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Hey everyone. Welcome to another episode of Real Faith in the Real World, a ministry of Normal First Madame Methodist Church in Normal, Illinois. Let's listen to hear what Pastor Kathy King Nobles has to say today.

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Gospel Reading, Luke chapter 5, verses 1 through 11. Once while Jesus was standing beside the lake of Gennesaret, and the crowd was pressing in on him to hear the word of God. Jesus saw two boats that were at the shore of the lake. The fishermen had gotten out of them and were washing their nets. He got into one of the boats, the one belonging to Simon, and asked him to put out a little way from the shore. And then he sat down and taught the crowds from the boat. When he had finished speaking, he said to Simon, put out into the deep water, and let your nets let down your nets for a catch. Simon asked, answered, Master, we have worked all night long, but have caught nothing. Yet if you say so, I will let the nets down. When they had done this they caught so many fish that their nets were beginning to burst. And so they signaled their partners in the other boat to come and help them, and they came and filled both boats, so much so that they began to sink. But when Simon Peter saw it, he fell down at Jesus' knees, saying, Go away from me, Lord, for I am a sinful man. For he and all who were with him were astounded at the catch of fish that they had taken. And so also were James and John, sons of Zebedee, who were partners with Simon. And then Jesus said to Simon, Do not be afraid. From now on you will be catching people. And when they had brought their bows to shore, they left everything and followed him. So imagine working all night on a job that you're normally really good at and just failing miserably. Imagine the frustration and the exhaustion. That's what was happening in this story. Those trained fishermen were completely unsuccessful. Their nets were empty and they were ready to call it quits. But Jesus said to them, just try one more time. Just cast your net one more time. But this time put it out into the deep waters. At first glance, we might think, oh, oh, that's helpful. They were just doing it wrong. But remember, these were skilled and trained fishermen. They knew that they would have a better chance of catching more fish if they put their nets in deep waters. So why did Jesus tell them something that they already knew themselves? Well, likely it was because he wasn't really talking about fishing. Once again, Jesus was using fishing or whatever was familiar to the people he was interacting with as a way to talk about their lives, their souls, their values, their priorities. Now, Simon Peter could have gotten defensive and said, Well, of course I knew that. But instead, his response wasn't as a fisherman, but rather a recognition of who he was standing amongst, realizing that he was in the presence of God. Simon had heard the stories of Jesus. He had encountered Jesus recently. And so he said, Master, Master, we have worked all night long but have caught nothing. Yet if you say so, I will let down the nets. And we're told that they let down their nets in the deep waters, and there they caught so many fish that their nets began to break and the boats began to sink. But again, this really isn't a fishing story. You see, it wasn't Simon's fishing skills that were the issue. It wasn't that he was a bad fisherman. It was his life that Jesus cared about. God had more for Simon than Simon had imagined for himself. And using language that Simon would easily understand, Jesus was inviting Simon to step forward in faith to this new adventure. And Jesus wasn't there to criticize him either. Do you remember hearing Peter say or Simon saying, you know, Lord, I'm a sinner? Jesus wasn't there focusing on that. But rather, he was there to invite him, to call him to something more. Do not be afraid. From now on, you will be catching people. And when they brought their boats to shore, they left everything and followed him. I love this analogy from Scripture, this idea of casting your nets deeper. Because it's when we go deeper that we find more. Being intentional and thoughtful about what we're doing so that we can receive more. Again, Jesus wasn't there to criticize them for not being perfect, but rather was there to invite them. So we read this story on the heels of Easter, though, of course, chronologically it happened before Easter, when Jesus was there walking amongst the disciples, but the message of the story about their struggles while fishing easily connects with the days after Easter. I see these days following Easter as the so what? The so what of Easter. So what difference does Easter make? How are we different? How are we different going forward because of Easter? How does it change us and form us for the days ahead? And then what is God calling us to do? Where is God calling us to be open, to go deeper? Perhaps to do something that's hard or makes us uncomfortable. These next six weeks, we're going to be focusing on what it means to go deeper, to be formed by Christ, to be intentionally formed by Jesus. We'll be focusing on the so what. And we begin this series on the heels of a retreat that was held here at the church yesterday. There were about 25 folks that were at the retreat church members. It was titled Living into Our Vision. They spent the time listening, reflecting, talking, discussing, praying about where they hear God calling us as normal first to live into our vision, to love boldly and serve joyfully and lead courageously. It was designed as a time to be intentional about being formed in Christ. And if you think about it, we are being formed and shaped all the time. And most of it is probably just happening to us without us even being aware of it. So how great it is when we take time intentionally to be formed in faith and to do so with other people. Now, to be fair, unintentional formation can be a good thing. It doesn't necessarily mean it's a bad thing. It can be a neutral thing. A basic, very simple analogy about something that is a formation, is something as simple as an ice cube tray. You put the water in the ice cube tray. Now, some of you may not even know what an ice cube tray is. But I remember growing up with ice cube trays. Put the water in there, you have your basic square, it comes out exactly the same shape as this ice cube tray itself. Cookie cutters. Those are intentional ways that we form our beloved cookies. But probably more importantly, when we think about our lives, there's lots of good ways that we are being formed in positive ways without us being aware of it. And I think about that as people of this community of faith that we are positively influencing and forming one another, gently guiding lovingly one another. And probably a lot of times we're not even really aware of it. But on the flip side, there are many times that we are being unintentionally formed, and it's not good for us. And these days it can come in many different forms. So you know those stories that pop up on our phones or our computers? We didn't go looking for those stories, but they found us. And have you ever wondered, like, well, how did they know I was interested in home repairs? Or how did they know I was interested in taking a vacation? Now be wary of believing that that was coincidental or a sign from God that you should take that vacation. Those algorithms on our devices track our interests, and their goal is not our well-being. Their goal is their bottom line. Unintentional formation happens from the music we listen to, to the news we watch, the stories we hear. We're constantly being formed and shaped in our lives from our busy lifestyles that can make it hard sometimes to take good care of ourselves. Unintentional formation happens when we compare ourselves to others, or define our success by the standards of others. Now, in contrast, what if we looked at these post-Easter days with more intentionality, being more deliberate about the people we want to be? Now, that doesn't mean that I'm expecting all of us to do a 180-degree turn, some kind of radical transformation. But it can mean something as basic as steadily adding one thing in our lives to keep tipping the scales towards better health and better direction, or it can mean regularly subtracting something in our life that seems to be weighing us down, to once again kind of lead us in a direction of health and wholeness. Now, for a lot of people, making positive changes in our lives have never happened quickly or dramatically or overnight. It usually happens deliberately, step by step, a commitment over time. And it possibly happened so slowly that in the first weeks and months after you made some deliberate positive changes in your life, you may have questioned whether or not it was really worth it. Was anything really changing? Until one day you began to notice that there was something better in your life, or you began to feel like you were gradually moving towards greater health and healing, or that you were beginning to sense that perhaps the direction of your life or the arc of your life was bending towards something better, that your spirits felt lighter and the days felt less heavy. Perhaps it was because you intentionally added or subtracted something from your life. So what if we added one thing or let go of one thing, not just for Lent, but for these days of Easter, allowing God to slowly work in our lives to form us as disciples? So what if we added a time or moments of prayer in our lives, a moment of a silent meditation throughout the day, something where you intentionally stop and say, I'm gonna say thank you, or I'm gonna listen to the birds, or I'm just gonna recognize who's around me. What if we reminded ourselves to look at one another as God sees each of us? And I am so convinced that our spiritual well-being is so intricately connected with our mental health and our physical health. So any kind of life improvement, I think, helps us grow on our faith journey as well. And so, what about getting out and taking a walk every day? What about adding a vegetable to every meal you eat every day? Even at breakfast, my friends. What about adding a practice that benefits your mental health and your well-being? One quote about intentional living said it this way: intentional living is the art of making our own choices before others' choices make us. Intentional living is the art of making our own choices before others' choices make us. So long ago, there on that shore, Jesus was inviting Simon and the other fishermen to follow him, to live with purpose, to intentionally choose that for their lives. How are we choosing that for our lives today? Day by day, step by step, together, may we walk this post-Easter journey with intentionality and purpose. Let's pray. Oh God, thank you for calling us, proclaiming us. Thank you, God, that you walk with us on this life journey. May we support and care and uphold one another. And may we find ways to be intentional and deliberate about growing in our faith. In the name of Christ we pray. Amen.

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Thanks for joining us for this episode of Real Faith in the Real World. We hope that this message helps you grow in your understanding and sparks new insight on your journey of faith. If you found this episode helpful, don't forget to subscribe and share. And as always, if you have questions and want to dive deeper into today's topic, please feel free to reach out to us by going to normalfumc.org, click about normal first, and click contact to leave us a message. We would love to hear from you. And until next time, keep seeking, keep questioning, and keep growing.