Welcome to the daily disciple podcast, where we seek daily to be with and to become like Jesus, our teacher. Good morning everyone and welcome to this season of the podcast where we are spending every day with Jesus. So good to be together. I've got my Bible open to the Gospel of John chapter 21.
We'll be there in just a moment, but the title of the podcast this morning is yet a second time. And what we are wondering, and if we're not wondering this, we have wondered it. And if we haven't wondered it and we're not wondering it, we will wonder it eventually. But we're wondering what has happened in my relationship with Jesus.
How did I run into this wall? How did it get cold? Where did that loving feeling go? What did I do wrong?
Or I can't believe I did that, acted like that, chose that. Or what's happened in my relationship with my best friend? Or my spouse? Or my business partner?
Or my son? Or my daughter? Or my mom? Or my dad?
What's happened? It got weird. It got hard. Where did that loving feeling go?
What did I do? Or I can't believe I did that. I can't believe I chose that. Or what's happened in my ministry, my small group, the team I'm leading, the team I'm coaching, the thing I'm trying to build.
It was like it was so smooth. There was so much joy. I was loving it. Now it's just so sneaking hard.
It's like I'm pushing water uphill. I'm against the ropes. I'm getting beat up. I want to throw in the towel.
Or if I'm honest, I've thrown in the towel. And so let's ponder this question, this wonder for a moment in the presence of Jesus. What happened in my relationship with Jesus? What happened in my relationship with my friend?
What happened in this endeavor? I just run into a wall. And as we begin to think about this, we really can relate to Peter. One of Jesus's best friends, because if you remember early on in the ministry of Jesus, Jesus said to Peter, Peter, follow me.
And Peter dropped his nets and said, yes. And followed Jesus. And then three and a half years later, right as Jesus was about to be crucified, the going got tough. And Peter failed.
Peter floundered. Peter fell in his sword. Peter denied Jesus three times. And I'm sure he was thinking, Oh my gosh, what happened in my relationship with Jesus?
What was I thinking? I can't believe I did that. What's going on? And some of us are thinking about that right now.
What happened in my relationship with Jesus? How did it go cold? I can't believe I did that. What did I do?
What happened in my relationship with my friend, my spouse, you know, what happened? What happened in that ministry? It was going so smooth. I'm running into a wall.
I can't believe I did that. How could I have missed that? How could I have chosen that for so long? And in John chapter 21, after the resurrection of Jesus, Jesus and his resurrected body just pulls up next to Peter on the beach.
They eat a meal together. And Jesus says to Peter three times, do you love me? And Peter says, yes, three times. And then Jesus says, then feed my sheep, feed my lambs, feed my sheep.
And of course, Jesus is doing this three times because Peter denied Jesus three times. So it's a restoration. It's a forgiveness. Yes, you've run into a wall.
Yes, you've floundered. Yes, you've failed. And now I am coming to you yet a second time. Just like the Spirit of God, the Word of the Lord came to Jonah, yet a second time.
The Word of the Lord came to Jonah the first time and Jonah floundered. He failed. He ran the opposite direction and there he was on the shore, wet, and wondering what have I done? What happened?
I can't believe I did that. And the Word of the Lord came to Jonah yet a second time. And Jonah, not only did Jonah give a yes, but he gave a new yes. On the shore here next to the Sea of Galilee, not only did Peter give a yes, but he gave a new yes.
And what the Spirit of God is doing with us right now, as he comes to us yet a second time, is he's inviting us not to just give a yes, because we already gave a yes before, to Jesus, to marriage, to that endeavor, to that friend. It's time to give a new yes on the heels of forgiveness and fresh vocation and clarity, because see the reality is we all fail. Initially, we all fail and whether we must fail or not, I don't know, but we do fail and we run instead of stay. We talk instead of listen or we over talk instead of listen.
The grudges, large ones are small ones instead of letting go and forgiving. We run over people. We discipline our kids in anger or not at all, and we end up hurting them. We hit hard times.
We get scared. We get addicted. Life happens and we make this decision or that decision and we stay in that rut or that sin too long. And we hurt the very people or the very endeavors that we love and that we're called to be about.
And the Word of the Lord came to Jonah yet a second time. Jesus came to Peter yet a second time. And I want to read just two verses. John 21 verse 18, very truly I tell you, when you were young Peter, you dressed yourself where you wanted.
But when you're old, you will stretch out your hands. And someone else will dress you and lead you where you do not want to go. And Jesus said this to indicate the kind of death by which Peter would glorify God. And then he said to Peter, follow me.
That's the second time that Jesus said that to Peter. Follow me. Peter's already given a first yes and now it's time to give a second. Yes.
And the first yes is great as we know, but it's an immaturia. It's a yes without really knowing what yes means. It's an uninformed yes. But the second yes, Peter, follow me is an informed yes.
It's a mature yes. It's a yes now. I know what yes actually means. And yes, now I know that yes means a death.
And that's what Peter is meaning. I'm sorry. That's what Jesus is meaning. With Peter, Peter, when you were young, you did what you want.
You did it the way you wanted. You were about meeting your own needs. You wanted other people to suffer. You did it the way you wanted.
And how has it worked out for you? Not well. I know, but I'm here. Don't worry.
I'm here with repentance, with forgiveness and with fresh vocation. And now you're going to be led where you don't think you want to go. It's the route of the cross. But the resurrection follows the cross.
And as we give the second yes, we get to experience resurrection in our relationship with our friends, our spouse, our sons, our daughters, even our relationship with Jesus. It's an invitation to truly commit, to truly love, to truly die. This, the word of the Lord came to Jonah, the word of the Lord came to Peter. The word of the Lord came to you and I get a second time.
It's an opportunity to actually love them more than we love ourselves, which we didn't before. It's an opportunity to meet their needs as opposed to manipulating them to meet our needs. It's an opportunity to suffer instead of intentionally or unintentionally causing them to suffer. And we're ready to give that second yes, because now as a result of failing and floundering and falling on our sword and doing what we've done, we know ourselves a little bit better.
We know Jesus much better. We know them much better. And it's this new yes, this the word of the Lord is coming to us. Yes, second time.
And I want us to recognize this this morning. And I want us to buy the power of the Spirit, recognize that in our relationship with Jesus, with friends, that small group, that thing that we're called to do, there's going to be a cross-shaped pattern. We're going to have to die. We're going to have to be led where we don't want to go so we can end up where we do want to go in that resurrection life.
So that's the invitation. So let's walk and let's talk with Jesus today. Let's ponder this with him. Maybe journal a little bit about a certain relationship or a certain endeavor.
And let's just have our mind and our heart and our lives open today with how Jesus, the Spirit of God, is saying, yet again, will you follow me? And our answer is yes. And it's a new yes. And it's a second yes.
And let's give and let's live that yes with Jesus today. We'll talk tomorrow. Thanks for listening to the daily disciple podcast. We truly hope that you were encouraged by it today.
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