MAY 4 2025 | 50 Days: Road to Pentecost S1E2 | Fish, Lambs, Sheep

Sea Change Church · MAY 4 2025 | 50 Days: Road to Pentecost S1E2 - Fish, Lambs, Sheep
John 21:15
Automated transcript. Not reviewed for accuracy.

God, lead us, God, to action, to not be passive followers of you, but active followers of you through the preaching of your word as we move out in this world. God, touch our hearts. Move in this time. You're the king, and we live to serve the king in your name. Amen. The Gospel according to John, chapter 21, verses 15 through 19. When they had finished breakfast, Jesus said to Simon Peter, Simon, son of John, do you love me more than these?

He said to him, Yes, Lord, you know that I love you. He said to him, Feed my lambs. He said to him a second time, Simon, son of John, do you love me? He said to him, Yes, Lord, you know that I love you. He said to him, Tend my sheep. He said to him the third time, Simon, son of John, do you love me? Peter was grieved because he said to him the third time, Do you love me?

And he said to him, Lord, you know everything. You know that I love you. Jesus said to him, Feed my sheep. Truly, truly, I say to you, when you were young, you used to dress yourself and walk wherever you wanted. But when you are old, you will stretch out your hands, and another will dress you and carry you where you do not want to go. This he said to show by what kind of death he was to glorify God.

And after saying this, he said to him, Follow me. This is the word of the Lord. From the light, from the light, From the light, from the light, Let it burn so right. Come alive. Come alive. I love that one. How about you guys? I love that one. I love Greatest Showman, too. You guys like that movie? Yeah. Come alive. Come alive. Holy Spirit, got it all? If you have your Bibles, open up to John 21, 15.

On this sleepy, cloudy day here in La Jolla. Raining in close to summer, right? Bummer. We're back in John 21. This is a story, if you remember, where Harry preached it last week. And it was after Peter's denial, right? Peter denies, and he leaves Jerusalem and heads back to the place where it all started. He heads back to the Sea of Galilee, goes back to fishing.

Some can say that was a positive thing. Some can say that was a negative thing. But he goes back to doing something that Jesus had actually called him away from. And we move on from there after that denial that Jesus shows up, and they're having this night, and they're fishing, and it's fruitless. And a lot of times when we go back to the things that Jesus called us away from, you're going to find that they're fruitless.

And Jesus says, I want you to do something different. And so he calls out from the shore. He appears after he is resurrected from the dead and calls out to them. And he says, throw your nets to the other side of the boat. I like thinking of that as sometimes there's just a subtle adjustment in your life that you need. Just something real subtle.

God's saying, like, hey, get up 30 minutes earlier. Just subtle. Well, six feet, but it's going to be a huge difference. And they do that, and 153 fish are caught. I don't know who counted the fish, but somebody counted them. It was probably Matthew, the tax collector, counting all the fish. 153 of them, and John says, oh, it's Jesus. And Peter jumps in the water, gets to Jesus first.

The boat shows up. And Jesus, excuse me, Peter leaves Jesus because Jesus says, let's commingle our fish. Remember, Jesus already has fish. They're already being cooked. It's a physical. This is one of the ways we know that Jesus was spiritual and physical after his resurrection. And he says, go get some of your fish. And so it says Peter goes and gets the net that the other, I think there's eight apostles in this time, disciples.

And they couldn't pull it ashore altogether. But he goes by himself, and he can pull these fish from the water, the Sea of Galilee, by himself. And he brings them there, and they have breakfast with Jesus. Jesus changes the conversation from fish to sheep. They eat together. He takes Peter, and he asks Peter a question, and then they start talking about sheep.

The Bible, I love when animals are in the Bible. I just think it's super cool. All kinds of animals in the Bible. They're rarely there, rarely there without a reason. And when Jesus is speaking about animals, it's a metaphoric reason. When Jesus speaks about fish, they're representing something. Remember he said in Matthew and some of the other Gospels as well, if you are going to leave your nets, you're not going to fish anymore.

You're going to become a fisher of men. And basically he uses fish to represent people who don't know Jesus. There's fish in this John 21. There's sheep in John 21. There's also lambs, which are a form of sheep, as you know. And the fish in the story of when Jesus speaks about them are non-believers. Now, there's a lot of non-believers, people who don't believe in Jesus yet, who have been coming to our church.

There's probably some of you here. I've met a ton of them. And God is beginning to inspire and bring his call to people, even if Christians aren't inviting them. I had two young women, they might be here today, came up to me. They were in their early 20s on Easter. They said, we want to meet you. I said, great, I'd love to meet you too. Where are you guys from, blah, blah, blah.

I said to the one girl, where did you go to church? She goes, I've never gone to church. This is only my second time. I came here last week. I said, really? She goes, yeah, I grew up in an atheist home. And I looked at her friend, I said, oh, you must have invited her. Where do you go to church? She goes, I don't go to church either. I said, well, how did you get here?

She goes, well, I felt like I wanted to, my life, you know, was things were going on in my life, and I thought I would try Jesus. So I checked out some websites, and I liked yours. Thank you, Jeff. I like yours. I'm serious. I'm serious. That's a form of evangelism. 25% of our people come because of the website. 25% come because they see us out in front with a coffee house.

That's what the coffee house is out in front. And they said, she invited me because she came, and she's come for six weeks, and now she invited me to come. I thought to this girl, and they both don't know Jesus, I thought she's invited more people to church than some of the Christians in the church. Sorry, no shade. So in the Bible, you have fish and you have sheep.

So Jesus moves. So if you don't know Jesus, if you're not following Jesus, at the end of here, he says, follow Jesus. He says, follow me. Then Jesus would say you're a fish, right? And the job of the sheep, because once you follow Jesus, you become a sheep. You actually become a lamb, as we'll see in a moment. And then you become a sheep. And the job of the sheep is to go fishing.

So you have, it would be a funny meme, wouldn't it? You have these sheep that are fishing, and the fish, as they come on board, become lambs. And then the sheep are called to care for the lambs. That's what happens in this passage. And so Jesus is meeting Peter into this place where Peter has gone back to his old self, and Jesus is calling him back.

He restores Peter here after the three denials. He restores him, and in the midst of restoring him, he calls him back into what he has done before. He calls him into fishing, obviously, because the fishing was there, and he said, go get the fish. And you're gonna, it obviously is prophetic. He's gonna have a huge haul of fish that he can do. He can pull them all on.

Part of his calling is going back to becoming a fisherman. And the other part, he goes here, the first time you see it, he says, feed my lambs. He says, tend my sheep, feed my sheep. It's all there for a reason. What I wanna say is that Peter's identity, he had run from it, he had gone back to his old identity, is actually found in the doing. Now, Harry said this last week about Jesus.

He said, the disciples knew who Jesus was because he was doing Jesus stuff. It was in the doing that they recognized Jesus. Jesus, and I love that it says, and they had no doubt that it was him. There's lots of times in the scripture where they're like, oh, I don't know if that was God. I don't know if that was Jesus. And we do that sometimes, too.

It's like, well, that was a coincidence. It might have been God, you know. But every so often, you go, that was God. And I love that. I like doing that a little bit more. We always wanna, you know, be a little careful, but, you know, saying God did everything. Had a friend that got thrown off a bike, and a backpack came, and he wasn't wearing a helmet.

He was going too fast down the hill. And a backpack came between his head, and the concrete saved his life. He said, that was God. I know it was God. That was God. Got him back on track, changed his life. And so now they know that it is God. And Peter finds out who he is. He becomes who he is the rest of his life. He finds out who he is in the doing.

This is not in your notes, but I wrote it last night. But you will never fully know who you are by spending your life trying to figure out who you are. Let me tell you why. The only way to know who you are is to follow God and to find out who he is. In the doing, as you follow him, you will find out who you are. The world is on an existential quest to find out who we are, our meaning, what are we about, what's our purpose, what's our place.

If you want to know that answer, then you need to spend time with the one who created you. And it is in the doing, and I would say this isn't just for Peter, in the fishing, if you are not currently a fish, and in the tending, and in the feeding, that you will find out who you are. And if you are a sheep right now that is not fishing, if you are a sheep that is not tending, if you are a sheep that is not feeding other sheep, I gotta tell you, you're gonna get a good sense of who you are, you're gonna read some good books, you're gonna meet Jesus along the way, but you're not gonna know who you are because it's gonna be more beneficial for you in the end as you give your life away to do these things that he calls Peter to.

Three things in this scripture. One, he restores Peter. Some of us need to be restored. Some of you sheep need to get back to sheeping, not being sheep. Need to get back to having a shepherd, to being restored, to repentance, and come back to who we are. Now, I wanna tell you fish that are here, excuse me, this is Jesus' language, it's not mine, I apologize.

Just anthropomorphic, okay? No offense. Maybe you're a really nice fish, maybe you're mahi-mahi, I don't know. This is not a message for you, okay? This message is for sheep, but some of you are gonna become sheep. And when you do, I want you to remember this message because it's gonna matter because it's gonna change the way you live your life. Some of you are looking, am I gonna follow Jesus?

Am I gonna take that first calling to follow Jesus? And when you do, you're gonna move over into the mature Christian life. The mature Christian life is one that cares about the lost, that tends for the church and the sheep within the church, and feeds others. It's not just a calling for Peter. And you will never know who you are, you will never fully become who you are until you do those things.

So first thing, he's restored. Second, he commissions Peter, I just spoke about that. And third, he invites Peter to follow. Interesting, because he'd already asked him to follow. Why is he saying it again? Go to verse 15, Jesus restores Peter. When they had finished breakfast, so they ate together, it was physical, they were eating fish. Don't be afraid, fish.

They're not gonna be eating. Jesus said to Simon Peter, Simon, son of John, circle that. Do you love me more than these? Awkward question, right? With all these disciples, you've all been hanging out together. Jesus shows up. He says to Peter, who has denied him, right? Peter who said, I will go with you unto death. I don't know about the rest of them, but remember he had pride.

We talked about the rooster. Remember that animal at Easter? I spoke about the, or maybe it was a week before Easter, I spoke about the rooster, and the rooster had pride. When the rooster crowed, it symbolized, it was a symbol as well of his pride. He was prideful. And so he asked Peter in front of all the other disciples, do you love me more than him, more than these?

Peter's like, of course I do, Lord. He's not talking so prideful these days. You know what he says? Go to verse 16. Excuse me, go to verse 15. He said to him, yes, Lord, you know that I love you. That is a very politician-like answer. Do you love me more than these? Yes, Lord, you know I love you. He didn't say, yes, I love you more than these. No, because he realizes that the way he was living his life, the old identity, some of that had crept into his Jesus following, that pride was washed away.

He had washed it away, and now Peter had come to a new place of humility where he's just saying, yes, Lord, you know that I love you. Now Jesus addresses the old identity. How do we know that he addresses the old identity? I had you circle Simon, son of John, a moment ago. Why is that important? That's his old name. If you go to John 1.42, it's in the notes.

This is earlier on, right? Earlier on in the story when he first met Simon, son of John. His name wasn't Peter. It wasn't Cephas. Cephas. And Jesus, it says he brought him to Jesus. That was his brother brought Peter to Jesus. Jesus looked at him and he said, you are Simon, son of John, but you shall be called Cephas. I'm not going to call you by that name anymore.

I have a new name for you that is based in an identity and a calling that I have for you. You are going to be one who builds my church and you will build it upon the rock of who I am. You will build it upon the rock of the message of who I am. You will be a builder. This is who you are. So it's unique that three years later that Jesus forgets this. Jesus doesn't say, Cephas, do you love me more than these?

He says, Simon, son of John, do you love me more than these? Why? Because he forgot who he was. He'd gone back to his old self. He had gone back to his old way. Let me talk to the sheep again. Some of y'all have gone back to your old ways. You're doing things that you did before. You're living in an old name. You're living in an old identity. You're living in old ways.

And you've forgotten your new name. And so Jesus addresses him and he calls him out of it in the midst of that because as Jesus recognized, he's saying to him, this is who you were, but this is who I want you to be. I think it's then interesting is that how does Jesus do a transition? How does Jesus transition him then back to becoming who he is? Because it just takes a moment.

That's the great thing about grace. You don't have to do years of penance. You don't have to do all these things where he says, okay, now I want you to go to minister, Peter, to all of India and when you're done, you can come back and I'll restore you. No, he just restores him right here and he addresses the three denials individually. He asked him three times, do you love me?

Which ends up really bothering Peter, right? But I think it's really important because Jesus doesn't just say, hey, you know that thing you did, that bad thing you did, let's just wipe it away. No, he says, I want to address each of these. Not to make you feel bad, not to ruin you, but to go to the root of each of these and I'm going to restore because I care enough to restore you in each of these moments.

Go to verse, let's say, verse 17. This is the third time. He said to him a third time, Simon, son of John, do you love me? Peter then was grieved because he had said to him a third time, do you love me? And he said to him, Lord, you know everything. You know that I love you. And then Jesus said to him, feed my sheep. I want to speak to repentance. I think repentance, it's really easy sometimes, just Jesus forgive me.

This is a blanket forgiveness. And I want you to know that that works. The blood of Jesus, if you say, Jesus forgive me for my sins. If you're a non-believer in here and you feel like you're just weighted down by sin and the things you have done, with just one word to say, Jesus, I believe in you, forgive me of my sins, it will cover your sins. Jesus will remove the guilt.

He will remove the shame. He died on the cross for that. He will do that in just one wiping away of the tears of your life. But there is something important about confessing each of our sins to the Lord and going deep into them and saying, God, you know, I've done this thing, I have this relationship here and I just want to talk to you about it. I need forgiveness and I have pride here.

Not that you're just beating yourself, you know, and whipping yourself and going into a dark place. That's what I'm saying. But just addressing it all. Spending time with the Lord, giving enough credence to your sin to spend time with the Lord and say, Lord, make aware to me even things that I don't know. It isn't so much that, he's okay, now that one's blotted out, that one's blotted out.

No, it's the restoration work of changing your heart, of showing you knowledge, wisdom, and insight of why we do what we do. And so Jesus restores him here with all of these. Peter's restoration then, after all of these, this repentance is a key to his identity. And one of the things we need to do is, as we repent, we get back on the track, we start walking in our true identity.

Peter's restoration becomes a launch pad for his greater calling. I would say your calling is on the other side of your repentance. The calling that God has for you and your purpose is then following after the repentance. We see that. The second point today is Jesus commissions Peter. Go to verse 15 and I'll read through 17. I'll actually go to the middle of that.

He said to him, and this is the middle of verse 15. Yes, Lord, you know I love you. He says, feed my lambs. Circle that. Feed my lambs. He said a second time, Simon, son of John, do you love me? He said to him, Lord, you know that I love you. He said to him, tend my sheep. He said to him a third time, Simon, son of John, do you love me? Peter was grieved because he said this third time, he said, do you love me?

He said, Lord, you know everything. You know that I love you. Jesus said to him, feed my sheep. When Jesus speaks to him here, he gives him a prescription. I went to a pastor one time and I was talking to him and I shared some things with him at the end, you know, and I'm just kind of, you know, some counseling and he had a prescription list and he wrote, he goes, you know, I'm going to write you a prescription.

I want you to do this. You know, Catholics do this a lot. Catholic priests will do this. They'll say like, go, you know, you'll go confess your sins and then they'll say, okay, say, pray this much, go do this and go do this and basically, that doesn't forgive you of your sins. It is a form of working out after you have been forgiven. The blood of Jesus forgives you for your sins and what Jesus says is he's being restored and he says, now in the restoring, I want to give you a calling in the midst of the renewal.

You know, if somebody goes and says, I'm going to change my life and I'm going to become healthy and they make all these decisions to become healthy, if they don't go to the gym, you're never going to see it playing out and so Jesus gives them a commission to say, I want you to find out who you are in the midst of this commission. I told you that Jesus speaks about sheep and fish and so he moves away from the fish now and he gives them a calling to start caring for sheep.

Now, I want to prove to you that when Jesus speaks about sheep, he's speaking about believers. There's three verses that I found in the scripture that I want to show you. Matthew 10, 16 and there's a ton of them. Just go Google search the verses in the Bible about sheep and especially in the New Testament, it's fascinating. Jesus says one thing, he says in Matthew 10, 16, I'm going to send you out as sheep in the midst of wolves so be wise as serpents and innocent as doves.

There's more animals but he basically says, sheep, I'm sending you out into the world. Sheep aren't supposed to spend all their time in church. I'm sending them out and they're going to need shepherds as they go out because what does a shepherd do? He protects. We'll see about that when we look at the tending. Matthew 25, 33, Jesus is speaking about sheep and he says, sheep are the ones that will end up in heaven but he says, the goats are the ones who will not end up with me in heaven.

It's 25, 33. It says, he will place the sheep on his right but the goats on his left. So that's the second time there. There's just two of the verses. One more. Okay, just give him one more. John 10, 27 and this is going to be really key when we get to the end of this message in just a couple minutes where Jesus says, follow me. This is about knowing the shepherd's voice.

He says, John 10, 27, my sheep hear my voice and I know them and they follow me. Knowing the voice of God. So over and over again, Jesus is telling believers that you are sheep. Okay, and obviously I think I've made that point clear. Peter. So the first thing that he says to him in the beginning is he gives him a threefold commission. He restores him each time and each time he restores and speaks to one of the failures of Peter, he calls him to do something that is beyond fishing.

Now up to this point, he'd just been a fisherman. He said he was a fisher of men. He was following the shepherd but now Jesus is leaving. He's sending the Holy Spirit and you know whose job it is to do the stuff that Jesus did? It ain't just your pastors. It's all of us. It is our job to go do the things and each one of us is called to now be ones who fish, now be ones who feed and to be ones who tend.

Let's look at the first one. In the first one, in verse 15, he says at the very end of verse 15, he gives him the first commission, feed my lambs. What is a lamb? A lamb is any sheep that is one year old and younger. And if you know, there's a thing called lambing season. Lambing season is when the lambs are born and so I was in Scotland one time during lambing season and it is the best time to be, it is just frolic everywhere.

It is lambs stumbling and bumbling and it is a joyous time as the lambs run around, right? The lambs get into trouble. Lambs need to be fed. And how do you feed, if you were a shepherd, you're not a sheep, a ewe, how do you feed them? You bottle feed them. And what he is saying is there are young believers, there are fish that have turned into lambs and one of your jobs is to feed the lambs.

The next thing that he says to them in the second restoration that is part of his calling where he'll find his identity because that's the main point, is Peter's identity is tied up in the fishing and in this thing that Jesus calls him to do. He says, tend my sheep. Go to verse 16 at the end, the very end of it. He said to him, tend my sheep. What does tending the sheep mean?

Well, tending's not feeding. Tending is protecting. Tending is caring for. Tending is providing for. It's when they, you know, they get a burr or something in their wool and it's gonna go and maybe it would make an ulcer. You have to take time to go into the wool and take care of them. It's taking care of their hooves and I've been studying because I want to have some sheep.

My wife and I want to have some sheep. We want to tend some animals. And the first YouTube video I said, it said, do not get sheep. And that was the whole video. Especially don't get goats, it said. And I realized it had 10 reasons and I thought, it was talking about bio, gut biomes, and if they eat the wrong, I'm like, dude, I don't know. Pet them, dude.

That's all you gotta do, right? You gotta tend them. It means caring. It means providing for. It's not just some of the people in the church who have that gift that are called to tend other sheep. Not feeding lambs now, we're tending sheep. This is people on an equal plane as you. They're Christians, you're Christians, they love God, you love God, but you're tending, you're caring for them.

This is the sheepfold. Now we're gonna be sent out amongst the wolves, but you are caring for the other sheep. You're caring for your pasture. Maybe pasture as well, but your pasture. Let me ask you this. Do you have any lambs? And are you caring for sheep? You know what's so interesting is there's so many Christians who haven't, wouldn't know what a lamb looked like if they saw one.

They haven't seen one for years. Like I said, I have non-believers coming to church that have probably invited other non-believers more than some long-term Christians. They don't tend for their flock. This is your flock. They don't tend for their flock. They more consistently give and care for Netflix subscriptions than they do for the church that they would call their home and the church that they love and are more consistent in providing for those than they do for their own church.

That's called tending for your church. He's called to feed lambs and to tend the sheep. Now he's also called to feed the sheep here in a second. I guess I just, the question begs this. Who are your fish? Who are your fish? I got a puppy recently. I'm at the dog park. I got a bunch of fish now. It's crazy. I spend so much, I'm out there like twice a day.

I have to go to the dog park and I don't like talking in the morning. You know what I mean? I just want to have my coffee but hey, we're here with the puppies. Ah, oh, you got a brand new puppy. I'm like, yes, I got a puppy. Yes, yes. Have my coffee. All of a sudden, I'm just surrounded by people, the coolest people. I'm meeting and I thought, this is such an opportunity.

If you want to know, if you want to have, if you want to like share Christ with people, get a puppy. Let's go to the beach. I'm not, get a cute one at least. You see that that is happening. Who are your, who are the fish that you are there? Are you, where, are you tending this flock? What are you doing to tend this flock? It's called GPS. Are you providing?

Do you provide financially for your flock? Do you provide, do you care for those that are in your small group? Are you part of a small group? Are you just coming on Sunday? I understand this is a difficult word, but you're going to find out who you are in Christ when you do these things because your identity is found in the following and doing what he calls the final thing that he says.

And that word, excuse me, the word for tending there is different than feeding because he says, feed lambs, tend sheep, feed sheep. Tending is, is poimino and I might have butchered that a little bit. Did my best. And that word means to shepherd, not just feed. It implies guidance, protection, correction, leadership. It's more than teaching. It's pastoral oversight of these people.

The third one, feed my sheep. If you go to verse 17 again, it says, Lord, I tell you everything. I know that you love me. Jesus said to him, feed my sheep. What does that mean? This is nourishing and caring for other mature believers. It's calling out a mature believer and saying, hey, I'm praying for you. Here, I've got some scripture that God put on my heart.

It is feeding. It is co-mingling. Jesus does this earlier in the passage. He said, Peter, I got my own fish here. I don't need yours but go get some of yours. Bring them here. Let's put them on the fire together and we will share and we will co-mingle in the fruits of our labor together. That is what we do. You have believers that you have believers that are friends that you're pouring into.

You're caring for them. And then the final one is this. Here's the final point. After that, Jesus invites Peter to follow which is interesting because he's already invited Peter to follow once. So why say it again? Go to verses 18 and 19. Truly I say to you, when you were young, you used to dress yourself and walk wherever you wanted but when you're old, you will stretch out your hands and another will dress you and carry you where you do not want to go.

Let's just stop there. Actually, keep going. This he said to show what kind of death that he would glorify God. If you don't know where they're picking the new pope right now in the conclave, it's all happening. Waiting for the smoke. I remember waiting for Pope John Paul when I was a kid, watching it with my family. We were on TV. We were watching it. That's where Peter was killed and it was in Rome and it's called St. Peter Basilica for a reason because he was crucified there and many of you know this.

He was crucified upside down because he said he was not willing to be crucified in the way that his Lord was crucified. Now we think he was pretty old at this time because he wasn't able to dress himself. Obviously somebody dressed him for him or maybe that's what it implies but he goes there and he invites him. He says, so you're going to go there and this is where you're going to follow.

You're going to follow me unto death. You are going to follow me unto death. But then it goes on as that verse ends. It says, and then after saying this he said to him, follow me. Now that really hit me this week as I was looking at it because I thought he was already following. I mean, he got a course correction. Yeah, I get it but maybe he stopped following.

But he says to him, follow me. In Matthew 4.19 he had earlier said to him when he was fishing, he said to Peter, this is where he told him to follow me, follow me and I will make you fishers of men. He says, follow me I'll make you fishermen. So maybe he's saying, okay, well I've made you a fisher of men, now you're going to be a shepherd of sheep and so follow me again.

Maybe that's what it means. I don't personally think that's what it means. I think he had kind of stopped following. He was out in the wilderness, he was out on a boat, he was back to his old identity. Jesus addresses his old identity. All the signs of the story point to Peter wasn't just hanging out following Jesus. They pointed that he had walked away, not walked away in belief but in shame and he was away from Jesus.

You know, the only way I can think about this and as I close with this final analogy is I began to ask myself, am I following Jesus? And I realized, I realized as I'm following Jesus, I'm oftentimes just content to be in Jesus' proximity and I thought about it this way. I was thinking, what's a good analogy for that? I thought, imagine Jesus is down at the art museum in San Diego, San Diego Contemporary Art Museum and we go there and I hear Jesus is there and so I'm excited, Jesus is there and I go down and I walk in, you know, I pay my $49 to get in unless I go on a Tuesday and it's free and I walk in and there's Jesus and I'm so excited.

I'm like, oh, Jesus, ah, I'm following you. He's all awesome. We are going up to the Impressionist on the second floor, let's go and I'm like, real quick, I heard the cafe here is amazing and they have some ceremonial grade matcha and if you drink matcha, you know what I'm talking about. I don't drink matcha, my kids do and Jesus, I'll just meet you up there real quick.

Just be a minute, just be a minute and Jesus is like, all right. So Jesus leaves and I go get my matcha, I'm drinking it and I start looking around and then I bump into Jesus a couple times. I just gotta bump into him. I hang out with him a little bit and then I'm like, oh, Jackson Pollock. They got a Jackson Pollock exhibit going on. Jesus is like, hey, we're not doing Jackson Pollock no more.

You did that one for a long time, we're done with that and I'm like, I just got, I just want to, he's all, no, we're done with that one and I'm like, nah, I'll just meet and tell me where you're going. He goes, well, I'm going this way but I can't tell you where I'll be and so I go to Jackson Pollock but I'm in the building because I'm in the proximity of Jesus, right, I'm close to Jesus and I finally make it upstairs, you know, I do my Jackson Pollock thing, I make it up to the top and there I am and there's all these people surrounding this guard who works there, he's the night guard, he works there and he's just been healed from blindness and everyone's jumping around and praising God and saying, you know, glory to be to Jesus in the highest and I'm walking up and I got, my matcha is still, you know, pretty warm and I walk up and I've missed the whole thing, I missed it, why?

Because I'm content to be near Jesus and not to follow Jesus and there's a huge difference between following Jesus and being in his proximity and near to Jesus and I said, this week I want to follow Jesus and I had seven days, we're in Pentecost right now, I had seven days that I don't remember the last time I followed Jesus like I followed him in the last seven days and you wouldn't really know the difference, you probably wouldn't see the difference but I know the difference because there's a difference when he says, we're not going there no more, okay Jesus, hey I want you to wait, we'll get that matcha on the way down, I'm going to follow you wherever you go Jesus, see that's the difference and when you do that you make time for others, you fish in a different way, you tend in a different way, you feed in a different way, you care for in a different way and you find your identity in Jesus because you find out who you truly are in the doing, amen?

Joe. Amazing word, Pastor Adam, if the communion helpers will come up, please, I get the honor to lead you in the Lord's table today and a little bit of administration so I don't forget, people on this side after we read the Lord's words, you'll come up and you'll take the bread and the wine and then you'll go back and sit down and wait to take it until we all take it together and God says, Jesus says, examine yourself, so if there's certain sin you need to confess or certain person you haven't forgiven yet, pick your thing, pray to the Lord and do your work before you feed on his body and I was thinking about Pastor Adam's sermon, feeding, following, we are feeding on Jesus, he loved you so much that he died for you that for whoever believes will enter into eternal life and will pass from death into life and he says to his people, do this in remembrance of me whenever you get together, whenever you get together and the Lord Jesus on the night of his arrest he took bread and after giving thanks to God he broke it and he gave it to his disciples saying, take this and eat, this is my body given for you, do this in remembrance of me when we do this we're remembering him in the same way he took the cup saying, this cup is the new covenant sealed in my blood shed for you for the forgiveness of sins and whenever you drink it do this in remembrance of me every time you eat this bread and drink this cup you proclaim the saving death of the risen Lord until he comes if you believe in Jesus and you want to feed on him you want to remember him you realize you're a sinner in needing a savior this is your meal so let us stand together and let us come and partake for my waking breath for my daily breath I depend on you I depend on you for the sun to rise for my sleep I depend I depend on you I depend on you you're the way the truth and the light you're the world that never runs dry I'm the branch and you are the vine draw me close and teach me to abide where the spirit is as I'm following I depend I depend on you I depend on you for the victories still in front of me I depend I depend on you I depend on you I depend on you you're the way the truth and the lies you're the world that never runs dry I'm the branch I'm the branch I'm the branch I'm the branch I'm the branch I'm the branch I'm the branch I'm the branch I'm the branch I'm the branch I'm the branch I'm the branch I'm the branch I'm the branch I'm the branch I'm the branch I'm the branch I'm the branch I'm the branch I'm the branch I'm the branch I'm the branch I'm the branch I'm the branch �� I'm the branch �� I'm the branch �� I'm the branch �� I'm the branch I'm the branch �� I'm the applying �� I'm the King I'm thepen �� I'm the đ I'm the branch and you are mine.

Draw me close and teach me to abide. Be my strength, my song in the night. Be my all, my treasure, my prize. I am yours forever, you're mine. Draw me close and teach me to abide. I am yours forever, you're mine. When I pass through death, as I enter rest, I depend on you. I depend on you. For eternal life, to be raised with Christ. I depend on you. I depend on you.

How old am I? I think I'm about 25 years into walking with Jesus. I got to confess, I forget and don't fully understand his love for me. I don't know if you guys struggle with that. Like I kind of perform for Jesus and I understand his love from a distance. But he loved us so much. He died for us. The father loved us so much. He sent his only son to die for us and rise for us.

Do you believe? Have you received? And even if you doubt, he gives this as a visible tactile remembrance, an experiential reality to do as a corporate one. Because we are forgetful people. And we need to feed on him. As his sheep, Jesus says, take and eat. This is my body given for you. Do this in remembrance of me. Let's eat together. Let's eat together.

And this cup is the new covenant sealed in my blood shed for you. For the forgiveness of sins. Do this in remembrance of me. Let us remember together. Let us remember together. Gracious God, may we who have received this sacrament live in the unity of your Holy Spirit, that we may show forth your gifts to all the world. We ask this in the name of Jesus Christ and all God's people said.

Amen. Let us rise together to pray the Lord's Prayer. And after that, Adam will come up and give a blessing. Our Father, who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name. Thy kingdom come. Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread. And forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who have trespassed against us. And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil.

For thine is the kingdom and the power and the glory forever. Amen. Amen. Before we go, we'd like the prayer team to come forward. If you are one of those people that have been here, you haven't made a decision to follow Jesus yet, come up. As soon as I'm done praying to one of the prayer people, they will lead you in a prayer to absolve you of your sins so that you will spend forever with Jesus and you will begin to walk in your true identity.

Come forward, they will pray for you and then we'll see you be baptized. And then for the rest of us, as I bless you, I just want to, as a word during Pentecost, June 4th is our Pentecost service where we're gonna be just moving deeper into the things of the spirit and having worship here. As we move towards that, continue to lean into Jesus, continue to repent, continue to follow, get a little closer than you were last week as we follow him.

Let's extend our hands if you would. Lord Jesus, Jesus, we bless your people. God, for those that you would call fish, Lord Jesus, they know in their heart right now, they need you. God, there's been so many of them here lately. I just keep meeting them here at church and no one's invited them or maybe one person has. I pray, God, that they would know and they would come forward and know you and get eternal salvation.

And then for the rest of us, Lord God, that have forgotten who we are, we're walking in our old Simon, son of John mode, Lord God, we want to turn back to you. We want to turn back and you're saying to them, follow me. Lord Jesus, I pray that they would have the ability and the heart's trajectory to follow you, Father, that they might know you and they might know all that you have for them.

So I send you out now in a new identity, in your true identity, in the power of the Holy Spirit. In the name of the Father, Son, and the Holy Spirit, amen. God bless you. We love you. Have a great week.