Evening Service 09.01.24

The speaker discusses the concept of success and how it is defined differently for Christians. He then tells the story of Jesus instructing Simon Peter to launch out into the deep and let down his nets for a catch of fish, despite Peter's doubts. The story emphasizes the importance of trusting in God's word, even when it doesn't make sense, and being willing to take risks. The speaker encourages listeners to remember their limitations and to obey God, even when it goes against their own plans. It was too high for her to play there for a minute. So I didn't know. You know, all of us want to have success, and man, you hear about it all the time. If you watch TV or if you go look in magazines or newspapers or just about anywhere, there's all kinds of books and articles and everything about succeeding and how to succeed. And what makes us different as Christians is the result or the definition of success and the strategies that it takes to get there. I know going through seminary, I heard it a lot of times, you know, you run the church kind of like a business, but you can't run it like a business because God's involved. And so it's just a whole different deal when you look at success. And Luke 5, verses 1-11 tonight, and we're going to take it as a very, very simple story. It's a story that all of us have heard before, but it's a story that I want to share tonight and I want us to look at a few things, at what we need to do out of this passage of Scripture to help us to become successful. And when we read this story, you will immediately recognize it. Luke 5, verse 11, and this was very, very early in the ministry of Jesus Christ. As a matter of fact, if you look back into the next chapter, it was right after the temptation of Jesus Christ and He is now fixing to go out and He's fixing to call His disciples and start building the church there through these men. And He says in Luke 5, verse 1, And it came to pass that as the people pressed upon Him to hear the word of God, He stood by the lake of Gethsemane and saw two ships standing by the lake. But the fishermen were gone out of them and were washing their nets. And He entered into one of the ships, which was Simon's, and prayed to him that he would thrust out a little from the land. And He sat down and He taught the people out of the ship. Now when He had left speaking, He said unto Simon, Launch out into the deep and let down your nets for a draught. And Simon answering said unto Him, Master, we have toiled all the night and have taken nothing. Nevertheless, at Thy word I will let down the net. And when they had this done, they enclosed a great multitude of fishes in their net break. And they beckoned unto their partners which were in the other ship, that they should come and help them. And they came and filled both of the ships so that they began to sink. When Simon Peter saw it, he fell down at Jesus' knees saying, Depart from me, for I am a sinful man, O Lord. For he was astonished at all that were with him at the draught of the fishes which they had taken. And so was also James and John, the sons of Zebedee, which were partners with Simon. And Jesus said unto Simon, Fear not, from henceforth thou shalt catch men. And when they had brought their ships to land, they forsook all and followed Him. A story that we've hardly heard, maybe looking over the people that are here in church that grew up in church and has been in Sunday school and everything else, this is a story that we have heard so many, so many times, but yet there's some good points. There's some good things to just come back sometimes and even what we consider sometimes the children's stories, to be able to learn something out of it. And we see that Peter and them had been fishing all night long, according to Peter. They were wore out. They were tired. They hadn't caught very much. And so I use that passage to tell my wife that fishing is work. It's hard. It's not always easy and relaxing, right, Brother Eric? And so sometimes it's tiring and everything. But you know what? The problem that we find here is that we always have our ideas and our plans. Peter and them went fishing all night long. And they come in, they park their ships, they park their boats there on the seashores, and they were sitting there, and then all of a sudden, Jesus walks up. And quickly, the first thing that it ought to remind us and help us to understand is that we as human beings, we have limitations. We have limitations. There's just some things that we cannot do. And our plans don't always work out. And they didn't know what to do, and it says that it came to pass there that while they were standing there, that Jesus came and He entered into one of the ships. And in verse 4, when He had left speaking, He said unto Simon, Launch out into the deep and let down your nets for a drop. God gave us brains to think with. He gave us bodies to perform it. He gave us the minds to worry, to plan, to think, to do all of these things. But sometimes, even the best of us don't always get the job done the way that it needs to get done. I was talking to Brother Van. A couple of churches here in Denton here lately have just been blowing up attendance and everything. This one that started out here, down here, we come by it every Sunday at Grace down here in the shopping center. It used to be the trampoline deal, and now they've turned it into a church there. They've now gone to two different services. When I come by at 9 o'clock in the morning, they've got people... the parking lot already looks full and people are out there parking and helping people find parking spots. And you know, sometimes things just go and sometimes things just work. And I think that's the first thing, is that we have to remember that it's not our efforts, it's not our plans. And then we notice here that if we trust the Word of God, even when it doesn't make sense. Jesus told them, He got up in their boats and He said, push out from the water just a little bit. And they sit there and they allowed Him to teach the Word of God from their boats. There was things that I'm sure they could have been doing. I'm sure that there's things that if they fished all night long, they're ready to go home, get some sleep, get some rest, because they've got to do it again that night. But notice how Jesus Christ honored them and Jesus Christ took care of them. He said, go back out there just a little bit deeper. And Peter looks at Jesus Christ and says, we've fished all these spots. We've been out here all night. We're tired. We're wore up. It wore out. It just does not make sense. And Jesus, I'm sure they're looking at this man from Nazareth that was a carpenter's son. And he's telling these guys that were raised and that's their livelihood is fishing. And all of a sudden, Jesus tells them how they're going to catch fish. You know, sometimes we think that we know better than what God knows. But He tells them there, He says, even when it doesn't make sense to obey Him. And so I love the phrase that we have in the King James Version where Peter just says, nevertheless. We've done this all night long, you know, as a preacher. God, I've tried that before, right? I've done that before or whatever. All right, but nevertheless, you know, on Saturday night, He changes your mind and you rip up your sermon and you start over or whatever. And okay, God, this is what's going to happen and this is what's going to take place. And of course, Jesus here didn't ask them to do anything immoral. He didn't ask them to do anything bad. He just asked them to do something that didn't make sense. But you know, as reading through the Old Testament and working on the Old Testament survey and kind of going through it and getting ready for this semester, a whole lot of things that God has done from the very beginning didn't really make sense. I was talking to the guys Thursday night about the fact that, you know, here God said, trust Me, I'm going to give you this land. They had sent in spies to go into the land and what happened? They said, come back with all of the fruit of the land. And they said, man, it is everything that God said it was going to be. But God didn't mention these giants. There's giants in the land and these giants, to them, we look like just little grasshoppers. And God said, okay, because of your unbelief, you can wander around in the desert until all of you men over the age of 20 die. And Joshua and Caleb, the only two that said, if God has given us this, then God will provide it. And what was the very first battle that they did when they went into Jericho? They sharpened their swords and get their arrows all lined out and get all ready to attack. No, God said, Jericho was the biggest city in Canaan. It had massive walls. It was huge and fortified and everything else. And God didn't tell them to attack them during the day. Send somebody in and sneak on the inside and at a certain time, we'll come. No, He said, walk around the city one time every single day for seven days. But on the seventh day, add six more times to it. And He said, when you get through with that seventh time around, He said, have the priests blow their horns and y'all shout because I'm giving you this city. Can you imagine to be standing there at this huge city and you've walked around this thing for seven days? And on the seventh day, you walk seven times. And the whole time you're thinking, this has got to be the craziest thing I've ever done. Right? But like Peter, I can imagine someone, well, nevertheless, this is what God told us to do. This is what Joshua instructed us to do. And all of a sudden, the city just came and fell flat. God handed it to them. And then they got right back into their human form, didn't they? Great God, that's wonderful. Man, AI is the next place down the road and we don't need hardly nobody to go down there. We'll just send 300 men down there and they'll take care of it. And what happened? They got run off and their tails took between their legs and destroyed. And so the things with God is not going to make sense to us. I tell people all the time, when it comes to Christianity and it comes to service with God, it's not going to make sense. But we need to have that attitude of Peter and say, nevertheless. Nevertheless, I'll do it. That's all God is asking us to do is to be willing to take risks. Just be willing to take the risk. And so Peter says, nevertheless, I will go. So where did Jesus tell Peter to go? Out just a little bit deeper, just a little bit further out than where they were at. And when He goes out there, all of a sudden, He's taking this risk. And what happens? He's tired. He's wore out. Can you imagine what Peter, again, what he's thinking? I love to get into the mind, and I love Peter because I'm a lot like him. Me and Jesus would probably have been having an argument right now. You know, I'm tired, I'm wore out, I've been doing this all night long. There's fatigue, there's disappointments. We haven't caught much tonight, and I'm not going to be able to pay my rent. I'm not going to be able to do this, right? But nevertheless, I will go out and do it. And he casts the net. And it's at hardly no time before all of a sudden when he starts bringing in the net, he has so much fish in there that the net begins to break, begins to tear apart. And so Peter calls and hollers at James and John. And this is the part that we need to remember. And I think Peter had kind of forgot right here that they were a team, that there was four of them. God wasn't asking him to do it by himself. There was a team that was there, and he hollered, and James and John did what? They came over to them. They came over to help them. And all of a sudden, they start helping them. They throw their nets. They get everything there. They're bringing the fish up onto the two different ships. And all of a sudden, both of them are now starting to sink. But what happened? Did they give up and say, no, you're on your own? No, they shared the burden. And so they had all of these fish. Their boats are going lower into the water. They're overweighted. And then what happens? It says that as they come to shore, immediately when this happens, Peter does what? He remembers his futility. And he falls down flat on his face, and what does he do? He worships Jesus Christ. And he says in verse 8, when Simon Peter saw it, he fell down at Jesus' knees saying, Depart from me, for I am a sinful man, O Lord. What was his sin? He obeyed God, didn't he? He went out and did what He told him to do, but the sin was, I imagine, all of them false. He doesn't rebuke Jesus. I'm tired. He doesn't tell them we've fished all night long and hadn't caught anything, right? And so he has questioned God. He's argued with God. But yet now, all of a sudden, God has blessed him. For him doing what? Simply allowing Jesus Christ to use his boat. And God blesses him out of that. And notice the catch. The catch of fish was even greater than they would have expected. I imagine there hadn't been a time in their career that they brought in as much fish as they caught right then. And so notice what happens in the last of the story. He says, For he was astonished at all that were with him at the draught of the fishes which they had taken. And so was also James and John, the sons of Zebedee, which were partners with Simon. And Jesus said unto Simon, Fear not. From henceforth thou shalt catch men. Look at verse 11. They forsook all and they followed him. See the humility in Peter? When God does and God blesses us, the humility that was there. Peter knew and Peter had to admit that with James and John, they were astonished at what just happened. Because this is something that was not ordinary. This was not something that was normal. And so what did they do? They were astonished and he said, Come, follow me. I'm fixing to help you catch men. Catch men. And they knew that guess what? If Jesus said they would catch men, then they would catch men. Because Jesus told them they'd catch fish. And they caught fish. And so notice their humility as they go and as they leave out. Peter did not take credit for the success. We don't see Peter saying, look at all these people. No, he immediately confessed to Jesus Christ. He knew who provided it for him. And you know, we've been talking a lot about God and we've been talking a lot about heaven. We've been talking a lot about eternity here lately. And we just need to be reminded sometimes that God has us here and God wants to use us. He wants to take us. It may be loaning Him our boat so that He can preach. We didn't ask Peter to get up and preach. He said, just give me your boat. Just give me your time. Just give me your efforts. And you know, when you study runners and marathoners, they say there's this point that they get to when running to where they are completely exhausted, completely give out, and want to give up. And all of a sudden, something happens. And they get a flow of adrenaline and they talk about this high. I've never experienced it. I've never ran that far. I won't give up. But they talk about when they finally get to the lowest point and the tiredest that they are, all of a sudden, when they start seeing that finish line and realizing the goal, they get that second wind. And there's a high that is there. And you know, I truly believe that we are living in the last days. I truly believe that Jesus Christ can return at any moment. I think everything is there. Everything is set up. But I also am constantly reminded that He's also long-suffering, not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance. And just like He took Peter, He blessed them physically, but then He told them you've got a job spiritually. And I think today He blesses us. He takes care of us. He provides for us when we obey Him, when we do what He wants us to do. But then, I also believe He also tells us that we need to focus on the spiritual. It's not about the physical. It's not about the attendance. It's not about everything else. It's about is Jesus Christ being listened to? And is He being obeyed? And so, you know, this story that we're so very common in with, and it's kind of neat when you study the life of Peter and you go through the life of Christ and you look, it's back on this same exact seashore that Jesus Christ returns to Peter after He denies them three and a half years later. And Peter had denied Jesus Christ. And finally, Jesus is dead. He's gone. I'm going to go fishing. I'm just going to return back to my life because Jesus is not here and I can't do anything on my own. I just denied Jesus Christ. I can't catch men. I can't even catch fish, but I'm going to go back to what I know. And it was there that all of a sudden it said that Peter was coming back in that morning from fishing all night long that Jesus was sitting there. And it's kind of funny, I don't know where Jesus got the fish at, but it specifically mentions that He's sitting there cooking fish. And any of you that's been around a lake or a campsite or whatever late in the evening and you can smell the grills as they're firing up, you can smell the grease when people are cooking fish and the odor that must have hit Peter, but immediately when He realized it, it said He jumped out of the boat and He ran to Jesus Christ. And Jesus was there to love them and was there to forgive them. And from that point on, we see Peter then with boldness and integrity. And so, you know, God gives us these lessons in life. And God gives us these stories to show us that He doesn't expect us to do anything. It's not our job. Our job is simply to obey Him, even when it doesn't make sense, to do what He wants us to do and allow Him to give the results. And when He does the results, He doesn't want us to take credit for it. He wants us to point the credit back to Him and realize where it happened. And so, as we stand tonight and we prepare for a verse of invitation, you know, I don't know how in this story God may be talking to you tonight. I know how He has dealt with me in this story, but He may be asking you just simply to lend Him your boat. He may be asking you to just simply give up something in your life so that the ministry, so that He can preach, so that He can perform, or maybe He's telling you to maybe do something that you haven't tried before, to step out and be able to experience something that you haven't experienced before. But Jesus Christ is faithful and we can trust Him. And when He does it, even if it's a bad attitude, it doesn't matter. Nevertheless, Lord, I'm going to do it. And so even with a bad attitude, God can still bless. But the main thing is that we're what? We're doing what He says we're supposed to do. As we sing, what hymn? Psalm 271. Psalm 271. Lord, through the shepherds' voice I hear Out in the desert dark and drear A wind is bleeding