Lovest Thou Me?

Preachers Fellowship Meeting

May 6, 2024

Lighthouse Baptist Church

LaVerne, CA

Lovest Thou Me

John 21:11-19

Theme: Do love God or do you love your ministry?

Introduction: It is good to see each of you here tonight. I appreciate the privilege and the opportunity to speak. We go through three stages in life: Good looking, Looking good, and look natural. These days people will say you are looking good. I know what is coming next after that.

Much has transpired in Peter’s life here. Jesus had called Peter to follow Him. Jesus had trained the disciples to carry the message to the world. Peter was a great fisherman. He and His brother Andrew had a tremendous business fishing, even owned their boat which was rare in those days. Peter was most comfortable fishing and when God had called him to leave all behind and follow Jesus, it was a huge game changer. They left their nets and followed Jesus to be fishers of men.

This scene was reminiscent of his first catch of fish when he met Christ and the feeding of the five thousand with bread and fish. The fire of coal would remind him of the fire by which he denied Christ at Caiaphas’s house.

Jesus had been crucified and it appears that all Peter did for the movement was over. He believed he was a failure and so he decided he would go back to fishing. Not only Peter, but others with him. According to verse 3, Peter even failed at what he was good so Jesus comes and asks him a question. This is the question I want to ask you. “lovest thou me more than these.”

I like most of you have read this passage hundreds of times, studied it out and memorized portions of it. In May or June of 2017 I was reading this passage sitting in my dream home in Suisun City. It was in the early morning hours where God came to me in a most sacred moment. God had blessed our church immensely there, we had remodeled our auditorium and it was pretty full regularly. I was a police chaplain over two police agencies where I was in charge of 40 chaplains who answered to me. I had done over 1000 funerals over the years for the community and the hospitals were calling me two or three times a week to come pray with patients. It was a busy life and ministry but absolutely a joy and delight.

God said as I was reading this passage, “ Would you be willing to resign CBC?” Personally I thought it was a discouraging moment in my life. We have all wanted to quit on Sunday night or Monday at times. I just thought it was one of those times until God came again to me in my private time with Him.

I negotiated with the Lord. Lord, you know all the things I am doing here. We have a beautiful home, we have position in the community, we have a great church where people are being saved, and I know everyone in the community who are the movers and shakers. God asked, “Lovest thou me more than these?” What a hard question.

God was saying, “Do you love your ministry more than you love me?” Gentlemen, do you love your ministry more than you love God? On shores of Galilee Jesus was asking Peter, “do you love me more than your ministry?” Peter, are you more in love with the things the ministry brings or affords you rather than the God of the ministry?

If we put our ministry in that place, we will be greatly disappointed when things aren’t going well. For years I spent allowing my life to be up when things are going well and be down when things were not going well. When the attendance is up, when the offerings are up, and when the converts are up, we become elated with the progress.

What I did not realize until 2017, I was putting the ministry before God. I was seeking God daily and reading His Word. I could not see until that day God showed me. God had become a means for me to be successful in my eyes.

I want to ask you, “lovest thou me more than these?” Jesus asked three times because it seems we have a mental block to this reality. Jesus or the ministry is not a way to make you more successful or make you look good in the eyes of your friends, but it should be bcause you the love the Lord.

There are two important truths.

The invitation v. 12-come and dine

Jesus is asking you to come to Him and let Him feed your soul.

You may have heard that the worst medicals patients are doctors and nurses. Many times we more time feeding the soul of others than our own soul. If we love the Lord, we will want to spend time with Him daily. A successful pastor is not one who has a large church but one who spends time with God.

“Be still, and know that I am God: I will be exalted among the heathen, I will be exalted in the earth.” (Psalm 46:10)

Jesus say to Peter: Come and dine. Jesus says to us, “Come and dine.” Gentlemen, we must get back with God. We must spend time with the One who saved us, who gave us our calling, who works through us, and who is the coming King.

When we are in the presence of Jesus, we are in the presence of the King of Kings. He is worthy of our time with Him. The prophet reminds us.

“Seek ye the Lordwhile he may be found, Call ye upon him while he is near:” (Isaiah 55:6)

When we spend time with God, He will give us fresh manna from heaven.

We spend way too much time worrying about what so and so said yesterday or how this pastor is doing up the street or what we are not seeing going on in our ministry. Social media has done more to skew our understanding of the ministry more than anything in my lifetime.

Jesus invites you to spend time with Him and love Him only. He is to be the focus and attention of our heart and our soul. “Whom have I in heaven but thee? And there is none upon earth that I desire beside thee.” (Psalm 73:25)

The Psalmist recorded this for us to focus our love and our attention on Him.

The manifestation vv. 12b-14

Jesus came to them three times and they were struggling recognizing Him. If Jesus were to come to you, would you recognize Him? Would you bow before Him? Would you honor Him?

Several years AT Robertson to great Greek scholar attended a small church outside of town. As the pastor was preparing to walk into the auditorium one of the men told the pastor of AT Roberton’s presence. The pastor wanted to impress the great scholar and so he used fancy words and tried his best to do everything right in his message. AT Robertson came back the next week and the pastor again used fancy words and taught great truths from the Scriptures. After the service on the third Sunday, AT Robertson invited the pastor out for the afternoon. He took him into town and arrived at nursing home. AT told the pastor to not ask questions and he will explain after the visit. They went inside to meet a young, handicap girl who was struggling to move on her own and could not speak hardly at all. When the visit was over, they got into the car and AT Robertson told the pastor, “You have been preaching to AT Robertson the Greek scholar when you should be preaching to AT Robertson the broken- hearted father. “

The most important person in the auditorium of your church is not the mayor or local politician, or some wealthy businessman, the most important person is the Lord Jesus Christ. We want Him to be seen. We want to honor Him. He is to get all the glory, all the honor, and all the praise.

The most important thing a pastor can do is to love Jesus Christ. When you love Jesus, you will love His sheep and care for them. We care for them because we love Him.

Way too often we don’t spend enough time with Him. We need to spend time loving Him and expressing our love to Him.

When was the last day you spent with God? When was the last time you spent a half a day with God? When was the last time you spent an hour with God?

I have a book in my library called Wasting Time with God written by Klaus Issler. It is about overcoming the mental block of prayer is wasting time. It is never wasting, but investing time.

The greatest gift you can give your church is a man of God. Robert Murray McCheyne in his book Memoirs and Remains.

JC Ryle “Too many ministers spend most of their time going to meetings and socializing with people instead of getting along with God in prayer and the study of the Word. That diminishes the spiritual nergy needed for their ministry, causes their preaching and teaching to be without substance, and makes their ministries ineffective in inspiring spiritual dedication.”

If you love Him, you will spend time with Him. Lovest thou me more than these?