I’m
super excited to kick off a brand new series this morning called Life Lessons
from the Beach.
I started thinking about this series
way back in the cold month of January, so I’m excited that it’s finally here.
The
Bible is full of life lessons, and some of these life lessons occurred on
beaches, so, for the next several weeks, we want to look at some of these
accounts and see how they apply to our lives today.
ILLUSTRATION- I read a slogan a while back
that said Life is better at the beach. I tend to
agree.
Just look at
these pictures from some of the beaches in our area… theses ones are from Grand
Manan, and the next few are from Beulah Camp… these places are simply stunning,
and a testament to God’s handiwork.
Life is better
at the beach!
If
you have your Bibles with you, our first life lesson from the beach comes to us from the book of Luke, chapter
5:1-11.
“One
day as Jesus was preaching on the shore of the Sea of Galilee, great crowds
pressed in on him to listen to the word of God.
2 He noticed two
empty boats at the water’s edge, for the fishermen had left them and were
washing their nets.
3 Stepping into one
of the boats, Jesus asked Simon, its owner, to push it out into the water. So
he sat in the boat and taught the crowds from there.
4 When he had finished speaking, he
said to Simon, “Now go out where it is deeper, and let down your nets to catch
some fish.”
5 “Master,” Simon replied, “we worked
hard all last night and didn’t catch a thing. But if you say so, I’ll let the
nets down again.”
6 And this time
their nets were so full of fish they began to tear!
7 A shout for help
brought their partners in the other boat, and soon both boats were filled with
fish and on the verge of sinking.
8 When Simon Peter realized what had
happened, he fell to his knees before Jesus and said, “Oh, Lord, please leave
me—I’m too much of a sinner to be around you.”
9 For he was
awestruck by the number of fish they had caught, as were the others with him.
10 His partners,
James and John, the sons of Zebedee, were also amazed. Jesus replied to Simon,
“Don’t be afraid! From now on you’ll be fishing for people!”
11 And as soon as
they landed, they left everything and followed Jesus.” (Luke 5:1-11,
NLT2)
The one question
that I would like for us to consider this morning is: “What are you trying to do without Jesus?”
PRAY
Jesus
began teaching at the edge of the Sea of Galilee, but as He taught, something
incredible happened--something that every preacher dreams about—people kept
coming to hear Him teach.
So
He had to take action, and He spotted two boats on the edge of the water.
These
boats had just returned from a nights work, but Jesus called one of them into
action once again, and Jesus began teaching the people from the middle of the
fishing boat.
After
Jesus had finished His teaching, He turned to Simon Peter, the captain of this
particular boat, and told him to set out for deeper water, and, once they
arrived in the deeper water, to let the nets down.
This
must have seemed odd to Peter, a seasoned fisherman.
So odd, that he said to Jesus: “Master… we worked
hard all last night and didn’t catch a thing…” (Luke 5:5a,
NLT2)
You
see, Peter knew that the best time for them to catch fish wasn’t in the
daylight, but at night time, for this would be when the fish would come to the
surface of the water, looking for something to eat.
The fish would
remain at the top of the water as long as it was dark, but the moment the sun
began to rise, they would make their way to the depths of the water again.
So
Peter was simply reminding Jesus that they had fished that very body of water
just a few short hours ago and didn’t catch a thing.
This
brings us back to the question of the day: “What are you trying to do without Jesus?”
Peter
and Company had fished all night and they had not caught anything. Notice the
wording that Peter used: “We’ve worked hard….” (Luke
5:5a, NIV)
IOW-
“We are professionals Jesus! We do this type of thing
for a living! We know how to catch fish! We’ve tried our best all night and
we’ve come up empty. We’ve done what we know to do…”
My,
how we are like Peter!
We try to live
life apart from the One who created us, and then we tell Him that we know what
we are doing with the very lives He has given us.
We
try to raise our families without help from Almighty God; we try to invest
money in places that money should never be invested in; we try to self-medicate
instead of pleading to the Master for His healing touch.
We
try to solve our problems on our own with no help from anyone, and then we
wonder why our lives are so messed up!
What are you
trying to do without Jesus? You will have the same results that Peter
and Company had.
You will come up
empty and void every time if you are trying to do anything without Jesus
Christ.
In
another time and in another place Jesus said to His disciples: “I am the vine; you
are the branches. If a man remains in me and I in him, he will bear much fruit;
apart from me you can do nothing.” (John 15:5, NIV)
When we do life alone, we will
be alone; but when we surrender to Jesus’ will for our lives, extraordinary
things will happen!
Peter
had a decision to make when Jesus told him to set sail for deeper water and let
the nets down to catch some fish.
He
could have said to Jesus: “…we've worked hard all night
and haven't caught anything, so we’re going to turn this boat around and go
back home.”
But
that’s not what Peter said, nor is that what Peter did.
The Bible tells
us that Peter obeyed Jesus: “…if you say so, I’ll let the nets down again.” (Luke 5:5b, NLT2)
Did
you notice the shift that has taken place in this one verse? Peter moved from
we (us) to you (Jesus).
Peter took his eyes and problems and doubts and
placed them on Jesus, and He wasn’t disappointed.
The
Bible tells us that: “they caught such a large number of fish that their nets began
to break.” (Luke 5:6, NIV)
There
were so many fish flopping around, that Peter had to call for help, and when
the help arrived, their nets and their boats were overwhelmed with fish too!
As Peter focused on himself,
nothing happened; no fish were caught. But when Peter focused on Jesus, great
things happened: multitudes of fish were caught.
Again
I ask: “What
are you trying to do without Jesus?”
Undoubtedly,
this put Peter in an interesting position. He can’t help but scratch his head
and wonder what in the world is going on... after all, he was a professional
fisherman, and Jesus was…. “Lord” (Luke 5:8,
NIV)
Peter
fell to the floor of the boat, which also happened to be at the feet of Jesus,
and confessed that: “…I am a sinful man!” (Luke 5:8b, NIV)
Jesus’
reply was twofold: “Don’t be afraid…” (Luke
5:10c, NIV) and “Come,
follow me” (Mark 1:17, NIV)
Jesus wanted Peter to revere
Him, not fear Him, so Jesus calmed his fears and called Peter into a new line
of work.
The
life lesson from this passage is twofold:
#1.
Obedience is
better!
It
was a series of small things, small steps that Peter took that led to this huge
blessing.
·
He pushed the boat Jesus was in out into the
water;
·
He set sail for deeper water after the teaching
was over;
·
He let the nets down exactly where Jesus had
told him to.
Small
steps of obedience always lead to blessing, because “Obedience is better than sacrifice, and
submission (to God) is better than offering the fat of rams.” (1
Sam. 15:22b, NLT2)
The first life
lesson from the beach is obeying God is always better than disobeying God.
Just think about
the number of people who would have missed hearing Jesus speak if Peter had not
pushed Jesus out into the water so the people could hear Him preach...
obedience is always better.
The second life
lesson is very simple, but so many people miss it: We need Jesus.
Peter and
company had been fishing on their own all night and they had not caught
anything, but when Jesus arrived they were barely able to contain all the fish.
They needed
Jesus just as much as this world needs Jesus.
ILLUSTRATION- On Monday afternoon, the
girls and I were fixing lunch and getting ready to watch the Price is Right,
when it was pre-empted by the court appearance of James Holmes.
He
is, as you may know, the man that stands accused of killing 12 people and
injuring countless others in a shooting at a movie theater in Colorado.
As
we watched the proceedings, my heart became heavy for this young man, and I
began crying out to God for his very soul.
I
prayed that someone might tell him about the saving power of Jesus Christ,
because, like Peter and his fishing companions, like me, like you, he needs
Jesus.
The
Bible tells us in Jeremiah 17:9 that: “The heart is deceitful above all things and beyond cure. Who
can understand it?” (NIV)
Each
and every one of us is prone to do evil and we all need Jesus to set us free
from a life spent without Him.
Jesus
called Peter, James and John to leave everything they had, and leave everything
they knew—which was a very lucrative fishing enterprise---and follow Him
because He would make them: “…fishers of men” (Matt.
4:19b, NIV)
The call has always been—will
always be—to follow Jesus, not for what He can do for you, but for what He
wants to do in you.
So,
I come back to my original question: what are you trying to do without Jesus?
Ø
Are you trying to work on your own?
Ø
Are you trying to live on your own?
Ø
Are you trying to make sense of this messed up
world on your own?
Ø
Are you trying to heal your heart on your own?
Whatever
you might be trying to do, this life lesson from the beach reminds us that
obeying God is always better than disobeying God, and no matter what stage of
life we are in, we need Jesus to live the life that He intends for us to live:
a life following after Him.
So,
I want to give you the same opportunity that Jesus gave Peter; I want to give
you the opportunity to follow Jesus.
If
you don’t know Jesus as Lord, then I believe you are missing the boat. Unless
you confess Jesus as Lord you will continue to live without Jesus and you will
miss the blessing that He may have for your life.
Dr.
Stanley reminds us that “Jesus turned an empty boat into a full one. He can also
take our emptiness—whether it is related to finance, relationship, or
career—and change it into something splendid and thriving.” (Stanley, 2005, 90)
But
Jesus can only do these things if we bring to Him our all and fall at His feet
and confess our need for Him, on a daily, if not hourly basis.
If you are not following Jesus, this is
the time and this is the place to begin. You need to simply fall at His feet,
as Peter did, and confess your need for Him.
Maybe you have given your life to
Jesus, if so, then I would ask you to consider the question that I asked at the
beginning of the message: "What are you trying to do without Jesus?"
If you are
trying to do something-- anything-- without Jesus, you are are missing out on
having Jesus show up in your life the way He did in Luke chapter 5.
Jesus wants you
to follow Him as well. To trust Him with your next step, to trust Him to work
out the details of your current situation; Jesus wants you to trust Him.
So, what area of
your life do you need to give over to Jesus?
Will you give your entire life over to following Jesus as
Peter, James and John had done?
Should
you choose to leave your all and follow Jesus, you’ll find that life is better
at the beach.
I
started a new devotional book this week. One of the thoughts that came from my
time alone with God is this:
“The golden rule
for understanding spirituality is not intellect, but obedience.
If a man wants scientific knowledge, intellectual curiosity is his
guide; but if he wants insight into what Jesus Christ teaches, he can only get
it by obedience.” (Chambers, July 27)
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