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[ Silence ] [MUSIC PLAYING] [ Music ] [ Music ]

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It's your decision who you will ignore, whether it be Jesus or some other god. ♪ Since he decided ♪ ♪ To die just to save you ♪

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♪ It's your decision ♪ ♪ What will you do ♪ ♪ It's a difficult thing ♪ ♪ To live for Jesus ♪

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♪ Failing to know him ♪ ♪ Makes my life worthwhile ♪ ♪ He fills my emptiness ♪ ♪ With peace and happiness ♪

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I have decided, have you decided? I have decided to live for you. ♪ Oh, I've decided ♪ ♪ Who I will live for ♪

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♪ I chose Jesus ♪ ♪ As my Lord and King ♪ ♪ Oh, He decided ♪ ♪ To die just to save me ♪

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♪ I have decided ♪ ♪ To live for Him ♪ ♪ It's a privilege ♪ ♪ To live for Jesus ♪

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♪ I can't seem to know him ♪ ♪ Best my life for one ♪ ♪ He fills my emptiness ♪ ♪ With peace and happiness ♪

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♪ I have decided ♪ ♪ You decided ♪ ♪ I have decided ♪ ♪ To live for you ♪

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♪ It's a privilege ♪ ♪ To live for Jesus ♪ ♪ Getting to know him ♪ ♪ Makes my life worthwhile ♪

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♪ He fills my emptiness ♪ ♪ With peace and happiness ♪ ♪ I have decided ♪ ♪ Have you decided ♪

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♪ I have decided ♪ ♪ To live for Him ♪ - Amen. I'm gonna read a scripture from the Living Bible Paraphrase.

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We read the passage from the King James and now I'm going to read this portion of this from the Living Bible paraphrase. This occasion has to do with the disciples post-resurrection experience, having fished all night on the Sea of Galilee and they now draw nigh to the seashore.

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It says here, "When we got there, "we saw that a fire was kindled "and fish were frying over it, "and there was bread."

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The 10th verse says, "Bring some of the fish you've just caught," Jesus said. So Simon Peter went out and dragged the net ashore.

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By his count there were 153 large fish and yet the net hadn't torn.

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"Now come and have some breakfast," Jesus said. And none of us dared ask him if he really was the Lord, for we were quite sure of it.

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Then Jesus went around serving us the bread and fish. Breakfast with Jesus. Our Lord says to his disciples, now come and have some breakfast.

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This certainly is one of the glorious experiences recorded by the Apostle John. It is an experience that comes following our Lord's resurrection. The Gospel according to John is referred to by commentators as a book of signs. It has many signs concerning our Lord.

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So as we seek to unravel this passage of scripture, as we walk around this text, let us seek to discern what signs it may have for us as God's people today living near the close of the 20th century. Jesus cooks breakfast.

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This is not something that ordinarily in our society we would think the Lord of all life to do. We would think of bowing down before him, honoring him, paying obeisance to him.

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But here he takes the lowly position of a servant of a servant and cooks breakfast for his disciples, his disciples. The breakfast meal, I am told, is the most important meal. It's the first meal of the day.

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People who are concerned about good health say you're always eat a good breakfast You want to be able to do a good day's work Prelude to that is having a good breakfast Dr. Hinton has tell the story on the farm about

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Man who had mules and he was sending them out to work and expected them to plow and do all that and he hadn't fed him well He had just fed him some shucks rather than some corn and he said they'd go out there to work and they would give out

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Before the day was half over they had no strength they had no power with which to work This particular incident occurs when the disciples had been out fishing all night. They had labored. They had returned to their old trade after the resurrection. Even though Jesus had come, he had served, he had been crucified, he had risen again,

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but they had their dreams shattered. Things still had not worked out the way they had thought they would. And so one day Peter said to them, "Let's, I'm going fishing." And they said, "Well, we'll go we're here, let's go fishing. And so they went out upon the Sea of Galilee and they fished all night. Now the Sea of Galilee is known for fish. Some years ago when I

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had the privilege of being in the Holy Land I ate at a restaurant right on the banks of the Sea of Galilee and I had a fish dinner. So it's known for its fish from the time prior to Jesus on to this present moment for centuries it has been known for its fish and yet somehow they go out and fish and catch

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nothing. The fish were in the sea but they didn't catch them. Maybe that's some of the experience that something like the experience we have here at Ebenezer. We do some fishing, we put forth our best efforts many times and catch no fish. It isn't that we haven't prayed, It's not that we haven't read our Bibles.

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It's not that we haven't made contacts with prospects. We've done all of those things and many times catch nothing. So not only is that true of the church,

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that's true in many praiseworthy endeavors and when we do our best, Many times we have nothing to show. So they failed, no question about it, they had failed.

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And I want to say to us this morning, don't be afraid to fail. I think fear of failure is one of the worst things that one can have, in other words, don't be afraid.

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know how to just keep on keeping on in spite. They fished all night and caught nothing. And here as the curtain of darkness is pushed back in the morning,

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the light dawns, they draw nigh unto the seashore and at the seashore is Jesus. and he says to them, "Boys, have you caught anything?" And they said, "No, we have toiled all night

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"and caught nothing." He said, "Well, lay down your nets "on the right side of the boat." I said, "Now look, we've been in this sea.

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"We're acquainted with these waters. "We've spent most of our lives engaged in fishing "here on the sea, and we've been out, "they just aren't biting tonight."

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But they weren't biting last night. We've got good bait and all of that, good ship, good skin, but they just aren't biting. They could've said, they said,

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"Well, Lord," said, "We've done our best." But nevertheless, at your will, at your word, just because you say so, we're going to let down the net. And so they let down their nets on the right side of the ship and they had a multitude

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of fishes when they drew up their net so much so that when they began to count out the fish, they counted a hundred and fifty-three fish. But Jesus is not only at the seashore, but he has breakfast waiting for them. I know all of us would be happy every morning if you just had someone to have breakfast

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prepared for you and say to you before you got out of the bed, "Come have breakfast." That's a wonderful feeling. Wonderful feeling. When you all, we get all that when we're sick, but when you're well and hearty to have, and

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for the master himself, when they get there. This is one of the miracles that you have in John. Doesn't say where he got the bread. Doesn't say where he got the fish.

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But he already had it prepared and he cooked it himself. And he says to his disciples, come have breakfast. In other words, if you're to be prepared for the work that you are to do for me,

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you've gotta have breakfast. And to be sure that you have the right diet, I'm preparing it myself. But what I want you to do,

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you just caught 153 fish, you bring some of the fish that you have and let it be put with the fish that I have and we're gonna have, in other words,

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if we're going to do our best for God, it has to be a partnership. You know, we want God to make two steps toward us and we don't wanna make any toward him.

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We, we, we, we, we, we, we, we, we, so many people, that's what the welfare program is about now, many people wanna come and eat this fish and they don't wanna bring their fish.

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But there is a divine human partnership in which we are to engage to be put together and Jesus himself serves as host. Breakfast is prepared. Now that must have been a delightful meal.

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Wonderful fellowship at the breakfast table. And after they have breakfast, they're having breakfast with Jesus. After they have breakfast,

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they engage while they're having breakfast, they engage in what I choose to call table talk. Now it's a good time, we talk about family values, it's a good time for the family to get together

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around the table. It's very difficult today, you know, sometimes we get up, this one gets up and gets a cup of coffee and run out to the door

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and gets in the car and goes on, and the next one comes along, gets a cup of coffee or a piece of toast and they're out, and then finally the kids get up

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and they dress, they go to school. That's where a lot of this happens. But here, they are all together! and they are engaged in table talk.

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I used to try to do that with our children when they were young, you know, at a meal. So what's happening at school? Sometimes they say nothing.

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(audience laughing) Nothing, nothing. But here, Jesus addresses Peter, who is the leader. Now, Peter is the one who had led these disciples

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to go back to what they were doing when they were first called. When Jesus met him, he, and called him, he was by the Sea of Galilee and said,

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"Come, follow me and I'll make you fishers of men." Now he has gone through all of this, he's been resurrected and all of that, and he's back out there on the sea.

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Now he says, "Peter," this is the breakfast talk at the table, "Do you love me more than these?" That's a good question for us today.

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Do you love me more? That's the very heart of life. Answering that question, do you love me? I became acquainted with that question early in life, you know.

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I used to pick clover and, no it was petals, I think it was sunflower petals. She loves me, she loves me not, she loves me, she loves me not. And if she lived on she loves me not, you'd get another one. You always wanted it because we all want to be loved.

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Peter, do you love me? Do you love me? Do you love me more than these fish? Sure there were those who followed Jesus

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for the fish and the loaves. And there were many who followed, but all they were following him for was what they could get for themselves

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in a selfish way, selfish aggrandizement, loaves and fishes. And Peter says, "Oh yes, Lord." I love you. He says to him, feed my sheep.

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He asked him that question again and again. He asked him that question three times. And they said he asked him that question three times to cancel out the three times that Peter had denied him.

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So he said, "Oh Lord, you know that I love you. "Feed my lambs." In other words, this is breakfast. In other words, if you are equipped,

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if you have the strength, if you are to serve me as I have commanded, you must feed my sheep, you must feed my lambs, you must feed the flock of God.

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That's our task, to feed the flock of God, lambs as well as sheep. That's the word that Jesus gives them. And we must get the energy, the food, the direction,

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the spirit with which to do that from the Lord himself. And then the question is raised, Jesus says, "Follow me." That's what he said when he called him.

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And now at the very edge, at the very end of this epistle, he is again saying to them, "Follow me." Don't worry about your long nights of fear, Because failure is not final.

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I have the final word in life. Failure is not final. A lot of us have had high hopes and we've seen them dashed,

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we've seen our dreams shattered, but that's not the end. Jesus Christ himself has the last word. It's not final.

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So, I said, "Well, what about John?" You say, "Follow me, what about John?" because the word had circulated that John was not gonna die. He was gonna live forever.

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What about John? And that's where a lot of us are. Jesus is telling us what to do with our lives. He's giving us a sense of direction,

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and we stop and say, "Well, what about so-and-so?" What about John? He says, "Well," in other words, "Are you gonna let him live forever?

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"I'm gonna have to die a natural death." What about John? Jesus said, well, that's not really your business. That's really-- that's not your business.

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You follow me. If it's my will that John will live on forever, that's my business. But it's your business to follow me.

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And too often, you know, people jump from church to church. They jump from this to that. They get out of the choir. They get out of this, this.

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They do this and that because somebody does this. but the word is follow him. Preacher says something they don't like, you know, but Jesus says, "Follow me."

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Not the choir member, not the deacon, not the preacher, but all of us have the command to follow Jesus Christ. That's the word, that was the call when they first met him by the sea,

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And that's the last word they hear as they're here on the sea is follow me. They tell me that there is a mountain, one of the highest mountains in the mountain range of the Alps and Switzerland. And it's very difficult to climb. Many had attempted to climb it and had failed.

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But finally there came one who was an experienced mountain climber and he climbed that mountain. And he left on that mountain signs all along the way with these words, "Follow me, I have been there."

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You know, I've been to the top of the mountain. Follow me, I have been there. Follow me, that's what Jesus is saying. Whatever your problem may be, whatever may be,

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the difficulty you may encounter, The Lord of all life says to every one of us, follow me. If you've got some heavy burden that's troubling you, the word is follow me, I have been there.

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If you have some deep sorrow, and you've been in a dark disseminate, the word is follow me, I have been there. And that's good news.

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a partnership with him and to have a fellowship with him, to have breakfast with him around his table, to have breakfast. Well, we say breakfast is the first meal. It is according to our custom. But you know in the biblical arrangement of things, though today it's a little different. When you read the very

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beginning there in Genesis it says and the evening and the morning for the first day you read it that's what it says it puts the evening first. The evening and the morning and that's the way the Orthodox Jews do today that day begins with the evening, that sundown. Sundown on Friday this Sabbath begins, that's where

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it is, evening and the morning, for the first day. So if we look at it through the eyes of faith with the evening and the morning being the first day, you see the breakfast is at the close of the day that way, is that right? So I like to think as I grow older I like to think that when I come to the end of my way

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that there will be somebody that strange somebody there at the very banks of the waters there at the the seashore that he'll be waiting for me. And he will say, "Come, come, come, "come have breakfast with me."

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And that he will have it all prepared. And that the Lord God himself will serve it and will wipe the tears from our eyes. So that's good news.

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That's good news in a world of failure because many of us have had our failures. But the final word is that he will crown our efforts for him with success.

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So as we sing now the hymn of invitation, we extend the privilege of the church to accept Jesus Christ as Lord of your life. Door is open.

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He says, "Behold, I stand at the door and knock." He wants to come into your life and he wants to control our lives. He wants to guide us.

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He wants to guard us. He wants to govern our lives, our homes, our families. ♪ He comes ♪ ♪ To bless us ♪

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We invite you to come now, let's do this over. ♪ And out of heaven ♪ ♪ He'll come to thee ♪ ♪ As the years pass ♪

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♪ He'll come to thee ♪ ♪ Beyond the sacred pit ♪ ♪ I sleep below ♪ ♪ My spirit and body ♪

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♪ All living birds ♪ ♪ Let now the broken Lord ♪ ♪ Do me to thee ♪ ♪ Let the beat, let the break ♪

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♪ Of your melody ♪ ♪ It shall all my days be ♪ ♪ Oh, feathers fall ♪ ♪ And I shall find my peace ♪

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♪ My all is lost ♪ Thou art the bread of life, Lord, Lord to Thee, Thy holy Word the truth that saveth me. Give me to eat of this with need of more,

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Teach me to love thy truth for thou art love. Oh, send thy spirit forth now unto me, ♪ That he may judge my heart ♪ ♪ And make me see ♪

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♪ Show me the truth, God's will ♪ ♪ Give him my word ♪ ♪ What if thy will revealed ♪ ♪ I speak no more ♪

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- Amen. [BLANK_AUDIO] [ Silence ]