0:00:00 - 0:00:26 I was uh in the middle of a workout here. Um And I had this thought, I figured I'd get it, get it recorded um and be free of it. So, um I've got scriptures and notes here just doing this real quick. Um So, uh there, there are two overarching points I want to make here. The first is the truth leaves clues 0:00:26 - 0:00:57 , I think. Um So in my book through faith, I talk about this. But um I think oftentimes we see uh invitations for improvement as um sort of all of the sudden things and um it, it seems that way almost all the time, but it never is actually that way. And um so uh when, when we have decisions to make God 0:00:56 - 0:01:26 , he graciously makes the right choice. Um He makes us capable of seeing that the right choice is the best choice, but it's very rare that we know by how much. Um But anyway, so, so this is from Luke chapter five. Uh It came to pass those people pressed upon him to hear the word of God. He stood by the 0:01:25 - 0:01:44 Lake of Garret and saw two ships standing by the lake but the fishermen were gone out of them and were washing their nets and he entered into one of the ships which was Simon's and prayed him that he would thrust out a little from the land and he sat down and taught the people out of the ship. All right 0:01:43 - 0:02:03 . So my question is, why did Simon it's Peter, why would he stop what he's doing? We learn in a minute that he had been fishing all night, so he's tired, he's done. He's, he's washing his nets and fixing them, getting ready to close up shop. And then Jesus comes by and says, hey, can you take me out 0:02:03 - 0:02:30 real quick on your ship? Uh There's a lot of people here and they'll be able to hear me better and uh so um Simon does it right. Simon does it. So that's interesting. Um And the question is why? And it wasn't because Jesus was some random guy or, or that Simon, um he wasn't like a guy who was commuting 0:02:29 - 0:02:52 on a highway all the time and he just happened to always pick up Hitchhikers. Um You know, Simon wasn't just in the habit of taking itinerant preachers out on the lake for fun. Um So he actually, he knew Jesus and how do we know this? Well, in John chapter one, it says that his brother Andrew and John 0:02:51 - 0:03:19 , they were the first two to follow Jesus. So they were disciples of John, the Baptist and they were there uh camped out with John listening to him teach and uh John testified of Jesus and um they listened to what John said and followed Jesus and um so he invited them to come with him to wherever it 0:03:19 - 0:03:43 was he was staying. Um And then they went, so it says uh Andrew Simon Peter's brother, uh he went to go find Simon and this is John chapter 141. He said, we have found the Messiah which is being interpreted the Christ. So this is really interesting. I don't wanna get on too much of a sidetrack. But uh 0:03:43 - 0:04:05 people celebrate and study when Jesus asks Peter, who do you say that I am? And Peter says, thou art the Christ, the son of the living God. People celebrate that that happens later in the ministry after Peter has gone through a whole lot and seen a whole lot. Um But here it is at the very beginning and 0:04:05 - 0:04:29 , and uh Andrew his brother, he was a disciple of John the Baptist. He heard John the Baptist testify of Jesus. And he went to see where Jesus was staying. Obviously, they had a chat and from that alone, Andrew believed in him enough to go to Peter and say we have found the Christ like, hey, we found 0:04:28 - 0:04:53 him. He's persuaded already. I do want to say that I realize that there's a distinction between recognizing someone early and rec recognizing someone uh that you're familiar with. So recognizing truth from someone you're intimate with, you know, them well, is really hard. Jesus said a prophet is not 0:04:53 - 0:05:14 without honor, except in his own country and his own brothers rejected him for quite a while. You could read about that in The New Testament. But anyway, um, so I'm not saying that Andrew and Peter's testimonies were equivalent, they were different, but they were valuable in different ways as well. So 0:05:14 - 0:05:34 there's great value in being an early recognizer and there's also great value in being able to spend people think like, wow, if I spent three years with Jesus, it'd be super obvious who he was. Well, you wouldn't last three years. Let's be honest. That's the first thing, but the second thing is you might 0:05:34 - 0:05:53 last three minutes because he would immediately criticize you about something you're doing. You'd say this can't be Jesus like this can't be the Messiah, this guy. He's, he's an arrogant a hole. That's what you'd say. Probably. Um So anyway, that's sort of majority response. But anyway, but Andrew comes 0:05:53 - 0:06:14 up and he's like, wow, this like we thought John was good, this guy, this guy is the one we're gonna follow because we want as much truth as we can get. And this guy is a fountain of it. And so uh Andy believed enough to actually go tell his brother, right. So, um anyway, the point there is Peter knew 0:06:13 - 0:06:41 uh Peter knew something about Jesus already. And so it was on the strength of that previous interaction or interactions with Jesus. And also from Andrew that Peter said, uh OK, I'll take you out in the boat. Let's go. So, um the next thing happens, um let's say I'm just finding my place again. So it 0:06:41 - 0:06:58 says now when he Jesus, when Jesus had left speaking, he said to Simon launch out into the deep and let your nets for a drop. So they were like right offshore. And Jesus was just preaching. He uh can you take me out on the boat? So people can hear me better as soon as they're done. Peter says, let's 0:06:58 - 0:07:21 go out into the lake because you need to go fishing and, and Peter goes um master. So that's interesting. So he's, he's uh recognizing him as a teacher. It's a reverential term. It's not, uh it wouldn't be as weird as what we said today, but um he's just paying respect. He says we've toiled all the night 0:07:21 - 0:07:42 and I've taken nothing. Nevertheless, at thy word, I will let down the net. Now, I'm telling you, if Jesus had jumped in the ship from the beginning and said, take me out into the deep Peter would have said, yeah. You know, look, man, I know, you know, my brother and I know he thinks real highly of you 0:07:42 - 0:08:04 and you seem like a nice guy, but you're crazy. Uh I'm tired. We were out there all night. Sorry. But Jesus was preaching this whole time now. Um God has many purposes in everything he does. He, he doesn't do things for just 11 reason. Um So it's important for all those people to hear what Jesus had 0:08:03 - 0:08:21 to say, but there's an element of this, that's unique, uniquely for the purpose of Peter. And Jesus preached all these things and he knew Peter was sitting right next to him listening. Right. So it'd be interesting to know what he said in that. But unfortunately, we're dealing with the partial record 0:08:21 - 0:08:49 here. Um Is it going longer than I wanted it to? Um So, uh this is a phrase I say from time to time, truth leaves clues. We have serious perception problems as people. Um But God is patient and he admits as much as he can to us, we put up so many barriers and he's just sitting there. You know, if, if 0:08:49 - 0:09:11 the task is, is uh getting water to us, he has unlimited water, right? It'll never exhaust. But um we don't give him much to work with. We put up so many barriers and if he has to um channel that down to like a five gallon bucket to splash us with he will. And if all we let him do is is like flick water 0:09:11 - 0:00:00 on us, that's what he'll do. And he'll just sit there flicking all the time. And uh if we limit that even, and we say look, you get one drop a year and that's it. He'll just sit there and diligently boop one drop every time we'll take it, he'll, he'll give it. And, uh, anyway, so truth leaves clues. 0:00:00 - 0:09:52 He didn't just ask Peter. Hey, take me out into the deep right now. Right? And that wasn't even the final thing with, this is, obviously, is a multiyear process with Peter. And so, um, there are huge implications for our relationship with God and also how we serve others as uh servants of God. You have 0:09:52 - 0:10:21 to recognize when you have one shot, one opportunity and when you're gonna be with somebody for a while, the strategies are completely different. Um The objective is always to bless them as much as they let you. So anyway, um OK, so it says launch into the deep yada yada and Peter objects. Um So he says 0:10:21 - 0:10:40 nevertheless, at thy word, I will let down the net. And so what he's saying is I don't have any reason to believe that that is gonna do a dang thing for me. But look, you've given me reasons to believe that I should do what you say, even if what you're saying doesn't make sense right now. So that's another 0:10:40 - 0:11:05 huge takeaway, right? For both our relationship with God and our relationship with other people. God gives us reasons. He will never ask us to do something that he hasn't already given us ample evidence as to why that's a good idea. And if, if that weren't enough, he gives us resources around us capacity 0:11:04 - 0:11:30 inside of us to uh to reason out even more evidence as to why that present thing is actually the best thing we could do. It's evident. Ok. So faith is not a question of what's called blind obedience. It's just sequential, common sense. That's what faith really is. The problem isn't that there's not enough 0:11:30 - 0:11:54 evidence is that we choose not to admit it, we choose to, to just willfully ignore all sorts of things that are very obvious. Right? So, um, so he goes out and they drop the net and he says when, uh, it says when they had done this, they enclosed a great multitude of fishes and their net break. So that 0:11:54 - 0:12:15 doesn't happen, right? So one, they had no reason to believe they, they had already fished the same spot, whatever all night, nothing. And then they go out, not only they catch fish but their net breaks. It's literally impossible to have a greater abundance of evidence that this was a good idea. Right 0:12:15 - 0:12:38 ? So they Peter Shrewd, he's not an idiot and he tells his buddies on the shore like yo, get your boats over here wherever they were, they were in the other ship so they could come and help get these fish up. And uh, this is also there's takeaways everywhere in this. So if you know a Simon Peter and 0:12:38 - 0:12:55 the guy's nets breaking because there's so many fish you should probably come. Like, do you want fish? You're a fisherman, you're out there fishing, you're not catching anything either. This dude's catching all kinds of fish and you don't know why. You don't know Jesus, your brother's not Andrew, right 0:12:55 - 0:13:12 ? And, uh, but if you see some dude catching fish left and right, like, maybe, and there's no fish anywhere else, maybe you should come and catch some fish. Like you probably shouldn't have to wait for him to beckon. You if you have eyes and you're a fisherman, you should go to where the fish are, right 0:13:11 - 0:13:34 ? So he goes and they help him, they filled both the ships, so they began to sink, so they fill it up. So there's no more room, right? So Jesus gave them incremental clues of truth until they came to a point where even though they didn't understand the details of the particular situation, they had every 0:13:34 - 0:14:00 reason to believe that they should do it. And Jesus responds by overflowing their capacity to receive. God will do this every single time, but you have to go to where the fish are, right? You have to follow the clues and then step by step, you get sequential evidence, you get incremental invitations 0:13:59 - 0:14:22 . The problem is people don't see the bounty of the fish. I'm not talking about in temporal terms like who cares about money. Um People don't see the I mean money is valuable don't get me wrong. But there are things of such greater worth that God has to give. That's the least of your concerns. If you 0:14:22 - 0:14:42 do, if you follow him, everything will work out to your benefit. Whether you're rich or poor, it doesn't matter. Um, they're greater things. But anyway, incremental invitations. But the problem is people stop. They do like one cycle and they're like, man, I'm good. Two cycles. Hey, I'm good. Three cycles 0:14:41 - 0:15:02 . Hey, I'm good. And the thing is, is that God leads you out, right? He always leads you out. He healed the blind man where in Jerusalem where he was hanging out. No, he took him out to the pool of Siloam. Um He always leads you out and as he leads you out, you go further and further and further from 0:15:02 - 0:15:24 what you your starting place of your desire. Because what we desire is not that great. Let's be honest. So if you had to phrase like, what is heaven, it probably has something to do with um knowing what is good and desiring that those two things and that sounds easy. If you reflect on that, you'll see 0:15:24 - 0:15:49 those are deep ideas, knowing what is good and actually wanting it. So these incremental invitations and this sequential evidence that leads us to greater things that we should be desiring. And then of course, the means of uh encountering those outcomes and it's a big deal. So uh Simon's all about the 0:15:49 - 0:16:15 fish. And Peter leads him through these sequences and he's not just saying you want fish. I got some fish. You could have left it at that. This could have been like Simon's like, hey man, thanks, thanks for all the fish. Um I don't know what the monetary value of this was compared to Peter's normal operations 0:16:14 - 0:00:00 , but he was probably set for a little while off of that, but Peter was wise and he responded wisely and he says, hm, this guy is coming as a preacher and, uh, a messenger of truth and, and yet I encountered all these fish by doing what he said, maybe he has something more valuable than fish, right? 0:00:00 - 0:17:03 And so in this moment, uh, not permanently as we know and not unconditionally, but, hey, whatever, um, Peter in this moment detaches from this thing right in front of me that I desire and he transcends to the giver of the thing and he says, oh, you know, like when you have parents, right? And if they're 0:17:02 - 0:17:18 good parents and they give you good things you say, like, you know, I don't really know where mom and dad are coming from on the whole vegetable thing, but they give me presents on holidays and I have a place to live. So maybe they have something to offer me and they're older than me. Maybe they know 0:17:18 - 0:17:35 better than me. Right? If some, if you're a fisherman and you don't catch anything all night. And some dude comes and he tells you, look, go fish over there and say, well, I don't really want to, but I'm gonna do it. And then you catch more fish than you ever have in your life in that moment. Maybe they 0:17:35 - 0:17:52 have something more to give you than fish. When Jesus gave the, uh, miraculously multiplied the loaves and the fishes, the people should have understood. Maybe this guy has more to give me than bread and fish. And unfortunately, all they could think is let's make him a king. And then we have free food 0:17:52 - 0:18:15 forever, right? And it's about the fruit versus the tree, right? So what Jesus offers is the tree. Uh as part of that, he shows you the fruit when people taste the fruit and they're like, man, this is a great fruit. Thanks a lot. See you Jesus and he calls us to greater things anyway. So Peter saw it 0:18:15 - 0:18:38 . He fell down at Jesus knees saying depart from me for I am a sinful man. Oh Lord. And that says so much about who Peter was. It's good stuff. Uh for he was astonished at the drought of fishes that they had taken. And um all right. And so also was James and John, the sons of Ze who were partners with 0:18:37 - 0:18:52 Simon. Maybe they were the guys that came in the other boat. I don't know. Um and Jesus said unto Simon, fear not for henceforth. Thou shalt catch men and when they brought their ships to land, they forsook all and followed him. And that's a neat little story with a bow. But you gotta read the other 0:18:52 - 0:19:12 gospels and realize that there's, there's more like back and forth in this story because like I quoted from John one, there was some prior history and also if you go to Matthew four, it just says Jesus walk. Uh from that time, Jesus began to preach and to say, repent for the Kingdom of Heaven. His hand 0:19:11 - 0:00:00 is at hand. And Jesus walking by the sea of Galilee saw two brethren Simon called Peter and Andrew his brother casting a net into the sea for they were fishers and he saith unto them, follow me and I will make you fishers of men and they straightway left their nets and followed him. No, they didn't. 0:00:00 - 0:19:50 Right. I'm not disagreeing with what it says here. Although I wouldn't mind disagreeing with with what it says here. Um This is obviously not a complete accurate depiction of every single thing that happened. Um But there's prior story, there's backstory. There's things that happened amidst this. There's 0:19:50 - 0:20:13 things that happened after this, maybe this exact event happened. Oh, sorry. Uh I was on one knee that whole time. Oh, maybe this exact thing happened. Um After everything I just talked about, who knows, whatever. But the point is that um Jesus, it wasn't like Jesus started preaching and then he was 0:20:13 - 0:20:30 walking down the beach and saw some random guys, they had no idea who he was and said, oh, come follow me. And then that's the picture you see in your Sunday school class or something. That's not how it works. It's not how it worked and that's not how it works. So finally I just want to underscore so 0:20:30 - 0:20:50 the first point is truth leaves clues and uh that's important uh for our relationship with God and our relationship as disciples of Christ, with other people, servants of God, serving other people. Uh The other point is nothing is all at once. There's this thing, I'm not sure if I publish it in books 0:20:50 - 0:21:09 or it's just in books that hasn't been published. But there's this theme uh or this idea I call all at once. Itis and that's kind of a mouthful. But it's this disease people have of thinking that something has to be all at once or else it's just not real or it'll never happen if it doesn't happen all 0:21:08 - 0:21:28 at once or everything that happens has to happen all at once. And uh it's all that's all false. That's not true at all. Uh Reality is a process, it's a process and you can go deep with this and I won't because I think people think I'm even more crazy than I am in ways that won't benefit them right now 0:21:27 - 0:21:47 . But um when you see things like there's a verse that says the Lord cometh suddenly to his temple. The Lord doesn't do anything suddenly. All right. Oh, he's disagreeing with scripture. Let me ask you this. Well, I'll say it's gonna seem like that and it did seem like that. So this is one of these dual 0:21:47 - 0:22:04 fulfillment prophecies. And when he showed up in the midst of, I think it's a feast of tabernacles, but I don't remember. It might have been actually a Passover anyway, whatever his, his brother say you should go to Jerusalem, even though they wanted to kill you because no one does things secretly if 0:22:04 - 0:22:22 they're really from God and they just kind of taunt him because they didn't believe in him yet. And um, he said, no, I'm not gonna go and then they all go and then he shows up halfway through as a surprise, no one knew he was coming. Well, that you could say that he came suddenly, right? But even he 0:22:22 - 0:22:44 knew he was gonna go, right? Um Well, um the Lord cometh to his temple suddenly. So this is a future event as well. And when he does that, if you were warned about something, thousands of years before it happened, could you say that you're, you're surprised by it, right? It'll be a surprise to some people 0:22:43 - 0:23:01 , but everything is this process with God. And just because you don't see everything that came before and everything that's working up to, it doesn't mean that it happens all at once. It's just you perceive it all at once. And a lot of things with God are like this. But if you saw all things like He 0:23:01 - 0:23:23 does, you'd know it's not all at once. And so this is hopefully obviously related to the truth, leaving clues because so often we miss these incremental cues, we miss them and we don't realize that we are derailing a process that's been carefully laid out for years and years and maybe way longer than 0:23:23 - 0:23:43 that. And maybe a lot of people were involved in this and you missed the boat and I could go into details, but it's, this video is already too long. The point is God works with his people. He works with all of his Children as far as they'll let him. And uh we just, we just need to realize that these 0:23:42 - 0:23:55 things are processes. They're not all at once. The truth leaves clues. We get incremental invitations and there's always sequential evidence. So I may get back to my workout. Have a good one.