So I'm gonna talk with you tonight, we were in the book of Leviticus, we're basically coming to the day of atonement, but I wanna talk to you tonight about breakfast with Jesus. And the reason I'm gonna share this with you is because where the Lord had me the last few weeks. And I've shared with you breakfast with Jesus, I have breakfast with Jesus every day. and I'm gonna break it up into a two-part series. We'll cover part one tonight and then part two next week. And I'm gonna share with you just about, I believe, what you can expect when you have breakfast with Jesus. So in John chapter 21, verses one through five, The Word of God says, after these things, Jesus showed himself again to the disciples at the Sea of Tiberias, and in this way he showed himself. Simon Peter, Thomas called the twin Nathaniel of Cana in Galilee, the sons of Zebedee, and two others of his disciples were together. And Simon Peter said to them, I am going fishing. And they said to him, we are going with you also. And they went out and immediately got into the boat, and that night they caught nothing. But when the morning had now come, Jesus stood on the shore, yet the disciples did not know that it was Jesus. And then Jesus said to them, children, have you any food? And they answered to him, no. So Father in heaven, I just pray, Lord, open up our hearts and minds. The richest part of my life, Lord God, has been having breakfast with you each day, and nothing compares with it. I pray, Lord God, that just, Lord, like a fire, let it be caught, let it spread, let it touch each and every heart tonight, and that, Lord God, may those who have breakfast with you each day, may it be enhanced, enlarged, and for those who don't, Lord God, let them take the step today And Lord God, let them wake up tomorrow morning and have breakfast with you. And Lord God, let them receive the great blessings that come from it. In Jesus' name we pray, amen. So for four decades, I have been having breakfast with Jesus. That's a lot of years, probably about 38 total years. the number one thing in my life. It is the most important thing in my life. It is the most important priority in my life. And really, outside of everything else in my spiritual life, worshipping, being in church, fellowship, service, preaching, it is more important than any of those things. If I had to make a choice of just keeping one, it would be breakfast with Jesus. I call it My power hour, though it could be an hour, it was nice the last few weeks where it was far more than an hour, and it ended up being sometimes two, three, four hours. Words to describe it, it's wonderful, it's empowering, it's enlightening, it's a time of anointing, it's a time of equipping, a time of renewing, and a time of being with Jesus. The morning after my surgery, which was a week ago tonight, was the first time that I could ever remember. What's the matter? Two weeks ago. Two weeks ago from tonight. It was the first time that I could ever remember that I did not have breakfast with Jesus, as I normally do. So when they tried to sit me up, I passed out. So they had to keep me down. And so I wasn't able to pick up my head and I wasn't able to look at my Bible. Now the last time I had surgery, I had the same surgery on my right side as I did my left side this time. I got up in the morning and I had this rich time with Jesus and I was in the word and I'm journaling and I'm listening to praise music. And I was really looking forward to that. I kind of, through the whole night, you don't sleep in the hospital, you know, they come in and they prod you and they stick you. I had wonderful nurses. The nurses, God bless the nurses. God bless all the people in our hospitals, folks. When you see them, thank them, you know, because they are special. And I could not do that. I could not be a nurse. There ain't no way with what they do. But I had two of them were Christians and two African-American ladies who talk about the Lord and prayed together. But couldn't get up, and that was the first time. First time that I could, I don't know, I could remember that I, vacations and trips and challenges and illnesses, and I've always had time, you know, where I was able to sit up. I just laid there, but Jesus was with me. And I was actually kind of quoting scripture and praying and talking to the Lord. And it was a nice, you know, it was a nice morning. So breakfast with Jesus, it's just a great thing. What is it really about? I'm going to give you one key word. It's the word behold. Breakfast with Jesus is to behold Jesus, you know, and it tells us in Psalm 134 verse one, behold, bless you, the Lord, all you servants of the Lord, which by night stand in the house of the Lord. What does it mean to behold? to focus, to perceive, to apprehend, to experience. Realize this, you can pray and not behold the Lord. You could be singing songs, just everything that we just did, sing four beautiful songs to the Lord and not be beholding the Lord. You could be reading the Word and not behold the Lord. And we've had that, right? You've had that experience. I've had that experience where, you know, you're just going through the motions, you're going through the routine, and you're not experiencing God at all. By the way, you can preach and not be beholding God. I'd say one of the greatest dangers of preaching is we preach from our personality. And most preachers have a lot of personality. I mean, it's occasionally you meet a preacher who doesn't have any personality, but that's kind of rare. Most preachers, I mean, preachers in Bible-believing churches, they have personality. And suddenly you're preaching your personality, but you're not preaching the person of Christ. And I've done that, you know. And as I've gotten older, I've become more sensitive to it. You could just be preaching out of your charisma and your ability to communicate and not be preaching. But again, you're not in the presence of the Lord. You're not beholding the Lord. So it really comes down to, as we go through the gospel of John chapter 21, Breakfast with Jesus is about beholding the Lord. And so what can you expect, right? What can you expect when you have breakfast with Jesus? And John chapter 21 tells us a bunch of things that happened that morning when they had breakfast with him. So I'll share with you five tonight and five next week. The first, Jesus revealed himself. And when you have breakfast with Jesus, you can expect that he will reveal himself. It tells us, right, he showed himself again to his disciples, and it says it twice. And in this way, he showed himself. So he revealed himself to his disciples. And when we come to breakfast with Jesus, he will manifest himself to you. Now, you need to come by faith. Okay? And that is not faith in faith or faith in yourself. Essentially, it is faith in Him, believing that He is God, that He is the Messiah, that He is the Savior, that He is the Lord, that He is the King. And to believe that He died for you on the cross and was raised from the dead. And to believe that He's there with you. You have to, you know, essentially believe in Him. Another thing, you need to come in humility, realizing that, essentially, you and I are totally unworthy. I am unworthy. I'm an unworthy sinner who has fallen short of the glory of God. I'm the holiest person in this room who has more holes in him than anyone else. And you come to him with that awareness that you are unworthy. Who am I to have this privilege and honor of coming into the presence of the Lord? And you also come to him, there has to be a level of hunger, a hunger for him, for him to know him. And so faith, humility, hunger. By the way, you see that throughout the scriptures, you know, repeated right through the entire Bible, the prophets. You see it in the epistles that we have to come to him. The only way to come to him is by faith, but we have to come to him by faith with humility and with a level of hunger. Now, notice that it tells us here in the text, and I put it in red, it was morning. I encourage people, you know, obviously breakfast is a morning thing. Come to Jesus and have breakfast with him in the morning. Well, I'm too tired in the morning. I'm not a morning person. You know, Jesus got up and he spent time with the Lord in the morning. David got up and spent time with the Lord in the morning. Paul got up and spent time with the Lord in the morning. I think, you know, there's an example there. You want to have spent time at night with the Lord, good. Have time with the Lord at night, but make it a morning thing. Now when you wake up in the morning and you come to the Lord, right, this is the early morning in the Galilee. Sun's rising over the Golan Heights. We've had the privilege of sitting on the Galilee and experiencing that numerous times. And you know, there's sometimes a mist coming off, a fog coming off the Sea of Galilee. It's not perfectly clear. And it's kind of the way our brains are in the morning, right? Right, you wake up in the morning and you come to the Lord and your brain is kind of groggy, fuzzy. Am I the only one that has that, you know, happen, right? You're not fully conscious, you're semi-conscious. You're not asleep, but you're not, again, fully awake. And you want to clear the fog. And, you know, look, if you have your cup of coffee, most of you are coffee addicts and are addicted to caffeine, pharmakia, as it says in the scriptures. There's actually people, Christians, who believe that people who drink coffee are addicted to pharmakiya, pharmakiya in the Bible. We used to have a guy at Maranatha, his name was Pharmakiya Victor, and he used to come up to Pastor Rizzo all the time and rail on him because Pastor Rizzo was a big coffee drinker. Drink your coffee, drink your green tea. It's good to move your body a little bit. I like to do these little exercises in the morning as I get up out of bed. Just some shoulder rotations, some neck rotations. I'm doing some hip movements and stuff. Just get the blood flowing. I think that is honorable to come to the Lord and not to come to Him with a mind that's so foggy that you read three chapters and you don't even know what you read. Have you ever had that happen? Or you're praying and you're just praying aimlessly into the air. So I think that you really wanna come with a level of attentiveness because the Lord wants to reveal himself to you. He wants to show himself to you. In Hebrews 11, six, it says, without faith it is impossible to please him. For he who comes to God must believe that he is and that he is a rewarder of those who diligently seek him. So when you come to him, And you're coming diligently, and that's what I'm talking about, about having a clear head, a clear mind, being awake. And now you're coming to him in faith, you're coming to him with hunger, you're coming to him with humility. He's going to reward you. You're gonna get a reward. And the greatest reward that God gives to us is what? Yeah, himself. He will give to you and reward you with His presence, a manifestation of His presence, of Jesus through the Holy Spirit. And listen, God has blessed us in so many ways, with abundance, with healings, but the greatest of all blessings is Himself. Just to know Him, to be with Him, to be in His presence. Again, unworthy servants being loved by the king. That is a beautiful thing. So again, the first key thing that happens when BWJ, breakfast with Jesus, BWJ, when you have breakfast with Jesus, expect, come with expectation, right? You're coming by faith, you're coming in humility, you're coming with hunger. He's going to reveal himself to you. You're gonna get a revelation. That's to me the most exciting thing in life, is that God meets with me and communes with me. The second is a tender greeting. And so you see in verse five, then Jesus said to them, children, have you any food? And they answered to him, no. The word there, pedon, in Greek, little child. It's a word of tenderness. He's saying to them, my little children, and these are not little children. These are grown men, right? You have Simon, Peter, Thomas, Nathaniel, the sons of Zebedee, and you have two other men. Do you know who the two other men are? Does anyone? Even you, Lenny, you don't know who they are? You don't know that? Neither do I, neither does anyone else, and we will never know it. Try to figure that one out. But it's a word of 10, God speaks to you, and that word could be your name, that word could be my son, that word could be my daughter, like the little girl, Jerusalem's daughter that he raised from the dead, what did he do? He took her little hand in his hand, a strong hand of a carpenter, and what did he say, what did he call her? Remember those words? Talithokume, rise up little lamb. It's just those tender words. And he'll speak, he'll call you that very precious name. And my son, my daughter, my child, he'll call you directly by name. In John chapter 10, 27, Jesus said, my sheep hear my voice and I know them and they follow me. And we will hear his voice. and you will speak that word into our hearts. Have you ever heard the Lord call you by your actual name? Tune in, tune in. How many times I leave the church, how many times I've left the church on a Sunday morning, and you wonder, you know, I just say as a, you wonder what, hey, what has been accomplished here today? And I'll be driving up Madison Avenue, and the Lord will just say to me, he will say to me, Frank, and he will say, well done. You put the sermon together, you delivered it, you put forth good effort, and just that. In John, you go to the previous chapter, John 20, verse 14 through 16, it tells us, now when she, Mary, Mary Magdalene, had said this, she turned around and saw Jesus standing there and did not know that it was Jesus. And Jesus said to her, woman, notice he calls her woman here and she doesn't recognize him calling her woman. And I think this is something, this is a lesson for us. Woman, why are you weeping? Whom are you seeking? And she supposing him to be the gardener, said to him, sir, if you have carried him away, tell me where you have laid him and I will take him away. And Jesus said to her, Right, he had said this to her, meet Mary. And he said it, you know, there was a love, there's this loving relationship that he had with Mary Magdalene. Mary, Martha, Lazarus, friends, John. And he says her name, Mary. And I think there's a tremendous amount in what the Greek calls the voice. We don't have a voice in English. So you could say something that could sound mean. You could say something that sounds kind. And there's no voice. But in Greek, when you study the Greek, there's a voice. And when he said this, there was, again, the tenderness in his voice. And it resonated with Mary. She knew right away it was him. She had heard him many times say her name with that tenderness, and she turned and said to him, Rabboni, which is to say teacher. And I think that's, again, something you can expect when you are praying and you're talking to the Lord, that he will speak your name. In Isaiah, a beautiful verse in Isaiah chapter 49, I have engraved your name on the palm of my hand. We try to think about that, huh? How significant is that? Talking about the marks on his hands. Our names are engraved on his hands. He knows our name. He knows who we are. Revelation chapter 2, 17. He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches. To him who overcomes, I will give some of the hidden manna to eat, and I will give him a white stone, and on the white stone, a new name. We're gonna get new names. A new name written which no one knows except him who receives it. and of course the Lord who gives it to us. So there is that tender greeting. He's going to reveal himself to us and you will receive that tender. Listen carefully. Sometimes we rush into our prayers, and I've been guilty of this. I rush into adoration or I rush into reading the word. Just stop, behold him, and let him just call out your name. You'll know with assurance that you're in his presence. Number three, fruitful instruction. He will give you fruitful instruction, productive. It's instruction that produces fruit. Sometimes we're laboring and we're getting nothing. We're sowing and we're not reaping. We're like the hamster on the reel that's running and running and running and running and never getting anywhere. Let me just say this to put this, Sometimes that's the way our time with God is. We just go into the motions. And our time with God is not fruitful. We're not leaving it stronger than we entered in. We're not leaving it closer to Jesus than we entered in. So in verse six, and he said to them, cast the net on the right side of the boat, and you will find some, some fish. So they cast, and now they weren't able to draw it in because of the multitude of fish. So essentially, they're fishing on the wrong side of the boat. And I'll tell you, this can apply to many things in life. I always tell people, do you pray to the Lord about your careers, your finances, and ask him, where do you want me to cast my net? You might find that he's a better guide than your own brain and what other people are telling you. the time with God that when you're in and you're having breakfast with him, sometimes we're fishing on the wrong side of the boat. And again, we're catching nothing, our nets are empty and our prayers are empty. We're finding that our prayers are futile, they're feckless. And again, we're just going through the motions. And it's good to stop again, cast your nets on the right side of the boat, because on the right side of the boat, that's where there is abundance. That's where there's an abundance of spiritual joy and peace and comfort. And again, the presence of God. So I've shared this with you. I use the acts format in my prayer time. And I actually write out A-C-T-S, and A stands for adoration, C stands for confession, T stands for thanksgiving, S stands for supplication, and S stands for study. And what I will find, as I'm just in tune with God, and the Lord is speaking to me, he will tell me to cast my net, maybe he wants me to focus more on adoration one day. Sometimes I will spend most of the time in just adoration or maybe he wants me to spend more time in confession. After watching television tonight with Sue, the news, I think I'm gonna have to spend more time in confession. The Holy Spirit is telling me that right now. Or more time in thanksgiving and more time in supplication. He wants you to spend more time in study. I had a couple of days where John 21, I came and I was going to the Gospel of John in my morning readings, and I came to John 21, and then the Lord just kept me there for a number of days. And he's just a castronet here, and these things that I'm sharing with you have come out of those morning meditations. I didn't get this from another preacher or commentary or anything else, just from spending time with the Lord in the morning. He gave me something else. He gave me Nehemiah 9. I spent three days in Nehemiah 9 on the worship. Why do we have pulpits? Why do we have platforms? You look at Nehemiah 9, that's where it all began. And just the whole process that the people, after building the wall and the dedication, and I'm dedicating not only the wall, but themselves to God in worship, and what true worship should be like, God kept me there. And I'll give you another. Chuck's talking about adoration. I was just praying and worshiping the Lord, and there's a song, and you can look this up. I'm gonna play it on Sunday here. Kenny Rogers, you know Kenny Rogers? Most people don't know who Kenny Rogers is, but he still has his chicken places around. Good chicken. Is there one around here? Good chicken. Kenny Rogers. Kenny Rogers was Christian. He sang a lot of gospel. but he sings a song called The Messiah. It's The Messiah. You go on YouTube and you can pull it. Short song, but I love songs that are based upon the Bible, and it talks about, it takes you through Jesus's birth, and then it talks about Jesus's life, walking through Jerusalem, and then it talks about Jesus's death, and how people recognize that it is, that it is the Messiah. He is the Messiah. And one morning, I think I, you know, I wore out that song, I must have played it. I must have played it about 10 times, just closing my eyes and meditating on Jesus' birth, Jesus' life, and then Jesus' death. It was a wonderful time of adoration, but it took up most of my morning. But then again, that's where God told me to cast my net. So sometimes when I teach acts, people are like, oh, this is a formula, it is a routine. No, you should be open to the Holy Spirit and how he leads you. And so it does help, but it is not a structured formula for prayer. The fourth is you can expect a blessed abundance. When God gives, he always gives abundantly. He doesn't give stingily. And in John 21, six through 11, it says, and he said to them, Cast your net on the right side of the boat and you will find some. So they cast and now they were not able to draw it in because of the multitude of fish. That's a whole lot of fish. And therefore that disciple whom Jesus loves 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 he plunged into the sea. But the other disciples came in The little boat, for they were not far from the land, but about 200 cubits, dragged in the net with the fish. And then as soon as they had come to the land, they saw a fire of coals there, and the fish laid on it and bred. And Jesus said to them, bring some of the fish which you have just caught. And Simon Peter went up and dragged the net to the land full of the large fish. 153, and although there were so many, the net was not broken. the 153. John, you sent me a couple of articles on what the 153 are. Actually reading Jerome, the fourth century scholar said there were 153 species of fish, so that's what it meant. There's no proof of that. Some people say that in the Gospels, what you have is you have a series of miracles in Mark and Matthew and Luke and John, and they total 153. I read and there's all the numerology that they try to figure out if you play with the numbers, the Greek numbers, the Hebrew numbers, but just needless to say, it was an abundance. and they received an abundance of fish. But that's, again, what you can expect, that God is going to bless you abundantly. Let me show you something. In 1 Thessalonians 5.23, it talks about biblical psychology. May God himself, the God of peace, sanctify you through and through. May your whole spirit, soul, and body be kept blameless at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. We are a trichotomy. We have a spirit, we have a soul, and we have a body. And spiritually, our spirit is what connects us with God. It's what makes us different than the animals. Animals don't have spirits. When you see a group of squirrels gathering together, lifting up their paws towards heaven and worshiping the Lord, humans worship God, animals don't. That is the ultimate expression of what the Spirit is. Man without Jesus, the Spirit is dead. It's Norman, he comes to life, and he's born again, and the Spirit comes to life, and that enables him to be able to commune with God. And you can expect a spiritual blessing, an abundant spiritual blessing, again, when you have breakfast with Jesus. Soul blessing. There is soul abundance, and the soul speaks of the mind, the thoughts, the emotions, and the will, and you can expect, God is going to reveal some wonderful thoughts, sanctified thoughts, magnificent thoughts, thoughts that you will not get watching television, or Netflix, or YouTube. You're gonna receive these heavenly revelations, these thoughts, and you know what happens? When we have great thoughts, what occurs in our emotions. You always have corresponding emotions. You have bad thoughts, you have negative emotions. You have positive thoughts, you have positive emotions. And you can expect to have an emotional experience. You're gonna feel good. You're gonna feel levels of joy, levels of peace. And there will be, again, an abundance of power, I believe, on the will. You will make choices, good choices for the Lord. And then in body, what happens, there's this thing, I'm gonna get a little technical with you, that connects the brain to the body. What is that called? What connects the brain to the body? This is very deep. It's called a neck. A neck. If you didn't have a neck, your brain would be over there and your body would be over there and they'd be separated. So there's this connection when you are experiencing and you're thinking these sanctified godly thoughts, Jesus is revealing himself to you. He's revealing wonderful truths to you about eternity, about life, about himself, about yourself. that you have these great thoughts. Now, when the brain is having these very empowered thoughts, the brain produces chemicals, serotonin, dopamine, neurotransmitters, endorphins, and it has an effect upon the body. You will feel good physically. I say this all the time. I experience a strength and an energy physically, as well as psychologically, as well as spiritually, when I have breakfast with Jesus. I always come out strong. Where I go after my time with Jesus, breakfast is into the gym, and I'm always energized. And I think that's, again, there's going to be an abundance of blessing that is poured out on your spirit, but also on your soul, and then also on your body. The Psalm 85, we walk through the valley of Baca, the desert, it's the wilderness. It's dry, sometimes that's the way we come to God in the morning. But then we turn it into a living spring. We go from strength to strength. The last point for tonight, the spiritual warmth. And in verse nine and 10, it says, then as soon as they had come to the land, they saw a fire of coals. Therein the fish laid on it and the bread. And Jesus said to them, bring some of the fish which you have just caught. So it's morning, it's a springtime. Here Jesus was crucified around the Passover. So it's March or April up in the Galilee. Mornings, a warm morning could be 60, a cold morning could be 40. Peter's jumped in the water, so he's got a chill in his bones, the others have a chill in their bones, but there's a simple thing, there's just a simple fire of coals. And I can guarantee that the apostles gathered around those coals with Jesus and they warmed themselves. And you can expect there to be a warmth that comes over your soul in the mornings when you have breakfast with Jesus. The Holy Spirit, he is called counselor, intercessor, comforter, advocate, strengthener, but the word comforter How many of you like a comforter on you right now? I have to use ice packs. It's fancy now. They have the machine. I plug into the machine, and I ice my hip four or five times a day, and I got a nice warm blanket, a heated blanket. I got the blanket and the mother of all heated blankets, but it's nice because I'm not freezing under there. Because the last time I did it, I was freezing all the time with an ice pack on me. But we like a comforter, the comforter of the Holy Spirit. He comes and He warms our souls. And maybe you're going through something where you have a chill in your soul or your spirit or your body, and He will warm you when you have time with Him. So that is breakfast with Jesus, right? Look at the first four things. We'll look at the next five next week. Revelation, greeting, instruction, abundance, warmth. Let me just stress this again. When you come, come to Him in faith. Come to Him with humility and come to Him with hunger, and I believe He will give to you these five things, amen? Let's bow our heads, we'll close in prayer. Father, we thank you, Lord God, and the greatest thanks, Lord God, to you tonight is that we thank you for yourself and for giving us, unworthy servants, the opportunity to come into your presence and know you each day. and to experience, Lord God, that fresh revelation. Lord God, that wonderful greeting, your instruction. Lord God, your abundance and your warmth. And Father God, I just pray that that hunger, Lord, would be in our hearts to wake up tomorrow morning with an expectation and anticipation to be with you. It's such a rich time and a wonderful time. And in Jesus' name, we pray this, amen. So our worship team will lead us in a final song, and then we'll go into prayer. We'll break up into groups and pray. Thank you, Lord. What a great word from the Lord. As we sing this last song, the altars are open for you. If you'd like to come and just spend a couple quiet moments here alone or with somebody. Jesus. Jesus. Jesus. Jesus. Your name Your name is like honey on my lips Your spirit like water to my soul Your word is alive unto my feet Jesus, I love you, love you Jesus Jesus Holy and anointed one Holy and anointed one Jesus Your name, Lord Your name is like honey on my lips Your spirit like water to my soul. Your word is a lamp unto my feet. Jesus, I love you. I love you. Your name is like honey. Your spirit's like water to my soul. Your word is like life unto my feet. Jesus, I love you. I love you. Jesus Jesus Holy and anointed One Holy and anointed One Jesus Thank you, Lord, for this night. What a precious night in your presence, Lord. Thank you for this time of studying your word, Lord God, and just fellowship and sweet communion with you. May you be honored in the way we spend the rest of this night and this week, Lord. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen.