Jesus Calling

Transcript

Me to the Gospel according to Luke, chapter five. The Gospel of Luke, chapter five. And when you have found Luke five, go ahead and stand with me for the reading of God's word this morning.

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Notice these words is found in Luke 5. And we'll start with verse 1. Once, while Jesus was standing beside the lake of Gennesaret and the crowd was pressing in on him to hear the word of God, he saw two boats there at the shore of the lake. The fishermen had gone 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.

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Then he sat down and taught the crowds from the boat. When he had finished speaking, he said to Simon, put out into deep water and let down your nets for a catch. Simon answered, master, we have worked all night long but have caught nothing yet. If you say so, I will let down the nets. When they had done this, they caught so many fish that their nets were beginning to break.

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So they signaled their partners in the other boat to come and 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, go away from me, Lord, for I am a sinful man. For he and all who were with him were amazed at the catch of fish that they had taken. And so also were James and John, sons of Zebedee, who were partners with Simon.

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Then Jesus said to Simon, do not be afraid. From now on you will be catching people. When they had brought their boats to shore, they left everything and followed him. Jesus, thank you for your holy word. And we pray today that you would speak now to us through your Holy Spirit and through these words read today.

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We pray in your name. Amen. And you can be seated.

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Well, these are two today complementary texts that really go together as sort of the calling of Isaiah and the calling of Simon Peter or Cephas, remember from our other reading. And so we have two callings here specifically. And what great ones? One. One great one, super memorable from the Old Testament.

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Isaiah's call, of course, where the Lord is high and lifted up. And then you have the calling of Peter, where God is inviting him into the deep. Isn't that interesting? High and lifted up and as deep as any ocean could ever be. And so we have the call of God that we want to just explored briefly here this morning.

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And the first thing we want to say is just God calls all people to himself. And that call looks different for every single one of us. And yet there are some things that we have in common with one another. And that is, it's almost as if God has given us, if you will, two books of revelation. You know, sometimes you say, okay, how does God call a person?

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You know, do we receive it on a, on a cell phone, like a phone company? We get a phone call, you know, you look down and oh, there's God. You know, you don't want to miss that one. You don't want to put that one, you know, send that one away. Not necessarily a phone call, but certainly he has texted us, hasn't he?

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Absolutely he has. But there's another way that God has revealed himself, and that is through nature. And we've talked about this before and you know, this natural revelation, as we would call it, or general revelation, and that is given to all people. In fact, Romans 1, Paul is going to tell us the invisible attributes of God are clearly seen where in nature. And of course, the psalmist is bursting with images of how nature sings of his praises one to another.

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And so if you could think of it this way, it's almost like God has given us one book that we all get to read or look at, if you will. And that is nature. And it's almost like to me, in my mind, it's like a pop up book. You know, like when we, when we, when our kids were younger, you'd have one of these books and it pops up, the characters, right? And it's real vivid, a lot of colors.

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They could care less about the reading portion of it. You're just inundated with the visual aid here, right? And isn't that like how creation grabs us sometimes? I mean, I can still vividly remember just standing at night on the beach, looking into the vastness of the ocean and the night sky seeming to never end and the stars, I mean, just overwhelmed with like. I remember as a college student, I was just thinking, who am I in all of this?

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Like, whoa, right? I mean, standing at the Grand Canyon, you're just in awe of the magnitude because, because it's a little indicator of just how great and high and mighty. But also notice how deep and wide is the grace of God.

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It's without a bottom, it's without a top as far as we could see. Then our eyes get clouded over. And so we have the book of nature, if you will. It's really like a picture book and everybody gets to look at that one. But as you know, pictures don't always tell us specific things.

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And so we can only go so Far in looking at nature. This pop up book of God's revelation of himself. And then he sends us a text, doesn't he? He sends us a message through prophets. Yes, and through apostles.

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And they wrote it down and guarded it and handed it down to the next generations until we are the beneficiaries today of a bound copy, or maybe perhaps a digital copy on our phone. Thanks be to God. We hold all translations right here on the phone. Insane, right? We ought to read his text messages to us.

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People say, I don't hear God speaking. Have you read his Word?

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When you read something from Abraham Lincoln, we remembered probably a speech of his. Right? Four score. And you know. Yeah, probably some of you could finish that one.

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I can't, unfortunately, anymore. We memorize these little things. When you read about Abraham Lincoln, you're never going to meet Abraham Lincoln. But if you read God's Word, there's a real chance that he shows up in your life. You know, kind of like the way he shows up here in the text.

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Did you catch it here on, you know, with Peter? They've got the boats, they fished. Just think about this. It was his profession to fish. And apparently James and John as well, brothers, remember Sons of Zebedee, Sons of Thunder, and it was their profession to fish.

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They fished all night long, labored all night long. Think of your job, okay, whatever it might be, and then think about doing it all night long. And then your computer crashes perhaps, or whatever you were working on breaks. And you're just like, okay, let's just wrap this up. We'll clean up our station.

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I'm going to bed. Spent a long night. They're cleaning the nets. You know how meticulous that was? Remember, their nets looked something like this.

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And they're actually these bound little knots right here tied together. If you break one, you can tie it again and keep, keep repairing the net, but think about all the fish scales, guts maybe, et cetera. And yet picking this out, washing it up. Okay, all right. Finally done with this stuff.

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All right. Why is he in the boat? Their boat was their livelihood. What's he doing? Would you push me out here so I can speak to the.

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Yeah, sure. Okay. Yep. Pushes him out just a little ways. Notice he invites him put out just a little way.

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I love that. I love that in the text. Just a little bit. Just push out just a little bit here, Peter. Okay, okay.

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All right. Here, let me just. Super tired here. You know Jesus. He doesn't know Jesus real well right here, by the way.

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Maybe an interaction some Certainly, but not much. He has not a follower yet of Jesus. And then, of course, Jesus finishes speaking. I'm sure Peter was over there praying for him, like some of you do during. When I'm preaching, you know, this right here, I didn't say bow your heads, but you're doing it anyway.

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You know, I have students who do the same thing. I get it. It's okay. I just act like they're praying for me, and I don't get offended by it. And so I'm sure Peter maybe was dozing off while Jesus finishes up, and he says, okay, Simon, go ahead and push out into the deep.

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And then he says, let down your nets. Just the ones I just got through cleaning, right? Goodness, you sure about that? Like, we really tried all night long. And I'm kind of the pro here at fishing, Jesus, you know, you can imagine some of the thoughts here going through.

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Peter said, right? But listen, listen, Lord, your rabbi, your rabbi, your teacher will go ahead and let the nets down. Okay, we'll do it. We'll do it. And then what happens?

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Well, they catch so much fish in those net, they start breaking. Hey, James and John, let's go. I mean, you know how that gets, right? All of a sudden, you could be tired as you can be. But if all of a sudden the gas is cooking, oh, man, let's go.

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Like it's game time. Then that just goes out the window. We about to get a catch. This is our livelihood. This is a bonus for everybody.

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You know, we're going out to eat tonight, right? And they call the other boat over there and start nearly sinking. There's so much fish now at this time, you know what Peter does? He then falls to his knees and says, lord, get away from me. I don't deserve to even be in the same boat as you.

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Reminiscent, right, Of Isaiah, who without permission, God comes into the temple. But he's so big, all you get is the very hem of his garment. Remember, robes would have been their style. So you only get the very bottom robe that fills the. This is a Solomonic temple, right?

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Fills the whole thing. And there's smoke and all these symbols of the majesty of God. And what's Isaiah's response? Hands in pocket. No, no, no, no, no, no, no.

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Woe is me, a man of unclean lips, living in the midst of a people of unclean lips.

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And then that seraph, which is like a fire angel, takes a live coal, and apparently it's so hot that this fire angel has to use tongs to even get it Imagine that that must have been alive coal. And touches his lips to purify him. Notice the guilt is gone and the sin taken away. Two steps. We must be forgiven of our sins and cleansed of all unrighteousness.

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Peter finds himself in this same way. And Jesus says to Peter, listen, don't be afraid. Don't be afraid, Peter.

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Instead, what I want to have you do is you're no longer a pro at fishing for fish, but you're going to be a pro at fishing for people. And when they got back to shore, which represents solid ground, normally where people should be, not in water, you know, we're not made for the water. Then they leave everything and follow him. And isn't that what happens with Isaiah? He hears a voice, here I am.

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Send me now. What do we have here? We have here the entire spiritual life, don't we? The whole thing right here. God's grace, our recognition of sin and our mission, our journey with Christ.

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You know, sometimes people say. They say, you know, I came to Christ. And that's an okay way to do it, because you do come to Christ. But if we want to get technical and sometimes we do, like now, we might correct ourselves and really say, christ came to me. To us.

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You see, the thing about God's grace, His life extended to us, unmerited mercy or favor to us. The thing about grace is grace is always first. That's just a good little principle to tuck away in your head. Grace is always first. Our response is just that.

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It's a response to something he did. We're not the first mover. We're not the first act. And in fact, whoever shared Christ with us, they probably weren't first either. Kinlaw talks about.

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Dr. Kinlog talks about how there's this law of second witness that when we share the gospel with someone, it's never the first time. Because guess who beat us there? God did. God works in every human heart.

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He is the light of every man coming into the world. Remember the big picture book? Exactly. He's already working in our hearts, working in our minds, working in our imagination.

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And he uses people like us, attaching his word to our word in their life. And then we say, oh, goodness, that's a word from God. Have you ever had that before? Have you ever all of a sudden found yourself at the burning bush and you didn't even know it? Remember Jacob?

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He lays down on a rock to sleep. Weird pillow, right? And he calls the place, what, Bethel? Because he says, I didn't even know God was here. But he was.

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And he opened up a stairway, a gateway to heaven. And of course, who is that gateway? Ultimately, it's Jesus who is the true temple, remember? Yes. God's grace is always first, and grace is given to every person.

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Hear me out on this. This is a super theological point for us. Grace is given to all, but. Which is why we call it common grace. And then there's preventing grace or prevenient grace that would help us to recognize, like Peter, like Isaiah, I am undone, I am unworthy, I am a sinner.

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And then there's justifying grace, you know, the kind of grace that makes us born again, born of the Spirit. And. And then there's sanctifying grace that from that point on the Holy Spirit comes into us and begins to work his holy life into ours. And then there's finally, as we say it in theology, glorifying grace. Where one day, one day, dear friends, one day this old body, okay, is going to be glorified like Christ body was in the resurrection.

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That's the whole spectrum of grace. Now notice these are not different graces. One grace, different stages in our life.

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Yes. Jesus doesn't need permission to come into church and break out among us. He doesn't need our permission to get into our boat like he does, Peter's boat. He just does it. And all of a sudden he's in our life.

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All of a sudden he breaks in. We don't ask first for him to be there. He just shows up, and thank God he does.

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And then when he shows up, when we really see him, we then see our sin. It's as if when you go to the doctor, remember, they always have that light somewhere, you know? And, you know, they had it for pregnancy. They had it for something that was in my nose one time. And they were looking and they got this light, you know, and ent guy puts this light on, looks all weird.

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Light. Why? Why they need so much light? Because, man, clarity to see what's wrong with me and, you know, get into the light, you see all the imperfections. I've already told you before, but like that psychology teacher I had back in the day, she said, now, Marsha, you need to listen up.

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Because often wasn't listening. And she said, if you ever want to take a girl on a date, here's some psychology that'll help you, okay? And I did want to do that, you know, and she said, if you go feed them, everybody feels better after a meal. So if you're working for that kiss or whatever, that's when to do it right. Not before the meal, when everybody's hungry.

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Breath is all bad, right? No, no, it's after a meal, you know. And he said. And she said this, she said, now notice, Marshall, she picked me out for whatever reason. She said, notice that when you go to a really nice restaurant, they have the lights dim.

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You ever notice that? It's not like in the kitchen. Where. Right. Or in the doctor.

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She said, now why would that be? I ain't got a clue. You know, so we can't see our food? She said, no. So they can't see all your imperfections, you know, because like I've told you before, Jessica's got this mirror.

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Maybe your spouse, or maybe you use one too. You click a button and turn it over. Oh, my goodness. You've seen stuff on your. You've never even seen.

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I saw the Grand Canyon, you know, within my facial features. I'm like, what is going on? I never want to look into. I'd never have looked at that actually again. I don't want to see myself that clearly, right?

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But listen, this is light. And when we put it up here, James says it's like a reflection. And sometimes we don't like what we see. And our response is not to close it, not to listen, not to turn away from light, but to say, great physician, will you help? Will you heal?

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Will you reshape? I am ugly and undone. Help. Oh God. Because let me tell you, that's what he comes to do, to heal, to make something beautiful.

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One of most beautiful women of the 20th century was not a supermodel, but Mother Teresa with a hundred wrinkles on her face, but love oozing out of every action. One of the most well known women in the world. An influencer before it was even sexy, but an influencer for Christ, for God's love, loving the unlovable. And you know what? If she walked in the room, there was a weight to it.

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Everybody wanted to stand up a little taller, believe in themselves a little bit more when they saw a saint. And that is what God is trying to do in every one of our lives. Everybody has on them the call to be a saint.

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There's no deluxe package in Christianity. Some of us get the cheap one and others get the deluxe version. No, no, no, no, no, no, no. There's only one calling, and it is to leave everything and follow him. And it's going to look so different, like a kaleidoscope in all of our lives.

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It's going to look so like a mosaic. He puts it together and calls us to different work, okay, all of us, but to the same holiness, the same nature that the Holy Spirit alone can bring to us.

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But we have to recognize our sin to believe, repent and believe. That's the formula for salvation. And then finally, finally, once that happens, then what does he always do? Does he just say, okay, now just stand there and be a pristine saint. Just stand there and try to be as holy as you can.

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Don't touch anything as you kind of tiptoe through this world. Ooh, ooh, that's. No, no. To be poured out. To be poured out like bleach so that it doesn't change by what it comes in contact with, but changes what it contacts.

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And, you know, I've got some clothes that have been accidentally bleached, like some of my favorite shorts. And I'm not going to go blaming because I don't do the laundry, but. And so my favorite show, you know, and they've got a mark on them. How many of us are making a mark on our work? If we were to leave tomorrow and retire, would there be a mark of grace there in that office, in that group of people in your family, is there a mark of grace that's undeniable?

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Because, you know, once you get bleached, no covering it up. It's just right here on the left. Now, grace always comes first. And then we recognize our sinfulness and turn to him and believe. And then he always, always, always calls us on mission to others.

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If you haven't heard that call, it's time to repent. It's time to repent and look to Him. Today. It's time to leave everything and follow Him.

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We have here the whole spiritual life summed up for us. Do you know that grace today? Are you living in it? Are you serving Jesus? Are you off in the ditch?

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It's time to put our hands to the plow in the way that he tells us. It's not going to look the same for all of us. Thanks be to God. He puts us together, but he calls everyone and he calls everyone to repent and to believe and then to leave everything to follow Him. Have you been caught in the net of grace?

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If so, let's push back out into the deep. Let's push back out of the. And let the nets down again. Let's not stop working. Let's get to work in his name so that he can bring in a harvest here at harvest point.

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In the name of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit. May it be so, Lord. Amen.

Total Duration 00:24:32