An Exegitical Testimony of Peter (And Nola Baptist)

If you would, go ahead and take your Bible and turn with me to a familiar place, John chapter 21. I know we read earlier from Matthew chapter 16. We'll refer to that passage later on in the message. It has a very large bearing on the message that we'll be looking at this morning, but we'll be examining our old friend Peter again here in John chapter 21. We will examine mostly passages from John chapter 21, but I will reference earlier, or excuse me, I'll reference others. As always, I encourage you to write down other passages for your own personal study.

I encourage you to keep your Bible open to John 21 and just simply follow along with me as we progress through the message. Now for me, I love John chapter 21 for two reasons. Recently, we've just finished John chapter 21 in our verse-by-verse study through John. We learned a lot here in this chapter, a lot about God's grace and patience with His disciples. We saw God's perseverance in His chosen apostles. He persevered for them in kingdom work, did He not, preparing them for their future. And all of this is very, very applicable to us today in our life.

And also, I have studied this chapter for many years for my own personal growth and sanctification. Verses 15 to 17 have been very meaningful for me throughout the years. I have prayed over these verses many nights, many times in a desire to love my Lord, as we see here in these verses. I do not want a mere filet o' love for my Lord. I want a true agape love for my Lord. So these are two reasons why I love chapter 21 very much. Now, there are two pieces of information I need to share, which will help introduce the message this morning. I'll pose for us two questions. First, what type of message will we have here this morning?

We have already covered each verse through our study of the book, so what type of message will we have? We're going to study what I'm calling an exegetical testimony, an exegetical testimony. We will examine Peter's testimony from John 21 and into other passages. Peter had a testimony. Peter has a story to tell, and these verses testify accurately to who Peter was, who he became, and ultimately to what he did. Second, what is the purpose of this message? Now, you know that from time to time, I share messages from an open series.

I call it a running series, and that series is titled "Messages from the Pastor's Heart." These are subjects that I feel need to be covered. Sometimes they're very practical, like dealing with something like giving. Other times, I need to address a subject or a problem or an issue in the life of the church. This morning's message is important for several reasons. First, this speaks to who I am and who I aim to be. This is very personal for me. There are some things that you need to hear concerning me as your pastor. And then second, this message includes you.

This will speak to who God wants you to be and who God wants you to be in the future of Nola Baptist Church. And I'm confident that this will resonate with you spiritually. And I sure want to hear how this message does speak to you. And then third, this message speaks to us as a church. This does pertain to our future, and this speaks to who God wants us to be. It helps us for who God wants us to be. Now, this brings me to the title of our message this morning. It might sound rather strange to you, but it's called "An Exegetical Testimony of Peter." Now, I have to be honest with you here.

I will add to this title at the conclusion of the message. You know that from time to time, I'll give you the title of a message, and then I'll alter it or add to it there at the end. So look forward to that, adding to this title at the end of the message. Now, I want us to make three observations out of Peter's life and out of Peter's ministry. And like I said earlier, we'll be here in John 21. I'll reference other passages. And then later towards the end, Peter's future, we'll turn over a page or two into Acts 1 and Acts 2. Now, let's look at John 21. I'm not going to read all of these passages. I'm going to refer to several of them.

We know them well. I'm going to read a few, and then we'll get started on our message. We know the beginning of John 21. This is the third manifestation of Jesus to his disciples. He had manifested himself earlier in the upper room. Now he is making himself known to them there at the seashore of Galilee. And this was all about correcting them and preparing them and sanctifying them. Now, we know also that in verse 15, Jesus begins to turn his attention to Peter. Starting in verse 15, we have a series of three questions, three responses, and three calls from Jesus to Peter. He questions his love that he has for his Lord.

Peter responds three times, and then three times Jesus calls him to his life's vocation, his calling, his commissioning. He calls him to tend or feed his sheep or his lambs. And then over, starting in verse 18, Jesus ups the ante. He raises the bar in this truly, truly statement. And what does he do? He shows Peter how he would die. He predicts, he tells Peter that he would die of martyr's death. We see that in verse 18 and then in verse 19. And then scholars, Bible scholars, believe that Jesus begins to stand up and walk and move away from this setting at the seashore of Galilee. And then two times he calls Peter to follow him.

He does some more correcting as Peter calls Jesus' attention or attempts to call Jesus' attention to others, specifically John. But I want us to make these observations about Peter, his life, his ministry, and his future. So you see our first observation before you. Notice Peter's disappointments. We have Peter's disappointments. Now, if you think about it, Peter has become this proverbial dead horse for us because we have beat him to death. Have we not? I mean, we have beat Peter to death all through these verses. We have examined Peter in John 21 thoroughly, very thoroughly.

But believe it or not, I believe there's more that we need to learn here from this man, Peter. I believe we can safely say that Peter was warped and frustrated as a disciple right here in this chapter. Yes, I said warped and yes, I said frustrated. And I choose those words carefully. Now, let me continue. And I believe you'll see what I mean. We must see and we must look at Peter's personal maturity. We must look at Peter's personal maturity. Now, we know that Peter was converted way back in Luke chapter 5. Peter leaves his nets. He leaves his vocation. He leaves his old life behind. And he begins to follow Christ.

In John's gospel in chapter 1, Jesus even gave Peter a new name. Now, this indicates a new nature or a new creation in Christ that Peter has become. If we progress along in the ministry of Jesus and the growth of Peter in John chapter 6, as Jesus' popularity is growing, Peter makes a grand profession. When all of the superficial non-believing believers left Jesus, Peter declares that he had left everything to follow Jesus. And the construction of the language shows us that this profession was perfect.

In our verses that we read earlier in our Scripture reading, Matthew 16, when the debate was raging about who Jesus was, Peter made another grand profession. He said that Jesus was the Son of God. Again, another perfect profession from Peter. There's more. In John chapter 13, Peter says that he would die for Jesus. In Matthew 26, Peter says that he would never fall away from Jesus. In Luke 22, Peter even says that he would go to prison for Jesus. And he says here in Luke 22 that he would die for Jesus. In John 18, Peter even tries to defend Jesus with a sword. And I mean, look what we have here at this point. We have a super Christian.

Most churches would stand up and say, "Let's send this guy to the mission field." Most people would say, "This guy is all out for Jesus. Put him on the front lines where he belongs. At least make him teach a Sunday school class." Not so quick. We know the rest of the story. In John chapter 18, Peter denies Jesus three times. He goes on to abandon Jesus while Jesus was on the cross. And in John chapter 21 verse 3, Peter goes back. He goes back to his former way of life. He goes back to being Simon and not Simon Peter as Jesus had called him so much. And I believe there is one word that shows us just how far Peter had fallen back.

Look at John 21 verse 5, the very end of the verse. What had happened? Jesus asked him if they had caught any fish. And they answered, "No." No. What does that word "no" tell us? He couldn't even catch one fish. He was a professional fisherman. He had gone all the way back to this former profession. And that one word there tells us that he is at the very bottom of the bottom of the bottom. And this gives us a great glimpse of his own personal maturity. But then also we must understand Peter's expectation for Messiah. Peter's expectation for Messiah. No Jew in that day expected to promise Messiah to be a suffering and dying Messiah.

They believed that he would be of the house and line of David as the Old Testament Scriptures said. And they expected him to be a great warrior king like King David. In Peter's generation they expected Messiah to expel the Romans and restore them to national prominence and power. They took passages from books like Jeremiah and Ezekiel and Daniel and Zechariah to support this misunderstanding. For the most part, this had always been the Jewish understanding of Messiah, a militaristic Messiah, to restore them to national prominence like days of old. This view was so prominent that a patriotic Jewish party was formed called the Zealots.

Their sole purpose in Peter's day was to resist Rome and they were always ready for an armed revolt. The famous Jewish historian Josephus gives us lots of information about the Zealots in that day. And he tells us of many of their violent reactions against Rome. And history goes on to tell us that the Zealots eventually provoked Rome so much that they inflicted war on the Jews. Now question, am I saying that Peter was a zealot? No. But he sure did not believe in a dying Messiah. He sure did not expect a suffering Messiah. Wow! How do we know that?

In Matthew 16, the verses that I read earlier, when Jesus had been telling his disciples that he would suffer and die, Peter sternly and firmly rebuked Jesus. Why? Why would Peter do such a thing? Peter did not believe in a suffering and dying Messiah. Now what am I trying to show you? Peter was terribly frustrated because of his immaturity and his spiritual condition. Peter had a warped view of the Messiah and it caused him terrible grief which added to this frustration. Simply Peter, right here in John 21, was terribly disappointed because things had not turned out like he thought they would be.

It would be safe to say that nothing had turned out like he thought. Disappointed may not even be a strong enough word here to describe Peter. So what do we see here? This is just a glimpse of Peter's disappointments in his personal maturity and his expectations of Jesus as the Messiah. And this applies to us in a great way. But let's continue. I want us to look at our second observation. Notice Peter's sanctification. We have Peter's sanctification. Now we must see that all of the events in Peter's life from his conversion in Luke 5 until his death, this was all a part of his sanctification.

But specifically in John 21, we see a great work of sanctification in this particular time in Peter's life. This is just a glimpse of a short portion of his life. Now to me, we see this specifically in verses 15 to 17 and then in verses 18 to 22. Now Jesus knew exactly what Peter's problems were. He knew exactly the work that needed to be done in Peter for his sanctification. We see that Jesus deals with Peter's love problem, does he not? Verses 15, 16 and 17. Verse 15, Simon son of John, do you filetio love me or agape love me? Then in verse 16, Simon son of John, do you agape love me?

And then the third time in verse 17, Simon son of John, we've learned that he lowered the standard. Do you even filetio love me? Jesus questioned Peter's love in three questions. Jesus forced Peter to examine the type of love that he truly had for Jesus in these questions. Jesus revealed a type of love Peter possessed. Not what he professed, but what he possessed. Peter admitted that he did not possess that agape love that he had professed that he possessed for some three years. Circumstances in the work of Christ prove that. And so Jesus deals with Peter's love problem. And then Jesus, he revisits Peter's calling. What do we see three times?

What does he say? Ten my lambs in verse 15. A shepherd my sheep in verse 16. And then at the end of verse 17, ten my sheep. Jesus knew that Peter had gone back to his old way of life. He called him Simon instead of this familiar Simon Peter. It was because Peter had gone back to being Simon acting like Simon. He also called Peter back to this calling this commissioning in Luke five. Jesus had called him to become a fisher of men and here three times he is calling Peter back to kingdom work. This was Peter's calling. This was his commissioning. This was Peter's vocation, but he had left it. And that was very, very obvious.

And then Jesus explains Peter's calls. We see that in verse 18, do we not? From verse 18 on down we see that he prophesies the kind of death that Jesus or Peter would die. So here we see that Jesus gets even more serious. Not only does Jesus call Peter to follow him in kingdom work, but he goes on to tell him that he would die because of that kingdom work. Jesus forces Peter to count the cost. I'm sure there were many days when Peter was busy in his ministry. He was wondering if that prophecy would come true on that day. And then Jesus again calls Peter to obedience. He calls Peter to obedience. At the end of verse 19, what does he say?

Follow me. And then after he questioned Jesus about John and Jesus draws a circle around Peter and says, don't worry about anybody else. What does he say at the end of verse 22? Follow me. He calls Peter to obedience. Here Jesus repeats the same phrase two times and we have already seen that Jesus was on his feet. He is walking away from the seashore of Galilee and Jesus is calling Peter to follow him in discipleship. Jesus is calling Peter to obey all that he had put before him, even obedience to the point of death. So what are we seeing here? This is that internal work in Peter. Jesus is correcting Peter.

Jesus is changing Peter as a man, as a disciple and as an apostle. Jesus is recalling Peter. Jesus is reinstating Peter. Jesus knew just the work that Peter needed for his personal sanctification. And I know a lot of this is repeat, but it's very, very applicable to where we're going today. And then our third observation. We see Peter's future. We see Peter's future. Now earlier when we looked at Peter's disappointments, we looked at one verse, verse five. Really, we just looked at one word, that word no, and then we worked our way backward, did we not? We went in a Peter's past.

We started in Luke five and worked our way forward back to verse five in chapter 21. Well, here we will take this one verse, verse 22 in chapter 21, and we will work forward into Acts chapter one and chapter two. We're going to catch up what I call a glimpse of the front end of Peter's ministry. And this is a grand and glorious future, much different than his past, which was filled with grand failures. Verse 22, we see that Peter followed. What does Jesus say? Jesus said to him, "If I want him to remain until I come, what is that to you?" What does he say? "Don't worry about John.

You follow me." Here we see that Jesus commanded Peter to follow. He had repeated this time and time again. We know that he did just that. Yes, he struggled with others around him. He struggled about John. Jesus had to correct Peter when he looked at John, but Peter did obey and follow Jesus. Now question, where was Jesus going? He continued to appear to his disciples over a period of 40 days, teaching them and speaking to them about the kingdom. Acts chapter one tells us this. So Peter was following Jesus during this time after this particular event in John chapter 21. So Peter followed. And then we see that Peter obeyed.

We see that Peter obeyed. Now to see Peter's obedience, we must move forward into the book of Acts chapter one. In Acts chapter one verse four, we see that Jesus commanded Peter and the other disciples to wait for the promised Holy Spirit. It seems that Jesus is repeating that command later on in verse eight as well. Well, what did Peter and the other disciples do? In Acts chapter one verse 12, it states that they did in fact wait as Jesus had commanded. They went into that familiar upper room. And in Acts chapter one verse 13, there is a list of those who were waiting and Peter is on the first. He's on the top of the list. He's first.

So he is first in the line of obedience. And then and then we see that Peter was a leader. Now, if we move forward even more, we are starting to see Peter's future unfold his future as a leader in Acts chapter one verse 15. We see that Peter stands up among the believers and he begins to teach them concerning the events taking place at that particular time. The verse says there were some 120 people that Peter was leading and this is a direct fulfillment of the commands in John twenty one verse fifteen to seventeen. Peter is feeding the lamb. He is taking care of the sheep. He is tending the sheep and lambs of God.

And then Peter began this greater work or this great work. There's more if we continue on in the act chapter two when the Holy Spirit is poured out. Who is it that addresses the crowds of Jews that were there at the day of Pentecost worship and festival? It is Peter. He moves from feeding the sheep tending to the lambs and acts one verse fifteen to twenty six to evangelizing the loss in Acts chapter two. As a result of what the Holy Spirit did through Peter, about 3000 people were added to the kingdom on that particular day. This is a fulfillment of what Jesus said Peter would do back in Luke chapter five.

So Peter is doing what Jesus had called him to do and this was a great and glorious and grand work. Now what are we seeing here? This is Peter's future unfolding. He followed and obeyed. That was something that he had struggled to do after the cross in a terrible way. He was leading the church as Jesus had called him to do. He was fulfilling his calling. He was being used to grow the church numerically as well. We see Peter's great and glorious future as an instrument of God unfolding here right here at the end of John twenty one and Acts chapter one and chapter two. And oh church this applies to us far more than you know.

Now earlier in our introduction I gave us the reason for this message. This comes out of my heart as your pastor. I believe much applies here for me. Much applies here for you. Much applies here for the future of his church, our church. Now start with me first. How does this apply to me? There was a time when I was terribly disappointed in the direction that my Messiah was taking me. I was far more like Peter than any of you might know. See Peter was terribly disappointed in the direction that his Messiah had taken him. And oh there was a time when I was terribly disappointed.

My whole life was shipwrecked because of the direction that my Messiah had taken me. It wasn't that I had my whole life charted out but I sure wasn't going to go where he took me. Many of you know that I left a church, my last full time church under very very difficult circumstances. Very trying. I spent four years, a little over four years, waiting on the Lord. Opportunities came and went. The Lord would allow me to preach, do fill in preaching and that was about it. But four plus years of Psalm 40 verses 1, 2 and 3, just waiting and waiting and waiting. I hated my job. I hated not being in the ministry.

But all the Lord would do was say, "Son, you wait." And I was terribly disappointed in the direction that my Messiah had taken me. To be honest with you, that experience truly revealed to me that I was not as mature as I thought I was. You know what happened to Peter? Those circumstances were not accidental. No, those were providential events in his life and what happened? It revealed Peter for who he really was. And see for me, it revealed to me that I wasn't near as strong and mature and robust spiritually as I thought I was. I want to be honest with you, I almost quit.

I'll never forget the day I can show you where I was when in my heart of hearts I looked to the Lord and I said, "Lord, what can I do to provide for my family outside of the life of the church?" I was tired. I was sick of it. And I wasn't near as mature as I thought I was. I have described it like this. I took one hand off the plow and I was really trying to take both off, but my Lord would not let me. And I believe with all my heart that the Lord put me here at Nola in many ways to rescue me. And then my Lord had to do a great sanctifying work in me and it took time. And listen, he questioned my love for him over and over and over.

Do you Agape love me? Do you Agape love me? He questioned me over and over. He questioned my calling. Are you called? Have I not called you? And he questioned my obedience. And see folks, for over four years I had to question my love for him. I had to question my calling and I had to question whether or not I was going to be obedient even when I did not feel like being obedient. Now right here on this day I want to say something to you and I don't want to sound arrogant. I believe God has a bright future for the ministry that he has given me. I'm hesitant to say my ministry, it's not my ministry, it's his.

Peter had a ministry that was given to him, did he not? He had a bright future and I believe the Lord has a bright future for the ministry that he wants to fulfill through me. I believe God wants to do great and grand things in his church and God wants to use me. Yes, me. Second, how does this apply to you? Some of you have been terribly disappointed in the church in the past. Some of you have come from non-churches truthfully. Listen folks, just because it's red bricks and it has a steeple doesn't mean it's a church. How many people are tricked by that? There are many of you, you've come from non-churches.

There are people in the life of our church that have been led by men who are not called. There are people in the life of our church who have been led by ministers and so-called leaders in the church who are not even saved and born again. You know some people question, should we reflect back on our past? Yes, there has to be a healthy time where we reflect back because we must learn from where we have been. We must grow from where we have been and God allows us to go through circumstances because he wants to use those times to form us for the future. And our past does have an effect on our future.

Some of you have had a long road to sanctification in the area of your church life. In this journey, you have been asked these three questions whether you know it or not. Do you love him? Do you agape love Jesus? Will you obey your calling to be faithful to the work of the church? And will you obey no matter what? See, what happens is when you go through difficulties in the past whether you know it or not, you're afraid to commit, you're afraid to trust, you're afraid to pour your whole life in the life of the church. Why? Because of what's happened in the past.

See, there needs to be an inner work in you so you will not give up on the church. I think about a story that I heard a few years ago and it involved two ministers. And I reacted to this story in two ways. You know, short period of time, probably within about a two or three month period of time, a minister friend of mine was telling me about two other ministers that I know. I know that might be complicated. And these two ministers had left their churches. They were pastors. And I said, "Why did they leave?" And my friend went on to say, "They were just tired of the drunk." And oh, my heart went to the bottom of my stomach.

And I said, "How in the world can you quit if God had called you?" And I immediately thought about how I used to be and the fact that I almost threw in the towel. I heard a preacher say it like this, "He threw in the towel but God threw it back." And it just broke my heart. And see, I know that we can all get that way. We can get to the place where we do not want to commit to this work. The Lord Jesus would not let Peter stay where he was. He had to engage in the work of the church. And some of you need to see that God has a great and grand future for you in the life of the church.

God wants to sanctify you and grow you and mature you because God wants to use you. God wants to use you. Who is going to teach Sunday school? Who is going to teach vacation Bible school? Who's going to be a man who is a model for young people in the life of the church? Who's going to be a deacon? Who's going to manage things in the affairs of the church? Who's going to raise their kids to love the Lord and send them into the mission field? It just goes on and on and on and on. God has given us the work of the church and He wants to do great and grand things through you. And then third, how does this apply to us? His church.

I say His church because this is His church, Nola Baptist Church. There have been many disappointments at Nola in the past. I know that. Some I know of and some that I do not know of. And I don't mean this, that I would lower the standard, but there will be more in the future. The church is people. Redeem people, yes, but we're still sinful. Now listen to your pastor here. Peter was terribly warped and frustrated because he had a warped expectation of the Messiah. One of the greatest challenges for many people, even in the life of the church, is they can have a warped and frustrated expectation and view of the church.

Don't allow yourself to be warped and frustrated because you have a flawed expectation of His church. We are always to be about having our wrinkles ironed out and our expectations of the church. I'll tell you two stories that might help you here. It helped me. A couple of years ago, my wife was in town in Brookhaven and an older lady that we know, we loved dearly, came up to my wife and she asked my wife if we were still out here in Nola, in the country. My wife said, "Sure, yeah." She said, "Oh, I'm so sorry." Now that could be terribly insulting, but she didn't mean it that way. I know what she meant. But what did my wife say?

We don't view it that way. This is where God wants us to be. Why? Because God has placed us here and we have a God-size and a biblical view of the church. And I'm so sorry to say that this lady had a warped view, a distorted view of the church and of the ministry and what that should look like. I'll tell you another story. Back in February when I was at Grace Live Church in Muscle Shoals, the true church conference. Now, I know that you've not been there other than Brother Keith. Let me explain to you what goes on there. It's two things. It's the missions conference. They bring in their missionaries from all over the world.

So you meet missionaries, whether they're from Utah or church planners from North Mississippi, to people around the world who can't even speak English. They bring them all in and it's a missions conference. But there's always a preaching theme around the local church. So I was there this year and I've been many, many, many years and slowly easing our church into partnering with Grace Live Church and Anchoring Truth and what God is doing there. Now, I'm not holding them up as perfect. No. Because their church is full of people too, redeemed people, but yet sinners. And I'm sitting there in my normal seat. I sit at the same place every year.

And all that we've been studying here is in the back of my mind. And all that God had done there was in front of me. And it was as if the Lord said to me, "It works. It works." The work of the church works. If you do it biblically, if you do it right, if you keep your nose to the grindstone, this work works. It's not a hope so. It's not rolling like rolling dice. It's not like the lottery. You just hope you win. No. If you do it God's way, it works. Now, what am I trying to show you here? Many times we have a warped view of the church or expectations or they're just awful little. And what I'm trying to show you is this.

Yes, we've had disappointments in the past. We will have struggles in the future, but God has a great plan. I've stated numerous times, John 21, John chapter 20, that we have individual sanctification and corporate sanctification. Here in Nola Baptist Jesus will do for us what he did for Peter in verses 15 to 22. I believe for us as a body, as a church, he will ask us this question, "Will we agape love Jesus?" I believe for us in the life of the church, he will ask us this question, "Will we obey the biblical calling for the church?" Isn't that what those men had to do? They had to die to their expectations of the Messiah.

Will we obey the biblical calling for the church? And I believe he will ask us, "Will we count the cost to pay any price?" Will we count the cost to pay any price? See, for Peter, life meant embracing death, did it not? After verse 18, Peter was never the same. He knew death was coming. And he was arrested. Do you think he thought death was coming that day? When he was persecuted, do you think he thought, "Hey, death might be coming on that day?" For Peter, life, life in God's work, it meant embracing death. And for us at Nola Baptist Church, the same applies.

Will we be obedient as the people of God in the manner in which Christ wants us to be for the life of the church? And listen, folks, life always means a certain amount of death, always. And then last, in this application, our future, I'll go back to Peter. I was sharing this with Brother Keith yesterday. Imagine with me what Peter must have been saying to the others right there in John 21 on the seashore of Galilee. Total failure. He'd bought it all. What did Jesus keep saying? "Feed my sheep, Peter. Pretend my lambs. Follow me." I just imagine maybe Peter looked around at the other disciples and he was honest. He said, "Me?

I can't even follow him. I denied him. Me? I quit. I went back and I found a boat. And I fished all night. And I didn't even catch one fish. Me? I've got to believe that Peter felt like that. But I don't believe Peter stayed that way very long because of the sanctifying inner work that God did in him. And then we see when we step over in Acts chapter 1 and chapter 2, we see that grand future, that grand ministry begin to unfold. What a difference between Acts 2 and John 21. And see what about our future at Nola Baptist Church. I believe we have a grand future, a great future.

And I believe that God wants to do many, many things here and around the world through us. Yes, us. Now at the beginning of the message, I said that I would add to the title of the message. I'm going to put this on the screen. What are we looking at? An exegetical testimony of Peter. That's what we looked at at the beginning. A lot of that information was repeat, but I did add a lot more. But what do I add to the title? I have to be personal. Really and truly it's my exegetical testimony in many ways. Some of you have heard those details. They need to be repeated at times.

But I believe for some of you, you've gotten honest already by the help of the Holy Spirit. You've seen that it's our exegetical testimony. And I believe we can see ourselves individually here in these verses. And I believe we can see Nola Baptist Church here in these verses. Now a couple more words about our series for the summer. I have purposely not announced where we will be going when we finish John. I did mention that we would revisit John 21 at least once. I did not know how many times. This will be our only message in John 21 as far as I know.

But this summer we will be in this open series, this running series called Messages from the Pastors Heart. Now I might sound braggadocious, but I'll be honest with you. You don't want to miss one. This pertains to who we are. This will speak to our future. I encourage you to listen to the messages. If you miss, I encourage you to acquire my notes, listen to the messages online. If someone is not here, many people are not here because of vacation and family commitments, you encourage them to go and listen and share with them how the Lord has spoken to you today, even some of the questions He's started up with you.

A little more information that pertains to the series. Brother Keith and I yesterday were talking about some scripture out of the book of Joshua that speaks to where we are. Truthfully, this comes from a message that Brother Keith preached about a year ago. It's called Monumental Worship out of the book of Joshua. Yesterday, when I finished studying and I needed a break for a while, I went for a run. Now when I run, I usually don't listen to music. It might seem strange to you. I listen to sermons. Now I don't hear everything, but God uses it.

So when I went and I ran yesterday, I found Brother Keith's message on the church website, made sure I had it, and I listened. It really spoke to me. I want to borrow some of the wording that Brother Keith used in that message. I believe these messages before us are monumental messages. I believe these messages pertain to a monumental summer, and I believe these messages pertain to a monumental future. I'll speak more along those lines as we proceed. I'll use that language even more, and I'll even borrow more from that message. Let's pray.