All right. Happy New Year. Happy new Year. Uh, it seems like maybe somebody got the memo about our Saturday Night services, and so we're grateful that you're here. And I just wanna specifically welcome Grants Trail, mid Rivers and Fenton. We're all joined here together live. I just love that we're doing this together. Uh, one of the things that I so appreciate is how, uh, how like flexible this church is, how resilient this church is, how creative this church is when stuff kind of starts to roll. It's like, no, wait, let's figure this out together. So we had pastors and leaders who said, well, we wanna give people who want to gather in person, we wanna give 'em a shot this weekend to do that. And so here we are at all of our sites. And for those of you who are joining from other places, let me just say, uh, you've heard a little bit about this already, but you know, there's, there's talk of a winter storm coming in and it's gonna be here. And, you know, we don't really know if we're gonna get pounded with, you know, a lot or a little, or maybe it was just a good excuse to buy some more bread and milk one more time. So, uh, I think we're all clear on this, and I really don't know the chapter in verse, but at the end of the world, we will be serving French toast. So, uh, or some form of breakfast carbohydrate. I don't know why. I guess we just say it doesn't matter anymore. So, those of you who are watching now on Sunday morning, uh, you already know how this is breaking or not breaking or breaking up. But here's the thing. We, we, we had planned to talk about our vision and where God is leading us and really kind of some mind blowing things that I think are on the horizon. And it was just so important and so good, and so heart stretching that our leaders together said we need to nudge that, that deserves a full weekend. So we're gonna push that now to the middle of this next series. Okay? So in three weeks, we're gonna, we're gonna come back and talk about vision. We're gonna tuck this now into the middle of a, a study of, I think one of the Apostle Paul's most passionate letters. And if you know anything about Paul that's saying a lot, but we're gonna study the book of Galatians, and we're gonna hear from some of our teachers that, uh, frankly, some of them you haven't heard from yet. I just can't wait for us to experience this together. So that's gonna all happen. But today, today the Lord led us to something. He led us to a conversation. We're gonna, we're gonna, we're gonna peek in in just a minute on a conversation that Jesus has has with someone that honestly, he'll, he'll be familiar to many of you. In fact, he comes up, uh, later in this, uh, in this letter of, of, uh, Paul writes to the Galatians, but that's for another day. Uh, so let me pray and then let's start our own conversation. Okay, father, we come before you. Now we are grateful. I'm grateful, my goodness, how you have blessed us, Lord. Um, I'm, I'm asking now you and I know how this thing ends with, and I, I want these people to, to hear your voice and to hear your invitation into the extraordinary things you still have in store for 'em. I pray that today will be a, a moment of encouragement for each of us. Father, I know there are people in our rooms that don't know you yet. They're not even really sure why they're here on this of all nights, but they're here. Or maybe they're watching online. And I pray that they too will hear your voice, because I know you are inviting us to take the next step. We ask all of this now in the name of Jesus. Amen. Okay, so I was thinking back and I looked over my notes and you know, all of those things that you can do in a database. And five years ago, so now do the math on that. That's January of 2020. Yeah, that five years ago, I gave a vision talk. It was entitled 10 years from now. And the question I asked was, what do you think God is going to do over these next 10 years? Can you even imagine? What is he going to do this next year and five years out? And then 10 years out? What changes do you think are going to happen in our world? What changes do you want in your own life? Because I know you want those changes. That's what we talked about. Can you even imagine? Now, some of you weren't there, but even if you weren't, if you're of a certain age, and I'm just doing the, you know, the eyeball check in the room, I'm pretty sure most of you were on Planet Earth five years ago. Uh, so, so even if you weren't here five years ago, you had plans, you had dreams, you had hopes about your future. You had things that you wanted to change, things that you wanted to change in the world, things that you wanted to change in you. And let's just say out loud, there's some pretty cool things that happened over these last five years. Some of you finished your degree, some of you got your first job, some of you got a promotion, some of you moved, some of you fell in love. Some of you started a family. Some of you, uh, learned a new skill. Some of you retired, some of you accomplished some great feat that you never thought you'd be able to accomplish. There were a lot of things. Some of you started high school. There's a lot of cool things that have happened. But I would just say, uh, at, at the same time, there are others who were going, yeah, that's not the first thing that comes to mind when I think of the last five years, what looms large is hurt or heartache or disappointment. And it's just like Greg, that's the biggest thing in the rear view mirror for me. Now, for most of us, we got a mixture of the two stuff that, oh man, I can't believe that happened. And oh, man, I can't believe that happened the last five years. They've been something. But here's what I wanna tell you. And this is what we all have in common, okay? So there'll be a few times in here where I'll give you just kind of, of what we have in common. Here's one of them. None of us saw the last five years coming. I don't care who you are. I don't care how you try to make the case to me later and go, well, no, actually, my church and extrapolations prove that. No, none of us saw it all. Now, whatever it is that you're picking out in your head, we all had surprises over these last five years. Amen. Amen. Amen. Some of 'em were great surprises. Some of the last year alone, we were shocked in so many different ways. Yes. Some of you're like, I don't even want, look, how about this one? Did anyone expect a pygmy hippo named Ming? Uh, what, what's her name? Ming De Yeah, that's right. Did did anyone expect her to blow up the, the, uh, the, the internet? Now, just so we understand, uh, what her, what her, uh, her name means, it means bouncy pork in Thai. And if you didn't see her come like February of last year, she blew up the internet. This particular post got millions. All right? And then, like, there's stuffed animals that were sold. There were this, there was that. I, it's, she's cute. She's cute. I'm just gonna tell you when she gets three or 400 more pounds on her, I don't think biting him in the knee is gonna be quite as cute. But I would just say none of us saw her coming, did we? By the way, not all of the surprises that we've had this last few years have been as cute as her. How about this? Some of the surprises we had, we weren't even, like, we didn't, we don't want it brought change into our life. It brought stress into our life. It brought an unpredictable nature into our life. Our world feels wobbly sometimes. So now, let me tell you the next thing we all have in common. You want something you can bang on here, bang on. Here it is. Here it is. Here it is. This is something, uh, the prophet Malachi, uh, God speaks through him in our, uh, what we call our Old Testament. Let me give it to you first. In the, in the Hebrew ti, I the Lord do not change. Listen to me. The God that many of us worship, the God that some of us are still trying to figure out, he does not change. He is consistent. He is steadfast, steadfast. He is faithful. He is all of these things. But get this, he is relentlessly for us. And that never lets up, and it never changes. And it was never more on full display than when God became one of us. When Jesus walked the earth as one of us. I mean, it always comes back to Jesus around here. That by the way, is why we like, like, get so excited about Christmas. I have people who haven't been around here a while who will go, what is it with you guys? And Christmas? We just wanna celebrate the birth of the one who changes everything. We want our friends, we want our family. We want our neighbors to know that Jesus, this Jesus who was born changes everything. I mean, this is the good news that we celebrate again and again for unto us. A child is born. What? How does the angel put it for unto you? A savior is born. He is Christ. He is Messiah. He's the promised King. And just so we're all clear on it, Jesus is Lord, he's everything. And that's why we celebrate Christmas the way we do. By the way, speaking of Christmas, uh, in person, I'm not talking about online numbers, just in person. We had over 16,000 people show up at our various services across all of our sites. Now I know, I know, I know. Soon as I mention numbers, some of you get nervous. And it's like, that's not about us getting big. It is about us proclaiming the good news of Jesus. And when I read headlines about church, attendance is down, and a recent headline last week that said, churches are closing. Listen, I take no comfort in that. And we're doing everything we can to come alongside and encourage people who are in those situations. But I just want y'all to know we're blessed. We are blessed, and we are blessed at each of our sites. In fact, we've got so many good stories flying around this place that right now I'm going to release you at the sites. Okay? Your pastors want to talk to you for just a second. So promise to come back in a couple of minutes. Okay? A couple of minutes. So we're gonna kick it to the pastors there. You guys tell some stories that are site specific. Boom. So they did that. We're gonna talk a little bit about, well, actually Jude come up here for a second because I want to ask you, you've been talking with our campus pastors, so, uh, can we share a little bit of what they're gonna share? Uh, The minute, the minute you said we're, we're gonna pivot, we're gonna do something. Yeah, we got on the, the phone and called them. So right now, tell me, Steve, I don't wanna scoop them if they join us. So right now, which one do you wanna do first? How about the Mid Rivers? About the, I I love that Grants Trail story of, uh, because I can't, a nine like that. Angela is interviewing a 9-year-old right now on stage at Grants Trail, who heard about Advent Conspiracy for the first time was so undone by it. Said, I don't need all the gifts. He and Grandma baked cookies. He sold them for a hundred. He gave a hundred dollars to living water. He goes, 'cause other kids need drinking water. Yeah. Yeah. That's that story. Can I tell Mid Rivers next? Yeah. 'cause here's the thing for me, it it, it's this outward thing, but it's also the volunteers that are doing this together. Oh. So yes. Med River, Please. This one brought me to tears. There's a woman that served on the parking team at Mid Rivers for years, and she lost her battle to an illness on, on Christmas Eve, the parking team got together and retired her parking vest. That amazing. I don't even know what That means, but I love it. I know They honored her. They honored her. Yeah. And At Fenton, Fenton's not with us yet, right? Steve-O there, there's a woman at Fenton. I did not know this, that has a huge Christmas Eve party. You cannot come to her party unless you go to a service with her at Fenton. 60 people went to church at Fenton and gave her a party. I love it. I love it. So they're giving her right now a way to go award. Like she's the party Queen of Fenton. Yeah. Yeah. Isn't that awesome? So lemme tell you something that I've noticed here at Chesterfield and, uh, uh, we've talked about it before. This thing that's happening in our youth, you've heard it. David said a few things of just what's rumbling in our youth. Is this just this interest in who Jesus is? I had a young woman after one of the Christmas services come up, she's not even connected to the youth stuff yet, but she said, I'm here and I'm in. I wanna start reading my Bible. Where do I start? So I did the thing where I asked a little bit about what kind of movies do you like? I kind of try to dial in your personality and who are you? Oh, Welly. And you're gonna love this kind because this is, and so she's starting to read her first Bible. She's connecting with David and she's on her journey. But then I find out from you and the bookstore, that's not alone. I mean, she's not alone in That. Yeah. I talked to Maggie in the bookstore, and there was a big spike in teenagers asking for Bibles for Christmas. Come on, come On. Like, go, God. Yeah. And David affirmed that. Yeah, David was at parent, uh, parents and grandparents were coming up and asking about Bibles Okay. For their teens too. Well, I appreciate that. We're gonna keep going. You guys are my witness. I told 'em a couple of minutes. So they're just gonna join us when they're, they're back and some of 'em are joining us now. I'm just grateful that we get to do this together. And honestly, honestly, I don't, I don't think we're gonna be able to connect all these dots this side of eternity. Let's keep trying though. Right? Let, let's share stories with each other. Let's remind each other that the way that you serve, the way that you volunteer, the way that we do this together, it matters. It makes a difference. Now, we're gonna come back on January 25th, 26th, that weekend, and tell some astonishingly good news that is unique. It's not unique, but it's almost unique among churches and, and large churches. And I just wanna share some stuff with you then. And God's like he's putting us out on the frontier again, okay? But in the meantime, I just want you to know, as crazy as it sounds, y'all were living out, that those verses that we go back to all the time in Matthew 28, when Jesus says, you know, go make disciples in. In fact, let me just read this at the end of Matthew 28. Go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son, and the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded. I want you to understand, at Christmas in word deed, we proclaimed the good news of Jesus. Sometimes it was because you scooted down and you that was your seat and you made room for somebody. Sometimes it was you inviting someone. Sometimes it was you volunteering in any number of ways. It was you being patient in the parking lot. It was all of those ways. But we are proclaiming the good news of Jesus. And I guarantee you, when we come back in, uh, in, in, uh, in, in three weeks, we're gonna keep learning how it is that this gospel proclamation is happening around the world, but it's also happening really close to home. I mean, you are allowing and helping the good news of Jesus to make it into our neighborhoods. But it wasn't just our neighborhoods. It was, it was, it was like there were over 30 states that joined us over Christmas Eve, okay? Uh, the, the, the, the people that joined us around the world, like for Christmas services from like, uh, from Indonesia to the uk, from Hong Kong to Italy joining us as we did what we worshiped the king. Y'all remember that we worshiped the king. I'm telling you, Jesus is worthy of our dreams, of our hopes, of our trust, of our faith, and he is worthy of our worship. I can't wait for you to learn more about this life that is described in the Book of Galatians. Now, we're gonna call this series Unleashed because we really do believe that as we begin to learn what this life is and how it's empowered by the Holy Spirit, y'all are gonna be not just excited, but intrigued and invited even deeper into this. So that all starts next weekend, and I want you to be here. But I want to just say this before we go any further. I believe the sky's cracked open and God has drawn near. And I believe this is one of those times that we as a church get to say Jesus is up to something again, and it will always revolve around him. So let's now go into that conversation I was talking about. It's with someone, you know, we're gonna learn something that I think could apply to our, to our, to our time together. And as, as we move forward into the next year, five years, 10 years beyond. But I'm gonna warn you like about halfway through this, you're gonna look at your neighbor and go, Hmm, I don't know why he, why did he pick this? I'm telling you, hang with me till the end. Okay? So here we go. Let me give you the context. It's now a few days or several days actually, after the cataclysmic events we call Easter. So it's after the resurrection, it's after these disciples, these first disciples have had their first, uh, experience with a resurrected Jesus. And yes, one more time, we believe that. But because Jesus told them, now y'all need to go on back up to Galilee, where we're from, where's Galilee? It's a region about 60 miles or so north of, of Jerusalem where they were. So the festival is over. Everybody's going back home. Seven of 'em, according to this eyewitness account, are now hanging out on the shore of the Sea of Galilee. As you can imagine. We think John is the one who's recording this. John the disciple, he, uh, he, he mentions that Peter says, I'm going fishing. You know what I mean? Peter just says stuff and does stuff. So Peter says, I'm going fishing. The rest of 'em, there are seven of them. Some of the names are given, they go fishing with him. In those days, you would fish at night. That was the best time to catch fish. These guys used to be commercial fishermen. So they're there at night. The only problem is they got nothing. They didn't catch anything. If you've ever been a fisherman and, and, and you got pitched a shutout, that's a bad feeling. Now it's almost gone. You ever been up that early? It's almost on starting to happen. Things are starting to come alive. And we don't know if it's because of the fog that was on the lake or if it because it was so dark, but there's a voice that's calling to these fellas. They're about a hundred yards off the shore. The eyewitness tells us, and this question is really clear, it's bouncing off of the water. Hey, did you guys catch any fish? No, thanks for asking. And he says, well, why don't you try again, only this time on the right side of the boat. Just throw your nuts on the right side of the boat. And I know some of us, because we look back and we go, well, obviously they know this is Jesus. No, they didn't. You gotta remember, they're trying to make sense of the resurrection. They don't expect to see him there at this point. So they do it. I mean, what's it gonna cost them? They're already out there. We'll just throw it over one more time. Maybe this guy, we can't see who he is. Maybe he's like a local fisherman and he's got some inside information on where the fish are biting these days. I don't know. Let's just do it. And so they throw the nets over. It does sound a little familiar to him. And sure enough, the water starts to churn. The nets are full. In fact, they're so full, they're not even hardly able to haul it all in. And that's when it clicks. That's when they remember. As soon as John realizes, whoa, wait, this is like the day when Jesus first called us, because we caught a miraculous amount of fish that day. About the time John says, that's Jesus on the shore is about the time that Peter jumps into the water and starts swimming towards him. Now, if you know anything about Peter, it's classic Peter, jump first, think later. He's got a hundred yards to, to swim. We are not told, by the way, who gets there first. Uh, but he gets there. Now, the gospel accounts tell us that Peter has already met with Jesus at least a couple of times. He's seen him a couple of times. The gospel of Luke tells us that they've already had a private conversation. We don't know what happened then, but it seems like he really needs to get to him. And I don't wanna read too much into it, but I think something's gna at him. I think he wants to get to Jesus maybe before these guys do. We don't know who gets there first. But what we do know is that when everybody gets there, they see that Jesus has started preparing breakfast. And so here we are now at the place sitting around this fire where we will remember what it was that was gnawing at Peter. You'll remember the story, some of you on the night. Jesus was betrayed. Peter follows from a distance, this angry mob, and he wants to see what's happening to Jesus. And so he's in the courtyard of the high priest trying to just, you know, stay within earshot to hear what is going on. And he's recognized, singled out, you're one of his followers. He lies, not once, but three times. He denies knowing Jesus at all. In fact, on the last time, just as an exclamation point, you might recall, he puts a little profanity in there just to say, no way, not me. He's afraid. He's in a very violent and chaotic moment. And he had to protect himself or so he thought, and he did. It worked. But at what cost? You see, the, the, the, the what made it really like so heartbreaking is that Jesus had warned him about this just hours earlier. Same night Jesus had said, you're gonna do this man. And, and if you know Peter, Peter is at this place where he's like me, I'll lay down my life for you. Now, I want you to understand Peter is saying these things in front of the rest of the disciples. Because if you look at one of the accounts, he says something to the effect of, listen, the rest of these bozos may fail you, but not me. Jesus. I'm the most reliable guy you've got. And these disciples are like Peter, we're right here. Jesus says, son, you don't even know you're gonna deny me three times before mourning, before the rooster grows. You're gonna deny me three times. And sure enough, it happened just the way Jesus predicted. I mean, Jesus warned him and Peter says, no, I got it. Jesus, I got it. Now, maybe you saw the research that just came out of, uh, from, uh, Ohio State, the Ohio State University. Uh, I know for mission people. I'm sorry that you didn't say it that way. Uh, so, so, uh, so, so, but it it, the research, I'm glad y'all are sitting down. Is everybody at the sites, y'all are still sitting down, right? I mean, it just came to me. You might be roaming around, walking around all, every as long. I need you to know that the research has shown you ready, that know-it-alls don't know it all. I I know, shocker. What they really have found is that people who act like they know it all, people who dig in on, on an argument, people who are ready to duke it out and debate to the end actually don't know nearly as much as they think they do. And it's all kind of what, what gets people off course is this thing I wanted to show you this phrase they say, it all goes back to what is called the illusion of information adequacy. That's just a fancy schmancy way of saying you don't know as much as you think, you know, we get just enough information and then we go with what we want it to be, and we're ready to roll. And what they're saying is, you're operating with kind of information inadequacy is what's really going on. Now, Peter was the master at this. Frankly, we do pretty well at it ourselves. But Jesus is constantly reminding him throughout, throughout their time together. Peter, you don't like, you're, you don't have all the information, man, you, you think you, you can't do this on your own. You are gonna get way out on that limit. It's gonna correct Peter, come back. Peter, you can't do this on your own. Listen to me. It is humbling for us to get to a place where we admit I need help. We said that over Christmas, right? But it is the key to the spiritual life. For some of you moving forward, this is the key to moving forward. We gotta admit this. Can I give you the next thing that I'm absolutely convinced that we all have in common? This one's a real pick me upper. So here we go. This next year, you and I, we'll make mistakes. We will struggle, we will stumble, we will fail, and we will disappoint. I mean, it's just gonna happen. It happens to each of us, right? Altogether. Now, happy New Year. Yeah, no, it's just this is a part of what, since we're on a roll, how about this? Let's do this. Would you get out your phones and use the app? 'cause we wanna use the app sites. This is where I get to hear from you, okay? You're gonna hate this question, all right? You're just gonna hate this question, but let's do this together. When was the last time you were disappointed in yourself? Okay? Now I want you to talk to some people around you. But here are your answers today, this week, last month. Maybe it was during the holidays last year, or, you know, Greg, I don't make mistakes. I can't really remember the last time. Whatever your answer is. And by the way, when you're talking to each other, you don't have to give the instance. Just say yes. The last time I had one of those oh moments. All right, go ahead. Talk to each other real quickly. Okay? All right. Uh, talking about disappointment and who doesn't want to talk about disappointment. Um, did y'all see this past year that Willy Wonka experience a fiasco that happened in Scotland? Anybody see that? Just go look it up for yourself. Fact, check me on this. Uh, parents paid $40 a person. So it's 40 bucks ahead. And I wanna just read, 'cause this was off of the ad, uh, for an immersive journey filled with wondrous creations and enchanting surprises at every turn, right? I mean, can you show some of these? I mean, oh man, for 40 bucks, they're bringing Disney to Scotland. I'm in. Yes, only this is the reality of what happened. It was an empty warehouse with a few cheap plastic decorations, stuff stuck on the wall. The one of the actors, the few actors that they had hired when they interviewed them, said, this is the place where dreams go to die. Come with me and you'll be in a place of pure No, okay, here's the thing. Here's the thing. Uh, the parents were enraged, the kids were crying and the whole thing shut down within hours. Now there's an interesting kind of a theory about how, what was going on there. I just want to say this, you know what happened? The reality didn't match up to the expectation. So the question I just asked you was, when was the last time the reality didn't match up with your expectation of you? Shall we? See? We're just gonna kind of do percentages here and see what you guys have. I think this is gonna be kind of a live sort of, there we go. There we go. We're staying current in these rooms. Uh, yeah. Uh, it just makes perfect sense. I didn't know how you guys were gonna go with this. By the way, those of you who are saying, I can't remember because I never make a mistake. See, the previous point about, uh, not enough information. You've got some friends that might like wanna give you some feedback. But the point here is it doesn't matter whether it was this week, whether it was today, somebody over here when I, I asked the question. They said, why isn't 15 minutes on here? Here's my point. We're all gonna feel this. It's not if, it's when, when in 2025, you and I feel a little disappointment in ourselves and go, what's the reaction? Now, I don't think and hope that most of the things that are gonna happen to you in 25 are gonna be you walking into an empty warehouse of your broken dreams. I'm not saying that, but there'll be those moments when things just don't match up. And you thought, oh, I was gonna, and you didn't. What do we do? Well, maybe we try to minimize it and go, oh, wasn't that big of a deal, wasn't that big of a deal. Or maybe we blame others. You're the reason I can't eat healthy. You're the reason I can't, you're the reason I, or if somebody else is making progress, what do we do? We just try to cut them down the size, don't we? It's like, oh, look at them. Well, you know what? If I had as much time as they do, I would, yeah. Oh yeah, okay. I have no idea how they're paid for. He must work for the mob. I mean, we just, right, we get all snarky, snarky, right? Sometimes, sometimes we, we, we just get to a place where we're, uh, we're not quite, by the way, can we just say this, when it comes to this expectation thing, sometimes it's because our expectation is ridiculously high. Can I just, can we let ourselves off the hook on that? Sometimes some of you are crushing yourself for like, seriously. Well, Greg, I wanna lose 50 pounds to learn Portuguese and become a concert pianist by, I don't know, Memorial Day. Does that seem about right? No, but you wanna know the one that I think happens a lot, we just turn the ugly on ourselves, man. We just start chewing ourselves up and we go back through the files and find something from our childhood or from middle school or something, you know, in the early days of our marriage or something, and we just go, oh, yeah, see? Yeah. Oh, see. And we just start building the case on, on us and against us. I loved what Pastor Dave shared last week. Amen. Amen. It was unbelievable what he was sharing, how practical and how wise it was. I, I don't know. Where is he tonight? Is he at one of the sites here at Grants trailer? All right. Uh, Dave, I just want you to know, I loved what you shared with us. I'm gonna tell you one thing I hated, and it wasn't your fault. I hated learning about quitters Friday. Y'all remember when he talked about there's like a, does anybody else? I, I didn't know this is a thing. The second Friday of January has been, has been like everybody just kind of symbolically says, yep, that's the day we're done with our, our resolutions and, and we listen. I'm not defending resolutions. That's not it. I'm defending the potential for us to change. You see, I believe if God has called us to something, then he will empower us and we get to keep moving forward. And when we stumble and when we stagger, and when we fall flat on our face, it does not mean the end of us quitters Friday. Can we start something new around here? I'm for gut check Tuesday. That's where we all remind ourselves why these things matter and why God said no, I want you to start down that road. I'm for keep it humble Wednesday, where we just say out loud, man, I need help. And when all else fails, I'm for run to Jesus Thursday so that I'm clinging to him and I get to walk right through Quitter's Friday. Anybody else with me? Because Jesus. And here's the takeaway, kids, Jesus doesn't react the way you think. He reacts to things. Jesus is not waiting for you this New year when you stumble and when you misstep and when things don't match up. Jesus is not standing there saying, I can't wait to rebuke you. I can't wait to tell you. I knew you were never gonna come through. That is not my Jesus. So they're sitting around the fire, they're having breakfast. Breakfast is over. Jesus starts asking Peter questions. Now, depending on how you read this, we don't really know, but it appears to many that everybody's still there together around the fire a little bit later. There's some inferences that, that get up. We'll talk about that in a second. But like they're all still around the fire. And Jesus says, Hey, Simon, son of Jonah, pretty formal. Do you love me more than these? Now, there's been a lot of inks built on. What does he mean by more than these? I always just tell you, a lot of scholars, if you see them all sitting around there together, and you remember that Peter said some pretty braggy things in front of these guys, Jesus is saying, so are you love me more than the rest of these guys? Now, I don't think he's trying to embarrass him. I think he's trying to restore him in front of these fellas. I think he's trying to give Peter a way to come back to them. What does he say? Well, you know, I love you. You know, I love you. Now, if you, if you read the rest of this, you will see that three times in this conversation, Jesus asks the same thing. Hey, do you love me? And by the way, I don't think this was, this is a really squished inversion. I don't think they were sitting around the fire and Jesus said, Hey Peter, do you love me? Hey Peter, do you love me? Hey Peter, do you love me? We don't do that in conversation, do we? I think this was an organic thing that probably happened over time. Who knows how many other things were woven into the conversation. But it comes up again. They're talking, they're talking, they're talking, Hey Peter, do you love me? And then the last time, it seems like when you read the rest of the details, that they get up from the, the fire and they're walking along the stony shore of the Sea of Galilee. And man, when you walk that shore, I can't help but think of that conversation he's walking with, with Jesus. And John is apparently within earshot 'cause he remembers all of this. And for the third time, Jesus says, Peter, do you love me? We read that. It, it hurt Peter. 'cause he'd asked him for the third time. And this time he puts us something else into it because he'd been saying, yes, Lord, I love you, but this time he says, you know everything. I love you, Jesus. Let's just say it out loud. You know, you know me. You know you're not getting a very good deal with me. You know the stuff in my heart. You know the stuff I struggle with. You know the stuff that I would not dare share with the rest of these guys. You know how I long to be with you and I long to do better, but you, you know me. Yes, I love you three times. You guys have tracked this before, three times Jesus asks him three times, Peter fails Jesus. I don't think that's a coincidence. Jesus is trying to help Peter. He gets to confess three times his love for Jesus. And by the way, I don't think this was to inflict pain. I think this was to relieve it. You see, when I read this conversation, and if it happens over time, I think Jesus, every time he asks him, I can barely say this. I think he's peeling off just another layer of shame. I think he's peeling off just another layer of regret. And do you know what he's saying along the way? I'm still here. I'm still with you. You see, when Peter least expected it, he gets a do over the wisest and the best man who ever walked this earth, the one who was the wronged and hurt friend in this moment, refuses to get even with Peter. And he says, let's start over. Let's start over. And it changed everything for Peter. I'm not saying that Peter wasn't still a piece of work, he is a piece of work. He's still in process. You see it through the book of Acts. It's gonna come up large. He's gonna have a moment in the book of Galatians. But I'm telling you, he's a changed man. Why? Because every time Jesus said, do you love me? And Peter goes, yes, I love you. Jesus said, well then I want you to feed my sheep. I want you to take care of my people. I'm, I'm like, I'm, I want you to be a pastor in this Jesus movement. I'm giving you stuff to do, Peter. And it changed him. Hey, Peter, you're back in the game. Now, I'm gonna tell you my favorite part. Dave, you're still with me. You're not walking around. Are you my favorite part of, of, of, of what you were. I I took my breath away. You remember last week when he was talking about that, that triathlon escape from Alcatraz and how intense it is and everything, and how you have to aim this way and the current takes you out. And that was just right. It was just so spellbinding. But then I will never forget when he said, but you know, there are so many of these athletes who ignore that and they, the current pushes them out into danger. You remember that? And he said, and they need to be rescued. You remember that? Here's the part I will never forget. He said, when they're rescued in this race, because the organizers know how difficult it is when they are touched and when they are rescued, they are not dq. They are picked up and brought back into the race. Do you know what good news that is for us? I'm so grateful that God has res rescued me and forgiven me. But the idea that he would rescue me and forgive me and restore me, and then say, I want you back in the game. Go. It's beyond what I can imagine. Listen to me. Some of you this year are going to face something. You're gonna stumble. You're gonna, you're gonna, you're gonna stagger for just a second and you're gonna go, that's it. I'm out. I quit. I'm not worthy. None of us are worthy. But I'm telling you, the way Jesus reacts isn't what you would expect. I'm not, I'm not making light of our sin. I'm not saying that there aren't consequences. I'm saying when you turn back to Jesus, the Bible calls it grace. And one writer. Just look at this. One writer says that, uh, when it comes to grace, let's put that quote up there. If you've got it, you have that Yancy quote, grace comes free of charge to people who do not deserve it. That's me. And I'm pretty sure it's y'all too. Like we're a church of people who know that we don't deserve this crazy, listen, whatever it is, you look back on these last five years, it could be like you, your heart could be full of so much gratitude because of what God did for you, what God did through you, what God did in you. Give him the glory. Okay, let's be humble. Give him the glory. But for some of us, when we look back, like we see the, the stumble or we see the the failure, or we see the fall. And for many of us, it's a mixture of all of the above. Anyone else? Yeah, that's me. But you know what? Even when I look back on those moments, there's a gratitude that comes to the surface. 'cause you know what carried me through His grace? It's the grace of Jesus that carries us through. Peter was right. Jesus knows everything. He knows everything about me. He knows everything about you. But get this, he knows he will not give up on us. So here's what I'm thinking we do before we, before I bless you, and we just go, all right, how about we have our own conversation with Jesus just for a minute. So what I'm gonna do is, uh, we've got, uh, mark and, and, and you guys are both gonna, like, you're gonna play and you're gonna sing outright. We're just gonna, and you're gonna sing over folks, this is just gonna fill our rooms. We're all in this together. And I'm just going to ask you to have your conversation with Jesus. Now, I like, I don't know what it is. It could be that you're admitting something or confessing something or celebrating something or thanking him for something or remembering something. I don't know. It could be you going on record and making a vow. I'm gonna ask for help this year. I'm gonna ask for help. Jesus. I don't wanna do this alone. You could be, I'm gonna take that step. I don't know what that step is. We've heard some great steps that could be taken around here when it comes to classes that we could take. It could be, I'm gonna, I'm gonna reach out to a pastor and, and finally tell them my story. I'm gonna deal with this thing that's going on. I'm gonna call that doctor and make that appointment. I don't know what it's, it could be that you vow to, to, to take better care of yourself in any number of ways. It could be that you, you say, you know what, I'm, I'm gonna let go of that grudge. I'm gonna, I'm gonna, I I gotta stop letting those words fall out of my mouth. Or it could be, it could be God help me to let go of the horrible way I treat myself. I don't know. What I do know is that this God who is faithful is good, and he's the king. I tell you, he's the king. So would you just, just for a minute, just for a minute, would you start your own conversation with Jesus? It won't be around a fire. It won't be walking along the shore of the Sea of Galilee, but it will be just as real. And he will be just as present. Will you start your conversation with him now? I'm gonna let these guys sing and play over you, and then I'll come up and, and bless us in a second. Dale, you can pray for us in just a minute. The king of my heart.