If you would pick up your scriptures and turn first to Psalm 127, we're going to be flipping through so if you need to see it, keep your finger there, I'll put your finger somewhere else and then somewhere else, then you should be good for the Psalm 127. I hope as we read these scriptures that you will see the vein and the pain in trying to do things on our own. Psalm 127, unless the Lord builds the house, those who build it labor and vein, unless the Lord watches over the city, the watchman stays awake in vain, it is vain that you rise up early and go late to rest, eating the bread of anxious toil for he gives to his beloved sleep. Turn with me then to Ecclesiastes chapter 2. Here a Solomon tells us about his pursuit. Chapter 2. I said in my heart, come now, I will test you with pleasure, enjoy yourself. But behold, this is also vanity. I said of laughter, it is madden of pleasure. What use is that I searched with my heart, how to cheer my body with wine, my heart still guiding me with wisdom and how to lay hold on folly. Till I might see what is good for the children of man to do under heaven during the few days of his life. I made great works, I built houses and planted vineyards for myself. I made myself gardens and parks and planted them in all kinds of fruit trees. I made myself pools with which to water the forest of growing trees. I bought male and female slaves and had slaves who were born in my house. I had also a great possession of herds and flocks, more than any who had been before me in Jerusalem. I also gathered for myself silver and gold in the treasures of kings and provinces. I got singers, both men and women and many concubines, the delight of the sons of man. I became great and surpassed all who were before me in Jerusalem, also my wisdom remained with me. Whatever my eyes desired, I did not keep from them. I kept my heart from no pleasure, from my heart found pleasure in all my toil and this was my reward for all my toil. Then I considered all that my hands had done and the toil that I expended in doing it and behold all was vanity and a striving after the wind and there was nothing to be gained under the sun. Finally, we go to the Gospel of John, chapter 21, Gospel of John, chapter 21. After this, Jesus revealed Himself again to the disciples by the sea of Tiberius and He revealed Himself in this way. Simon, Peter, Thomas called the twin, Nathaniel, Cainon, and Galilee, the sons of Zebedee and the two of the other disciples were together. Some in Peter said to them, I'm going fishing and they said to them, well, we'll go with you. They went out and got into the boat, but that night they caught nothing. Just as they was breaking Jesus stood on the shore, yet the disciples did not know that it was Jesus. Jesus said to them, children, do you have any fish? They answered Him, no. He said to them, cast the net on the right side of the boat and you will find some, so they cast it, and now they were not able to haul it in because of the quantity of fish. The disciple whom Jesus loved therefore said to Peter, it is the Lord. When Simon Peter heard that it was the Lord, he put on his outer garment for he was stripped for work and threw himself into the sea. The other disciples came in the boat, dragging the net full of the fish, where they were not far from the land, but about a hundred yards off. When they got onto the boat, they saw a charcoal fire in place with fish lay on it and bred. Jesus said to them, bring some of the fish that you've just caught. The Simon Peter went aboard and hauled the net ashore, full of large fish, 153 of them. Although they were so many, the net was not torn. Jesus said to them, come and have breakfast. Now none of the disciples dared ask who are you. They knew it was the Lord. Jesus came and took the bread and gave it to them and so with the fish. This was now the third time that Jesus was revealed to the disciples after he was raised from the dead. I pray, Father God, thank you for your scriptures. I pray that you would bless not just the reading and the preaching and the hearing of them, but the living of them thereafter, that you would give us a boldness with what you teach us. We love you and we praise you. We ask this in Jesus name. Amen. Well, I had every intention this morning of talking about that beautiful scene on the beach where Peter is restored and to talk about how wonderful God's forgiveness is. If you've ever failed God before, it's such a powerful and needed message which we'll look at next week. We won't look at it this morning because I realized in order to get there before there's any restoration, we have to come to an end of ourselves. That's what we'll be this morning. Yes, God is going to provide, but first we have to come to an end of ourselves. The outline this morning is pretty simple. We're going to use Peter and his disciples as our example for two truths. The first truth that we'll look at is when we're busy doing what we want in our own strength, we will be unsuccessful. We will be frustrated. The second truth is when we're busy doing what God wants in his strength, we will always be successful. The title this morning is busy doing what? One of the most frustrating things in life is when you're busily going in the wrong direction. If it wasn't for my wife, if it wasn't for Bruce Carr and if it wasn't for a GPS system, I would waste most of my time going in the wrong direction. I have one example that was before GPS, matter of fact it was before my wife and before I knew Bruce Carr, me and my best friend want to a pirate's game. I was driving home to our home in Youngstown, and my best friend Aaron gave me directions. He said, this is the sign that you need to look for and that's where you get off. Then Aaron went to sleep. So there I was driving looking for this sign to get off. Guess what? He gave me the wrong directions. There was no such sign. So guess what I did? I kept driving and I kept driving and it was hours later. Mind you, we should be in Youngstown at this point. Aaron wakes up. Where are we? And I just kept right on driving. So you could imagine the fight that ensued because I was going in the wrong direction because I had the wrong directions. It's frustrating because we waste time. It's frustrating because we waste energy when we're doing something wrong or we have the wrong directions. I'm sure men, some of you would admit that you spent hours on a project only later to discover you did it wrong and have to tear it all apart and start from scratch again this time with the direction. The reality is if we're spending time and energy, if we're busy doing something, we want it to be worth it. I would ask you this morning, is your busyness worth it? But I'm afraid that's too easy a question and I think we're so easily deceived to think that our busyness is worth it. So let me ask you a more pointed question. Are you busy making disciples? Hear that? Are you busy making disciples? That's the ultimate question. That's our purpose. That gives us the proper perspective on why we're here this morning. The next couple of weeks we'll be looking at the Great Commission. It's what Jesus left his disciples to do. It's what he left us to do. If I could summon all up in one phrase and one command and one action, it's this. Make disciples. That's our call. That's our role. That's our purpose. That is the main thing is to make disciples. So, do the things that make us busy have anything to do with Kingdom work? Do they have anything to do with making disciples? Are the things that keep us busy encouraging us, equipping us, helping us to make disciples? How many of you have said this, either out loud or silently to yourself? I don't have time. I'm too busy to, and then you fill in the blank. Listen to this. I'm too busy to have a quiet time. I'm too busy to go to church, too busy to go to Sunday school, too busy to teach Sunday school, too busy to do family worship, too busy to pray with my wife, too busy to pray with my kids, too busy to go to Wednesday night, too busy to make a commitment, too busy to use my spiritual guests. Have you ever said that? If we are to be about making disciples, if that's our role, these are things that we have to. Do you hear me have to make time to do? If we're not in the Word, if we're not making time to be in the Word, we're not equipped to make disciples. If we're not doing family worship, we're not making disciples. You see how critical this question is? As you look over your weekly schedule, is your busyness worth it? Listen to how our passage starts and how it ends. After this, Jesus revealed Himself against the disciples, and He revealed Himself in this way. And then verse 14 says this. It was the third time that Jesus was revealed to the disciples. Did you hear a word that stood out? Let me just read it again. Listen to a word that stands out. After this, Jesus revealed Himself again to the disciples. He revealed Himself in this way. It was the third time that Jesus revealed Himself to the disciples. You see what words standing out revealed? John is highlighting this word. This word means to manifest Himself, to make Himself known, to cause Himself to be seen. We have to understand that this is a very unique time in history. This is right after the resurrection, and Jesus is no longer just walking with the disciples like He did before. Now we see Him in Scripture. He appears and then He disappears. And you see accounts of people that are walking with Him and don't even know it's Him. And you see accounts of their face to face with Jesus and they don't know it's Him until what? Until He reveals it. Until He makes Himself manifest. And here's an account. Jesus is saying, I'm going to reveal myself to them. You see, even though it's a unique time in history, it's still the same principle for us today. We won't see Him unless He reveals Himself to us. We'll miss Him unless He reveals Himself to us. Matthew tells us that the disciples had one instruction. This was the only instruction they had before Jesus died. Go to Galilee, go to the mountain and wait. Sounds pretty simple, right? That's where I will reveal myself. Go to Galilee and wait on the mountain. They're not in a mountain. They're not on a mountain. Are they in our passage? And here we see, I think, the beautiful grace of Jesus. They're not where they're supposed to be. They're not where Jesus told them to be, but He still goes out and finds them. He doesn't give up on them. He doesn't say, oh, I'm on the mountain. They're not here. No, He goes and finds them even though they're not where they're supposed to be. So the question is, why aren't they on the mountain? Why aren't they where Jesus told them to be? One of the hardest things for a Christian to do, it is one of the hardest things for a Christian to do. Wait, it's the hardest thing. Even that little pause, you are getting uncomfortable. You're like, well hurry up. Did He forget what He's going to say? No, I don't know. You, I know you. It's the hardest thing for us to do. It's to wait. Let me try to help us put ourselves in Peter's shoes here. He denied Jesus. It seems like Jesus has failed them. And He's discouraged. He finds himself without hope. He's getting impatient because Jesus is nowhere to be found. And His mind is thinking, excuse me, this whole Jesus thing didn't turn out the way that I plan. Why should I hang around and wait? He feels the need to do something. You see, when we get impatient, we have the need to do something. We have this desire to do something. So what does Peter do? He goes back to what he knows. He goes back to his default. He goes fishing. And listen guys, I'm not saying fishing is a bad thing, but it's not what he was supposed to be doing. He was supposed to be there waiting for Jesus to come. It gets tired of waiting. It gets impatient. And he reverts back to what comes natural. If we get tired of waiting for Jesus to act, if we get tired of Jesus waiting to hear from him, and we revert back to what comes natural, that's naturally not going to turn out good. It's not going to turn out right. How many times have we found ourselves in a bad situation because we didn't wait on the Lord? There's a passage and don't turn there because I'm going to have you guys jumping around. Listen to this passage. You can write it down and look at it later. This is from Jeremiah chapter 6. This is verse 16. Stand by the roads. Wait for me. Stop what you're doing and stand there. And look and ask for the ancient past. If you see, stop. Talk to me. Find out which way you want to go before you start running off. Where the good way is and walk in it. And you'll find rest for yourselves. Stop. Ask him. And when he tells you, then go and you'll find rest. Doesn't it seem like a no brainer? Okay. That's what we should do. Let's stop. Ask him. And when he tells us where to go, we'll go. Listen to what the next verse says. But they said we will not walk in it. Jesus, God here is offering them rest. He's saying this is what you need to do. It says no. We're not going to do. That's what Jesus did for Peter. So he did just for the disciples. Go wait for me on that mountain. And what's Peter do? He says no. Peter moves without hearing from the Lord. And even worse, he drags others with him. Unfortunately, the old saying is true. Misery loves company. When we are in a bad place, we want other people to be with us. We want to drag others down with us. And the sad fact is that there's always somebody that's willing to be dragged down with us. You see that? Unfortunately, this works for the good and the bad. When you're right with God, when things are going good in your relationship with God, you surround yourself with other people that their relationship, you feed off of each other and you want to grow together. And then when you're not doing good in your walk, when you're not where you're supposed to be. You stay away from those people because they convict you. You stay away from those people because they make you feel better. So what do you want to do? You want to make yourself feel better so you drag. Maybe you can drag some of them with you. Did you see? That's what Peter does here. He says I'm going fishing. Heck with waiting around for Jesus. Where? Where is he? He's abandon us. Let's go do what we know. Let's go fishing. We'll go with you. Is there a response? Notice the other disciples don't even question Peter. They don't stop and pray. They don't stop and ask. They don't stop and say, uh-huh. Jesus told us to wait here. Let's wait. They just go. How many times have we moved ahead? How many times have we tried to keep our busy ourselves busy just for the sake of being busy? Let me read this to you from Ecclesiastes. I'm just going to we read a bigger part. Let me just shrink it down. Vanity of Vanities says the preacher Vanity of Vanities all is vanity. What does man gain by all the toil which he toils under the sun? I kept my heart from no pleasure. My head my heart found pleasure in all my toil and this was my reward. I considered all my hands had done the toil and doing it and behold all was vanity. Astribing after the wind and there was nothing to be gained under this you see how depressing vanity vanity chasing after the wind. How many of us aren't listening for God's voice. We're not listening to what he wants us to do and we're just chasing around. We're just staying busy for the sake of staying busy and he's saying you're just going to keep chasing after the wind. It's vanity. It's meaningless. If you're not doing it in his strength in his power according to his direction it ain't going to work. And that's with the disciples. These guys are fishermen. They know where to find fish. They know how to do. Do you realize how frustrating this must have been for them? Let's go fishing. Yeah. That will. Yeah. Let's be productive. Nothing. They caught nothing. Vanity of vanities. Do you see trying to highlight for us this morning? Are we busy? Just being busy? Are we busy making disciples? Are we busy doing what we're supposed to be doing? I love how Jesus asked this question. This is how Jesus works. He asked he asked questions to reveal our need to reveal our failure to often make us admit and confess when we've got it wrong. This is in the Greek. This is in a sense what he says. You don't have anything to eat. Do you? It ain't working out for you. Is it? Are you guys satisfied? Are you are you happy? Is chasing after what you wanted. Has that fulfilled you? Jesus is trying to show them. You can't do this on your own. Their disobedience and waiting and taking things into their own hands has been a complete failure. Without me, you can do nothing. I hate to keep jumping around, but God says it better than I do. Listen to this. Unless the Lord builds the house. Those who build at labor in vain. Unless the Lord watches over the city, the watchman stays awake in vain. Listen to this. It's vain that you rise up early and go to bed late to rest. Some of us are killing ourselves, staying so busy, so busy, so busy for what? Is it to make disciples? Is it to get closer and draw closer to God? Are we just staying busy to keep up with the Joneses? Are we just staying busy to stay busy? Do you see? I ask you to allow this divine review to the disciples to be a warning to us. What Christ does not ordain. He will not. Listen to this. You guys know this. Apart from me, Christ is speaking. Apart from me, you can do nothing. Not some things pretty well and maybe he'll bless it. No, nothing. You can do nothing. Nothing of eternal value will come from our busyness of doing things that he hasn't told us to do. We shouldn't be surprised to read that they caught nothing because that's not what they were supposed to be doing. This word for caught, to me, is so intriguing. It's the word piazo. What it means is to take hold of, to seize, to grasp. Nowhere in the New Testament is this word used for fishing. It's never used to seize fish except here. It's always used to seize a person, whether it was Christ, whether it was Peter, whether it was Paul, even in Revelation, it's used in referring to seizing the beast. Do you see what I'm getting at here? What he's doing here is there symbolism here. This has nothing to do with fishing. Do you get that? They're supposed to be what? Fisher's of what? Man! Jesus has changed their focus. You're no longer to be fishing for fish. You're supposed to be seizing men. You're supposed to be grabbing men. You're supposed to be making disciples. What the heck are you doing in the boat? Do you see our study on Wednesday night said the very first thing. It was the first thing that we looked at this last Wednesday night. Any real significance, any life altering significance, any change that's going to happen in anybody's life has to be done by the Holy Spirit. Do you see what's happening here? You guys can't go catch men. You can't go seize men. You can't grasp men without the Holy Spirit. Remember this unique time. The Holy Spirit hasn't come yet. They're supposed to be waiting there for Jesus to come to give them more directions and they go out doing it on their own. Jesus said, no, the Holy Spirit's work. You're going to continually be frustrated. You're going to continually be busy, being busy, unless you're doing what I told you to do. I wonder how many of us are going out each and every day on our own strength. I spent most of my time on that first question because I think it's needful. Second question should go a lot quicker so don't worry. What I do know is God will prevent our efforts from being productive if we're doing it on our own because He wants us to come to an end to ourselves. He wants us to depend on Him. So now let's look at the flip side. Let's look at what He promises when we're busy doing what He tells us to do. There's the disciples frustrated all night trying to get fish, can't get none and there's this mysterious voice from the shore that tells them to throw the net on the other side. Understand, at this point they did not know it was Jesus. Jesus didn't reveal Himself. All they hear is this voice, which is amazing to me that they obey without question. No explaining. Look, we've been out here all night. Why don't you be quiet? Maybe in frustration or anger they act. The Scriptures really don't tell us, but we know that they did it and we know that God probably couldn't help but think sometimes God sends people into our lives to ask us hard questions. Sometimes God puts people into our lives that we didn't realize it was God speaking through them at the time. It wasn't until later in life that we look back and see, that was the hand of God. That was the voice of God. God really used those people in my life. It was really fun Wednesday night talking with Chuck and Chuck. I don't mean to embarrass you or anything, but this won't be embarrassing, but just when you hear your name and service you're automatically thinking, oh what I do. But coming back home from taking the kids dropping the kids off and we were talking and just asked Chuck and it got into him telling me his story and how he ended up here and the people that invested in him that kept him here and how God worked. You know, at that time Chuck didn't know it was the voice of God, but it was and you think how many times is God speaking through other people and it's not what we're not listening or not paying attention or we're not recognizing it was the voice of God until after the fact. I'll also share and dot, I don't want now dots going to go away don't talk about me, but our Thursday morning and I love her every week. She says, I don't know why more people aren't here. This is wonderful and it's true. We're open in the Bible. How can it not be? But this this Thursday and we were looking at the scriptures. We got into talking about. How did you come to know? Who did go and it's just so fun. Those voices that speak into our lives. From God. Sometimes we don't realize it. Here's God himself speaking to the disciples and they have no clue. They have no idea. But once it happens, then they know, right? Because what's what's John's reaction? If they're they're pulling in this fish, this is reaction. It's the Lord, right? He's revealed. He's made it clear. Why do you think they ask you this? Why do you think he's the one that gets it first? Why do you think John is the one that it's revealed to first? Who is the one sitting at Christ's side during the Lord's Supper? Is John? Who is the one with the woman at the cross? It was John. Do you see? That's why he's revealed first to him. He put himself in a position. Are we putting ourselves in a position to hear from him? Are we putting ourselves in a position for God to reveal himself to us? That's what it's about. You got to love Peter here. No, he doesn't throw it off. He throws it on. Just showing you how much work he did. He took his stuff off, because this man was sweating. He was laboring to catch some fish. He throws his garment back on and throws himself in to the water. He couldn't wait to get to Jesus. Notice what Jesus does in verse 10. Bring some of the fish that you've just caught. This is the same verb that's used in verse 3. That you've seen, that you've taken hold of, that you've grasped. Who caught the fish? Jesus, right? They were in their laboring and laboring and Jesus made them fish day away. But when Jesus comes on the scene, this is what Jesus caught the fish. There's no doubt about it. But he says you, that you caught. You understand back in verse 6, this is what Jesus could have did. He could have said, hey guys, step back a second and watch this. Okay, fish and all the fish could have jumped on their boat. Matter of fact, he could have had them all jumped on the boat fried if he wanted to, because that's what Jesus can do. But he doesn't do that, does he? He says, hey guys, other than that, did you realize Jesus doesn't need us? But he invites us into his work. So we get to see the hand of God. When they get back there, the fish is already cooked. He didn't need that fish. He invites us into his work. Back to our question from the beginning, are you busy making disciples? If you're too busy to spend time with the Lord, if you're too busy to wait for his instructions, you're too busy for him to reveal himself to you. Then I fear you're too busy doing the wrong things. And I'm telling you, it's gonna be frustrating. Listen to this. And this is specifically for parents. If we're busy making sure that our kids are here and there and everywhere. But we're not busy teaching them the scriptures. Are we really making disciples? I've used this quote before, but I want to end with it because it's just that good. I want you to think about this. If your day does not start with the Lord, there can be no blessing. If it does start with him, there can be nothing but blessings. You see how beautiful? If we start our day with him, we'll see everything from his hand. We'll see everything from his sovereign hand. If we don't, if we're not spending time with him, we're just busy. And we're busy running around chasing after the wind and it will be frustrating. Let me pray for us. Father God, thank you for Jesus. Thank you for the reality of the resurrection. Thank you that you truly do want to reveal yourself to us that you truly do want to use us in your work to grasp sinners, to seize sinners, to make them your children. Father, help us to do that hard work of looking at our schedules, to see what makes us so busy. Are we making time for what really matters? Are we making time? Are our priorities straight? Are we making disciples? Father, if not, give us the courage and the boldness to change things. Father, I pray that you help us to start our days, to end our days, to live our days with you, seeking your faith, seeking your direction, experiencing that rest and that peace and that joy that you give us as we stay busy doing your instructions, as we stay busy obeying you. Father, forgive us when we don't. We love you so much and thank you for Christ. It's in His name that we pray. Amen.