Stop Saying It’s Too Late

• I was talking to this friend the other  day, and they were stuck in regret. They just kept expressing their regret over and over  again. They said this fishing term. They said, “I just feel like it’s the one that got  away. It’s the one that got away.” Now, they were taking this as a sign that it  was over and they would never get it back.
• It was painful, and I could tell it was painful, because it was an opportunity they lost.  They couldn’t get over what they lost, and they couldn’t even think about what they  had left because of what they lost. I never like to just say stuff that sounds like  a fortune cookie because I’m a preacher. I don’t talk in sound bites.
• If  you ever meet me, and you say, “I’m having a hard day,” I will not say, “Rejoice  in the Lord always. Again I say, rejoice.” I do that up here because I have a different role up  here, but this was a friend I was talking to, and I’d walked with this friend through some  of it. I could see that while they were saying, “The one that got away,” they were literally,  like Peter, fishing, fishing, fishing.
• Like, empty, empty, empty, and they couldn’t find an  explanation. They couldn’t find a way forward. So, I let him say it a few times, and I  just listened, but on the third, fourth, fifth, sixth, or seventh time they said,  “The one that got away,” something hit me, and I said it. I don’t know if I made  it up.
• I don’t know if God gave it to me. I don’t know if it was arrogant. I don’t  know if it was right or good, or whatever, but the Lord said to say it to you today,  so I’m going to say it to you. They said, “I just keep feeling like this is the one that got  away.” I looked back and said, “Stop saying that.” “It’s not the one that got away; it’s the one  that got you ready.
• ” It’s not the one that got away. Every time you let the net down,  and it came up empty, and you let it down, and it came up empty, and you let it down,  and it came up empty, all it was doing was holding the place so when Jesus shows up, you’ll  be ready for what’s on the other side of the boat. You’re ready now. Your nets are ready. Your heart  is ready. You’re humble now. You’re wiser now.
• You’re with it now. You’re whiter than snow  now. You’re washed now. You’re clean now. You’re open now. You’re hopeful now. I’m ready  now. Glory to God. In basketball they say, “Nothing but net.” That’s what Peter had  as long as he was fishing without Jesus, but when he got to the other  side of that boat… I came to say, “Stop focusing on the one that got away.
• ” God  said to tell you, “Don’t focus on anything in this season. Nothing but next,” because  what’s coming, what is yet to be, is greater! He’s going to do it again, but it’s going  to be bigger! He’s going to do it again, but it’s going to be greater! I’m going to preach this thing until  you believe it. How many times will he have to part water before you take  the step when you’re ankle deep? How many times will he have to kill Goliath  before you get your rock and start swinging? At everything in your life that is in front  of you, there is something God already did.
• He will not do it the same way, so stop  expecting to part seas with rocks. The rock is for Goliath. The staff is for the sea. God  will use different tools in different seasons. There is no “one that got away.” Not with God.  “Prove it, Pastor.” He came back to get Thomas. He didn’t let Thomas get away, and he won’t  let you get away.