Week 1: Back At It Series

Note: Basic idea for message came from Ministry Pass' sermon series Back at It.

Title: Back at It

Theme: To show the importance of getting back into the routine of church and ministry.

Text: John 21:1 – 7; Genesis 11, 12

Introduction

If you would turn in your Bibles to John 21. I would like us to read through this story. It is not my goal to preach through this passage this morning. Brian did an excellent job back in June sharing expounding these scriptures.

John 21:1-7 After these things - after what things

This is after Jesus had risen from the dead. This is after Peter and John had ran to the empty tomb about found the grave open and the grave cloths clothed. This is after the confirmation of the angels

Mark 16:6 But he said to them, "Do not be alarmed. You seek Jesus of Nazareth, who was crucified. He is risen! He is not here. See the place where they laid Him. After Jesus appeared to Mary Mangelin.

I could go on and on. John 21 begins after the many appearances of Jesus. This is what makes this passage so surprising.

Jesus showed Himself again to the disciples at the Sea of Tiberias, and in this way He showed Himself: (2) Simon Peter, Thomas called the Twin, Nathanael of Cana in Galilee, the sons of Zebedee, and two others of His disciples were together. (3) Simon Peter said to them, "I am going fishing." They said to him, "We are going with you also." They went out and immediately got into the boat, and that night they caught nothing.

So after all that where does Peter find himself. He finds himself fishing. He finds himself back to the place that he knows. He goes back to familiar. Peter would say, “I don’t know much, but I know fishing”.

When our life gets disrupted it is always tempted to go back to the familiar. To go back to what we are used. When our life is disrupted it is tempted to get back into the old routine.

Sometimes that may mean the “old way of life”. The way we used to live without Christ. We let old habits creep in. That which we did for so many years become so familiar.

Even in a place where we have been for the last year and a half. We are tempted to find a routine that is not healthy in our relationship with God.

We are tempted to settle.

Settled

Story of Haran & Abram

Most of us are familiar with Abram who became Abraham. A faith follower of God who was willing to just go in the direction God had called him to go.

But what the Bible tells us in Genesis 11 is that his father left home first.

Genesis 11:27 NKJV. This is the genealogy of Terah: Terah begot Abram, Nahor, and Haran. Haran begot Lot. 28. And Haran died before his father Terah in his native land, in Ur of the Chaldeans. 29. Then Abram and Nahor took wives: the name of Abram's wife was Sarai, and the name of Nahor's wife, Milcah, the daughter of Haran the father of Milcah and the father of Iscah. 30. But Sarai was barren; she had no child. 31. And Terah took his son Abram and his grandson Lot, the son of Haran, and his daughter-in-law Sarai, his son Abram's wife, and they went out with them from Ur of the Chaldeans to go to the land of Canaan; and they came to Haran and dwelt there. 32. So the days of Terah were two hundred and five years, and Terah died in Haran.

Abram kept moving to receive the blessing

Haran means settled. Terah got settled and never made it to the land of Cana.

12:1. Now the Lord had said to Abram: "Get out of your country, from your family and from your father's house, to a land that I will show you. 2. I will make you a great nation; I will bless you and make your name great; and you shall be a blessing. 3. I will bless those who bless you, and I will curse him who curses you; and in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed.'' 4. So Abram departed as the Lord had spoken to him, and Lot went with him. And Abram was seventy-five years old when he departed from Haran. 5. Then Abram took Sarai his wife and Lot his brother's son, and all their possessions that they had gathered, and the people whom they had acquired in Haran, and they departed to go to the land of Canaan. So they came to the land of Canaan.

Why People Settle?

A. Fear can cause you to settle