John 21:1-14 | Waiting for God to Show Up

Sunday Morning | April 7, 2024 | John C. Majors | Louisville, KY

The sermon "Waiting for God to Show Up" emphasizes the importance of being expectant, obedient, and present in our spiritual journey, drawing from John 21:1-14 and Ezekiel 47:6-10. It highlights how moments of loss and failure can serve as opportunities to hear from God more clearly. By remaining obedient to His word and being present in our surroundings, we can align ourselves with His plan. The numerical symbolism of places in the text signifies the significance of spreading the gospel message, reflecting the anticipation of encountering divine presence in unexpected places.

At Valley View Church we are currently studying through the entire gospel of John, verse by verse. You can join us on Sunday mornings at 11 AM for worship. We are located at 8911 3rd Street Road, Louisville KY 40272.

Transcript

0:11

Well, good morning, Valley View.. Lord. You know, it's so good to just start the week by telling ourselves over and over again, Jesus, you're the one thing. Because almost every other message you hear this week will be the opposite of that. Like, you can't tell yourself that enough. It seems like at times, to counteract all the other messages that we hear and that we even tell ourselves. So thank you, Andrew, for leading us in that thank you worship team, because my heart needs that needs to be reminded over and over again. He's our one thing. There's there's nothing else, nothing else. And it takes so long to get that in my thick skull. And it's so hard. But that's what we're fighting for here every week, especially as we have been working our way through the Book of John, which we've been doing now since September of 22. And we are now entering the final chapter of the book of John today, a little, mixed applause there. I don't really want to say I'm done studying part of the Bible, but maybe we should move on to other areas. A little mixed applause. That's okay. We're going to wrap up the Book of John next week. It'll be our final sermon in the book of John. And you may be wondering what we're going to do after that. Where are we going to go after that for the next 5 or 6 years? No, I won't take that long. You ever face those moments in life, though, where you're not quite sure what to do next? Maybe there's a bit of uncertainty. You're not sure how to move forward. You're in this waiting period, by the way. I know what we're going to do next. I'll share it next week. Don't don't worry. But we face those moments where there's the waiting, the uncertainty, not showing, not sure exactly what to do. one time in particular that stands out to me when that was very real was right after 911, right after the Twin Towers fell. You if you were around, then you remember that moment, and it's kind of hard to pull yourself back in that time. But man, that especially that week after, I just felt like I had no idea what to do with my life. it felt like there really wasn't anything worth doing at that point. I just had this mix of confusion and apathy and not sure what to do, and wondering what the future hell holds. But as that kind of faded, this sense of, oh, I got to do something started to come on, I don't know what I gotta do. Something. And one of the guys I was serving in ministry with, he came to me. He's like, John, I got this idea, I'm going to rent this U-Haul. We're going to fill it up with stuff water, food, whatever. And we're just going to drive up there. We're just going to drive up there. I got to do something. I hear you, we got to do something. Let's do it. Great idea. Let me call a friend first, though. I got a friend who serves in ministry up there. Someone I knew when we first started a ministry together, so called her. Listen, here's what we want to do. We know there's great need up there. My buddy myself, we're both excited. We just need to do something. And she goes, please don't come. Please do not come. The last thing we need is you two yahoos. She didn't say it that way, but that's what I heard in her voice, who have no idea what you're doing and just want to help. I appreciate that, thank you. But it is nuts up here. We don't need you adding to the trouble of someone else to care for in this moment. But we got to do something because the waiting can be hard when you're in the midst of waiting, I just. What do I do? I don't know what to do. Especially when you're waiting on God to show up. What do I do? I need to do something. How do I wait? How do we wait? Well, one. Today's passage in John chapter 21, we're going to see the disciples who were in the midst of waiting on Jesus to show up. How do you wait? Well, I think we're going to see three lessons in here to take from that in terms of how we wait on God to show up in our lives. So we're in John chapter 21, and if you have a church Bible that will be on page 853, you don't have a Bible. We have those in the connection corner. We'd love to put one in your hands. You can keep that. Hold on to it, read from it and follow along as we read. I'm just going to read the first few verses to get our setting here in John chapter 21. After this, Jesus revealed himself again to the disciples by the sea of Tiberius, and he revealed himself in this way. Simon Peter Thomas called the twin Nathaniel of Cana in Galilee, the sons of Zebedee and two others of his disciples were together. Simon Peter said to them, I'm going fishing. They said to him, we'll go with you. They went out, got into the boat, but that night they caught nothing. So the setting is. Last week we looked at Jesus. He had met the disciples for the first time after his resurrection. Then he followed that up by meeting with them again with Thomas. Thomas wasn't there the first time. And so now we have them. They've left Jerusalem, and they've gone to Galilee. Now why have they ended up back in Galilee? We don't get all the details here. Sometimes you have to piece together all four of the gospel accounts Matthew, Mark, Luke and John. You've got to look across them to fill in the gaps of the story. And in Matthew, in Mark, Jesus says to them or says through someone else, you go on to Galilee, I'll meet you there. So they've been sent ahead by him there. They're waiting for him to show up. They should be expecting that he will show up. He said, I'm coming to see you. You should be waiting on me. They're expecting me to arrive. And while they're waiting, their response to waiting in the midst of that is Peter, who's often kind of seen as the leader of the times. He's most prominent in the stories. He's the one that says, let's go fishing. And of course, all the other disciples are like, we're there with you. Yes. Let's go. Are seven of them their total don't know exactly where the others are now. Some have seen this, and there's a couple different ways to take this. You look at this and you see Peter going fishing. One way to take it is well, he's he's given up. And forget whatever this guy was doing, I don't even know where he is. He said he'd come. We don't know how long he's been waiting, but however long it is, if you're waiting on Jesus to show up, feels like a really long time. Forget it. I'm going back to what I used to know. I used to be a fisherman. That's comfortable, that's safe. Let's forget fishers of men. I don't even know what that means. Let's go back. Let's fish for fish. That's one way to take it. Certainly could be what's going on in his heart in that moment. Because waiting is hard. Who likes to wait? When you're waiting on God to show up? It can be really hard. I mean, maybe you've been in a season where you've been waiting for him to provide a spouse. You've been single a long time, and you're just not sure you're tired of being alone. God, when are you going to show up? Or maybe he brought that spouse, and now you've both have been waiting for children, and that's been hard. And there have been challenges. And you're wondering, when is he going to show up? Or maybe it's a season of sickness and you need healing, or maybe that child wandered away from the Lord and you wonder, when is he going to bring him back? Or you're in need of a job and you've been jobless for so long and you wonder, God, what are you doing? When are you going to show up and give me direction? That's hard to do. I think many in that moment are tempted to just go, he. If he's not going to show up, forget him, forget it. Let me just go back to whatever I was doing. It wasn't great. It was okay. Maybe that's what's maybe that's what's going on here. Maybe the other side of it is just practical. Good. They've gone back to their hometown. Of course, sometimes when you go back to your hometown, you can fall into old patterns. And maybe you just wonder, what's my purpose and meaning in life? What should I do? By the way, I'm hungry. Let's go fishing. We know how to do that. Let's go get some fish. Is it willful disobedience walking away from the Lord or just boredom? You know, I don't think we can be 100% sure. In fact, any times you have been in waiting, there's a whole bunch of mixed of motives going on in your life. Sometimes you're not even able to kind of spell it all out. Exactly. Someone might ask you, what are you feeling? I haven't I'm not 100% sure. There's this and this other thing, and it's all mixed up together and I'm confused. But we get a couple of hints here in this last phrase in verse three that point out a little bit of what may be going on. Look back at verse three. At the very end it says they went out, but that night they caught nothing. John, you've seen as we've studied the book of John all throughout, it's full of symbolism and meaning. It's full of inferences pointing backwards to the Old Testament, pointing forwards to Jesus's return, cross-referencing back to other parts of the Book of John over and over again, and just this short little phrase. I think we see two symbols happening here, two things pointing towards other things. First off, they go out to fish at night. And of course, there's historic reasons to fish at night. That's true for sure, but night, in fact, the theme of light versus dark is a big theme all throughout the book of John. We've seen it show up over and over again. Jesus calls himself the light of the world. He brings light, covers over, pushes out the darkness. You think back to Judas. He went out to betray Jesus and it was night. Nicodemus showed up to see. See Jesus, to learn from Jesus at night. But the emphasis there, the inference, the symbolism is spiritual darkness in their lives, spiritual misunderstanding, maybe still some Jesus friendliness, but but darkness, spiritual darkness, misunderstanding. So there's that layer of what's going on. They go out at night, but then the results also point us to something else that's going on all night. And they caught nothing. Experienced fishermen out the entire night catching nothing. Some of the symbolism here is just when we are in spiritual darkness in our own efforts, the results are fruitless. They're nothing. You've probably been there in those seasons where you're striving and striving in your own strength, and nothing's happening, and you're wondering, where are you, God? What are you going to do? But then there are those other seasons of dependance, of trusting, seeking, of listening. And he moves in ways you couldn't even have predicted or understood. And he gets all the glory. That's the great place to be. Now Peter is waiting. They go fishing. I think we're going to see in this next group of verses the first response we should have in the midst of waiting. The first way to wait. Well, look at verse four with me. Just as the day was breaking, Jesus stood on the shore. Yet the disciples did not know that it was Jesus. Jesus said to them, children, do you have any fish? They answered him, no. He said to them, cast the night on the right. Cast the net on the right side of the boat and you will find some. So the interesting thing, I think first thing to note here is just that Jesus shows up on the shore and the disciples don't even recognize him. You know, in this moment you would think there'd be enough clues for them to pick up on it and go. That guy seems familiar. This happened before, by the way. We haven't looked at it in our study of John, but maybe you've read it over your course of reading through the Bible. Luke chapter five. This is when Jesus calls Peter and he's fishing. He's not catch anything. And Jesus says, castanets go out. Throw out in the deep castanets. And here it is again on the beach. He's even calling them children. He did that before. Back in John chapter 13. You don't call other adult men children unless you're picking a fight. Or they're really good friends. There's a term of affection in this moment, and they don't get it. They don't see who he is. I think the first thing for us to take away from this, in terms of how should we wait, well, is to be expectant, be expected, be in a state of expecting Jesus to show up. Jesus told us to go on ahead. We're here waiting on him and we're not even looking for him. Who could that weird guy be on the beach calling us children, telling us to do the things some other guy long ago told us to do? I have no idea. I wonder who could that be? No. Be expecting Jesus to show up, be looking for him to show up, trusting that he will show up even in the midst of up all night with a huge challenge. It's interesting how when you begin to look for things, how they start to show up, you've probably experienced this. Maybe you got that nice new sweater you saved up for, or a new car, or a new to you car, and you never had seen these anywhere before. You thought you were the first person to ever own one, and now you see him everywhere. Everywhere you turn, there's a red pinto. You thought you were the only person to own it, and here it is. You never looked for it before, nor should you have. By the way. And it shows up. That's why we have a Bible reading plan as a church. By the way, when you're in God's Word, God's word tends to show up. When you're in it. It's crazy. You'll read a verse that day, it'll pop up somewhere else. You hadn't read that verse ever. You don't think, here it is, here it is again. There it is again. I can quoted to this person this situation came up over when you're in God's word, God's word tends to show up, be expectant, be looking for him to show up. And so here's what happens. He says to them, have you caught any fish? Do you have any fish? And the funny part about this verse, if you could look at the original language, there's a word for the that goes on the front of that question that if that word is there, it implies the answer will be no. So it's kind of like, if I were to ask it this way, you haven't caught any fish yet, have you? Yeah. Now, if I'm saying that to another man, he's like questioning his manhood at that point. What are you saying? That I can't catch fish now? I love their answer because this is the answer every fisherman knows to give every time. If anybody asks you, are you catch anything? What do you always say? No. You say no. This is my honey over here. I'm not going to let you in on the fact that I'm catching all the fish right here. Nope. Nothing happening here. Move on to the next spot. And so they say no. Which is true in this moment. And Jesus knows it's true. We're not catching anything now, the only thing worse than being asked if you're catching anything when you're not is then be given advice. It's for then to someone say, have you tried over there? Now, depending on who you are, there's a couple of different ways to react or that depending on how you're wired. When I'm asked that, here's my response. Thanks. And inside, here's what I'm really saying. Go away. Leave me alone. Mr. know it all. Get out of here. Trying to tell me what to do. Don't you see me fishing? I know how to fish. And then when they're out of sight, I'll try that spot that they pointed out. And if I catch anything, I'll take the credit. And I'll secretly despise them for months on in for no one more than me. That's one approach, another approach. I think you see the other way. If someone asked my wife, Julie, that very thing, I'd be counting thing. No. Have you tried over there? Here's her response. Thank you. And she means it, by the way, and she'll try that spot right away. She'll catch a fish. They'll celebrate together, become best friends, posted on social media. Probably start a whole campaign that goes viral about catching fish for inner city children or something. Turn it into this huge, great thing. Now you see the difference there. One is teachable, approachable. One is looking for wisdom and insight and help open to hearing expectant, expecting to hear. What shocks me? Hear. Is the way the disciples respond in this moment. You're being called children pointed out that you can't catch fish and then given advice. Oh man. And look at how they respond. Cast the net to the right side of the boat and you will find some. Here's what they do. So they cast it. Immediate no questions asked. No complaining. No bowing up about you questioning my manhood. How dare you tell me where to fish? None of that. They cast it. Immediate obedience. I love that. Now let me ask first before we talk about what that means for us. Why do you think it is that they were so quick to obey just this? Yes, Lord. You said here. Maybe not, Lord. They didn't know yet who he was. Yes. Here, I'll try. As I've thought about this, I've thought about my own life. And I think sometimes, in fact, I'm going to put this up on the screen because it summarizes a lot. Sometimes you have to go through loss and failure to be open to hearing from God. God, why did you allow this to happen? I'm not saying every time, by the way, you've probably been through some horrible stuff that didn't make any sense. I get that, but sometimes you got to go through that. I'm going my own path. I'm trying it my own way to be open to hearing from him, for my heart to be tender to him. I tried that that didn't work. Okay. Lord, what do you have for me now? I really would like to hear from you now. Would they have reacted the same way if they had just been reeling them in, or netting them in one after another, over and over? Who's that guy? I don't know, who cares? I can't even hear him because of all of the sound of the fish. Who cares? Would they have been open to hearing from him? All night? Nothing. Yes. We're desperate. Would you please speak to us? I think what we see in this is the second way to be waiting. Well, is to be obedient. Have the posture of obedience. Have in your mindset. When God speaks, I want to be ready to obey. I want to be ready to do what he says. I want to be ready to jump in, to dive in, to be a part of him moving. I'm looking for him to move, and I'm ready to say yes. I'm ready to watch him move. I'm ready to be a part of him doing something great. Be looking for him. Be searching for him, and be ready to obey. Be obedient. Now, there's an interesting interaction here that happens when John and Peter notice what has happened. So look back here in the passage. They cast it. They haul it in a great quantity of fish. And then John and Peter both show up. Verse seven, that disciple whom Jesus loved, we've talked about before that that's John describing himself in that third person. The author of this book, that disciple whom Jesus loved, therefore said to Peter, it is the Lord. When Simon Peter heard that it was the Lord, he put on his outer garment, for he was stripped for work, threw himself into the sea. The other disciples came in the boat, dragging the net full of fish, for they were not far off from the land, but about 100 yards off. What I appreciate about this interaction you see between John and Peter, and we've seen them in different places already, and how they tend to approach things differently. I think they typify oftentimes different personality. As you might see in church, you have the think first person, the perceived first person, and then you have the act first person. One goes, I got to think this all the way through before we do anything. The other says, well, let's just get going. We'll figure it out later. In fact, I bet there's some of each of you in this room. Who's the act? First, I'm going to act. We'll figure it out later. We'll figure out what to do. Okay? These are the people causing problems in the church. Just look around. now, what about the think first? Man, I got to see this all the way through. And then maybe after I've thought about it a long time, I might raise my hand. I'm not sure yet I wasn't. Okay, okay, let me just ask this too. By the way, who, as you were doing that, realized I'm married to the person opposite of me. How do we see any of those? I'll raise my hand. These are the people to put on your prayer list. By the way. For the next decade, probably. Yeah. Look, what's beautiful is both John and Peter are central to the church. We need both. If we only have the act first, people will bankrupt and burn out the whole church right? But if we only have to think first, people, we will have the best mission statement. It'll be 47 pages long. It'll have 133 sub points. It'll be done five years from now, and there'll be no one here to read it. But we got to have both. We got to work together. And it's a beautiful part of what's happening here. There's the Lord. I'm going. It's just a hint at some of what's going on here and in the life of our church and in every church. So John and Peter have this interaction. We get a hint of some of what the church is like. Now look at verse nine, because not only did they catch a large number of fish, we're going to see Jesus interact with them in a way that points towards a third way to wait. Well, but also we're going to see more symbolism to highlight in this passage. So verse nine, when they got out on the land, they saw a charcoal fire in place with fish laid out on it, and bread. Jesus said to them, bring some of the fish that you have caught. So Simon Peter went aboard, hauled the net ashore full of large fish, 153 of them, and although there were so many, the net was not torn. Jesus said to them, come have breakfast. Now none of the disciples dared ask him, who are you? They knew it was the Lord. Jesus came, took the bread, gave it to them. So with the fish. This was now the third time that Jesus was revealed to the disciples after he was raised from the dead. First thing to point out here is when Jesus, when they come ashore and Jesus interacts with them and they realize this is the Lord, even though they're fearful that they don't want to kind of bring it up, kind of ruin the moment by asking him or not. We know it's the Lord. We don't even need to mention it. There's fear there, but there's excitement. What I love is that Jesus doesn't start out by chastising them for not knowing it was him, or the things they had done wrong. Then you know I was coming. What's the deal? Why weren't you looking for me? Come on guys, how many times we got to go over this? Now he just says, let's see. Come on, let's see. Come on guys, come on over. I've got some food ready for you. And the picture is pointing back to you in a subtle way. The feeding of the five thousands, the bread, the fish. Here you go. I'm at work. You can depend on me to multiply, to create. You know, this whole. This whole story is a big picture of Jesus at work to grow his church. It's not about fishing. It's not about fish. It's not even about Jesus performing miracles. It's about how he alone has the power to multiply. It's not about our efforts. And look, we put forth effort. We do. But we don't trust in our own efforts. You know, as I hesitate to say, this, but I really feel it. And I think it's true. I feel like God's at work here in some interesting ways. I mean, people are joining the church, people are getting baptized, guests are coming. I don't. And by the way, we work hard. Staff, elders, ministry leaders, volunteers, we we do work hard. But my hope is and I really think it's the case that we don't put our trust in our own efforts, because if the Holy Spirit doesn't show up, it doesn't matter. He is the one who multiplies and Jesus is showing them. This year you tried all night. Good luck in an instant. Fish overwhelming. Fish abundant abundantly. I think the third way we wait well is just to be present. Be present. Be in his midst. Be near him. God, I'm expecting you to show up. How do I get closer to you? How can I be near you? You may feel distant. How can I grow closer to you? I got to be in your word. I got to be in community. I got to be around people who are pursuing you. So that I can be close to you. Be present with him as best you can in the midst of the waiting. Be looking, be searching. Be present. Now, this number 153, we're going to talk about it for a second. And. There's a lot of different directions I could go with this. Some see this number and they go, look, this is just like fishermen. They're going to count their fish. Exactly. It's not 100. It's not about 150. Actually, if these were real fishermen, they would have said just under 200 probably at that point. Right. 153 such a specific number. We know John loves numbers. We have the seven iambs. We have the seven signs, the six water pots. He loves numbers. He loves symbolism. There's so much symbolism and structure all throughout the book of John. I'm just going to take a stab at one potential meaning of significance with this. Number 153 it might be a stretch. I'm saying that on the front end so you can decide. Let me tell you, this rabbit hole goes deep fast. When you start to read some of the studies on this number. If you want more, I can give you a chapter out, a whole chapter out of a book just on this number 153 and some of what it may mean, but we have to start by just realizing and understanding that every word of Hebrew or Greek also has a number value to it. It's based on the letter order of the alphabet. Then each letter gets a number, each word can get a number. And there's kind of this art and study of what are the numbers meaning behind it. And before we look at that, the first thing I always try to look for in Scripture is when I see a story or I see a teaching or I see idea, where else does it show up in Scripture, something like it, something similar. And the image here is of God multiplying his people through his power to bless the world. And the context is water and fish. Now there's some places we could look for similarities. There's one in particular, though, turning the Old Testament to Ezekiel chapter 47. We're going to examine this briefly. Ezekiel is in the prophetic section of the Old Testament. If you have a church Bible, it's page 688. It's after Psalms, Isaiah, Jeremiah, limitations, Ezekiel, Daniel, Hosea, Joel, and that whole section after Psalms and Ezekiel is pointing forward to a day when the Messiah has come and God has set up his reign on earth. And in fact, in chapter 47, there's a new temple that's been established. And the new temple, looking at verse one of chapter 47. The new temple from it is flowing water. In fact, thinking back to Jesus aside and blood and water, we talked a little bit about this out of the side of the temple comes water. It pointed us back to John chapter seven, where he says, from your innermost beings that word can also be translated. Side will flow rivers of living water, emphasizing the Holy Spirit. Like I said, lots of layers of symbolism here. So that's happening in chapter 47 to enter it. But then God takes Ezekiel and walks him down. The river, follows the trickle of water, and it goes from a trickle to a creek to a stream, to a river flowing to the ocean. And look at how it's described here. Look at verses nine and ten, and wherever the river goes, this river of life that's coming from the center of the temple, flowing out to bring life to all the world wherever it goes. Every living creature that swarms will live, and there will be very many fish. For this water goes there, that the waters of the sea may become fresh, so everything will live. Wherever the river goes. Fishermen will stand beside the sea from and get into. In that gleam it will be a place for the spreading of nets. Its fish will be a very many kinds, like the fish of the great sea. Okay, symbolically this fits with what's happening. Watch me multiply. Watch me spread. Watch me bless the world. Rivers of life flowing. The number 153. The. Let me show you at least one person. A couple of different people that I read saw it showing up here in a very specific way. So if you take those two names in Getty and then Liam, you take off the word in because that means spring of spring of Getty, spring of them. Okay. Just look at this. The word Liam, you counted up. It's 153. Coincidental. Probably. Maybe. Possibly. But then the word Getty is 17. If you do the math on it, on what that word means. Why is 17 significant? Well, 17 is the triangle of 153. That's if you I've kind of put it up there to spell it out. Sorry to bring up math this early in the week, but if you add up each number within that number of 17, one plus three all the way up to 17, you add those up together, you end up with the number 153. Now, maybe that's coincidental, right? It's certainly possible, but given the context of the story and what's happening here, I'm going to put up this quote on the screen from Don Carson in one of the commentaries I read. Here's the conclusion. The numbers represent places where, in the time of fulfillment of messianic hopes, gospel fishermen are to spread their nets. You see the connection here? Yeah. Oh, we remember that happening in the Old Testament, and it's being fulfilled here today. The disciples see that here today. It's being fulfilled. What does this mean for us as we seek to follow Christ? What does this mean for those who want to watch him work in your lives? I think pretty simply, it just means to be expectant. Be looking for him to move in your life. Be trusting that he will move, hoping that he will move. Longing for him to move. Assuming in his timing he's going to move. Be present and move toward him. It'll be passively just waiting for him to show up, move toward him, and then when he moves, be obedient. Be obedient. Yes, Lord. Right away. Yes, whatever you say. Yes. I had a friend who served in missions. He served in Africa, in this remote part of Africa, built his own house. It was cooler to sleep outside than inside the house. So hot there it was so remote. No plumbing, no running water. In fact, it was pretty much understood across the community that you don't touch items at the market with your left hand because they didn't have toilet paper, and everyone understood what the left hand was for. This is the kind of area he lived in, and he was learning. The language means translating the Bible into a language no one had ever translated in before. He's creating lessons for Bible study. He's investing, investing, starting a business so that he can mentor guys who are working for him, invest in their lives, and they're seeing so little fruit. By the way, there are seasons where God's not moving. That doesn't mean you're in sin sometimes. Who knows what he's doing? And he kept asking, Lord, do you want us here? Are we in the right place? It doesn't seem like much is happening. Yes. Stay. Yes. Be faithful. You never know in the moment what he might do decades from now because of seeds you planted. But there came a day he started to see that one of his children were really struggling, really struggling. And it became obvious it was time for them to go. It was time for them to come back. And so he came back to the States and we met. We had been a part of their ministry helping to contribute, help to send them overseas, always interested in what God was doing in his life, but having served in missions as well, I had a burning question for him and I knew it might be a little rude to ask him, but I wanted to ask anyway. I felt like, God, I'm really curious. Do you feel like a failure for that? We didn't see much fruit and now we're coming back before we saw revival break out. Do you feel like a failure? Wondering if you did what God wanted you to do. And he said, John, I knew that God had us in Africa for that season, and that was my ministry. That was my mission. And then and all at once, it became clear that my mission is now my son. Yes, Lord. I'll go. Is Africa better mission field then your own children? Where's he called you. And he said I had to obey. I love on my son. I got to care for him in this season. And I know that's where God has me. Now be expectant. Be looking for him to move. Be trusting that he wants to guide you and be ready to obey. To join in what he's doing. Let's pray.