What motivates you those most? What challenges have you faced that you have learned from? What skills do you have experience in? What relationship spheres do you have influence? God created you with a purpose in mind! A framework to discover you purpose is looking at what God has already put in your hand: your passion, your experiences, your skills, and your relationships.

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What is the good life and how do you find it? This series is about finding the good life with Jesus through 3 paths: God’s purpose, presence and power. During the next three weeks, we’ll explore God’s power. Join us as we learn how God empowers ordinary people to do ordinary things with extraordinary love.

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As fall looms, it’s easy to feel a strain on your time as many things pull at your attention. In our new series we’ll look at doing what really matters, simplifying our lives, developing rhythms of discipline, and learning to focus. This series will grow and stretch your personal discipline. Join us for a new series on how to master your time for God’s glory.

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Continuing our series, “Am I gifted?” Pastor Joe Wittwer teaches us we need both the gifts and the fruit of the Spirit. Said another way, we need both the power and the character of the Spirit. All of us are gifted. The Holy Spirit gifts us for service and also grows the character of Jesus within us. Join us as we dive into scripture and allow the Spirit to melt, mold, fill and use us to do God’s work. 

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In order to live a victorious Christian life, you need a holy vision and passion. Where do we get God’s vision and passion? A holy vision for our lives comes through seeing ourselves and the world through Jesus’ eyes. A holy passion is having an intense love for God and people. The Holy Spirit wants to direct your vision and ignite your passion for Jesus. Join us live and in person for a sermon from Pastor Michael Wittwer at Life Center Church, Spokane.

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In this week’s sermon on John 21, Pastor Michael Wittwer reminds us that it’s in a relationship with Jesus that we experience life to the full! Join us as we learn how Jesus reminds us of our purpose, renews our love for him, and reminds us of the cost of discipleship. 

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Many of us feel stuck in the relentless cycle of passionless work life. Work doesn’t have to be this way. You have been sent to make a difference in your workplace! So what does God think about work? Whatever your profession, your work matters, and the people you work with matter because they matter to Jesus. Learn how you can leverage your workplace for the kingdom of God and join us live for church online with a sermon from Pastor Amy Miller. 

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We aren’t just saved, we’ve been sent into every situation with a purpose. And we’ve been empowered by the Holy Spirit, to live a life that invites others to Jesus. Are you wondering why you’ve been sent to your current situation? Are you wondering what God is up to? Jesus answered those questions for us. You’ve been sent to lose your life for the word’s sake. Join us live for church online as Pastor Michael Wittwer wraps up our series SENT. 

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Just as God sent his Son to us, he is also sending you to serve. To follow Jesus is to become like Jesus. To become like Jesus is to become a servant. We may not yet see the full realization of His kingdom, but we do get to operate within it. We get to show the world what he is like. God is doing something bigger than changing how we act, he’s changing who we are. And you are a servant. And Got thinks that’s great. So let’s live it out.

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Knowing about God is different than experiencing God. Many Christians know about God but, simply knowing about God will leave you unsatisfied. Christianity is an invitation to an interactive relationship between God and people. A God-centered life is focused on these ingredients: God’s presence, voice, love, and purpose. Join us over the next weeks as we help you take steps toward living a God-centered life by committing to your own spiritual growth!

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Sermon Audio Transcript

We are starting a brand new series today. All through October and November, we’re doing a spiritual growth campaign called Experiencing God. And we’re so excited to go over these seven realities of how to experience God in your daily life.

Today, I’m going to kick us off with an introductory message about experiencing God. And to do that, I want to share this. There’s a big difference between knowing about something in your head and experiencing the reality in life. Isn’t there?

So for example, recently, just this summer, I went to Glacier National Park with my dad and with my son. This was the first time I’d been to Glacier. And I remember my dad always saying, “Glacier is amazing.” And I was like, “Yeah, cool. I want to go, but okay.” And he’d show me pictures on his phone. And you know how the pictures just never do it justice. And so, I was like, “Okay, great. Well, I’m excited to go, but okay.” And when we got there, I was blown away.

Have you ever been to Glacier National Park? Raise your hand. Isn’t it amazing. And you can sit there and try to describe the verticality of Glacier National Park to somebody, but they just won’t get it. right? They can know about it in their head, but there’s a difference between knowing about it in your head and experiencing it in reality. The same is true with God. You can know about God, but it’s not the same as experiencing God. Is it?

There’s a lot of people who know a lot about God and yet failed to experience him. There’s a lot of people who know the word of God, but don’t know the God of the word. And we want to be a church who don’t just know about God, we want to experience God in our daily lives. Raise your hand, if that’s you, you want to experience God in your daily life.

So, to that end, we’re doing this nine-week series for experiencing God. Also, we have about a thousand people who are in experiencing God groups over these next eight weeks. And we’re so excited for you. Raise your hand, if you’re in one of those groups. We are so excited for you and what God’s going to do in that group. If you’re in the group is going to be a fantastic experience. If you didn’t get in one, these nine weeks as we go through this sermon series, that encapsulates these eight weeks of groups, these nine weeks of sermon series are going to be really good for you as well.

Here’s what I’ve discovered over the last 33 years of my life. Many Christians know about God, but merely knowing about God will leave you unsatisfied. If that’s all Christianity is to you is just knowing about God, but not experiencing him, you will constantly be unsatisfied with Christianity.

One of the saddest things to me is when Christians settle for sterile religion, instead of a vibrant growing personal relationship with Jesus. We can settle for rules and morality instead of the God of the universe. Why would we do that? And yet we do. Don’t we? Even the closest of us, who are close with God, even the closest of us, fall away sometimes and settle for something that’s less than what God has for us.

I believe that God wants you to encounter his love, to know his will, to hear his voice, to live in his purpose. And that Christianity is fundamentally a love relationship between the God of the universe and his people. That’s what he’s inviting us into.

So, today what I want to do in this introductory message is to look at the ingredients of a God-centered life. How do we experience God? That is by having a God-centered life. Here’s the big idea.

A God-centered life is centered on his presence, voice, love and purpose.

We’re going to leave that up. And I want you to say that with me. You’re ready? Here we go. A God-centered life is centered on his presence, voice, love, and purpose.

Do I have any space nerds out there? Just me. All right. If you study astronomy, it will blow your mind far more than Glacier National Park ever will. Because when you realize how huge the universe, it’s just like, what? How is this possible? So, if you look at our solar system, our solar system is massive, huge, and it’s centered around what? The sun. If you answered the earth, welcome to the 21st century. No, it’s centered around the sun. All of our planets orbit the sun, even Neptune orbits the sun. Neptune is 2.78 billion miles away from the sun, and yet the sun’s gravitational force is so huge that it’s able to pull it in orbit all the way around it.

Just as the planets orbit the sun, our lives orbit things. Don’t they? We are centered on things. What are you orbiting in life? What is your life centered on? What do you constantly come back to? What do you revolve around? What has huge gravitational force in your life? Does your life orbit the presence, voice, love and purpose of Jesus? Is that what your life orbits or do you orbit something else?

Here’s what I want to do, a little experiment, a little exercise to see what we’re orbiting in life and where we’re at with God. So, before we can really figure out how to experience God, we’ve got to start with a sort of, “Where am I in relationship with God?” So, this is the question. And there’s a thing on your outline that you’ll notice, there’s all of these words on there. And what I want you to do is ask this question of yourself, “Where am I in relationship with God?” And then circle three of those words that would define where you’re at in relationship with God. If you’re online, we’ve got something for you too, to look at those words and figure out, “Where am I in relationship with God?” Because it’s only when we know where we’re starting from, that we can get anywhere that we need to go. So, I’m going to give you about 30 seconds to look that list over, circle three words,

“Where am I in relationship with God?”

• Non-existent
• Plateaued
• In decline
• Confused
• Exciting
• Growing
• Miraculous
• Victorious
• Discouraging
• Powerful
• Bewildered
• Defeated
• Dynamic
• Contagious
• Hopeless
• Joyful
• Sinful
• Embarrassing
• Deepening
• Ashamed

If you’re still circling or looking through the list, that’s all right. But if you circled some less than ideal words about your relationship with God, here’s the last thing I want you to do. The last thing I want you to do is to beat yourself up about it, is to go, “Oh, here’s where I am. I’m just a pile of junk. How could I be this way?” That’s the last thing that I want you to do. Thank you for acknowledging where you are. And now, instead of beating ourselves up or taking ourselves down, let’s just acknowledge, “Here’s my baseline. I’m going to grow. Here’s where I’m at. I’m not going to stay there. I’m going to keep going with Jesus.” Here’s my goal for wherever you are today, wherever you are in relationship with Jesus, my goal for you is this, I want to help you step towards a God-centered life by committing to spiritual growth over the next nine weeks.

That’s my goal today is to help you commit to spiritual growth over the next nine weeks, so that you can live a God-centered life and experience him every day.

So, if we want to look at the ingredients of a God-centered life, I was thinking about who lived a God-centered life through the Bible? And there are many people in the word who lived an incredibly God-centered life, but there’s always someone who I like to come back to, who’s bold faith and brashness just attract me, because he’s so bold on one level and so flawed on another, that I identify with him. I go, you know what? I get that. You can be big and you can make big mistakes. That’s how I roll. And that’s what I think many of us identify with is that bold but flawed person.

And that person is Simon, or also known as Peter. He’s one of Jesus’ 12 disciples, the leader of the disciples. And what we’re going to do is we’re going to look at his call by Jesus to come and follow him. And actually I’ve preached on this very story from Luke five, about five months ago, and I felt like God was drawing me back to it for this message. And I was like, “God, I already preached that one.” And he’s like, “Hey, I’ve got a fresh word from that very story.” So I was like, “All right, I’m in Lord.”

So, here’s what we are going to do. We’re going to look at how Jesus and Peter first meet. And it takes a little bit of work because it seems like there’s a lot of introductions to Jesus and Peter in The Gospels, the four gospels. So, we’re going to try to synthesize that and figure out the timeline for when did they meet and how did Peter answer the call from Jesus?

So, first, in John one, we see what seems like the first introduction of Simon and Jesus. What happens is this, Andrew, Simon’s brother meets Jesus for the first time. And what does he do? He finds Simon. He tells him about Jesus. And then he brings him with him to Jesus. Did you see where find, tell, bring, came from? The word. It came from John one. Andrew found his brother, told him what he knew and brought him with him to Jesus. And it changed Simon’s life forever.

At that very introduction in John one, we see that Jesus gives Simon his nickname. He says, “You shall be called Peter the Rock.” And from that moment on, Simon had that new name, Peter. But then we see in Mark one, we see what seems to be a different introduction. In Mark one, Simon is cleaning his nets by the sea when Jesus comes along and he calls Simon. Jesus calls Simon, he says, “Come follow me and I will make you a fisher of men.”

And then later on in Mark one, Simon takes Jesus to his house where Jesus heals his mother-in-law. And we see that same healing event, the mother-in-law miracle in Luke four, where Jesus comes to Simon’s house and heals his mother-in-law. And then in Luke five, we find Simon back at his boat. He’s fishing again, cleaning his net. So, we see Jesus met him in John one. He called him in Mark one, went to his mother-in-law’s house or his house and healed his mother-in-law in Mark one and in Luke four, same story. And then after that, Peter is back at his boat and Jesus shows up, and calls him one more time.

Jesus just kept coming after Peter. Didn’t he? He was not giving up on Peter. And I want to tell you this, Jesus is not giving up on you. This is point number one.

God is not giving up on you.

He’s inviting you to more. If you’ve met him before, if you’ve experienced God in some way, if you know about God, I want to let you know he is not going to give up on you. He’s inviting you to experience more of him each and every day. He’s inviting you to experience him more consistently.

Friends, a God-centered life always starts and deepens by God’s invitation. He is pursuing you. He is coming after you. He’s not giving up on you. And so, in that idea, God’s not giving up on you, he’s coming for you. He wants to invite you into this God-centered life. We’re going to look at these four ingredients of a God-centered life, starting in Luke five, where Jesus, again, calls Peter.

Luke five verses one through four, “One day as Jesus was standing by the lake of Gennesaret, the people were crowding around him and listening to the word of God. He saw at the water’s edge, two boats left there by the fishermen, who were washing their nets. He got into one of the boats, the one belonging to Simon, and asked him to put out a little from shore. Then he sat down and taught the people from the boat.

So, here’s Jesus one more time meeting Simon, where he is. Jesus has already given him the nickname. He’s already called him. He already has gone to his house. And he finds him fishing once again. Peter seems to be orbiting fishing. Doesn’t he? This is what he keeps coming back to. Fishing was what he was centered on. I have to ask you, what’s your fishing? What’s the thing that you keep going back to? What’s the thing that you keep orbiting in your life? What’s the thing that even though God has called you, he finds you there, once again, orbiting this thing that he’s pulled you away from? what’s the thing that has gravitational force in your life and distracts you from Jesus?

There’s a lot of things distracting us in our culture right now. Aren’t there? Big divisive issues. We can be pulled away right now by politics. And many people are orbiting politics. Aren’t they? Many people are orbiting COVID or fear of COVID, or how we address COVID, or vaccines, or masking. We can be pulled away by all of these things and start orbiting these things. Instead of having a God-centered life, we’re focused on politics. We’re centered on these issues. And Jesus, he’s not upset at you, but he’s inviting you to more. He’s inviting you to experience him. He’s inviting you to live a God-centered life.

Friends, I have a lot of things, not just one thing that’s distracting me from Jesus. Anyone else? In my life, I’m like, “Lord, I’m a hot mess. You need to do some real work on this. I need some help.” There’s a lot of things that pull me away.

For example, I’ve been writing down my prayers lately in a little prayer journal. And one of the things that I wrote down a week ago is I said, “God, would you retrain my brain?” Because what I realized, what he’s been showing me is that I have so trained my brain with my phone. I’ve trained my brain, that anytime I’m bored, I pull my phone out. Anytime I need a distraction, I pull my phone out. Any time I’m dealing with a problem, I pull my phone out to get away from the problem. Anyone else do these sorts of things? And I’m like, “Oh my word, I need to retrain my brain.” So, I’m not going to my phone, I’m going to God. Friends, I’m trying to live a God-centered life, not a phone-centered life. And I need his help.

There are so many things that we tend to orbit instead of Jesus. And Jesus, I want you to know this, he’ll keep coming after you. He’s not going to give up on you. He’s not going to throw in the towel on you. He wants you, and he is going to get you. I’ve got to warn you though, Jesus does not intend to just to give you heartwarming devotional thoughts. He intends to save and radically transform you. That’s what God wants to do. That’s what he intends, is not just to give you these nice little thoughts to make you warm and fuzzy, and comfortable, and spiritually cozy. He wants to save you from hell. And he wants to radically transform your life in the here and now.

God is not giving up on you. He doesn’t want to just be the friend that you call, who has a truck when you need help moving. He wants to be the friend that you call every single day. He wants to be the friend that you have conversations with often. He wants to be that sort of friend with you. He’s not going to give up until he gets that sort of relationship with you. He’s not giving up on you.

So, here’s the first thing that we find in the God-centered life. The first ingredient is this. And by the way, I messed this up last night and I didn’t change it for this morning. The points are going to be all off. There’s going to be five points for ingredients. The first point was not an ingredient. So, when I say the first ingredient is point number two, just get over it. Okay?

The first ingredient, point number two is that we would be centered on his presence.

Centered on his Presence

Simon turns around and there is Jesus again, in his boat. Jesus called him. He met him. He came to his house. And now Jesus shows up in his boat. He can’t get away from this guy. I don’t know if Simon is trying to evade him or not, but Jesus keeps showing up. And there he is in his boat.

Can I tell you something?

God is already in your boat.

He’s already there, whether you realize it or not. When you turn around you’re like, “Oh Lord, there you are.” He is already there. He’s with you in everything that you do. God’s presence can invade our lives. But do you believe that? Do you believe that God can invade your space, your hobbies, your time, your relationships?

Sometimes I think our idea of following Jesus is that we’ve followed Jesus over here in silence and solitude, and in these quiet moments of when we go to church. And then here’s the rest of our life over here. And Jesus is in this nice little corner of silence and solitude. And then over here is all the other things that we do. But what we’ve got to realize is that Christianity is not about deleting our responsibilities, so we can live this silent life over here. It’s about surrendering to God and all of this stuff over here too. I’m not saying that you can’t have prayer and silence, and solitude, because how many of you know we need that? Yes we do. But we need to realize that his presence doesn’t stay in the prayer closet, it comes with us wherever we go. God is with us in each and every moment. Are you centered on his presence? Are you aware that he’s already in your boat?

There’s a fantastic book called Practicing the Presence of God by Brother Lawrence, a 17th century monk. And he wrote about how whatever you’re doing, you can practice the presence of God. You can acknowledge his presence with you. So, the book is an exchange of letters between him and all of these people out in culture. He exchanged letters with businessmen and housewives, with all people in between. And he was writing to them about how in their lives, they can practice his presence.

Now, what you’ve got to realize is that as a monk, Brother Lawrence, he had these very regimented times where he prayed six times a day. He would get down on his knees. He’d go into his prayer closet. He’d wake up in the middle of the night to pray. And yet what he realized was that God’s presence was with him just as much when he prayed as when he was washing dishes. He realized that whatever he was doing, he could acknowledge God’s presence and be with him there.

So, the other day I was walking to my car with my son and I was in a rush. Has anyone ever been in a rush before and you don’t know why? You’re like, “I don’t know why I’m hurried, but I am.” And there I was, I was like, “Okay, I got to get home. I got to get in the car. We got to go. We got to get back. We got to get dinner. Then we got to get you down, because you got school in the morning.” Hey, you’ve been there before, right? Where you’re just, you’re in a rush.

And all of a sudden I heard God say, “I’m here.” I literally in my soul, I had to pause a moment and go, “God, I was going so fast. I’m sorry. I’m listening, Lord.” So, as I was walking, I was just practicing his presence, “Here I am, Lord.” My son was walking behind me. And I didn’t really know why he wanted to catch my attention in that moment until all of a sudden from behind me as we’re walking, my son says, “Hey, dad, I really love you.” If I had been rushing out of blazed right past that, “Okay, buddy, love you too. Come on, let’s go. Hurry.” But instead I said, “Hey, Pax, I love you too, man. Thanks for being my son.” It was a great moment. I think God wanted me to invest into my relationship with my son.

But as I was reflecting on that experience this week, I felt like God said something to me and it really changed what I thought. He said, “Michael, how did you feel when Paxton said, “Dad, I really love you.” I was like, “Man, I felt like a million bucks.” Right? I didn’t do anything. In fact, I was rushing. I wasn’t helping him. I was like, “Come on, buddy.” And then out of the blue, he’s like, “Dad, I really love you.” I was like, “Oh man, Lord, that made me feel so good.”

And then he said, “How do you think I feel when you tell me, “I love you.” I said, “Lord, I bet you feel the same way.” And he said, “Mm-hmm (affirmative).” So, I just pause right there and said, “God, I love you so much.” How does God feel when you say, “I love you”? I believe his heart bursts open with love. He is overjoyed when you would pause and recognize his presence, and just say, “I love you.” Why don’t you do it right now? Just tell him, “I love you.” Because he’s here.

Are you centered on his presence?

A God-centered life invites Jesus and surrenders to Jesus to be with him in every nook, cranny and minute of life.

Why? Because God is already there. You might as well acknowledge him. You might as well spend your time with him because he is there. So, are you centered on his presence? This is the first ingredient of a God-centered life.

The next ingredient of a God-centered life is that we would be centered on his voice.

Centered on his voice

Here’s what we see in the next part of this story. So, when he had finished speaking, that’s Jesus, he said to Simon, “Put out into deep water and let down the nets for a catch.” Simon answered, “Master, we’ve worked hard all night and haven’t caught anything.” Do you hear the disgruntledness and frustration in his voice? Like, “Oh, we’ve already worked. We’ve already done this. We haven’t caught anything.” But here’s what he says, “But because you say so, I will let down the nets. But because you say so, I will let down the nets.”

So, after Jesus finished his teaching in Simon’s boat, Simon has already done him a favor, by the way, he already let him in his boat. He already put out a little bit. And now Jesus is asking a little bit more. And at this moment Simon is probably tired. He’s been cleaning his nuts. He’s fished all night. He hasn’t caught anything. He’s frustrated. And Jesus says, “Why don’t you put out a little bit deeper and let down the nets.” And he’s thinking, “Really? I’m a professional fishermen, and a carpenter is telling me how to fish. You think you know?” But he said, “Because you say so, I’ll do it.”

Now, at this point, I don’t think Simon knew that Jesus was God in the flesh. And that literally the God of the universe was in his boat and he was talking to him. He didn’t know that the God of the universe was like, “Look, man, I got you. I know where the fish are. So, just listen to me.” He didn’t realize that it was God, but he said, “Okay, I’ll do it.” Have you ever looked back on your life and realized like, “Oh man, God was directing me.” Because we say hindsight is 2020, right? Oh yeah, I guess looking back, I can see better.

There are moments in our lives where we don’t think God is speaking. And then we look back and we realize, “Oh, he was working. Oh, he was speaking.” And I want to tell you this, that right now, God is speaking to you.

God is speaking to you in your life.

Are you listening?

Well, how does God speak to you and to me? There’s several different ways that I want to give you that you can hear God speak that God constantly and practically speaks to us.

The first is he speaks through the Bible.

That this is God’s word. It’s living and active. That it’s all God-breathed, and it’s useful for teaching, rebuking and correcting, and training in righteousness, so that the servants of God, you and me would be thoroughly equipped for every good work. What God has spoken was recorded for us. And what God spoke, he continues to speak. He wants to speak to you through this. And that’s why we encourage everyone to have a daily time where you get in the word. We call it prayer, Bible and journal, PBJ. Spend time with Jesus in his word because what he spoken, he is still speaking to you and to me. So, he speaks to us through the Bible.

He speaks through church.

If you look in the Book of Acts, God is consistently speaking to the church. And that’s one of the reasons we gather together is because we believe that God wants to speak to us. And the Book of Acts, over and over again, God speaks to the church. He speaks to the church and says, “Send out Paul and Silas. Send out Paul and Barnabas. Send these people. Do this.” He’s constantly speaking to the church. And that’s why we gathered together because we believe God wants to speak to us.

God also uses people to speak to us.

And sometimes it’s the people we don’t want to hear from that God uses to speak to us, right? In the Bible, God spoke through a donkey. He can speak through people that you would not expect. God uses people to speak to us. There’s a great story in the Bible where Phillip, a disciple of Jesus is told by the Holy Spirit to go out onto this road. And he’s like, “Okay, I guess I’ll go.” So, he goes, and when he’s there, he meets this Ethiopian eunuch, who’s reading from Isaiah. And Phillip explains to him what he’s reading. And then the Ethiopian is like, “Hey, man, there’s some water over there, a puddle, why don’t I get baptized?” And so, Philip was used by God to speak to this Ethiopian eunuch and changed his life forever. God uses people to speak to us.

God uses circumstances to speak to us.

He can use all sorts of things around us. Have you ever been like, “Oh, that was a sign from God.” A circumstance. Anyone? No. Okay, not many of you. All right.

God uses circumstances all around us to speak to us. If you look in the New Testament, Paul is constantly saying, “There’s an open door for ministry here in this city.” Well, how does he know there’s an open door? How does he know that God’s given him this open door because of the circumstances? He’s able to see that God is speaking to him and giving him an opportunity.

God also speaks to us through prayer.

He invites us to come to his throne with boldness and confidence because of Jesus. We get to have a personal relationship. And prayer is direct communication with God where we speak to him and he speaks to us. And all throughout the Bible characters are praying and hearing the voice of God, Peter, Paul, Ananias, John, Jesus, Mary, they’re all praying and hearing the voice of God.

God wants to guide you. He’s speaking to you because he wants to give you information and transformation, and help and guidance.

Proverbs 3:5 through six, says this, “Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding. In all your ways, submit to him and he will make your paths straight.”

God wants to direct your paths. He wants to straighten them for you. He wants to guide and direct you. And it’s through his voice.

I love what Simon said to Jesus. He said, “Because you say so, I’ll do it.” I want to be a, because you say so Christian. Anyone else? Lord, give me the faith to be that way. Even though it may look different, even though it may seem strange, even though it seems like I’m getting advice from a carpenter, 2000 years ago, I want to be a, because you say so Christian.

A couple of weeks ago, I was reading a book and I felt like God told me through the book, “Be curious.” And at that moment I should have asked why, but I didn’t. But I said, “Okay, Lord, I’ll be curious.” So, it meant that throughout the next couple weeks, I’ve been asking people questions that I normally wouldn’t, just trying to be curious.

And about a week and a half ago, I was meeting up with someone to sell something on Facebook Marketplace. And we get into this conversation and he tells me, “Hey, man, this year has been really hard on my family.” So, I thought, “Well, God told me to be curious. So, I’m going to be curious.” So I said, “What was the hardest thing for you this year?” He said, “The hardest was in April. My brother died of an accidental overdose.” And then he started to pour out his heart to me, telling me his regrets and his pains, and how he blamed himself. And literally this big, burly dude with a beard and an awesome jacket, started crying right in front of me as he poured out his heart, as we’re just Facebook Marketplace selling something. It’s crazy. Right?

And then I’m like, “Man, you’re never going to believe this, but my brother died of an accidental overdose too. And I’ve been down the exact road that you’ve been down. I’ve been down the regrets. I’ve been down the blame of, why didn’t I do something differently? And I’ve got to tell you, those things, the regrets and the blame, they’re not going to take you where you want to go. I want to tell you what helped me.” I said, “What helped me is not going down the road of regrets and the road of blames. I went down the road of thanking Jesus for every moment that I had with my brother. I went down the road of trusting that God was going to use even this really hard thing to bring good into my life and to the lives of the people around me.”

And I said, “I want the same thing for you.” And as he’s crying, he looks at me, he goes, “Man, I don’t know if I’m supposed to be here to buy this thing or just to talk with you.” He’s like, “I feel like maybe God sent me to talk with you.” And I was like, “He sure did.”

God used probably the hardest moment and thing in my life to help this man. How did he do it? He told me to be curious. I was listening to his voice and he was able to use that.

So, I want to ask you, are you listening to his voice? Are you centered on his voice?

A God-centered life listens to God’s voice and obeys come what may.

The third ingredient of a God-centered life is that we would be centered on his love, centered on his love. Here’s what we see come next in the story, versus six through 10, “When they had done so, when they’d thrown the nets out, they caught such a large number of fish that their nets began to break. So, they signaled their partners in the other boat to come and help them. And they came and filled both boats so full that they began to sink. When Simon Peter saw this, he fell at Jesus’ knees and said, “Go away from me, Lord. I am a sinful man.” For he and all his companions were astonished at the catch of fish they had taken. And so, were James and John, the sons of Zebedee, Simon’s partners. Then Jesus said to Simon, “Don’t be afraid. From now on, you will fish for people.”

Now, Jesus tells him to throw the nets on the other side and we see them bring in this miraculous catch, right? Like a boat sinking catch. How many of you are fishermen or fisherwomen and you would love this sort catch? This would be amazing like, “Lord sink my boat.” I’d be happy. Isn’t it a strange reaction that Simon gives to Jesus, instead of saying, “Yeah, look at this catch.” He falls down on his knees and says, “Go away from me. I’m a sinful man.” You’d think Simon would be like, “Look, Jesus, I’m going to make you a part are in my business. We’ll go 50, 50. All right? Let’s do this.” That’s what you’d think Simon would do, but that’s not what he does. Why? Why does Simon fall on his face and not invite Jesus to be his partner, but actually say, “Go away from me, Lord, for I’m a sinful man.” Why does he do that?

I think that Simon realized who was in his boat. Did you notice the change in terms? At first Simon calls Jesus, master, which is a term of respect for a teacher in the community. Then he calls him Lord, which is a term for God. Simon realizes who is in his boat. And in the Jewish religion, in the Jewish faith, if you come face to face with God, they believe that you’d be struck dead. Why? Because God is so holy, righteous and pure, and humans are so entangled in sin that if those two come together, they cannot coexist, and you will be struck dead rightfully for your sins and injustices. That’s what they believed. And so, Simon falls down on his knees and says, “Go away from me, Lord.” Because he doesn’t want to die. He says, “God, you got to get away from me because I’m a sinful man. I don’t deserve to be in your presence.”

He realized that Jesus was God. And he expected to find anger for all of his sinfulness, but that’s not what he found in Jesus’ eyes. See, Jesus looked at Simon, what did he say? He said, “Don’t be afraid. I’m going to make you a fisher of men. Don’t be afraid, Simon. I’m not angry. Don’t be afraid, Simon. You’re not going to die. Don’t be afraid, Simon. I love you.”

What look was in Jesus’ eyes when he looked at Simon? I don’t think it was anger. I don’t think it was frustration. I think it was love. I think that in that moment, Simon encountered the love of God like he never had before. And that love transformed him and changed him. And all of a sudden, Simon realized, “God is not angry at me. He actually wants me to come along with him and be a fisher of men. He’s got a new life for me. He’s not going to end this one. He’s going to give me a new… What?” Simon realized that there was incredible love in Jesus’ eyes.

How does Jesus look at you? Does he look at you with anger? Does he look at you as unworthy? Does he look at you with disgust? The answer is no. Jesus looks at you with the same love that he looks at Simon with, this unbridled, unbounded love, this contagious love. This unconditional love is how God looks at you because of Jesus.

Simon encountered the love of God. And I want to tell you

God loves you madly.

God loves you so much that he sent his one and only son, that if you believe in him, you would have eternal life through him. See, whether you feel worthy of it or not,

God’s love for you is the most powerful force in the universe.

There is nothing that can come against the love of God for you. God’s love for you compelled Jesus to come down to earth, come into a body, and die on a cross for you and for me. Nothing else would compel God to do that, but his incredible and unconditional, super abundant love.

Think about Romans eight, Romans eight says, what can separate us from the love of God? Nothing in all of creation can separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus, our Lord. Friends, a God-centered life abides in this love. A God-centered life daily receives his love as fuel for the day’s journey. So, are you centered on his love?

The last ingredient of a God-centered life is that we would be centered on his purpose.

Centered on his purpose

Here’s what we see in verse 11, as we finish the story, it says this, just after Jesus had said, “Don’t be afraid.” And said, “I’ll make you fish for people.” Then he says, “So, they pulled their boats up on shore, left everything and followed him.” Wait, what? Jesus just gave them this miraculous catch and then they leave it on the shore. Why would they do that? Why would you ever leave this miracle behind? The reason is because God invited them on a mission. And that mission compelled them to be centered on his purpose for them.

See, God had a purpose for Peter’s life. It wasn’t to fish for fish anymore. It was to fish for people, to help people discover who Jesus is, just like he just discovered who Jesus is. And see, once Peter’s life is centered on his presence, on God’s voice and on God’s love, Peter makes a mad dash to center his life on God’s purpose. Once he realizes that God’s with him, that God’s speaking to him, that God loves him, he goes, “Man, whatever you got for me, I’m in. I will leave all this behind just to do what you have for me.”

And I want to let you know that God has a purpose for your life.

God has a purpose for you, just like he had for Peter. He has a purpose for you. But a God-centered life, if we are going to be centered on his purpose, it takes a radical reorientation of our lives. And that radical reorientation of our lives sometimes happens in one fell swoop, but often, and more often than not happen one decision at a time, one commitment at a time, where we would say, “God, I’m reorienting around you. I’m going to be centered on you and your purpose for me.”

There have been times where I’ve met people and they’re like, “I want to follow Jesus.” And they’ve just met Jesus or they’re just recommitting their lives to Jesus. And they’re like, “I’m going to be a missionary to Africa. I’m going to go and do this.” And is there anything wrong with that? The answer is no. But maybe you should start where you are, right? Maybe you should just start following Jesus in the here and now, and figure out what that means before you make this crazy commitment to sell everything and go across the continent or go across the world.

Sometimes we think that following Jesus means we’ve got to sell everything and leave everything and stop all that we’re doing to go do this whatever God wants us to do. Maybe God put you where you are for a reason. Maybe he placed you there in your family, in your work for a reason. Are you living into his purpose for you right where you are, in the here and the now? God wants to help you, not just figure out what’s next in your life. He wants to help you obey in the now.

And friends, sometimes God won’t tell us what’s next until we obey in the now. Think about Simon. He heard the voice of God. And so, he went out deep and threw his nets in the water. God didn’t tell him, Jesus didn’t tell him what was next until he obeyed in the now. And if you are looking for God’s will for your life out in the future, start obeying him now, start living on purpose now. Say, “God made me to help people find and follow Jesus. That’s what I’m here for. I’m on mission.” And when you obey in the now, God will help you do discern what’s next.

So, if you’re looking to radically reorient your life around the purpose of Jesus, it often happens one step at a time. And those steps can be small and big.

Let me finish with a story. We have a man on our council, our financial council, by the way, we’ve got a financial council of owners here at Life Center, who help us steward the finances that we generously give to God. We want to make sure that we steward finances well to the glory of God, so that we help people find and follow Jesus.

So, Charlie Nemi is on our financial council and that he gave me permission to share his story of centering his life on Jesus. When Charlie was 12, he started smoking marijuana and drinking alcohol. And those patterns continued in his life into adulthood. And when he got married and they started having kids, they realized like, “Man, we think we need to be in church. We think we need God.” And so, like many people when you have kids, and you want your kids to grow up with a strong foundation, they started coming back to church. And Charlie thought like, “Hey, I come to church every weekend. I’m doing great.” But what people didn’t know is that he was still smoking marijuana and still getting drunk every night.

And those things started progressing and continuing, this was 11 years ago, by the time his girls were a little bit older, he would come home every night, four or five beers deep, just to take the edge off. And then once all the girls went to bed, he would drink himself to sleep. He would be drunk every night. And yet he said, “You know what? I’m going to church. I’m doing the things. I’m even serving in the nursery. Come on, y’all, I’m doing this thing.” And yet there was still this thing. He was orbiting alcohol. That’s what his life was centered on.

And so, 10 years ago, Charlie got into one of our mentor groups here at Life Center. And he did an exercise called, A Letter from God, where you take two hours, you sit in silence and you say, “God, I want you to speak to me. And I’m going to write down what you say to me.” And you just write out a letter from God to you. And so he said, “God, what do you want to say?” And God said, “Charlie, you have a problem with alcohol.” And Charlie said, “I don’t want to hear about that, God. Let’s not talk about that. What I want to hear, how can I be a better husband, Lord? Tell me how I can be a better husband.” And Charlie said there was deafening silence. And then out of the silence, God said, “Charlie, you have a problem with alcohol.” Charlie said, “Lord, I really don’t want to talk about that. Let’s put that over here for now. I want to know how I can be a better father. Let’s talk about that.” And Charlie said there was deafening silence.

And then God said, “Charlie, you have a problem with alcohol.” Finally, Charlie said, “All right, Lord, you’re not giving up. Let’s talk about it.” So, Charlie said two hours later, he had multiple pages of a letter from God, where God was telling him, “Charlie, if you keep going on this road, here’s what’s going to happen in your family. Here’s where you’re going to end up, if you keep walking down this road.” And then he said, “But if you make a decision to change today, here’s what’s going to happen in your life.” God laid out these two paths before Charlie. And Charlie said, “Lord, I want to take this path. I want to take the path where you’re leading and where you’re guiding.” That was 10 years ago in November. And Charlie has been sober ever since, because of God’s help.

Charlie had a choice, “What am I going to orbit? Am I going to orbit this or am I going to orbit Jesus?” And he chose Jesus. It was one decision, one, maybe small that made a huge impact in his life. It was a radical reorientation that centered him on Jesus.

Friends, Jesus wants to help you with that too. Jesus wants to help you make a radical reorientation. It may be a huge thing in your life. It may be a small thing in your life, but he wants to help you reorient your life around him so that you orbit him every day.

So, here’s what I want to do, is just help you make that sort of commitment to say, “God, I’m in for what you have for me.” And I’m going to give you four simple ways that you could do this. Maybe God has already speaking to you a very specific way that you need to reorient around him. That’s awesome. But if you’re not hearing that, I want to give you four ways that you could do that one. Maybe you say, “Man, I want to grow spiritually over these next nine weeks. I’m going to commit to that spiritual growth by gathering each week of these nine weeks and just get around other people who are trying to follow Jesus too. I need help with that, so I’m going to gather each and every week.” Maybe that’s your commitment to reorient your life around Jesus.

Maybe your commitment is like, “Lord, I want to be with you every single day, so I’m going to open your word every single day, over these next nine weeks and just see what you do in my life. Just see how you speak to me and change me, and help me if I just come to you each and every day and listen to you.” Maybe that’s your commitment to grow your daily relationship with Jesus through prayer, Bible and journal.

Maybe your commitment is like, “Man, I need to get outside of myself. I need to start serving other people because I’ve just been serving myself.” And so, what you could do is you could use your gifts around the church, around the community, but use your gifts to serve God and to serve others. Maybe that’s your commitment. Maybe your commitment is this. Maybe your commitment is, “I’m going to do find, tell, bring, just like Andrew did for Simon, and it changed Simon’s life, just like someone did for me and it changed my life. I’m going to do that for someone. I’m going to find somebody I love, tell them what I know and bring them with me to church to see God change them.” If you make one of those commitments, it will be a reorientation of your life to center your life on Jesus. So, as you’re thinking about that commitment, as you’re talking it out with God, let me pray to finish our service together.

Heavenly father, we so desperately need you. Many of us find ourselves in situations like Charlie did, where we are broken, where we are struggling and we need your help. So God, I ask that you would help each one of us to take a next step to grow with you spiritually, God. That we wouldn’t stay right where we are, that we would move forward with you.

So Lord, would you solidify in each one of us, what it is that we need to commit to, to grow spiritually over these next nine weeks. How can we live a God-centered life? Would you show us that Lord? Would you teach it to us, so that we can walk it out each and every day? God help us to center our lives on you for our good and for your glory. We pray this in Jesus name. And everyone said, “Amen.”