There's so many wonderful chapters in this Gospel of John. Obviously, Chapter 1 and Chapter 3 and Chapter 4. So many, but tonight, Chapter 21. And I think about these different chapters that we've mentioned. And I love chapter four, dealing with a Samaritan woman. It's just really a great blessing how God used that passage in my life. And then John 21 is another one. I was in rehab and it was a Sunday morning and one of my therapists, her husband teaches Sunday school and he was teaching on John 21. And she knew, this lady knew I was a pastor. And I began just sharing the gold nuggets that's in John 21. And just, I missed church so much. And I said, you know, you might wanna tell him this, you might wanna tell him that. And I was sharing this and she said, pastor, you do know your Bible, don't you? And I said, well, I know John 21. And so look at verse 1, if you would. John 21, verse 1, after these things, Jesus showed himself again to the disciples at the Sea of Tiberias, and on the wise showed he himself. Now, he's been crucified, he's been risen, and he has shown himself to his disciples already. They know, they have seen him. And it says, therefore, it says, verse 2, there were together Simon, Peter, and Thomas called Didymus, and Nathanael of Canaan, and Galilee, and the sons of Zebedee, and two other of his disciples. And Simon Peter said unto them, I go a fishing." Now, if you underline in your Bible, you might want to underline that phrase, I go a fishing. And they said unto him, we also go with thee. and they went forth, and they entered into the ship immediately, and that night they caught nothing. I love to fish. We have men in the church who love to fish, and we have some that are, you know, Brother Martis, he is really a pro-fisher person, you know, he is. He catches the big bucket mouths, And he works hard at it and he's out there till he gets it. I like just to catch fish and I'm happy to let them go unless we're going to eat them. And I love the fish. I had a friend, a childhood friend, Sunday night who commented on the message. And I didn't know it, but on Facebook, if you've been listening and you comment, it says how many years anniversary you've been listening. And it was he's a five year anniversary. So he's been listening to us for five years. And he was my best friend growing up. I have wonderful stories. I tell my grandchildren about Rick and Stan and the mischief that we always got into. Stan was a terrible person. He was the one who led me in. I was such a good kid. And he was the one who led me astray. And I don't know if he's listening tonight. I just think, Stan, I just think of so many things that you and I got into that was difficult to get out of. And I don't want to waste time telling those stories, but I did mention him for this. His father took a great interest in me. He's a very godly man, loved the Lord. And I went to church with him some. And we were very poor, didn't have much, didn't do much. And he would take me with Stan to see the Memphis State Tigers play. And that was a thrill to me to see that. And then he would take us to Buck's North. Who knows what Buck's North is? You know where it's at, but do you know what it was? It's not there anymore, but Buck's North was a place you could go and you could catch rainbow trout in like a trench. It was like shooting fish in a barrel. And for a young boy, it was exciting. And Mr. Oliver took me and you had to pay for your fish and you have to pay to have them cleaned. He paid for my fish. He was very very kind to me and I went to church some with them not a whole lot went to summer camp with them and But my friend Stan he he commented Sunday night on the message and it let me know that he is Listening and and it's just something special to me one summer. We were working we didn't have a a social media thing. How do you raise money? What are those things called? Yeah, we didn't have a GoFundMe. My GoFundMe was a Toro, Sears Toro push mower. That was my GoFundMe. And we have these enormous yards. And the front yards were not terribly big, but the backyards were very big. They were very rectangle, very long. And I think I had like an 18 inch cut on that lawnmower. And we were cutting yards, these large yards for $3.50 a piece. That's what we was cutting yards for. And we were raising money to go to Panama City, Florida to go deep sea fishing. Now that was a big deal for a Memphis kid who never traveled anywhere other than Arkansas or Mississippi and not often there. And I remember one time we were in this lady's yard And Stan and I got the idea we would both do the jobs and the big jobs. We'd both do those and split the money. And we were in the backyard. This is one of the Rick and Stan stories. And we were in the backyard and there's this enormous collie dog, looked like Lassie. I can still see it. And, you know, she was fine. She didn't bother us. The lawnmower didn't seem to aggravate her. And it was my turn to cut, so I was cutting and I was pushing and watching this enormous backyard. And this dog, Lassie, type Lassie, was standing over her bone and Stan was kicking at it, trying to kick it out from under her. And she took it as an act of aggression. And she jumped on him like crazy. And I shouldn't laugh. It was just so funny, you know. And I'm sure if he sees this, he'll remember it. He won't think it's funny. But we raised enough money to go to Panama City, Florida. It was a wonderful trip. And we got on this double-hull ship about 3 o'clock in the morning. And we launched, and we went way out into the ocean. And when they would find a school of fish, they would circle it a few times. Those waves would come and the boat would rock. And we had this enormous pole, fishing pole, with an enormous reel. And I mean when I mean large. And as heavy as a battery almost, a car battery. And we had on two different types. We put minnows, large macro something, and then squid on this side. And we let that line go all the way down to the bottom. Then we'd pull it up about just a little bit off the bottom. I caught a 32-pound grouper and have my picture made with it. I'm sitting there when the ship came in, you know, I'm all happy. It was a great time. It was a trip of a lifetime for me. I've often thought about it. It was just a great time with my friend and with his father. But when Peter decides to go fishing, let me tell you something, he makes a decision that's the wrong decision here. I want to speak to you about making the wrong decision. And I think I'm gonna harp on it for just a little bit. Summertime is here. Last Sunday night, I spoke about warnings about summertime and staying right with the Lord. But we see that Jesus, he shows himself again to these disciples. Simon Peter is there. There's Thomas, who's called Didymus, which means twin. Nathanael is there. James and John, the sons of Zebedee are there and two other disciples. And all of a sudden, Simon jumps up and says, I go fishing. Now, I don't know, this hadn't been written yet, but in Romans 11, 29, the Bible says, the gifts and calling of God are without repentance. And what that means is, is when God calls you, he doesn't change his mind. When Peter was called, when he laid down his nets and he forsook his ships, and Jesus said, I'll make you fishers of men. Peter had a change of mind in that, but God had not. And so he says, I go fishing. And then the rest of them who are with him say, we also go with thee. And they went forth. They entered into the ship immediately. And that night, they caught nothing. Then they fished at night. They didn't have the big fishing poles. I mean, they might have had something like that. I don't know. But when we were in Israel, we went out on the Sea of Galilee. And I have pictures where they're fishing, they're throwing the nets and they're drawing the nets and all of that. I think the typical fish in the Sea of Galilee, I've read this, is tilapia, which I think is delicious. But he makes this decision. Now, I want to ask you, what is your decision-making process? Did the others say, well, Peter, have you prayed about this? Have you prayed about going back to fishing? Did Peter say, you know, fellas, I tell you, I've denied the Lord, so I just need to go back to where I was at, so I go fishing. Was there any kind of process? Was this something that was very familiar with Peter? And are these the things that helps us make decisions? That, you know, this is what we've always done. Mom and dad did it this way, so we're gonna do it this way too. uh, regardless of what God's word says about it or what the will of God is on it. Uh, is it something that, you know, we're familiar with? So we're comfortable with it. So we're just going to go back fishing. Is that what we're going to do here? And we make decisions every day, every day. And we make decisions to marry. We make decisions to have children. We make decisions about what college we're going to go to, what pursuits we're going to have in our education, what our majors are going to be. We make decisions about vocation. Tonight, Christine asked for prayer about her job and her vocation. And listen. You better know the will of God and what God's word says, and you better follow it in your decision making. Now, let me share with you some things about Peter. Peter made the wrong decisions and this is not the first time Peter's messed up. Remember, Peter was rebuked by the Lord because he refused to allow him to wash his feet, amen? Remember, he argued with the Lord and he's arguing with God. He's arguing with God saying that he's not going to deny him. He'll die for him, he'll go to prison for him. And Jesus says, before the rooster crows in the morning, you will have denied me thrice, three times. So we see Peter, he wasn't the best when it came to making decisions, and I really believe Part of Peter's problem and part of your problem and my problem is we are very impulsive in our decision-making when we need to wait on the Lord and get a, you know, get a word from the Lord on what we should do. Now, he said, I go fishing. Let me give you three reasons why it was the wrong decision. Going fishing was wrong. It was the wrong decision because it injured the will of God. This was not God's will. You think it's God's will for Peter to be called away from his fish, from his nets, from his boats, and to travel with the Lord for three and a half years? You think it's of the Lord? You think it's the Lord's will for him to see the eyes of the blind open and those who are lame healed? those with leprosy cleansed, and those who had palsies healed, and those who were dead, raised from the dead, just to go back and be the fisherman. That wasn't the will of God. And the will of God was not in any of this. And going fishing, when Peter says, I go fishing, going fishing was their own decision because it injured the will of God. Verse 3, Simon Peter said unto them, I go fishing. And they said unto him, we also go with thee. And they went forth, and they entered into the ship immediately, and that night they caught nothing. Now Peter was called to be a fisher of men, as were these other disciples. In Matthew chapter 4 verse 18 and verse 19. And Jesus walked by the Sea of Galilee and saw two brethren, Simon called Peter and Andrew, his brother, casting a net into the sea for they were fishers. And he said to them, follow me and I will make you fisher. our fishers of men. We see Peter was called to be the fishers of men. Peter was to leave the old vocation. When Jesus speaks to him in the latter part of John 21, he says, lovest thou me more than these. Now, I'm not sure what these are. and I don't know if you know what they are, you may think you know what they are, but he's saying, do you love me more than these boats, ships that you have? Do you love me more than these other disciples who are here? Do you love me more than these? I'm not sure what he's referring to here, but notice in Matthew four, verse 20, and they straightway left their nets and followed him. So when Peter, when he said, when he made a decision to go fishing, I go fishing, he injured the will of God. This was not God's will. Now listen, people, listen. We find God's will in the word of God. And if we're going to be involved in some activity that's contrary to God's word, it's not the will of God. And we need to walk with God's word and what God tells us And if we do something contrary of that, we fall out of the will of God. Let me say that the happiest place you will ever be is in the middle of the will of God, right in the middle of God's will. I've talked with people who are on the mission field. I've talked to people who have been missionaries in New Guinea and missionaries in Haiti and missionaries in Africa and some very, very difficult places. And they said they grew up, they grew up in a church somewhat like ours. And they said that they were just afraid, so afraid to surrender to the mission field. Now, God doesn't call all of us to the mission field, but we should surrender to the will of God. And they told me that, you know, this one brother told me I could see myself somewhere in New Guinea, somewhere in Haiti, somewhere in the Serengeti, and there's not golden arches anywhere. You'll be surprised that McDonald's and Coke are just about everywhere now. Excuse me. I need to drink a little bit of this, I think. Do I have a superman to come open it for me? Excuse me, that's better. We have this concept that the will of God is hard, but it's not. It's hard to be walking out of the will of God and the will of God. There is the confidence that comes. There's the peace that surpasses all understanding. There's the blessings of God. And Peter, he injured the will of God. Now, now listen to me. Not only did he injure the will of God, but he injured himself here. And I want you to know, when you make decisions, you need to know the mind of God in that. You know, there are people who get up and they're irritated, they're frustrated. Something's rubbed them the wrong way, they're offended, and they just make a snap decision. And when they do, they injure the will of God. Let me say, secondly, it wasn't the right decision. Going fishing, it was a wrong decision because it injured the will of God, but it also injured the saints of God. Notice he says in verse three, and Simon Peter saith unto them, I go a fishing. Now look, they said unto him, we also go with thee. They went forth and entered into the ship immediately, and that night they caught nothing. You know, his decision, it injured the saints of God. You can't step out of God's will. You can't make a unsound, Decision. You can't make a wrong decision without hurting others. I thought, why would they want to follow Peter? He's argued with the Lord about washing his feet. He's argued with the Lord about betraying him. He has betrayed him. But it's amazing to me, people who have such a great influence, that they can make a decision to do the wrong thing and take a tub load of people with them. And not only that, there are some people who are, they've got something in their crawl. They purposely try to bring people with them. They try to sway people. They want to stack the deck on their side. Now, the people who are righteous, they're not in a position to make the accusations or to even, and I think if they're wise, they wouldn't try to clear up the accusations. But they want to stack that deck and they have a desire to want to bring people with them. He injured the saints of God. We see here in this passage, there are others who are there with him. There's Thomas. Thomas was injured through this. Nathanael was injured through this. James and John, they were injured through this. The other two disciples, they were injured in this. In Mark chapter one, verse 17. The Bible says, and Jesus said to them, come ye after me and I will make you become fishers of men. And straightway they forsook their nets and followed him. And when he had gone a little farther, thence, he saw James the son of Zebedee and John his brother, who also were in the ship mending the nets. And straightway he called them and they left their father Zebedee in the ship with the hired servants and went after him." You see, a lot of times there are people who are, they're weak. This is not a criticism, it's just a fact. They're just weak and they're tender. and they're at maybe even a breaking point or they're in a very struggling point, and all they need is some other with a stronger personality to say, hey, let's go fishing. And they derail them with themselves. You know, people who derail, people who get upset, they leave the church, they get upset, they quit something, they get upset, they become critical. They often want to derail other people with them to make them feel good about the terrible decision that they've made. Can you say amen? Any decision we make that injures the brethren is the wrong decision. In 1 John 3, verse 18, the Bible says, hereby perceive we that the love of God, because he laid down his life for us, and we ought to lay down our lives for the brethren. We ought to have real deep connection and love for one another. We should be careful not to cause a brother to stumble or to fall. You know, we have to be careful with our influence. In 1 Peter 4, verse 1, the Bible says, for as much then as Christ has suffered for us in the flesh, arm yourselves likewise with the same mind. We're to have the same mind as Christ. Let this mind be you, which is also in Christ Jesus. For he that hath suffered in the flesh shall hath ceased from sin, and he no longer should live the rest of his time in the flesh to the lust of man, but to the will of God." Now, there's another passage I had here. I got problems with my computer, and evidently, it blipped it off. It was a really strong supporting passage, and I can't think of it right now. I've got to get another computer. But that being said, anything that's going to hurt, you know, when you make a decision and it's going to hurt your wife spiritually, it's going to hurt your children spiritually, it's going to hurt your church as a whole spiritually, that's a wrong decision. Don't you think? You see, there are people, well, you know, the passage I left out, I can't remember what's that, but no man lives unto himself or dies unto himself. We have influence. And you may feel like you don't have much influence. Well, I'm not a Sunday school teacher. I don't sing in the choir. I don't have a lot of, let me tell you something. You're somebody's queen or king. You're somebody's hero. And don't become a zero and hurt the other people. Listen, Peter said, I go fishing. He just made a statement, I'm gonna go back, I'm gonna go fishing, nevermind the gifts and callings of God without repentance, I'm going fishing. It injured the will of God, it injured the saints of God. And then let me say that Peter's decision, I go fishing, it injured the cause of Christ. Now this is something that we need to be careful about. When we make a decision that's gonna injure the cause of Christ, notice the verse 15 of our text. So when he had dined, Jesus saith, now they've fished all night and they've caught nothing. And Jesus is on the shore and he says, children, have you any meat? And they said, no. They've told all night and they've caught nothing. He says, cast thine net on the right side of the ship And now they were full of fish. And John leans forward and says, Peter, that's the Lord. It's the Lord. Peter throws himself into the sea and swims to meet the Lord. And then he's there and the other disciples, they're pulling the great net of fish in. When they get there, the Bible says, they don't say anything. No one does ask him anything. You know, it's kind of hard to talk to the Lord when you're back in the boat. It's kind of hard to talk to the Lord when you're back with the net. It's kind of hard to be on, you know, fellowship with the Lord when he's called you to be fishers of men and you're back where he found you. And so, and we see the heart of the Lord here. He looks at the disciples, he opens his hands and he says, come and dine. And there he had a small fire and had fish that were cooked. They fished all night, they caught nothing. I don't know if they were cold and wet. I don't know what their situation, but there's nothing like when you're cold and tired and weary, sitting down and having a good meal to warm you up. And then the Lord, he addresses Peter. And I think rightfully so, he addresses him about washing his feet. He addresses him about Simon, Simon, Satan desires to have you, they may shift you as wheat. And now he addresses him here in verse 15. So when they had dined, the fellowship is done, the food is done. Jesus saith unto Simon, Peter, Simon, son of Jonas, lovest thou me more than these? And he said unto him, yea, Lord, thou knowest that I love thee. And he said unto him, feed my lambs. He didn't say anything here about going fishing. He says in verse 16, he saith to him again the second time, Simon, son of Jonas, lovest thou me? He saith unto him, yea, Lord, thou knowest that I love thee. And he said unto him, feed my sheep. On the third time, he says in verse 17, he saith unto him the third time, Peter, son of Jonas, lovest thou me? Peter was grieved because he said to him the third time, because he denied him three times, lovest thou me? And he saith unto him, Lord, thou knowest all things, thou knowest that I love thee. And Jesus says unto him, feed my sheep. He says, feed my lambs, feed my sheep, feed my sheep. What he's saying is, Peter, I have a purpose for you. And even though you've argued with me about washing your feet, and even though you argue with me about being shredded by the devil and denying me three times, even though you've argued with me over these things, I still love you and I still have something for you to do. Now, our decisions must consider the cause of Christ. Now, I want you to think about it, because I think this will help you in your decision making. The cause of Christ is bigger than you. It trumps us. If I just get all that I feel like that I'm just to the limit, and I want to quit, or you want to quit, or you want to throw in the towel, the cause of Christ is bigger than that. And he's not considering, when he made this flippant decision, I go fishing. Now, he might have dwelt with that internally, we don't know, but probably before he vocalized it. But he did vocalize it. And our decision must consider the cause of Christ. My decision, how is this going to affect the cause of Christ? How's it going to affect my church? How's it going to affect my marriage? How's it going to affect my family? How's it going to affect people like our missionaries we support here in America and across the seas? How's it going to affect? The cause of Christ is bigger than any of us. the next time. Let me tell you something. We've been here 35 years. You don't think that you haven't offended us once or twice in 35 years? Huh? You don't think so? You know what we do? The cause of Christ is bigger than that, and we just get over it. So can I help you with something? You just get over it. If you feel like that preacher was a little bit too strong, holy cow, I've seen some of you with those silver dollar eyes, you know. And let me tell you this, you couldn't take the preaching 35 years ago. It was a flamethrower back then. But the problem is I'm older and I love you more than I did back then. I thought I'll skin them like a cat and eat a bologna sandwich, I'll be fine. But that's changed. When you hurt, I hurt. When you cry, I cry. When you laugh, I laugh. If you have a bad day, let me tell you, it's a bad day over on Small Oaks too. It is. Our decision must consider the cause of Christ. Listen, never forget the importance of the other sheep. Never forget the sheep are vulnerable and defenseless. And we can make one decision and hurt and do a lot of damage. It was the wrong decision. Now, let me ask you, when You make decisions. Do you consider the will of God? Is this in the will of God for my life? We had some heartache and we've had some heartache in our life. We're not like anyone different from anybody else. We've had heartache that we didn't want to wake up in the morning. We've had heartache that it's all we could do to put one foot in front of the other. We've had heartache like that. And there's been times that we consider maybe making a change, doing something different. But when the will of God came into play, we needed to just batten down the hatches and go through the storm. When you make decisions, do you consider the will of God? When you make decisions, do you consider the saints of God? Have you thought about how your decisions going to affect your spouse, your children, your church, other people that are in your life. And when you make decisions, have you thought about how it's going to affect? Is it going to strengthen the cause of Christ or is it going to weaken the cause of Christ? I think of Ephraim, one of the tribes of Israel's being armed and carrying bows turned back in the day of battle. They in the Bible says they limited the holy one of Israel is what the Bible says in Psalms. And, you know, Israel They turned back in the day of battle. They were armed. They were carrying bows. They were prepared for battle. But they turned back in that very day of battle, and they limited the Holy One of Israel. I remember when I was just 18, 17, 18 years old, first time I read that, I thought, we can limit what God wants to do on this earth and in our life and the lives of others. So I'm not finished with this. I think I want to expound a little bit more Sunday night this coming Sunday night. But I just want to encourage you, when you decide to make a decision, you pray it through. Got to you, I never just act on a decision because I got a prayer, a green light. Usually I have to have passage from scripture. You know, before we moved the church, God gave me passages. He led me through his word. You know, there's sometimes in our prayer life that we can strong arm Or we could headlock God and say, oh, I prayed about it and God, God gave me peace about it. But really God, he has nothing to do with it. We just want it so bad. You know, it's, it's, it's our advancement. It's, it's, it's something that, that we desire so much. But when you're walking with the Lord, listen to you, you can say with a, with an open heart, if God doesn't want me to have this, I don't want it. Be careful in your decision-making. Peter, he injured the will of God, he injured the saints of God, and he injured the cause of Christ. Something that I think we can end on a positive note, he ended up feeding the lambs and the sheep. God doesn't throw any of us away. And there are people who have made terrible decisions And because of that terrible, horrific decision, they continue, they feel failures and they feel as if they're finished and they continue to multiply making terrible decisions. But somewhere along the line, you gotta find the grace of God and get it underneath the blood and start making the right decisions and come back and serving him somewhere through there. We should do that. God's people said, let's stand. Lord, thank you for your word. Bless it to us now. Help us to be people, spiritual people. Help us to make right decisions. Lord, we don't want to injure your will for our life or anybody else. We don't wanna injure other saints of God and we don't wanna injure the cause of Christ. We're frail and sometimes we really mess up. But Lord, help us to consider your will, other believers, and the lost, and your cause, your purpose that you have for us in our decision-making. Use this message to give somebody just a real vision and understanding with what they're going through. Help us to see how Peter's decision, it injured him. He took these others with him back into the fishing business, and he hurt the cause of Christ greatly. Lord, I don't wanna do that. Help each of us not want to do those things. Help us, make us wise. Give us the green light Lead us. May your word be that lamp and light before our path. We'll thank you for what you do. Heads are about eyes are closed. Summertime's here. A lot of our routine is off. We'll be in school. We'll be out soon if it's not already for some. And we've got a lot of decisions to make this summer. Let's make sure it's not to go fishing when God tells us to be fishers of men. Let's be careful with what we decide. Because that decision will go, you know, David said, bring her to me. Bad decision for David. Things changed for him for the rest of his life. Esau said, give me the pottage. Changed for him. He wept with tears later, but could find no repentance. I'm just saying, We're one bad decision from really having great heartache in our life. Lord, help our families and protect them. In thy name I pray. God's spoken to you tonight. Please come to the altar and use it. Come now.