What Matters

Transcript

This transcript was generated automatically from the audio and may contain small errors.

Good morning, South Burleson. It is incredibly good to be back with you guys this morning. My name is Justin. In case you're unfamiliar with who I am, I'm one of the pastors in residence over at First Baptist Burleson, and very thankful for Drew giving me the opportunity to come back and preach for you guys this morning. It's always good to worship with you and preach here, and I appreciate you having me this morning. So I want to start off by telling you a story about the shortcomings of me and my family, and my family, not and my family. And so this involves my son John. He's three and a half, yeah, three and a half, and he's our first born. And so when we moved him from the bassinet in our bedroom to his crib in his room, that was probably one of the scariest times in our lives. We were just sure that once he was no longer in our line of sight, that something bad was going to happen.

And so we have one of those fancy monitors, cameras in his room, and the nice little LED monitor. And we probably spent an hour after the first time we laid him down, just huddled over that screen, watching for his chest to rise and fall just to make sure that he was breathing. We, everything about that move was scary. But what we cared also about was the temperature in his room, our nice little LED monitor. It allowed us to see how hot or how cold it is in their room. And I'll admit, this is probably a little bit more of a concern for my wife than it is for me. I am quite the polar bear when it comes to the thermostat. If it was up to me, the temperature would be set as cold as our energy budget would allow it for it to be all the time, right? But marriage is about compromise. And so we have a set range that we agree on, a low and a high, and we try to stay in between

that. However, that compromise gets compromised when it comes to the children. When it comes to them, if it's too cold or too hot, my wife gets very anxious about that. And admittedly I do too, but to me it's more, they'll be fine. It'll be okay. So sure, whenever it gets too cold though, like they start coughing and that kind of creates some more anxiety. And so we just keep an eye on it. Well, one time after we had made this move from bassinet to crib, my wife was eagle-eyeing temperature and she saw that it was one degree less than what our thermostat was set to. And I knew where this was going and she asked if we could turn the thermostat up by one degree. And in my head I'm thinking he is not going to freeze to death by what is set at and turning it up one degree is not going to change anything. All right so what I said was what difference is that going to

make? You already know most of you that I messed up. Right? Because something else that we could get at in marriage, right, is reading body language. And it was a shift in the eyes, right. I knew, as soon as I said those words came out of my mouth, we were about to go nine rounds, right. I just, so I got my dukes up mentally, emotionally, I was ready to go. However, what she said next floored me. She said, you're invalidating me. Like, what? That is not at all what I had expected her to say, and it took all of the air out of any fight that I had because I don't want to invalidate my wife. I don't want to make her feel that way, and I began to realize that I had lost sight of what matters. I had lost sight of that I was putting my comfort above her feelings. I was putting my comfort above the comfort of my infant son who couldn't wrap up in a blanket like I could.

You see, I'm of the persuasion that you can always put more layers on the colder it is to get warm, but you can only take so many off and still be hot, right? And so, but he didn't have that luxury. We couldn't put a blanket on him, and we could only layer him so much where it was still safe, at least according to, you know, the doctors and everything, right? So I dropped my argument and I apologized and I said,

I'm so sorry, you're absolutely right, I'm invalidating you. Let's turn the temperature up by 10 degrees, I don't care. So that's what we wanna talk about today is realizing what matters. So we're gonna be in the book of John today, chapter 21, verses one through 14. Now, if you're familiar with chapter 21 of John, you're probably most familiar with the back half of that chapter, verses 15 through 25. That's where Peter sort of gets reinstated. He gets some redemption from his past failure, where he denied Jesus three times after he told him he wouldn't. And Jesus sort of offers a restoration there. He reinstates him. And we love that story because it's a story of redemption. feels good to know that when we mess up Jesus is there to restore us. However, if we put ourselves in Peter's shoes and we think about the time in between with the time when he denied Jesus and whenever he was restored that time in between

that's really uncomfortable to think about. That causes some unease. That's a tension that I think we might all be familiar with at least to some degree. This idea that you've wronged somebody, you've hurt somebody, and you don't want to interact with them, you don't even want them to look at you until you do something to make it right. Until you do something to restore that relationship to a tone for whatever you did. And until then, we just sort of live in this tension. And then when we live in that tension, I think we lose sight of what matters. And so in that tension, we all have our go-tos, things that we do to help ease that tension, help us make us feel better maybe distract us a little bit from the pain that we've caused or the pain or uncomfortableness that we're feeling. For me that's video games mostly. Now I'm a child of the 90s. I grew up playing video games. Some of my earliest

memories are playing Super Nintendo and Sega Genesis and I've been playing video games my whole life. It's a source of comfort for me. Now I don't get to do that as often anymore. I've got two little kids, I'm in two jobs, work in seminary, so I don't get a lot of free time. But something else that I have found a fondness for is grilling and smoking meat. My wife, my gracious, gracious wife, she got me my first pellet grill over the summer for Father's Day and that has unlocked an entirely new world. Oh my gosh, I don't know why I didn't find it sooner. Who knew cooking could be so fun and could be so good. I mean you can make the best barbecue in the world in your backyard, right? But it has become a, quickly has become a source of comfort for me. I enjoy the process. And I think things like that though, these things that bring us comfort, these go to things

that we're good at doing or that we find easy and can kind of ease some of that tension, we can also allow that tension, I'm sorry, allow that comfortableness, that ease to distract from whatever we're avoiding and we can lose sight of it. And I think a pastime that is usually pretty adept at this is the pastime of fishing. Now I'm not a fisherman by any means, I'm not an angler as I've learned or called. So I might be speaking out of my depth a little bit, but I used to look at people who fish kinda like they're crazy.

One of my friends, he's one of these guys, His name's Sam. His family owns a little bit of land out in Ria Vista, Raya Vista, whatever you wanna call it. And they have a stock tank out there. And from time to time, he goes out there and goes fishing. And he will invite me. And there's some time in between these invitations. And I'll think, yeah, I wanna do something out of my comfort zone and something I'm not usually doing. Yeah, let me know when you're going. Or let me know when you're gonna come pick me up. Because it's usually the day before that he texts me. And so I said, yeah, just let me know what time you're gonna come by. And he says, yeah, I'll be there around 4, 4.35 a.m. And then all of a sudden something comes up. I suddenly remember why I don't go with him because I just don't think sitting out on the water and getting bit by mosquitoes sounds like a great time,

at least that early. And so I usually don't go with him. But I know I can appreciate and understand why he does it and why others like him do it. Because fishing offers a unique opportunity to get away from the noise, away from the hustle and bustle of our lives. It's just you out on the water with the fish, with nature, alone with your thoughts. Well, maybe that's not good for some of you, but for a lot of us, that would be a good time to get away and connect with ourselves and with nature. And for Christians, it's a great opportunity to connect with the Lord through his creation.

However, fishing and activities like fishing, they can also provide that distraction, that ability to avoid what we're running away from that's in the noise and in the hustle bustle of our lives. And I think that's the spot that we find the disciples in in John 21. So just a little bit more context for this chapter. This is the final chapter of John and it's the third appearance of Jesus after his resurrection, at least to the disciples. So he appeared twice. The day of his resurrection, he showed us up behind a closed door. The disciples are huddled around, wondering what to do next, and he shows up. And they probably freaked him out a little bit. And then after that kind of wore off, they just got, I'm sure they were excited that he was here. that he was back. And then he sort of disappears again for a week. But they were probably riding the high of him being back, right?

They told Thomas who wasn't there, you're never going to believe who just showed up. Right. And Thomas is, I mean, we've probably all been like Thomas before and going, no, he didn't. You guys, you're pulling my leg. Right. Like you ever wanted something not to be true just because you weren't there to be a part of it? And so I think Thomas is like, unless he shows me his wounds, I don't believe you guys. So a week later, Jesus shows up and does just that. And he shows Thomas his wounds and Thomas believes, and he offers them some hope as he parts. And then we pick up again, like I said here in John 21, for his third appearance. And at this point, it's been six to eight weeks, about a month and a half to two months. And so there's been a lot of quiet on the end of Jesus. And so this is where we're going to be our main passage today, verses 1 through 14.

We're going to read these in chunks, but I want you to keep an eye on Peter because Peter and the other disciples walk onto what matters most when we're in these seasons of tension. So starting in chapter 21, verses one through three, it says, afterward Jesus appeared again to his disciples by the sea of Galilee. It happened this way. Simon Peter, Thomas, also known as Didymus, Nathaniel from Cana and Galilee, the sons of Zebedee, which would be James and John, and two other disciples that we don't know were together. "'I'm going out to fish,' Simon Peter told them. And they said, we'll go with you." I like how Peter didn't really invite them. He just said, I'm doing to do this. And the other disciples said, we're gonna go with you. And so they went out and got into the boat, but that night they caught nothing. So some things to tease out of this short little passage,

short verses. Again, like I mentioned, they're kind of in a spot. It's been six to eight weeks since they've seen Jesus. Can you imagine the roller coaster, the emotional roller coaster that they have gone on since they saw Jesus last. Or just really over the last several months, right? They were walking with a man who seemed to be fulfilling all of the things that they were looking for in a Messiah. They become to believe that He was the Messiah. They came to believe that He was going to take this world and flip it on its head. The Kingdom of God was going to come and He was going to change everything. And then he's arrested and tortured and murdered and buried. For three days, I can't imagine the crippling despair they must have felt. We get the privilege of knowing that it was three days later, but for them, can you imagine day one and day two? And just not knowing what was coming next.

And then bam, Jesus shows up again. the excitement, the invigoration that must have been going on in that room, the, like I said, early in the high that they must have felt just being in his presence again. And then he kind of disappears again. But he shows back up a week later and so they must have been thinking, all right, we're back. We're going to get back to it. We're going to get back to what we've been doing. We're going to get back to changing the world. And then he disappears again. And a week goes by, and another, and another, and another, several more. I bet they were thinking that he wasn't coming back. So they must have been anxious. They must have been confused. And so Peter, leading the charge here, says, I don't know what else to do. I'm going to go fish. I know I'm good at that. I know that will make me feel better. And it'll probably bring us in some money.

You guys can come if you want or not, gonna, it's what I'm gonna go do. And so they decide to go with him. But again, thinking about Peter, and as I mentioned earlier, he hasn't had this reconciliation yet. He hasn't had this, hasn't been restored yet. And in these first two appearances, we don't see Peter interact with Jesus. So we can only speculate, but if I was Peter, if I was in that room and that was the last interaction I had with Jesus, I'd be kind of fading into the background behind the other guys like, Jesus don't look at me, don't call me out, don't... we just forget what happened. And then the that appearance goes on and a week later I imagine Peter probably maybe working himself up like maybe this time I'll make things right. Maybe this time I'll address it and then it doesn't happen. So two opportunities Peter had and he didn't take his shot. So these

weeks go by, these couple months go by, and I just imagine Peter was probably ashamed. Probably thinking that once again he missed his shot and he doesn't know if he's gonna get it back and he can't make it right. And so for Peter he says I'm gonna go fish. I'm gonna do go do the thing that I know how to do that makes me feel good, it might distract me a little bit, and the disciples say, that sounded like a good idea, let's go do that together. And so they go get in the boat and they go fish. And I like that John points out here that they didn't catch anything. I think it adds a little flavor to the tension that must have been in this boat because for if you don't know, fishing took place over or takes place overnight on the Sea of Galilee. And so if they didn't catch anything, that means that they had been fishing all night. So they were probably tired and frustrated, probably hangry, right? And so here's where we pick up in

verse 4. It says, early in the morning Jesus stood on the shore, but the disciples did not realize that it was Jesus. This might have been for a couple of reasons. Again, it was early morning, so the light was probably not gray. There was probably, there might have been a haze or a fog on the water, and so it could have been difficult to make him out from the distance they were at. We're also see here in a moment that there's reason to believe that Jesus probably didn't quite look like himself, quite like how they were used to, and so they probably didn't recognize him. But I believe that they had a connection problem, that this effort to go fish, to make things right on their own, that they disconnected themselves from the Lord. And so that when he showed up and was only a hundred yards from them, they didn't recognize him. And so Jesus being God, I think he knew this, and he decided to have a little fun

with them. And so in verse five it says, He called out to them, friends, haven't you any fish? No, they answered. He said, throw your net on the right side of the boat and you will find some. And when they did, they were unable to haul the net in because of the large number of fish. So let's just put ourselves in the scene for a second. Okay, but the disciples are on the boat. Jesus shows up, well to them, the stranger shows up and says, hey, have you caught anything yet? And they said, no, thanks for rubbing it in. And so the stranger says, oh, I got an idea. Why don't you throw it on the other side of the boat? And you'll catch some. And they must have looked at each other like, who is this guy? James, just throw the net on the other side so we can get this guy to go away. And as soon as they throw the net in the water, it's just, whoosh. The net is immediately full of fish, big fat fish.

And it's in that moment that things started to click because only one person, in their experience, could do something like this. So in verse seven it says, "'Then the disciple whom Jesus loved,'" and if any time we see this phrase, the disciple whom Jesus loved, or beloved disciple of some translation say, "'Know that John is talking about himself.'" He's writing about himself in this. "'So the disciple whom Jesus loved said to Peter, It is the Lord. And as soon as Simon Peter heard him say this, say, it is the Lord. He wrapped his outer garment around him for he had taken it off and jumped in the water. So what I love about this little interaction that's going on is that John is pointing out the competition between him and Peter. It's like he's saying, okay, you may have done the overt thing, the thing that Jesus is going to notice by jumping in the water, but I saw him first.

I noticed who he was first, right? So quit trying to show off. But we'll see that John kind of keeps pointing this out as we go into verse 8. It says, The other disciples followed in the boat, towing the net full of fish, for they were not far from shore. Like John is saying, Peter, we're not that far from shore. Quit trying to show us up. Quit trying to show off. Just get in the boat. But how want to be like Peter. That whenever I've been far away from the Lord, whenever I've messed up, that when I see he's right there, I recognize that he's right there, I just want a cannonball into that water and go after him with full abandon. But too often I think that I'm like John and the other disciples. I gotta get everything in the book, I get everything nice and packed tight, neat and ready, presentable, so that when I'm in front of Jesus, I have everything

ready to go. But that's not what Peter did here. Peter just jumped in. And so the other side was followed in the boat. They towed the net of fish, but they were not far from shore, about a hundred yards. And then in verse 9 it says, When they landed, they saw a fire of burning coals there with fish on and some bread. And Jesus said to them, Bring some of the fish you have just caught. What I love about this is that Jesus didn't need them to bring the fish. He doesn't need us to be a part of his mission, but he invites us alongside him. But more than providing them fish, because they didn't ask for it. They didn't ask the stranger to provide them fish. Jesus just did it. Because they didn't need fish, they needed him. That's what matters. So Jesus said to them, verse 10, bring some of the fish you have just caught. So Simon Peter climbed back into the boat, again Peter being very quick to respond to Jesus now. He's being

very obedient here. He gets in the boat, sorry, I lost my place, again the boat dragged the net ashore. And again, he did it all by himself. They They couldn't pull the net into the boat, but they needed help, but Peter muscled it all to the shore by himself. It was full of large fish, 153, but even with so many, the net was not torn. And Jesus said to them, come and have breakfast. Jesus knew what mattered. It wasn't getting everything eaten orderly, it was just coming to be together. And this is a, to me, just a funny little detail here. None of the disciples dared ask Him, who are you? They knew it was the Lord. But there's an implication there that they maybe were a little unsure that they didn't, there was a question, but they didn't ask. And again, we see here because we think here, Jesus is not quite Himself. They're in the presence of a fully divine Jesus.

Can you imagine being in the presence of the one who created the stars, created everything in front of us fully divine and just being in his presence and that's what these disciples are experiencing and Jesus came and took the bread and gave it to them and did the same with the fish. This is now the the third time that Jesus appeared to his disciples after he was raised from the dead. What I love about this is that Jesus didn't berate them, he didn't shame them, he didn't get to business right away, and there was business to get to. Like we mentioned in verse 15 through 25, Jesus goes back on about reinstating Peter and mobilizing what would be the church. That's what's coming. before they get there, I love verse 15 says, after they had breakfast. See what Peter realized was that what mattered was getting to Jesus. No matter what he had going on in his life,

no matter what had happened before, and Jesus was offering that, and Peter got there as fast as he could. So this is what matters for us before we get to anything else in our lives, before we make things right with God. We just need to get to Him. We just need to rush to rest in His presence. But how often are we making up excuses or needing like, we need to get a feeling together that we feel better, that we feel okay. We give God a timetable of saying, Once I stop doing this choice sin for X amount of time or days or whatever it is, then I'll come back and I'll pray and I'll sing songs and I'll read my Bible and I can do all of that after I get this kind of under control. After I make things right with you, Jesus, then we can get our relationship back on track. But how often do we, in that in-between time, do we forget to work on ourselves? Does life get in the way and we don't go back to Jesus?

or we don't take care of that thing, and we never get back to Jesus. And now, days and weeks and months and years go by sometimes. But Jesus is not interested in shaming us, church. There may be things to atone for, there's gonna be responsibilities to take care of, there might be even discipline to endure, but he is all about abiding with us. And so I'm gonna conclude today on three ways that we can realize what matters. And I know what you're thinking, I just preached a whole sermon, you got three points now, they'll be very, very brief. Very brief, okay? So the first one is we wanna recognize our placement.

When we realize that we're not where we're supposed to be, there's nothing wrong with doing the things that we like to do that help us make us feel better. In fact, there's nothing wrong with what the disciples decided to do to go fish. And in fact, they were probably supposed to be fishing. They were just doing the wrong kind, right? Insert corny fishers of men joke here. But when they realized that that's where they weren't supposed to be, because Jesus was on the shore. Every time we see the disciples on the Sea of Galilee before this in the Gospels, Jesus is already with them or walking out to meet them. But this time he stays on the shore. What they were doing was not sinful or wrong, but they just weren't where they were supposed to be. So once we recognize our placement is off, we need to be willing to pursue, which we see Peter do. He doesn't waste any time by jumping in that water.

and he had every reason to hesitate. He denied Jesus on the night of his death. He had every reason to just put as much distance between him and Jesus as possible, but he knew what mattered, and it was getting to him as fast as possible. And so once we recognize our placement is off, and we are willing to pursue, we need to learn to pause. Our mess, our responsibility is everything going on. They'll be waiting for us. They're not going anywhere. But before we get there, we need to remember to rush to rest in Jesus. And we don't want to treat Jesus like a box to check off. We want to be deliberate in spending time with Him. It's essential to our lives. And so I want you to consider today how you might be putting Jesus in a box to check off and how moving on to the next thing after we've done our quiet time, our devotional, whatever that might look like, how then we're moving on to the important things.

The things in our work lives, our family, whatever it is that's going on, once that's taken care of, then we'll be better. The things that we think will make us feel better. But an author that I'm fond of, John Mark Comer, he says this, People all over the world, outside the church and in, are looking for an escape, a way out from under the crushing weight to life this side of Eden. But there is no escaping it. The best the world can offer is a temporary distraction to delay the inevitable or deny the inescapable. So when we move on from Jesus too quickly, we're losing sight of what matters. And we're losing our source, our connection to the source of life. So I want to try a little exercise with you guys today. I feel like I've been here enough, we can get a little comfortable with each other. And I want to encourage you to put everything down. Anything in your hands, your Bibles, your phones, any notes you're taking.

And I'm just going to read some scripture over you, Psalm 23. But when I do so, I want to encourage you to close your eyes. I want you to imagine being in this scene with Jesus, being in the scene in the Psalm. And imagine that Jesus is with you, despite whatever might be going on in your life, despite whatever, however distant you might feel from him. I don't care if something happened last night or this morning, but just Jesus is waiting.

So let's read this, I'll read this to you and just imagine that feeling of being in the presence of Jesus. The Lord is my shepherd and I lack nothing. He makes me lie down in green pastures and he leads me beside quiet waters. He refreshes my soul. He guides me along the right paths for His name's sake. And even though I walk through the darkest valley, I will fear no evil, for you are with me. Your rod and your staff, they comfort me. You prepare a table before me, in the presence of my enemies. You anoint my head with oil, my cup overflows. Surely your goodness and love will follow me all the days of my life, and I will dwell in the house of the Lord forever. You see church what matters is getting to Jesus, spending time with him and resting with him, not letting the noise and the hustle and bustle get in the way. That is you today if you feel like you need some prayer or someone to talk to about all

the things going on that are making you feel like you can't run to him. There'll be people, there'll be deacons in the back, ready to pray and talk with you this morning. Let's pray. Lord, thank you for being a truly welcoming savior. Now we don't have to have it all together, that we don't have to figure it all out. Now we don't have to make things neat and tidy and perfect before we come to you, but you just accept us in our mess. We can come to you no matter what we're walking through. No matter where we've been, it just happened or it happened ten years ago, Lord, that You still are calling us home. So God, I ask that You lay over this congregation, that You help them know that You are for them, that You are with us, and that You are, and You love us, unconditionally. Thank you for all that you do for us, Jesus. It's your holy and precious name, my friend.

Amen. Feel free to stand. Just pray. There's people in the back. Pray with you as we sing. Is my heart, Lord? Is my heart? Speak. Is my heart? Is my heart? Is my heart? Is true. I am found, yours I am made pure I have life I can breathe I am healed I am free Here's more Here's my heart Here's my heart I am yours I am made pure I have I can breathe I am healed I am free you are strong you are strong you are you are life you endure you are good always true So you are light breaking through This is my heart, is my heart, Lord This is my heart, it's true This is my light, oh this is my light Be what is true, God is true You are more than you are here You are love, you are hope, you are grace You're all life, you're everything You are more singing, you are more than enough You are here, you are love, you are hope, you are grace All I have, your everything is my heart, is my heart, Lord take it all, O is my heart.

Speak what is true. Speak what is true. Speak what is true, speak what is true