it's back down to $2 .40. A dollar cheaper a gallon. But what I'm just trying to show there is, where we get off sometimes, there's a higher price we have to pay.
[01:06:56]
If we're not listening to what God is saying, we can still be on the path. We can still be going. But when we get off at certain places, or we go past certain places, that he wants us to stop at, or we're going faster than he wants, or we're going slower than he wants, we end up in situations where we're still going to continue on, but there's a lot higher price to pay to do it. And that's where we end up so often. We end up at the wrong exit, and we don't end up where he wants us, but it doesn't end there.
[01:08:16]
And I think sometimes we forget that God wants to take us from someplace to someplace. And so many times we get discouraged, and we go back. and we go back. And we're just going back. And I'll be right back. And I'll be right back. And then, and we go back, and we go back to what's familiar, and we go back to what's known.
[01:10:10]
You know what? When Jesus comes in your life, I know when Jesus came into my life, I was ready to walk away from everything. I was ready to walk away from work. I was ready to walk away from friends. I was ready to walk away from situations. I was just ready to give everything because I was already experiencing everything he'd already done for me. I mean, there was an instant change. And it even went against what most Christians were saying. Christians were saying, you know, it doesn't matter if you're saved. Once you're an addict, you're always going to be an addict. Once you're an alcoholic, you're always going to be an alcoholic. And people were saying stuff like that, you know, you're still going to have consequences for your actions. you're still going to have consequences in your body for the way you've abused it. But you know what? For me personally, all that went away. The cravings went away. All those things went away. And that even happened before I came to know him. That happened when he spoke to me and said, you don't have to live like this anymore if you don't want to.
[01:15:51]
And you know, he had to feel such joy when he had let Jesus down by saying, I'm going to do all this for you, and then turn around and doing the very thing that Jesus said he was going to do, and then he denied it to his face. That'll never be me. You know, God wants us to use our brains and think things through. He wants us to make intelligent choices.
[01:17:59]
See, God wants us to use our brains and to think things through and make intelligent choices. But more importantly, we need to be like Peter. We need to be desperate for Jesus. We need to be desperate to hear his voice. We need to be desperate to do what he's saying. We need to be desperate to not question what he's saying, but actually follow through with what he's saying. You know, he's never going to lead us in the wrong direction.
[01:20:05]
There's something good he's taking us to, and sometimes he has to take us through someplace to get us to someplace.
[01:20:48]
You know what? When they come to shore, they find it unexpected. I mean, they thought it was the Lord, they screamed out it was the Lord, but when they actually got there, they knew it was the Lord. And not only was it Lord, he was there ready to serve them. And he told them to bring some fish, but he already had fish. He was already cooking fish on a charcoal fire. He already had fish, but he was wanting them to bring what they had caught, to be an example.
[01:22:14]
Jesus is just showing them that he's going to provide abundantly above all they can ever dream or ask. He was showing them in a very factual way. You know, you went back to what you, what you were doing and I'm still going to provide for you and I'm going to provide for you abundantly.
[01:26:08]
See, Jesus gave Simon the name Peter. He said, on this rock. On this rock, I'm going to build. And the very rock that he called out, the one who was standing up for Jesus more than anybody else when they were walking around, when they were, when they were out traveling, when he was first called. He's the one that said, I'm going to die for you. And he's the disciple that we hear about denying Christ. And yet, he brings him back full circle.
[01:29:34]
And I would have to think, is, when that excitement comes, when Holy Spirit fell, and he's totally overwhelmed, and he steps out on the porch, and he starts sharing, you know, something in the very back of his mind, you know, we always get caught up in past memories, we always get caught up in what other people have said, we always get caught up in where we've been, and what we've experienced, and what we've seen, and I would have to think, that at some point, he starts getting scared again. But he's so overwhelmed, by the power of the Spirit, he's so overwhelmed, that Jesus came back and forgave him, he's so overwhelmed, that in Acts chapter 2, he just doesn't stop. Because at that point in time, he realizes, to die, is to gain, or to live, is to gain, but either way, he was going to serve the Lord. He was not going to go back, to what he had just been redeemed from, a second time.
[01:31:44]
God is really looking, for a deep and genuine commitment, to himself. He's going to keep pushing, until you confront, whatever you're holding back, whatever is keeping you, from full surrender. God is going to keep pushing us, out of the way. God is going to keep pushing us in areas. He's going to keep making us go. He's going to keep making us, pay the price.
[01:32:52]
See, Jesus kept pushing until Peter was deeply wounded because it was the only way Peter was going to deal with his unfaithfulness that he'd shown before. He pushed him and showed him where it was he fell down. He pushed him and he showed him where it was he went wrong. That's the only way that Peter was going to deal with his unfaithfulness. You know what? God wants that deep and genuine commitment to himself. He's given us everything and asking for nothing in return.
[01:34:42]
When Jesus appeared again here on the shore, he showed them a miracle. He showed them a miracle that they had seen before. He showed them a miracle that they had profited from before. And it was a very personal miracle. It just wasn't something he did while they were out teaching and traveling with Jesus. It was something he did specifically for them. Specifically when he called them. And he was reminding them what they were called to do. He was reminding them who they were called to be. And you know what? God does that for us all the time.
[01:35:40]
I think God's always telling us, you know, we get concerned with what everybody else is doing. We get concerned with everything else going on and we're not doing what God's called us to do. We just stay sometimes right where we are and we stay living in the past.
[01:37:51]
That's why God is calling for obedience. That's why God is calling to listen to what he has to say. That's why it would have been much easier just to go in the first time.
[01:39:59]
I think that we need to really realize and I can't say this enough, we need to realize what our gifting is and what our part is and we need to realize where we fit in a family, where we fit in a team. You see, when they were out fishing, they had to have a team in order to be efficient. Somebody just going out with a small net in a fishing pole is never going to catch their portion of 150 fish. They're going to catch 5 or 10 fish, 20 fish. But they're not going to catch the same amount because working together.
[01:40:17]
And see, that's why it takes everybody. The architect draws a picture and they're getting a prophetic picture in the spiritual sense. They're getting a prophetic picture of what's going on but then it gets handed over to a general contractor and a group of engineers that have to design everything. And you have the electrical engineers and you have the structural engineers and you have all these different engineers and then under them you have all the different trades that have to do stuff and I know from being a part of building big buildings that everything changes along the way. It's a constant change order, change order, change order.
[01:42:30]
And I have known since the very beginning, I can't do it alone. I know that God brings people along that are going to fill in all the little gaps. People, people, he's going to bring the right people, and sometimes some people don't want to do a job. You know, I don't want my drywaller doing my plumbing. I don't want my electrician painting the outside of the building. You know, I don't want my excavator building the walls. Even if that's what they want to do, it just doesn't happen that way. You've got to find the right people that are gifted in the right way, that have the right talents to do that.
[01:45:59]
The enemy wants us to always focus on where we came from. He wants to focus on what we were before we became Christians. He wants us to focus on all the hindrances. He wants us to focus on everything going wrong. and I'd really try hard not to focus on that. When you're not focusing on what God has done, and you're focusing on what God hasn't done, then everything gets skewed. But it's so hard to get out of that when you're right in the middle of something and you're experiencing all that, it's hard to lay those things aside. Why? Because that's your reality. That's your life. That's what you're breathing. That's what you're experiencing. That's right where you're at in that moment.
[01:50:29]
Are you focusing on what the Scripture says about you? Or are you focusing on your failures and your shortcomings? Or are you focusing on everything that isn't working? You know, God never set us up to fail. He only sets us up to mature and grow. And even when we make stupid decisions, He still set us up to mature and grow. And it isn't like He didn't know we were going to fail. It isn't like He didn't know where we were going to end up. But you know what? Even when we fail, it doesn't change the fact of what the Word says. It doesn't change who He is. It doesn't change what He's done.
[01:52:09]
But I really think in the last few days he just brought me back to are you doing what I'm calling you to do or are you focusing on what I'm not doing because my way is true the word is still true that by his stripes people are healed by his salvation by his death on the cross people are going to get saved and you know what it's going to happen with or without us but it's going to be so much more productive with us he doesn't want us to be like the Israelites and wander out in the desert he wants us to be actively involved and we just need to be open to what he's saying and we need to be doing what he's saying
[02:03:26]
And I know there's people in this room that if I went up and told them something like that, they'd be devastated. And I know other people in this room that I would have to take a baseball bat and beat it in their head. And then they still wouldn't get it. But they wouldn't necessarily be mad. They'd be saying, why do you keep hitting me? And it's just, I mean, I'm just saying that's a reality. There's people, if you don't tell them hi, they're devastated for the whole week. And there's people like, why do you always come and tell me hi? Because people all have different needs. And people have different failures. And people have different ways they were brought up. And people have different insecurities. And people have all that. And that's why I always say, and I fail on a regular basis, is, but we need to be seeing people as God sees them so that we can meet the needs. And we need to understand how all that's working. You know, God has restoration for everywhere we've failed.
[02:04:58]
I don't want anybody to walk out of this room today thinking that you're beyond. I want people to walk out saying, you know what? I'm going to leave all this garbage in the past. I'm just going to leave it right there in the trash heap. I'm going to do like Peter did the first time. Actually, I'm going to do like Elijah, like Elisha did, and just burn the oxen. You know, we need to burn all that and just move forward.
[02:06:08]
I'm going to tell you, God still heals. God still delivers. God still delivers. God still delivers. Kate designed a t -shirt this last week. We co -designed it, but she did the real design. But on the front, it just says a place for healing. Physically, mentally, and spiritually. And you know what? That's where God wants us to live. He wants us to live according to his word. And even if we don't see it, we've still got to do it. Even if we don't experience it, we've still got to do it.
[02:07:45]
But you know what it doesn't stop why because it's not me it's God and we just need to keep pressing in
[02:11:23]
