Okay, would you take your Bibles, please? John chapter 21, but we're not going to read a large amount this time. John chapter 21, starting with verse 15. John 21, verses 15 to 25. So when they had dined, Jesus saith to Simon Peter, Simon, son of Jonas, Lovest thou me more than these? He saith unto him, Yea, Lord, thou knowest that I love thee. He saith unto him, Feed my lambs. 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. He saith unto him, Feed my sheep. He saith unto him the third time, Simon, son of Jonas, lovest thou me, Peter. Oh, Peter was grieved because he said unto him the third time, lovest thou me? And he said unto him, Lord, thou knowest all things. Thou knowest that I love thee. Jesus saith unto him, feed my sheep. Verily, verily, I say unto thee, when thou wast young, thou girdest thyself and walkedest whether you would. And when thou shalt be old, thou shalt stretch forth thy hands and another shall gird thee and carry thee where you don't want to go. This spake he signifying by which death he should glorify God. And when he had spoken this, he saith unto him, follow me. Then said Peter, turning about, seeing the disciple whom Jesus loved following, which also leaned on his breast at supper, and said, Lord, which is he that betrayeth thee? Peter seeth him, saith to Jesus, Lord, and what shall this man do? Jesus saith unto him, if I will that he tarry till I come, what is that to thee? Follow thou me. Then went this saying abroad among the brethren that the disciple should not die. Yet Jesus said, not unto him he shall not die, but if I will that he tarry till I come, what is that to thee? This is the disciple which testifieth of these things. and wrote these things, and we know that his testimony is true, and there are also many other things which Jesus did, the which if they should be written, every one, I suppose that even the world itself could not contain the books that should be written. Amen. What John said there at the end of this gospel is just how I feel at the end of most of my messages. Boy, if I told you everything that's in here, we'd never get done. And there's so much more could be said. And you take someone who takes a passage or a small amount of scripture, and they can write a book on it. And if everything were explained, if everything were known, Well, the good part is you only have to take one bite at a time, one amount at a time. And this is what the Spirit of God told John to write down. And we've just been basking a little bit in John chapter 21 to see some very important things Jesus was teaching the disciples and how he was training them for the big job that they had ahead when he's going to ascend to be with the Father. Well, last week our lesson discussed Peter's reinstatement to ministry, and the emphasis was on love and feeding the flock. It's mentioned three times, and I'll say again, not to spite Peter because he denied him three times, but it gave Peter three times to confess the Lord before the others, and for the others to see that Jesus had indeed reinstated him and commissioned him to be a leader. He's gonna be responsible for new converts, and there's gonna be about 3,000 of them pretty soon. And another 5,000 after that, and who knows the numbers. They never give us exact numbers. They say about, you know, because, ah, that's a lot of stuff. And Peter was gonna have responsibility to make sure the new converts were getting taught correctly. Now, all the disciples are gonna do this, but Peter's being given a lead position in that Jerusalem church. And he wanted the others to know it so that they didn't keep saying, oh, you're the one that denied him three times. Oh, you're the one that denied me three times. No, he's the one that confessed him three times and got a job formally given to him to be like a shepherd, to feed. But you know how you do it? Because a lot of times we think about the task and then we look at ourselves and we're overwhelmed and we wither. But love believes all things, beareth all things, hopes all things, endures all things, and doesn't quit. You know the list in 1 Corinthians 13. And if I think of all the things that I've done as a husband and father, if I had that all laid out on paper, you gotta do this, you gotta do that, you can't do this, you can't do that, I might have just withered, like pulled the plug out of an air mattress. But you know, when love gets involved, Love is what makes things become important. And when you know how important something is, you find the strength to do it. Love makes you forget yourself and think of others. And that's what living the Christian life in this world is like, whether you're a father or a wife or a parent or a child or a worker or a student or whatever else you might be in life. If you're possessed by the love of Christ, Or as Paul put it, constrained, compelled, controlled by the love of Christ, you will not be yourself. How important this was. Three times it had to be stated, love, love, love. Feed, shepherd, serve, but do it with the love of God. It was the love that caused God. It's the love that was running through God's heart that he gave his son. The thought of sacrificing his son could be very unpleasant because the father loved his son. His son always did that, which pleased him. But love says there's a job and only you can do it, son, and we want all these sheep to be gathered in. So the son agreed to it. The love of Christ responded to the love of the father. And it says there in John 13, he loved them unto the end. And the whole time he's preparing them for the big event where he's going to have all of our sins laid on him and he's going to die and a horrible death at that. But Jesus wasn't focusing on that. He focused on what it's going to be when I'm all done. He knew where he came from and he knew where he went. You can check all this out in John 13, those first few verses. It's brilliant. And so he took time to wash their feet and teach them how to love and serve one another. And he just made his last public message in John chapter 12. And from 13 on, he's only with the disciples now. He's focusing on them. And when you study those chapters, it is full of how the love of God works. and how essential it is. So this has certainly been a very important thing that we've studied because it isn't just Peter. We all get the taste of this kind of love and work to do, as I hope we can show a little more today. Now, follow me. Follow me is what comes up there, verses 18 and 19. This is a gospel call to forsake self-ambition and self-reliance and yield to our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. Now, I said a gospel call, and I might as well get this off my chest now while I'm thinking of it, is that so many people look at the gospel as how to get an insurance policy. Don't want to go to hell. No. Well, the only other place is heaven, so I want to go there. I honestly think if some people had another choice, they'd take that. They just want to go to not hell. But heaven's a whole other thing. It's a world of the love of God. And people who can't stomach the things of God, they can't imagine that going to heaven would be a happy place. And some people dread that idea. But that's because their hearts aren't ready. And so a gospel call isn't just how to get a proper ticket to heaven, how to escape a bad thing. The gospel call requires an action of not just believing in Jesus intellectually, but you're going to walk with him. You're going to stay in step with him. When he says, I'm the light of the world, And he tells us to shine our light. You know, this light, it isn't something we stand still in. It's a moving light. And so to walk in the light, I have to walk with Jesus, and Jesus is walking us through things, even the valley of the shadow of death. And so there's action, there's motion. A lot of people are trying very hard to distinguish between Jesus being your Savior and Jesus being your Lord. Jesus being your Savior means you'll go to heaven. got that over with. And if you want extra credit, you can have him as Lord and do some things and get some reward. But they treat that like optional equipment. No, I'm sorry, we can't dissect Jesus into two parts. He is Savior and Lord. The gospel Peter gave to that Philippian jailer was, believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved. And so we want to understand a change in our life, a transformation. Being born again means we're new creations in Christ, and old things are passed away, and we're starting eternal life now when we believe, when we repent, and not eternal life after we're dead. Sometimes at funeral homes, they print up little things for the people who have deceased, and sometimes they'll say they entered eternal life, and they'll give the date of their death. They better have entered eternal life before that. It's now. It's a position in the Lord and it's a working position. And so the call to follow Jesus is a gospel call. And you can see some very, I picked the most potent passages where Jesus said, take up your cross and follow me. Deny yourself and follow me. What would you gain if you gained the whole world and lost your soul? So follow me. And I'm going to lead you out of this world, starting right away. I am the light of the world, he that believeth in me shall not walk in darkness, but shall have the light of life. Well, I got to move along here because I want to get to this other part. What does it mean to follow Christ? And we're basing this on John chapter 21. Those references up above could give you a whole bunch of other good thoughts, and I invite you to meditate upon them. But there's three things that really stood out in John chapter 21. We've talked about a bunch of it already. Fishers of men. Jesus used this metaphor when calling some of his disciples. He happened to be talking to fishermen. And he says, now you follow me and I'll make you fishers of men or catchers of men, he said in one place. And that was very appropriate. They could relate to this. Fishing business was a legitimate thing, but Jesus has a higher calling to fish for people. Now, he didn't say that to Levi, the tax collector, follow me and I'll make you a tax collector of men. That was a different thing. He still called him to follow him though. You see, he may take what you're familiar with and start with you there, but he's gonna take you places you've never been and never thought. He's gonna cause you to rise above yourself. but he often starts with something familiar we can relate to. And that's why he's using all of us to lead people to the Lord, because in different walks of life, you can witness to your coworkers, and you can use common things to illustrate to them, this is what it's like, this is what it's like. But by and by, we're gonna rise above all of that, and we're gonna start and discuss heavenly things, not just earthly things. But fishers of men, Now, there was this time, and it was back in Luke 5, Jesus saw them fishing, and he said, throw your net on the other side. And, oh, Peter didn't want to do that. We've been fishing all night. But if you say so, Lord, we'll do it. So they did. The fish were breaking the nets. The boats were going to sink. There's so many fish. And you know, Peter's immediate reaction was, depart from me, Lord, for I'm a sinful man. This revelation of the power of Jesus Christ and that he's Lord humbled Peter to a point where he thought, I can't be in your presence. Maybe that's a good start when we understand how exceedingly sinful sin is, how exceedingly holy Jesus is. It'll humble us rather than say, well, of course he wants to save me. Look at all my potential. Peter said that, but happily, that's not what happened. the Lord called him in. And that never left their minds. So all the way here in John 21, they're out fishing. The crucifixion and resurrection have taken place. Word had been sent, meet me in Galilee. And they're out there fishing, because they don't know when Jesus might show up. They're fishing. And someone from the shore, and at that point, they don't know who he is. He says, why don't you throw your net on the other side? And when they do, all the fish come. Now, this time the net didn't break. And it ended up being 153 fish. So they took care of what they caught. They didn't just all jump in the water and swim to Jesus like Peter did. But it was John who kind of put this together. It is the Lord. That's the way he works. That's what he did before. And so it was a reminder of their mission. Our theme with Kids Club this year is Jesus Christ, God's missionary. He's one who has been sent for a purpose, for a mission. And we, in turn, get a mission. As the Father sent me now, so send I you. And when John said, it is the Lord, Peter just jumped in and swam there because, well, he and Jesus had had quite a talk earlier. And they took care of all that thing about denying him three times and all of that. And now he gets there, Jesus has fish prepared, bread even, and he lets them warm up at a fire. They got their fish settled in and even counted. And then he began to talk to them. And then as they're dining, Peter, do you love me? Peter, do you love me? Peter, do you love me? Yes, yes, yes. Feed my lambs. Shepherd my sheep, literally in the Greek, and then the third one, feed my sheep. Now, we'd like to just have the pretty music, and then the credits come up on the screen, and it's all over. This is just lovely. Beautiful sunset, or sunrise, I guess it would have been. And they're eating fish, and they're just all smiling, and Peter's gonna be, you know, leader. But it doesn't stop there. Jesus goes right to something very difficult. And we have to get used to this. We get wonderful, joyful promises, and then we get other instructions sometimes that are very hard. You're gonna see that in the song we close with today. We had such a happy song about following Jesus. And the one at the end is a sadder song. But let me go back to this in verses 18 and 19. Verily, verily, I say unto you, when you were young, you girded yourself, and you walked where you wanted to. But when you get old, you're going to stretch forth your hands, and another shall put something on you, gird you, and carry you where you don't want to go. And it says in verse 19, this speak he signifying by what death he should glorify God. And when he had spoken this, he saith unto him, follow me. Now that might seem like a little bit of a shady wording and like vague, but Peter knew what it meant. The disciples knew what it meant. As a matter of fact, I started looking around for this and I looked at John chapter 13, verse 36. Like so many other things, Jesus will say stuff and they don't get it at the time, but they remember later by the Holy Spirit and then they get it. But here's John 13, 36. And Simon Peter said unto him, Lord, where goest thou? Jesus answered him, where I go, you cannot follow me now, but you shall follow me afterwards. That's significant. That's significant. Let's go over to, it would be 2 Peter 1.14. 2 Peter 1.14. 2 Peter 1.14. Knowing that shortly I must put off this my tabernacle, that's a poetic way of saying I'm going to die, leave this body. Put off this my tabernacle even as our Lord Jesus Christ hath showed me. He's getting ready to die. He's been informed of the Lord that the moment is coming. The Lord had already told him about this, and we've just read it there in John 21. You're going to be crucified. They're going to nail you to a cross just like they did me. Now, tradition tells us that when the time came, Peter, who felt unworthy to die just as his Lord requested to be crucified upside down. I'm not able to tell you if that's true or not. It's made for some good thought. It's a traditional rendering, but there's just no doubt Peter was going to have to go in a similar fashion. Now, Peter couldn't die for the sins of the world like Jesus, but because he was so identified with Jesus, because he had loved him and served him so faithfully, Satan poured out some wrath, and God let this happen. Jesus let this happen because it's a way of glorifying the Lord, and Peter took it that way. He had time to think about it. Now, if you think about it, if you knew you were going to have a horrible, terrible death, and some of the bad things that happen in our life, isn't it good that God didn't tell us that at the time? But I always marveled, Jesus in John 13 had such composure. to take care of the saint's needs, his disciples. And he knew this terrible thing was going to happen to him. And he let that be just a part of the course of the day. Got to finish my job, got to concentrate on what I'm doing. And humanly speaking, who could do this? Well, Peter was given the grace of God to do it. And Jesus had warned us all that in the hour you are captured and imprisoned and interrogated, don't sit there and worry about what you're going to say, because in that hour, your father will give it to you. You know, if you've got a bus ride next week, you don't need the ticket today. You'll get it when you get there. You'll get the grace for that time. I remember the story of a fella, he was working on a church auditorium and he was up on a high ladder and he fell off the ladder, he got terribly hurt. And he was in the hospital, and the pastor came to visit him. And he said, Pastor, I just don't know why God didn't give me dying grace. I've been screaming in pain and just stressed out, and God didn't give me any dying grace. And the pastor leaned over and said, Brother, you weren't dying. Some things catch us by surprise, and sometimes grace surprises us and we find the ability to do things we never thought we could do. That statement over and over in my mind, I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me. Peter has been strengthened of the Lord. Remember the time he said, Simon, Simon, Satan desires you, he wants to sift you like wheat, he wants to tear you apart, but I have prayed for thee. And when you are converted, strengthen the brethren. You have the same Lord, the same Savior, the same Great High Priest praying for you, and He knows what the devil's up to, and He knows what the world's up to, and He knows the weakness of your flesh, and He has and continues to pray for His saints. He ever liveth to make intercession for the saints. He's prepared. And in that knowledge, I will say, I am prepared. God, give me the grace as I need it. Worrying ahead of time? It's wasteful. Today is enough to be concerned about. And so, you're gonna die in a way that's like me, and I want you to follow my pattern here, and I want you to do this, and you know, Peter, well, he's still learning. But he looks over at John, how about him? What's he got to do? Right away, why am I singled out here? Is he going to do it too? How about them? Is it just me? And Peter, if I asked John to stay alive until I come again, what would that be to you? Your job's to follow me, not worry about him. In this sense, don't worry about him. And then a rumor. took off, that John's going to live till the return of Christ, that he's in a cave somewhere, in a mountain maybe, and still alive. And that isn't what Jesus meant, but he was trying to focus on something here, you follow me. And so in general, we are all to die to self and to yield our new lives to Christ and to the will of God. And Peter had been called to service. We've just been studying that. And Peter was told that he would physically die in like manner as Christ. Now we don't all get that. At least we don't get the knowledge of it. But we need to say this for ourselves here, that each person has a unique calling and plan from God. God has laid out a course for us to run. We have lots of scriptures that talk about this, about this is the will of God in Christ Jesus concerning you. Give thanks. Give thanks. Be confident. Don't worry. The Lord's your shepherd. You shall not be left wanting. And we each just need to deal with one day at a time. One day at a time. Dying for Christ, that seems hard if you had to be martyred. But you know, if you take it seriously, living for Christ is every bit as hard. It just takes a heap of living to understand that this is a daily issue. And I didn't look up the reference, but somewhere Paul said, I die daily. And since every day he got up and he saw himself as crucified with Christ, then whatever happens, it's that. And it often isn't the big dramatic moment that it'll take us. It's those little naggy things where we give in and we ignore or we get lazy or selfish or scared or whatever. It's that daily stuff that tears us down. In Psalm 23, thou anointest my head with oil, when you get the right interpretation, that is a reference to sheep getting ointment put on their heads because bugs love to bother them in their eyes and their ears and their nostrils. And those little bugs lay eggs and just do all kinds of things. And if you've ever noticed, sheep can't scratch. or take their fingers and do anything. They don't have fingers, they have hoofs. So they can't do a thing about this. And that irritation of what bugs do can drive them so crazy, they'll start beating their heads against a tree. Some sheep have been known to run off a cliff. They can't stand it anymore. Oh, but the shepherd has made anointment. And that ointment, it has soothing and healing powers in it. And it also stinks funny. What a theological term. Okay, it has a pungent smell that drives bugs away. So they're being soothed, and the bugs are backing off. And you know, it isn't necessarily a lion or a bear that's going to get you. It's those little mosquito-y, natty, bot-fly problems every day in your life that just get at you and get at you. And we've got to learn how to get that resolved. He has ointment for us. Okay. So as we're looking at what this means as a metaphor, okay, Jesus is telling us to die to self-will, to surrender our personal ambitions and agendas, to depend on the strength of Christ and not our own, yield to God's will, yield to God's glory, to seek the benefit of Christ's kingdom more than our own personal benefit. Now, if you've noticed, I've been skipping over lots of stuff. I'm not dehailing, because I realize I kind of wrote a book in this page, and I've been worked over by the Lord, and I'm going to let Him work you over if you choose. You can study some of these other things. But down there, Philippians 3, verse 10. I'd like to take off with that for a moment. As a metaphor, take up your cross and follow him. Philippians 3.10, it's another one of those scriptures that we sing every now and then. I'll spare you the song right now, but here's the thought, that I may know him and the power of his resurrection and the fellowship of his sufferings, being made conformable unto his death. Paul had a position before in serving the law, the tribe of Benjamin, Pharisee of the Pharisees, persecuting the church, and he thought he was just doing great, and he says, there came a day when I had to take all of that. I thought I had an A-plus report card because of my keeping the law, my zeal for the law, and attacking the Christians. I thought I had an A-plus report card, and I did not. I had to count it all but dung. Some Bibles want to say garbage or refuse, but it ain't pretty. I had to consider that all garbage, refuse, dung, so that I could have Christ and be found in him, not having my own righteousness, but the righteousness which is of God by faith. And then he says here in verse 10, that I may know him. A relationship in which he knows me, I am known of him, he has reached out to me and made me his, and now I can know him like I never knew him before. Previous knowledge was worthless compared to this knowledge because it's intimacy. Now, you want to be intimate with the Lord Jesus Christ? You understand how he's called a man of sorrows, acquainted with grief? You understand that as the Father sent me, so send I you. You see what's coming? If I want to know Him and I want the power of His resurrection, something's got to die to be resurrected. And so there's going to have to be the fellowship of his sufferings because things just don't die easy normally. So there's going to be a fellowship of his sufferings, not just sufferings in general, his sufferings. Are you suffering for Christ's sake or just suffering because it's what this world's full of? His sufferings being conformable to his death. He died in service to the father. He died in love for the people of God. Am I having His kind of death? Am I suffering His kind of way? If I am, then I can also know I'm going to have His kind of resurrection power. Now, that can be spelled out in some different ways here. Notice Philippians chapter 2. Now, I got verses 1 through 11, but let me just skip around. for the sake of time. Now, if, it's the kind of if that since there is, not if like maybe. You could say since there be any consolation in Christ, since there be any comfort of love, since there be any fellowship of the Spirit, since there be any bowels and mercies, or that could also be called tender affection and compassion. Fulfill my joy that should be like-minded, having the same love, being of one accord, of one mind. Let nothing be done through strife or vainglory, but in lowliness of mind let each esteem other better than themselves. Look not every man on his own things, but every man also on the things of others. You need to take care of your business. You need to take care of things, but life is not all about you and how you are and how much stuff you have and how this is going and that is going. That's a component of our life, but it's not the essence of our life. We should care how others are doing. Paul said it to the Corinthians, and you can Look that up in chapter 10, verses 23 and 24. But don't seek just your own wealth. Seek the wealth of others, the benefit of others. Get outside of ourselves. And so he says then in verse 5 here of Philippians 2, let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus. And he goes on to describe how Christ being equal with God, equivalent to God in character, in nature. And he had glory, and he had the worship of angels, and he laid that aside, he emptied himself, so that he could be a servant. Completely God, yet completely man, and he submitted to serve, and to suffer, and to die, even the death of the cross. And because of that, God has highly exalted him above every name, that at the name of Jesus, every knee should bow. " That's this metaphorical sense in which I have yielded myself, I've forsaken my ideas, I'm exchanging them for God's ideas and God's will to be done. You get down there to chapter 2, verse 17. Paul says to the Philippians, yea, and if I be offered upon the sacrifice and service of your faith, I joy and rejoice with you all. Now, in the English, that leads a lot to be discovered. Some of the newer translations have added the thought here, offered is referring to a drink offering. And a lot of newer translations will say, if I be poured out, upon the sacrifice and service of your faith. I joy and rejoice." So what they did is, and you can go to places like Exodus 29 verses 38 to 41, and you can find out what a drink offering was. Here they're offering an animal. And they've got some flour and some oil and some wine, and they make something liquid that as the animal flesh is burning, they pour this on top of it. It's like the final capstone to an offering. The sacrifice is made, and we're going to pour this out. And because of the heat and the flames, this liquid vaporizes. Paul says, I'm like that. You are offering to the Lord. I presented you to him, and you now are to be a living sacrifice for him. And to do that, if I top it off by dying or more self-sacrifice, I'm happy to do it. I'm a drink offering. And somehow when I saw the word vaporize, it really struck me. Because that's kind of like when John says, he must increase and I must decrease. I remember a guy telling me one time that if I didn't want him around, he said, I'll vaporize. And I liked him saying that because quite frankly, he needed to. But it's like without a trace, no residue, nothing left over. I'll just get out of here. And am I willing to be nothing so that you can be something? Am I willing to be nothing so that you can join me in the same way so that God is everything? all the focus on Him, all the glory for Him. His will be done in earth as it is in heaven, and I'm willing to vaporize for that to happen. Now, when you get to 2 Timothy 4, the words used again, and there it is like a final offering. It's the last thing. I am ready to be offered, and the time of my departure is at hand here in 1 Timothy 4. But here, the way the Greek is constructed, this is a present tense ongoing thing. It isn't like, oh, the big climax, I'll vaporize. No, I'm vaporizing right now. And Paul, as he continues talking to them from verse 17 on, he gets there to this place in verse 23 where he says, him therefore, referring to Timothy, I hope to send presently so soon as I shall see how it will go with me. This is a prison epistle. He's locked up. And he did some of his best work, right, in Ephesians and Colossians and Philippians, Philemon also. But he's locked up in prison. And he got out of that. But eventually, he got in prison again. And by 2 Timothy chapter 4, he's going to have his head chopped off, and he knows the time of my departure is at hand. I'm ready to be that drink offering That's in 2 Timothy 4, 6, if you're looking for it. What I will do at my last day has a lot to do with what I'm doing today. I am becoming what I will be. Paul is preparing himself. He says, I die daily. If I can borrow some language here, I'm vaporizing daily. I'm pouring myself out on these offerings to the Lord for the welfare of these other people, for these churches, the care of these churches, and I'm willing to vaporize. I'll spend and be spent, he said to the Corinthians. And he's pouring out everything he's got. Mr. Spurgeon had his own way of illustrating this. He talked about doing battle with the world and all the things that God had given him to teach and preach. And he's comparing it to a cannon. You know, I'm loading up my cannon, I'm firing away and firing away and firing away. And he said, when I run out of cannonballs, I'm gonna jump in the cannon and just shoot myself out at them. Yeah, I think he's the one that had the phrase too, my flag is nailed to the mast. as if to say it ain't coming down. But this abandon, this heavenly abandon on the Lord, stranded on His sovereignty, stranded on His grace, stranded on His goodness, stranded on His cause. That's what it is to take up your cross and follow Him. You look at chapter 4 of Philippians. Verses 10 through 13. Philippians chapter 4, verse 10. But I rejoice in the Lord greatly, that now at the last your care of me hath flourished again, wherein you were also careful, but you lacked opportunity. Not that I speak in respect of one, for I have learned. And mind you, Paul says it was a process. I had to learn how to do this." And that means some trial and error maybe. I have learned in whatsoever state I am therewith to be content. I know both how to be abased and I know how to abound. Everywhere and in all things, I am instructed both to be full and to be hungry, both to abound and to suffer need. And now the verse we quote so much in context, I can do all things through Christ who gives me strength. We think of all kinds of amazing things that we can do through Christ who gives us strength. And I love to always use Warren Wiersbe's caution here. I can do all things I'm supposed to be doing through Christ who strengthens me. But in the context, it's learning how to not be so absorbed with myself and how I feel that it just crowds my thoughts out for anything else. No, I've learned how to have abundance or not have enough. See, the thing about meekness, and I'm trying to remember, Who showed this to me? And I'm not gonna remember, so let's move on here. The thing about meekness, it's a service of myself that's not obsessed with myself. I'm not all about me in this. It's all about Him. It's all about them. And so I will be content because if this helps the work of the Lord in other people's lives, if this glorifies the Lord, so be it. I'll be fine. Good days, bad days, ups, downs, abundance, lack, we'll get through it all. And some of you dear saints have been around long enough, you know what hard times have been like in your life and you've gotten through them. If I tried to use a calculator to justify how I survived this long and how I'm doing as well as I'm doing, I couldn't prove it. with income tax reports from all the years, it just happens. And the more that happens, the more you get less terrified at the next calamity coming. He's done it before, he'll do it again. He's kept his word before, he'll keep it again. Well, I've got to move over. There's a little bit left to this. And that is, make no mistake. As I'm talking about metaphorically, bearing your cross and dying to self, this can mean death and suffering in a very literal and physical way. Now, we're used to it being out there somewhere. Over in the Middle East, Christians are dying for their faith. Or we could go to, you know, maybe Albania, or we could look at Russia, or we could look at China, or we could look at some other country, and Christians are being treated terribly, and nations in Africa, and they're dying, but oh, we're so good right here. We've got it made. And we have a wonderful life. And we've been provided so much. It's been a gentle existence in many ways, however, How many more times do we have to be surprised about someone who goes into a school and puts a gun to a girl's head and says, will you deny Jesus? And she says, absolutely not. And he blows her away. Her last words of loving Christ to the very end. That happened here. And I won't get into more gory illustrations, but you know that more and more people are radicalizing and there may be literal death. for our faith. Now, if I don't say that, then you're going to act like some strange thing has happened. And Peter in 1 Peter 4 said, don't act like it's some strange new thing if you suffer for Christ. But it says, rather rejoice, because the Spirit of God and of glory rests upon you. And if we dwell in that glory and that gratitude and that love, then when those things happen, you will not be taken by surprise. To think about it might surprise you. You don't have to think about it. You just have to say, everything's laid on the table, Lord. Have your own way. This world has changed so amazingly much in the last decade or two decades. Some of you can just say I've just seen things tremendously, exponentially get to places I never thought we'd be in how people are talking in this country and acting in this country. And don't think we have some special buffer that we won't have to suffer to. And so we need to harden ourselves like good soldiers of Jesus Christ. And back to Philippians, but now chapter 1. Philippians 1 verses 20 and 21. according to my earnest expectation and my hope, that in nothing I shall be ashamed, but that with all boldness, as always, so now also Christ shall be magnified in my body, whether it be by life or by death. For to me to live is Christ and to die is gain." Now just keep yourself pumped up on that. Because death for us is just being graduated. I know we all would like to just die in our sleep comfortably. You may say, oh, well, I'm 90-something, and personally, I don't really care to live that long, but God's will be done. The point is, am I magnifying Christ? My life needs to be like a magnifying glass. We can't make Christ bigger, but we can make him appear bigger. People can observe detail. You take a magnifying glass, you put it up to an object, and you can see detail you couldn't see before. We want people to see Jesus before we check out the way we live and possibly the way we die. And I've marveled at many a scene where Christians dying are showing their faith so beautifully at that time. I remember certain saints If you wanted to get cheered up, you'd go visit them on their deathbed. They were glowing. Now, not everybody gets to feel that good, but the faith that people can show when they're dying, when they're facing calamities. Paul puts it like this to the Philippians in chapter 1. Well, let's take 28 and 29. in nothing terrified by your adversaries, which is to them an evident token of perdition, but to you of salvation and that of God." You realize when they're trying to terrorize you and you don't get terrorized, that means they have nothing left to use against you. They're out of weapons, and it means they're going to be destroyed because they cannot overcome you because Christ in you has caused you not to give in to fear. Fear has torment. And we've not been given the spirit of fear, but of power and of love and of a sound mind. And so he says in verse 29, for unto you it is given in the behalf of Christ, not only to believe on Him. That's like a given. But you know what else has been given to you on behalf of Christ? Also to suffer for His sake. Privilege. Opportunity. Something I will never be able to do in heaven is to suffer for him and testify to unbelievers. That's for him now. And so one gift is I have the ability to believe in Jesus and to be transformed. I have faith in the Son of God. But the other gift is I get to serve him and suffer in this life at the hands of unbelievers like Jesus did. Wow. Now, I called it the addendum here. What distractions might there be from following Christ? Okay, the first one is to get our eyes off Christ and on to others. When Peter looked at John, he says, what about him? Okay, that can distract us from following Christ because now we're looking at what other people are doing. Well, Hebrews 12, 2, looking unto Jesus, the author and finisher of your faith, and it goes on to say, consider him lest you become weary and faint in your minds. It isn't that you don't care about what other people are going through. It's that you don't compare yourself to them. Focus on your job. Do your part. I hate to use this illustration, but it just come to mind. I got to say it. But there were times when my children were little, and I'd correct them, and I'd tell them to go to the room. And they had to turn around to go to their room. But they weren't comfortable with giving me their back, because they thought I'm going to come up and swat them in the butt. So watch a child trying to stare at you and walk to the room. Inevitably, they would walk right into the wall. And I couldn't help but smile, because I wasn't coming after them. But they thought I might. And so the more they looked at me, they couldn't walk straight. And they'd plow into the wall. I'd try to say, stop. And they didn't get it. And if I'm staring at the world, trying to figure out what they're going to do, I might not be able to walk the straight line I need to. If I'm staring at somebody else and what they're doing and thinking, well, I want to be like that, or Lord, I'm interested in them, I'm going to walk into the wall. The three boys in the fresh snow, the contest, who could walk the straightest line. You know, the first boy tried, and when he looked back, the line was crooked. The second boy says, I'll do better than that. And he looked at his footprints, and when he went to the left, this guy went to the right. And when this guy went to the right, he went to the left. And by the time it was done, he had a tangled mess, too. But some of you know my story. The boy who kept his eye on the oak tree across the field says, I'm going to look at that tree and walk towards it. And he walked the straightest line. Jesus is our North Star. Jesus is our benchmark. Jesus is the one that we keep our eyes on Him and we won't faint. We won't become weary and faint. We won't give up. He didn't. And He didn't just do it for an example. He did it to say, as I did it, now I'm alive to help you do it because I'm in you. I won't leave you. I won't forsake you. I'm with you all way, even to the end of the world. So we can start walking some straight lines, and we might even have a smile on our face. We'll certainly have peace in our hearts, because the Son of God will not fail us. What's another distraction from following Christ? It's getting sidetracked by non-issues. or by issues of lesser importance. The issue here was, oh, did you hear Jesus just said that John's never gonna die? He's gonna be alive till Jesus comes. You missed the story. What if I just preach a sermon on John's still alive in a cave somewhere and not preach to you those other verses about feed my sheep and love me and fishers of men? Would've missed the whole point. And so rumors got started and people started forming opinions and little circles and maybe special meetings. It's a great way to get distracted from following Christ. Okay, 2 Timothy chapter 2. I'm just going to read a few of these to give the idea about getting sidetracked by either non-issues or issues of lesser importance. But in 2 Timothy chapter 2, verse 14, We're going to read verses 14 through 18. "...of these things put them in remembrance, charging them before the Lord, that they strive not about words to no profit, but to the subverting of the hearers." Subverting means they get turned aside. Study, or give all diligence to show yourself approved unto God, a workman that needs not to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth. But shun profane and vain babblings, for they will increase unto more ungodliness. And the word will eat as doth a canker, like a cancer, of whom is Hymenaeus and Philetus, who concerning the truth have erred, saying that the resurrection is past already, and overthrow the faith of some." And Paul just keeps telling Timothy, don't get caught up in genealogies and fables and traditions and blah, blah, blah, and all this talk that doesn't produce godliness. There's a lot of discussion Paul has with Timothy about this, actually, in both the books he wrote to Timothy. But then he would turn around to the Corinthians. In 1 Corinthians 2, he said, I came to you, I was in weakness and fear, much trembling, And I didn't want your faith to stand in the wisdom of man, but in the power of God. And he says, I was determined, therefore, to know nothing among you except Jesus Christ and Him crucified. What's your problem? Jesus is the answer. Christ died for us that we might be all in all. He rose again, and He's the answer. to all our needs and all our focus. My favorite to quote, I have such a worn out path to this, but I'm going to do it again just to try to end nicely here, in Colossians chapter 2. And starting with verse 6, Colossians 2 verse 6, As you have therefore received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk in Him. rooted and built up in him, and established in the faith as you have been taught, abounding therein with thanksgiving. Beware, lest any man spoil you." Okay? Literally, it means to take captive. I know some Bibles use the word cheat you, but spoil you like you're robbed and plundered. You've been bound up and made a slave to something, and they do it through philosophy, through vain deceit, after the tradition of men, after the rudiments of the world. That's the one basic elements, some of your Bibles will say, but that's the one where they actually take the Bible and they use Bible verses and that makes it all good, right? We quoted some verses, now it's good. No, it may not be. Because rudiments or elementary teachings have to do with teachings that are incomplete. You know, if I teach a child how to start a car, and how to put it in gear and how to step on the gas and then I don't teach them anymore, I'd probably sign their death warrant. They're gonna kill themselves or somebody else. You gotta teach them the whole gamut of brakes and driving rules and how you look and buckle up and all this other stuff. Rudimentary teaching is incomplete. There are people in this world that have learned how to do a skill so they can make money and have a job, but they haven't learned how to be polite, and how to function in society, how to talk to people kindly, and so we call them rude, for rudimentary. When they used to send girls off to the place where they learned how to walk with books on their head, and they call that finishing school. You know, they've learned their grammar, their arithmetic. Now they're going to learn how to have poise and posture and be polite and do things. So, elementary teachings. I can teach commandments. I can teach rules. But I never get to grace. I never get to Jesus as the center of it all. So we've got people hopping and jumping through hoops, doing this, doing that, but they don't know what they're doing because the people teaching them don't know what they're saying. And they're making people captive, slaves, even using the Bible. And as it says in verse 8, not after Christ. They're teaching Bible stuff. If I can dare to sound disrespectful, I don't mean it. But they're teaching Bible stuff and they're not teaching Christ. And speaking of Christ, Verse 9 says, for in Him dwells all the fullness of the Godhead bodily. All you need is Him. Verse 10 says, for we are complete in Him, which is the head of all principality and power. So this sufficiency of Christ, this fullness of Christ, that's what we should be focusing on. And then I can do all things through Christ who gives me strength. Makes a lot of sense. I've got to keep my attention there. Everything else will come into place if I make Christ first place. That he might be preeminent first place. Well, follow Christ. Don't follow religious man. Don't follow spiffy teachings and strict rules, and no matter how intellectual it sounds or how pious it sounds, make sure it's based on the gospel of Jesus Christ, because the gospel of Jesus Christ is the power of God unto salvation to them that believe, and nothing less than that will do. I can't say any more. I'm going to just have to pray. We thank you that Peter was an example of how to learn how to follow Christ. And when I read 1 Peter and 2 Peter, I know, Lord, you were successful in teaching him and growing him, and how he exemplifies everything that he was taught, everything he learned, and how he spoke in those chapters about faith and about suffering for Christ's sake, beautiful things Lord, let our life be an epistle that others can read us and see our growth in grace. See our maturity in Christ be an example of what the scriptures teach that others might follow. Because sometimes people won't read it and they won't even listen well, but they'll watch and they'll see something. And may our lives be that. If we're following Jesus, then pretty soon, hopefully, they'll look ahead and see who it is we're following. Not what, but who we're following. And they'll be attracted to Him. So please have your way with these thoughts, Lord. Thoughts that I feel like we're just getting started, but this is a lifetime of learning and doing. But it may begin with Christ, continue with Christ, and end up with Christ. For of Him and through Him and to Him are all things. And we ask it in Jesus' name, amen.