Saved and Never Got Over It — Galatians 2

0:00 It's a great privilege to be with you today, and it's a great privilege to speak about our savior, quite honestly. And that's what I'd like to do this morning. In so doing, I feel it's incumbent upon us to ask his guidance through his spirit, and so let's do so. Our father, does it not say that not by might, not by power, but by my by my spirit, says the Lord. And we would like to borrow the teaching of that phrase and ask you to apply it to this hour so that the word of God is given.

0:42 The word of God is received in the spirit. In Jesus name we pray. Amen. I'd like you to turn with me to Galatians chapter two, verse 20 for a moment. This is a very famous verse that many of us have memorized.

1:00 If you haven't memorized it, don't feel bad. It's a great little self contained verse. Of course the context is huge, where Paul is talking about living, continuing and living the law versus walking in the spirit, but there's a phrase in here that always has captivated me. Let's read the verse and then I'll make some introductory comments and then I'll talk about our topic for this morning and then, Lord willing, we'll of course proceed through the topic. I have been crucified with Christ, it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me and the life which I now live in the flesh, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.

1:55 Who loved me and gave himself for me. There's a friend of mine, his name is Bob Brown. Do you know Bob Brown? Bob lives in Slidell, Louisiana. And Bob comes up to our chapel several, well, at least once a year, he has family there, and his favorite expression is not the word duh, which he says a lot, but he says he got saved and he never got over it.

2:25 That's Paul. You see, Galatians is written around fifty A. D. Paul was probably saved fifteen years prior to that, maybe a little less. Paul had been actively teaching, he had spent some time in the Arabian Desert, then he'd been actively teaching and ministering in Antioch before he went out on the missionary journey, the first missionary journey, and thus we are roughly 50.

2:51 When he writes this particular letter, and in so doing, now being saved, now having trusted Christ as his savior for some perhaps ten, fifteen, maybe a little bit longer years, he says this as a testimony to countless people, remember he's ministered to countless people and churches and established, he's been busy, And he says one thing about himself, who loved me and gave himself, notice it's the personal single possessive pronoun, me. He gave himself for me. He loved me and he gave himself for me. Paul, listen, you ministered to a lot of people, he died for everybody. No, let me tell you something.

3:42 I was touched by the man of Calvary on that day when I was on the road to Damascus, and I saw that that man died and loved me and gave himself for me. How many of you in this room have gotten saved and have gotten over it? That's really the question, isn't it? You see, I think that is part of perhaps maybe of an unspoken problem. We have gotten saved.

4:12 We have trusted the Lord Jesus as our savior, we have come to the point like Paul where we saw ourselves as a convicted felon before the very throne of God, and yet God would not actually judge me, he would judge his son, instead take the judgment upon himself, die on that cruel cross really and rise again, showing that he went to prison for me and was released and I join him in that release, that death resurrection, that release from the bondage of sin, as it were, the penalty of sin. And yet we've gotten over it. Oh, you can tell me how you're saved, you can give me your testimony, but you have perhaps forgot the depth of what that means. You see, is a letter that the Lord Jesus wrote, he authored it through the pen of John, it was a short letter, it's only about seven verses. And in that letter he says the following thing, he says, I know your works, I know your toil, know your pain, understand all that you've been through.

5:28 You can identify doctrinally those who say they're apostles and are not, and that's quite a feat. You are a place that received multitudes of information from me. Paul himself lived there for, what was it, three years or so, he had Timothy stationed there, Titus had some contact there, Aquila and Priscilla were there, they sent out workers like Trimpheus from there, and yet the Lord Jesus says, you know, there's something that's bothersome here and I need to talk to you about it, and it's this, that you have neglected your first love. Now the word first in that passage which I'm citing to you from Revelation chapter two verses one through seven means preeminent, like the word you would, it comes from the root of preeminent, like the phrase you would see in Colossians, that in all things Christ might have preeminence. So you could easily say that Jesus was saying, you have left, you neglected me as your preeminent love.

6:50 Big difference, isn't it? He's not your most important love, he is just one of your top five loves. That's pretty good. Well let me ask you, you husbands, why don't you next anniversary you say, oh darling, your eyes sparkle as the stars in the sky, your radiance is as bright and glorious as the morning sun, and you are one of my three important loves. Yes, I'm afraid there might be a drive by shooting.

7:28 It doesn't work, does it? It's intolerable. You young men, when you propose to your beloved one day, do not, do not say you're one of my most three important things in life. I guarantee that's a recipe for no thank you. Okay?

7:48 You see, we find this intolerable in the human perspective, don't we? We get it. It's not mysterious. I'm sorry, I like to walk because I'm nervous. But it's not a mysterious thing.

8:04 It's vital. It's so simple to miss. You see, I think some of us, including myself, have gotten saved. I trusted the Lord Jesus when I was eight years old. That's about forty four years ago.

8:24 Right. And sometimes I've gotten over it. Paul never got over it. Who love me, gave himself for me. You Galatians, you're nice people and everything.

8:39 But I'm telling you, he loved me and gave himself for me. Oh, I never will forget that John, the apostle, he never forgot it either. Can you imagine writing a letter? The apostle whom Jesus loved. I'm thinking those other apostles felt kind of small, right?

8:56 Well, he loved me too, John. I walked on water. But there was a unique moment of personal understanding in which such apostles directly experience the personal love of God in their souls. And they never, never got over it. Beloved, I'd like to take you back to the first time that, well, one of the first times some of these apostles such as Peter and John met the Lord Jesus.

9:35 And in so doing, I would like to look at that moment when they chose to follow the savior. And when we look at that moment when they chose to follow the savior, we will actually go back in time, but back in hearts. And when we do so, we will see the transaction of several things that happen almost simultaneously that transform their life. I want to revisit that because I want us to revisit that. Luke Chapter five.

10:10 Luke chapter five is well into the life of Christ, and if you've never had a chance to look at the life of Christ, I would like to suggest that you do so. The life of Christ at this junction had several phases already. We had, of course, the phases of his birth and childhood. We had the beginning, we had a skipping over of roughly eighteen years, and then John the Baptizer comes on scene and he really kind of takes the center stage for a period of time. And everyone was going out to see John until Jesus went to see John.

10:53 And John does what we all should do, he points to all of his followers and he says, you need to follow him, behold the lamb of God which takes away the sin of the world. He says, there is one who comes after me, that's him over there, whose sandal strap I am not worthy to unloose. What does he mean? You see, it's the slave who unlatches the shoe for master. John is saying, I'm not even worth being his slave.

11:28 Wow. John said a few other things that always fascinated me. He said this, he must increase, I must decrease. You know, I changed that in my interpretation, it goes like this, you must increase and I'll increase a little as long as there's a difference. Do you notice how we do that?

11:47 You must increase and I'll decrease, but just a little bit so that we can still stay on the same page. No, no, no. John was content so that the Lord Jesus Christ soared in all recognition and affection, and he just dropped off anybody's notebook. I'd like to be like that, John. He said it this way.

12:09 Basically, I'm the friend of the bridegroom. You come into the wedding, I'm going to say, there's the bridegroom. And who are you? Doesn't matter. The bridegroom is here.

12:19 I'm the friend of the bride. I have more joy about you paying attention to the bridegroom. He got saved and not ever got over it, didn't he? So we have John the baptizer on the scene and and you know the whole story, the dove and the Lord Jesus, and this is my beloved son. And I mean, that's really impressive.

12:37 And then the Lord Jesus, he spends some time. Sorry, I'm just giving you a little review. He spends some time in his public ministry, first going out into the wilderness of the temptations, and then and then he comes in and he ministers. He serves in the area of Jerusalem, also the surrounding region called Judea. And there we have some interesting stories like Nicodemus.

12:58 You know, he comes to meet the Lord Jesus. After that sort of ties up or winds down, he he says to his disciples, I need to go through Samaria. Samaria is still there today in the region of Samaria. And he goes and he stops at the Well Of Sychar. It's there today.

13:18 It's between two mountains. The northern mountain is Mount Ebal and the southern mountain is Mount Gedizim. Mount Gedizim is the mountain where they sacrifice, even today, the ancient cult of the Sumerians. It's there today. I've been there.

13:35 I've stood on the mountain. I've seen the greats and it's all concrete now. It's I've seen the greats and I've seen the altars and the whole thing. It's there. And the Lord Jesus witnesses to a woman who got saved and I believe never got over it.

13:51 He moves on northward and he and he first goes to Cana. It's the second miracle at Cana where the nobleman, who was probably therefore an official of Herod Antipas, which means he was probably non Jewish. He has a son or he has an individual that is ill and he makes a journey, a day's journey to speak to the Lord Jesus and the Lord Jesus heals him from afar. What way to start your Galilean ministry. It's called the Great Galilean Ministry.

14:25 The Lord Jesus moves comments some about or moves over to Nazareth, and Nazareth rejects him, his hometown. And he says, you know, it was in the days of Elijah that he went to, there were many lepers in Israel, but Elijah went to who? Naaman, a foreigner, a Syrian. As if to say, that nobleman who came to me, that's what this is going to be about. It's going to be about looking at those whose heart is ready to respond, who would get saved and never get over it.

15:02 You here in Nazareth, you don't have that concept, and so he moves his family and his entire family unit over to Capernaum, and that's where Luke five is. Now the Lord Jesus is pretty popular, he had been, the previous year he was down in the South, he was being baptized by John the Baptizer, that's where he first met Andrew and Peter and Nathaniel and Philip. That's where he first met them. I think that's where they first began to believe that Jesus is the Messiah. But about eight months, maybe longer as transacted, they're now all in the North and they were they were back to fishing.

15:47 And Peter was there fishing. The Lord Jesus was well known because people had gone from Galilee down to the South for the festivals, for the feast, they had seen the Lord Jesus, they heard about him, he overturned what? And and he had done healings and he had done teaching. So the Lord Jesus was quite popular when he went up to Galilee. Everybody was happy he was there.

16:07 Maybe they would see something else. The Lord Jesus, when he moves over to Capernaum, he sets up that as a station house. He didn't spend a lot of time there, but he had that as his home base for almost a year and a half. So Capernaum was kind of important. Capernaum, the village by the sea, right?

16:28 So one of the very first events outside of the nobleman's family was Luke chapter five. People gathered around, people wanted to listen, and I want to just read a portion here so can develop the concepts that are before us. And so it was, verse one, as the multitude pressed about him to hear the word of God, that he stood by the Lake Of Gennesaret, the Sea Of Galilee. And two boats standing by the lake. Isn't that convenient?

17:55 Nevertheless, at your word, I will let down a net for you. I added the for you part is for effect. And when they had done this, they caught a great number of fish and their net was breaking. They signaled for their partners in the other boat to come and help, and they came and filled both boats so that they began to sink. Best fishing day ever.

18:26 When Simon saw it, saw what? Boats are sinking, nets are breaking, and Jesus. Look at what he does. He fell down at Jesus feet, saying, Depart from me, for I am a sinful man, O Lord. For he and all who were with him were astonished at the catch of fish which they had taken.

18:58 And so also were James and John, the sons of Zebedee, business partners, and were partners with Simon, and Jesus said to Simon, do not be afraid, from now on you will catch men, or in the other gospel accounts, that's Matthew and Mark, they say, Follow me and I will make you a fisher of men. Now, in reading this, I've done it, I'm sorry, somewhat dramatically, because there are certain points I need to emphasize today, And when I do, I want to remind you that our theme is we want to get saved and never get over it. Some of us have made that cross over that threshold, and so I want to bring us back and illustrate perhaps what the Lord Jesus would have us see today, and reestablishing that first heart affection, first love affection for the Savior. Okay, so what was the circumstances? Well, Jesus was teaching and he was quite popular and the crowds would come down.

19:58 Now, it turns out that in the Sea Of Galilee, on the northern part of the Sea Of Galilee, there's a place where multiple warm springs deposit right near there. I think it's called Tagbuff, if I'm not mistaken. And right there is kind of a little cove, maybe from one end of the building to the other, that kind of dimension, and we go there and we like to go sit there and touch the water, and we go, oh, this is fantastic, Jesus was here, it's really kinda cool actually, and so we're all there, and it's seven, I think it's seven different warm springs kind of deposit there, so the water has a little bit of warmth to it compared to the rest of the water mass of the Sea Of Galilee, and it turns out even 100 feet out, it's really good fishing. I mean, if you were a fisherman, that's what you would go, And many of the fishermen would make that their practice to visit this area because the fish would come in to that warm spot. So Jesus had timed this particular ministry to be when the crowds came and it just happened to be after an all nighter.

21:09 You ever do an all nighter? Let me tell you what all nighter, if God intended you to work all night, he'd have you sleep standing up, let me tell you. I hate night shifts. Night shifts kill me. I'm grouchy, I'm mean, I'm ugly, I'm hungry, I could eat my arm.

21:25 That's how night shifts are, right? And so Peter and his business partners, which would be John and James and Andrew, they all had worked all night. Now fishing in those days is not like casting out the line and wheeling it in and you get like some swordfish, okay, that's not how it works. They actually had a couple of mechanisms. One was indeed the line thing, and that was with Peter when he fished for that fish that had the gold coin in the mouth.

21:52 I would love fishing like that. I mean, how many gold coin? I don't know, it's been a good day, got eight, you know. But this kind of fish, there was two kinds, and one was where you had the drag net, where you had your boat and you sort of let the net sort of go out from the back of the boat, is that the bow, guess? Stern, the stern of the boat, and then it's weighted and it falls down to the bottom of the body of water, and sometimes you have to dive in and kind of place it, so you're doing a little bit of shallow diving, and then you drag it this way and whatever is in its catch, you take with you, and you can see that you get a lot of debris in that, and you might even rip a net or two.

22:38 Now another other way to fish is you stand usually in the stern and in those days you're right handed generally because it was thought to be more trustworthy, and so you'd whoosh, off the right side of the boat, right, what is that, the port side I guess, Throw it, and the weights of the net would drop maybe 10, 15, 20 feet out depending on your strength, and it would fall down and then you'd drag that in. There's two types, really, of fishing like that, and the drag net, you've heard the Lord Jesus use that in a parable story, and then this other mechanism. Either way, you were in and out of the water, untangling things, getting whatever spare tires you might pick up along the way, And so it's kind of hard work, when you're fishing all night, you're getting kind of tired. If you ever worked a night shift, it's usually between four and 6AM that I get the hungriest. Why do I get the hungriest between four and six a.

23:55 M. It starts to peak again and you feel better. You don't need to know, that's not on the test. And so what happens was they fish all night, the Lord Jesus shows up in the morning, they probably haven't eaten yet, the Lord Jesus begins to teach and teach, and so they're listening to all of his teaching. Now what would he might have been teaching?

24:12 Well, it's hard to say. We could say that perhaps there were some repetitive concepts given to him, even the Sermon on the Mount concepts about prayer, about some parabolic teaching perhaps, I don't know. But nonetheless, the point is that Jesus selected Simon's boat, the guy he met eight months ago out there by Aenon in the baptism, and he selected his boat. Now that's no consequence, no accident, that is a real planned matter of God. And what he does is he asks permission, very gracious of the Savior, doesn't assume anything, even though he owns it all.

24:55 And may I use your boat? Can we step out? Okay. I mean, we kind of know each other anyway, and I met you last year and I really think you're the Messiah, but I'm not ready to follow you yet. And so he pulls it out.

25:05 Peter's listening to the whole teaching while he's mending and cleaning the nets and getting all the debris out of it. And finally, the Lord pauses in his teaching and he turns to Peter and he said, no, just go out a little. They weren't very far from the shore. They couldn't have been because he was speaking. And just go out a little further and you let down your nets.

25:25 And it's in the plural in the original text. It's plural. You let down your nets. So think about it. You got two boats at least.

25:31 You probably got at least four nets. And he's saying, let down your note for a great catch. Now, love Peter, what he says. He's always saying the wrong thing at the wrong time in the wrong way. And this was one of them.

25:44 And I identify with that, do that regularly. And he says, Master, master, master, master, Who's the expert fisherman here? It's a loose paraphrase, but you get it, right? We have been fishing all night, didn't see you out here, right? And we have caught zero.

26:15 It's now the most unlikely time of day to be fishing. And you want us to drop our nets. Do you know how many more hours it's gonna take to clean those suckers? But at your word, and I think this is implied, so that you're obviously not embarrassed in front of all these people, we'll go ahead and let down Annette. In other words, I will patronize your request, thank you very much.

26:47 Now you say, that's kind of harsh, Steve, to describe Peter that way. How do you explain his absolute unusual response to the savior? Depart from me, I'm a wicked man. Right? How do you explain that?

26:59 That is like that, that's an over the top response. I would have said, hey, good idea. I wouldn't have expected, right? He drops down and forgets the whole fishing thing for a minute and he's like sprawled out, ready to give his life, right? Now the only way I can explain that is I think Peter had to have had just a little bit of disrespect going on.

27:21 I hope that's not So afraid that's my phone, I leave it over there. Was telling the men, this has nothing to do, this one is on the test. It has nothing to do with the message, but I had to go to a, I went to a conference and I had left the hospital to go preach there. It was close by. And when I left the ER, I still had patients that were not finished.

27:47 And so I gave instructions to the nurse to call me the lab. And it's an hour drive to conference, the to no call, no call, no call, nothing. I get up and I walk in the door and they say, and here he is, and so like in thirty seconds I'm at the pulpit and my phone rings. You know, this is the first conference where the preacher's ever been late, we started late, and I have a phone call which I really have to take. I was telling the men yesterday, and one of my buddies whipped out his little camera and took a picture of That's not on the test either, but it was humorous.

29:03 Can you imagine that? We spent the last twelve hours getting nothing, and now all of a sudden in thirty seconds we have so, and it says, let's read it just so I don't misquote it. It says this, and when they had done this, verse six, they caught a great number of fish and their net was breaking, in other words the quantity, and I would imagine the size, was such of an amount that everything was beginning to disintegrate. The very nets you had just been mending were not big enough. And then we get the fish in the boat, and I've seen those boats.

29:37 There was one that was discovered several, maybe a decade or two ago, when the water table went down in the Sea Of Galilee and they found this relic of a fishing boat that actually dates back to the first century. It's now in the museum, which we try to go see over near Tiberias. And it's about as long as this room. And I thought, wow, all those fish dropping that thing down so the water would start to come over, you know, and I would be amazed. That's a fishing emergency, isn't it?

30:10 Now what I find amazing is what Peter does. He falls down, I'll read it, it goes like this. When Simon saw it, when he saw that he had one net in, when he saw that the net was too small for that number and the net was breaking, the very nets that he tried to mend that morning, when he saw that his buddies came and we put so much fish in each boat, do you think that ever happened before? I don't think so, I can't prove it, but I think that might have been the first time maybe. When he saw all of this bountiful blessing in spite of his rude and disrespectful disposition, He's crushed.

30:59 One of the things that the Bible says is that the kindness of God leads a man to repentance. Do you know where that's found? Romans chapter two. The kindness of God leads a man to repentance. In other words, I was nasty towards you.

31:21 And by all rights, you should be nasty towards me. And you turn around and you give me the best fishing day ever. Why do you think God calls the Christian to be kind to those who are evil towards you? Because it's a good protocol to follow and it's like, you know, the way, Yes, is the way, but it is also the mannerisms of God himself. It even says in Luke chapter 11, when he's talking, I think it's Luke chapter 11, when he talks about prayer, he says and he is kind to the evil and unthankful, it's the way of God and you and I who know Jesus Christ our savior and even those who don't today, let me tell you, that's the way of God towards you and you should understand that and never get over it because that breath of God is what sustained you evermore.

32:14 Peter was at this point, he had believed on the Messiah before he actually said that he followed the Lord Jesus, that is with John's encouragement the year prior. But his heart had waned. And now the Lord Jesus has a special encounter with with Peter himself, and he says, Peter, do this. And Peter does it in a reluctant and in a very patronizing patronizing fashion, and Peter recognizes, and this is important now, he realizes that his heart is rebellious towards God. There are five words I want you to remember when we're done today.

33:35 Christian, you have come into the fold of God. You've trusted the Lord Jesus as your savior. He has saved you from certain hell and death, and we remembered that this morning. And yet your heart, like mine, has has grown disenchanted, maybe maybe distance and then disenchanted from the Lord Jesus. We've gotten saved and we got over it.

34:01 And we need to recognize something. And what do we need to recognize? We need to realize something that the kindnesses of God, the mercy of God, it says it endures forever, he means every moment of forever. And you and I have been drinking of those moments, haven't we? And we, maybe, have been serving him with a less than a full heart.

34:27 We've been coasting. Coasting is good for driving. Coasting is terrible for the spiritual life. Maybe that's what you've done. I don't know.

34:37 I've done. I've done it in many ways. I've gone through the motions. I've come to the meetings. I've even sang wonderful hymns.

34:44 And I've I've said things even in that condition from the word of God and and offered up worship. But it was it was tainted worship. It was blemished because my own personal, absolute surrender to the God of the universe was not there. Maybe that's you. You see, that's the first step, I think, of reviving a heart.

35:08 You realize something. There's a discrepancy. Peter did that. Now, the second thing, word I want you to remember is contrition. No, I'm sorry, comprehension.

35:22 Not only did Peter recognize something or realize something was amiss, but he had a sense of comprehension of it and he recognized that how Jesus was treating him and the overwhelming catch of the day in spite of his really reluctant and stubborn disposition, he recognized, he comprehended that he had been sinning. He even says it, depart from me, I am a sinful man. So not only do we realize there's a discrepancy and that something's amiss, that we have a problem, then we also want to comprehend that this problem has to deal with my sin. That I have actually been living in a manner that really is obnoxious to the God of the universe, that I have treated him as one of my sort of loves, but really he needs, deserves and demands my preeminent and most important affection and love. And when we come to that realization, that's where we comprehend the precise way we've sinned.

36:29 I'll never forget what happened to our church, our chapel. You see, our chapel was in a bad way. We were fighting. We were arguing. We were disagreeing.

36:42 We didn't like each other. Imagine that, going to the breaking of bread and not liking each other. That's what we did. I'm ashamed of it. I wasn't there at the beginning, but I was there in the middle.

36:54 I was part of it. And we began to realize that something is wrong here. Something is very wrong. And so we asked the Lord, Lord, what if you were to write us a letter? What would that letter say?

37:08 And I felt like and we felt like the Lord wrote us seven letters. Why don't we read them? And so we cracked open our Bibles to the last book in the Bible And we read Revelation Chapter two, and we said, now if you were to write and we put to the church at the Bible Chapel of Shawnee, is this what you'd say? That was the first once the first series we did at our chapel in a long time, and I gave the first message, which is on Ephesus. That was twenty years ago.

37:39 It changed our lives. I didn't want to be a Christian that felt that he was one of my important loves. I wanted to be a Christian that had him as my preeminent love forever, evermore. Saints, that's where I and my and our assembly. That's where we were sending.

38:01 We had gotten in love with the work. We've gotten in love with people. We've gotten a love in activities. We got in love with the world. Savior's love was just an anemic shell sitting on some shelf in the back room, kind of like we do with books.

38:17 Oh, that was so convicting when my savior had demonstrated to me kindness, grace. I had children and they were healthy and they were growing and my marriage was was wonderful and and all those blessings of God and I was patronizing him. Oh, I crumbled me in my closet of prayer and I begged God, change me. Oh, God, change me. I'll never forget that day.

38:59 He sought, he fell down, you see that in verse eight. Notice his body posture. What do you do when you fall down for somebody? Oh, oh I know, you trip. Is that what you do?

39:12 No, no, no, no, that's not what I'm asking, that's not what I'm saying. He prostrated himself at the feet of somebody. What do you do when you lay yourself out like that? Would you like me to do that? You would?

39:25 Okay, alright. It's like this. Okay, like that. Alright. Now, the reason why I would do that is because when you lay yourself out before somebody in that fashion with your face to the ground, what do you expose?

39:41 Let me show you. Right here. Right there. In military campaigns of old, when the victor would win, many a times like Joshua did to those five kings at that cave, he'd have them come out and you'd put your foot on their neck and the steel of your blade on the warmth of their neck. And that's how execution would occur.

40:11 What are you doing when you take that posture? You are saying this, like Joshua did at Gilgal. He prostrated himself before the angel of the Lord, and he in essence was showing physically, take your sword that you have drawn, oh, angel of the Lord, and place your cold steel on the flesh of my neck, for I am forever your servant. And that's what Simon was saying. Contrition, brokenness.

40:39 Brokenness is this idea where you're broken not just in chunks, but you're so pulverized that you can never put yourself back together. You are not going back to be what you were. You are going new forward. That's what he was saying. Now and finally, notice this, not only did he have, he had realization and comprehension and confession, or contrition, he had confession.

41:05 And that phrase, which I'll borrow again, depart from me from I am a sinful man, that whole phrase is his confession. I have sinned. I have done you wrong. I have treated you like you're just a phenomenon of the circus and you're fun to look at and fun to listen to. But my goodness, I'm not going to do everything you say.

41:29 Expert here. I know how life works. I know how fishing works. I know my job. I know my career.

41:34 And I'm not going to let you muscle in on me. He can he he actually came to a point where he confessed, I can't do that, can I? Saints, maybe you have lost your way. Maybe you have neglected your first love, maybe you've gotten saved and gotten over it, and you need to come to this place like Peter, where you realize there's a problem and you comprehend the sin that was actually, the rebellious stubbornness that was actually there, the patronizing, the standoffish from God that has been growing in your heart, and you break over it and you let that weight just kind of crumble your soul and say oh God, I confess to you, How have I ever gotten to this place? How I have ever been like this?

42:33 I don't know how. I've gotten distracted. I've gotten I've gotten other loves, and I renounce them. I take my place with you. I look at my sin and I see it like you see it, and I go, oh, how horrifying that is.

42:51 And now I go back to my place and I confess like you have already said, oh, God, how I have been a disappointment to you. Oh God, would you cleanse me from all unrighteousness? Maybe that's where you need to be today. Notice his, the last word is redirection or repentance, notice where he goes. He immediately follows the Lord Jesus.

43:55 To follow. That's it. Follow me and when you follow me, there will be a result that I will produce in you. You will be a fisher of men. You will have a new occupation.

44:09 You will have a new perspective. You will have a new way of life. All you do is keep your eye on me and you follow me. Let's go, men. And that day he had four men that took after the savior and never looked back.

44:29 Sometimes I think it's possible for our assemblies, our churches, to have a collective spirit where we've just been going through the motions. We've just been patronizing the savior. We've just been loving him as one of the top three, close enough to the top where we can't see the difference. But nonetheless, it's extremely, extremely bothersome to the heart of your Lord Jesus. And I would like to suggest to you, saints, that we might exercise the elements of revival, realization, comprehension, contrition, confession, redirection.

45:18 It actually turns out it's the way of life, isn't it? It's really the way of the Christian. We travel that that path, that cycle many times in our lives. Bill MacDonald used to say this way. He says, you come to a moment when you actually realize there is something wrong, and it's a moment in time.

45:37 And then it's a multiple process of events over time. And sometimes what happens on some occasions, we need to come to a point and we visit this well afresh. Now I don't know you and I don't know how you've been before the Lord and how you've acted, I don't know. But if I were to look at my heart in my mirror of the word of God, I'm way too much like the old Peter and hardly anything like the savior. Let's pray.

46:59 I've been unresponsive to you, and now you're on my boat and you're asking me some hard questions and I don't want to answer them. I want to keep you at arm's length, I don't want you that close, and I confess to you, Father, I must bow and let you get so close. Would you take the cold steel of the word of God today and put it right here on my neck? For I confess I am your servant. Father, I pray that for all of us here, maybe we've had those moments where we've really held you away.

47:38 We're not going to let you too close, but no, Lord, you you want the whole thing. I pray, Father, if that's how we are today, if this assembly and the lives that are around us, if we have that, I pray, oh God, reach in and change us. I pray, Father, for those who maybe have never met you before. Oh, they've heard all the stories, they've heard all that you did at the baptism of John or John's baptizing, and they know it, but they've never trusted you, they've never crossed the initial threshold, the first cleansing of washing, as it says, I pray, may they no longer hold you out at arm's length. May they follow you this day and every day like Peter and James, John and Andrew did.

48:30 In Jesus name, amen.