GYC SE Spring Conference 2019

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GYC Southeast

Dee Casper

Reviving Your Devotional Life

Sweet Jesus, thank you for this privilege to be here.

Thank you for blessing us with a time of spiritual nourishment the last few days.

And we just pray in this last day and in the closing hours of this day that you would just bless us again.

I pray for clarity and wisdom as we study and we ask this now in Jesus name, amen.

Alright so we're going to walk through the life of John, the disciple whom Jesus loved, and we're going to get some principles on devotions from his experience.

He sought preferential treatment in Matthew and Mark, 2 different accounts where they said, let us, they pull Jesus aside and say, hey, we have something we'd like to ask of you.

We both wanna be on your right and on your left in your glory.

And that sounds like a good idea to them, but Jesus' response is, you don't know what you're asking.

What they're basically asking is to be crucified with Jesus, to be the person on the right and on the left when Jesus is in his full glory giving, because we're told that it's the glory of God to give.

And so anyway, they did not know what they were asking.

In Luke chapter 9, people were not wanting Jesus to be in their city.

Why don't we just call down fire from heaven and destroy these sinners?

And Jesus says, you don't know what spirit you are of.

I didn't come to destroy men's lives but to save them.

He sought exclusivity in Mark chapter 9 and verse 38.

That they hear that other people are preaching Jesus and they said, hey Jesus, these other guys were preaching about you.

We told them to stop it because they don't know the secret handshake.

If they're not against us, they're for us, right?

And then lastly, he stumbled in Jesus's greatest time of need.

Matthew and Matt, or Jesus says in Matthew chapter 26 and verse 31 that all of you will be made to stumble because of me, which implies, you know, all.

Even though John gets his act together and ends up following Jesus after his stumble, they still all fell.

So John had this amazingly endearing tendency though.

Go to Matthew chapter 4 and we're gonna try to walk with purpose.

Right, they're walking, but they're walking with purpose, walking kind of quickly, getting their exercise indoors, pumping those hips back and forth.

We're gonna kind of mall walk through the life of John because I need to point out some principles at the end of this still.

Going on from there, Jesus saw 2 other brothers, James, the son of Zebedee, and who?

In the boat with Zebedee, their father, mending their nets, he called them, and immediately they left their boat and their father and followed him.

Now I find this interesting, that Jesus walks up, a seeming stranger walks up and says, follow me, and they just leave their job, they leave their dad and follow the guy.

But there's something about Jesus that leads this man to follow him wherever he's going.

But there's something about you I want in.

And this is 1 I really need you to pay attention to.

Because we're going to pick up on this theme later.

So it was as the multitude pressed about Jesus to hear the word of God that he stood by the lake of Gennasaret and he saw 2 boats standing by the lake but the fishermen had gone from them, and they were washing their nets.

Then he got into 1 of the boats, which was Simon's, and he asked him to put out a little from the land.

And as he sat down, he taught the multitudes from the boat." So if you've ever been in situations where you're on water, sound carries very well across water.

And people are crowding and kind of stuffing out Jesus.

And so Jesus gets in the boat where there's distance, kind of like from me to you, where it kind of acts as a natural amphitheater.

The sound will travel over and he kind of gets some space to talk freely.

When he had stopped speaking, he said to Simon, launch out into the deep and let down your nets for a catch.

Now just imagine, this is like who knows who this guy is, and he's going to tell seasoned fishermen what to do in fishing.

Verse 5, But Simon answered and said to him, Master, we've toiled all night and caught nothing.

Nevertheless, at your word I will let down the net.

And when they had done this, they caught a great number of fish, and their net was breaking.

So they signaled to their partners in the other boat to come and help them, and they came and filled both the boats so that they began to sink.

Now 1 of the ways in which Bible study can come alive for you is by putting yourself in that situation.

So just imagine visually that you're watching a DVD of this particular event, even better than that.

You're on a sea, there's wind, it smells like fish, and just imagine the sounds you're going to hear.

They never had this good a day of fishing in their lives and this is their job.

Just imagine, you land the biggest contract in the company's history, right?

Yeah, these guys have just caught so much fish, they filled both boats and the boats are sinking.

People have to be hollering, they're excited.

And look at what happens here with this amazing providential goodness of God in the life of Peter.

When Simon Peter saw this, he fell down at Jesus' knees saying, Depart from me, for I am a sinful man, O Lord.

Romans 2, 4 says it this way, the goodness of God leads to repentance.

This undeserved goodness and blessing that he received led him to repentance.

For he and all who were with him were astonished at the catch of fish which they had taken.

So If you're a fisherman and you do this for a living and you're impressed, it must have been a good day.

If I catch a small fish with a snoopy fishing pole, I would be impressed.

But these guys do this for a living, it's a big deal.

So were James and John the sons of Zebedee who were partners with Simon.

And Jesus said to Simon, Do not be afraid, from now on you will catch men.

So when they had brought their boats to land, they forsook all and followed him.

Now just imagine you have a profession and in this profession it involves gathering things.

And the more things you gather, the more money you have made.

They have had the greatest day of their lives because fish equals money for them.

Reviving Your Devotional Life

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