How in the World..Did This Happen??
John 21:1-2 MSG
1.After this, Jesus appeared again to the disciples, this time at the Tiberias Sea (the Sea of Galilee). This is how he did it: Simon Peter, Thomas (nicknamed "Twin"), Nathanael from Cana in Galilee, the brothers Zebedee, and two other disciples were together. Simon Peter announced, "I'm going fishing."
I don’t know of any one, who has never gotten tired and felt like quitting at some point in their lives.
And sometimes when you don't know what to do..you somehow always turn to something familiar.
Disappointments are the accusers thing..but Gods thing, for those that love and believe in Him..is to work all things for your good..and that means no matter what happens! Amen?
He is able to take every disappointment and turn it around into a God given, door opening, favor filled Appointment! Amen?
Maybe you have been praying and seeking God for a specific need for a long time.
And you almost think He has forgotten about your situation and the accuser has got you almost convinced of how insignificant you are...
Don't believe that Lie, or that load of garbage..and that's exactly what it is...for one more second!
Don’t give up, your answer is closer than you think! Your miracle is just around the corner!
That answer, that opportunity you've been looking for...is just literally moments away from coming up to you...
Taping you on the shoulder
and saying.."Here I Am" and I brought some extra favor besides!
He hasn’t forgot about your need and He still knows where you live, He knows everything about you.
He Loves You! If there's one thing you should take home with you today...Know that God Loves You!!
The only way you will ever receive all God has for and wants to give you through His Son Jesus..is to realize "How Much He Loves You!"
It's not because of who you are..it's because of whose you are! Amen?
But as long as there is free will, There will always be trials in this life we live,
either inflicted by the world and the accuser, but more than likely...self inflicted by you know who?
You see..so many times we give the accuser, way more credit than he deserves! Amen?
The truth is, we have all shot ourselves in the foot on occasion and most of us have done it more than once,
The self inflicted injuries are usually more painful, because we like to think that we can somewhat control what we do to ourselves.
I’'m sure that Peter was no different in his way of thinking, earlier he had told Jesus pretty much, that he would do anything for Him.
John 18:10 Msg.
Just then Simon Peter, who was carrying a sword, pulled it from its sheath and struck the Chief Priest's servant, cutting off his right ear. Malchus was the servant's name.
You see, he loved Jesus and wanted to protect Him, one minute willing to die for Him.
The next thing you know, he denies that he even knows Jesus At all,
John 18:25-27 msg.
25.Meanwhile, Simon Peter was back at the fire, still trying to get warm. The others there said to him, "Aren't you one of his disciples?" He denied it, "Not me."
26.One of the Chief Priest's servants, a relative of the man whose ear Peter had cut off, said, "Didn't I see you in the garden with him
27. Again, Peter denied it. Just then a rooster crowed.
And with that..it happened! Just like Jesus said it would!
Before we go any further...
Put yourself in Peters shoes for a moment..
What would you have done?
We have all been put on the spot before in our lives..
honestly we probably would have done the exact same thing Peter did!
Poor Peter, He was an emotional train wreck, Can you imagine what he must have been thinking?
I’m sure his world was coming apart at the seams..or so he thought.
What would he do now, where would any of them be without Jesus?
He probably felt like, Jesus where are you? What is going on?
I can't believe this is happening!
You are the Son of God!..
All of creation Bowes to You!....
How can they do this to you!
You can imagine how he felt, How could I have done what I did? I’'m not worthy,
All of us have probably said those same words, at some point in our lives.
What he didn’'t realize though was that, Jesus stilled loved him in spite of what he had done and had already forgiven him completely.
And the same rings true with you and I!
No matter what you have done..Jesus Loves You!
Jesus had great plans for Peter, He wasn’t through with Him and though he may have had a hard time believing it!
It wasn‘t the end, not even close..it was only the beginning!
John 21:1-2 msg. (remember our text, Peter said “I’m going fishing”)
3-4.The rest of them replied, "We're going with you." They went out and got in the boat. They caught nothing that night. When the sun came up, Jesus was standing on the beach, but they didn't recognize him.
5.Jesus spoke to them: "Good morning! Did you catch anything for breakfast?"
They answered, "No."
You see a lot of times when we don’t know what to do, we go back to what we know how to do, or so we think we think we know how to do.
And sometimes when we do, we influence others to go along with us.
Notice though, when they returned to what they knew, they were not successful
Even after they had given it their all, they had no success!
When God closes a door..no matter how hard you try to reopen it, on your own..it will never happen!
But notice what happened after they quit trying to do it on their own and listened to Jesus!
John 21:6 & 10-11msg.
6.He said, "Throw the net off the right side of the boat and see what happens."
They did what he said. All of a sudden there were so many fish in it, they weren't strong enough to pull it in.
10-11.Jesus said, "Bring some of the fish you've just caught." Simon Peter joined them and pulled the net to shore, 153 big fish! And even with all those fish, the net didn't rip.
Although they didn't deserve it and they certainly hadn't earned it...
God still exceeded anyone's wildest expectations..when it came time to bless them!
Even when you think, you’ve done something wrong against God and your not worthy of His goodness to you, you couldn’t be farther from the truth.
Its not about what you do, or have done to merit Gods goodness, favor and His amazing ability to bless you,
it always comes back to...what He already did to make it available to you!
When your going through something and you feel like giving up, its almost like you think that your the only one defending and pleading your case!
TBS. He will never leave you, nor forsake you
Psalms 121:1-8 (the Voice)
1.He holds you firmly in place;
2.He will not let you fall.
3.He who keeps you will never take His eyes off you and never drift off to sleep.
4.What a relief! The One who watches over Israel...never leaves for rest or sleep.
5.The Eternal keeps you safe,
so close to Him that His shadow is a cooling shade to you.
6.Neither bright light of sun
nor dim light of moon will harm you.
7.The Eternal will keep you safe
from all of life’s evils,
8.From your first breath to the last breath you breathe, from this day and forever.
He’s still right there..He never left..
He's standing by your side...
waiting for you to ask Him for His help, ready to deliver you, the moment you ask Him to!
Nothing can take you away or stand between you and Gods Love! Nothing!!
You’ are the only one who can let something get between you and God, not Him.
He is completely devoted and committed to the relationship, He wants you to have with Him!
1st Peter 4:12-13 MSG
12-13.Friends, when life gets really difficult, don't jump to the conclusion that God isn't on the job. Instead, be glad that you are in the very thick of what Christ experienced. This is a spiritual refining process, with glory just around the corner.
Look back to verse three of our text
In the last part of that verse it says: "they caught nothing that night" (and believe me it's not like they didn't try)
Are you getting what God is trying to get across to the disciples and to us as well?
This tells us God did not intend for them to return to something Familiar!
He had something new in mind for them!
He didn't want them going backwards, because when you return to something that you already know,
it doesn't require very much faith on your part, because you already know what to expect.
(familiarity, will never stretch you and allow your faith to grow) "repeat"
God wants to take our walk with Him to new levels, He wants us to grow in our relationship with Him and as we do,
If you ask Him...He will reveal more of Himself in your walk with Him all along the way!
Human nature sometimes, or should I say almost always fights change that were not ready for,
Let me ask this, "Is the sacred cow" you know the way it's always been..really that Great?
Well is it?
Peter, like a lot of us...was'n’t ready for the change that was happening,
But God was doing a new thing to bring Him closer to Him,
God is always continuing to do new things in all of our lives, giving us opportunities..to go to the next level of our relationship with Him.
Aren't you glad He is?
TBS. he is new every morning, Great is His Faithfulness!!
He wants to take us to new levels and show us more of his goodness each and every day.
And the more we rely on Him and His goodness and not on our own abilities,
the more we realize that He is our power source for every situation!
TBS. Zech 4:6 (KJV)
6. Then he answered and spake unto me, saying, This is the word of the LORD unto Zerubbabel, saying, Not by might, nor by power, but by my spirit, saith the LORD of hosts.
“Its not by might, its not by power, but by my spirit says the Lord of Hosts”.
He wants us to know, no matter what we've done..He still Loves us and that He will be there every step of the way to help us,
Your blessing does not depend on what you do, if it did, you’d never get one! None of us would!
Like Peters actions and effort, left him empty handed...ours always ends with the same exact results, every time too!
Were not so different from Peter you and I, sometimes we think were so tough, only to find out differently through our own humility.
When the going gets tough, we find out we ain’t as tough as we thought we were, just like Peter.
Peter wasn’t the only man to ever fall short of the mark. All men fall, great men get up and keep going.
The saints are just the sinners who fall down and get back up..
God isn’t interested in your past, your past was forgiven when you accepted Jesus as your Lord and Saviour.
Your past is still forgiven on a daily basis!..
if you make a mistake,
Repent and move on! Amen?
God is more concerned with your future, just as He had big plans for Peter, He also has big plans for you as well!
2 Cor. 5:16-21 Msg.
16-20.Because of this decision we don't evaluate people by what they have or how they look.
We looked at the Messiah that way once and got it all wrong, as you know. We certainly don't look at him that way anymore.
Now we look inside, and what we see is that anyone united with the Messiah gets a fresh start, is created new.
The old life is gone; a new life burgeons!
Look at it! All this comes from the God who settled the relationship between us and him, and then called us to settle our relationships with each other.
God put the world square with himself through the Messiah, giving the world a fresh start by offering forgiveness of sins.
God has given us the task of telling everyone what he is doing. We're Christ's representatives.
((we are God's Disciple's...did you know that? We are Gods voice, His hands, arms and feet...we are His boots on the ground))
God uses us to persuade men and women to drop their differences and enter into God's work of making things right between them.
We're speaking for Christ himself now: Become friends with God; he's already a friend with you.
21.How? you ask. In Christ. God put the wrong on him who never did anything wrong, so we could be put right with God."
Jesus paid it all..He knows us inside and out, He understands everything about you!
*People will fail you!
*Family will fail you!
*Friends will fail you!
*Your Government will fail you!
*You will even fail you!
Peter, never thought that would be a true statement either..
But it is!
Life will let you down sometimes
This one Fact remains the same, God will never let you down, He will never fail you!
He’s all the time busy, working behind the scenes, to get good things lined up to happen to you.
But this happened and that went wrong...maybe so,
But what that is..is you looking to the right and the left,
Instead of looking continually..focusing on God! Amen?
No this..and don't let the accuser ever tell you differently...
God is continually working all things for our good
when you put your faith and trust in Him.
Will there be times of struggle, times you get tired and feel like quitting,
The short answer is "Yes"
But TBS.(the bible says) His strength is perfect, when our strength is gone!
Before the beginning of the world, God knew you and has had a plan for your life from that very moment.
You have had placed on you, the highest calling ever known to mankind,
to serve and to know the love and goodness of God! (Hallelujah, Glory to God!)
You may have been looked over, passed over, even tripped over and set aside by the world, But not by God!
He actually chose you, long before you chose Him.
You are one of His treasures, one of His most valued possessions, He loves you more than you will ever know!
Lets pray.
