All right. Welcome back to the Way. The Truth and the Traveler been a crazy week, as usual. I had a lot of travel going on. We've, covered a couple of states we've been up to, Arkansas doing some work up there, and then back down to our home state of Texas, down here in Houston. For the time being, for a small project, getting ready to head to Louisiana. Got a lot going on at the time. Been having a lot of fun, though, getting to see some different parts of the country. Had a lot cooler weather up in Arkansas. I sure missed that already is beautiful. Up there by the mountains on the north side of Little Rock. Getting up there to the base of the Ozarks and coming back down, which each part of the country has its own beauties. No doubt coming back into Texas, you can't help but fall in love with the rolling hills and the pine trees. It is oftentimes good to come back to what you know, where you're comfortable, where you're familiar, but sometimes it's not. And that's what we're gonna talk about here today. We're gonna be doing a little dive into the life of Peter, who he was, how he came to follow Jesus, some of the things he encountered along the way, and just a little bit about his story and how his life was and what we can learn from him in our own lives and how we can apply it to our lives to follow Jesus the way one of the greatest disciples did. So let's dive in. So let's talk about Peter. Peter was a fisherman. He spent all of his life fishing. That's how he made his living. I'm sure this guy knew everything there was to know about fishing. I'd like to ask him a few questions for my own personal knowledge, but that's not the point here. I'm sure that Peter's whole life revolved around fishing.'cause if he wasn't successful, he didn't pay his bills and he didn't eat. I'm sure he spent a lot of time studying weather patterns, water temperatures. What bait worked, what didn't, you know what locations to be in, at what certain time of the year. If it was about fishing, I guarantee you this guy knew it. But one day he encounters Jesus just like we all do at some point in our life and talks about it in Matthew four 18 and 19, and it says, one day, as Jesus was walking along the shore of the Sea of Galilee, he saw two brothers. Simon also called Peter and Andrew throwing a net into the water for they fished for a living. Jesus called out to them, come follow me and I will make you fishers of men. And they left their nets at once. And followed him. that's crazy. Peter's whole life revolved around nothing but fishing. That's what he based his entire being on, But here enters Jesus with one simple request. Follow me and Peter somewhere deep inside, knew that it was important. He knew that he had to adhere to this request that he needed to follow Jesus. That happens to us a lot of the time in life when we find the realization in our life that we are lost and that we need Jesus. And he comes to us calling and he says to us, and insert your name here. Drop what you're doing and follow me immediately. We recognize the need for it and we drop what we're doing and we follow Jesus the same way Peter did. We'll, do anything. In order to find the salvation that we're looking for, once we realize that we actually need it. Peter was with Jesus for a great part of his ministry, following him, serving him, doing anything Jesus asked him to do. He loved Jesus. He would've given his own life for Jesus if given the opportunity he said so himself. But Peter was born with the same sinful nature we all are as human beings. Nobody's exempt from it. Everybody has it. And Peter also had an enemy, the same enemy every human being has. And that's Satan. Satan was constantly attacking Peter just the same way he does anybody else.'cause none of us are perfect. The only one that was is Jesus. And that's why we needed his salvation. And still do to this day, Satan, the enemy here. I guarantee you tempted Peter in many ways, always trying. To get him away from Jesus, even though Peter was a follower of Jesus. That doesn't mean that Satan quits coming after you. Ask any Christian how they know Satan will still try to come after you and turn things upside down in your life. Anything to cause disbelief or doubt against Jesus, he's gonna try it. The Bible says, so in John 10 10, it refers to him as a thief that comes to kill, steal, and destroy. And that's what he will do if you allow it. If you take your eyes off Jesus, or you allow Satan to win, or that sinful nature to take over, and you give into that, he will kill, steal, and destroy anything he can in your life. That is his one goal, is to turn you away from Jesus. And sometimes it's easier said than done. I mean, sin can be appealing to our fleshly nature, to our sinful nature that we're born with. I mean, there's a reason that it appeals to us. We think for a time that, it'll be good for us or you know, this won't hurt us when indeed it truly will. But it has that appealing nature about it that we just can't see past sometimes. Whether it be a lustful relationship, we know we shouldn't be in or telling a lie'cause we think it's protecting someone or ourselves or putting money or our job above God and going to church or using drugs or alcohol to numb our body and mind to forget about things or hide our past or cover our shame and guilt for whatever reason or. Just simply because we think we enjoy it. These things we don't think will hurt us, but in all reality can destroy our lives and overtake them, and that's exactly what Satan wants it to do. He wants it to ruin our life and overtake our life in any way, shape, or form that he can get in. Even the smallest thing we don't think matters does. Jesus himself was tempted when he was here on the earth as a man. He never gave in. He's the only one that ever lived a perfect life with no sin, so that he could be the sacrifice for our sins. But we know Peter was tempted, sometimes he succeeded, sometimes he failed. But the one thing that we can learn from all of it is that if we'll fix our eyes and our hearts on Jesus and following his will. That we will succeed way more often than we fail because of God's great power and love that he gives us by the Holy Spirit living in us after we make the decision to follow him and trust our lives to Jesus. Now for time's sake, we're not gonna cover every aspect of Peter's life, but we will hit some highlights here. Peter witnessed miracles daily throughout Jesus's ministry and the time he spent with him, people being healed, people coming to Jesus, and everybody coming to follow Jesus. He even walked on water with Jesus for a short time. Yeah, there were so many things that Peter witnessed that he got to see, but coming towards the end of Jesus's ministry, right before Jesus was to be crucified, and before he would rise again, he told Peter, he said, you will deny me three times before the rooster crows. And even Peter denied that. He said, I would never deny you. How could I deny you? But sure enough, that's what happened. In Matthew 26 69 through 75, there was three different people at three different times that came up to Peter after Jesus had been arrested. And they said, surely you're one of his followers. You know this man. You spent time with him. You're one of them. And every time Peter said, no, I don't know him. I don't know him. I don't know what you're talking about. To the third time, he even, it says he cursed and did everything he could to convince these people and swore that. He had never known Jesus had never been a part of it. Well, after that third time, just as Jesus had predicted, the rooster crowed and it said Peter ran away weeping bitterly'cause he knew what he had done. And that's the same way it is for us in our lives. A lot of time, we pretend that sin won't hurt us or we, have those little thoughts leading up to it that tells us that we should slow down or we shouldn't do that. And that's the Holy Spirit in our lives going, that's not good for you, that sin. Stay away from it. But we ignore those voices a lot of time, and we do it anyway. But when the reality hits us, we go away weeping bitterly because we know what we've done. And we know that it was wrong from the beginning, but yet we did it anyway either out of fear or anxiety or just not wanting to give up control in our life. We think that it's our job to control our life when indeed it's not when. If we would give our entire life to God and let him control our lives, he's the one that created it. He's the one that knows the plan and the roadmap for our entire life, and yet we still try to take detours like we know a better way. So after this happened, Jesus is crucified. Peter goes back to fishing. He's distraught, he's upset about what he's done, and he's probably digging into himself here and judging himself harder than anybody else ever could and ashamed of what's going on. But he goes back to what he knows. He goes right back to fishing. The one thing that he knew. From day one, he was a fisherman. That's what his whole life revolved around. So he went back to what worked or what he thought worked. Now, I can relate to this more than I could even imagine sometimes. It's kind of funny when you compare your life to some of the things you read in the Bible and you start trying to apply it and learn lessons from it and understand what God's trying to say to you. I identify with Peter in a lot of ways and things he did, and a big part of his story is kind of a part of mine. Now, I told y'all in the testimony episode, I didn't want to go too deep into that section because we'd cover it in a future episode, and here it is. After I was saved, you know, I was following Jesus, just like Peter. I dropped my net, got out of the boat, and I took off, and I was trying to do everything I could do to follow Jesus. But I had some hard times come along and just didn't really understand what to do, and I got distraught and down on myself and guilt and shame and everything else kicked in. Well, I returned back to what I knew, what worked or what I thought worked. As I said, it didn't work, but I sure thought it would, and I went back to being the old me. I went back to what I knew. I just dove right back into my own identity of being a hard worker and a. Blue collar guy and a alcoholic. I went all the way back, I mean, drinking every day to suppress my guilt and feelings and trying to bury everything, all the while I was even sadder than I was before, because I knew I was doing wrong. Now, listen, I'm not prepared to die on the hill of if alcohol's a sin or not. If, you want to know if it's a sin or if it's not, study it for yourself. In the Bible, there's plenty of scripture and plenty of passages that can help you find the right path for your own life in that. But I know in my life, alcohol is a sin because for me, it's a divider. It's a crutch. I use it. To rely on versus talking to my Lord and Savior. Instead of going to him in prayer, I numb my body with it. That's how I used to do things. It's a terrible crutch that I use. Instead of reading my Bible, instead of seeking answers from the one that can give them, I sought'em in a bottle. Remember how I said in John 10, 10 that Satan is a thief looking to kill, steal, and destroy anything he can in your life. And this was no different. I gave in and I allowed him in. He was looking to kill the voice of the Holy Spirit inside me, steal the joy of my relationship with Jesus, that it brought me, and he wanted to destroy my life with it and destroy my effectiveness as a witness of the gospel of Jesus. For others, Now, Satan knows he can't take away my salvation that Jesus gave me as a free gift through the sacrifice he made. But Satan also knows that if he can cause me to slip back into a life of sin, he can ruin my testimony, he can ruin my effectiveness and my example For others that don't know Jesus, When I accepted Jesus as my Savior, I did a lot of studying and a lot of praying and a lot of reading in the Bible to determine whether if this was a sin or not, and that's how I discovered it was for me. That's how I learned that it was a crutch for me and a divider that I used it instead of going to God. But as time went on, that's where the lie enters in from Satan when he comes against you. I knew that I had had that conversation with God, that I had studied it out for myself, but Satan tried to convince me otherwise. There was the justification process of where I tried to lie to myself again and said, well, if I just drink one drink and don't drink in excess, then it's not really a sin. If I'm not using it to numb my mind and my body and cover up other things, then it's not really a sin. But that's the slippery slope it started off as just a little bit, but it grew bigger and bigger and bigger yet again until I was back to completely my old self living with shame and regret once again that I didn't have to live with that I'd already been forgiven of, but Satan was using it to cause me to live this life of sin and ruin my testimony and my effectiveness for others. It's a slippery slope, and sometimes it starts with just a little bit. That's how sin is. Just a little bit won't hurt. When I first started drinking, you know, it was one drink wasn't a big deal, and I lied to myself. I lied to my wife. Oh, I'm just doing it because I like the taste, but that wasn't the case. The truth was I liked what it did to my body. I liked what it did to my mind. I liked how it numbed everything and shut everything down for me instead of talking to God or going in prayer or reading my Bible and searching for real answers. I liked that. It was a quick fix. But it was all a lie that Satan told me to try to convince me that his way was better than God's. And that's not the truth. But the sad part about it is, is when it starts off slow like that, like I said, it started with one drink. Well, one didn't do it anymore, so it turned into two drinks and then to three, and it keeps getting more and more and more every day. Until you have no control over it anymore. And that's how any sin is. It starts as just a little bit, but a little bit can turn into a whole lot real quick and it can destroy your life. But anyway, let's get back to it. I was ignoring every voice of the Holy Spirit saying, slow down, slow down. You have the answer. You know what to do, but yet I didn't want to hear it. I, knew I had a God that loved me and saved me, and I just, didn't feel like I could go to him, which was crazy because I knew I could, he was waiting for me. All he wanted me to do was to come back and, apologize ask for forgiveness and move on. He'd forget about it. He'd forgive me and we'd move on, but I just couldn't do it. And like Peter, I was right back in that boat. Dropping my nets down going, no, that's cool. I'll stay here. I know what to do here when in reality that's not what I should have done. But we're gonna go back to the story of Peter here and see what happens with him. And then we will return to my story with that a little bit later and we'll make a few more comparisons. I told you guys in this that I would try to offer real life experience and the best advice I could to help people through these situations, and that's what I'm trying to do here. Keep in mind, I'm not an expert and anything I say is just opinion or experience from my own life unless I give you scripture. And in that case, it's God's word. And that's the only thing that can't be twisted here. Take no offense to what I say., Like I said, it's just an opinion unless it's scripture. And now if you have a problem with that, you might want to talk to God.'cause he's, the one that wrote it. But I guarantee you he's got a purpose in that and he would probably welcome your questions in that. But anyway, let's get back to Peter. So now we're gonna get to my favorite part of the story of Peter. I, just love this part. It gets me excited every time. So at this point, Jesus has been crucified. He's rose again. He's already made the sacrifice and defeated death for everybody. Some people have seen him after he's been resurrected and back from the dead, and he's told those people that have seen him to go inform others, including all of the disciples and Peter. So Peter knows his Lord and Savior is alive at this point. He's probably a little shameful to face him from that last interaction that he had with him where he denied him. So he's probably a little nervous to go and speak with him, even though he knows he is alive. So he decides he's gonna go back to fishing, what he knows what works or what he thinks works. And that starts in John chapter 21 in verse one. And we'll read it and talk about it a little bit. Starting in verse one, it says, later Jesus appeared again to the disciples beside the Sea of Galilee. This is how it happened. Several of the disciples were there, Simon Peter, Thomas, Nathaniel from Cana and Galilee, the sons of Zebedee and two other disciples. Simon Peter, said, I'm going fishing. We'll come too. They all said, so they went out in the boat, but they caught nothing all night. At dawn, Jesus was standing on the beach, but the disciples couldn't see who he was. He called out fellows, have you caught any fish? No. They replied. Then he said, throw your net on the right side of the boat and you'll catch some. So they did, and they couldn't haul in the net because there were so many fish in it. Then the disciples that Jesus loved said to Peter, it is the Lord. When Simon Peter heard that it was the Lord he put on his tunic for, he had stripped it off for work, jumped into the water and swam to the shore, so as soon as he recognized that Jesus had come back for him, he didn't go back to Jesus. Jesus came back for him out of his great love. And when Peter realized that he did exactly what he did the first time, just a whole lot quicker, he jumped out of the boat and swam to Jesus. He swam to the shore'cause he could not wait that's why this is my favorite part. Yeah, because it's been the same way in my own life. Sometimes when we're too hardheaded or we're too prideful or we're too scared, or whatever you can infer here, or whatever point you can put in there to go back to Jesus and ask for his forgiveness. He still loves us and he still wants us, and he's there waiting. Jesus showed up to Peter. And as soon as Peter realized that he showed up for him, Peter dove out of the boat and swam to Jesus, straight to his feet. And man, I love that. I just love that Jesus loves us that much, that he'll come to us. And now, even though we should go to him, Jesus still just pours his love out and says, no, I love you. I want you, I'm here for you. Don't give up. So I told y'all I was gonna compare this to my own life story in this part, and this is exactly why it's my favorite, once again is the same way in my own life. Jesus showed back up for me and when he did and when I realized it was him, I was running a whole lot faster the second time because I knew the forgiveness and love that was waiting for me and everything that he had shown me. So how it happened for me is, like I said, I'm back to living the same life. You know, just a blue collar guy drinking every day. Just a good old boy thinking I got it all together, doing what I think works, even though it didn't. But once again, I'm just thumbing through my phone one day and these same videos start resurfacing again. Pastors preaching different sermons, new Christian music coming out, and I'm just glued to it. And I hear the messages and I realize God's character, and I realize that I've ignored the voice of the Holy Spirit telling me to slow down the whole time not to make these choices. And I see that it's just God just coming back for me again, going, we've met once this way before and I can meet you here again, but don't give up. And don't give up on me because I've never left you and I never will. I'm here the whole time, and boy, that just tore me up inside. I was broken all over again, but I was running to the feet of Jesus.'cause I knew the forgiveness and love that was waiting for me there. And it was the same way with Peter when they told him, throw his net on the other side and they couldn't even bring the net in'cause so many fish. That wasn't the first time in Peter's life that he had seen miracles with multitudes of fish. He knew exactly where it came from and it was the same for me. It wasn't the first time I had seen these sermons or heard these songs just. appear in my life exactly when I needed them. So we did the same thing. We dove out of the boat and we went back to where we knew we belonged, and that was living our life with Jesus. So get out of the boat. Stay out of the boat. Follow Jesus. Trust him with every aspect of your life. He's the author and creator of your life, so let's trust him with everything we have and believe that he definitely knows a better way. Stop going back to what's familiar or what you think works. Just trust Jesus. Of course, I'm speaking metaphorically here about the boat. The boat just represents whatever you keep going back to that's familiar, that separates you from following Jesus. Whatever you think works, but really doesn't, the one thing that you keep returning to because you think it's comfortable, leave it behind. Leave it in your past. Slow down and listen to the voice inside you, the Holy Spirit trying to guide you and help you make the right choices. Listen to it, engage it, trust Jesus, and follow him I am starting to run out of time here, so I'm gonna get to the point of wrapping it up. After all this occurred, and Jesus came back for Peter, Peter went on and did so many great things for Jesus's ministry. He went on preaching and led so many people to Christ that even to the point at the end of his life, he was crucified for being a believer and follower of Jesus. Being a Christian, he wouldn't even let them crucify him the same way they crucified Jesus. He told them, he is so great and I am not worthy to die the same way as my savior. You crucify me upside down and I hope to do the same thing in my own life. And I hope that we all do. I hope we can all learn from Peter's example and that we can live so radically for Jesus like that, that we can follow him to the point that even at our deaths, that we're not worthy to be crucified the same way he was, but that we lead so many people to Christ throughout anything we do in our everyday life, that our life always reflects Jesus and all the things we do and say, and that we're always trying to get others. To follow Jesus and to live for Jesus in the same way. I think there's a good point. In second Corinthians five 15 it says, and he died for all that. Those who live should live no longer for themselves, but for him who died for them and rose again. Jesus died so that we could live and he didn't die, so that we could live just a normal everyday life and go on about. Just whatever it is we think we want to do, he died so we could have life fully to the fullest extent, and if we will follow him and stay in his will and do the things he ask us to do or calls us to do, then we will fully live that life. I hope everything we do, and I pray everything that we do reflects Jesus in some way and that we live in his will. And that we truly set examples for people that don't know him, that they can't help but ask, why do you live this way? Who is this man? I need to meet him because I know that's a big part of what happened for me. I was so perplexed by it that I had to know exactly who this man was, and I'm sure glad I met him. And if you don't know him, I sure hope you do meet him. And if you have any questions, I'd be more than happy to answer'em. Thank you for listening today. We hope to see you back next week for a new episode and new topics. If you have any questions you'd like answered or a topic you'd like discussed, you can always reach us at Truth Traveler podcast@gmail.com. Appreciate all your time and always remember, love God, love your neighbor, and trust Jesus with everything that you do.