Sigh. I don't know what to do I don't know what to do I don't know what to do I don't know what to do I don't know what to do I don't know what to do I don't know what to do I don't know what to do I don't know what to do I don't know what to do It's true. It's true. so so Amen. Amen. All right. So anyway, without any further ado, I'm happy to introduce to you a good friend, Evangelist Edgar Bachner. He can tell you about his work in Texas if he has the time. You can tell us about what's going on there in Texas, okay? Amen. Thank you. You know, your pastor was in the Philippines. He said they preach at least an hour and a half over there. Amen. I wouldn't want to let you folks down. No, it's a joy to be here. I really appreciate your pastor and his wife and family. I always look forward to seeing you folks again. Amen. Bible Baptist Church as God's blessed it. You know, I remember when you were meeting over in Jamaica. Jamaica Avenue. Yeah, Jamaica Avenue. And in that storefront there was a daycare center sort of. And then I'll never forget the day your pastor brought me into this building. How many of you saw this building before you occupied it? How many did not see this building before you occupied it? Now pastor, dig the pictures out and put a poster together of what this building looked like inside before you started it because I want to tell you something, I looked at him And I went, yeah, this is a great idea. And I was like, what is he nuts or something? And yet, you know, there were big fish tanks in here and it's just amazing how God blessed and what a nice building. It's a testimony to the name of the Lord, isn't it? And we're thrilled. We're thrilled. Well, the Lord led me to go to Texas and a slat land out there and it's hot. We've been enjoying 106 degree weather recently. And you always hope that there's a wind blowing. Because if there isn't, boy, I want to tell you what, you can get sweating real fast. But the Lord led us to take a college that was about ready to die and gave us the opportunity to revive it. And Lord willing, we'll have 30 students this coming fall. And only five of them will be coming from Powell, Tennessee. The flagship school, Crown College, where Carl is enrolled. And I really rejoice over the opportunity there, and the pastors have gotten behind it, and we're excited about what the Lord's doing. It's exciting to train young men and women for the gospel ministry. And we're praying, you know, you parents are responsible to tell your children you should go at least one year to Bible college. Now that doesn't mean they're called to preach, it doesn't mean that they have to be in the ministry all their life, as far as full-time ministry, but every, every young person should be trained in the gospel ministry. And even if they only stay one year and then they go off and become a doctor or whatever they become, it'll help them to be on a solid foundation. You know what your pastor was talking about just now a few minutes ago about the tongues issue? What he's doing is he's being a good shepherd and setting in order the things that God's Word teaches. Amen. God's not the author of confusion, is he? And he wants us to know what he teaches. And boy, I'll tell you what, if our young people don't have a solid foundation, guess what? They're going to be driven off into all kinds of heresy. They're going to be driven off into all kinds of anti-biblical positions. And that's awfully dangerous, isn't it? Let's take our Bibles and go to the book of John, chapter 21, and let's stand for the reading of God's Word. or rather John chapter 21. After these things, Jesus showed himself again to the disciples at the Sea of Tiberias, and on this wise showed he himself. There were together Simon Peter and Thomas called Didymus, and Nathanael, king of Galilee, and the sons of Zebedee, and two other of his disciples. And Simon Peter saith unto them, I go a fishing. They said unto him, We also go with thee. They went forth and entered into a ship immediately, and that night they caught nothing. But when the morning was now come, Jesus stood on the shore, but the disciples knew not that it was Jesus. Then Jesus said unto them, Children, have ye any meat? They answered, No. And he said unto them, Cast the net on the right side of the ship, and ye shall find. they cast their core, and now they were not able to draw it for the multitude of fish. Therefore that disciple whom Jesus loved saith unto Peter, It is the Lord Now when Simon Peter heard that it was the Lord, he girded his fishing coat unto him, for he was naked, and did cast himself into the sea. And the other disciples came in a little ship, for they were not far from land, but as it were two hundred cubits, dragging the net with fishes. As soon then as they were come to land, they saw a fire of coals there, and fish laid thereon and bred. And Jesus saith unto them, bring of the fish which ye have now caught. Simon Peter went up and drew the net to land full of great fishes and hundred and fifty and three. And for all there were so many, yet was not the net broken. Jesus saith unto them, Come and dine. And none of the disciples dare ask him. art, or who art thou, knowing that it was the Lord. Jesus then cometh and taketh bread, and giveth them, and fish likewise." This is now the third time that Jesus showed himself to his disciples after that. He was risen from the dead. 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 unto 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? Notice these words. 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 whither thou wouldest. But when thou shalt be old, thou shalt stretch forth thine hands, and another shall gird thee, and tarry thee with her. thou wouldest not. This faith he signifying by what death he should glorify God, and when he hath spoken this, he saith unto him, Follow me." Let's pray together. Our Heavenly Father, we come to you thanking you for the life of Simon Peter. We're thankful that you saved his soul. We're thankful that you called him to be a fisher of men. And yet, Lord, we see Peter leaving the calling to go back to fishing. God, I pray that you would help us to realize that the gifts and the callings of God are without repentance. Faithful is he that calleth you who also will do it. Now God, I know you want to meet with us tonight. You want to speak to our hearts through your word. Give me liberty and speak to us, we pray, in Christ's name. Amen. You may be seated. You know, the story of Peter is an amazing, amazing story. The most likely to be used was used the most. Isn't that amazing? Oftentimes we put within our hearts and our minds, well boy, God, this person's got a lot of talent. And boy, I'll tell you what, they're really going to do a great work for God. And you'll find that sometimes those that you thought were the most talented, the ones that had the most ability, shipwreck. Become cast away. There's probably, every one of you have heard of someone that was called of God to serve the Lord. And I want to say this. that there's really not much of a difference between those that are called to full-time Christian service than there is those that are saved. All of us are called of God to serve Him. We're sheep in His pasture. He is our shepherd. And it is His desire that each and every one of us respond to the call of God in our life and do exactly what God intends for us to do. And I believe that God's not the author of confusion. Therefore, if we were to simply ask God what it is He wants us to do, He would tell us. Don't you believe that? I think a lot of people aren't asking. And that's why they don't know what the will of the Lord is for their life. You know, it's amazing, even among young people, I find out many young people, even in their second and third year of college, don't even know what God wants them to do. Now that's ridiculous because really all you've got to do is spend a little bit of time on your knees. And the Holy Spirit will make it very clear to you exactly what He wants you to do. Listen, if God can reveal to us, share in our lives, He certainly can reveal to us His will about service. And that brings me to my message. I want you to notice the first thing that I find in this passage is Simon Peter saying, I go of fishing. Now, technically, there's nothing wrong with fishing. How many like to fish? I'd rather eat it, honestly. But fishing is a great sport. And it's wonderful and all of that. And yes, Peter was a fisherman. But you know what? God called Peter to fish after men. Go with me to Luke chapter 5. In Luke chapter 5, just turn back to Luke chapter 5. And I want you to notice what the Lord said to Peter. In Luke 5, verse 10, the Bible says, And so was also James and John the sons of Zebedee, which were partners with Simon. And Jesus said unto Simon, Fear not, for henceforth thou shalt catch men. That means that he was called of God to go out after lost souls and bring them to the Lord Jesus just like Andrew, his brother, brought him to Jesus. Andrew first finds his brother Simon and he brought him to Jesus. Now listen, all of us are responsible to bring people to Christ. That's our God-given responsibility. We're to go after souls. We're to care for the dying. We're to care for those that do not care for themselves. That's what real love is, isn't it? Caring for somebody that doesn't care for themselves. going to someone that is uninterested and indifferent to the cause of Christ. And I think that's why so many people are not interested in butting their nose in other people's business. It's because they're afraid that they're going to be turned down or that they're not going to be liked or that they're not going to be popular or that they're not going to be appreciated. Really, it's the opposite effect. If I was a lost man tonight, And somebody came to me and told me how I could be saved and on my way to heaven. Even if I was lost, I might not like it, but I would always respect that person that they cared enough about me to come and tell me about Jesus. Now he said, I'm going fishing. I'm getting out of it. I want you to notice something that's devastating to me. It's what is stated in the next verse. In John chapter 21, verse 3, it says, They said unto him, We also go with thee. You know, it's not hard to get people to go against God. Did you know that? How come when a person says, I'm leaving the church, other people want to go too? How come is it that when one person has a gripe, then another person wants to gripe too? It's almost like a drunkard who wants somebody else to drink so he doesn't have to drink alone, you know? Sure! I'm going fishing. Oh, I'm going with you. You see, Peter had some leadership ability, didn't he? He had the ability to lead people away from the Lord. That's dangerous. I'll tell you what, we don't have a right to be going away from God. We have every reason to be living for God and bringing others with us. I want you to notice the second thing. In this passage, it says they caught nothing. Good. Amen. I'm glad they caught nothing. It proves that when you go against the will of God, you will not have God's blessing. Amen. Listen, if we think we can live in disobedience to God and have God's blessing, we're wrong. We're wrong. And this illustrates to me that Peter was able to understand very quickly that his plan was faulty. That he had gone against the plan of God, against the will of God. Now, he was a fisherman. He was supposed to know where the fish were. Right? Fishermen, professional fishermen, know where the fish are. They know how they bite. They know how to get them. But you know what? God moved the fish. Now all of you fish, go around that side of the boat. Alright, you stay over there. And wherever they cast their nets out, you go the opposite way. Take this preacher out. Take this backslidden preacher out. And sure enough, they caught nothing. Let me tell you something. One of the most devastating things in a life that ought to be lived for God is when you think you're okay, but nothing's working right. And you justify what's wrong with somebody else when really the problem's with you. You see, Peter was disappointed in the plan of God. Jesus had not run things the way he thought they were to be run. You know, when Peter took out the servant of the high priest, Peter, and he wanted to dethrone the Roman Empire, and he wanted Christ to rule. When that didn't happen, it sent a delusion into his own heart. He thought, you know what? I'm just going to go back to what I was doing before, I'm so disappointed. You know, if you think you can live your life without disappointments, you're mistaken. Listen, the psalmist said, it's good for me that I've been afflicted. That I might trust in thy precepts. It is God that worketh in you, both to will and to do of His good pleasure. And sometimes things come into our lives that we say, Lord, if you really love me, why are you allowing this in my life? And the Lord says, I know best. I want to draw your attention back to John 21. I go fishing. They caught nothing. Here's the part I want to really drive home. Jesus asked Simon Peter. He said, Lovest thou me? That's quite a statement. If Jesus Christ were to be here tonight, and he were to say, Do you love me? What would you say? He would say, Of course I love you. If he were to ask you the second time, Love ast thou me? You would say, Of course Lord, you know I love you. If he were to say to you the third time, Love ast thou me? You would think that he was thinking that you really don't. Be like a husband saying to his wife, honey, do you love me? Yeah. I think I'd have to ask her again, right? Honey, do you love me? Yeah, what else do you want? You doubt that the love was real, right? When Jesus said to Peter, the third time, The Bible says Peter was what? He was grieved. I want to say to you tonight, if the Bible says, not everyone that saith unto me, Lord, Lord, shall enter into the kingdom of God, there are people who would say they love Christ, but really the way they live, they don't. Let me illustrate it. When I was 14 years old, my father said, Daniel, I've never seen any indication that you're saved. And I thought to myself, I don't see any indication either. And it was that day that I got saved. Now if my father hadn't said to me, Daniel, I've never seen any indication that you're saved, I may have gone on and on and on, thinking in my head that I was saved when in my heart I knew I wasn't. Just because we're religious doesn't mean we're saved. Correct? Just because we know all about God doesn't mean we know God. There's a lot of people like that. There are people who are going to stand before the Lord some day and they're going to say, well, that'd be a great way to throw them judgment. Haven't we done many wonderful works in your name? I mean, I went to church all those years and gave all that money and it's of no value? It wasn't worth anything? No, because that's not what gets you to heaven. What gets you to heaven is what Christ did. Not what you've done. It's what Christ did. That's important for us to understand that. There was a pastor many years ago by the name of Robert Rory Machine. Maybe some of you have read about his life. Robert Murray McShane was a great preacher. He was a very anemic man, physically. In fact, at one point he couldn't even pastor. And he went to Israel on a kind of a student tour, learning about Israel in those days. Left his church with a good evangelist, and the church grew during that time, and God blessed. When he returned from Israel, he came to a town square. And of course, it was very common back then for hundreds of people to gather. So he would start preaching on the street. He'd have two, three, four, five hundred, a thousand people show up. One night he was beginning to preach. Robert Murray M'Cheyne gathered all these people. He started talking to them about the Lord. He said, let's pray. I want you to picture yourself being there in this huge crowd of people standing, listening to Robert Murray M'Cheyne preach. He said, let's pray. He bowed his head. Here's how he started his prayer. Thou knowest that I love thee. And he came to me crying. There was a lady in the crowd. She came under deep, deep conviction. And she said, If I said to the Lord, Thou knowest that I love thee, I don't believe the Lord would be able to say that to me. Yes, I know that you love me. Her heart was broken. She left the meeting and she went home. She got alone with the Lord. She said, Lord, I don't want there to be ever any doubt in your mind about my love for you. And I'm going to say to you tonight, some of you do not love the Lord like you think you do. How would you know that? By your actions. How much time do we have to walk with God in this day? We're too busy watching sports. We're too busy watching basketball. We're too busy watching golf. We're more in love with our computers than we are in love with our Lord. We're in love with our house, or we're in love with our garden, or we're in love with our toys. And we are more interested in the things that we possess than the one that is supposed to possess us. Here's the truth of it all. Jesus wanted to know. He wanted Peter to know that you don't really love me like you think you do. Therefore, there's a need for a change to take place in our lives. Amen? Are we willing to change? How long has it been since you wrapped yourself up in the pages of God's Word and just enjoyed the Lord? I'm not talking about for a Sunday school class. I'm not talking about for a message. I'm talking about just enjoying God, feeding on His precious Word. How long has it been since you got down on your knees with a prayer list and you brought hundreds of requests to the Lord, things that only He could do. You stayed there and you prayed, maybe an hour, maybe longer. You just enjoyed the Lord. He's not a fair-weather friend. Amen? He's a God that wants our attention and our affection. Let me prove to you how much He wants your affection and your attention. Remember when Adam and Eve sinned against the Lord and plunged the human race into sin? How many remember the story of that? Adam and Eve realized that they were what? They were naked. So they went out of conviction of their nakedness and they sewed some fake leaves together and they covered themselves, but what did they do? They hid from God. They didn't want to see God. You know, that's sometimes the way we are when we sin. You know, people stay away from church when they sin. We talk about staying away from church being a sin. Hold it. What is it that keeps us from church? That's where the sin lies. The sin is not that we don't go to church, it's that we sin to the point where we don't want to go to church. Adam, where are you? Here's a holy God hunting down a wicked sinner. That's how much the Lord loves you. That He would hunt you down. Have you ever been home? Maybe you've got a bad attitude or you're doing something you don't displease with the Lord, and all of a sudden you sense the presence of the Lord and you're brought under conviction. You say, oh, God, forgive me for those terrible thoughts or those evil deeds. Forgive me for thinking the way I've been thinking, or even doing the things I've been doing, or the things that I've been saying. Please forgive me. I want to tell you something, folks. God knows about Dan Knickerbocker better than Dan Knickerbocker knows about himself. Do you believe that? He knows the inner recesses of our heart. And I've had to say to the Lord, Lord, I know that you know that I don't love you like I say I do. And I'm ashamed of it. I believe that if you really love the Lord, you'll prove it by your actions. I believe every child here can tell if their parents really love the Lord or whether they're just going through the motions. I believe a wife can detect whether her husband really loves the Lord or is just playing church. I think a husband can tell. whether his wife or children really love the Lord or they don't. Do you really love the Lord? Let's prove it. Let's prove it by our actions. Let's go out of our way to do some things that would prove that we're absolutely in love with the Lord. If you don't have a prayer list, get a prayer list, okay? Write down a list of prayer requests that you cannot answer. That means you become dependent upon God. Alright? How many of you would like to see some miracles take place in your family? You can see it. You can see it through the eye of faith. And you pray for it until God answers. We must learn to wait upon God, not make God wait. Amen? I want you to get back into reading the Word of God again. I know you're busy. Listen, but if we're too busy to take time to read the Word of God, we're too busy, something's got to go. Amen? I went to a time management class one time. How many of you have been to a time management class? After that class, did you realize you'd been wasting time? It was like a revelation to you. We must sit down, husbands and wives, sit down together and say, are we honoring the Lord with our time? Are we worshiping the Lord at home as well as church? You know, the average family today, when they say it's time to eat, everybody runs and gets in the car. We're too busy to eat home as a family. We're too busy to take time to sit around the table and talk about the good things of God. And we're the losers. We're the losers. Don't tell me you love the Lord until you can prove it. Amen? Talks too cheap. God help us. Amen? Let's pray together. While every head is bowed, instead of having the invitational song, I would like to just have the pianist play softly. I want us all to stand together. I'm going to ask you a question and I want you to answer it. Here's the question. I want everybody to answer it. Jesus, we're asking you this question right now. Nobody else but you. Lovest thou me? If you would say in your own heart that I don't know or I'm pretty sure that the Lord knows that I don't love Him like I ought to be loving Him. If you would find yourself guilty of maybe saying you love the Lord but you don't love Him like you ought to love Him. I want you to find a place at this altar and I want you to tell Him that you're sorry. I want you to apologize to God and say, Lord, I tell you that I love you, but my life doesn't always prove it. And I could do better at it, and I'm going to start loving you more. I want to prove to you that when I say I love you, you believe it. As she plays, you come. I want you to be very honest with God. You see, Brother Knickerbocker, I'm a hypocrite. I'm living a double life. Tell God that. Ask Him for forgiveness. Say, Lord, you ask me if I love you. I know I don't love you like I ought to love you, and I want you to forgive me, Lord. But things are going to be different today. I came to church not loving you like I ought to, but I'm not leaving that way. And I'm going to make it a point to walk with you, Lord, to prove my love to you. I don't want there to be any doubt about my love for you, Lord. We're going to stay here at the altar for a moment. I'm going to pray with you. But I want you to tell the Lord that from this day forward, I'm going to find a quiet time with my God. I'm going to stop my hurrying and running around. I'm going to get up earlier. I'm going to shut the stinking television off. I'm going to shut the computer down. I'm going to quit playing with my cell phone and my iPod. And I'm going to start walking with you, God. Amen. Let's pray together. Our Heavenly Father, I realize how weak and anemic I am sometimes. And I'm convicted about it. I want you to forgive me. Lord, I know I could walk closer to you. I could get more answers to prayer. I could see your power demonstrated in my own life. More. if I would spend the time to prove my love to you. Oh God, please speak to the hearts of your dear people. I thank you for Bible Baptist Church. What a wonderful church. And what a wonderful people. But it's obvious this evening that we could be more pleasing in your sight. You could get more glory out of our lives. Lord, please take away the things that keep us from you. And help us to do the things that bring us to you. And Lord, may we catch great victories and great blessings. And may our lives be fruitful. Because we've spent time with you. In Jesus' name. Amen. God bless you.