SPEAKER_01: Well, with no further ado this morning, I'm gonna ask our wonderful, incredible kids pastor, Pastor Summer Barry to come to the stage and preach the word of God.
SPEAKER_01: Will you put your hands together for her this morning?
SPEAKER_02: Good morning.
SPEAKER_02: Well, we are gonna do something today that we do, if you'll just stand right there, Miss Chloe, for just a minute with that microphone.
SPEAKER_02: This is something we do in Life Kids every Sunday.
SPEAKER_02: Hey, how many of you love the fact, and and I am, I'm, I'm not tootin' my own horn.
SPEAKER_02: This is my team, okay?
SPEAKER_02: We are not babysitting your children.
SPEAKER_02: As a matter of fact, just that little tidbit Chloe and Alex did here this morning, that is said in every classroom where kids can talk.
SPEAKER_02: You know why?
SPEAKER_02: Because we want them to know at least for two minutes every Sunday the entire gospel message.
SPEAKER_02: That Jesus loves you, your sin separates you from Him, but you don't have to stay separated.
SPEAKER_02: And then we take that message and we want you to grow in God's word by going to church and reading your Bible and praying, and then we share that with our friends and family to everyone everywhere.
SPEAKER_02: We go and we show.
SPEAKER_02: Every classroom can repeat that.
SPEAKER_02: If they can, if they have kids in it that are old enough to talk, they can say that every Sunday.
SPEAKER_02: You see, we want them to know the love of God and then share the love of God.
SPEAKER_02: So I'm excited today to let you know that I have the most incredible team who does more than just sing and dance and show up on a Sunday.
SPEAKER_02: They are growing deep roots in your children's lives.
SPEAKER_02: And I am thankful if you are here today and you're on the LK team.
SPEAKER_02: I want you to know I am thankful from the bottom of my heart that you show up every Sunday because I cannot do it by myself.
SPEAKER_02: Thank you for partnering with me to see this church, this community, this state, this nation, this world change for Jesus.
SPEAKER_02: Amen.
SPEAKER_02: Alright, well, we're gonna do something that we do in life, kids, every Sunday mornings.
SPEAKER_02: I hope you have your Bibles.
SPEAKER_02: I I got kids on the front row.
SPEAKER_02: They are ready.
SPEAKER_02: Okay?
SPEAKER_02: This is what we it's gonna get a little crazy for just a second, Pastor Jeremy.
SPEAKER_02: I hope that's okay.
SPEAKER_02: Okay?
SPEAKER_02: Online people, just hold on for a minute, okay?
SPEAKER_02: It's gonna get a little crazy.
SPEAKER_02: I wish you could run through your TV and win, but you can't because I got a great prize today.
SPEAKER_02: This is called a sword drill.
SPEAKER_02: Now, I see Miss Emily over here on the front row.
SPEAKER_02: She's got her Bible.
SPEAKER_02: Miss Emily, you can participate in this sword drill, okay?
SPEAKER_02: There is no age limit.
SPEAKER_02: But this is what you have to do.
SPEAKER_02: You have to stand up with your Bible.
SPEAKER_02: If you have, and you can't use a phone.
SPEAKER_02: Sorry.
SPEAKER_02: Gotta have a physical Bible.
SPEAKER_02: Stand up with your Bible.
SPEAKER_02: Come on, adults.
SPEAKER_02: Play with come on.
SPEAKER_02: Stand up, Miss Debbie.
SPEAKER_02: Come on.
SPEAKER_02: Thank you, Miss Sharon.
SPEAKER_02: Okay, I got some more.
SPEAKER_02: I got some more.
SPEAKER_02: Okay, here we go.
SPEAKER_02: We got it.
SPEAKER_02: I hate to tell you this, adults, but the kids are probably gonna beat you, but that's okay.
SPEAKER_02: You're gonna play anyway.
SPEAKER_02: Okay?
SPEAKER_02: Say, I'm gonna play.
SPEAKER_02: I'm gonna play.
SPEAKER_02: All right.
SPEAKER_02: So what you gotta do is put your Bible on your head.
SPEAKER_02: Don't put your finger in the pages.
SPEAKER_02: We don't cheat, okay?
SPEAKER_02: Put your Bible on your head.
SPEAKER_02: In just a minute, I'm gonna call out a scripture reference.
SPEAKER_02: You have to find that scripture and run to the stage and be the first person to come up here and read that verse in this microphone.
SPEAKER_02: Yes, you can knock each other over.
SPEAKER_02: That's how we do it in life, kids.
SPEAKER_02: You can box them out, box them out.
SPEAKER_02: We don't care, okay?
SPEAKER_02: You can box somebody out this morning, but your Bible has to be on your head.
SPEAKER_02: No cheating.
SPEAKER_02: Are you ready?
SPEAKER_02: Today's verse is.
SPEAKER_02: Today's verse is Luke 5.11.
SPEAKER_02: Luke 5.11.
SPEAKER_02: Go, go, go, go, go, Luke 5.11.
SPEAKER_02: Luke 5.11.
SPEAKER_02: Oh, Sam! You didn't let a kid win?
SPEAKER_02: Loser, you know better than that.
SPEAKER_02: Sam, alright, come on, Sam.
SPEAKER_00: Check, check.
SPEAKER_00: Hello.
SPEAKER_00: I'm just gonna.
SPEAKER_02: It's on.
SPEAKER_00: Okay, there we go.
SPEAKER_00: Uh, so they pulled their boats up to the shore, left everything, and followed him.
SPEAKER_02: Good job, Sam.
SPEAKER_02: Uh, we're not doing points today, but I have this plastic sardine for you to take home.
SPEAKER_02: Good job.
SPEAKER_02: Everybody give Sam a good job.
SPEAKER_02: Thank you, Chloe.
SPEAKER_02: You can put that microphone up.
SPEAKER_02: Thank you.
SPEAKER_02: Uh, I'm sorry, boys and girls.
SPEAKER_02: He should have known better.
SPEAKER_02: But I'll have a talk with him later.
SPEAKER_02: He's gonna get fired from the team.
SPEAKER_02: I'm it's just all there is to it.
SPEAKER_02: We know we let the kids win.
SPEAKER_02: Alright, I'm just kidding, Sam.
SPEAKER_02: Alright, if you do have your Bibles today, though, would you please open it up to Luke chapter 5?
SPEAKER_02: Boys and girls, is Luke in the Old Testament or the New Testament?
SPEAKER_02: New Testament.
SPEAKER_02: And we know it's in the New Testament because who does it talk about in Luke?
SPEAKER_02: Jesus.
SPEAKER_02: And who separates the Old Testament from the New Testament?
SPEAKER_02: Jesus.
SPEAKER_02: That's right.
SPEAKER_02: Alright, so we're gonna begin reading in Luke chapter 5.
SPEAKER_02: I'm gonna put on these cool reading glasses that I have here.
SPEAKER_02: I am gonna read uh maybe a little bit different version from what you have in your hand because it's just the version that I prefer.
SPEAKER_02: So if it doesn't, if you don't want to follow along in your Bible, it will be on the screen.
SPEAKER_02: But we are gonna start reading in Luke chapter 5, verse 1, and we're gonna read to the verse that Sam just read to us this morning.
SPEAKER_02: Now it happened that while the crowd was pressing around him and listening to the word of God, he was standing by the lake of Gennesarat, and he saw two boats lying at the edge of the lake, but the fishermen had gotten out of them and were washing their nets.
SPEAKER_02: And he got into one of the boats, which was Simon's, and he asked him to put out a little way from the land, and he sat down and began teaching the people from the boat.
SPEAKER_02: When he had finished speaking, he said to Simon, Put out into the deep water and let down your nets for a catch.
SPEAKER_02: Simon answered and said, Master, we worked hard all night and caught nothing.
SPEAKER_02: But I will do as you say and let down the nets.
SPEAKER_02: When they had done this, they enclosed a great quantity of fish, and their nets began to break.
SPEAKER_02: So they signaled to their partners in the other boat for them to come and help them.
SPEAKER_02: And they came and filled the boat, both of the boats, so that they began to sink.
SPEAKER_02: But when Simon saw that, he fell down at Jesus' feet, saying, Go away from me, Lord, for I am a sinful man.
SPEAKER_02: For amazement had seized him and all his companions because of the catch of the fish which they had taken.
SPEAKER_02: And so also were James and John, sons of Zebedee, who were partners with Simon.
SPEAKER_02: And Jesus said to Simon, Do not fear.
SPEAKER_02: From now on, you will be catching men.
SPEAKER_02: When they had brought their boats to land, they left what?
SPEAKER_02: Everything and followed him.
SPEAKER_02: Lord, I pray today that these would not be my words, but they would be yours.
SPEAKER_02: God, I pray that hearts would be open to hear your message so that at the end of the day, when we leave here today, we would know beyond a shadow of a doubt that this message is for everyone everywhere.
SPEAKER_02: There's not a single soul who you don't value.
SPEAKER_02: I pray, God, speak deep into our hearts and take us from a fan to a fisher of men.
SPEAKER_02: I pray and ask all these things in your name.
SPEAKER_02: And everybody said, Amen.
SPEAKER_02: I don't always title my messages, but if I had one for today, it would be this.
SPEAKER_02: We're gonna study the life of Peter and we're gonna talk about how he went from a fan to a follower to a fisher of men.
SPEAKER_02: And it's an incredible story to look at.
SPEAKER_02: So let's just talk about what's been happening here.
SPEAKER_02: You see, Jesus' ministry has been gaining momentum.
SPEAKER_02: If you go back to chapter 4, it's kind of at the very beginning of his ministry.
SPEAKER_02: He's been in the wilderness, he's been tested for 40 days and 40 nights without food.
SPEAKER_02: And then he comes back from the wilderness, he gets baptized, he starts doing miracles, he goes to the synagogue, he's teaching.
SPEAKER_02: Um, he goes to Capernaum and he's already cast out a demon, he's healed Peter's mother-in-law.
SPEAKER_02: So Jesus is starting to build some fans, right?
SPEAKER_02: I mean, how many of you know that if some guy came along today or woman came along today and started doing a bunch of miracles, we would probably want to go check it out, right?
SPEAKER_02: If we were hearing that the blind were seeing and the deaf were hearing and demons were being cast out of people, we would want to go see what's going on, right?
SPEAKER_02: And that's what's happening.
SPEAKER_02: Jesus' ministry is gaining momentum.
SPEAKER_02: So he is coming to the shore of the Sea of Galilee, or as Lake calls it, not Lake, as Luke calls it, the Lake of Gennesaret, or if you're from Alabama, Gennassaret.
SPEAKER_02: That's how I've always pronounced it, and then I had to realize I was saying it wrong, and then I had to write it out by syllables on my paper, and I'm still probably not saying it right, but anyway.
SPEAKER_02: Okay, we're gonna call it the Sea of Galilee for today.
SPEAKER_02: All right.
SPEAKER_02: He goes to the Sea of Galilee, and he's got a crowd there gathering, and he is beginning to teach, and he realizes that if he would just, you know, because he he made nature and creation and everything in it, so he realizes if he gets on this boat and he goes out a little bit, that the hills and the mountains are gonna create an amphitheater and the water is going to carry his voice, the sound of his voice, so that more people can hear him.
SPEAKER_02: So he sees Simon Peter's boat.
SPEAKER_02: He's clearly already familiar with Simon Peter because he just killed his mother-in-law.
SPEAKER_02: Not sure if Peter appreciated that or not, but we're gonna go with it that he did.
SPEAKER_02: And he lets Jesus on his boat.
SPEAKER_02: Just kidding, I love my mother-in-law and all the mother-in-laws in the room.
SPEAKER_02: He gets on Peter's boat, he goes offshore, and he begins to teach.
SPEAKER_02: And when he gets done teaching, we see, we read the story of him calling his very first disciple, and that's Simon Peter.
SPEAKER_02: He looks at Peter and he says, Put out into the deep water and let your nets down for a catch.
SPEAKER_02: I don't know about you, but how many of you in this room appreciate it when you are a very skilled person in a certain area and someone who is very unskilled in that area tries to tell you how to do your job.
SPEAKER_02: Anybody, anybody like that?
SPEAKER_02: Like 100% today, I will go home, sit on my couch with a big bowl or plate of some kind of dessert that I don't need, knowing full well I have not exercised in over three years, and I will sit on my couch and watch Messi and tell him everything he's doing wrong today.
SPEAKER_02: I don't know a single rule about soccer except you can't touch the ball with your hand, and I will tell him how he can do it better.
SPEAKER_02: Right?
SPEAKER_02: Like, do y'all do that when the Olympics come too?
SPEAKER_02: Like, oh, that back tuck girl, you need to work on that.
SPEAKER_02: Knowing I can't even touch my toes without pulling my elbow out of socket, right?
SPEAKER_02: But we do these things, and it's and it doesn't feel quite as bad when I'm just talking to a TV screen.
SPEAKER_02: This is like Jesus in person with Peter telling Peter how to fish.
SPEAKER_02: It would be like me going to work tomorrow with my husband Justin and being like, well, let me tell you what you should do, babe.
SPEAKER_02: You should totally take that interest there, and you should move it over here in the checks and balance.
SPEAKER_02: I don't even know the verbiage, okay?
SPEAKER_02: Like they use fancy words that I don't understand, like budget, okay?
SPEAKER_02: I don't get accounting, so I'm not gonna go to his job tomorrow and tell him how to do it, right?
SPEAKER_02: But that's exactly what's happening.
SPEAKER_02: And I don't, I mean, when I read the Bible, I feel like Peter's a lot like me, or maybe I should say I'm a lot like Peter.
SPEAKER_02: So I feel like in his mind he's probably going, seriously?
SPEAKER_02: I mean, you've just come on the scene here as a teacher, you hadn't been around very long, and you teach in the synagogues.
SPEAKER_02: Like, I'm a professional fisherman.
SPEAKER_02: This is what I've been doing my whole life with my dad.
SPEAKER_02: Like, I own my own boat, and if we read, you know, it looks like he even owns his own company.
SPEAKER_02: He's got partners in business, the sons of thunder.
SPEAKER_02: Like, he knows how to fish.
SPEAKER_02: He knows that nighttime is the best time to fish.
SPEAKER_02: He knows that once the sun comes out and hits the waters, the fish can see the nets and they are not too dumb to swim into them.
SPEAKER_02: Like, he knows it's not a good time to fish, right?
SPEAKER_02: He knows his stuff, he's know what he he knows what he's doing.
SPEAKER_02: But Jesus tells him, go back.
SPEAKER_02: He's tired, he's been out all night, had a bad day because he has caught nothing, and that's his livelihood.
SPEAKER_02: He is already washing his nets and he wants to go home and take his nap.
SPEAKER_02: And Jesus says, go out in the deep, put your nets out again.
SPEAKER_02: I tell you what, guys.
SPEAKER_02: We we can easily read over this story and not think much of it, but I think what we're getting here in this story is the first step from becoming a fan to a follower.
SPEAKER_02: Because Peter says, We've worked hard all night and we've caught nothing.
SPEAKER_02: But because you say so, I will let down the nets.
SPEAKER_02: That sentence changes everything, it changes him from a mere fan of somebody who can do miracles to a follower.
SPEAKER_02: You know why?
SPEAKER_02: Because faith always obeys before it understands.
SPEAKER_02: Faith always obeys before it understands.
SPEAKER_02: This is a pattern in the Bible.
SPEAKER_02: Like Noah, he built an ark before it ever rained.
SPEAKER_02: Abraham left home without knowing his destination.
SPEAKER_02: And those are the big stories.
SPEAKER_02: Even in the little stories, we see this same pattern.
SPEAKER_02: Like the widow of Zarephath.
SPEAKER_02: She gave Elijah.
SPEAKER_02: Back it up.
SPEAKER_02: Reverse.
SPEAKER_02: She is a foreigner in the heart of Baal worship who doesn't even follow Yahweh, yet, at the word of a prophet of God, she gives her last meal before God ever multiplies her oil and flour.
SPEAKER_02: You see, if obedience made sense, it wouldn't require faith.
SPEAKER_02: And if we want to go from being just a mere fan of Jesus and this gospel, we have got to take steps of faith.
SPEAKER_02: Following Jesus means trusting his voice over our experience.
SPEAKER_02: You see, experience says there's no fish, but Jesus says, cast the net anyway.
SPEAKER_02: Experience says nothing will change.
SPEAKER_02: But Jesus says, trust me.
SPEAKER_02: Faith isn't understanding everything, it's saying, because you say so.
SPEAKER_02: Yes.
SPEAKER_02: So Peter goes out on the boat, he lowers his nets, and like we just read, a miracle takes place.
SPEAKER_02: He lowers the nets, and the nets are so full of fish.
SPEAKER_02: What does he have to do?
SPEAKER_02: Life kids, what did it say he did?
SPEAKER_02: He had to call what?
SPEAKER_02: The others, the other boat, hey, hey, come help.
SPEAKER_02: And then that boat gets out there, and they're still hauling in so many fish.
SPEAKER_02: Then what did the Bible say happened?
SPEAKER_02: The boats began to what?
SPEAKER_02: Sink.
SPEAKER_02: I mean, Jesus has done a miracle.
SPEAKER_02: They've been out all night.
SPEAKER_02: No fish.
SPEAKER_02: And now two boatloads of fish so full, the boats are sinking.
SPEAKER_02: Oh, but let's look at Peter.
SPEAKER_02: Because he's gonna give us the next step, right?
SPEAKER_02: Because Peter doesn't go, oh my gosh, thank you, Jesus.
SPEAKER_02: This is amazing.
SPEAKER_02: Look at all these fish.
SPEAKER_02: Oh my goodness, I can eat for months.
SPEAKER_02: My family is cared for for months.
SPEAKER_02: What does Peter say?
SPEAKER_02: Woe is me.
SPEAKER_02: For I am in the presence of a holy God.
SPEAKER_02: You see, his focus changed from the fish to who was on the boat.
SPEAKER_02: What's happening here?
SPEAKER_02: You see, the closer we get to Jesus, as we begin to follow the Lord more and more, something amazing happens.
SPEAKER_02: And it's not gonna sound amazing, but listen till the end, because it is amazing.
SPEAKER_02: Because this is what happens as we follow Jesus.
SPEAKER_02: His holiness exposes our unworthiness.
SPEAKER_02: And it doesn't, yeah, yeah, it's not one of those, oh yay, I'm unworthy.
SPEAKER_02: Like we don't want to, we don't want to holler at that.
SPEAKER_02: It doesn't sound like something we want to amen, but let me tell you right now, I want to amen it.
SPEAKER_02: And let me tell you why.
SPEAKER_02: Well, first of all, this is again another pattern in the Bible.
SPEAKER_02: Like when God calls Abraham, Abraham says, I am but ash and dust, right?
SPEAKER_02: Isaiah cries, Woe is me, for I am undone.
SPEAKER_02: I am a man of unclean lips.
SPEAKER_02: Elizabeth says, Why would the mother of my Lord visit me?
SPEAKER_02: John the Baptist says, I'm not even unworthy to untie his shoes.
SPEAKER_02: And then even in Revelation, John falls down as if he were dead when he sees the presence of the Lord standing among the lampstands.
SPEAKER_02: You see, as we enter his holiness, it exposes our unworthiness.
SPEAKER_02: And I'm worried today because we live maybe not in a world, but definitely in our Western world, we're living in a culture that is very me motivated.
SPEAKER_02: And I want to be, I do want to be careful here.
SPEAKER_02: Like we got all these buzzwords of self-love and self-worth and and self-this and self-that.
SPEAKER_02: And I'm not hear me out, I'm not against those things.
SPEAKER_02: The gospel is self-sacrificing, it is not self-degrading.
SPEAKER_02: Okay?
SPEAKER_02: It's not self-degrading.
SPEAKER_02: However, we need to understand there is a difference between worth and worthiness.
SPEAKER_02: You see, worth is your unchanging value as a person.
SPEAKER_02: You were worth dying for.
SPEAKER_02: But worthiness refers to whether you meet a certain standard or a qualification or expectation based on your actions, choices, or achievements.
SPEAKER_02: So we have worth and value, but it's not based on our worthiness.
SPEAKER_02: Does that make sense?
SPEAKER_02: Am I making sense this morning?
SPEAKER_02: Like the enemy, he likes to come in and he likes to tell us we're not worthy.
SPEAKER_02: And again, I know you have to be careful because this is a tactic of his.
SPEAKER_02: He likes to lie to us and tell us we're unworthy.
SPEAKER_02: Well, you know what?
SPEAKER_02: The next time he does that, just go, all right.
SPEAKER_02: I'm not.
SPEAKER_02: But he only tells half-truths.
SPEAKER_02: And in life, kids, we know the half-truths are whole lies.
SPEAKER_02: Because he wants you to focus on your unworthiness instead of the one that John said is worthy to hope to break the seal and open the scroll, and the elders fall down and cry, holy, holy, holy is the Lamb, worthy is the Lamb that was slain.
SPEAKER_02: You see, my worth is different than my worthiness.
SPEAKER_02: And if we get caught up in our self worth, we're focused on the wrong thing.
SPEAKER_02: Am I making sense?
SPEAKER_02: You see, nobody meets the holiness of God and walks.
SPEAKER_02: Walks away impressed with ourselves.
SPEAKER_02: Thank you, Alex Reno.
SPEAKER_02: Nobody.
SPEAKER_02: You're gonna be in a long line of people in this Bible who knew that very fact.
SPEAKER_02: And what makes me excited is that Jesus knew Peter's unworthiness and he still called him.
SPEAKER_02: He still called him.
SPEAKER_02: This morning I had to apologize to my team.
SPEAKER_02: Yesterday I got very upset at practice.
SPEAKER_02: I did not behave like Jesus.
SPEAKER_02: I'm not worthy to stand on this platform.
SPEAKER_02: But you see, it's not my unworthiness that disqualifies me from following Jesus.
SPEAKER_02: It's exactly what's required for it.
SPEAKER_02: When you realize your unworthiness, that's powerful.
SPEAKER_02: Because once I realize my unworthiness, I can no longer look at somebody else and say, Oh, well, you're not worthy.
SPEAKER_02: Because I realize I'm not worthy either.
SPEAKER_02: Unworthiness does not disqualify you from doing the work of Jesus.
SPEAKER_02: It is necessary for it.
SPEAKER_02: It's the starting point.
SPEAKER_02: It's the humility that Jesus brought upon himself when he descended from glory and came as dust like man to walk with us in our filth and sin.
SPEAKER_02: You see, the fact that he loves us in our unworthiness.
SPEAKER_02: It's so much more powerful than if he only loved us in our perfection.
SPEAKER_02: We're all unworthy.
SPEAKER_02: And if you want to go from being a fan to a follower to a fisher of men, you're going to have to understand you will never be worthy.
SPEAKER_02: You can't ever work hard enough, you're never going to deserve it, but you're still worth his love.
SPEAKER_02: Because Jesus didn't turn around and reject Peter.
SPEAKER_02: He said, I got a job for you, man.
SPEAKER_02: You see, his mission becomes our mission.
SPEAKER_02: That's point number three.
SPEAKER_02: His mission becomes our mission.
SPEAKER_02: Jesus says, from now on, you will catch people.
SPEAKER_02: The word that's used there is a Greek word.
SPEAKER_02: It's zagreo, and it means to capture alive.
SPEAKER_02: Now see, I chose, let me back up.
SPEAKER_02: I do that a lot in life, kids.
SPEAKER_02: Let's make that little rewind sound.
SPEAKER_02: Okay.
SPEAKER_02: Our Bible verse this week for Kids Week is from Matthew because it's the popular one that everybody says.
SPEAKER_02: Follow me and I'll make you fishers of men, right?
SPEAKER_02: Some of us that are really old, we follow me.
SPEAKER_02: I will make you fishers and men.
SPEAKER_02: Fishers.
SPEAKER_02: Like that one.
SPEAKER_02: Okay, that verse.
SPEAKER_02: All right.
SPEAKER_02: I'm talking like five years old singing that song.
SPEAKER_02: Okay.
SPEAKER_02: It's an old song.
SPEAKER_02: That's our Bible verse for this week.
SPEAKER_02: But I chose this passage today to read because Matthew and Mark, they say, follow me, I will make you fishers of men.
SPEAKER_02: But Luke, Luke is like the gospel for dummies.
SPEAKER_02: Okay.
SPEAKER_02: Listen, I love Luke.
SPEAKER_02: I read Luke because I need the gospel for dummies, right?
SPEAKER_02: So he wants to make sure, because fishing, it has like a negative connotation, right?
SPEAKER_02: I mean, you're taking something alive, you're hooking it with a hook, you throw it in your boat, and what happens to it?
SPEAKER_02: It dies, right?
SPEAKER_02: It it becomes something you consume, or you make money off, other people consume it, and you make money off of it, right?
SPEAKER_02: So Luke wants us dummies to understand, you know, it's it's let me explain let me explain something.
SPEAKER_02: We are not taking something that's alive and bringing it into death.
SPEAKER_02: We are taking something that is in death and we are bringing it to life.
SPEAKER_02: We are catching people for life.
SPEAKER_02: When I spoke Mother's Day, if you were here, you might remember that I talked about how in ancient Near East literature that the waters they represent like the waters in Genesis and the waters of the flood and of the Nile, they represent death and destruction.
SPEAKER_02: And that's still what this what Luke is trying to explain to us.
SPEAKER_02: We are to rescue men out of the chaotic waters of death and bring, we're capturing them alive for life.
SPEAKER_02: We're rescuing them.
SPEAKER_02: You see, we are not merely saved from death, we are saved for a purpose.
SPEAKER_02: And our purpose is his mission, and his mission is to rescue from death to life.
SPEAKER_02: And after the end of this story, we're gonna get out here early today, folks.
SPEAKER_02: I think this may be the shortest message I've ever preached in my life.
SPEAKER_02: But at the end of this message, our story, we learn that if we go from a fan to a follower to a fisher of men, it does this.
SPEAKER_02: Let's read verse 11.
SPEAKER_02: When they had brought their boats to land, they left.
SPEAKER_02: Thank you, Miss Debbie, gold star.
SPEAKER_02: I might have an extra plastic sardine for you.
SPEAKER_02: Let's try that again.
SPEAKER_02: When they had brought their boats to land, they left everything.
SPEAKER_02: They left everything.
SPEAKER_02: Not some things, everything.
SPEAKER_02: The Greek word that's used there is pos.
SPEAKER_02: And it means the whole of it, everyone, all things, everything.
SPEAKER_02: Can't get much more plain than that.
SPEAKER_02: They left their families, their friends, their boats, their business, their security, their plans, their future.
SPEAKER_02: Now, I don't think God has called any of you to wake up tomorrow morning and quit your job.
SPEAKER_02: Sorry.
SPEAKER_02: That's not what I'm saying.
SPEAKER_02: But I do know this.
SPEAKER_02: When you truly encounter Jesus, everything about your life changes.
SPEAKER_02: Everything.
SPEAKER_02: Your priorities change.
SPEAKER_02: Your values change.
SPEAKER_02: Your identity changes.
SPEAKER_02: Your purpose changes.
SPEAKER_02: How you spend your time changes.
SPEAKER_02: How you spend your money changes.
SPEAKER_02: How you treat people changes.
SPEAKER_02: How you view life completely changes.
SPEAKER_02: You see, your job is no longer your job because you need to make money and put food on the table.
SPEAKER_02: Your job is your job because God wants that to be your mission field.
SPEAKER_02: You don't wake up and go to school because you need to get smart so you can have a career and provide for your family and be successful.
SPEAKER_02: No, you get up and you go to your school because your school is now your mission field.
SPEAKER_02: You go to the grocery store not just to get groceries, but to see who you can smile at and say, Are you having a good day today?
SPEAKER_02: You know what?
SPEAKER_02: Jesus loves you.
SPEAKER_02: You let your kids play soccer on the weekends.
SPEAKER_02: We don't like it, but you do it anyway.
SPEAKER_02: But you do it not so they can become the next LeBron James or Lionel Messi, but some or whatever popular person is in the sport your kid plays, but you do that so you can talk to other families so they can see that your family's different from all the other families who sit around and gossip about each other and tear each other's kids down.
SPEAKER_02: No, your kid plays travel ball so you can be a witness to the people around you.
SPEAKER_02: You see, when you follow Jesus, his mission has to become your mission, or you're not a true follower.
SPEAKER_02: You're just a fan.
SPEAKER_02: We were in prayer the other day praying about kids' week.
SPEAKER_02: Sorry, I'm out of breath.
SPEAKER_02: And Pastor Jeremy, he uh he said he felt like he had a word from the Lord dropped dropped in his heart for this week.
SPEAKER_02: And it was because it matched this sermon to perfection.
SPEAKER_02: And I asked him if it was okay if I shared his word today.
SPEAKER_02: And this is what he said.
SPEAKER_02: His glory changes our affections.
SPEAKER_02: I'm gonna say it again for the people in the back.
SPEAKER_02: His glory changes our affections.
SPEAKER_02: When we are fishers of men, we love what he loves.
SPEAKER_02: What are his affections?
SPEAKER_02: Well, let me tell you, you gotta read your Bible to know that.
SPEAKER_02: Just finish the book of Luke because these are the kind of people that Jesus hung out with.
SPEAKER_02: Let me name a few.
SPEAKER_02: Thank you.
SPEAKER_02: Might have a plastic fish for some of y'all.
SPEAKER_02: Paralyzed men.
SPEAKER_02: That's y'all, y'all repeat me.
SPEAKER_02: That sounds so good.
SPEAKER_02: Widows, sinful women.
SPEAKER_02: Don't repeat that one at the grocery store today.
SPEAKER_02: Demon-possessed men, women with an issue of blood, Gentiles, Samaritans.
SPEAKER_02: What do we know about them?
SPEAKER_02: They were enemies of God's people.
SPEAKER_02: The crippled, you don't have to keep repeating.
SPEAKER_02: The crippled, the blind beggars, you can repeat this one, children.
SPEAKER_02: Now I'm just gonna be real honest.
SPEAKER_02: If I'm trying to be super successful in life and make a name for myself, this is not who I'm hanging out with.
SPEAKER_02: Right?
SPEAKER_02: These people aren't gonna help me, more than likely.
SPEAKER_02: They're not gonna help me achieve my personal goals for the most part.
SPEAKER_02: But everybody, but the people that everybody else walked away from, Jesus walked towards.
SPEAKER_02: These people got problems.
SPEAKER_02: These people have problems.
SPEAKER_02: These people sit in their messes, and Jesus sat with them.
SPEAKER_02: These people are the outcast.
SPEAKER_02: They're on the margins.
SPEAKER_02: As I said before, some of them were considered enemies, the people they hated, the people that like mind-blowing.
SPEAKER_02: Like this was Jonah's problem, right?
SPEAKER_02: Now, we all know Jonah.
SPEAKER_02: We talk about Jonah because he disobeyed God, right?
SPEAKER_02: God said, go to Nineveh, and he got on a boat and went the opposite direction.
SPEAKER_02: Can I tell you something?
SPEAKER_02: Read the whole book.
SPEAKER_02: The whole book of Jonah, that's just one really small part.
SPEAKER_02: That was not disobedience, it was not Jonah's problem.
SPEAKER_02: It was not, it's only part of the problem.
SPEAKER_02: Jonah's problem was he got on a boat, went to Nineveh because he didn't think, not Nineveh, wherever he went.
SPEAKER_02: Thank you.
SPEAKER_02: He went to Tarshish because he didn't think the people of Nineveh deserved God's forgiveness.
SPEAKER_02: That was Jonah's problem.
SPEAKER_02: You see, Jonah was in the belly of a well begging for God's forgiveness for himself, but then he went and he did what God said.
SPEAKER_02: He went throughout the city and preached, and the people repented, but then what did he do?
SPEAKER_02: He went and built a hut to watch their destruction.
SPEAKER_02: We don't talk about that in kids' church, do we?
SPEAKER_02: Jonah's heart was not God's heart because God loves the people you hate.
SPEAKER_02: God loves the people who don't vote Democrat or Republican, depending on which way you vote.
SPEAKER_02: I don't have to get amen.
SPEAKER_02: It's okay.
SPEAKER_02: It don't mean it's not true just because you don't want to say amen.
SPEAKER_02: God loves the people who screw you over, who say bad things about you, who talk about you behind your back, who are me, me, me and never care about you.
SPEAKER_02: God loves them too.
SPEAKER_02: We either mean it or we don't.
SPEAKER_02: It's everyone everywhere.
SPEAKER_02: Hey, God even loves the rich people who think they don't need him.
SPEAKER_02: God loves the people who look, turn their noses down on you.
SPEAKER_02: The people we would probably call Pharisees.
SPEAKER_02: God loved them too.
SPEAKER_02: When Nicodemus came to Jesus at night, Jesus didn't turn him away.
SPEAKER_02: God doesn't care who you are, where you've been, how bad you've been, God loves everybody, everywhere.
SPEAKER_02: Everybody, everywhere.
SPEAKER_02: And the people that we walk past, Jesus walks toward.
SPEAKER_02: But if we're on his mission, guess what we have to do?
SPEAKER_02: We got to walk towards them too.
SPEAKER_02: Justin's gonna come up this morning with a couple of my kids, I think, maybe some others.
SPEAKER_02: We just gotta have an object lesson when you're when you got kids in the building, right?
SPEAKER_02: So, so you know, what if I'm just let's just pretend, let's just pretend we're on that boat, right, with uh with Peter and Jesus.
SPEAKER_02: And Jesus says, Hey Peter, hey Peter, I want you to go back out and I want you to fish again.
SPEAKER_02: Wait just a minute if you don't mind.
SPEAKER_02: Wait, I want you to, I want you to go out and I want you to fish again, Peter.
SPEAKER_02: And Peter goes, All right, I got you, Jesus.
SPEAKER_02: Got my little net here.
SPEAKER_02: Let's see what I can grab.
SPEAKER_02: Nothing a little too small there.
SPEAKER_02: I'm so glad somebody's laughing.
SPEAKER_02: I guess I need to work on my object lessons.
SPEAKER_02: It is meant to be funny.
SPEAKER_02: But guys, is this not how some of us fish?
SPEAKER_02: Let's just be honest with ourselves.
SPEAKER_02: Like, you don't look like me, so you don't fit in my net.
SPEAKER_02: Thank you, Dad.
SPEAKER_02: You don't vote like me.
SPEAKER_02: I've lost it.
SPEAKER_02: I have gone from serious to totally losing it.
SPEAKER_02: Back to serious.
SPEAKER_02: That's that's how we fish, most of us, if we're honest with ourselves.
SPEAKER_02: Because those fish out in the deep waters, they're down in the darkness, they're down in the mud, they're dirty, they're kind of hard to pull up, they're heavy.
SPEAKER_02: Let's take that literally for just a minute.
SPEAKER_02: And I don't mean wait, but like the problems of their life are hard and they're heavy.
SPEAKER_02: And we would just rather go, oh, well, they take my peace, so I'm gonna walk away from that situation.
SPEAKER_02: If somebody can take your peace, you're getting your peace from the wrong place.
SPEAKER_02: I'm not saying you don't need to draw boundaries.
SPEAKER_02: I understand, I don't want, I don't need therapists coming up to me after church today.
SPEAKER_02: But guys, too often we use that as a cop-out because our net is so small because we want people to fit in our net, thinking that they have to fit a certain way before they can be used or called or loved by God.
SPEAKER_02: What would Jesus have done if Peter pulled out this little net on his boat to go fishing?
SPEAKER_02: But no, Jesus says, everyone, everywhere, cast your net wide, cast your net deep.
SPEAKER_02: Go out in those deep waters because this little thing ain't gonna catch nobody.
SPEAKER_02: But this, this net, this net will weigh down the boat.
SPEAKER_02: Two boats.
SPEAKER_02: Let's populate heaven with everyone, everywhere, everyone, everywhere, everyone, everywhere, everyone, everywhere, everyone, everywhere.
SPEAKER_02: Thank you.
SPEAKER_02: Thank you, you can be seated.
SPEAKER_02: Peter started that day cleaning empty nets.
SPEAKER_02: Think about that.
SPEAKER_02: Think about it, just think for just a minute.
SPEAKER_02: Let's think.
SPEAKER_02: Peter started the day cleaning empty nets.
SPEAKER_02: Upset that the night had gone the way it had.
SPEAKER_02: He ended the day leaving two full loads of fish, of fish and boats behind.
SPEAKER_02: Upset about empty nets.
SPEAKER_02: By the end of the day, I'm leaving two boatloads of fish behind.
SPEAKER_02: Why?
SPEAKER_02: Because his affections had changed.
SPEAKER_02: His affections had changed.
SPEAKER_02: He discovered something greater than success.
SPEAKER_02: And that's the Savior.
SPEAKER_02: You see, God's heart became Peter's heart, and God's mission became Peter's mission.
SPEAKER_02: Peter began life filling boats with dead fish, but he ended his life adding soul after soul after soul to the kingdom of heaven for eternal life.
SPEAKER_02: Wow.
SPEAKER_02: Why did he do that?
SPEAKER_02: Because success meant something different to him by the end of the day.
SPEAKER_02: See, when you're a fan, success looks very different than when you're a fisher of men.
SPEAKER_02: Let his glory change your affections today.
SPEAKER_02: Everyone, everywhere, everyone, everywhere, everyone, everywhere.