All right.

You know, when I was younger, looking at this didn't even bother me, but it's a long way down now.

Okay.

One of these days we won't be able to do that, will I, Alan?

That's right.

We've got a great year planned next year.

Most of you know I go away in the summer and I have what we call a study break, which is intense study.

And I do a lot of praying and ask God where he wants me to take his church.

As I said before, this is not mine, it's his, and I pray and pray and hopefully.

Actually, I told the leadership team and the elders, when I go away and pray and I hear nothing, I'll know that my time has come to an end.

But so far, so good.

And we've got a great year plan for digging into the word and really, I think you're going to be greatly encouraged.

So a lot of churches around America, the lead pastor will not preach this weekend.

He will take off.

And one of the understudies or an associate pastor will preach.

And oftentimes in the past we've had our campus pastors do that.

And they're very apt, they're very capable.

This is one of those years I decided, nope, you know what, I'm going to do this.

Because it gives me a chance to speak into your lives before we hit the ground running next year.

Are you having the low after Christmas yet?

Isn't it amazing, you're up high, then it's like, wow.

And a lot of people struggle this time of year.

They don't know, do I want to face another year?

If it's going to be another year like last year, I just do not face it.

A lot of suicides, seriously, this time of year.

A lot of people decide to end their own lives.

It's a very difficult season for a lot of people.

And so I'm cognizant of that.

At the same time, I want to give a challenge to you that don't live next year like you did this year.

Every year is a chance to improve in some area of your life.

I hope every year that my golf is going to improve.

Now it doesn't, but I really hope.

I mean, I go into that year believing I'm an optimist.

I go into every year believing that I'm going to get better at everything.

But there's a lot of people who aren't optimists, and they just assume they're going to get worse.

So we have two passages of scripture around our church that govern us.

You may not know it, and you may not ever heard that, but the leadership team knows it.

And those two passages are very powerful.

One is in Matthew 15, which we're not going to talk about tonight.

Because Matthew 15, and by the way, welcome West Coast Rancho, welcome all our campuses.

Matthew 15 kind of governs us because it's a story where Jesus meets a woman who is far from God, and the disciples think that she can't be reached.

And then the whole story is about how Jesus tries to teach his disciples that nobody's too far from God.

And especially the ones you think are too far, those are the ones God wants to bring near.

That really governs what we do around here, okay?

But there's a second passage that I've probably preached on maybe two or three times over the course of these last 16, 17 years.

Now, I give the staff, a lot of our staff, this week off.

They work hard all year, and I demand a lot out of them, and they give it.

So we're going to have to go back to like we're in the church before the days of PowerPoint.

I mean, it's amazing.

The church grew without it, right?

The church grew without all the bells and whistles.

It's an amazing thing.

So I hope you have a Bible.

Or I hope you have an iPhone or something, because this is a wonderful, beautiful passage.

It's John 21.

And in John 21, it's like it's an addendum to the book of John.

It's like John wanted to answer the question, whatever happened to Peter?

Peter denied Jesus three times, denied he even knew him.

And the gospel, other gospel writers really don't tell us the rest of the story, but John, John decides he's going to tell us what happened.

What a beautiful story.

It is a beautiful story, and it should govern.

It really should be the governing passage of your life every year.

That thing that you really shoot for.

All the other things, okay, they're good, but they're not like this.

So here's the story.

John 21, in verses 1, 2, and 3, we find out that Jesus has told the disciples to wait by the Sea of Galilee or the Sea of Tiberias, they're the same thing, until he gives them a command.

He's going to come and meet them there.

And it doesn't take Peter, who's the leader of the disciples.

That's why he's listed first.

You notice that?

He's listed first.

He's always listed first because he's the leader.

So Peter goes, so the rest of the disciples go.

In verse 3, Peter looks at the other disciples, deliberately disobeying a straight command of Jesus.

He says, you know what?

I'm going to go fishing.

The way it's written in the original language, he's not just saying, I'm going to go fishing now.

He's saying, I'm going to go back to my old occupation of fishing.

He's probably thinking, you know, I've not been a very good disciple.

I've been a bust as a disciple.

I mean, when Jesus needed me most, you know, I spoke a good game.

I'll never leave you even though all these other guys leave you and I left him.

So I'm going to go back to my old occupation of fishing, verse 3.

As you read on, you find out the disciples heard him say that.

And they said, well, if you're going, we're going.

So they're all, they're all going back.

These are the future apostles.

And they're all going back to their old occupation.

And they're following Peter's lead.

Jesus shows up.

And what happens there is amazing.

Because they've been fishing all night and they caught nothing.

And then somebody shows up and says, hey.

Now they don't recognize him at first.

Have you caught anything?

That's cold.

That's cold.

Jesus knew they hadn't caught anything.

Caught anything?

No, I haven't caught anything.

Well, put the net on the other side of the boat, as if it matters which side of the boat it's on, because the boat doesn't stay in one place.

And they put the net in the other side, and they haul in so many fish.

Now, what's interesting is if you go back and look in Luke, at the original calling of Peter, the same exact scenario takes place.

It's like Jesus is repeating when he first called Peter.

Peter, remember the first time you met me?

You caught no fish, you put the net in the water, you caught all the fish, and I told you what?

You're going to be fishers of men.

Why are you out here fishing again?

They catch everything.

Evidently, Jesus is on the shore.

Peter suddenly, identifying the two situations, looks on the shore and he sees Jesus, and Peter gets out of the boat.

He's so like me.

I love this guy.

He acts before he thinks.

It's just the way he is.

I love people like this.

He takes off the outer cloak, jumps in the water, can't even wait for the boat to get there.

Jumps in the water and starts running toward Jesus.

But you notice as you read in the text, nothing happens.

All we're told is that Peter runs to the shore.

They're counting the fish.

When he gets to the shore, the next thing we're told is that Jesus is making breakfast and there's the smell of hot coals.

Oh, do you get that yet?

When's the last time Peter would have smelled hot coals?

When he denied, he knew Jesus three times.

There were burning hot coals.

It's like Jesus is creating the whole scene for him to remember.

So he goes quiet.

He goes quiet.

He wants to love Jesus, but he's reminded of his failure.

And then the dialogue starts in verse 15.

What a great passage.

In verse 15, Jesus looks at Peter and says, Peter, do you love me more than these?

Now, these could be the fish, the boat, or it could be the other disciples.

I don't know.

Or the occupation.

Peter, do you love me more than these?

Now Jesus, as you've heard me say numerous times, uses the word agapao, which is the loftiest, highest word for love.

It's an unconditional love.

Peter, do you love me unconditionally?

You don't see this in your English translation, but Peter doesn't respond with agapao.

He doesn't say, Lord, you know that I love you.

Agapao, unconditional love, he says, Lord, you know that I, phileo, like you a lot.

Now, why would Peter respond with phileo rather than agapao?

Well, you can't claim agapao when you just denied you even knew Jesus.

And Peter's smart enough to know, whoa, I can't claim that.

Do you love me, Peter, more than these?

Peter says, Lord, you know I phileo.

You know I like you a lot.

We're mates.

We're good pals.

And Jesus says, tend my sheep.

A second time, the Bible says, Jesus looked at Peter and said, do you love me?

Again, he uses agapao.

Do you love me?

Unconditionally, Peter.

And Peter responds by saying what?

Lord, you know that I phileo.

We're great pals.

Again, Peter knows he can't claim the highest lofty award for love.

So he just says, Lord, we're good friends and you know that.

And then what does Jesus say?

Feed, tend my sheep.

We'll get to that word in a moment.

And then the third time, Jesus says to Peter, Peter, I ask you one more time.

Do you love me?

This time, even though you don't see it in your translation.

Jesus uses Peter's own word.

He says, do you even see me as a friend?

Because a friend wouldn't betray a friend.

A friend wouldn't deny even knew a friend.

Peter, can you even claim friendship love?

Do you love me?

And at this, the Bible says that Peter was grieved.

And he basically responds very well, though, under pressure.

He says, Lord, you know all things.

That's a reference to omniscience.

Jesus, you know, so don't look at what I did.

Oh man, how many times do I want to say that to Jesus?

Don't look at what I did.

Don't look at what I said or did.

Look inside.

You know the real me loves you.

And Jesus said, feed my lambs.

Now, I want you to take away three questions for the new year because it's really, you know, we all blow it.

Come on.

My goodness.

Sometimes you get so frustrated with yourself because you know you love Jesus and you do the wrong thing anyway.

Why do we do that?

I mean, you know what to do, but you don't do it, or you know what you shouldn't do, and you do it.

Sometimes it's spur of the moment.

Sometimes you just react in a way, and then you're ashamed of it later.

I want you to notice Jesus doesn't come and even have a conversation with Peter's failure.

He doesn't.

I mean, he creates a scenario, but you don't see Jesus saying, okay, you denied you knew me.

Don't do that again.

No, it's not about that at all.

He just came and said, do you love me?

So the first question in the new year, do you love Jesus more than anything else?

Will you love Jesus more than anything else?

That's the question.

It's not how many times you come to church, how much money you give.

how many times you serve at God's pantry, although that's a good thing.

All these things are good, but they're byproducts of something else.

And the byproduct is that you love Jesus more than anything else.

You can love other things.

I mean, in a sense, in relation, they're very different, but I enjoy, I thoroughly enjoy a game of golf, even with Rick.

Even with Rick, I pick on him, but It's one of my most enjoyable things, and a lot of it is because we're very even golfers.

We're both very good, humbly said.

So you want to beat somebody that you know is good.

You know what I'm saying?

That's why I didn't like to play golf with Dane Johnson.

I mean, he's no good, and I just didn't want to play.

I got nothing to gain, everything to lose.

But with Rick, if I can beat Rick, I'd beat a good golfer.

So there are things we enjoy.

There's nothing wrong with enjoying things.

Food, coffee, nothing wrong as long as your first and primary love is Jesus.

It's when golf starts to take my attention away from Jesus or coffee or whatever it is that you love and pursue.

See, that's why Jesus says to Peter, do you love me more than these?

Because what you love the most, you pursue the most So if I'm pursuing two things and one gets in the way of Jesus, that thing's got to go.

Now, the reason Jesus is taking Peter down this road is because look at what happens next in verse 18.

In verse 18, Jesus starts to tell Peter, it's almost like you can hear him say, I'm glad you do love me because let me tell you a little story.

Here's the story right now.

You get up every day and you gird yourself and you put your belt on and you go wherever it is you want to go.

But one day very soon, somebody else is going to dress you.

Somebody else is going to gird you and they're going to lead you where you don't want to go.

And then the Bible says, you're going to stretch out your hands.

That's the extra biblical literature for crucifixion.

It's the word for crucifixion.

So he's telling Peter, I'm glad you love me because you know what?

You won't sacrifice for something that you don't love.

And you're going to have the ultimate sacrifice, Peter.

You're going to get the sacrifice of your life.

And this is the way your death is going to glorify me.

So we know by oral tradition that Peter was crucified upside down by Nero.

He was accused of being an insurrectionist and he would not recant his faith in Jesus.

So Nero put him to the cross, crucified him.

Lots of Christians were crucified around those times in around 60 to 70 AD.

And Peter requested that he be crucified upside down because he said, I'm not worthy to be crucified in the same manner as my Lord.

Now that's an interesting thing that Jesus says, Peter, I'm glad you love me.

I mean, what do you do with something like this in the health, wealth, and prosperity gospel?

How do you harmonize a pastor who tells you, if you come to Christ, he's going to give you everything, with he just said to Peter, you...

love me and because you love me, I'm going to use you and you're going to glorify me in your death.

How do you harmonize that?

Here's the answer.

You can't, but you won't sacrifice for something that you don't love the most.

You think about that.

The reason, okay, I love you and I'm the pastor and you're the flock and I say hard things sometimes, but the reason some of you wouldn't even think about parting with your money.

for the sake of the expansion of the kingdom of God, because you don't love the kingdom of God.

You love your kingdom.

That's the truth.

Don't like to hear it, but that's the way it is.

Because whatever you love, nobody has to tell you to sacrifice for it.

No, you automatically do it.

I guarantee you, when I fell in love with my wife, Robin, you didn't have to tell me to sacrifice anything for Robin.

I'd give up watching football with my buddies.

I'd give up a game of golf.

No, I don't after the marriage, but that's another conversation.

What you love, you pursue.

Everybody knows that.

What you love, you pursue.

If you love money, you're going to go hard after it.

And there's nothing wrong with making money, nothing wrong with building kingdoms.

but not over and above the kingdom of God.

So sometimes, you know, you might have a person who, this is what I think Jesus teaches all through the New Testament.

You might have a person who, well, it's like the person who gave very little over and above the person who gave a lot and beat his chest because he thinks, look what I have done.

But the problem is, you know, for some people, who are not that well off, they give $100 to something, that's a huge sacrifice.

Where somebody else may give $100,000 and there's no sacrifice in it.

It's not the amount that you give to anything, it's the amount of sacrifice.

What does it cost you?

For most of us, it's not going to cost us our lives.

And let's forget about money for a moment, but it will cost you something.

Time, it may cost you your reputation.

We just got through talking about Joseph during Christmas.

Where it cost him everything.

But you won't sacrifice your reputation, your time, your resources, your money.

You will not sacrifice it for something you don't love.

So the reason Jesus has this conversation with Peter is, Peter, first of all, I'm not that concerned in your errors or mistakes of the past.

What I'm concerned about, you need to come to the decision, do you love me or not?

And if you love me, and Peter says, I do, you know I love you.

And Jesus says, great.

Because I'm going to require the greatest sacrifice of you.

Come on, think about it.

Most Christians in the world, other than the affluent West, pay a heavy price for their faith.

And this is what I've been trying to do, is get us to wake up how privileged we are in the West.

You can go through your entire life and not have to sacrifice anything, not have to give up anything.

You may even benefit from your faith.

But for those who love and pursue God first and foremost above everything else, when the time comes for Christ called you to sacrifice, if you love him more than anything else, you'll do it gladly.

You'll do it gladly.

And then look at the third part of the story.

Evidently, Jesus looks at Peter after he's had this conversation with him.

And he says, verse 19, he says, follow me.

And evidently, Jesus starts to walk and Peter's following him.

But then he sees John behind him.

You see that?

And he looks at John and he says to Jesus, the nerve of Peter, he says, hey, what about this guy?

If I got to die for you, what about John?

And Jesus' response, ultimate sarcasm, he says, what is that to you?

In other words, he says, that's none of your business.

John may live, you know, and John has to give a disclaimer.

He said, some people think, but because Jesus said, what if he's alive until I come?

That's none of your business.

That's my business.

So there's a rumor started that John wasn't going to die until Jesus came again.

He says to Peter, Peter, you mind your own business.

You do what I ask you to do.

Let me worry about John.

And that's the thing.

Not all of us will be asked to make the same sacrifice, but there comes a time in all of our lives when we may ask to give up something that is painful.

And the question is, are you going to do it?

And that will be governed by what you love the most or who you love the most.

You know, I've often wondered about this whole scenario because what Jesus is saying to Peter, Peter, from this day forward, I'm asking you to make a decision.

I want you to follow me wherever I lead you.

And I don't want you complaining, asking questions or fluctuating on your commitment and love for me because Peter, remember Peter's the leader.

Peter's going to be an awesome church planter.

He's going to speak on behalf of Jesus for many years to come.

And the church upon the rock of Peter's confession, the church is going to be built that Jesus is the Christ, the son of the living God.

So I need to know you're going to follow me.

So here's what I ask you for next year.

Will you follow him wherever he leads you?

Or if you find yourself in a difficult position next year, are you going to say, God has abandoned me?

Or are you going to say, okay, God, you've led me here.

What do you want me to do?

See, until you won't get there until you love Jesus more than you love anything else.

Because if you love Jesus more than anything else, convenience won't be your highest priority.

Your easiness won't be your highest priority.

Having everything your heart desires in luxury won't be your highest priority.

Your highest priority will be the will of God in your life.

Now, I've often wondered this love thing that we've talked about a lot.

Love.

How can we be commanded to love?

First command.

When summarized, it goes like this.

Love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, mind, and strength.

How can God command me to love him?

Because you've heard me say, love cannot be...

forced, it must be given freely.

So how do you harmonize that with God commanding?

So God's not forcing you.

He's commanding you, love me.

And the problem is you and I always think love is an emotion.

We always think that it's ooey gooey feeling.

Oh, I love you.

That's such a Western thing.

Before the affluent West, love, listen now, was an act of the will.

I promise you there are times when Robin Vines does not feel like loving me.

I promise you.

And yet she does.

And yet she does.

And do you know why?

Why?

It's a command to love your husband.

And I promise you there are times I don't feel like loving her.

But I do.

Because it's a command.

Love is not just an emotion.

It's an act of the will.

Which is why arranged marriages work all over the world.

They come together and never have even met each other.

And yet these marriages have just as much an opportunity of staying together than the way we do it in the West.

Because I decide that I'm going to love this person.

The Bible asks you to understand the nature and character of God.

And as a result, love him.

So here's where I want to end.

Oh, you love the last sermon of the year, don't you?

So short.

Okay.

So write this down.

Keep it in your mind.

So love for God.

flows from the gospel, not duty.

So when you grasp, oh, because people ask me, Jeff, I want to love God.

I just don't feel it.

I understand that.

You still love him because it's a command and you can use your act of the will and choose to love God and put him first.

You can't because there are times, I know this will surprise you as a pastor.

I want to tell you there are seasons I go through as a pastor.

I just don't feel like talking to God.

I don't feel like it, but I do it.

Sometimes you'll go through a whole season where you're talking to God and you think he's not listening at all.

That's just, sorry, that's just relationship.

And sometimes God is a little bit absent to get you to pursue him a little bit harder, just like my wife.

Yeah.

So when you grasp finally in your life that you are more sinful than you ever feared, Well, at the same time, being more loved than you could ever imagine, that's when you'll fall in love with God.

You're more sinful than you could ever...

I mean, some of the friends I have, what I really...

Okay, I'm going to pick on Rick a little bit.

What I really appreciate about Rick, Rick came to faith in Christ a little bit later in life, but he is under no illusions of grandeur of his own righteousness.

If you were to talk to Rick, he'd tell you, I got issues.

Every single one of us has issues.

Even Michael's got issues.

We all have them.

And the more you get to know them, the more those issues become transparent.

It's so true, isn't it?

That's why some people don't want to move in close to God, because when you do, he starts letting you know, you got issues, pal.

But don't worry.

Don't worry.

I'm here.

I'm here.

I'm going to pull you through this.

And by the way, I don't care how many issues you have.

I love you more than you could ever imagine, and I couldn't possibly love you any more than I do right now.

And that's when you'll fall in love with God.

The second thing is, loving God, according to Augustine, means reordering your loves.

And he says that sin is not just breaking rules, it's loving good things too much.

Idolatry is taking a good thing and making it an ultimate thing.

You fail to love God when something else in your life is so valuable to you that you won't give it up for God.

Then that's your real God.

You see, there's nothing wrong with enjoying food and coffee and golf and going to the gym and exercise and hanging out with your grandkids, which there's nothing wrong with any of that until one of those becomes such a priority that they take the place of God.

Now, pastors, as you know, all right, let's be honest here.

pastors do talk about money.

Do you know why?

They need it.

They need it.

It's just the way it is.

You need money to build a kingdom of God around the world.

It's always been like that, even going all the way back to 2 Corinthians 9, when Paul writes a letter to the Macedonian church.

It would be cool if everything was free, but down deep inside, there's another part of it.

And that part is knowing that, man, Jesus said, hey, you want to know where your heart really is?

Put Jesus and your love for his kingdom and your money here.

If you're asked to choose between the two, which one will you choose?

You'll find out who you are.

That's what he means, Augustine.

Sin is not breaking rules.

It's loving good things too much.

Money's a good thing.

But when you love it so much, you won't part with it.

You got an issue.

It becomes idolatry.

And then finally, love is more than feelings.

We talked about this.

When God commands us to love him, love is not just an ooey-gooey emotion.

It's affection, delight, and joy.

But do you know that the Bible defines love as commitment and obedience?

It's commitment.

I am committed to my wife, Robin.

We got married.

We looked at each other after about a year of marriage, and here's what we said to each other.

Why on earth did God put us together?

We are nothing alike.

Anybody who knows us knows we are so opposite.

I mean, I like golf.

She hates golf.

You know, she likes a cup of tea.

I like coffee.

She likes to sit at home and crochet.

I like to do anything but sit at home and crochet.

You know, you can go on and on.

We've been opposite from day one, but you know what?

We are madly in love with each other.

It just grows every year.

Part of it is if you obey a command to love someone through an act of the will, guess what happens over time?

Your heart comes in line.

Did you know that?

If you start loving God and pursuing God, you know what's going to happen?

You're going to fall in love with God.

Can't help it.

It happens.

So...

Do you love God more than anything else?

And will you love him more than anything else next year?

Two, will you sacrifice anything he asks you to sacrifice for his cause?

And three, will you follow him wherever he leads?

If you can say yes to those three questions, 2026 is going to be a fantastic year.

Father, thank you for your goodness and for John 21 and the beauty of the passage that reminds us that what you want most from us...

is to know that we love you more than anything else.

Because if we love you more than anything else, we are usable.

You can use us for your kingdom and your glory and to advance the only kingdom that really matters.

And while you are indeed involved in the other loves of our lives, you are concerned about our children and our grandchildren and our occupation and our wealth to the degree that it takes care of our family and those you've given us responsibility to provide for.

You care, we know, about all of that.

and we can get you involved in those things.

But the thing you care most about is using us for your glory and to build your kingdom on this earth.

And we'll only do that when we love you more than we love anything else.

Forgive us, open our eyes to what we have in you so that we will fall in love with you.

In Christ's name, amen.