Amen, so the title of the sermon this morning is low-key quitters low-key
quitters and i'm going to talk this morning about people that kind of just quit on god
and not just the people that we would probably typically think of of
What it looks like when they quit on god, obviously, there's always going to be people that just
Quit on the christian life just get out of church. Stop bible reading stop soul winning
You know, they just completely get out of the christian life and go back to the world
They're the demises of this world, you know, and those are real obvious
You know, they love the things of this present world and they have no interest in any longer serving christ. They are quitters
Okay, but there's also I think a group of people
That maybe are a little less obvious and that's people who are low-key quitters
And what i'm talking about are people who you know, they're going through the motions, you know
They're coming to church. They're they might even do a little bit of bible reading
They may even show up to soul winning but in their hearts and in their minds
They've already given up on the things of god. They've already quit on on god
They want to get out and so on and so forth
Now you say who would ever quit on god, but here's the thing christians quit on god all the time
And if you stick around long enough if you're in church long enough, you're going to see people just quit on god
They're just going to get out of the christian life and you say well not me. No, never me
Look, it could even be one of us, you know self included the bible says, you know to him that thinketh
He stand and take heed lest he fall
When we start to think i'm never going to quit on god, that's probably when we're on the most dangerous ground of doing so
So, you know this might not apply to anybody in the room
But it could at least apply in the sense that you know
We need to be on guard against this in our own hearts not to be these low-key quitters
That just want to get out of the christian life
Even if we're just going to do what go through the motions, you know
And then you know
We often think of the people who are real obvious when we talk about people who are quitting on god, right the people who rage quit
And we see a lot of that where people they quit on church and it's not enough for them
Just go back to the world. They have to turn on the man of god. They have to turn on their church
They have to start getting really vindictive and they start attacking, you know people that had even put their trust in them
Okay, I don't want to talk about that group because that's pretty obvious
The less obvious group are the people that are more low-key when it comes to quitting on god
And this is something that we might even go through in a phase in our christian life
It might be that we never get out of church
But it could be that in our hearts and in our minds we've kind of you know
At least gotten backslidden or to some degree have quit on god when it comes to serving him or our hearts
Just not in it anymore. We're going through the motions, okay
And this is something that christians often do, you know, I talked about last week about aaron
When he made the golden calf, right?
This is something we see throughout all scripture is that when people get to know god when they see god, they often quit on him
And you would think how could anyone do that?
But like I said last week we saw that the children of israel did that in the presence of god
They saw god in the mount and they just were like so aaron. How about that calf, right?
They just totally from one moment to the next they're quitting on god
This is what old testament israel's history is just filled with it's basically just one long story of an entire nation
Quitting on god getting right and then quitting on god again, and then jesus comes and they've already quit on god again
So there's just always this this pattern of people who quit on god throughout scripture
So we should never think that you know, this isn't something that could happen in our own life
This isn't something that could happen in our own church because of the fact that it is
And again often we think of the people who are real obvious people who just rage quit
People who are just you know vindictive
But really what we need to be on guard about in our own hearts is being a low-key quitter
Someone who's going to go through the motions, but their heart's not in it
And this is something that happened even in jesus state there in john 6 look at verse 65
After and he said therefore I said unto you that no man can come unto me except who were given to him
Of my father from that time forward many of his what disciples?
I mean, these are people that are following christ
I mean, these are people that are seeing the miracles of god
They're they're watching jesus feed thousands
They're watching him raise the dead give sight to the blind causing the lame to walk preaching these powerful sermons
I mean if anyone you would think would stick through it through thick and thin it would have been these people
People are following the the living christ at the present time like seeing him in the flesh
But it says from that time many of his disciples what went back and walked no more with him
Look, if there's people they're going to quit on jesus christ himself. It should come as no surprise to us when there's people that quit
Nowadays, they're going to quit on a christ that they haven't seen in the flesh
They're going to quit on on the lord when he's not here physically present with us
This type, you know, this shouldn't surprise us. I mean we see it here right in jesus day even people
Uh, you know like we might not even suspect
I mean who would have suspected peter of being a quitter or that peter would have gotten backsliding look
Peter we know went on to be a great man of god
But the fact is we have these stories for a reason and not to just make peter look bad
But to be a warning to us
To show us that you know, these are all men of like passions
That if peter could slip up so could we if peter could backslide and quit on god, so can we?
He said in verse 67 and then said jesus under the 12. Will he also go away?
So he gets down to 12 people right in this great multitude goes down to 12
Then simon peter answered and said lord to whom shall we go
Thou hast the words of eternal life
And we believe and are sure that thou art the christ the son of the living god
So you think wow, at least peter he's faithful. He's there, you know, and and peter, you know when he said these things
You know, i'm sure he had every intent in his heart that he was going to follow christ even unto death, right?
And we'll we'll read about that here in a minute
But look even peter ends up quitting and people often quit that's what we see throughout scripture
And sometimes it's real obvious, but sometimes it's not so obvious. Sometimes it's something that they're doing in their heart. It's low key
It's under the surface
And why do they quit you would say? Well, why would people quit? Why would people quit on jesus?
Why do these people here in john 6 turn their back on christ himself to his face? Why would they do that?
Well, it's because of the things that jesus said, wasn't it?
That's often what sends people packing is the things that the preacher says the things that are preached from the word of god
They read something they hear something from the bible
And that's why they quit on god
Look at verse 59 these things said he in the synagogue and he taught in capernaum
Many therefore of his disciples when they had heard this
Said this is a hard saying
Who can hear it?
And when jesus knew in himself that his disciples murmured at it
He said unto them does this offend you?
You know that's preceding versus six verse 65 when they finally turn and and leave, right?
They get offended at what the hard saying
And let me just break it to you right now. Okay. It's only a matter of time until you hear a hard saying
It's only a matter of time until the preacher steps on your toes
Until you read something in the word of god that offends you
Because no one's perfect. We've all got sin in our lives
You know, we've all got issues. We got to deal with we've all got to things that we got to work out
None of us is ever going to be perfect
And it's only a matter of time until there's some hard saying that comes down the pike and steps on your toes
The question is doth this offend you?
You know, and here's the thing. It's okay to be offended
It's just one thing to stay offended right i'm offended and now you know
The difference is are you going to also go away? Are you going to be like these disciples and say well, that's too hard for me
I'm out of here
And look we see this type of thing all the time in churches
You know you preach on some specific topic you get on some specific sin and then it's people say well, that's it
That's where I draw the line
And look, there's all we could talk you say which ones there's there's it's a myriad number of topics
You know all these sensitive things that people don't want to hear about that cause them to
To quit on god why because they get offended because it applies to them, okay?
And i'm not going to go over all those things that's not really the point of the sermon
The point of the sermon is that you know, we don't want to be people who maybe we're not going to quit on the church
Maybe we're not going to you know, uh, we're going to still stick around we're going to we're going to we're going to you know
Put on the show, but our we have low low-key quit in our hearts
I mean, it's pretty obvious who's quitting here, right?
I mean, they're literally turning away and say well, never mind. Jesus. We're out here. That's too hard. No, thanks
No, thanks
But there's other people, you know what i'm talking about people who are going to stick around
And are going to be low-key quitters. They're they're they've already kind of quit in their heart. They're just going through the motions
Look, this is something that young people could need to watch out for
You know teenagers who are being just drug to church every sunday being made to sit down and listen to the preacher
They have no desire to be there. Look they've already quit in their hearts
They're just they're just how when is he done? When is he's going to be over with?
How long until i'm an adult and I can just go do my own thing
Look, you've already low-key quit in your own heart before you've even gotten out the door
And it's only a matter of time until you just go full
You know john six on us and they're just gone. Okay
Don't let that be you
And look i'm just breaking to you now. It's only a matter of time until you are offended like peter, you know, peter eventually
You know did get offended. He got taken to a point where he also denied christ
We know the story after he's vehemently just reassuring christ that he's not going to you know
Even though all men forsake thee, you know yet not I that i'm gonna go I will be with you until death
Right and jesus has said well, you know, we'll see about that
You know before the cock crow thou shalt deny me thrice, right? That's what he said. Look at john 13 john chapter 13
John 13 and verse 36 simon peter said to the lord where there goest thou jesus answered him
Wherever I go thou canst not follow me, but thou shalt follow me afterwards peter said unto him lord
Why can I not follow thee now? I will lay down my life for thy sake look when peter said that I believe he meant it
I mean he wasn't I don't think he was just trying to be some hyper spiritual guy
I believe in his own heart. He thought yeah, I would lay down my life
And look we can say i'm never going to quit on god
I'm always going to be faithful to church
I'm always going to be faithful to soul and am and always going to read my bible
I'm always going to be faithful in all these areas, but look
You won't really know that until you're put to the test until you're actually put in a position where you have to make that decision
Of whether or not you are willing to you know in a in a way lay down your life
chances are we're never going to be called to this degree of
You know faithfulness or are we going to have to actually lay down our lives literally for christ?
But you know in a sense we always are you know, do we want our own way or do we want christ's way?
You know, do we want to live our lives for god with with him as our you know
With our priorities aligned with the things of god or we just want to do what we want to do
And he said here look I will lay down my life for thy sake. Jesus answered will thou lay down my life for thy
For my sake verily verily I say unto you the croc shall the croc shall not crow till thou hast denied me
Thrice and we know the story that's exactly what happened
You know, it's and it's these days and it wasn't like, you know
A band of centurions surrounded peter with a bunch of staves and swords and torches like they did. Jesus saying hey
Weren't you with him weren't you one of them? It wasn't like this fearful position
It was a it was a damsel twice that came to him a young maid a little basically a girl came up and made
peter
This great apostle cower and say I know not the man
To the point where he did what where he began to curse and to swear
Saying I know not the man
So look we can say we're going to be faithful we can say we're never going to quit but until we're offended
We never really know how we're going to react, you know, and that's really you know, as they say the proof is in the pudding
Until you're offended until you're put in that position
You really don't know whether or not you're going to stay faithful or how you're going to react
It says i'll just read to you from matthew 26. He says and peter remembered the words of jesus
Which he said unto him before the cock crow thou shalt deny me thrice
And he went out and he wept bitterly, you know, at least peter here he felt bad about it
You know, he kind of quit he proved himself unfaithful and it smote him to the core. He was heartbroken over what he had done
You know and a lot of that, you know, hopefully that's what everyone feels if they quit on god
You know, even if they're low-key quitting on god, hopefully it should bother, you know
Hopefully this sermon if that's you this morning will bother you in that way
And hopefully it'll get to you
It'll make you want to you know get right
But here's the thing, you know people are going to this is the great thing about
I don't want to say it's a great thing
But one of the one of the encouraging things I guess I should say is that even when people quit on god
God doesn't quit on them say why should I be faithful to lord because he's faithful to you
You know, god loved us, you know, even before we loved him, you know
God gave his life for us and he's not going to just cast this aside as as easily as we so often do him
You know we get after peter like oh man, I wouldn't deny him. Well one you don't know
But you know what if we're honest, we probably deny him in in our own personal lives almost on a daily basis
Sometimes we might go through whole seasons in our life where we're just denying him by not reading by not doing those things
Which he has commanded by not taking the things of god seriously, you know, that is a form of denying christ
But you know if you love me keep my commandments
He said, you know, if you if you you know, if you shall do those things which I have commanded you and i'm paraphrasing
Then you shall be my disciples indeed
Right if what if we do those things which he has commanded
So you say well i'm in church, you know, I show up i'm at church
But in our hearts we might be in our personal lives low-key low-key quitting on god
But here's the thing about that if that's us just need to understand that, you know
God hasn't quit on you and god never will quit on us
Even after peter just you know, just vehemently denies the lord
You know in his presence and in the presence of all those people after he had made this huge vow
You know, it wasn't like jesus came to him later and said see I told you and say oh you quitter
You know, he he reacts to peter's denial when he was resurrected and he went to the disciples in mark 16
He tells them go your way and tell his disciples, right? And I love these two words and he says and peter
He said go tell the disciples
and peter
Because here's the thing
He said go and tell peter
That he goeth before you into galley there. You shall see him as he said unto you
And there's you know, these two words and peter we can learn a lot from these things from these two words
We can learn a lot from what jesus is doing here. That's one of those things you just kind of read over, isn't it?
I mean, why did he single out peter here? Why does he I mean isn't peter a disciple?
Isn't that enough for him to say just go and tell his disciples?
He says go tell his disciples and make sure you tell peter
You know peter who what who just got done denying christ who just you know
You know put himself out of the ministry who quit in in a sense on god
And god's saying look I haven't given up on peter. I want peter back
Don't let peter get so down in the dumps that he thinks i'm done with him because he goes we might quit on god
But god's not going to quit on us
Don't count yourself out like peter did and also what you can learn from this is don't count other people out
You know, maybe he had to tell these people look you had to tell these ladies and peter because they're me
And i'm not saying this this is all speculation. It's all just for application's sake
Maybe they're thinking in their mind. Well his disciples, but surely you can't meet peter
I mean he couldn't even tell that damsel. He was you know, a galilean. I mean he denied christ
So, I mean we know he wants his disciples told but we all know what peter's like
Let's not bother we don't have to bother telling him look I don't think that's what's going on here
But that is a tendency that some people i've noticed have
You know
They see some other church member getting sinned or they do something wrong or they some make some some mistake
And then it's just they turn it's just like this i've even seen people plot
Like how they're going to get this person out of church how they're going to get them in their cross hairs and nail them
You know, they're going to matthew 18 them
You know and they just and it's it's foolish and it says more about the person that's doing that
than
You know the person that they're targeting
And we might see somebody get into sin. We might even see somebody quit on god, you know quit on the church quits living for the lord
Quit soul winning whatever. They're just out. They're done. Where have they been? They've been gone for months year, whatever
I look i've seen people been gone for years
But eventually they come back
So don't ever count other people out, you know
If you see somebody whether they're low-key quitting which you probably won't notice or if they're just flat out quitting on god
Don't count them out because god hasn't counted them out
And who are we to sit there and say well there god will never use them again
That you know, that's not our place to to make that decision, you know, and god is the god of second third fourth fifth chances, okay
Don't count
peter out
And don't count yourself out, you know
The reality of this passage is that he's saying and peter because he knows peter who just yeah, he denied christ
But it's not like he walked away with his chin in the air saying well, I guess that's you know, that's well he had it coming
You know, that's what you get for preaching those kind of things. Jesus
You go around talking like that. It's bound to happen
Right, that's not his attitude. No, he realized what he'd done. He wept bitterly, you know, he had a tender heart
So here's the thing if you if you're either ever quit on god or you're low-key quitting on god already
Don't count yourself out, you know, the first message is hey don't count other people out
But more more importantly don't count yourself out because people do this in their own minds all the time
They start to think to themselves, you know, well i'm just not good enough or they make some mistake
They get into some sin and they just say well i'm just not good enough to serve god
You know and all I had to say that is welcome to the club
No one's good enough to serve god
Well, you know, I wasn't raised in a christian home and I didn't have godly parents and I got saved later in life and
You know, I didn't start, you know, I haven't done all the bible reading. I wasn't taught all this stuff
I don't know all these things
You know, i'm just not good enough. Look nobody's good enough
You know and there's plenty of people who weren't raised in christian homes
Who didn't get who did get saved later in life who learned a lot of things about the things of god later in life
That are doing great things for god
That are you know, you know preaching soul-winning living for the lord raising families and look they they have just a rough a past
As anybody else
So don't ever count yourself out
As
As as not good enough
You know, the irony is the person that thinks that they're they're the least likely to be used
That they're the the most useless is the most likely to be used because they have humility
It's the guy that's full of pride. It's like well, it's about time somebody
Recognized my finer attributes. It's about time someone realized how what a great asset I am to the lord
You know, here's the thing. None of us are are good enough. Welcome to the club
Bible says go over to uh, john
21 john 21 if any man thinketh he know anything he knoweth nothing yet as he ought to know
You know, we might be tempted to look at some great bible preacher
We might know some other fellow christian who knows their bible really well
And say well i'll never be as good as them, you know, I just i'm not good enough
But you know the people that know those that know the bible well
That preach well
That you know could go soul winning. Well, you know those people just know things as they ought to know
And the truth is that there's a lot of hard work that went into that
It's not like they they you know, just woke up one day with all that knowledge, you know
There's there's years of reading and studying and practicing and all of that, you know that goes into that
It wasn't just because there's some you know, god has a you know, they're just some special talent for the lord or something
You know, they're the mvps they're the you know god's first string and we're just second string look it's all first string, okay
It's all probably third string if we're being honest, right?
But the point is is that look we can all do great things for god
God's not going to quit on us and we should never think that we're not good enough to be used by god in some way
He said in first corinthians 4 for who maketh theta differ from another or what hast thou that thou didst not receive
Now if thou didst receive it, why does thou glory as thou has not received it?
Look anything that anyone accomplishes for god is because god gave it to them god gave them that ability
They they did the reading they did the study. They they got worth god. They lived the life that's available to anybody
Look at john chapter, uh, john chapter 21 verse one
this is of course after you know, he told them to uh,
Then he told them hey you guys need to stay in jerusalem until the day of pentecost
After he's been resurrected in john 21 verse 1 it says after these things jesus himself
Showed himself again to the disciples at the sea of tiberius
And on this wise he showed himself
There were together simon peter and thomas called didymus and ethaniel of cana and galley the sons of zebedee
And two other of his disciples simon and zebedee and two other of his disciples
And two other of his disciples simon peter saith unto them I go of fishing
Now you have you know people debate about this, but I think it's pretty clear what's going on here
Is that peter despite the fact that that the resurrected christ has come back?
And specifically asked for him and showed himself to him and said look I haven't quit on you
Terry in jerusalem until the holy spirit come upon you
And you know and he's trying to reassure peter i'm still going to use you peter, you know, he's not he's not
You know getting after him about why'd you quit on why'd you deny me when you can't stand up to a little girl
You know, he wasn't he's not what he did. Okay
But despite all that the fact that jesus didn't quit on him or didn't you know get after him for that
Is that peter decides to quit anyway?
Because peter still thinks you know, this is my opinion peter still thinks he's not good enough
He's not you know, the lord's over it lord's like hey, let's just move on here
He's like look when you said that that night in the garden when you said, uh, you know
Though all men forsake me and I will never leave the he said I already knew you were going to
I'm the one who told you. Hey, the cock's gonna crow and you're gonna deny me thrice before that
I saw it coming peter
You know, it's just I didn't take me by surprise. Let's just move on
Let's just get over that and let's go serve god. Let me use you
Let me make you uh, you know a light to the gentiles and we and we know that peter later did go on to do
Great things. I mean he's got he wrote two books in the new testament
But before that, you know, he still quit again
Because it says there that he said what I go a-fishing
Right, and that was something that if we remember when jesus found him he told him to quit doing it
He said, you know thou shalt no more
Uh thou shalt from here henceforth thou shalt, uh be a catcher thou shalt be a fisher of men
Right. He said you're gonna lay leave your nets forsake this boat. Let's go catch men. Let's go save souls. Let's go preach
Let's go save souls, let's go preach
That's what he called them to so peter here is still quitting
He's still thinking well, you know, I know the lord came back and he
Is forgiving me, but i'm just i'm just not good enough. He's feel it's a pity party. He's feeling bad for himself
They say to him we also go with you, you know, that's the sad thing about when you when people quit
Sometimes a lot of times they'll take people with them
Or they'll at least try, you know, this is this is a lot more prevalent with your rage quitters
And i'm not saying that's what peter is doing here
But people who want to quit and then you know cause a big ruckus, you know
Go make their youtube videos and get in the comment sections and get a mob together
And try to you know, see how many other people they can take with them try to split a church
You know go around and do all that
And a lot of times that works, you know, and sometimes people just you know, if you get discouraged and quit
Maybe somebody was looking to you
Maybe somebody was was encouraged by you. You didn't even know about it and then you quit and it's like well i'm gonna go with peter
You know if he's going back hey if peter can't do it then
There's no way i'm gonna make it and they say i'm gonna go I go we go with you
They went therefore and entered the ship and that night and I love this
This is the point I want to draw attention to is that they caught nothing
They caught nothing
When peter, you know, he keeps failing and he goes when he goes back to his old life
Look if you quit on god, and if you quit serving god
Don't I mean it's not like your old life's going to be any different
It's still going to be the way it was. In fact, it's probably going to be harder
You know, and i'm just being honest up here. I'll just be perfectly frank
there have been times when i've thought about in the christian life in the
20 almost 20 years that i've been living for the lord and going to church and all that
What I thought about man, I just
I'm, just going to go back
I'm, just going to quit, you know, this is too hard
Thankfully never did by the grace of god, but i'm i'd be lying if I said never thought that
But you know what always kind of kept me from doing that it wasn't just my fervent love of god
It was also the fact that you know
I knew that all that was back there was a bunch of empty nets
It was just more failure
Just just vanity just nothing there because that's exactly what the case
This was exactly the case when jesus found peter remember in luke five
Where he finds peter when he goes to him, he says now when he left speaking, you know
He told him hey, you know pushed me out of it so I could preach
He goes out in peter's boat a distance from the shore and preaches the people
It says when he left speaking
He said unto peter unto simon launch out into the deep and let down your nets for a drought and simon answering him said master
We have toiled all night and have taken nothing
So that's his old life. Is this his life of toiling and catching nothing having no spiritual fruit having nothing to show to god
Having nothing of any eternal value except these empty nets
And then he quits on god and back back here in john and he goes back to that old life and guess what?
The old life hasn't changed. It's still the same
It's still the you know, the christian life might be hard. It might have its difficulties
It might be a battle there might be disappointments
But at least you can you know earn rewards at least you can have fruit unto eternal life
At least you can have something to show for it at the end of your life
besides a bunch of stinky fish
That you toil all night to get
Man, that sounds like a hard life, too
If you go back to the old life, look there's nothing there for you, but more of the same
You know, and that's a good lesson that made me you say well i've never lived that life, you know
I've grown up i've grown up in the christian home. You might be getting curious about what it's like, you know out there the big bad world
Let me tell you this is it right here. It's a lot of toiling in the dark and catching nothing
And having nothing to show for it
And it's a wasted life. That's that's what it is
And you think that's what the world's gonna that's not gonna paint it up
That's how they're gonna doll that up to try and sell that to you
Hey, come, you know, the way of the transgressor is hard. Come on. This is great
You know
He that being often approved and hardened to this next shall suddenly be destroyed in that without remedy. Come on
That's not what they say say. Oh, it's great. It's so much fun
All the fornicating and the drinking and the drugs and everything else that they do
They they you know, they put the lipstick on that and they they doll it up and they put it out there make it look
Good, but what is it really?
When you peel all that back
It's hardship it's trials it's it's disease it's
cirrhosis of the liver it's the std
It's the unwanted pregnancy. It's the abortion. It's the divorce. It's all the hardships that come with sin
That's all that's waiting there so there, you know, I'm sorry I ruined it for you
If you've been wondering what it's like out in the big bad world because you never lived it
That's what it is. Take my word for it
And if you don't believe me and you think oh, I gotta go prove that for myself. You're an idiot
That's that's the way a fool thinks
You know, oh, I don't know maybe a tractor-trailer would smash my head like a melon I wouldn't know because I've never done it
No, it's so I'm gonna go lay out
I'm gonna go down to the 60 here and just lay down in the middle of traffic and see if that's what happens because you
Know I've never done it myself
Look, it'd be better just to look at the guys, you know squished brains all over the pavement go
That's what happens when you do that
You know, that's kind of a graphic analogy, but you know spiritually that's what happens to people
They go out in the world. They get out of church
they quit on God and they want to go run and play in Satan's traffic and
They can't just look at all the other tragedies around them and go
Well, that's exactly what that leads to that the wages of sin is death that what's over man. So it that she'll he also reap
Why don't we just it'd be some smarter
Just look at the example the bad examples and learn from them and not have to go experience them ourselves
You know look at Peter look what happened to Peter when he quit on God when he got all down the mouth started feeling bad
For himself and thinking I'm not good enough. It's gonna go back to my old life
You know what? He got it wasn't a bunch of success. It was toiling all night and catching nothing
He wasn't any more successful than when
Christ called him into the ministry
It was just more in the same
But again, the point is this is that even though Peter, you know, he's quitting and not so low-key at this point
He's pretty blatant about it. I go fishing. See ya
is
That you know, Jesus still pursued him Jesus still went after him. He didn't quit on the quitter, you know, and we shouldn't do that either
Where did I have you go? You're still in John 21. I think this is where I'm at verse 3
He says Simon Peter saith on him I go a-fishing they say unto him
We also go with thee they went forth and entered to a ship immediately and that night they caught nothing
But when the morning was now come Jesus stood on the shore
But disciples knew not it was Jesus and Jesus saith unto them told you so
Hey you losers
What are you wasting your time out there
That's why I told you to do a bunch of quitters. That's not what he did
He said children have you any meat? I mean, it's kind of doing that
Hey, did you get anything?
He kind of know, you know, it's like we haven't caught anything
He's just kind of pointing out the fact, you know, hey you didn't catch anything did you there's nothing there for you
Have you any meat the answer to no
You know, we've been working hard all night
We haven't got anything for it
And he said of them cast you the net on the right side of the ship and you shall find therefore they cast now and they
Were not able to draw it in for the multitude of fishes. And of course, this is what happened back in Luke
You know, he tells him hey let down the nets for a draft and he lets down the net, you know
There's a whole nother sermon right there and it's more than they can even bring in the net begins to break
He has to call it get his buddies over there from the other boat and halt make that haul
Look when you do what Jesus wants you to do there is there is fruit
When you are obeying the Lord when you are gonna follow his commandments when you do go ahead and do what he tells you to
Do you know then you do have success?
You do the things that he wants
And he's doing this again to kind of prove a point verse 7 therefore that disciple whom Jesus loves sayeth unto Peter
It is the Lord
Seeing well, that's that's the Lord this, you know, he just shows up and tells us to do that. He sees the miracle
Now when Simon Peter heard that
That it was the Lord. He grabbed the oars and started, you know
Paddling as hard as he could in the opposite direction, right?
No, it says he girt his fisher's coat unto him for he was naked and he did cast himself into the sea
I mean, that's the thing about Peter when he quit on God is that even
When people are feeling bad and saying well, I'm not good enough
it's it's because they wish they were good enough and the fact is none of us is and
When we realize that you know that God still isn't gonna quit on you that God still wants to use you no matter what
There's always a plan B a plan C a plan D a plan E a plan F for your life
No matter what you've done, you know, this should be your reaction
Well, let me just cast myself into the sea and just and get close to God
Let me just get as close as I can. Let me get on the shore with him and hear what he has to say
Don't quit on the quitter. Why because Jesus doesn't quit on the quitter. He pursued Peter. He went after him said come back
Even after Peter has denied him and then even after that after he's given him another chance and he quits again
Jesus is still there saying hey, I'm right here
all you need to do is come back and
This shows the heart of Peter that even he's as despondent as he was as as
Depressed as he was about the whole situation
There was nothing he wanted more than to be close to God and to be used by God and the good news is that's what God
Wants God's right there, too
And we need to just what sometimes we just need to get over ourselves
And just put on that Fisher's coat and just just go for it, you know and get back in
Get back in the game with the Lord
But here's the thing, you know people are going to quit
Despite all that despite the fact that God would never quit on us
God will pursue them people are still going to quit on the Lord for several reasons
you know one reason we looked at real quick was just
You know because they think they're not good enough and that's you know that it is the case
But nobody is and that's not a deterrent for the Lord
If it look if God said I'm only gonna use people that are good enough. Nothing would get done
Because there's nobody good enough
Some people will quit because of what the cares of this life can go over to Luke chapter 8 Luke chapter number 8
They will quit because of the cares of this life
It's not just that they might feel you know depressed that I might just feel that they're not good enough they might think that
You know, whatever some people are just gonna quit because the cares of this life and look this is this is a real danger for
People otherwise, why does the Bible spend so much time warning us about it?
That the cares of this life can creep in and choke the Word of God and
Take us out of the fight for the Lord because it's a real possibility. Look at Luke verse 11 8 verse 11
Now the parable is this the seed is the Word of God and I know we know this
And I know we've probably all read it, but I'm gonna go ahead and read it again
Those by the wayside are they that here then cometh the devil and taketh away the word of their hearts as they should believed
And be saved right? That's that hard ground the seed can't penetrate the heart
That's that person we knock at the door and they're they're kind of half listening and then they get distracted and you know
The phone rings or whatever and we never chance we even do preach the gospel
But they just don't get it and a few days later. They've just forgotten, you know
They get distracted by life and they never get saved they and the rock are they which when they hear receive the word
You know the first group the first ground the hard ground. They're the ones that don't get saved
I believe every other ground after this is talking about saved people. Okay?
They are in the rock which when they hear receive the word with joy why because they receive the word they receive it
They believe it with joy and these have no root for a while
They for a while believe in a time of temptation fall away, you know, they get saved they get in church
They get baptized they start growing the Lord and then what they get offended the time of temptation comes
Right, then they have to make a decision for the Lord and then they fall away
Why because they have no root in themselves and they fall away
I want to look at verse 14
You could we could spend a whole sermon on every one of these grounds but verse 14 and they which fell among thorns are they?
which when they have heard go forth and are choked with the cares and riches and
Pleasures of this life and bring no fruit to perfection now are the all these things necessarily sin
Look, you can't even say that this is sin that's doing it
You know riches aren't necessarily sin they now they that will be rich fall into temptation and snare the Bible says
But having riches having wealth is not in and of itself inherently sinful
You know, the Bible says that he giveth gives us power and strength to get wealth, right?
But the danger is that the riches and the pleasures of this life are things that can choke us choke the word in us and would
Be me cease to be fruitful now are the pleasures of this life necessarily sinful now
We understand that there's play there is pleasure and sin for a season
But does that mean everything that brings you pleasure and enjoyment in life is this is a sin? No
There's plenty of innocent things that you know, we take pleasure and in that God has ordained that God has given us to enjoy
That are not sinful
But look even things that aren't sinful things that are just the riches
The cares the pleasures of this life can creep in and choke out fruitful Christians
people who otherwise would go on and do great things and
Be very fruitful the Lord get choked out by these things and they bring no fruit to perfection. Nothing ripens
It dies on the vine
But on the good ground are they which with an honest and good heart having heard the word keep it and bring forth fruit with
Patience and really that's the key, isn't it with patience?
You know something if sometimes a Christian life is just we have to just one day at a time and we just say well
Where's the fruit? Where's the fruit? When am I gonna and then in time it will come right again? That's another sermon
And I know I've mentioned this before but I'm gonna I'm gonna touch on it again
Look the the problem with that thorny ground when you understand this parable is that it's not the soil. That's the problem
Right because it's very it's supporting life, right? It's got the thorns that are there. What's the problem?
Is it the fact that the it's it's hard the soil is hard. It's full of rocks
Nothing can take root. Nothing can grow. No, there's plenty growing there. It's just the wrong things are growing
It's the riches. It's the cares. It's the pleasures
Those are the thorns that are being supported by the earth that is there the problem is the heart
You know there needs to be you know, a weeding of the heart there needs to the the soil needs to get tilled
You know, they got to break up that follow ground. They need to get the rocks out
They need to you know, they need to make sure they get all the the weeds out of there
That's the problem here. This ground is more than capable of supporting life
And in fact it can support a lot of life and they can bring forth multiple, you know
A whole garden of what whatever you plant there
The problem is is that it's often with with us is that we plant the wrong thing
We're sowing to the riches. We're sowing to the pleasures
We're sowing to all these worldly things that might not even be inherently sinful
But the problem is is that chokes out everything that we could be bearing for God
It
Brings no fruit fruit to perfection
It's what's left to grow in place of the seed that's the problem and like this is something that the Bible warns us about
About getting entangled with the thorns the cares the riches the pleasures that choke out the word in our life
when we get the wrong priorities in life
And we put things like like jobs and money and whatever else in front of the things of God
That's that's a you know, that's
That's that's you putting the cares and pressures of this life in front of
You know the the fruit that God could bear in your life and look that's gonna choke out the fruit of eternal life
That's you know, really that's an empty net that you're working with there
2nd Timothy chapter 2 verse 4 he says no man that warth and the Christian life is warfare, right?
That's where we're called to a fight a spiritual battle
We wrestle not against flesh and blood but against principalities and powers in high places
Right against the rulers of the darkness of this world. That's what we're fight
We have a spiritual armor to fight
No, man that warth entangle it themselves with what the affairs of this life getting didn't say since I mean, that's it
That's a no-brainer. I mean, that's that's the quickest sermon. I'll ever preach don't sin
Amen
It's closing prayer, you know, right no
It's the affairs of this life people get caught up and so many other things that have no eternal value whatsoever
Get caught up and just making money just get caught up in politics
Caught up and running for some office or caught up and debating this or arguing that or just going just
All number of things that are out there. It's he compasses it all by what the affairs of this life
No, man gets that worth and tangle it themselves with these things that he may please him who have chosen him to be a soldier
You know, the fact is there's just too many soldiers today that are all tangled up and Satan's barbed wire
You know
That was the image that I got when I was reading that passage in 2nd Timothy is that if this is a warfare and you?
Think about in war, you know the enemies, you know to barricade your enemy. You'll put out barbed wire now
I don't know if they do that anymore. I mean they do it the bases and stuff like that. They got the razor wire
But in other words, they would just string out huge lines of barbed wire
and if you were one of those unfortunate people that happened to stumble through it and you know through the fog or didn't see it or
Whatever or fall into some pit
I mean you could literally get tangled in it or somebody has to come along and cut it off and then pull it off of
You and but in the meantime every move you make is painful. You struggle the more entangled you get
Look Satan is out there just in this world they just stringing out barbed wire all around us
Let me get him tangled up in this. Let me get him tangled up in that
Let me get him, you know caught up in some, you know, conspiracy theory
Let me get it caught up in some you know in his career
Let me get caught up in in the pleasures and the cares and the rich you name it you fill in the blank there
Whatever that barbed wire is. I don't know. There's so many things the affairs of this life
Satan's just stringing it out and stringing it out stringing it out and too many of God's people are getting entangled in that and
All I'm trying to do this morning
And if this is you is I'm just trying to take those
The shears of God's Word and just clip away some of that barbed wire and say let's let's get out of that
Let's get in the fight. Let's get in the warfare that God has called us to of
Raising our families for God of preaching the gospel of being faithful the church of serving the Lord with our lives
You know, I thought of an illustration about this is when I was coming back from Houston
we were we were flying back on Friday and
there was this gal ahead of me and my daughter going in line and
And she lives here in Tucson because it was the incoming flight. So I'll just hear this
If she does what she's not here
But she's probably I'm looking at her. I'm guessing the range
I'm like she's got to be you know, late 20s early 30s somewhere in there and
She's got you know a to carry on bags and she's all balled up and
She's got her skateboard with her
This is I'm like a little old for a skateboard
And she's got her bike her skating helmet hanging off her back and I thought how old are you?
You know, it just kind of struck me as odd
I was like, this is the world we live in people just don't ever want to grow up
You know, we were talking about skateboarding this morning. Look, I
Quit skateboarding a long time ago. Okay, and it wasn't just because I grew up
And it's cuz I grew up
I grew this way, right if we that was the joke if I start skateboarding either it's gonna snap or I'm gonna
One of the two is happening
Well, look she was like I'm like you're too old for this
You know, what are you doing? And she's carrying all this weight and it was a small plane
You know
just a little two-seater was one of those ones you had to walk out on the tarmac and go up the ladder and get
in and that's how small it was and she's got her bags and she's got this board and and
She's trying to get on her phone everything else and she's got that hate that helmet just dangling and
Then it got caught on one of the arms in the aisle and I'm watching her the whole time
I'm keeping Linda back like give her room and she's like narrowly missing people with the skateboard
I'm just like what are you doing? And she got that helmet caught on one of those chairs and I said, oh I got you
And I had to let her go and then when we were leaving she sat in front of me
I said can I carry that for you? Can I help you?
Oh, thank you and that helmet gets caught again just like you did before I have to let her go and I thought you know
That's that's the perfect illustration of the of some people's Christian lives
They're hanging on to all these things that they just need to let go of
They've got some childish thing some hobbies some just vain pursuit. That's just it's tangling them. It's getting them caught
They can't get down the aisle. Everybody else is like just try not to lose an eye
You know, everybody else is just trying not to you know, they're just wreaking havoc on the airplane of life
Until and I'm just the preacher come along going let me can I take that helmet and just help you a little bit
That's all I'm trying to do this morning
Just unhook that helmet for you and say maybe you maybe you should either draw the pull the drawstrings a little tighter on that
Or just give up skateboarding, you know
There's a lot of other things in life that that are not gonna sprain your elbows and snap limbs or whatever
You know what I mean? But that's it wasn't that a perfect illustration
I thought it's like that's how so many people live their Christian lives
Hanging on to all this stuff. They're trying to navigate this narrow pathway and
Wondering why they keep getting caught up where they can't get ahead
It's because you need to just let some stuff go and quit getting so entangled with the affairs of this life
careers
politics
You know just you know, maybe it's even you know
Family members relatives. There's all kinds of things that people get snared by in life
You
Know what I love about Luke 8 8 this is this this parable this explanation of the parable at the parable of the sower is
That he ends this parable with another parable. I don't know if you ever noticed that
So he explains this parable or he gets into verse 15
But that on good ground are they which with an honest and good heart having heard the word keep it bring forth fruit with patience
And so that's the explanation and then he's like, okay since you love parables so much verse 16
No, man when you have light at the candle cover it with a vessel or put a fit under a bed
But said if it on a candlestick that they which enter in may see the light and yeah, you know, this wasn't just random
You know, this is related to what he's explaining here
He's saying look, you know, you need to make sure you're the type of person who's got the good ground
You're sewing on good ground. You know, you need to get the weeds out. You got to get the rocks out
You got to be sewing on good ground. You got to have patience
And he uses this illustration at this parable here to kind of make that point
Like God is expecting us to be this light to be fruitful to be that good ground
I mean that's kind of what he's saying. He's like look no man light at the candle and cover with a vessel
You know, God didn't save us and put the light of
his spirit within us
So that we could cover it up and be on fruitful ground. You see I'm saying I mean
Let me bring it into the modern vernacular. Let me use it more of a modern parable, you know
It would be like you going home tonight, you know after church. Okay, that's right. You're going home tonight or whenever
You turn on the floor lamp, so you turn on the floor light
You're gonna sit down, you know, and you're gonna read a book
So you turn on the floor lamp by the couch and then immediately throw a blanket over it
And your spouse is like, what are you doing? I'm reading. Well, why'd you throw a blanket over that?
Why not that would make any sense wouldn't it?
I mean you're lighting that light for a purpose, you know, so you could see what you're reading could see what you're doing
I mean, that's that's kind of what Jesus saying
No one's gonna light a candle and then immediately cover it or put it under a bed under a bushel and cover it up
No, they light that candle so that it can what shine
So that they which enter in may see the light
Okay, and this is what God wants us to do with our lives. He wants us to be that light
You know, God has lit that light in us we are that lamp
And God doesn't want us to cover that up go over to uh
You know, I've got a lot and I just got to hurry up here go over to Matthew chapter 25, Matthew chapter 25
You know, we wouldn't turn that lamp on at home and throw a blanket over it, but you know what that's exactly what quitters do
That's this is a picture of somebody who would quit
That's what they do
God lights the candle and they go. Oh, thanks. Let me just put that in a cupboard
God lights the candle and they just start, you know, frantically licking their fingers trying to get the bulb out
That's what that's the picture and you say that doesn't make any sense
I know but that's what it doesn't make any sense when people quit on God quit serving the Lord either
He said in Matthew 5 here the light of the world a city that is set on hill cannot be hid
Who is the light of the world you are we are?
You know, we are the light of the world neither do men light a candle and put under a bushel
There's that illustration again. Say look you're the light don't hide it
But on a candlestick and again light to all that in the house
Let your light so shine before men that they may see your good works, you know
It's the life that we're living our priorities our works the things that we do that are gonna be that light shining to other people
And glorify your father which is in heaven, you know
If we don't serve God if we don't have the work if we're not putting in the effort, there's no light there
That's like you covering up the lamp. That's you quitting and covering up the lamp and what you know, you might be fine
You know to some degree
But what about all the people that would enter in?
what about the other people that were supposed to see that light that's set on a hill and
Say, oh, what's this about and hear the gospel and get saved?
You know, really that's the that's the thing. It's it's the other people that suffer the most
You know Peter still went back to an empty net, you know, what about what if he just stayed there?
You know, what if he had just taken the oars and gone the other direction and so I'm done
Think about all the people that would never heard his preaching think about all the you know, no day of Pentecost no acts to
You know, maybe you know, someone else could have done it
You know God God could probably found somebody else to do it
You know, but God wants to use us and if we quit on him, it's really the other people that suffer the most
All the souls that will go and save all the all the all of that
That's why it says in second Corinthians 4 if our gospel be hit is hit to them that are lost and whom the God of
This world hath blinded the minds of them which believe not there's plenty of people out there that are just groping in the darkness today
They're just wandering around in some dark room and they need us that that lamp that candle to come along and shine unto them
And help them
You know and you say well, I don't know about that that that's not what I signed up for
Oh, yes, you did
Well, you look God's God's army is not a conscription, you know, or it's not a it's not a volunteer
It is a conscription you got drafted
Right, you didn't have to go into the post office or nothing
When you got saved you got signed up automatically you put your name on that dotted line
Because he redeemed you and the Bible says you're not your own but your life is hidden Christ
And look, there's all kinds of verses we can talk about how we are called out of darkness unto his murmur of light
We are the children of light. We are the children of the day. We are not of night. We are the darkness
We are that light we need to let that light shine not cover it
We need to get those thorns those briars out of his life so we can what bear fruit
We were darkness, but now you're light in the Lord walk as children of light and there's so many other
Chat verses on this but I got to move along for sake of time
In fact, if you would just go over to 1st Corinthians 3 I got to wrap it up I had a polar page but
You know
What am I preaching about this morning? It's not being a quitter, right?
And it's you know, of course, none of us is just gonna be that person that just you know
At least we don't think no one sets out to do this in the Christian life
I'm gonna go to church and get involved in the things of God and then one day I'm just gonna quit
Right, that's not really the crowd I'm trying to preach to it's people that may or may not I don't know
The very least is a warning to those that are low-key quitting in their hearts
You know, they're not as obvious as the rage quitter that you see
And all I'm saying is this, you know, you might disagree you might say well no the cares of this life
It's worth it. You will regret it eventually maybe not on this side of eternity
But people who quit eventually will regret it. I mean it'll take about two seconds looking to the face of Christ
To make you you'll come to that realization real fast I've wasted my life I
Mean we can get all involved in the cares of this life. We can make all kinds of money
We can do it we can do whatever we want
But as soon as we're in heaven and we're looking Christ
Face and that's a reality that that I think some people just need to get in touch with
You are going to see God and give an account one day
I mean the Bible, you know, I skipped a bunch of passages on this where he say hey my reward is with me
You know, I'm going to render every man according to his works, you know, we're all in 1st Corinthians chapter 3
Is that where I had you go is is a is a great example of this
He said in Revelation 22 behold I come quickly and my reward is with me to give every man according to his works
You know, it's and it's not it's not I'm not gonna be standing there there to go through your account and dole out your
What you got coming or what you don't, you know, it's not Pastor Anderson. It's not some other it's no it's you know who it is
It's God
He says I'm got my real works. I'm the one that's going to give to every man
You know, it's easy to disappoint man
You know, but disappointing the Lord that's gonna be that's gonna be a real heartache for people
In eternity look in 1st Corinthians chapter 3 verse 13 every man's work shall be made manifest
For the day shall declare it
Because it shall be revealed by fire and the fire shall try every man's sword of what's work about what sort it is
If any man's work
Which he build there upon shall
Shall excuse me every man's work abide which he hath built there upon he shall receive a reward
Look, it's our labor is not in vain here. You know, it might look like that to the world
They might say why do you spend your your your Saturday afternoon out soul-winning telling people about you know, you're just out spreading your religion
You're gonna go out on say why do you go to church on Sunday? Why do you go to church on Sunday twice?
Are you telling me go to church three times a week? Yeah
Well, what have you got to show for it? Well, you know, I don't I'm not it's not making me any money
It's not you know, it's not it's not putting anything in the bank account for me. It's not why why do you do that?
The world would say there's no value in that but you know what?
There's eternal value in serving God and look folks. It's beyond just going to church. That's like step one. Okay
You know getting our carcass in church at least once a week is like Christian life 101
It's the Bible rate, you know the soul-winning the prayer the raising our families for bringing up the next generation
There's so many more things that we do the world will look at say it's all vain
It's not profiting you. There's no pleasure in that
You know, but that's what they would say. We know that there is pleasure in serving the Lord. There is peace and contentment
there's the fruit of the Spirit and
Eventually, there is a reward right? It's just it's a delayed reward
Right and so many so many some Christians we just need to get off this this instant gratification kick that that the world's got
us on
You know, I can just scroll through a feed and get a dopamine burst right now
You know, I can just pull out my phone and the food will be brought to my door right now
Right, it's just you know people, you know, they were doing these I was reading this book where they're doing the studies about
delayed gratification and
And they did the study with these kids and they had these kids and said look you can have this cookie now or you can
Wait 15 minutes and have two cookies. I can't remember the stats, but there was a certain group of kids
You know, I don't know how it all worked out
but there was a certain group of kids who
Who would you know opt for the 15 minutes later some kids just say well
I can't wait that long and they just bam they eat the one cookie
That you know, you got the one cookie, but you could have had two if you just you know held out
Aren't two cookies better than one
Yeah, amen
Everyone knows that
Right, but hey what in order to get that they had to put some other things off
They had to deny themselves that first cookie
They had to wait for the reward right and they did this study found that the kids that could put off
You know that could put off the second cookie that could wait they had to delayed
Gratification they did better they tracked them. They did better in life their SATs. They had their income
They just they were more successful in life because they learned something early on that it's better to wait for something
That's better and look we could quit on God and go have a very nice life. I mean we live in America
I mean we could have all kinds of things that we want and we could spend our times we could look none of you has
To be here this morning. You could be on the lake wherever there is one
Maybe the golf course. I don't know you could be wherever everybody else is
You could be on some nice hike you could be at home watching the game
You could be doing a lot of other things that would bring you a lot of pleasure right now
You know what being here and hearing the Word of God and serving God and doing and doing the soloing and all that
That's you putting off
That first cookie and waiting look I might not receive all the the rewards now, but you know what you will receive that second cookie
Look, there's another cookie in your future
You're gonna have to die
And
It's not 15 minutes. You know it's like 15 decades or something. No, it's not it's not that long, but
It's it's it's a long delayed gratification right for the judgment day
But look that kid those kids that put off that second for that wait if that second cookie I
You know they probably didn't regret that 15 minutes. I went by I
Guarantee the kids that are watching kids eat two cookies so man. I wish I would have wait 15 minutes
Look we might have to go without a lot of the cares and the pleasures and the riches of this life
But when we get there and we see the Lord and our works abide and he get and he rewards us
When Christ himself has says well done thou good and faithful servant. I mean what earthly reward is gonna compare to that
There's no cookie on earth. That's gonna compare to that
There's just nothing there to hear those words from our Lord himself say well done
I mean don't you like being told well done
Don't you like when somebody says hey good job?
You know well, I don't say that to anybody cuz I don't want to give him a big head
You know some people need to hear that some people need to be encouraged say I'm proud of you. Good job
Well done, that's exactly what the Lord's gonna. Do is you can say hey, you know if we serve him
You know if we decide to be that light if we decide to get those thorns and thistles out of our life if we decide
to avoid that barbed wire
That Satan's got everywhere trying to entangle us in the affairs of this life
And we serve him and we're faithful and we're patient
You know there will come that day where Jesus comes in the room with that second cookie called well done now good and faithful servant
Be thou ruler over ten cities or whatever
You know that's gonna be worth it
No one at that point is gonna. Go. That's it. That's all I got
Man, I could have spent my time so much better down on earth. This is no one's gonna feel gypped on that day
And say boy, what a letdown
So you know that's that's what we have to keep in mind look if we don't want to quit on God
You know we have to understand some things one. You are going to be offended. It's only a matter of time
the you know the Bible is an offensive book because you know our carnal nature is opposed to
The statutes the commandments of God you know we you know we're at odds
And we need to get that right so it's only a matter of time that we're gonna be offended
It's how we're gonna react and we shouldn't get this attitude of I'm not good enough
God can't use me or
that's too hard of a saying you know we need to stick in the battle stay by the stuff and
Serve God and wait for that reward. That's coming in
Eternity you know there that's spiritual reality. That's what we need to get in touch with that's a spiritual reality
That people need to get ahold of that there is a reward that can be earned
But you know what it requires some things of us on this side
If not quitting sticking by the stuff and doing the work of God. Let's go ahead pray