Chapter 21, verses 15 through 17. John 21, 15 through 17. If you looked at the back of your bulletin, I have very bad news. There's actually four points to this sermon. Yep, so there you go. The title of this message is, The Question We All Must Answer. It's my goal and intent that each one of you individually would be brought before the Lord Jesus Christ and you would be forced to look Him in the eye and answer the question. We're just saying, whatever you say, I will do. Wherever you send, I will go. Well, this is what God said to Jonah. Go to Nineveh, that wicked city, and proclaim to them these things. Whatever you say I'll do, wherever you send I'll go. Jonah went down and he paid the fare, got on a ship and went to Tarshish away from the presence of the Lord. And now for the unrecorded words of Jonah, the unrecorded words. Meaning they're not written in the text. It is as if Jonah didn't know the command, but he did know it. We know he knew it and God told him. What are the unrecorded words? The unrecorded words are, Jonah, do you love me? Jonah, do you love me? Why is the question asked to Jonah? Unrecorded, but why is it asked? because his actions make his devotion to Christ susceptible, make them vague, and you're left wondering, if you love Jesus, why did you go to Tarshish? You had a clear word, you say you love God, God told you what to do, and you went the other way. Do you love Him or do you not love Him? We give Jonah a hard time, his lack of obedience to the clear command of God. And the Lord Jesus says to you here this morning, remember the Sabbath day, the day, and keep it holy. And I don't know where you got your exegesis of remember the Sabbath hour, but it isn't in the text. It's a clear word, but by the actions that you commit, people are left wondering, do you love Christ? Jesus asked you, He asked me, do you love me? Herein is the thrice repeated question of our text we'll read in just a moment. You and I are responsible for answering this question. with your eyes fixed on the face of Jesus Christ. How will you answer the question this morning? You see, words are cheap. Lies are exposed. The heart is laid bare. The motives are clear. You know this morning that you are supposed to say, yes, I love Jesus. You know that that is the right answer. But there's all these things in your life that reveal that you actually love something else more. Your job, your hobbies, your house, your family. Your TV, your social media, your sports, and a million other things have more importance to you than Jesus and your actions show allegiance to other things as a primary rather than Christ being your primary love. All these other things. In your heart you know that your life, your lifestyle, your life commitments, your life obligations, your life prohibits. Your lifestyle, what you've connected yourself to to say, this is what I do, prohibits your devotion to Christ on Sunday. It prohibits your devotion to Christ on Sunday evening. It prohibits a midweek service where we pray and intercede for the brothers and sisters in Christ. It prohibits evangelism. It prohibits missions. It prohibits daily devotion. It prohibits Bible reading. It prohibits memory verse time. All of those things are X'd out because of what you really love. It becomes very difficult for you and I to look Jesus in the eye and say, I love you when my conscience is screaming, but you're devoted to everything else. It's very much intensified when the Son of God looks you in the eye and asks the same question three times. Do you? Do you? Do you? And you know He sees to the depth of your heart. He knows exactly what makes you tick, and He's pressing this question upon you. And you're like, I really just don't even want to open my mouth. This is what Peter faces. Daily denying Christ, daily denying Him, denying Him, His primary place in our lives is alarming and disclosing of where our hearts are. Well, if that doesn't ring a bell, it does make sense if you think about it in marriage. Any of you that are married, I'm thinking this probably has happened at some point in your life. The spouse says to you something like this. It should be easy. I don't know why it gets so difficult. The spouse says, do you love me? Anybody? Anybody in the room? Ever heard this question? The spouse says, do you love me? Come on, you know the right answer. You gotta get this one right. It's not maybe, it's not let me think about it, it's not let me get back to you tomorrow. Those are wrong answers, guys. The answer is yes, we gotta answer yes. The problem is, you know you're not spending time together. You know you don't have any fellowship. You know you don't have any walks together. You don't do devotions together. You have no real intimate time together, and you know the answer's yes, but you're so guilty of not actually expressing that love, you're having a hard time with the answer. Truth is, that's why the question was asked. That's why it's asked today. So in our text, Jesus is Jesus. Peter is you. John 21 verse 15. They finished eating breakfast. Jesus said to Simon, Peter, Simon, son of John, do you love me? Now notice on the first question you have these words and they'll be dropped out of the second two questions. Do you love me more than these? He said to him, yes, Lord, you know that I love you. He said to him, feed my lambs. He said to him a second time, Simon, son of Jonah, do you love me? He said to him, yes, Lord, you know, you know I love you. He said to him, tend my sheep. He said to him the third time, Simon, son of John, Do you love me?" Peter was grieved because he said to him the third time, do you love me? He said to him, Lord, you know everything. You know. that I love you. Jesus said to him, feed my sheep. That's our text. Restoration to genuine Christian living is founded upon loving Christ. Proved genuine. Peter proved genuine. Now, I'll catch you up to date just a bit of what's going on in Peter's mind and heart. The past episode has affected him. Peter knows what's happened in the past. He understands the situation. He knows what he's done. He knows what he's said. It's never verbalized in the text, but he knows. Just like you know. You know what you do. You know why you don't participate in things. You know why. You know those things. Let me remind you of Peter's guilt. Remember back in the Gospels, Peter said something like this, if I must die with you, I will not deny you." This is Peter's affirmation. I'd give my life for you. Another portion of the Gospels, Jesus said to Peter, will you lay down your life for me? Will you do that? Amen, amen. I say to you, the rooster will not crow until you have denied me three times. I will not deny, you will deny. This is the issue. Again in the Gospels, Simon Peter was standing there warming himself. It was a cold night. Things were looking bleak on the horizon. The Savior's about to be crucified. They look at Peter and says, are you also one of his disciples? Are you one of his? Are you with Jesus? He denied it. This is what he said, I am not. Peter knows he said this. Peter knows he denied the Lord. He's well aware of this. This is D.A. Carson Quipt. He said, Peter had boasted of his reliability in the presence of his fellow disciples, so this restoration to public ministry is affected on similar public environment. Now here, before these other six, Jesus says to him after breakfast, Simon, son of Jonah, son of somebody, Son of John, not Jonah, Son of John, do you love me? Now I'm before these disciples, I've made this before, and now it's brought before them again. I must give an answer. The Lord's question. Love of Christ is the prerequisite for pastoral ministry. For any ministry, you must love Christ. I'll make the application later. It's the principle for Christian living. You can't live as a Christian rightly unless you love Christ. Let's say pastorally, I'll preach to the preachers a little bit in this sermon this morning, but pastoral work is difficult. And if you have no genuine love for Christ, the pastor will never make it to the end. It's impossible. You can't pay me enough to do this job. You can't give me enough good sermons at the end of the service to sustain my work here. You can't do enough things to cause me to make it to the end. If I have no love of Christ undone, Love of Christ must constrain the pastor. That's what the Apostle Paul says, is it not? Second Corinthians 5.14, he says, for the love of Christ constrains. What does the word constrained mean? To provide an impulse for, to urge on, to impel. How does the pastor continue on in the face of adversity? How do you deal with all the setbacks and all the difficulties? It must be love for Christ. That must be the issue. You have ordination councils, you search for a new pastor, you have them come in view of a call, all these things happen in church life. Oh, that the church would interview a pastor and say, forget all questions, the first thing I want to know is, do you love Christ? If you don't have that, you ain't got squat diddly, as we say in East Texas. Genuine pastoral ministry is controlled by the love of Christ, which would lead Paul to say something like this, if anyone has no love for the Lord, let him be accursed. The first time Jesus asked, he has the phrase, more than these. Do you love me more than these? I have to ask, what are the these? What are the these? Do you love me more than you love your friends, these other disciples? Whoa, stop. Are you listening? Okay, you've got an issue. Jesus' friends. The Lord's Day, other things, family, friends, influences. Do you love me more than your friends? Do you love me more than your family? Do you love me more than these? Do you love me more than John? Do you love me more than Thomas? Do you love me more than these other guys here? Where's your love at, Peter? Where's your love at, sir? Ma'am, where's your love? Do you love Christ more than these others? Or secondly, do you love me more than you love ... I just came out of the water with a net full of fish. Do you love me more than these, your fishing net, your fishing boat, these things? Do you love me more than fishing? If you love me more than that, what are you doing here? Why don't you just scrap your net, sink your boat, and follow me? Is it more than these? Or thirdly, do you love me more than these other disciples love me? Is it comparative to their love? I take all three. The question remains, I believe fully that Peter knows what these things are. And I think you know what these things are. And I know what these things are. And so when the Lord looks at me and says, do you love me more than these? I know what he's asking. And I have to give an answer and try to justify why it is that these things in my life trump the things that Jesus tells me to do. And I have to answer where my love is in regard to these things. The present situation, I can relate to Peter. He's lost a lot of confidence. He's bold, he's rash, he's zealous, he's on fire for things for sure. He's lost confidence. Now think about this, you've had this happen in relationships sometimes. He's now seen the Lord three times post-resurrection. He said nothing. I know I blew it, and then he came in the room that night when Thomas wasn't there, he didn't say nothing to me. And then he came that night when Thomas was there, and he didn't say nothing to me. What's Jesus thinking? I feel awkward here. Nothing's been said. I don't know what to do. Three appearances. He hasn't said a word about my denial. Why will he not say anything? Are we good here? Is it okay? Are me and Jesus together? It's still hanging. And so when Jesus looks at him and says, Simon, son of John, do you love me? He knows what's going on here. He's feeling the weight of this. He's got a lack of confidence, but I say to you in this text, there is a great privilege A man called to the pastorate must have a love for lambs, the younger, he must have a love for the sheep, the older. It is impossible to love lambs and sheep if you don't love the shepherd. You've got to love the shepherd, and if you love the shepherd, you will be compelled to love his sheep. For example, when someone puts you in charge of their greatest possession, all right, you can laugh if you like, fine. But look, if I trust you to keep my dog, I have a whole lot of respect for you. Are we good? Me and my dog are tight. So if I'm gonna leave my dog in your care, what I'm saying to you is, I really trust you, and you're really crazy, because if my dog dies while I'm gone, I'm gonna kill you, right? Here, this is what's going on. Jesus' greatest love is the church. This is his bride. This is the love of his life. And he's saying, Peter, I'm entrusting my sheep. I'm entrusting my lambs. Here's what I want you to do. I want you to feed them. I want you to tend to them. I want you to do everything necessary to take care of my bride." A man with no confidence, confidence is waning, and now the Lord of glory is giving him responsibility in what is deemed the most valuable thing to him. This is high cotton here. This is a time of restoration. It's a great honor to be put in such a position. The proven pastor. We have the present situation. Peter's taking all of this in. Now he's going to be proven. Preparation, the thrice repeated question is met. with thrice repeated responsibility, serve my church. And notice in all of these, my lambs, my sheep, my sheep, you serve my congregation. That's what he's saying to Peter. Peter had made three denials, now he's brought to make three affirmations. The Lord's restoration is restoration indeed. Remember, back in the gospel of Luke, a blessed word we sometimes forget, but this is what he told Peter back in the past. Now think about this. This is what Jesus said. He says to Peter, but I have prayed for you. Satan wants to do all this. But I have prayed for you that your faith may not fail. Your faith won't apostatize, if you will. But when you've turned again, there's going to come a time Peter's going to get it. I'm going to turn again. When you turn again, strengthen your brethren. Okay, it's time. We're here. We're in the text. Now we're brought to the confirmation here that whether or not he loves them, he's turned. Now it's time to get to work with the ministry that God has told him to do. You say, what's the proof of this? I don't know. When we start preaching Acts, I think you ought to figure it out. He's the key instrument for the birth of the early church. This guy goes crazy. He don't care if you kill him, you lock him up, you chain him, it don't matter what you do to him. This man is never denying Christ again. He's fully committed. He becomes the author of two epistles in the New Testament. You get a flavor of this, you get to the very end, and Peter, he still hadn't got over this love. He says, but grow in grace. You grow in grace and in knowledge of the Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. That's all that matters is your love for him. He becomes so bold that he dies as a martyr. And I ask you to ponder this, to finish up point number one, but to ponder this. As you think about Jesus, Peter, the disciples sitting around this area here, Peter never once compares his love to the other guys. Lord, you know? Lord, you know. Lord, you know. He never says, well, you know I love you more than Thomas. He never says, you know I love you more than John. He never refers to them. He says, Lord, you know. He defaults to the omniscience of Christ. It's a good position. He never puts forth his own work for proof. He never puts forth his own words for proof. He never tries to prove anything. He says, Lord, you know, you know, you know. You have to realize that this morning. You say to me whatever you want to say to me. She'll come up and say, yeah, Pastor, I love Jesus. Your words don't matter. The Lord knows your heart. He knows. You can't fool Him. Everything is laid bare. He knows your heart's position towards Him. You say whatever you want to say. Your life is a living testimony as to the reality of your heart. Peter defaults each answer to the omniscience of the Savior. The Lord's complete knowledge of our hearts should cause us to be honest when He asks a question. All my applications are the same, and here it is. Jesus says to you. Jesus says to you, Jesus says to you, and Jesus says to you, do you love me? That's the question. Secondly, provide grain, provide grain. You see that in our text. You have feed my lambs, you have tend my sheep, you have feed my sheep. Two different Greek words here. Feed has to do with tending animals. I talked to Brett. Brett don't have sheep, they have cattle, lots of cattle. This is what I know about bread and cattle. You've got to feed them every day. In the wintertime, you've got to get up early in the morning before church, you've got to go out and you've got to break the ice out of all the troughs or they can't drink any water. You've got to put food in the trough, and if you don't put food in the trough, all the hundreds of thousands of cows that they have are all bellowing because you've got no food in the trough. They never say thank you, they never care, but they expect the food to be put there, and it never ends, and you've got to do it in rain, sleet, shine, snow, the cattle must be fed. I don't care how you feel. I don't care if you've got a runny nose. I don't care if you've got a sore toe. I don't care if grandma's coming over for lunch. You've got to feed the cows. This is the way it is. This is what he's saying to Peter. It don't matter what the sheep do. It don't matter how they are. It don't matter how they act. It's your responsibility to feed them. Or Jeremiah uses this word in the Septuagint in Jeremiah 31.10. He says, "'Hear the word of the Lord, O nations, and declare it on the coastlands far away. Say, "'He who scattered Israel will gather him, and he will keep,' is the way they translate it. "'He will keep him as a shepherd keeps his flock.'" That's what he tells Peter to do. And the other word? That he says, tend, tend to my sheep is the word we get for shepherd, to watch out for other people, to shepherd the activity that protect them, to rule over them, to govern them in some way. This is what Peter wrote later in 1 Peter 5. Peter wrote this, shepherd the flock of God which is among you. How in the world, Peter, are we supposed to do that? You exercise oversight, not under compulsion, but you do it willingly as God would have you. You don't shepherd people for shameful gain. No, no, no. You do it eagerly. How can you remain eager? How can you remain diligent, trying to shepherd a people who frankly don't care? How could you do that? You better have love for Christ or you'll never endure. That's what he's telling him. And then, of course, the Apostle Paul would agree, and he says something like this to pastors, pay very careful attention to yourselves and to your flock, to which the Holy Spirit has made you an overseer, to care, to care for the church of God. Whether they care or not, care for them, because he obtained the church with his own blood. If it's that important to the King Jesus and you love him, you better give all you have to care for the flock. The work is hard, pastoral work is hard, it's filled with ongoing attacks. Paul says this, let the elders who rule well be considered worthy of double honor, especially those who labor in word and doctrine. NASB says, who work hard at preaching and teaching. You say, why are you sharing that verse? Because it's hard, labor, work. in order to do the things that the pastor does. It's difficult to try to keep men walking in the same direction. You say, look, it's not difficult. This is the way, walk in it. But people keep turning to the right, they keep turning to the left, and the job never ends. You sit in your office, sometimes you go, Do you have a brain? Do you have a heart? What are you doing with your family, with your life? What is going on with you? How can you live this way after you've heard 23 years of preaching verse by verse? How can you do this and do this and do that? It's just hard work. It's difficult. The church is made up of those who are weak, unrestrained, unsteady. Others are dull and sluggish. Others are slow and unteachable. Others are lazy and lukewarm. Others never demonstrate an ounce of gratitude for anything. This is what Calvin says. Calvin says, Satan now brings forward as many causes of offense as he can that he may destroy or weaken the courage of a good pastor. Whatever he can do to destroy the courage of a good pastor, he will do because he knows if he can destroy the shepherd, then the sheep will be scattered. So the weariness of the pastor comes. One step forward, three steps back. Good food is given. Ain't nothing wrong with food around here. Good food's given. The example of godliness is made plain. The continual exaltation of Jesus Christ is the motive. But yet, oftentimes the responses are so weird, it's enough to drive a pastor to insanity. without a love for Christ to constrain the pastor, he will never endure. Christ knows this. He's making sure Peter knows this. Look, the Lord Jesus knows what's coming in the book of Acts. He knows what the leaders are going to do. He knows what the religious people are going to do. He knows all the reactions that are going to happen. Peter, you better get this one right or you're never going to make it. Without love for Christ reigning in the heart of the pastor, he will never overcome the obstacles that he will face. The primary of primaries for pastoral ministry is love of Christ. Young man, why do you want to go in the pastorate? I love to preach. Not good enough. I just love the church. Not good enough. If you don't have a love for Christ, no matter what happens, you come to the pulpit one Sunday morning and you stand up and there's nobody there and you preach your heart out to nobody. Why? Because you love Christ and he's worthy to be preached even if nobody shows up to hear it. No matter how exhausted a man may be in life, If the love of his life expresses need, he'll do anything he can to meet it. That's the way love works. Love is very strong, very strong. It's the greatest faith, hope, and love. Love is the greatest of these three. It's what causes us to overcome when nothing else will do. Only love for Christ will keep a man in the pastorate. Lesser things? Money, friends, material possession, church-sized growth, etc., will never be sufficient to sustain a man in pastoral ministry. Never. I see pastors all the time. I go to this church, they pay more. I go to this church, they've got a nicer parsonage. I go to this church, they can give me this. I go to this church, they can give me this. It's not enough. If they gave you a mansion, it's not enough. If they gave you a million dollars a year, it's not enough. The only thing that would sustain a man of God is love for Christ. That's why you get somebody like Moses, who's about had all he can have from the nation of Israel, he's about done, and you get this phrase, he chose the reproaches of Christ over the treasures of Egypt. He loved Jesus. That's why he made it to the end. The worth of the pastor, what is a pastor worth anyways, Peter? This is all this talk about love. What's his worth? Well, I'd invite you to go out in the field and talk to some sheep. When something is taken away, that's when you discover how valuable it is. Hashtag, lose your RV for a month. Nevertheless, where there is no pastor for the Lord's sheep, there's no food. There's no leadership, no biblical weddings, no biblical funerals, no biblical council, no direction for the church. A friend of mine went to a church to become the associate pastor. He had $55,000 in the bank, and they were going to pay him $400 a week. He's like, what are you doing with $55,000? You building a new fellowship hall? Take care of your pastor. They have no pastor. Six, seven years they haven't had a pastor. They have ten people that meet. They're starving to death. They've got no food. They've got no leadership. No consistent gospel encouragement? No one to intercede for your soul that actually cares for you? What are you going to do, tune into YouTube like somebody on YouTube cares about you? They don't care nothing about you. You don't have no pastor, you have no one that truly cares for your soul, that actually calls you by name and weeps over your life, praying that you would love Christ. Ask the sheep the value of the shepherd. They'll tell you this. They'll tell you about the time the wolf come in and he got driven away. That's what they'll tell you. They'll tell you about the time they went to the trough and there was food. They'll tell you about the time they were hungry and they went out to a green pasture. They'll tell you about the time they were thirsty and they went out and they were given streams of refreshing water. They'll tell you about the time that they were carried home when they were too tired to carry themselves home. They'll tell you about the comfort of seeing their shepherd standing on the hillside watching over them when they were too tired to watch over themselves. The worth of a pastor. What did David say? The Lord is my shepherd. Jesus says to you, do you love me? You can skip your pastor of this church for a moment. The question is, do you love the true shepherd? The Lord is my shepherd. Do you love him? Number three, particular group. You can't miss it. We're only feeding lambs and sheep here. We're not feeding goats, not feeding pigs, not tending to them. It's just a particular group. What do sheep need? Well, it's pretty basic. They need food. They need food every week, just like you need food every day. They need care every day. They need a shepherd to care for their souls and to feed them. What is the nature of sheep? In all my years of ministry, this is what I've learned about the nature of sheep. Let me bring it down to a couple of verses. Here's one thing that stands out above all other things. Sheep listen to the voice of their shepherd. A stranger they won't follow, but they will flee from him, for they do not know the voice of strangers. My sheep hear my voice, I know them, and they follow me." They don't have to have a lot of gimmicks. They don't have to have a lot of entertainment in order to keep sheep in the pen with the shepherd who's feeding them. That's why they're there, in order to be fed, and they're being fed, so they're content to keep coming and being fed by their shepherd. It's just the nature of sheep. And by the way, it's only sheep who prosper under the ministry of a God-called pastor. Goats just don't prosper. They just don't. Only sheep do. The nature of goats is far different than the nature of sheep. You can do a lot of things to attract goats. You can do lights, you can do music, you can do smoke, you can find Easter eggs, you can dress up like some pagan Santa Claus. You can do all kind of goofy junk and you can get people to come. If that ain't good enough, get you a helicopter and drop eggs out of it. You can get people to come. We could get a motocross guy in here and do a backflip or something. We can get goats to come. But sheep are interested in what the shepherd has to say for their soul. What is the net worth of sheep? I told you about the worth of a pastor. What's the worth of a sheep? The worth of the sheep is seen in the price that it's cost to redeem him. I quote once again the same verse, pay careful attention to yourselves and to all the flock in which the Holy Spirit has made you overseers to care for the church of God which he obtained with his own blood. That's how much worth there is to the sheep that the Son of God would shed his blood to redeem her. No matter what your thoughts or opinions may be about the church, know this, Christ spared no cost in order to make sure she was spotless and without wrinkle. Now, the grief of Peter also comes out in this text. Certainly this thrice repeated question has penetrated his heart. It says so in our text, does it not? He says to him the third time, do you love me? In verse 17, Peter is grieved. So this is Peter's grief. He's grieved because he said to him the third time. Peter needed this rebuke for his failure. It is a rebuke. Maybe not a harsh rebuke, but it is a rebuke for his failure. But he also needed the responsibility placed on him for future ministry. It's not just forgiveness for the past, but it's responsibility for the future. It's not just, okay, we're past that, but he puts him back in a position of responsibility. Why? He hasn't committed a disqualifying sin. That's not the issue. He did deny the Lord, but it's not disqualifying sin. He's restored, established, and given this opportunity to affirm his love for Christ. Now... Peter probably didn't realize at this moment, but he will come to know just how important this is. Think about young men in the ministry, think about Christians in a church, and they don't realize exactly how important it is to know that you love Christ. Note to self, the church members won't make it in church without love for Christ, no more than the pastor will make it without love for Christ. Any difficulty comes along. If you don't love Christ, you can justify your way out. You could justify your way out, but if you love Christ, you'll endure anything for the sake of the gospel. It's like getting married, by the way, too, right? You're in marriage, and if you can't work through the hard times, you won't stay married long at all. But love for your spouse will cause you to work through it. Now, point number four that's not in your bulletin is this, and this we wrap it together this morning, I hope. Love for Christ. Now, way back in the beginning of this book, in John chapter 2, we flipped the question around from, do you believe Jesus? We flipped that around and we said, does Jesus believe you? That's the issue, right? Well, now here in John 21, we live in a world that says Jesus loves everybody, God loves everybody. That's the statement they're always making. Well, we're flipping that around and we're saying, look, regardless of God's love, the question is, do you love Jesus? That's the question. We can talk about the love of God. That's another whole sermon or series of sermons. But this morning, it's not about whether or not he loves us. We can look at the cross and prove that. But this morning, we're trying to figure out individually in this room right here at By the Word Baptist Church whether or not I love him. That's what we're trying to figure out, the personal application of it all. So I ask you, these are all rhetorical questions, there's a lot more that could be asked, but I ask you this morning to look in your own heart. This is what we're asking from this text. If you're Peter, I'm just asking you to look in your own heart. Look at your own life. Do you love Jesus more than these? Do you love Jesus more than these? The word yes is easy to say, but you've got to ask yourself this morning, why? Why, why, why, why? Why do you do what you do? Why do you think like you think? Why do you go where you go? Why is it that you keep finding these things rather than Christ? Why? Ask yourself the why. Why do you give him no more than one hour on Sunday? At least tell Jesus why that he's not worth more than that. Why do you sit home and do nothing rather than worship Jesus? You don't come on Sunday night. You don't come on Wednesday night. Pray tell me. Tell me what you get that is more valuable than what you get out of this book in this full page. Tell me what it is. If it's more valuable than what you can get here, tell me because I want something that's greater than this. But you know there's nothing. You know there's nothing out there with more value, but yet you keep choosing other things. Why? Why do you make time for everything under the sun, but have no time or desire for midweek prayer meetings? Is prayer not important? Is interceding not important? Is Christ not important? Are your brothers and sisters in Christ not important? You know what? I ain't got time for all this prayer stuff, but I love Jesus. Why is there no real time given to memorize Scripture, meditate upon His Word? Why is it possible to make everything happen in life except time with Christ? Why is that possible? Why is there no evangelism? Why is there no evangelism when you can constantly talk about the weather and about politics and everything else? Why don't you ever talk about Christ? Why, why, why? Do you love him? Do you love Jesus? Then why is he not outflowing out of your heart? For out of the abundance of your heart, your mouth will speak. What is going on in your life that you're constantly gravitated to other things and Christ doesn't have primary. What is the greatest commandment? You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your mind, and with all your strength. I ask you, are you doing that? Do you love him like that? Have you abandoned all and said, forget the net, forget the boat, forget all of these other hobbies that I have, forget all the things that are attracting my children, for as for me and my house, we will serve the Lord. Is that your position? Is that the position of your family? Man up. Look up here, I'm talking to you. Man up and make your decision and say, as for me and my house, this is the priority because we love Christ. We will never discuss church attendance. We will never discuss these issues again. Christ is preeminent in this home. More than these. Is it more than other men love Christ? Is it more than you love than you have for your fellow man? Or is it more than your hobbies and other things? Reality has a way of erasing words. Show me a man who spends 30 minutes plus on social media. and stupid video games that profit you nothing. Who knows not one memory verse, and I'll show you where a man's love is. Show me a man who has time for TV, physical exercise, hobbies, and cutting his grass, but has no discipline for the Lord's day, and I'll show you where his love is. Show me a man who has no desire for evangelism, missions, singing praises, being attentive to the Word of God, and I'll show you a man who loves himself. Show me a man who exercises no ability to serve his wife, to lead his children, to demonstrate godliness on his job, and I'll show you a man who doesn't love Jesus. Show me a man who has time and money for alcohol, and time and money for cigarettes, and pornography, and paying cell phone bills, and gambling, and countless other vices, and I'll show you a man who loves the world and not Christ. Jesus says to you, and He says to me, do you love me? You say, Pastor, this is offensive. I don't feel good about this Memorial Day. Can't you be happy? I'm happy. I'm just telling you this is the question you must answer. When you preach, you shouldn't use you because it's kind of confrontational. I'm confronting you. This is what the Word of God does. The truth is being applied to you. You say, I think you're talking to me. Yes, I'm talking to you. Yes, you're on my mind. You're on my heart. I'm thinking about you by name. I think you're singling me out. Yes, I am. That's the nature of my text. Do you love me? Words are cheap. Our lives are what will expose the truth. Like Jonah, I knew what the Lord called me to do. Fear of the unknown, fear of incompetency, fear of necessities for my family, my wife and my kids, caused me to bail out on Jesus. I put my hand to things that I could do. I can hang iron. I can work hundreds of feet in the air. I can make a lot of money. I can do that, so I thought. I understand what it means to be restored to ministry. It's not that I committed some disqualifying sin no more than Peter had. However, my weakness and lack of faith was revealed to me. I needed to have my confidence restored. I knew the path that God had put me on had not changed. In countless ways, untold, the Lord restored me, prepared me, and sent me forward into gospel ministry. After over two decades of pastoral ministry, there is only one thing that causes me to continue. Just one. Love for Christ. I've got nothing else. But that's what it takes to be a Christian, is to love Jesus. Yeah, I'm saying these things about me, but I'm saying them to you. This is the only way you can be Christian. is to love Jesus more than these. So I ask you, what about you? What sustains you? What keeps you walking in the right direction? What has gripped your heart and will not let you go? If you refuse to repent of your sin and believe upon Christ, it's because you don't love him. Oh that today you would fall in love with Christ and never get over Him. If you continue to put everything under the sun before the Lord Jesus, how do you answer the question this morning that is being asked? He says to you, do. You love me. You have to take and answer this looking into the face of Christ. Not to me. Don't come to me, Pastor, I love Jesus. No, no, no, that's not going to work. I'm not going to quiet your conscience for you. You have to go to Christ and say, Christ, this is my answer to the question today. I was asked if I love you, and I say, you have to do that and work that out. And remember this warning, and Brother Jeff will come and lead us in our final song. Here's your warning to close with. If anyone has no love for the Lord, let him be accursed. Maranatha, Maranatha, come Lord Jesus.