Good morning, Destination. Welcome to church. Oh man, we had a great week last week and we're so excited with go what God has done, but we're even more excited for what God is going to do here.

So, we're glad that you're visiting us this morning. If you are new, just want to reiterate what was said during announcement time. This is the perfect weekend to be here. We're going to be up here after the service. Give you a little 10-minute tour of the church.

Just let you know our heart for you guys just because everybody, you know, with a new church has questions about things and what we believe and even last week I got tons of messages. How did it go. Grand opening, all of that that was happening. , but the one question that I expected to get that I I didn't get as much of is Josh, whatever happened to you when you were in North Dakota.

, so I know you're dying to hear this. If you missed last week, here's kind of the story that I started out this series with is a story of of a road trip that I took to this beautiful oasis called North Dakota. And I got lost in between Bismar and May not at like in the morning in the dead of winter. No gas, no food, like nothing. Okay, we had no reception.

We had no map. We were lost. And so I made the decision, this is kind of that's where I left it last week, but I made the decision that I was going to start walking, which was really cold.

, and so I I started setting off on this very dark highway and off in the distance I see headlights and I probably looked like the most insane person ever, but I was really cold and it was the first car that I'd seen in o over a couple of hours. So I'm flagging it down and this big truck kind of pulls over and he he doesn't roll down his window. He pulls over way further ahead of me and then gets out of his car and walks towards me. Now, mind you, at this point in time, I am a 20year-old scrawny looking kid with glasses, okay.

And this guy comes out and he's got to be like 6 foot something and just built like a tank. So, he comes walking towards me and he's like, "Hey, what's going on here. " you know, and and I I explained to him the situation and he's like, "You can get in the truck. I'll I'll take you to the next gas station.

" And I'm realizing as I walk up to this truck how desperate I am in this moment, right. Because this could be a 2025 Netflix documentary series like waiting to happen. And so I'm walking up to this truck and I'm getting nervous and he opens up the back seat. Now, I don't know if I was expecting the front seat or the back seat, but I got kind of freaked out as he opened up this back seat, and I see the the light on in the car, and I kind of peer in through the window, and then I peer in through the door, and I see two kids sitting in the back seat watching cars on a flip down DVD and mom's in the front seat.

Okay, so I can take a breath and I start talking to this family who has been on the road for over 12 hours on this drive home and I am the most interesting person in the world because I am a stranger that this family just picked up. And so they start asking me, "What are you doing in North Dakota. " I explained to him I'm in a Christian rock band and we're in the we're going on a tour right now and we're you know sharing the gospel at each one of our spots and and talking about Jesus and I remember like answering a lot of their questions and the the dad kind of was silent for a big majority of the time and then when he spoke up he said something that I I'll never forget.

He said, "I don't even understand what it really means to follow Jesus. " like what does that even look like. And that's kind of what I want to talk to you about today, which by the way, this has a part three, which is going to be next week.

So, you got to come back next week to figure out how my North Dakota journey ends and the end of this series. But that's what I want to look at today. What does it look like to find and follow Jesus. Now, if you're new here, this is why we exist as a church.

We exist to help people find and follow Jesus. , and last week we looked at the story of these two sons, the prodical sons. And this week we're going to look at a guy who I love to look at. He's one of my favorite Bible characters other than Jesus is this guy named Peter.

And so we're going to be kind of all over the Bible today. Usually we're in just one section of scripture, but we're going to be opening these up a lot. So go ahead and grab these blue Bibles.

By the way, if you don't have one of these, I hope that you will go ahead and take one of these. This is our gift to you if you don't have a Bible because while we're all over the Bible this morning, I hope that you will be throughout the week. So, we're going to be starting in Luke chapter 5.

And we're going to meet Peter. And this is when Jesus's ministry is just getting started. And this is the first mention of Peter. Now, up here behind me, I'll have kind of a timeline that shows Peter's life. We're going to look at Peter's life through the Gospels this morning.

So Luke chapter 5, starting in verse one, that's right away there at the top. It says, "One day as Jesus was standing by the lake of Garrison, the people were crowding around him listening to the word of God. He saw at the wat's edge two boats left there by the fishermen who were washing nets. He got into one of the boats, the one belonging to Simon, and asked him to put a little out from shore.

Then he a then he sat down and taught the people from the boat. When he had finished speaking, he said to Simon, "Put out into the deep water and let down the nets for a catch. " Simon answered, "Master, we've worked hard all night and haven't caught anything. But because you say so, I will put down the nets. " When they had done so, they had caught such a large number of fish that their nets began to break.

So they signal to their partners in the other boat to come and help them. And they came and filled their boats so much so full that they began to sink. When Simon Peter saw this, he fell at Jesus's knees and said, "Go away from me, Lord. I am a sinful man. " For he and his companions were astonished at the catch that they had taken, and so were James and John, the sons of Zebedee, and Simon's partners.

Then Jesus said to Simon, "Don't be afraid. From now on, you will fish for people. " So they pulled up their boats onto the shore, left everything, and followed him. Okay, so this is the first mention of this guy named Simon Peter, which by the way, he has two names.

We'll talk about that in a little bit. Right here, he's known as Simon. And Simon, right now, his life isn't going so hot.

He is a fisherman who is not catching any fish. Big problem. , and so this guy comes and shows up, takes his boat and is going to use it for his speech.

And Simon's like, "Who is this guy. " And he he gives this teaching. And then he tells Simon how to do his job.

Don't you love when the new person shows up at work and tells you how to do your job. That's how he's feeling right now. He's like, "Okay, I guess since you say so. " And so he tosses this net on the other side of the boat and then he pulls up so much fish.

It's the lotterywinning number of fish that the boats begin to sink. And so he pulls it into shore and then Jesus calls him. He says, "I'm going to make you a fisher of men. " And he leaves everything in a couple of days. Is that what it says.

It says he leaves everything immediately. And this shows us the first thing that we need to know about what it looks like to find and follow Jesus. And that's to leave our old ways.

Whether it's a lottery winning amount of fish that you're catching or maybe an old habit or pattern or conviction of something that's keeping you from fully experiencing God. You see, true followers of Jesus are leaving old ways and old habits behind to learn what it means to fully follow him. And so, you can't step into this new life that Jesus offers each and every one of you if you are still clinging to the old boat. If you are still clinging to the old comforts, if you are still clinging to the things that maybe you might need to toss off. Let me say it like this.

What do you need to do today to be closer to Jesus tomorrow. Whatever the answer is to that question, that's what you have to leave immediately, just as Peter left. And leaving isn't easy, as we'll see throughout Peter's life. And you'll see another instance of this. Let's look at another part of Peter's life.

Ready to flip around in the Bible. Let's go to page. We're going to be in Matthew 14. Now, this is one of the second times that we see this guy named Peter and the second time he's going to teach us something.

And ironically, Peter is in a boat again for this scene. So, we're going to go down to verse 22. You can follow the numbers down to where it says 22. Where it says, "Immediately Jesus made the disciples get into the boat and go ahead of him to the other side.

When he dismissed the crowd, after he had dismissed them, he went up onto a mountain side by himself to pray. Later that night, very important detail. Later that night, he was alone and the boat was already a considerable distance from land, buffeted by the waves because the wind was against it. Shortly before dawn, Jesus went out to them walking on the lake.

And when the disciples saw him walking on the lake, they were terrified. It's a ghost, they said. And they cried out in fear.

But Jesus immediately said to them, "Take courage. Don't be afraid. " Notice this is the same language that he just used in Luke chapter 5.

Immediately, don't be afraid. Lord, if it's you, oh, look at this. Peter's challenging again.

Gosh, isn't it like us to challenge Jesus. Lord, if it's you, tell me to come to you on the water. Come, he said.

Then Peter got out of the boat, walked on the water, and came towards Jesus. But when he, that's Peter, saw the wind, he was afraid, and began to sink. He cried out, "Lord, save me. " Immediately Jesus reached out out his hand and caught him.

"You of little faith," he said, "Why do you doubt. " And when they climbed in the boat, the wind died down. And those who were in the boat worshiped him, saying, Truly, this is the Son of God.

Okay, so a couple of years have passed. Peter was called at the beginning of Jesus's ministry. Now Jesus's ministry has been taking place for a little while. And and they're in this busy season of ministry.

And so Jesus wants to get by himself to spend some time in prayer. So he sends his disciples in the boat ahead of him. Now the boat is tossed by the waves all night long.

I want you to keep in mind he went on the mountain side to pray where he could see where the disciples were in the boat. This is a side note here, but remember that God sees you in your storms and he was watching his disciples. And it wasn't until dawn, so the whole night had passed that he comes and he walks on the water. They think that he's a ghost, but Peter does something courageous here. Before you see how Peter misses the mark like we sometimes do, you need to see how Peter's boldness and courage actually reveals itself first, that he gets out of the boat.

This is a big moment because this is him trusting Jesus that he is going to walk on water as Jesus is. And so he walks towards Jesus and then what happens. The moment that he takes his eyes, his focus off of Jesus and looks at the wind and the waves and the storm, what happens. That's when he sinks. That's when he sinks.

And that teaches us our second thing of what it looks like to find and follow Jesus. That we need to fix our eyes on Jesus. Think about it. If you go to the eye doctor and they do that whole awesome thing where it's like number one, number two, right.

And they give you two different views, what they're trying to do is they're trying to fix your focus. They're trying to see what you see and what you're focused on. And if our eyes and our heart is fixed more on our situation, the wind and the waves, more on our storm than on our savior, that's when we start to become lost.

And not actually following Jesus. And so here's the question for you and I. Are your eyes fixed on Jesus. How is your focus. Maybe you haven't found Jesus yet and you don't really understand kind of what this looks like.

Let me give you some indications that your focus is on Jesus. One indication is how do you look at trials, hardships, the hard moments in life. Do you kind of look at them as a mess that you're never going to recover from or a message that God is going to use for his glory.

And I could look at things from my past, my mental health struggles, a divorce on my record, and I could say, "Wow, I am such a mess. " And I could live into that mess. Or instead, I could say, "Yes, I've gone through these things, but I'm so excited for how God is going to use them.

I'm so excited for how God is going to put me in the room with people that are struggling with their relationship because I've been there before, right. Is it a mess or a message. Second, how are you looking at people. " Look, sometimes people are hard to love.

Don't nudge them if they're next to you. But, , sometimes people are hard to love. But how you talk about people and how you treat people is another indication on if your eyes are focused on Jesus.

How about this one. How you spend your time. I'm going to convict myself here. I'm going to say that these are my things.

And if they convict you, I'm sorry, but just know I'm there, too. If you're spending more time scrolling your phone than scrolling the word. If you're spending more time watching a football game than in the presence of God, where are you spending your time. That's what you're focused on. How about this.

The opposite side of the the one before this. How are you talking about the good things in life. Are they just fleeting luck where they're like, "Yeah, that that that was good that happened.

Might not happen again. " Or are you talking about it like, "Oh my gosh, thank God that he showed up like this. I'm so grateful and I'm going to praise him for how amazing that he is. " Are your eyes fixed on Jesus.

Because when they are and you are following him, you start to feel like this new person. And that's what happens to Peter because his eyes become more fixed on Jesus over his ministry. He gets a new name. So, let's see what happens next in Peter's life.

It's going to be just a few more pages later, , on page. Like I said, we're going to be all over the Bible. I promise you, it'll be worth it. In Matthew 16, now in Matthew 16, what's about to happen is Peter is going to get a new name.

If you follow down to verse 13, it says this. When Jesus came to the region of Cesari Philippi, he asked his disciples, "Who do people say the son of man is. " They replied, "Some say John the Baptist, others say Elijah, and still Jeremiah or one of the prophets.

But what about you. " he asked, "Who do you say that I am. " This is the most important question you'll ever answer is, "Who is Jesus to you. " And Simon answers, "You are the Messiah, the son of the living God. " Jesus replied, "Blessed are you, Simon, son of Jonah, for this was not revealed to you by flesh and blood, but by my father in heaven.

And I tell you that you are Peter, and on this rock I will build my church, and the gates of Hades. The gates of hell will not overcome it. I will give you the keys of the kingdom in heaven.

Whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth will be loosed in heaven. " So this is what happens to Peter. Peter declares who Jesus is.

He says, "Who you are, Jesus to me is the Messiah, the son of the living God. You are Lord. I am confessing and believing that you are Lord. " And so through that, Jesus then gives Peter or Simon at the time a new name. He calls him Peter.

And Peter actually means rock. It's it's a name that means rock. It's kind of like we would compare it to Dwayne Johnson, right.

It's the rock or Dwayne. It's the same thing, right. So Peter, he's called Peter here.

And he says, "On this rock," which means on this declaration that you've made, on this declaration of faith that you have in me to follow me, I will build my church and the gates of hell will not overcome it. And this teaches us the third thing that it looks like to find and follow Jesus. And that's that we build his church.

If you found Jesus like Peter has and if you've done these things like Peter has to to say, "Yeah, I want to follow Jesus. I want to know what that really looks like. " Followers of Jesus then exist to do what. Love God and love people and build his kingdom. And so they're building the church here.

And the truth is that sometimes it's easier to give excuses than engagement when it comes to building the kingdom. When it comes to coming to church, it can be easy to give a long list of different reasons why we are too busy or too caught up with other things. Here's two things that I've heard a lot this year in 2025. The first one is this.

I don't need to go to church to be a Christian. Now, to a small point, this is true. To proclaim the truth of Jesus, you don't have to go to church, but you should. And and and there is something that's happening in your heart when you ignore the body of believers and say, ", it's just I'm too busy. It's not a priority.

" Whatever it is, I like to think about it like this. If we were going to do a tailgate party out in the parking lot right now and I grabbed a charcoal grill, which I'm terrible at charcoal grills, , and and I wanted to light it, what would I have to do. I'd have to keep all the coals together in order for it to burn brighter and to burn , hotter and to cook the food that I needed to cook. But if I set one coal apart from that group, what happens to that coal.

It eventually dies. It burns out. It doesn't glow as much. CS Lewis says it like this. Christians are like coals of a fire.

Together they glow, but apart they grow cold. And so Jesus wants us to be together as believers, encouraging each other, praying for one another, going and learning more and growing more. That's what we're doing here. That is the community that is available to you to be a part of Destination Church.

And I could expand on this one for a while, but there's another one that we need to hit in 2025, especially is this one. The church is unsafe. Now, this is going to be a tough one, and I'm going to tell you that here at Destination, we're not going to shy away from the tough topics, okay.

, I have been praying about this and this wasn't an original part of this message, but as I'm looking at the state of the world and I'm looking at everything that's going on, as I'm sure you guys are too, you're starting to get scared for safety, right. And there's there's starting to be this kind of fear going around that, man, maybe we're not safe. You look at things like a a shooting here in Minneapolis at a Christian school.

You look at the death of Charlie Kirk. You look at the church shooting that happened in in a denomination that's not ours or not really you know affiliated with us, but it's still a church building that something tragic happened. It seems like in the news that these things keep coming up and it's starting to feel like maybe our safety is in jeopardy.

But I want to just tell you just a little fast forward on Peter's life that we wouldn't get to today is that Peter actually died for what he believed in too as did the rest of the disciples. They were all martyed for their faith, for the ways that they would speak truth, for the ways that they would speak Jesus. You see, Christians have always dealt with some kind of safety threat.

It's just been depending on the culture, the circumstance, the location. If you and I were born in China, our faith would be looked at and treated a lot different. If we were a high school student in 1999 and we went to a school called Coline, our faith might be treated differently.

If we were alive during World War II, our faith, depending on our location, might be treated differently. We can trace this all throughout history and look at different cultures and different places and see how belief in Jesus and the response to it has changed based off of location and culture. You see, we're not feeling unsafe because of what we necessarily believe, but how people are reacting and interacting with what we believe.

So, here's what we do about it. I want to address this and again please this is the first time I've done this. We're a brand new church but give me so give me a little bit of grace here because I I I want to say so much here but for the sake of time there's just three important things that we need to know. The first thing is that we would continue to speak the truth in love.

You cannot speak truth without love and you cannot speak love without truth. We need both things. And Jesus says here to Peter, I will give you the keys of the kingdom to heaven.

And so if we have the keys to the kingdom of heaven, we better actually drive the vehicle, but we also better not have road rage, right. And so we need to be able to speak the truth in love. Number two, we need to protect and proclaim. To do these two things, to keep welcoming the sinner, to keep welcoming those who are far from Jesus.

I was one of them. I didn't know Jesus. And I've welcomed plenty of people into the church that don't look like quote unquote church people. We need to be able to keep welcoming people with open arms, but we also need to keep safety a priority. Hear me when I say this.

Destination, you are worth protecting. Your security is important and we will continue as a church to make this place as safe as possible. We will work with the school district. We will work with the police department. We will work with people to make sure that your safety and our kids safety is a priority.

And lastly, and this is the best one, is that Jesus wins. No matter what happens, Jesus wins. And so the good news about this, the good news about all of these tragedies that's happening is we can really miss the good news. The good news is Bible sales are way up for the first time ever.

We've gotten so many of these taken in just a few weeks of us existing. And I am so happy to be buying more. People are flocking to the church.

Attendance is seeing new highs. There's revival going on and on college campuses and people are coming to know the love and truth of Jesus. And so we as the church need to be ready. So people are not just experiencing Jesus as a fleeting thing but somebody that they can now follow.

So the question is is will you build his church. Will you build his church. Will you help.

If you truly proclaim Jesus as Peter did and you believe that you have this new name and that you are a finder and a follower, then will you build his church. And here's the thing about all of the safety stuff about this question that you need to know and why I love Peter so much because Peter fails. Peter fails at this. Don't believe me. Let's look at it together.

Let's go to John chapter 21. It's on page 934. And so you know what happens here between this last story and this story that we're about to look at is Jesus's death.

Jesus dies on the cross. And as that is happening, Peter's safety is in jeopardy. And what does Peter do. He denies not once, not twice, but three times that he even knows who Jesus is.

And so he gets it wrong. This rooster crows, which Jesus said, "I told you that would happen. " And then Jesus is gone.

And this is what Peter does. He goes and goes fishing. What any guy would do when something happens, right. Verse three in John 21, it says,"I going out to fish.

" It's the most manly verse that you'll ever hear from Peter. I'm going out to fish, Simon Peter told them. And they said, "We'll go with you.

" So they went and got into the boat. But that night, they caught nothing. Early in the morning, Jesus stood on shore, but the disciples didn't realize that it was Jesus. He called out, "Friends, haven't you any fish. " "No," they answered.

"Sounds like my fishing experience. " He said, "Throw your net on the right side of the boat and you will find some. " When they did, they were unable to haul in the net because of the large number of fish. Does it feel like I've already read this. I feel like I've already read this.

Then the disciples whom Jesus loved said to Peter, "It is the Lord. " As soon as Simon Peter heard this, "It is the Lord," he wra he wrapped his outer garment around him, for he had taken it off, and he jumped in the water. And the other disciples followed him in the boat towing the net full of fish.

For they were not far from the shore about a hundred yards. And when they landed, they saw a fire of burning coals that were together. And their fish were on it and some bread.

And so here Jesus is. He's got breakfast ready. And he is calling Peter. The same way he called him three years ago.

And this is the cool part of God's grace for each and every one of you is that he never gives up on you. He will call you back out of your boat, out of those comforts, out of those habits, sometimes the exact same way he called you out in the first place. And so he calls Peter back and gives him this familiar story to bring him out of the boat.

They eat breakfast together and then he pulls Peter aside for a private conversation. Kind of follow it down to verse 15 with me. When they had finished eating, Jesus said to Simon Peter, "Simon, son of John, do you love me more than these. " "Yes, Lord," he said, "you know that I love you. " Jesus said, "Feed my lambs.

" Again, Jesus said,"Simon, son of John, do you love me. " He said, "Yes, Lord, you know that I love you. " Jesus said, "Take care of my sheep.

" Then the third time he said to him, "Simon, son of John, do you love me. " Peter was hurt because Jesus had asked him a third time, "Do you love me. " He said, "Lord, you know, you know all things. You know that I love you. " Jesus said, "Feed my sheep.

For very truly I tell you, when you were younger, you dressed yourself and went where you wanted. But when you are old, you will stretch out your hands and someone else will dress you and lead you to where you do not want to go. Jesus said this to indicate the kind of death that Peter would have to glorify God.

Then he said, "Follow me. " The exact same words he said to Peter three years prior. And now Jesus asks Peter three times, one for each time he denied, "Do you love me. Do you love me. Do you love me.

But here's the thing. In the original Greek of of the book of John, there's a subtlety that we need to see that there are four different expressions for this word love. Okay, this word love is used really vaguely here in our culture. I could say I love my wife.

I love my parents. I love my friends. I love my son and daughter.

Like it's a different type of love. And in the original Greek, they had a they had different words for those different types of love. And the highest form of love was this love called agape.

Agape is love for God. Love for the father. And so the first two times that Peter or that he asked Peter these questions, he's saying, "Do you agape me.

Do you agape me. " for the first two, but then for the third one, he changes and does something different. He says, "Do you fall me. " And Philipe is kind of how we would say brotherly love.

It's like Philadelphia. And so he's saying essentially, "Peter, do you love me. Peter, do you love me.

Peter, do you even like me. Do you even consider me a friend. " And this is also why Peter gets upset because he's asked him three times and the third time he's brought it down. And what is Jesus's response. Each time Peter says, "Yes, you know that I love you.

" He says, "Feed my lambs. " He says, "Abide in me. Keep my commandments. Do the things that I told you to do.

Don't live in this denied faith anymore. " And this teaches us the most important thing about what it looks like to find and follow Jesus is to just love Jesus. And that's the question that every single person in this room needs to answer this morning is, do you love Jesus.

Do you love Jesus or do you just love an idea of Jesus. Do you love Jesus or do you love just this this kind of Christianlike culture. Do you love this Messiah.

This one who died for each and every one of you. Do you love Jesus. I want to give you some time to respond to this.

So, would you just close your eyes and bow your heads for a moment. This can be just a private moment between you and God. What it looks like to find and follow Jesus is to leave your old ways, fix your eyes on Jesus, build his church, and love Jesus. And let me tell you, if you are in this room right now and you have never responded to the love of God or heard the love of God, I want to tell you it as you have your eyes closed, your head bowed, and you're reflecting on this.

I need to tell you Jesus loves you. He loves you so much, and he was willing to take the ultimate price to show and display his love for you. He pours blessing upon blessing in and through your life. And what he's asking this morning to you is, "Do you love me. " And if you want to respond with yes, maybe for your first time, maybe just as a a moment of saying, "I got to come back to God.

I've gotten I've gotten too used to going back to the boat, going back to the same ways. I want to proclaim my love for Jesus. " If that's you, I just want to invite you to pray this prayer in your heart.

And I think that this prayer is relevant to all of us. So, we'll pray it in our hearts together. God, I confess that I'm a sinner in need of a savior.

And I believe that you sent your son to pay the price for my sin. God, forgive me. Make me new. Help me not to go back to the boat, the old ways, and help me to follow you immediately. Jesus, you are Lord and I give you my life to follow you in Jesus name.