You Have to Love Jesus to Follow Him — Carter Conlon

Good morning Times Square Church. Praise God. You have to love Jesus to follow him. Now I want to ask you a question before we even go into this message this morning. Do you love Jesus? I'm gonna ask you again.

Do you love Jesus? When I ask you again, do you love Jesus? So you're very emphatic on the fact that you love Jesus. Are you willing? To let the Holy Spirit examine the depth of that statement. You are willing and if God speaks to your heart, you will respond.

Well, bless God. I'm a blessed pastor this morning to be Speaking to this kind of an audience. John chapter 21, please if you'll turn there in the New Testament. You have to love Jesus to follow him father.

Jesus’ Prayer for Strength and the Advance of God’s Kingdom

I thank you With all my heart for the anointing of the Holy Spirit. Oh God you have to pick me up and carry me this morning. I Thank you Lord that you'll give me the ability to speak this. You'll give me the heart the mind.

You'll quicken this my physical body. And God you'll give me there Everything that I need Lord that I can stand and be an oracle of God. And yield my body as a vessel into your hands. I'm asking only that you be glorified and that your church advance your kingdom come.

And your will be done in us as it is in heaven. Guide us into these days that we're living in. Give us the grace and strength that we're going to need to survive it. Father we thank you for this in Jesus name.

I Have a bit of laryngitis. I do hope my voice will hold out Throughout this message. John chapter 21 beginning at verse 7. You have to love Jesus to follow him. Therefore that disciple whom Jesus loved said to Peter it is the Lord.

Now when Simon Peter heard that it was the Lord He girt his fishers coat unto him for he was naked and did cast himself into the sea. And the other disciples came in a little ship for they were not far from land, but as it were 200 cubits dragging the net with fishes as soon as they were come to land they saw a fire of coals there and Fish laid there on and bread and Jesus said unto them bring of the fish which you have now caught.

Simon Peter went up and drew the net to land full of great fishes 150 and three and For all there were so many yet was not the net broken. Jesus said unto them come and dine and none of the disciples durst ask him who art thou knowing it was the Lord.

Jesus then cometh and taketh bread and giveth them and fish likewise. This is now the third time that Jesus showed himself to his disciples after he was risen from the dead. So when they had dined Jesus said to Simon Peter Simon son of Jonas Love is thou me more than these.

He said unto him. Yea Lord thou knowest that I love thee. He said unto him feed my lambs. He said unto him again the second time Simon son of Jonas. Love is thou me. He said unto him yea Lord thou knowest that I love thee probably said yea Lord a little louder than the first time.

He said unto him feed my sheep. He said unto him the third time Simon son of Jonas Love is thou me? Peter was grieved because he said unto him the third time love is thou me and he said unto him Lord thou knowest all things.

Thou knowest that I love thee. Jesus saith unto him feed my sheep. Verily verily I say unto thee when thou wast young thou girdest thyself and walkest whither thou wouldest. But when thou shalt be old thou shall stretch forth thy hands and another shall gird thee and carry thee.

Whither thou wouldest not? This spake he signifying by what death he should glorify God and when he had spoken this he said unto him Follow me. Now folks this was the third time according to verse 14 that Jesus had come to his disciples After the cross meaning that after he had died on the cross and he was raised from the dead.

This is the third time he has come to his disciples to those who had been the most intimate with him. Those who had walked the closest with him the first time in John chapter 20 and verse 21 He came to them and he said peace be unto you as my father has sent me even so send I you.

So the first time he came to them he sent them on a journey. Just as he had been sent by his father. Now it's important to understand that when you and I came to Christ It's wonderful that we were saved and we were brought into peace.

Through the fact that God was reconciled to our sin by putting all of the sin that we had committed upon his son on Calvary. When you trusted in Christ you were reconciled to God and when God came to you the first time just as these disciples He said to you peace your sin is forgiven.

You're in right standing in relationship with God now. There was a commission given to them as my father has sent me to bring men out of darkness and into Reconciliation with God. Now I send you you're to be witnesses of the cross you're to be witnesses of this God Sent his son into the world.

You're to be living witnesses of this. God's a matter of fact in the New Testament. The scripture bears witness that we are to be a compelling testimony of this. We are to be given for men in In and in measure as it is that is a representation of how God in Christ was given.

To those who were alienated from him the second time in John chapter 20 and verse 27. He challenged them all through his interaction with Thomas to be not faithless, but believing Thomas was among those but not seen as first appearing to them and he said unless he said I unless I I See in his hands the print of the nails and if I unless I put my finger into them and thrust my hand into his Side he said I will not believe I.

He said I can't I have to see something. I have to have a visible and tangible sign that he has indeed risen from the dead and is among us again. And Jesus came in and appeared to them again. And he challenged because the others are in the room as well, and he challenged them and he said don't be faithless.

But believe now you see I'm building something here this morning because Christ was building something they were sent on a commission to be represent Representatives of God in the earth and the reconciliation of God through his Son.

Then the second time he appeared they were instructed through this example not to be faithless. But believing you you've got to believe that God is commissioned and you've got to believe that which he has begun.

He will bring to an end. He will bring it to the conclusion that he has desired for your life. You're not going to be a statistic along the way. You're not going to fall. You're not going to fail. This applies not going to run out.

No matter what happens around you if now if you're faithless and I'm believing you open your heart to Every power of hell that will come against the testimony of Christ in you. But if you hold fast your confidence in the Lord God will prove himself faithful to you and you'll not fall or fail in this journey.

The Third Appearance: From Comfort to Mission

Now the third time he appears to them is what we're talking about this morning. You would think that the first and second time would be sufficient. But now the third time and where does he find them? Are they are they on the road?

Are they telling people about the risen Christ his faith alive in their hearts? Where are they? They're fishing and What what they had really done is they'd gravitated or gathered around familiar comforts and it could be argued I believe that they're neither going forward nor backwards.

They're essentially in a stagnant place and they're catching nothing by their own testimony. He's standing on the shore now. They've been commissioned to be fishers of men and Christ himself the third time was standing on the shore and said how have you done?

You've been fishing all night. Have you caught anything? Now the first time I think they're really honest. It's it's true. It is when they said, you know, there's not many honest fishermen around at least not through my history and When they said no, we've got nothing.

Then he tells them cast the net on the right side. Do it my way. Hear my voice. Do it the way I've called you to do it. You know folks, there's so many places now where God's people are fishing, but they're not catching anything week after week going out even and even through the midnight hour and Week after week in a year after weary year.

There's there's hardly any fruit hardly anything to show for their labor. Toiling all night and catching nothing. Do you think perhaps when something might be wrong something might be out of order? Something might be missing in their love for God.

Now Jesus brings them to shore by his voice prepares for them a banquet of fish and bread feeds them and sits down with them and Speaks to Peter these words now was significant that he spoke it to Peter because Peter was more or less the ex facto leader as it Is of the church of that primitive church at that time?

So he speaks to those today who are called to lead now. You're called to lead your family. You're called to lead others to Christ. We're all called into some form of leadership role in the body of Jesus Christ, but now Christ is about to identify.

Why? These men have gravitated to the familiar why they're going nowhere why they're fishing and catching nothing. Why it is that the first and second Commission have not been sufficient you remember in John 21.

It says he breathed on them and said received the Holy Spirit. So they had a measure of the Holy Spirit at that time. He gave them the Commission to go as I've been sent to the father and he told them not to be faithless but believing you and I would think that would be sufficient to send them out the door and into the work of God and Now he begins to identify it and he says in verse 15 When they had dined Jesus said to Simon Peter Simon son of Joseph's love us thou me more than these.

Now I'm anxious to get to heaven for a lot of reasons. But one of them is when I get there, I want to know what these were that he was pointing to. What was it? There was a these involved in this question.

He's obviously pointed to something that's in the immediate vicinity and you and I can only speculate on that. I wonder sometimes. Was it the hundred and fifty three fish? I mean, there's 153 fish and they're not they're not minnows.

These are big fish. They're in a net it's a bigger catch probably than they've ever caught before and it's it's been Gotten by the Word of God. They've they've actually obeyed God and in that that primitive obedience as it is.

They brought in this incredible harvest of personal wealth. There's no other way to describe it. These are not men. They brought in these are fish that they brought out of the sea and to me it represents the wealth and the resources that are now within the reach of Peter and the disciples that would become Available also as he chose to obey the voice of God.

Loving Jesus More Than Money and Success

Do you love me more than these? You know folks as You walk with God there be an incredible unveiling of his resource not not just the spiritual but the physical as well. But you and I have to choose in our hearts that we're going to love him more than the money that becomes available to us.

That's really the bottom line. You know when you come to Christ, you may have been out on the street laying in your own vomit. It's an incorrigible drunk, but then Christ comes into your life. These old things pass away and suddenly you've got a good job.

Suddenly you're you're you're moving in another sphere that was completely outside of your reach until Christ came into your life. But you have to be able to answer the question. Do you love me more than these?

Do you love me more than the prosperity that will come into your life because I've come to you. You see God gives a new mind. He gives a new heart. He gives a new spirit. He gives a new direction. He takes you out of all forms of poverty and brings you into this incredible treasure.

That his presence will always bring to those who are living for him and serving him. But if you don't love him more than mammon, you're going to get waylaid. You're going to get sent to the sidelines.

Matthew 6 24. Jesus said you cannot serve God and money. You cannot serve both gifts. Money is necessary to live to pay the bills to put clothes on her back and food in our cupboard. And to everything else that goes along with that, but you cannot love it more than Jesus Christ.

Because there might be a day when he calls you to part with it. And that's where your heart will be tested. When the Lord comes to you says I want you to take this that you've stored up in your barn and I want you to go.

And do something with it that will bring my kingdom into a further purpose in the earth. That's where you and I find out if we love money more than we love God. I think he might have been pointing to the boats and nets.

The things that you formerly loved and thought would provide security purpose and joy in your life. Pointing to those things. Pointing to your occupation. I remember and I've used this illustration many times in this church the young lady that came to the church for a season.

Right after I first began to be one of the pastors here, and she was so excited so happy to be saved she would leap and dance somewhere around the second or third roll and Remember she started coming behind the platform after the service and she said to me pastor.

It can't possibly be that God has asked me to give up this career. That's so dear to my heart that I've fought for all of my life now. I hadn't asked her to do that nobody admitted was the Holy Spirit was speaking to her about giving this up.

And I said well the only thing I can tell you is that whatever God is telling you to do do that obey him. There's no folly to those who let go of those things that they can't keep for eternity to lay hold of those things that are Eternal.

I remember her coming back two or three times and every time her countenance her countenance was changing. She was becoming harder. I remember about the third or so time. There was no longer a question.

It was now an argument against God. No God couldn't. God wouldn't do this to me. She said God wouldn't ask me to do this. This has been the dream and desire of my heart. You know she had come to Christ.

She had come to New York City as well to be Famous as she saw it and then now she had come to Christ and she felt that the Lord was asking her to give this Career up now. It's this is a battle between her and God.

It's not a battle between this church and her or any of the preachers in this church. Then I remember the tragedy of one day going across the street to Starbucks and there she was and when she saw me come in She turned her back and pretend that she didn't know I was there.

But I knew she saw me come in and I never saw her again in this church. She made her choice Do you love me more than these? And this is the question God asks to you today and to me do you love me more than these do you love me?

You see it's easy to say Oh God. I love you in church easy to say look around Oh your presence is here and it's it's so easy to say that just like people go to an altar and they look at the Bride looks into the eyes of her groom and the groom looks into the eyes of his bride and they they and it's so sweet I love you.

Oh, I love you so much, but wait till children come wait till the bills can't be paid. Why do we have a 51 divorce rate and higher in the Church of Jesus Christ might might I suggest you the words are not as Deep as we think they are and yet we come into the house of the Lord and we say Oh Jesus I love you, but the Lord says do you love me?

Do you really love me? Do you love me more? Can I talk can I ask you to give up what you're holding to? You're you're can I ask you that's simply the question Do you love me Peter more than these? Because this is a pivotal question if Peter couldn't say yes to that from an honest heart.

He's not going anywhere. He's going back fishing again. He's going to sing songs. He's gonna pick up his guitar. He's gonna go out all night catch nothing and worship God. And that's where many people go because they're not willing to concern not suggesting today that everybody here give up your career.

And suddenly stand out in the street and say God, what would you have me to do? No, I'm suggesting your heart be open to whatever God is asking you to do. And if you're not a seeker of God There's a day when his word will come to your heart and he might say be a testimony where you are.

Be a great worker in the business that you're put in live your life there give your all. For the cause that I placed in your hands live a godly life before your family. But he also might say here's where I want you to go.

This is what I want you to do. The issue really is am I really bought with the blood of Jesus Christ? Do I really belong to God is Everything that I am and have really his or am I just uttering empty words in his presence and saying Lord, I love you.

Do you love me more than these. I Wonder if he was pointing to his friends all around. There's there's other disciples that he's brought into this fishing venture. And the question is if they won't follow Do you love me enough to let them go?

You know a lot of young Christians don't make that don't make right choices in the beginning they come to Christ. They come to church, but they have associations. They have relationships and friendships and practices not willing To be able to make the break and say if I'm going with God I found somebody that my soul loves and who loves my soul and if you won't go with me Then I'm sorry, but I'm going on alone if I have to go alone but so many people try to have the best of both and try to keep a foot in the church and a foot in a Relationship or relationships that God clearly says will take your life away from you what will be like a Plug pulled on your spiritual bathtub as it doesn't take away all of the heart that you have for the work of God.

It represents an old lifestyle. And that's why when Peter finally said Lord, you know, I love you. Then Jesus said to him feed my lambs in other words feed the new believers with this understanding that to come to Christ means to let go of the things of this world that you cannot love anything more than him and That if you have friends that won't Follow that you have to let them go.

Leaving Old Relationships to Serve Christ

Now folks I've been there just like you were there. I had to make the break and to this day I thank God with all of my heart that I made the break. I was in a police department. There's a high high high pressure of conformity there.

I remember the day that one of my former best friends came to me and he said you're you're not One of us anymore. You're not like us anymore. You don't hang around with us anymore. You don't do what we used to do anymore.

And I remember and the inference was a veiled threat that if you don't stop this direction, we're gonna cut you off. You're gonna you're not gonna be. He told me he says you're not one of the boys anymore.

That's what he said clearly, you know, in other words, you're on the outs. We've been talking about you and I had to make a choice. Who do I go with? Do I bend to the pressure and Start going to the parties and start doing the things that I used to do it and start laughing at the dirty jokes and start partaking of the gossip in the lunchroom.

Or do I make a break and go with God and I had to walk it alone folks for a few years. It was hard. I Had almost no friends and the ones that that were there were very fairweather. And a lot of my superiors were threatening me just because I decided to be honest and love God and walk with him.

For no other reason but thank God to this day. Thank God to this day feed my lambs. Pastors that are here today feed the lambs of God with an understanding of what it means to be a Christian. This is not a feel-good club.

This is not a place where you come in and just sing songs. To be to feel good and go back to living your old lifestyle the rest of the week. This is a break with sin. It's a break with the world. It's a break with the way things used to be done.

Feed my lambs see if if Peter didn't make the break he couldn't feed the lambs. There was no way he could feed them then in John 21 16. Again, he says to him the second time Simon son of Jonas love is thou me.

Do you love me? Do you love the sound of my voice? When I speak to you will that become the deepest treasure of your life? Psalm 119 verse 97. The psalmist says these words he says oh how I love thy law.

It is my meditation all thy all the day. I remember when I first got saved. I loved the Word of God. I Would park my car in behind a building. I used to work radar. I don't know if they call it that anymore.

But it used to be called radar and I remember is to pray for rain because the old sets we had didn't work in the In those days and I pray for rain so I can park somewhere where no one can see me and I'd open my Bible and Galatians Ephesians Philippians Colossians, I'd sit there with hot tears coming down my face.

I found the truth. I loved the Word of God. I loved his voice speaking into my heart. It was then that God began to speak to me about a journey that he was going to take me on. Places that I was going to go things that he wanted to do through my life.

It was then it was in these moments now I had a choice to make. Do I love his voice so much that I will let him lead me. To all of his voice so much that he can speak into me. Do I love his voice so much that he can call me from where I am into another place?

So I love his voice so much that I will leave where I am and go where he's calling me. Even when I love what I'm doing. Do you love me? Peter do you love me? Now in second Kings. For time's sake you don't have to turn there.

I'll just I'll go there myself and I'll read it to you. Second Kings chapter 2 is a story about Elijah and Elisha. And it's a type of Followers of Christ. Elijah represents the word and the power of God in the earth at that time.

Now Elisha represents a disciple of that man upon whom the Spirit of God was and Elisha's following Elijah. Elijah one day turns to Elisha and it says Terry I pray for the Lord has sent me to Bethel and Elisha said unto him as the Lord lives and as my soul lives.

I will not leave you so they went down to Bethel. You see Elisha loved Elijah. You see if you don't love the Lord in truth and in righteousness, you won't be able to follow where he's going to go now.

I know that these three places Bethel Jericho and Jordan represented the school of the prophets that had been established by Elisha by Elijah himself, but they also are a type of something else. It's a type of the certain camps of Christianity.

Places that people have chosen to dwell as as Elijah is going by. I want you to get a picture in your mind. Elijah is going by he's on a journey. He's going to go across Jordan. He's going to be taken up by world went into heaven.

It's a surely a Christ type surely an Old Testament type of Christ and Elisha is a type of the church that is following him. The church that is in his footsteps the church that is saying now Elijah says to Elisha You don't have to go this distance with me, but it Elisha loved Elijah and he said no nothing is going to part us.

Wherever you go, I'm going. I'm going with you and the first place that goes Bethel now. Bethel means house of God. Bethel is first heard of in Genesis chapter 28. It's where Jacob the grandson of Abraham is Fleeing his brother, but he's also going into the place of God's promise for him and in Bethel.

He laid down perhaps one of the first few nights in that journey. Put his head upon a stone and he had a dream and in that dream he saw a ladder that ascended from the earth to heaven and the angels of God were Ascending and descending upon that ladder and God came to him and said Jacob I'm going to increase you to the north the southeast in the West.

I'm going to make you great and increase your descendants and through you. He said the whole world is going to be blessed. There's going to be a blessing come upon all people all nations all places. Through you Jacob and Jacob when he woke up from that vision.

He was terrified the terror of the Lord was on him. He said oh surely. This is a dreadful place. He said this is none other than the house of God. That's what Bethel. Bethel Represented and Elijah said to Elijah.

We're first going to Bethel now. Bethel is a place of seeking revelation, but never embarking on the journey it leads to. Bethel is the house of God. Bethel Represents those who come to the house of God and have this you have an honest thirst for revelation.

You really did come here this morning say I want more of Jesus. I'm what I hope pastor Carter or pastor Dave whoever's speaking. I hope they can open the scriptures and just give me just another deeper more meaningful understanding of God.

I want this. I want it to be part of my heart. I want the knowledge of God. But you have to see the irony of this as they pass by Bethel the house of God as as Elijah and Elisha are passing by 50 prophets 50 sons of the prophets come out and they say to Elijah Elisha rather do you not know you're going to lose your master today?

Your master is going to be taken away from you. And so here they are. They've got this revelation, but it never takes them on the journey. All they can do is come out of Bethel and say I see sorrow. I see loss.

I see heartache on this path. I see difficulty ahead for you Folks when I decided to become a preacher when I decided to follow God and is leading into the ministry. I had Christian friends at that time.

I don't remember anybody encouraging me. I remember the 50 prophets of Bethel coming out and saying loss. What about your what about your retirement plan? What about your dental plan? What about your children's education?

I remember thinking for goodness sakes. I'm talking about following God here. I believe God's called me to pastor and to preach and all I have coming out of the house of God. Are people trying to turn me from the path?

Settling in at Bethel. They knew more than I did but ironically they knew less. Because all the learning everything they'd studied all the years of being in the house of God. They couldn't even recognize when God is calling somebody to follow him.

That's all anybody said to me. Loss heartache sorrow not only for you, but for your family. Ironically, it was only the unsaved guys in the police department that hugged me and cried and said we don't agree with you.

But man, you've got guts. Then they came to Jericho. Jericho is a place of standing on the history on Association and past victory. Jericho is where somebody feels that it's sufficient to say. Hey, I'm a Pentecostal.

I go to Times Square Church. I'm a Methodist Lutheran Baptist. My grandfather was a preacher and Somehow the human heart gravitates to that as if it's enough and here goes Elijah. Here goes Elisha past Jericho and one more time 50 prophets.

50 sons of the prophets come out and say to Elisha loss heartache sorrow. You know what Elijah said to them. Hold your breath. That's actually the original translation. Hold your breath don't waste your time.

Talking to me you have all the history you have all the tradition you have the association. You know all about the past victories, but you're not willing to undertake the journey. That journey that brings you to a place where your life makes a difference in your generation.

That journey that takes you to a place where you will suffer the ridicule of Christ because of your relationship to God. And. Then finally Elijah says we're going to Jordan and Jordan is that place of self-denial and surrender to the will of God.

Jordan is where Jesus Christ was baptized in the River Jordan. Jordan is where we finally surrender and say not my will but thine be done. When Jesus went down in the waters of baptism under the ministry of John the Baptist.

He knew that it was taking him to a cross. He was yielded to the will of his father. In Jordan and the scripture says that the sons of the prophets came out. And they viewed it. 50 men of the sons of the prophets went and stood to view afar off.

In other words, they were somewhat enamored with this journey, and they wanted to see it. They loved maybe to go to the bookstores of their day and get books on missionaries who had paid the price to bring the gospel.

In all the world they loved the stories but they themselves were not willing to take the journey. Do you love me? Jesus said to Peter do you love me? Will you follow to where my voice leads you? You know this?

The Image of God Shown Through Servanthood

Might seem like a hard message, but it isn't really. It's the passion of God. Wanting to give you of his presence. Wanted to take you and I on a journey that when we get to the end, we'll be like Psalm 126 and say.

When we when we came into the fullness of God our mouths were filled with laughter. The joy of the Lord had become our strength and the heathen round about us said look at what God has done for them. Nothing else could explain this.

Look what God has done, but folks that doesn't come to those who just sit in the church now. It's nice that you're here. I'm not suggesting you don't come back again. Don't misunderstand me. Might I suggest so the journey has to go deeper the journey has to go farther.

Do you love me? Now? Here's where it gets really interesting in verse 17 the third time Jesus says Simon son of Jonas lovest thou me. And Peter was grieved. Because he said to him the third time lovest thou me.

And this is about. This is about the image of God. This is about what God looks like in the earth. You see in Ezekiel chapter 8 in verse 5 God took the prophet Ezekiel into Jerusalem and he said I want to show you why I'm taking my presence away from my own house.

And when he took the prophet Ezekiel into Jerusalem The very first thing he saw is northward at the gate of the altar was an image of jealousy in the house of God. The people of that generation had created an image of God that had provoked God himself to jealousy.

And he was saying I can't allow this image of me to exist anymore. You've created an image of me that is not in conformity to who I am. And unless if I don't scatter it if I don't take my presence away from it.

The world will begin to believe this is what I look like. So I've got to take my presence away from it. Because I can't walk with it because we're not walking together in truth. And I want you to look at something in verse 12 of John 21.

Jesus said to them come and dine. And none of the disciples dared to ask him who art thou knowing it was the Lord. Now I want to suggest you he's just an ordinary-looking man. Now most of them many of them may have had an image of what the risen.

This is the risen Christ. This is post Calvary. This is the risen Christ, this is the Christ raised from the dead by the power of the Holy Ghost. He is Christ alive from the dead the first fruits as the scripture says, but he's standing on the seashore.

I think a lot of men would have expected there's got at least being 50 angels with him. There's got to be a golden throne. There's got to be some kind of a glow at least around him. But here he is. He's just an ordinary-looking man.