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Let Down Your Net (Luke 5:1-11)
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Sunday Message recorded 03 November 2024
by Associate Pastor Josh Shell
First Baptist Church - Columbus, TX, USA
1700 Milam St.
Columbus, TX, USA 78934
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Transcript
00:00:06
Speaker
Well, good morning. How are we doing? Good. I say good morning in half an hour. It's great. Well, it's good to see you guys. If y'all want to go ahead and get your Bibles out, go ahead and grab those for me and turn to the book of Luke. That's where we're going to be. As we continue this series, we are well ah well on our way through. We're on chapter five. That was a joke. Wow, man. Tough crowd. OK.
00:00:36
Speaker
But I do hope you guys had a great weekend. And I hope that the the daylight savings has messed you up too bad. If anything, you kind of gained an hour of sleep. And I was talking with Josh Make earlier. I was like, you know, for some of us, when we think about gaining an hour of sleep, like, yes, I can actually feel rested. And you're like, no.
00:00:53
Speaker
Does he know good? And then there's people like me who are like, yeah, maybe I should stay up an extra hour and see if that kind of helps it. Nope, doesn't help either. So, but we're here, right? We're ready to jump into God's word. And I'm excited about the message that the Lord has placed on my heart, because over the last few weeks, Victor's been leading us through the course of chapter four, and he's been looking at ah this idea of the different winds that blow into our sails, right? The different winds of life that change the direction in the or the course of our life at times, right? And we looked at how these different winds, they can either put a lot of pressure on us or these winds can actually blow us in the right direction to the Lord if we allow them to.
00:01:39
Speaker
When we walk in in a way that is worthy of the Lord, we walk in a way that is pleasing to the Lord, or we pursue righteousness in Christlikeness, we have a tendency of going on a much easier course, because the wind at that point is in our sails. It is blowing us in the direction of Christ. Whereas when we go against that wind, it's like, man, you can't you can't get anywhere, can you?
00:02:03
Speaker
It's like you you you you try your best to move forward and every time you feel like you take about three steps forward, you take about seven steps back because the wind that's coming against you, whether it's peer pressure, whether it's deception from our community, from our culture, whether it's personal, ah you know, just trauma in your life, whether it's a loss of a family member or a persecution of some sorts.
00:02:25
Speaker
But at the end of the day, no matter what we they face in this life, one of the things that Victor was adamantly trying to communicate with us is that one, the Lord is with us through it. because the example that we looked at chapter four was the life of Jesus and how He Himself faced these same wins that we ourselves find ourselves facing today. And if Jesus faced them, which is the whole point of Him coming, by the way, so that He could come down, take our flesh, walk among us, fully empathize with us in every way so that way When he, as Messiah, fulfills the call which the Father placed on his life by dying on the cross, he could say, Father, my job is complete. And then the Father looked at him and said, yes, well done, my good, faithful servant. And as a result of that, we now have a high priest who's able to empathize with us in every way. So if you're in this room today, you feel like you're just in a course right now that you can't seem to shake.
00:03:24
Speaker
I pray that you allow the Lord to really bring in a fresh wind into your life and allow him to reset your sails so that way you can actually follow him and not feel like the weight of the world is on you because that's a very dark, lonely, and hard place to be. Has anybody ever been there?
00:03:47
Speaker
So, okay, Isaiah, you don't have to, but it's fine. Dramatic pause, right? So all I say though is is we have to let the Lord feel our fill our sales in the course of life so that way we can feel his presence and ultimately fulfill the the commission and the purpose by which he's called us to be as prized followers.
00:04:06
Speaker
So with that being said though, today we're going to stick with the nautical theme, if you will, but we're going to be shifting perspectives and we're going to be looking at an encounter that Jesus has with this man called or named Simon Peter. Right? Simon Peter. How many of you guys know who Simon Peter is in the Bible? Okay. ah What do you know about Simon Peter? He was a fisherman. Yes, he was a fisherman. What else?
00:04:36
Speaker
He had a brother named Andrew. You're absolutely right. He was bold. Yes, we will later see that in in Peter's ministry. Absolutely. Anything else? Y'all know where he was from?
00:04:51
Speaker
Y'all are ready for a pop quiz this morning, weren't you? He's from Capernaum, okay? He's from Capernaum. But yes, all those things arise. So he's a fisherman from Capernaum. He did have a brother named Andrew. He had his own fishing company. He had his own partners. And he had his own family, his own life there. And he was just doing his thing. And what we're gonna see in this encounter is that when he was just following his course of life, Jesus encounters him. And guess what happens?
00:05:20
Speaker
He resets his sails completely, completely. So let's read this passage together, then we'll pray and we'll dive in. So if you guys want to stand with me, you can and honor of God's word. We're going to be in chapter five, verses one through 11.
00:05:39
Speaker
It says this, it says, on one occasion, while the crowd was pressing in on him to hear the word of God, talking about Jesus, he was standing by the lake of Geneserah and he saw two boats by the lake, but the fishermen had gone out of them and were washing their nets. Getting into one of the boats, which was Simon's, he asked him to put out a little from the land and he sat down atop the people from the boat. When he had finished speaking, he said to Simon,
00:06:06
Speaker
put out into the deep, let down your nets for a catch. And Simon answered, master, we told all night and took nothing. But at your word, I will let down the nets. And when they had done this, they closed a large number of fish, and their nets were breaking. They signaled to their partners in the other boat to come and to help them, and they came and filled both boats so that they began to sink. But when Simon Peter saw it, he fell down at Jesus' knees, saying, depart from me, Lord, or depart from me, for I am a sinful man, O Lord.
00:06:43
Speaker
For he and all who were with him were astonished not to catch a fish that they had taken. And so also were James and John, sons of Zebedee, who were partners with Simon. And Jesus said to him, do not be afraid. From now on, you'll be catching men. But when they brought their boats to land, they left everything and followed him." Thank you. You guys may be seated.
00:07:10
Speaker
I'm gonna pray and then we'll jump into this text because I'm really excited about this text. So let's pray. Father God, we just come before you and we just ask that your presence be here now. Lord, that your word will speak to our hearts. No matter what's going on in our life, Father, I pray that we will turn to you and surrender to you.
00:07:29
Speaker
that will do what you've commanded of us, as you said in Matthew chapter 11, of taking your yoke upon us for your yoke is easing your burden's lights as we cast our burdens onto you. But Lord, I do pray though that today, Father, if there's anyone that's written in this room right now who is just on a course that they cannot seem to overcome, I pray, Father, that they will turn and look to you, surrender to you, and allow you to reset their sails.
00:07:56
Speaker
But God, we love you, we praise you, we pray over this time, pray that you will speak and that we will listen. It's in Jesus' name, amen. Amen. All right, so as I mentioned, we we had a few little things about whose time of Peter was, right? So he was a fisherman who lived at Capernaum.
00:08:14
Speaker
who had, pre based off of what we see in Scripture, this is a fun fact. Oftentimes when you read through the text, youre you know, for me, I've read through the book of Luke so many times, and I don't think I've ever caught this. I'm gonna be completely honest and confess it. But as I was reading through the commentaries the commentaries, I saw this. It wasn't that this was the first time that Peter had met Jesus. Did y'all realize that?
00:08:37
Speaker
Peter had previously met Jesus. We see this back in chapter four, where in verse 31, we see Jesus as he leaves Nazareth, he comes to Capernaum, right? So in verse 31, it says, he went down to Capernaum, a city of Galilee was teaching them on the Sabbath. And if you jump down to verse 38, chapter four, it says, and then after teaching the synagogue, he said, he arose, left the synagogue and entered Simon's house.
00:09:03
Speaker
which is then where Jesus does a miracle with Simon's mother-in-law, where she had fever, she was ill, and Jesus healed her of her sickness, she rose up, started serving the house, right? So, and then also, if you look back at John chapter 1, you don't have to turn there, I'm going to read it to you, but John chapter 1 verses 40 through 42, it says, one of the two who had heard John speak and followed Jesus was Andrew,
00:09:27
Speaker
Simon Peter's brother. He first found his own brother, Simon, and said to him, we have found the Messiah, which means Christ. He brought him to Jesus. Jesus looked at him and said, you are Simon, the son of John. You shall be called Cephas, which is called Peter. So again, but as we read through his account, we got to remember that as Jesus interacts with Peter, this is not the first time that Peter has actually encountered Jesus.
00:09:54
Speaker
and Which it kind of explains, as me we'll see this as we work through the text, it explains how Peter responds to Jesus as he gives him a command. So, well let's say though, is that he was a fisherman who lived in Capernaum, who had previously encountered Jesus. And as far as a fisherman, have you guys ever done a study on what first century fisherman, or first century Galilean fisherman did, like what their job looked like?
00:10:18
Speaker
It was not an easy task. Just like I'm sure that even modern day professional fishermen, it's not an easy task, right? It takes a lot of people to get the job done. But when you look at it, if you go to the, so here's a couple of maps. So this is kind of an idea of where Jesus encounters Peter, right? So the map on the left, you see the ministry that Jesus had in the in the area. And then on the right, you see where Jesus goes down and meets Peter on the lake, right there where the red dot is getting Sarah and then Capernaum is just up, just north of it.
00:10:54
Speaker
And so this kind of gives you an idea of where they're at and how close Capernaum is to the lake of the Sea of Galilee because fishing was one of their main industries there. If you go to the next slide though, and that's at the time of prayer. There you go. So this is this gives you an idea of what what their boats look like. So the picture over here to the left is what they call the Jesus Bell. Has anybody ever seen this before?
00:11:20
Speaker
Okay, so this was their the first boat that they found at the Lake of of the Sea of Galilee. Okay, so this gives us ah an idea of what the boat, the first century Galilean fishing boat looked like. And they called it Jesus boat just because it was on the the Sea of Galilee and this is...
00:11:37
Speaker
It's really not the boat that Jesus was on. Okay, we understand that? Okay, cool. So, but all I'd say though, the max capacity was about 15 people, okay, with a crew of about five. It was about 26 feet long. So a little bit smaller school bus, about the size of a delivery truck. Okay, so it kind of gives you an idea of what you can expect. And the the crazy thing is, when you have all five, so let's say you have a crew of five on the ship,
00:12:06
Speaker
You can add it in the so the approximate weight that those ships could hold is about half a ton about a thousand pounds Okay, so that's five crew plus the amount of fish that comes into the boat. Okay, pretty crazy That's a lot of weight, right? So and then there was if you go to the next slide ah there When they fish, they use three different types of nets, okay? So you have the drag net, the drop net, and the tremble net, right? For those of you guys who are fishermen in the room, you guys have probably have heard of these terms, and you probably actually have used one of them before, right? Anybody? Anybody ever used one of these before? Okay.
00:12:42
Speaker
So, all I had to say though is d when they used each of these nets, it it required a partner, right? The drought net, they could have done on their own, but in order to get the fish out, they probably had to have a partner. So, the idea of what I say all this to say is to so to set the tone of when Jesus encounters Peter, it should open our eyes to when when when Jesus tells Peter to set out,
00:13:09
Speaker
He was probably just like, dude, are you serious right now? Because when you think about the different aspects of this, and the other thing I was going to say too is when they fish, do they fish during the day or at night?
00:13:22
Speaker
at night, the fish at night, because that's when the fish come up to feed. During the day, the fish go down it's to the depths because they want to stay cool. And so it was more a appropriate for the fish at night, so they can catch the fish and bring it in. And then the next day, they would come in, they would look at their gear, reset it, fix the nets, so on and so forth.
00:13:42
Speaker
And then they would get ready for the next evening. right So again, I say all this to say though to set the to set the setting, if you will, of what we're of what we just read in this in this these passages. right So if you go back to chapter 5, verse 1, it says, on one occasion while the crowd was pressing it on in on him to hear the word, that was Jesus, he was standing by the lake of Gennesaret, and he saw two boats by the lake. But the fishermen had got out of them, and were washing their nets.
00:14:08
Speaker
okay Most likely, out of those three nets, there's probably the tremble net where you have one net that the boat is pulling. So the one over there on the right side, or the drag net. So you have two boats on either side dragging a net. It's one of those two. And so you can only imagine spending all night fishing, having to reach over, pull those nets up, unload whatever fish you caught, and the spinner and then the throw them back down, ultimately to do that over and over and over in the evening, right? But what we see in Scripture is that they did all that work, and how many fish did they catch? None.
00:14:48
Speaker
So as this is unfolding, as Jesus is walking on the the the shore of lake of the lake, you can only imagine that as Peter and his buddies, or Peter, Andrew, James, John, as they're cleaning their nets, how they are feeling as they're seeing this kind of mob following Jesus walking up. Can you put yourself in their shoes and imagine how they're feeling? I'd probably be like, dude, are you serious? We've been out here all night. Now we have this mob coming up.
00:15:16
Speaker
And it's Jesus, right? So they, and again, Peter had already encountered Jesus. So you can only, and he witnessed a miracle of Jesus healing his mother-in-law. So he can only imagine, that you can only imagine what's running through Peter's mind in the sense of like, great, it's Jesus. He's got a, he's got a mob of people following him. He's probably going to make a scene. We've been fishing all night. Like, you see where I'm going with this?
00:15:43
Speaker
Okay, so it goes on, and he says, so verse two, Jesus saw two boats by the lake, but the fishermen had gone around them were washing their nets. Verse three, getting into one of the boats, which was Simon's, he asked them to put out from land. Okay, so Simon's minding his own business, washing his nets, and then Jesus just steps into his boat. Okay, if that's y'all, how would you respond?
00:16:12
Speaker
If you're a fisherman and someone just walks into your boat and says, hey, dude, can you go out can you put out for a little bit? I'm sure you'd probably be a little startled, probably a little frustrated, right? But what what do we see from Peter here? How does he respond?
00:16:27
Speaker
So he asked him, ah put out from land, and he sat down and taught the people from the boat. So based off of that, we see Peter, ah he says, okay, we'll do it. We'll pull out. Don't worry, I'm not cleaning my nets or anything, but I'll drop what I'm doing so I can let you teach, right? And he goes on verse four, and when he had finished speaking, he said to Simon, put out into the deep and let down your nets for a catch. Okay, so this is,
00:16:57
Speaker
Okay, again, put yourself in Peter's shoes, mind your own business, clean your nest, try to get your your life together for the next night of fishing. Jesus walks up and says, hey, it doesn't just walk up. He walks up, steps into your boat, right? Hey, can you go put out from land? And he's just like, really, dude?
00:17:15
Speaker
I am literally, this is my life. This is my livelihood. This is my occupation. But okay, I'll do it. I'll i'll entertain you, right? So he said he puts out, he teaches, right? Because you can only imagine what Peter's doing on the boat, right? He's probably all this lounge back like, okay, all right. Yeah, this is great. And you can only imagine what Jesus is teaching on at this point too, right? Because it doesn't tell us what he's teaching on. And then after he gets done teaching, he turns around to Peter, he's like,
00:17:44
Speaker
Hey dude, would you actually mind going out a little bit further and dropping your nest into the deep? Can you imagine? Again, this is a professional fisherman who knows the the right way to fish on this lake, right? So another thing I forgot to mention with the with the boats is this style boat only was meant to be along the the shallow waters, okay? It's not meant to go out to the deep. They would fish along the shallow edge, so that way they could drag that across the bottom, catch the fish, and bring it in, and then empty the nets and go back out, right? So peter said hey or Jesus says, hey, can you go out a little bit deeper?
00:18:20
Speaker
Got deeper, he's like, dude, this is not what I'm supposed to do. Like everything that Peter's ever been taught in life about his profession is now being flipped on its head, okay? How many of you guys in this room have ever been in a situation where your profession, your topic of study, your hobby has ever been put in question by another individual? Anybody? Yeah?
00:18:46
Speaker
Wow, okay, way less people than I thought. But for those of you guys who have been in that situation, how did that make you feel?
00:18:55
Speaker
Were you open to the idea of suggestions or correction? Probably not, right? ah Trust me, I work with students, I get this a lot, okay? They think their way's better than my way, which we know is not true, okay? Just kidding. But all I had to say though is like, so Peter, the professional fisherman, this is his livelihood, done it forever, is now being told by this guy Jesus, who was a carpenter, to do his job a different way.
00:19:32
Speaker
You gotta imagine how Peter was feeling, right? But Peter says, okay. He says Simon Peter answered, master, we told all nine and took nothing. So in other words, you say, Jesus, I literally did my job. I did it the way I was trained. I did it the way I was taught. I did it the way that most times brings success, but because you asked it, I'll do it.
00:20:00
Speaker
right so he says and we took nothing but at your word i will let down the nets so peter every ounce in him right now the pride is probably coming against him right now you can only imagine the pride swallowing up he's like man are you he's like jesus what are you doing right now man like Shouldn't you be out ministering to other people doing other miracles instead of telling me how to do my job a different way? But listen to this, verse six. ah where When they had done this, they enclosed a large number of fish and their nets were breaking. And their nets were breaking. Now, can you really imagine how Peter's feeling?
00:20:54
Speaker
Talk about a moment of great humility and of surprise and of curiosity and just bewilderment, right? Peter, here he is, he's he's in his boat, he says, all right, you told me to drop my nest down in the deep, all right, here we go. these These freshly clean nets that I just fixed, throw it in the water. He's just sitting there, he's like, now what? And the next thing you know, the boat just,
00:21:21
Speaker
you know And he looks over and the the the rope tightens up, the nets are starting to fill up, the boats beginning to rattle, whatever, so just put it in the in the scene here. And he's like, wait a minute, what is happening? Talk about a resetting of sales in Peter's life. Jesus in that moment was not just trying to show him, he wasn't just trying to teach him a new method of fishing.
00:21:49
Speaker
Jesus was trying to reveal to him what it looks like to actually walk in faith in light of a holy righteous God. Because again, you got to remember, Peter had previously already witnessed a miracle of his mother-in-law being healed, a fever. Talk about an incredible miracle.
00:22:08
Speaker
but and But at the same time, in that setting, that miracle was for his mother-in-law, and he was just a bystander, right? So yes, it hit him personally to a degree, but talk about this moment right now.
00:22:21
Speaker
where Peter was just trying to just navigate the course of life his way, the way that he's always known it, the way that he he thought was the right way. And here comes Jesus on the scene telling him to go a completely different direction, a direction that speaks completely counter-cultural, if you will, to what he's been trained and what he's been accustomed to. And yet he catches such a large fish that what happens to the boats?
00:22:50
Speaker
or to his boat, it begins to sink to the point to where he has to call over his buddies, James and John, to come over and help them peering in the nets. And guess what? Their boat begins to sink. What an incredible moment.
00:23:06
Speaker
And again, when you think about these boats and how much fish they can carry, I mean, with the crew of two, like if if James, or sorry, Peter and Andrew were both on the boat, on the boat, oh my goodness, on the boat together, that's a lot of fish that they brought in before those boats began to sink. So you can only imagine.
00:23:27
Speaker
How Peter's mind and his life is completely flipped in this moment. Everything he once knew that he thought was right is just, it's it's unraveling, but in a good way. Because let's continue on. So pick up verse six. And when they had done this, they had closed a large number of fish and their nets were breaking. They signaled to their partners in the other boat to come and to help them. And they came and filled both boats so that they began to seek.
00:23:57
Speaker
But when Simon Peter saw it, what did he do? Did he go out and be like, man, boys, we are going to be making money today. No. What did he do? He says this, he says, he fell down at Jesus's knees.
00:24:21
Speaker
Fell down.
00:24:25
Speaker
Somebody earlier said that Peter was bold, and he was, he's bold. And I'm sure he was pride he took pride in his work. But talk about a humbling moment for your world to be completely just flipped like this. And you know what just happened in this moment? This is what I would probably say is is what most of us experience as believers at our conversion.
00:24:55
Speaker
When we finally see Jesus for who He is, when we finally encounter the living Son of God, Jesus, our Messiah, this is that moment for Simon Peter.
00:25:12
Speaker
And this this his testimony here can speak to a lot of us, because a lot of us, we've been in church for a long time. For a lot of us, we've seen probably some pretty cool things happen, whether they're miracles or or people coming from different situations in the Lord providing for them. But yet, they never have struck us personally.
00:25:33
Speaker
We've been around it. we We associate with it. Yeah, I'm a Christian. But have you ever actually had a true encounter with the living God who is coming to your heart to open your eyes to the things unseen so that way you can have personal relationship with Him? Well, that's exactly what Peter is experiencing right now in this moment.
00:25:58
Speaker
he So he fell down at Jesus' knees, saying, depart from me, for I am a sinful man, O Lord." Y'all see the change of his vocabulary here, his demeanor? You know, when Jesus first stepped into the boat and says, hey, can we go out to the, you know, can we go out a little bit? He's like, sure, master, why not? You know? But now, after this miraculous encounter, he doesn't just call it master, what does he call him?
00:26:28
Speaker
board Depart from me, for I am a sinful man, O Lord." this is There's another account in Scripture that comes to mind that I also read in the commentaries as well that seems very similar to this, and it's found in Isaiah chapter 6.
00:26:51
Speaker
Isaiah chapter six, and it says this. This is Isaiah's encounter with the with the Lord. You ready? Verses one through five. In the year the year that King Uzziah died, I saw the Lord sitting on a throne, high and lifted up. And the train of this road filled the temple. Above him stood the seraphim. Each had six wings, with two or two that covered his face and two that covered his feet.
00:27:19
Speaker
and And with two he flew. And one called out to one another, said, Holy, holy, holy is the Lord of hosts. The whole earth is full of his glory. And the foundation of the thresholds shook at the voice of him who called, and the house was filled with smoke.
00:27:40
Speaker
And I said, this is Isaiah speaking, woe is me, for I am lost, for I am a man of unclean lips, and I dwell in the midst of the people of unclean lips, for my eyes have seen the King, the Lord of hosts. What an incredible account. So again, going back to Peter, let me walk through, I feel like I'm in a drama mood this morning. So we're back in the boat.
00:28:12
Speaker
The casting heads over. Peter's like, all right, Jesus, here we are. The boat begins to shake. The boat begins to rattle. He's starting to freak out a little bit. He looks over and he sees all the fish in the
00:28:33
Speaker
But then comes a moment where he just stops and he recognizes what is happening and he turns and looks at Jesus. Can you only imagine what he probably saw when he looked at Jesus or or in his mind how he how this moment was for him? It's probably like that of Isaiah.
00:28:54
Speaker
He turned and looked at Jesus who before, before this encounter, he looked at him as just another God, just another prophet, just another teacher. Whereas now after this, he looks at him and his eyes are open to the reality of who Jesus is.
00:29:09
Speaker
This is the son of God. Guys, I'm getting goosebumps just thinking about it.
00:29:33
Speaker
But the reality is is that for anybody in this room today who has professed and believes that Jesus Christ is Lord, we should have had that same encounter when we converted to Christ. I'm not saying it has to be this big dramatic encounter, but what we what I am saying is is that if you're in Christ, you were once walking in darkness, your eyes were blind to the truth.
00:29:56
Speaker
But now that you're in Christ, your eyes are now open and the truth has set you free and you should feel the freedom of Christ in you. And your perspective on who Christ is has completely changed because of what Paul talks about right where he says that when we accept Christ, our mind is transformed. We see Christ for who He is.
00:30:19
Speaker
So he says, depart from me, I'm a sinful man, O Lord. Verse nine, for he and all of who were with him were astonished at the catch of fish that they had taken. And so also were James and John, sons of Zepedee, who were partners with Simon. So they were completely astonished at this encounter.
00:30:40
Speaker
And again, James, John, and Andrew, they know Peter pretty well. So for Peter to fall down on his knees and to say, ah, depart from me, Lord, I'm a simple man, they they probably took note of that. And we see in Scripture the kind of banter that goes back and forth between these guys. Like you talk about John, what he talks about when he's running to the temple, and he runs faster than the other guy. you know like So you see the banter back and forth? By the way, which is Peter. Peter was a slow runner, apparently.
00:31:10
Speaker
So you gotta imagine that this was not just in a miraculous encounter, just for Peter, but for all those guys.
00:31:19
Speaker
And then going on, finished up in verse 10, it says, in Jesus said to Simon, do not be afraid. From now on, you'll be catching men.
00:31:37
Speaker
Do not be afraid, from now on you'll be catching men. Again, so going back to the beginning of this passage, or of these verses. Peter was just a guy minding his own business, running his daily operation, occupation, just fishing, running the course of life that has been taught, that has been set before him. Maybe he had good days, maybe he had his bad days.
00:32:06
Speaker
But while he was there mending his nets with his partners, Jesus walks up and completely radically changes his life.
00:32:17
Speaker
And all because Peter in that moment was open to the idea of walking by faith.
00:32:29
Speaker
walking by faith. So again, Peter's just there. Jesus walked up steps into his boat. Says, hey man, would you mind pulling out for a little bit? Peter could have been like, hey dude, we're busy. Sorry, sorry Jesus. I know you already hit my mother-in-law, but, which was question, huge I don't know, I was a husband like, but all I'd say is, he could have easily said no and said, hey man, we're busy. Can you go down a little bit further? There's more boats down this way. But no, Peter says, you know what? Okay, I'll do it.
00:32:59
Speaker
And then while he's out there, after he teaches, Jesus turns around, hey, can you drop, can you go out a little bit further, drop your nest a little bit? Again, Peter could have been, no, I'm a professional fisherman. This is not the right time to go fishing. Let's do this another time kind of deal. But he he did it anyway. And what happened? He caught an incredible amount of fish, a miraculous amount of fish.
00:33:26
Speaker
to the point where their boats, both boats, today's and their partner's boats began to sink. All because Peter was open to the idea of walking by faith to see what the Lord can do. Maybe he wasn't even expecting the Lord to do anything, but the fact of the matter is that he was open to the reality of walking by faith. And when you are open to the reality of walking by faith with the Lord, the Lord takes every opportunity to reveal himself to you and to demonstrate his power to you in a way that you will change your life forever.
00:33:56
Speaker
And for anyone who's in Christ today in this room, we are living testimonies of that. I would not be here today if it wasn't for the Lord doing a miraculous work in my life. If it wasn't for faithful brothers and sisters in Christ in my life as a high schooler who poured into me, who who challenged me, who who pointed me in a direction of taking at least a small step of faith to where the Lord could come in and demonstrate His power to me, and then ultimately for me to find a place where I would find myself surrendering to the will of God, surrendering to the to the fact that Jesus is Lord.
00:34:33
Speaker
And I pray that we take full advantage of every opportunity that we have to invest in those people, whether it's the next generation, the younger students, because they need it, or your peers who are walking among you right now who are who are refusing to believe in the truth of Jesus. hello I pray that we will be just like Peter, that we'll be faithful and that we will let down our nets. That's why I call it let down your nets.
00:34:59
Speaker
See what the Lord is willing and capable of doing if you just take a step of faith out and allow him to do the work that he is capable of doing, if you just walk by faith.
00:35:20
Speaker
So do not be afraid, from now on, you will be catching men. And how do they respond?
00:35:30
Speaker
Verse 11, and when they had brought their, which by the way, I totally misspelled the word brought. When they had brought their boats to land, they left everything and what? Followed him. Their course of life completely changed based off this one event.
00:35:55
Speaker
their sales were reset and they began going in a path that was not easy. A lot of the times they they face persecution, they face hardship. Most of these guys, if not all of the one died because of their faith based off of tradition.
00:36:13
Speaker
But I don't think any of these guys would ever take it back. There was one encounter where Jesus was talking with the Pharisees, I believe, and and they were coming against him, and but he sent them away, and and and he looked at his disciples, and he was like, what are y'all gonna do? He's like, well, what are we gonna do? I mean, we left everything to follow you, so we have no other choice, and we're gonna continue to follow you.
00:36:41
Speaker
but But I mean, for these guys, I don't think they would ever take it back. It was the best decision they ever made. For me, it's the best decision I've ever made. And I challenge any of you in this room today that if you never put your faith, hope, and trust in Jesus, that you will do that. Because it will be the best decision you have ever made. Now, like I said, will it always be easy? Will it be comfortable? Will it be like this great source of blessing? Not all the time. I still struggle with anxiety. I still struggle with the unknown.
00:37:17
Speaker
But it's in those moments where of hardship or anxiety or the unknown that I can find a firm foundation in Jesus that propels me out of that place. Does that make sense? may
00:37:32
Speaker
So if you're on the fence or if you're at a place where you're like, man, this is just not for me. I pray that you'll allow Jesus just a ah small little glimpse in your life.
00:37:44
Speaker
I'm going to have a small little part of your life and see what he can do. Because I bet it will change your life forever.
00:37:56
Speaker
Because Christianity, is it's not about Christianity is not just about this right here, the place, right? I feel like Christianity is under attack because people say it's full of hypocrites. Well, it is because we're broken.
00:38:14
Speaker
It's full of lying. It's full of deception. It's full of this. It's just it's no different than any other religion. Well, it is, first off, different from every other religion in the fact that we have a God who came down to ultimate men, lived a perfect life, died the perfect death, and now is sitting at the right hand of the Father. And he is preparing a place for us because he loves us so much. And that all of that that he did is not contingent upon anything that we do, but everything that he chose to do. OK, sir?
00:38:43
Speaker
That's why Christianity is different in that regard. But as far as the people and how it operates, we're all broken. We shouldn't be surprised by that. So if you're afraid to take a small step of faith to follow in Christ because there's somebody else who's pretending to be a Christian that's not living a righteous life, well, you shouldn't be surprised by that.
00:39:06
Speaker
We are called as Christians to live a higher standard of living, to walk in Christ-likeness, to walk in holiness, to walk in righteousness. Now pray that we are pursuing those things, that we are repenting of our sin and in drawing back to the Lord.
00:39:23
Speaker
But if you're in this room and if those are the kinds of things that are holding you back, I pray that you'll just understand that they are just as broken as you are. And believers in the room, if you feel like that there's someone in your life that is just too far gone to receive the gospel, I pray that the Lord will humble you very quickly because you are not deserving of the gospel just as much as they are not deserving of the gospel. Does that make sense? But Jesus opened that door for you so you could receive it just like he desires for them to receive it. Okay, I'm off my pedestal.
00:39:58
Speaker
But I'm just gonna close with this. Peter was not expecting the encounter with Jesus that he received that day.
00:40:08
Speaker
But because of that encounter, Peter, or Simon, I should say, Simon's life changed dramatically for the better. And he began to have a relationship with Jesus that transformed his life.
00:40:28
Speaker
And that offer stands for any of you in this room today. Jesus desires to have a relationship with every one of us.
00:40:40
Speaker
It's up to whether or not you're gonna allow Jesus to come in and to transform your life. And I pray that you will. So I'm gonna pray for us. I'm gonna ask the musicians to come back up. We're gonna go to a time of invitation.
00:40:58
Speaker
If that's you today, you feel like whether you're a person who has entertained the idea of it or refuses the idea of it because of some broken relationship you have with a believer or whatever, or if you're just in a place where you just thought the gospel's not for you, I pray right now that your heart will be open to at least questioning it, at least allowing the Lord to demonstrate himself to you in a moment.
00:41:38
Speaker
i mean and And I pray that if it's just based off of a conversation that you can come talk to me, you can talk to Pastor Victor, you can talk to whoever.
00:41:49
Speaker
But I pray that you will consider the ah ah the option, consider the the calling that the the Lord has placed in this world of of us coming back to Him. But if you're a believer in this room, I pray that we will feel the the weightiness of this miracle with Peter and the calling of Peter's life and that we will go out and do the same thing because the reality is is when we came to know Jesus, He says, hey, I want you to deny yourself, pick up your cross, and to follow Me.
00:42:22
Speaker
In other words, and in reference to this, he says, I want you to leave your boats behind. I want you to leave everything behind, your boats, your gear, your nets, everything. I want you to leave it behind and I want you to follow me. I pray that it's exactly as believers that we are doing that, that we are choosing to leave behind the things that bring us comfort,
00:42:46
Speaker
Those are blessings, and the Lord provides us in those ways. But when the moments arise where the Lord is calling you to do something that is uncomfortable or that may put pressure on you in a way that you're not used to, I pray that you will walk by faith in that. That's Peter and James and John and Andrew and the other disciples did.
00:43:05
Speaker
So if you need to come down and talk to me, I'll be down in front during the invitation time. if you need But outside of that, I pray that we will just allow the Lord to work in us and to continue to equip us as the church to go out and be the hands and feet that he's called us to be. New code, be the fishermen of men. So let's pray. Father God, we just thank you for your word. We thank you just for the testimony of Peter.
00:43:33
Speaker
this encounter. Lord many of us were once like Peter in the sense we were just coasting through life trying to navigate it the best way we could.
00:43:46
Speaker
We were just trying to fulfill our hearts desires the way that the world has told us to. But Lord, just like Peter though, you encounter us now to reveal to us that your way is higher, your way is greater, your way is better than anything this world can ever offer. And I pray that there's anyone in this room who's never surrendered to that. I pray that they will do that, that they will start a relationship with you today, that they may know you and to make you known.
00:44:25
Speaker
But again, Lord, we thank you for the testimonies that we see in scripture. We thank you for the fact that your word is living and an act is still active. And I pray, Father, that it continues to equip us to love you. We praise you. We thank you for the way you first loved us. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen.
00:44:54
Speaker
This is a ministry of First Baptist Church, located at 1700 Milam Street, Columbus, Texas.