You are listening to the sermon podcast from Rocky Creek Church. Find more resources online at Rocky Creek dot church. I invite you to turn with me to one of my favorite passages of scripture. We'll be in Luke chapter five looking at verses one through 11.
A few years ago, I was actually on the beach with my family when I was doing kind of that dead thing, sitting at the edge of the shore watching my three kids play in the waves and realizing at what point do I need to go rush in so that my wife doesn't get me in trouble. You know what I'm saying? Okay. You've ever been there, but I'm sitting there and seeing my kids and there's some other kids that are kind of getting close to the area.
And then there's an older gentleman that comes by and he goes, you watching your kids too. And I look at the guy and I look at his age and I thought, this guy must be Father Abraham. What in the world? Okay.
Because I just didn't think this would be his young as he goes. These are my grandkids. I said, Oh, it makes perfect sense. Okay.
And he just looked at me and says, So what do you do? I said, Well, I said, actually, I'm a pastor goes, No way. I'm like, actually, yes, true. Like I am.
And he said, I go to church. I said, That's great. Cause I'm a Sunday school teacher. He goes, but I got, I need some help.
I said, What can I help you? And he goes, we got this big church down the road taking all our young people from us. And I said, really? I said, they're coming in like, can happen?
What do you mean? He's like, No, no, they're just like, doing all this stuff to really encourage them to come back. I said, like, what? They've got a coffee shop and they got bagels.
I'm like, Oh, man, you know, okay, what are you going to do? He said, Well, I'll tell you what I've done. I'll start again. Some really cheap coffee and some donuts from Bylo.
Hopefully. That's going to bring them back. And I'm like, how's that working? They haven't come back yet.
I'm like, Oh, no, what else? Because I hear they have all these kind of multimedia equipment. So I got a projector in our Sunday school classroom. I said, What are you putting on the projector?
He goes, I don't have anything. I just got a projector. I was okay. Cool.
What else do you have? Right? And he keeps going through all these different things, trying to say all these hate competing with this church and enticing with this thing and upgrading what they've got and realizing as I'm talking to him, how much in the United States of America we made Christianity about consumerism. How do we get you to come back?
You know what? We got some good coffee. You know, we're going to really roll out the red carpet. We're going to make sure you have some kind of gift when you leave when your young people are going to have all these wonderful experiences and when their teenagers are going to provide free food and then when you get older, we're just going to give you all that coffee.
You know what I'm saying? Like whatever it is, it's just all this enticence. How can we try to encourage you to come to this church versus that church? And we all do it in the name of a one who gave it all laid it all down, if he'd himself of all the wonderful things he gave.
And somehow we have made Christianity about what we can get out of it. Instead of laying it all down, giving ourselves away. It's comfort over cost. It is experience over exhortation.
And we find ourselves in something I would say is very different than what biblical Christianity is to be. Here's what I want to go ahead and say, today's passage, we're going to look at the 13th sermon in our 115 sermon series of Gospel Luke. It's about leaving all for more. And I need you to know this, you will never leave all for Jesus and end up with less.
You'll never leave all for Jesus. It somehow end up with less. If you think that Jesus Christ is asking you to lay something down for him and for his kingdom and you think that somehow you're going to miss out. I want to prove to you today that even if you leave it all and you get him, you're walking away with more.
You possibly ever could imagine. We're walking into this Luke five passage in the contrast of leaving all and following him. These are the first followers of Jesus. Fresh off, displays of Jesus authority.
Last passage we looked at him teaching, and rebuking the demons, rebuking the disease. And now the crowds are pressing in. They want to hear the word of God. They're enthralled by Jesus teaching and the setting shifts from where he was in the synagogue to a shoreline right there on the edge of the water.
And this is pretty amazing because it's just everyday life. It's not a sacred space necessarily, except for the fact that wherever Jesus goes, it's sacred. And so here he is. We're going to be introduced to a guy again by the name of Simon whose name will later be turned into what everybody?
Peter. And we saw Peter last week. Peter had met Jesus. Peter had invited him over to his house and asked for him to heal his mother-in-law who had a fever.
This is not an encounter with a stranger. Jesus has been developing a relationship with Simon and now things are about to change. He finds Simon on this morning as a tired fisherman with empty nets, ordinary morning, and it's about to be the defining moment of his life. Let's look what happens.
Shatter-fauvers one. As the crowd was pressing in on Jesus to hear God's word, he was standing by Lake Gneserit. He saw two boats at the edge of the lake. The fisherman had left them and were washing their nets.
He got into one of the boats, which belonged to Simon and asked him to put out a little from the land. Then he sat down and was teaching the crowds from the boat. All right. Let's look at just pause for a moment here because we're going to see where Jesus enters into Peter with all we've known, like all that he's known.
The Peter, what he's been used to, or Simon what he's been used to as a fisherman, Jesus literally steps into the comfortable place in Simon's life, the place where he feels like he's proficient, the place that he feels good, the place that you don't expect a well, someone to take over your boat and turn it into a pulpit, but that's exactly where Jesus goes. It was all that Simon knew. It was what he was a comfortable with and that's where Jesus enters in. And in verse one, you see this, that the crowd is pressing in on Jesus to hear what?
God's word. They want to hear what God is saying through Jesus. And before any assignments are going to give out, by the way, assignments are about to give out a little bit later, but you need to know that hearing God's word always comes before doing God's work. God's word is the thing that starts and helps clarify and motivates us for this thing called God's work.
If you are saying you're doing God's work and it's not based on God's word, you're not, you're doing something that you think is spiritual and you're hoping that God's going to put his stamp of approval on it. That's not how this works. It starts with God's word, opening up what God says to us through his scripture. Now, how do we apply this into our lives and go about doing his work?
Jesus' teaching ministry was continuing to draw people in. This is an eager crowd. He said, living by shore, right? And people went, I want to hear more.
I need to hear more. Luke emphasizes they came to hear the word of God, not see him do anything miraculous here. They just want to hear his teaching again. This moment showing that discipleship begins with listening before acting.
We don't know what to do for God until we've heard what he has to say. Psalm 119 verse 105 says, your word is a lamp to my what? Feet and a light to my path. Okay, so this is important because it's saying God's word shows us where to walk.
He shows us where to go without God's word. We don't know what we are supposed to do. So he comes alongside, it says Lake Neserith, also called Sea of Galilee. You all know those places around you that sometimes people call it a lake or they call it a pond.
This is kind of one of those situations, right? Okay, what body of water? This is the same kind of spot of water that he's out, a very familiar place where Simon had spent really all of his vocational life. And so he comes alongside these boats from the edge of the lake and they're washing their nets.
They had not had a good night of fishing. And so he just jumps into the boat that belongs to Simon. He's been at Simon's house. He's his mother-in-law.
I think Jesus is going, yeah, you owe me one. Okay, right? Okay, so push this thing out. And it's really interesting.
Do you see what Jesus does? He sat down and everybody's listening to him. We actually do the reverse. I'm thinking once, let's try it.
I'm going to sit down. You all have to stand up through the whole sermon. You know what I'm saying? I just feel like I'll be a little bit different for you.
But anyway, this is a, when you hear this story and you haven't read through the book, it just kind of seems like he jumps in some fisherman's boat and he doesn't have a relationship with him and expects something of him. But this is a relationship that Jesus has been cultivating. Have you ever realized, I know you're here today and it's a rainy day in February. It's like the easiest Sunday to get a pass.
You know what I'm saying? Not to come to church, but you're here. So you're the best of Greenville. Okay, you're the best of me God.
Okay, you're the early service especially. Okay, you're looking, some of you are looking kind of bright. Okay, you know what I'm saying? Like, you're in a good spot today.
And this is what I know. You go, I got up this morning. I set my alarm. I got the umbrella out.
I came to church. I did something important. And if you ever thought about all the things that God has done to initiate to get you here, some of us probably need to go back to our parents or grandparents and say, sorry, I used to complain when you drug me to church. I needed it.
I left it for a long time, but it's the only thing that saved me because you deposit that stuff. I need it back then. So you all had that person who loved you enough to see through your smoke and call you out, you know, and you realize that God was using that person in this situation. God used good moments in your life.
And even sometimes God used those bad moments in your life to wake you up. You see this? See, it seems like Jesus is jumping to a boat of a random God. But no, this is something that Jesus, he's been walking with Simon.
They've been talking. He's been doing things. Let Simon see something. And what feels like an interruption is often Jesus continuing what he started.
It feels like an interruption. It's not an interruption. Jesus has been in his own. He's been helping his family.
They've been having conversations along the way. And so when Jesus asked Simon to put it out a little bit from a land so that some people who were looking back at what Jesus was doing was probably using the reflection of a water to make his voice amplified to the crowd in a brilliant way. He says back it off a little bit. And it bounces off so that more people can hear it.
They sit there and we look like an interruption, but Jesus has been working on this a long time. He already thought, already developed a relationship with. It's not a random encounter. And Simon's empty boat becomes his place where Jesus preaches next.
The relationship with Jesus preceded the responsibility that Jesus would later give him. Always, always starts with a relationship before responsibility. Jesus is not derailing Simon's life here. He just builds on what he's already been doing.
Ah, you're a fisherman. Good. I'll use your boat. Okay.
And what feels like disruptive may actually be God advancing his work actually in us. In verse three, it says he gets into the boat. He asked to put it out. He sat down.
He began teaching the crowds from the boat. Now, I don't know how many of you are going to work tomorrow morning in a boat. Okay. I don't know if it's a lot of us in here today.
But let's just imagine, for example, that Jesus showed up in your classroom, in your office complex, in your school, in whatever environment you find yourself in. You're like, please let it happen. I do not like Monday's okay, right? But Jesus shows up and says, Hey, can I use your cubicle for a second?
Can I use your conference room for a second? Hey, look, hey, locker room. Let me say something. He jumps in the middle.
He's not in the synagogue. He's literally at the shoreline. And he goes, you know what? We don't need to wait until a few days from now.
So we can all gather in a building that's just used for purposes of God. Let's talk about things of the Lord now. And what you see through Jesus is that ministry is meant to metal in the mundane. Jesus loves just to get in the middle of stuff you're not expecting stuff.
It doesn't necessarily, supposedly somehow religious and sacred, because when he steps on that boat, it's a sacred boat. He walks along that shoreline. It is a sacred shoreline. Jesus turns the boat into a pulpit using ordinary tools for eternal purposes.
He teaches from Simon's workplace, not a sacred space at all. And you know, think about it. God's God often begins his greatest work because sometimes the most familiar setting doesn't he? Stuff you're not looking for.
It just kind of happens that way. The presence of Jesus is what makes the moment holy, not the location. And so a lot of times we pray and we think about these wonderful movements of revival and we would love to something that happened in this church building. But what if revival in Reville County started happening in the break room where you work?
What if it started happening in the classroom that you're going to attend? What about sitting there, normal conversation about the stresses of life in the middle of a work truck? And you do the audacious thing of turning the conversation towards Jesus? What if, instead of you just sending that child to their room when you're frustrated with them, you use the kitchen counter not only to have a come to Jesus conversation, but you really leading them to Jesus?
What if you were to allow the text thread where somebody is griping and complaining about something you start pointing to truth and what God is doing in your life? I'm trying to get you to say, stop waiting on some holy moment and create it. Stop waiting on a sacred space and make it happen right before you. Jesus steps on a boat and changes everything.
That's all what we think about what we've known, but all we think we know is another kind of deal, right? So Jesus goes to the place of familiarity with Peter. But then also because Simon is in this place where he is the fisherman and if you don't know this, Jesus is vocation before becoming a traveling rabbi here. He did what is adopted father had done.
He was a carpenter. So it'd be interesting because have any of you ever been frustrated by someone who gives you suggestions and something you think you're really good at? If you never had that happen, I would encourage you to be a ministry for about two hours, okay? Because people who've never preached a sermon, never counsel somebody, never let a church, never let a church, never let a church, never let a church, never let a church know what you need to do.
I'm like, I don't show up in your office. You know what I'm saying? But it happens, okay? It's really easy to do to come in and be like, I think I can know exactly how to do this, but you wouldn't, hopefully, I've never been to the surgeon going, exactly how you plan to do that.
You know I saw a video on YouTube once. You know, that's how it works, right? This is going to happen, it's going to come across. A carpenter is going to step into a boat and say, have you thought about doing this fisherman?
And this takes at, I don't know, something that maybe Simon struggle with. I'm sure nobody in this room does. This thing called pride. And Jesus goes, so how much do you trust me?
Look what he says to verse four. When you finished speaking, he said to Simon, put out into a deep water and let down your nets for a catch. Master, Simon replied. We've worked hard all night long and caught nothing.
But with all the pressure of everybody looking at me and just hearing the last part of your sermon, if you say, I'll let down the nets. When they did this, they caught a great number of fish and their nets began to tear. So they singled to their partners and the other boats to come and help them. They came and filled both boats so full that they began to sink.
All right, let's just take this for a moment. A lot of times people pick on Simon Peter, I resonate with the man right here. Somebody comes into your employment telling you what to do and everybody's watching and you're like, all right, he's just probably who knows what the sermon's been about. Jesus has been teaching, right?
But I guarantee it's connected, okay? I just, I picture Simon watching the nets, he's cleaning stuff up and he just kind of listen. You know, you have to be able to trust when the Lord speaks and do exactly what he says. And always know that the God knows better than you.
Okay. And even sometimes you work so hard and you're proud once and you just imagine that probably the sermon's adding on to it. And all of a sudden, sermons over, they've sang just as I am four times, okay? And all of a sudden he goes, hey, before you leave, Simon, you want to apply what I just been saying?
Put your nets over there. Over where? In the deep water. The deep water's not typically where we catch fish this time of day, carpenter, okay?
This is not exactly how this normally happens. And yet, I love Simon giving excuses to the Son of God. And I think how many times do we do that? I know you're saying this God, but let me explain how the world works.
As if he didn't create it. Jesus, I don't know if you know what I need right now. I made you, son. I know what you need more than what you're telling me that you want right now.
And so I remind you something that Jesus is revealing to Simon. He probably needs to remind us today. Jesus is unimpressed by our experience or expertise. I don't care what you've done.
I don't care what you can do. You do not in any type of way intimidate the Son of God. You do not know more than he does. You cannot do more than what he can do.
And sometimes as people, this is one of the most difficult points to accept. Jesus is unimpressed. Peter, Simon Peter is a professional fisherman. He's fished all night without success.
And carpenter, Jesus, his command directly contradicts common sense and the vocational knowledge of all the guys and the boats around him. You'll find this out later through the book, but Simon is also in a boat with a guy by the name of Andrew. The Gospel of John tells us that Andrew introduced Simon to Jesus saying you will not believe what this guy is teaching. You have to come here.
The boat beside him were their fishing partners. Guys that were called sons of thunder. John and James, two brothers, two sets of brothers that are fishing partners, supposedly pretty good at what they did. But they just had a bad night.
Have any of you ever been at the top of your vocational game or in school or something and you've been doing really good for a while and you're just having those days where it doesn't work out? You've been there before? It's kind of discouraging. Working on night, got nothing to show for it.
How am I going to provide for my family? This is embarrassing. There's always people looking around. We've got no fish.
I would love to sell something about a shoreline. I've got nothing. Jesus says, why don't you throw it over there? That's the deep part.
Fish don't bite at this time. They don't swim in this area. That's not exactly how this works. Jesus challenges Peter.
Listen to this in the area where he feels most confident. The area that he knows the best. I understand this part. If I imagine if Jesus would have challenged Simon and it's theology, he'd go on you and Jesus.
I'm not trying that. But challenging him and his ability to fish, this is hitting at the heart of man in a way that few things can do. Filing Jesus often requires our surrendering, our confidence in what we think we know. Proverbs 3, 5, 6 says, trust in the Lord with how much of your heart?
All your heart. I want to be part of heart. Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean on all your what? Understanding and how many of your ways?
All your ways acknowledge him because he will make your what? Your path straight and I want to trust you with some of my ways. I want to trust you and acknowledge you with some of my heart and I want to lean on you in some of these areas and Jesus is going, no, no, no, no. I'm going to take you to the place you think you know what you're doing.
So I love what Simon says. He says, well, we've worked hard on it and we have got nothing and this is what I do for a living. But at your word, Jesus, if you say so and put the pressure on me in front of all these people watching, I just want to let everybody know I'm about to drop a net in not because I think it's a good idea, but Jesus does. So when nothing comes out and he drops it down, Simon's telling Jesus what didn't work and Jesus is saying I can show you what can.
See, fixating on your limits blinds you to Christ's power. Oftentimes God, this isn't going to work. Don't you know we've already tried that. Don't you know I've had five conversations with the person and all the issues with every single one of those sentences.
I am the subject. I've tried this. I've attempted this. Look what I can do and Jesus is saying, why don't you try what I can do now?
Peter, he's voicing his objection. Honestly, he still obeys. He still obeys. If you say so, like you're where I'll do this.
Faith begins when our experience and expertise moves on. We trust in him and that takes over and this miraculous moment reveals Jesus authority over creation and does not highlight Simon's abilities. Obedience opens the door to what human effort cannot produce. Here's one thing I want to encourage you.
Sometimes we remind ourselves the things we cannot do or we're not good at. I can remember it years ago trying to make family worship and Bible study a priority in IELTS. I felt like with very young kids sometimes I did not feel like it was a Bible study. I felt like it was an exercise in herding cats.
It literally was just like trying to manage three little ones going on and trying to get to Machi Pile, whatever. I can remember one night when my dear wife was out and I was about to put these three kids to bed because I was tired. I was exhausted. I was like, all right, everybody get in your bed.
My son, I go, Daddy, are we not going to read the Bible tonight? Of course we were about to read the Bible. That was the best we were about to do. I was testing you.
Good job, my good and faithful servant. You know what I'm saying? I had a weird awkward moment. So that night I give a Bible study on Genesis 22 where Abraham's about to sacrifice Isaac but a substitute takes the place and somewhere in that Bible study, my son, Oba Dye goes, that's me right there.
Jesus took my place to understand the gospel. I'm ready to be saved. I said, seven years old. Now I'll say this.
I know that God could use any means or any efforts but he used that one, right? He used that one. But in my mind of one, this isn't working. I'm teaching three young kids and they're not listening.
I'm not giving any amen's or feedback. I just want to stop and God's saying, watch what I can do. I use that as an example this week because I want to look at any parent or grandparent who's got responsibility of young folks in your house right now. Do you know that we've been giving out family worship guides that goes along with this passage since we started this about 13 weeks ago?
And in the notebooks that you use in your gospel group is a thing for your family to get together. And this is what I'm going to say. And I also want to let you know we are telling your kids this very Sunday so that there's double accountability. Okay?
Find one night in the next week. The turn off the TVs, put the devices down and take at least 15 minutes and do some activities and pray and read the Bible together. We've got it all scripted out. There's an activity for you.
It's actually kind of fine. And why would we do this? Why is this important? Because you're like, ah, Travis, I'm not a preacher like you.
Good. Maybe they'll listen to you. You know? Hey, I can't do this or I can't do that.
You're keep telling what you can't do. What can Christ do through you? Open the words together. I am asking every family.
I don't care what ages you got in your house one time this week over a meal before you go to sleep in the morning, something, get together, open up that guide and try it one time. You might be surprised at what God's power can do through you instead of telling you what you can't do. If you are like Simon today going, I've tried all this stuff and none of it works. That oftentimes sounds like a lot of people that I meet in the city.
You know what? I've tried to make my marriage better. I mean, trying to reach my kids, been trying to be able to somehow find some peace and all this chaos. And I just want to look at somebody and say, if you've gotten tired of trying all your efforts, have you gotten to the place where you're humbling enough to try God's instead of trusting your own intuition or what you think would work?
Have you ever sought what God would say about your situation? It's time to try Jesus' way. You have tried yours long enough, Rand. Sometimes we got to look around at the results and realize it's not working.
Are you ready for something that works? So he throws out the nets and then all of a sudden the boats begin to dip. He calls John and James over to the side of the boat they did not anticipate catching. And they're not even prepared for such a catch that the nets begin to break.
It not only hits their boat, but the boat beside them, because it shows something pretty neat if you think about it, that obedience produces overflow that draws others into Christ's work. When you obey, not only are you blessed, people around you are. Have you ever thought about that? I doubt it that your spouse this week is going to say, oh, you're just reminding me so much like Jesus is getting on my nerves.
I doubt your kids are going like, oh, you're so loving. I just can't put up with it any longer. Imagine in your toxic work culture that you're like, oh, you're the only person that's kind and not sarcastic and is actually trying to unify. I can't stand you.
Most likely, if you're obedient, everybody's going to say, thank you. It's a good thing. This catch was so great, the nets begin to break and help us required. It literally goes over.
God's blessing never meant to terminate on one person. These others are drawn in by Simon's obedience, not by explanation or his excuses. So in Christ's work, the impact extends beyond the original act of faith. I experienced this firsthand this week.
Okay. I was having lunch with some dear brothers in this church. We were having some fish tacos on Wednesday. They were fantastic, by the way.
They were just wonderful. It was a great conversation. We were sitting there, we're doing our thing, whatever. And then we see some other church members come in the restaurant, we go talk to them and whatnot.
We're getting ready to leave. And one of my dear friends who sit at the table, whose name is Younggun, Younggun says, you know what? This dear couple helps out and just blesses my family by helping out in the middle school department and the preschool department. I just want to buy their lunch.
And I said, oh, that's really kind of you. Don't tell anybody, right? So he goes and buys their lunch. We walk out of the building.
And then the next day, I got this beautiful note, y'all. It was amazing. It was a note from these church members who said, Pastor Travis, we're thankful that you're our pastor and all the ways that you serve us. And P.S.
thanks for getting our lunch. Yesterday, we have cooked you this wonderful loaf of banana net bread. And I was like, thank you, Lord, for this wonderful blessing. You know, because here is Young who did the right thing, right?
There's something kind. And I am being the blessing of it. So I made a video of myself eating this and showing it to Young and saying, thank you for being obedient to Lord. I am benefiting from that.
And then my wife is very angry at me. And now I've got to replace the loaf. Anyway, I'm saying, I confess to the people who gave it. So I know we are out there, but I want you to see how sometimes just being around the people, right?
Just being around the people who've done something right. You're blessed because of it, right? You experience that in the same history in our lives. And it is happening here in this story.
And so we see Simon showing about what he's known and what he thinks he knows, but then at this point of where he has to let go of something. Verse eight, he says, when Simon Peter saw this, saw what? The full nets. It says, he fell at Jesus' knees and said, go away from me because I'm a sinful man, Lord.
Notice he moved verse five from master to Lord really quick. For he and all those with him were amazed at a catch of fish they had taken. And so were James and John's, but he's signed, he was Simon's partners. Don't be afraid, Jesus told Simon, from now on, he would catch in people.
Then they brought the boats to land, left everything and followed him. I think what happens here is one of the most unexpected responses. Best catch of this man's vocational life. You think he's going to brag about it?
You think he's going to start selling it? You think he's going to say, thank you, Jesus. I appreciate that. Awesome.
Jesus had said anything that we know about. And Simon, by the way, I know about your inner thoughts and how sinful of a person you are. Let me bless you with some fish, okay? Is it something that Jesus is serving that had convicted him?
We don't know. But this is what I want you to see. Jesus did something overwhelmingly kind and gracious to Simon. He realized this, I don't deserve that.
And it broke him. It just broke him. It didn't make him entitled. It didn't make him prideful.
He wasn't arrogant. Actually, the opposite occurred. Because encountering the holiness of Jesus exposes our sinfulness. When we encounter the true holiness of Jesus and who he is and what he can do, it doesn't make us feel better about ourselves.
It exposes the sinfulness in our lives. The miraculous catch, get this, happens before Simon confesses his sinfulness. In our mind, you would think Jesus shows up on his boat and say, by the way, I would like to apologize for all the bad things I did last week. And Jesus goes, therefore, Simon, I'm going to bless you with some fish.
That's not what happens. Jesus blessed him with so much fish. And that's what changed him. You may be thinking right now, like, I don't know how many blessings I have.
If you look around your life lately, you still have breath. You have at least a roof over you in this moment. I don't know how many of you walked here, but apparently it doesn't look like you did. It looks like we've got a whole lot of good things that I would say every good thing given and every perfect gift comes from above from the Father of Life, who there's no variation for shifting shadow is what James 17 says.
So any good gifts in our life we look around at the relationship, the resources, the different things that God has given. And when was the last time that it overwhelmed you that he would take care of people like us? He falls at Jesus' knees overwhelmed by this thing we don't like to say in this age of positivity. He felt unworthy.
What was the last time you felt that way? Are you typically thinking your religious mindset, you look on the news and you think about how much better you are than everybody else in the world? That works for a while until Jesus gets in your boat. And you get so close to him and you've been judging yourself by everybody else's standard, everything changes.
This call sounds a lot like Moses. It takes off the sandals because he's on the ground. It feels a lot like Isaiah. I'm an unclean man and I live among unclean people.
There's a lot like Paul blinded by the light of God's glory and does not know what to do anymore. Holiness of God produces humility in our lives, not self-confidence. By the way, I want you to see some pretty cool. The awareness of sin here is not a disqualification.
Shocker. Did you realize this? Jesus isn't looking to employ perfect people because there are none. So this is the beginning of grace for Simon.
The conviction was meant for him to turn closer to Jesus not away from him. And the admission, I love what he says here. This is important. Some of you that are in relational conflict right now or you're dealing with God or you're struggling in some area.
I want you to see how Simon gets this so right in verse eight. He goes, I am a sinful man, Lord. Not my parents may be sinful, Lord. My spouse made me angry, Lord.
I'm not as bad as everybody else, Lord. He goes, me, right here. I'm a sinful person. It was an admission.
Not deflection to somebody else. Not justification. I did it because of this. Not comparison.
I'm better than this. This is your straight admission. I am unworthy. This is where the gospel starts by the way, the good news because you can't get safe until you realize you've been lost.
Right? You can't be safe until you realize you're lost. Peter doesn't even seek to clean himself up. Does he?
He doesn't know. I'm so bad. I'm going to do better. Jesus.
He goes, I'm unworthy. You got to leave. You're in the presence of somebody, this dirty rotten scounder, Jesus. And you need to get out of here.
Peter doesn't make promises. He doesn't attempt to clean himself up. He just admits I am a sinful person. Peter confesses his unworthiness and Jesus invites him right away.
Don't say he's exactly right, Simon. You are a horrible person. You know what? I want you to do to go to a 12 week Bible study and talk about how horrible a person you are.
And I'm going to then see if you are worthy of being unassemble. It wasn't even the fact that he was looking for a perfect person. He was looking for a pint-it person, a humble person. A person who realized he was sinful.
You know what's interesting about this was, Simon wasn't ready to be used by God until he realized he shouldn't be used by God. There had to come this place. I don't deserve this. And now Jesus goes, okay, now we ready.
Now we get it. I imagine if we would have passed the microphone around today and say is there anybody who's gotten the place in their life where you've been humble beyond recognition and now is the first point you started looking up towards God. That's what sometimes is necessary for us. So, Simon says, I'm sinful.
Go away from me. And what does Jesus say? No, I'm not going to wait me. Isn't that shocking?
This is the most glorious thing about this passage. Simon goes, go away from me, Lord. Jesus says, come away with me, Simon. No, I'm not sending you away.
I'm actually inviting you along now. Grace doesn't send us away. It invites us along. That's what's so amazing about the wondrous, amazing, beautiful grace of Jesus Christ.
When we see his holiness and we realize we do not deserve him, that's the moment he goes, come on, follow. What do you mean? I'm telling you how bad I am. I know.
That's why you're going to be ready to use now. Peter says, go away from me. Jesus responds, come away with me. Jesus reframes his fear into calling and his failure into a future mission.
The Greek word here for catch means to capture a life. This is a different type of fishing, right? He's like, we're going to bring these people in, bring them to life. It's really what's going to happen here.
Grace meets confession with reassurance and not rejection. Romans, chapter 2, verse 4 says, it is the kindness of God that leads us to repentance. Jesus blessed Simon and he repents and now he's ready to be used. Jesus doesn't remove Peter's past.
He actually repurposes it. If you haven't had a chance yet, we want to invite you along to certain things that are going on. Next Sunday, we've got two opportunities for you to be able to learn how to do evangelism better, to share Christ with your friends and project Theo, evangelism training that you still can sign up for and also a mobilization meeting that you may think of, what if I were to go to a recommission network church and help out and you go, I would be leaving something. We get that, but you're actually going to something.
Both of those things try to say, you know what, there's ways for you or Jesus to say and invite you along into what he's doing. So what happens in verse 11? One of the most shocking things that could happen. They brought the greatest catch, the greatest financial blessing of their life.
Their legacy on that shoreline would have been epic and they left it. Why? Because something greater was right there. Greater than the biggest catch of their lives.
Jesus Christ saying you want to come with? It was greater than anything. You can't hold on to old nets and step into new columns. Sometimes you got to leave those things behind and move forward.
Now, let me make sure you see this. The disciples are leaving their boats and their livelihood behind. There are two groups of people that I got to talk to really quick and everybody's in one of them. It's really easy for me to focus on one and the exclusion of the other.
I have to do both. I'm going to say this way. Vocationally and voluntarily. Vocationally and voluntarily.
When I was a young person, I remember a lot of churches would have moments where we were making a call for somebody to say yes to ministry or missions. We don't do that a lot anymore. We're going to talk that around here. There might be somebody who's a 16-year-old or a 25-year-old or a 73-year-old who's sitting here and you have this track for your life in the spirit of God and said, why don't you leave that and think about something different?
You ever thought about that? I'm talking about vocationally. Some of you putting down what you thought you were going to do because you feel a call, I'm not going to do this. I'm going to do this with my livelihood from this point on.
It is a vocational calling and I want to encourage some of you to consider it. For somebody right now, I'm not vocationally because I'm this. I know that. I'm ready.
I'm talking to you too. I'm going to talk voluntarily. If you're a follower of Jesus, at some point, you need to leave something behind to be able to be on mission for him. Some of you keep your job.
I'm not called to go and live on the mission field. That's fine. I'm not called to be a preacher. If you're a follower of Jesus, you are his ambassador, wherever he sends you, and I'm saying at what point have you said, he is greater than these nets that are full of everything I've ever wanted.
How are you living your life like that? Hebrews 12, 1 says, let us rid ourselves of every obstacle in the Senate so easily entangles us and fix our eyes on who? Jesus, the author of the perspective of faith, Philippians chapter 3 verse 7 and 8 says, whatever things were, gain to me, those things I've counted as what? Lost for the sake of Christ.
Indeed, I consider all things we lost for the value of knowing Christ. That's what this is about. Jesus shows, by the way, don't miss his point. Before they leave everything and trust him for their daily provision, guess what?
He just shows them. I can take care of you, by the way. You see this fish? I promise you, I can take care of you.
You ready to leave it? Can we get to go box with us? Okay, no, just leave it. It's fine.
If I did that, can't I do this in a week? I mean, I guess you can, but how do I know you will? Are you ready to follow? Are you ready to trust me?
What they call, by the way, that day would soon be gone. What they're about to do for Jesus would last for eternity. Something so different. Deciporship requires reorder priorities, not partial attachment to the things of God.
Notice the progression of the crowds press into here. The boats pushed into deeper water, nets pushed into the deep, and then Peter falls down. And then the boats come back to the shore and everything's left behind. The catch was temporary.
The calling was eternal. I was a high school senior, wrestling with a call into the ministry. I thought I'd received it at age 14, but a lot of people have been trying to talk me out of it for years. You don't want to go into ministry.
You want to do this and you need to do that. Instead of wasting your life in these pursuits, this is what you need to do. In fact, I had a lot of people that were very good and were very clear about God's plan for my life. I thought about it.
My family had plans. My friends had plans. The God's counselor had friends, but I never considered God as a plan that's superior to theirs. I remember I was wrestling on a mission trip with our high school to the foreign mission field of a place called Maine, United States.
I remember that I was asked to get my testimony and share somewhat of a mini sermon as a 17, 18 year old kid. I could remember not feeling like I was spiritually ready because the torn nature in my heart was I going to do this or was I going to do that. The only thing I could explain God used that message that night in an unbelievable way and all I felt was overwhelmed, not because I was so awesome, but because of how messed up I felt. You know, events, including people started cleaning up, but we had some music playing.
I think I could actually remember we had Kirk Franklin playing a stomp. Okay. So we all would understand this. Okay.
We had that player out there in the field. It was so loud. You couldn't even think. So nobody could hear what I was said, but I just felt so overwhelmed by this pull that I felt in my own heart because I knew what God was calling me to do, but I was scared to go for it and everybody else's expectations of what I needed to do.
And I just remember I could say this like loud as being very melodramatic as a teenager, but like nobody could hear me. But I just remember what I know you want me to do this, but everybody else just want me to do this and feel this struggle. And I can just remember saying the most melodramatic thing I ever said in my life where you go, if you want me so bad, why don't you come down here and get me? I don't even know what that means today.
You know what I'm saying? I got no clue. But as soon as I said it, let the spirit of God say, I already came down to get you boy. What do you think Jesus was doing?
He left heaven to come rescue you and you're going to squander your life on what you want to do. And that day was a line in the sand for me. I ain't going back. I ain't no chance.
So I left the nets for what God was calling me to do. My question is, if you left yours to do what God's calling you to do, I realize this, you haven't taken a step forward if nothing has been left behind. Some of you prayed a prayer years ago and you got baptized and you have not moved a single inch sense. This is not a religion of come and believe.
It is a religion of come and follow. Sometimes we got to lay that dead weight down and move forward to what God's calling. I love that Luke downplays the miraculous catch of fish here in this passage. He just highlights response.
They left everything and followed him. Peter moved from an expert fisherman to a sinful man to a sent disciple. Now let me ask you experts, what do you think you know better than anybody and even God couldn't challenge you? Where have you gotten to the end of your rope and realize that God's calling you to something else and you've got your unworthiness and you realize this, I'm putting down my pride.
I'm not the center of the world and I want to follow what he's called me to. Let's pray together.