your people God the best for my defense, Our gracious King, You found us with Your loving-kindness. How great is Your loving-kindness, O God of goodness! Our joy forever is in Your very grace, Oh, sweet forgiveness. Oh, how sweet it is, your loving kindness. In the spirit of Father's heaven, shelter us in your command. The bells rage every Saturday But as the darkness breaks we'll see the morning coming I'm living in love and kindness For all of goodness I'm going forever to take the path Oh Oh I I give you thanks, O Lord, with all my heart. I will sing your praises before the gods. I bow before your holy temple as I worship. I praise your name for your unfailing love and faithfulness. where your promises are backed by all the honor of your name. Psalm 138, verses 1 and 2. I am from I will give to You my living as You give to me Your Spirit Come and fill me with Your Spirit Oh Oh Oh You are my everything You're the good and gracious King of kings Oh, what grace that You would give me As a child in Your presence Oh Let the pain and worry overcome the joy I see. By Your love I am accepted. Your truth is graceful to see. Holy, holy, Lord Almighty, good and gracious, good and gracious. Holy, holy, Lord Almighty, good and gracious. Oh Through the days of blindness And the end of times of joy Through the journey of joy Overcome the joy I see By Your love I am extended You're good and gracious You're a good and gracious seed. He's my brother, God is He, my brother in the end of time. O say does that star-spangled banner yet wave O'er the land of the free and the home of the brave Can you see, Lord of all? Can we come before Him for the King of Kings? Come, adore our God who reigns forevermore! Who died and rose again? Who died and rose again? Can you see, Lord of all, that every time before you fall, a king, a king, a son, of eternity. He shall live eternally, for He has died for me. His praise and glory shall I share throughout eternity. May we sing. Let's pray. Heavenly Father, I thank you for allowing us to gather together today and praise you and worship you, and glorify you for the sacrifice that you made on the cross. And I pray that you'd bless this offering, that it would be used for your will, and that everyone would be able to give with a giving heart. And I pray these things in Jesus' name. Amen. so so Stay together, saying, Christ is sure to stay with you. Christ the sure and steady anchor, in the fury of the storm, when the winds of hell blow through me and my sails they're all entombed in my song. When my seeking hopes are new, I will hold fast to the anchor, it shall never be new! deeper still I will. Christ the assurance, steady anchor through the floods of unbelief. Hopeless somehow, O my soul now, lift your eyes to Calvary. It's my balance of assurance, See His love for evermore I will hold fast to the anchor It shall never be moved To children, to the angels, as we face the wave of death. When this child is raised in glory, as we laugh on our final breath. We will cross that great horizon, Bound behind as lights ignore, And the calm will be the better, For the storms that bring you near. Christ the sure of our salvation, ever faithful, ever true. He will hold fast to the anchor which shall never give in. O'er the fields we have seen, O'er the hills we have known, I'll pray before I am lost in love relentless. May Christ be all when I am old. May Christ be all when I need not be. His glory shines in the solitude. In Christ we all, and I mean nothing. This is my hope, not I, but Christ in me. This is my hope, not I, but Christ in me. I am poor and I have nothing All my needs cannot avail But Christ endured the Father's crushing He bowed His head as mercy begged He should prevail He bowed His head as mercy pledges to prevail May Christ be all and I be nothing His glory shines and wrestles me May Christ be all and I be nothing This is my hope, now I have a Christ in me. This is my hope, now I have a Christ in me. Ring me, Lord, my heart, Lord, still. Let your grace, my pride, release. May these virtues outpower you. Let me join the company. Take me, Lord. Oh say does that star spangled banner yet wave For it shines in us only Face the righteous with awe Then I'll be happy This is my home, how high the price it is! This is my home, how high the price it is! Golden shores of pure salvation I will run to see my King Free from shame and all accusation He'll give Himself, nothing I'll need He'll give Himself, nothing I'll need Scripture reading this morning is from the Gospel of Luke. Gospel of Luke chapter 5, verses 1 through 11. Let's just pause and quiet our hearts and minds as we come again to his word. Father, we do just thank you for that last song, a song of longing. We're just so often not there. We're, as born-again believers, we want Christ to be all, but get distracted. Father, help us to move closer and closer to that place where You are all. And use Your Word in our lives to bring us there. We see the disciples' response to Jesus' miracle, and then ultimately their response to His words. later on from this text but quiet our hearts father and just focus our minds on your word but on you on jesus and just the wonder of his ministry on earth and the ministry that continues through the work of your spirit i pray these things in his name group 5 1 to 11 familiar story don't let the familiarity just make the text boring. It's pretty amazing what goes on in the life of Christ and his disciples. On one occasion, while the crowd was pressing in on him to hear the word of God, he was standing by the lake of Gennesaret, 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 and taught the people from the boat. And when he had finished speaking, he said to Simon, put out into the deep and let down your nets for a catch. And Simon answered, Master, we toiled all night and took nothing, but at your word, I will let down the nets. And when they had done this, they enclosed a large number of fish, and their nets were breaking. They signaled to 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, depart from me, for I am a sinful man, O Lord. For he and all who were with him were astonished 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 Jesus said to Simon, Don't be afraid. From now on, you will be catching men." And when they had brought their boats to land, they left everything and followed him. In our Scripture memory verse today, it says, 1 Peter 5, verse 5b, the second part of the verse, and all the way through 6, it says, God opposes the proud, but shows favor to the humble. Humble yourself, therefore, in God's mighty hand, that He may lift you up in due time. As we were singing that last song, the chorus said, bring me low, my heart lower still, that by your what? By your grace what? My pride relieved. Bring me low, my heart lower still, that your grace my pride relieved. So as I listen to that song, as I think of the words of that song, and as I think of this passage that Peter reminds us of in 1 Peter chapter 5, that God opposes the proud but shows favor to the humble, humble yourselves therefore in our God's mighty hand that he may lift you up in due time. And so one of the marks, one of the greatest marks that we can see as the evidence of whether or not you're a genuine Christian or not is humility. We need to be humble people. And as I think about this, as I think about Peter and this text that was just read, as I think about, how did Peter get to this point? If you were to read through 1 Peter, you would see in chapter two, chapter four, chapter, actually through the whole thing. But what you see is Peter recalling the necessity of humility in our lives. And the question is, how did a guy like Peter get to being a man who is calling us to humility? Well, I think the answer to that is the fact that he was called himself to humility. He was called to be humble. And we see an evidence of that in this particular text, Luke chapter 5, verse 1. through 11. So as we look into these texts, why don't we ask the Lord to reveal something to us from his word today that we might bring honor and glory to his name and that we might just praise him and thank him for his love, his goodness, and his grace to us. And that he might humble us, bring our hearts low, our hearts lower still, that by his grace our pride would be relieved. Let's pray. Father in heaven, We are so thankful for your love to us, Lord. We're thankful that you have called us unto yourself and given us your grace and your goodness and your love to us, Lord, that we can see you for who you are and rejoice in you and praise you and thank you for all that you've done, Lord. We know that you're a God of goodness, you're a God of grace, you're a God who calls us unto yourself to rejoice in you. And we can only do that because of your call. the fact that you've called us unto yourself. It's not something that we make a decision of, you just call us. And Lord, as we see this as a pattern, this life in the pattern of life of Peter and the rest of the apostles, that your call is vital for our life to live for you. May Christ be all, we can say that because we see the reality of who we are. And so Lord, we thank you for that and we pray that you would Just open our hearts. May the Spirit of God guide us and direct us into the Lord of truth. We thank you for it. In Jesus' precious name. Amen. Turn with me to Luke chapter 5. We could begin this chapter by saying, it just so happened. You know, on one occasion, so Luke is recalling the life of Jesus as we're listening to him recount for us the events of Jesus' ministry. And he's trying to get us to focus on the reality of who Jesus is and, and all the way from his birth, all the way up to the beginning of his ministry. And now he's going out. And one of the things we see in this, that Jesus desired to have help. It's not that he needed help. He didn't, you know, as God, God doesn't need help. He doesn't need our help, but he desires our help. And so when he calls us unto his work and his purpose, he calls us to do that, and he wants us to understand that there's something that is necessary for us. Now, initially, we don't come to God in this fashion. He wants us to come in humility, but the thing is, we're not humble people. Matter of fact, I don't believe that unless you're a genuine Christian, You're not humble. You can't be humble. It's impossible. I say, wait a minute, that person, they're a really nice person. You know, they're very responsible. They're respectable. They're philanthropic. They are very generous. They care about people. They minister to people's health and, you know, look at all the good things that they do. But we can't measure humility based on what we as a person can do. We have to base our humility on the fact that with regard to what our relationship is with Christ. You're either humble in Christ or you're really all about yourself. That's the nature of what it means to become a Christian. Becoming a Christian means that we see something about ourselves and we realize that there's something lacking in us, especially when we come into the very presence of God, and there's a response, and we see that, and so there's this willingness to accept it, who we are, to obey Him, His call, He calls, we obey, then we realize who He is, we worship Him, and then finally, we go and do what He says. We do what He says, we obey Him, We worship Him, and then we follow Him. And that's the essence of this particular passage in Luke chapter 5. What I believe Luke wants us to see is what it means to be a Christian. What does it mean to be called by God into His service? Are we following Him the way He wants? Are we doing it fully? Are we doing it willingly? Are we doing it immediately? So as we look at the text, I want to look at a few things here that will draw your attention to this. On one occasion, it just so happened, in God's providence, while a crowd was pressing on him to hear the word of God, and so I have to ask myself, he's at the shoreline, we see that, we know he's at the shoreline, it says he was standing by the lake of Gennesaret. People were gathering around him. They wanted to hear the Word of God. And the question is, what is he preaching? What is it that they're hearing from him? What is it that makes the difference in Jesus in comparison to the rabbis who are doing the teaching? What is the difference? Well, if we were to go to Matthew chapter 4, we would discover that Jesus was preaching the repentance in order for us to see the kingdom of heaven. That's what Jesus' basic message was. And he laid out what does it mean to be a resident of the kingdom of heaven. Here you have the king proclaiming, here's what you do. And they're listening and they're being drawn to him and they're being pressed up against him, you know, and he's like, you know, I need to get this word out and, you know, this is not working. I need to change my tactic here. And so what does he do? He gets into the boat. On one occasion, while the crowd was pressing on him to hear the word of God, he was standing by the lake of Gennesaret. Gennesaret is just another name for the Sea of Galilee. I think it's its name because of the region that he's in, in this particular area, around the whole of the lake. Again, it's a freshwater lake. necessary for their life there, for fishing. They were standing by the lake of Gennesaret, probably in a city called Gennesore. If you were up in Mount Arbel and you were looking down at the lake, you would see this village right along the shoreline. Actually, there's a couple villages. One of the villages, Gennesore. The other village is Magdala. And that's most likely the city where Mary Magdalene came from. But he's looking down and he's at the shoreline of Gennesore. by the lake of the Sea of Galilee or the Lake of Galilee. And he saw two boats by the lake. but the fishermen were gone out of them and washing their nets. And so we get the gist of the story. Luke is going to tell us much more than what Matthew does regarding this account. Matthew just says that Jesus came along. He said, come follow me, be fishers of men. And they got up and followed. That's all that Matthew tells us. But Luke delves in deeper into this topic. What happened? How did it come about? What is it that he wants us to see? And actually what he wants us to see is the call of Peter. Peter. You think about Peter. If we look at his life, if we look at his life through the Gospels, we can see that he was a man who was very confident. He could do things. He was the leader of the people. And so I believe that Peter is the one who is called first because he probably was kind of filled with pride. A lot like we are. And the thing is, Jesus calls him first. He calls a proudful man to himself. But what happens when Jesus calls? Something changes. When God calls us unto himself, there's a transformation that happens within us. We're no longer proud. We're no longer all about ourselves. All of a sudden, Christ is the center of our life, and we're looking at Christ, and we want to love Him, and we want to serve Him. There's a change that happens. At least that's what we should see. We see a transformation of our life where no longer is it all about me. It's about God in Christ Jesus. So on the occasion they were pressing on Him, He gets into the boat. He saw two boats by the lake. The fishermen went out, they had gone out and they were washing their nets, getting into one of the boats, which was Simon's. Think about that. Can you just imagine that? He gets into one of these boats. And actually, just a little side note, if you were to go to Guinness or there's a museum there that houses a first century boat that was recovered when the water was low. Okay, you got it up there. That is the actual boat that was pulled out. It was very careful. It was back in, I think, 1976, I think, is when they discovered it. There was a drought. The water level had gone down. Two local residents who were amateur archaeologists saw this thing sticking out. They started digging while the water had receded and lo and behold they discover there's a boat there. They call in the authorities, the Israel Antiquities Authority. They come in, they go in, they put a some sandbags around to protect the water from coming into it, and in 48 hours they get this thing out of the water, they have it encased in foam, they float it to shore, bring it into this facility where they soaked it in some sort of a wax solution for I think 12 years it was, to preserve it, and here you have it. This is evidence of it, and it goes back to the time of Jesus. This was a boat that's about 27 feet long. This room is 30 feet. So three feet shy of this room. That's about how long it is. It's about seven and a half feet wide. It's a shallow draft so that they could pull it up on the shore. You can see the kind of the flat bottom so that they could get it up onto the shoreline so they could get in and out of it. There's the evidence of it. Now this, we don't, you know, some people call this the Jesus boat and we don't know whether this was Peter's boat. We don't know, but it's one that was like this, very similar to this. So he gets into one of the boats, and it just so happens that it's Simon's. Just so happens that it's Simon's. Put yourself in Simon's shoes. The master got into my boat. He says, push me out a little bit, I want to speak to the crowd. So he pushes him out, and maybe Peter's just a little proud of himself. Hey, he's kind of recognizing me here. He's the master, he's the teacher, he's the rabbi. So he gets in the boat, which was Simon's, and he asked him to put out a little from the land. And he sat down and taught the people from the boat. And so Jesus, because of his booming voice who could speak out in a certain area, he could resonate to the people, not only with his voice, the depth of his voice, but also the understanding of the scriptures. And he's laying out to them and they're hearing things like, this is different. This is different than what I've heard before. And they're amazed at this. He sat down, which was the common way of teaching back then. If we go back a little bit further, when Jesus was in the synagogue in Nazareth, when he took the scroll, he sat down and read. And so it was the typical position of the teacher to be in a seated position. And I gotta believe the people were there standing on the shore. trying to hear everything he had to say, and draw it in and bring it in. And when he had finished speaking, and it doesn't tell us exactly what he said, we do know what Jesus' messages consisted of, and it was probably a compilation of a lot of the things we've heard and we read in the Gospels. And he sat down, talked to people, and when he had finished speaking, he said to Peter, put out into the deep and let down your nets for a catch. We could read into that and come out with a lot of different, there's been a lot of different messages that have come out and extrapolated on that and built on that and actually imported some understanding of the, what does it mean that he did? It means that, it simply means that, put your butt out to the deeper water and let your, that's now for a catch. Well, who's the master fisherman here? Who's the commercial fisherman here? Peter is. What's Jesus? He's a teacher. Grew up as a carpenter or a mason or he was in the trades. Probably didn't spend much time on the water. Didn't know much about fishing. And Peter's like, okay. And Simon answered, master? That's interesting, he calls him master. We toiled all night and took nothing. I mean, we don't know, we're trying to, I mean, I could import an attitude in there, but the point is, Peter's looking at the situation, he's evaluating it, saying, we've already done this. We went all night. We know that it's better to fish at nighttime. Because that's when the fish from the deep come in so that we can get them and cast on our nets. There's a couple different kinds of nets. There's a certain kind of net that's round that you can take from the shore and you can cast it out and it settles down on the fish and you draw it in from that. Or you can have more of a kind of a seine, you might say, where they would attach it to the back of the boat, and they would let it out, and they would have sinkers on one side and something, a float on the other, on the top side, and they would bring it around to the front of the boat, from the back of the boat to the front of the boat, and they would draw it in, and then whatever they would catch, they would bring it into the boat. Something unusual happened to this one. This was not like any other catch that David River had. Put it to the deep and let down your nets for a catch. And Simon answered, Master, we toiled all night and we took nothing. But at your word, I will let down the nets. We see the marks of humility starting to come out with Peter. Peter, he's the fisherman. He's the commercial guy. He knows all about fishing. But you know what? I'm going to acquiesce. This is what the master wants. And I'm going to do it. I don't know exactly what's gonna happen here, but I'm gonna do this. In his mind, what do I think he's thinking? He's thinking, we're not gonna catch that thing. This is not the time of day to fish. He's thinking about it in a natural kind of way, but what Jesus is demonstrating is that he's not natural. He's supernatural. And as we read the story, we will see but at your word, let down the nets. And when they had done this, they enclosed a large number of fish and their nets were breaking. A large number of fish. It doesn't tell us exactly, actually, in John it tells us that he caught X amount of fish when he told him that one other time at the end of his life, before his ascension, he meets him at the northern shore of Sea of Galilee, they're out fishing. Again, another experience. throws out the net and I gotta believe at that time Jesus, I mean Peter's thinking. This is the Lord. You remember what Peter did? He jumped into the water and swam to shore while the rest of them pulled it in. Here Peter says, okay, let's pull it in. So they're pulling this in. And as they're pulling it in, they're starting to tip. This has got a sail, it's got a mast, and it's got position for four rowers. And they're trying to maintain ballast and try to keep it up. And it's pulling over the nets. There's so many fish. They call in their partners. They bring them, say, hey, we need your help. And they respond and they come out there. They signaled to their partners in the other boat and come to help. And then they came and filled up both the boats. Then they began to sink. I can't imagine that. It's just hard to believe. I mean, if you ever watch any of these shows about fishing out in Alaska, you know, these nets, they bring them in, and there's no threat. The only threat is the weather that they're out in. But this here, you've got fish that are ready to tip over two boats. They're next to each other pulling it in, and they're probably pulling them in, and the masts are on an angle like that. The water's lapping at the edge, and they're bailing water out. Maybe Jesus was even helping, I don't know. We don't know. But all of a sudden Peter realizes, wait a minute, this is not normal. And he looks at Jesus and says, depart from me. Depart from me, I am a sinner. So what we see in Peter is, first he's ready to acquiesce to the master and say, yes, I'll obey and do what you want, even though I can't see with my own eyes what's gonna happen here, but I'll do it. And then all of a sudden the fish come and they're ready to tip. Peter realizes, oh my, who do we have in our presence? And obviously he thinks he must be the Messiah. He's special. There's something about him. He doesn't know everything about him. This is the beginning of his ministry. This is his call to service. And he responds and says, yes, I will do what you say. And then he sees what Jesus is capable of doing, and he throws himself to his knees. And Jesus said, oh, Peter, get up, get up. No. He didn't say get up. He didn't say, get up. He says, don't fear. Don't fear. They came and filled up both the boats, and they saw it so that they began to sink. But when Simon Peter saw it, he fell down at Jesus' knees, saying, depart from me. I am a sinful man, O Lord. For he and all who are with him were astonished at the catch. that they had taken. We can be astonished by what Jesus is able to do. We can look back at his miracles that are recorded in the scriptures. We can look back at the healings that he did. We can look back at the raising of the dead. We can look back at all of the things that Jesus demonstrated exactly who he was with authority and power. Peter and his apostles can look back at the time that they went out, spread in the gospel when they were sent out, and they were able to heal and all that. We can look at all the things that Jesus is capable of doing. But what Jesus, what Peter, I think, affected Peter was not the catch, but the one who made it so that they could catch. They were making much, he was making much of Jesus. He recognized Jesus for who he is. But when Simon Peter saw it, he fell down at his knees, saying, Depart from me, for I am a sinful man. That's an echo. Let that echo. Depart from me, I am a sinful man. He recognized that he's filled with pride, and that he needed humility, and it's humility that responds to the call of Christ. and the demonstration of who he is, not necessarily what he does, but who he is. Bring me low, my heart lower still, that your grace, my pride relieve. We just sang that song that we want our pride to be relieved, to release, to be freed from us. Well, the beginning of humility starts with the call of God in your life. When God calls you, well, there's a beginning. That's the beginning of our humility, a life of humility to God. For he and all who were with him astonished at the catch they had taken. And also James and John, sons of Zebedee, who were partners with Simon. And Jesus said to Simon, do not be afraid. From now on, you will be catching men. From now on, you will be catching men. This catching men doesn't mean he's going fishing, okay? I love to fish. Some people say, hey, would you want to go golfing? No, I'll go fishing. I mean, I'm not a golfer. I just, if I have free time and I can have the availability to do it, we go fishing. Last week, Marianne and I had a chance to go up north. We spent some time up there, and guess what I did? I went fishing. I'm not a professional fisherman, but I love to fish. I enjoy it. It's something that I enjoy doing. Matter of fact, when we went out, I came back in, I said, I can still feed you to Marianne. I had caught a few, but nothing like this. Nothing like this, commercial fishermen, boats tipping over, water lapping up the sides, Fear, wrestling over the people of their boats being capsized. Excitement because of the catch. Bowing on the knees because of who Jesus is. Knowing who Jesus is. Well, what takes that? That's humility. Humbling ourselves before a holy, righteous and holy God. We are to be humble, humble people. No person who hasn't experienced Jesus saving work on the cross in their life can truly, genuinely, in reality, be a humble person. The call of God begins in our life, and it begins a life of humility. We can be respectable. We can be a good person. We can be well-liked. We can be thought of highly. We can be philanthropic. We can be responsible. We can be a model citizen. We can be moral. We can be thoughtful. We can be careful. We can be all of these things, but not humble. When we're in the presence of God, when we come into the very presence of God in Jesus Christ, that's when humility begins. Humility begins when God calls us to himself and we can see him for who he is. Humility starts and finishes with what we think and act because of the Lord's initiating work in our life. He takes the initiative to make us humble. As we sang, bring me low. Who are we talking to? The Lord. Bring me low. Make me humble. Colossians chapter 3 verse 12 says, therefore, as God's chosen people call people, holy and dearly beloved, clothe yourself with compassion, kindness, and humility, gentleness, and patience. Ephesians chapter 4 verse 2 says, be completely humble. We're not to be somewhat humble. We are to call to be completely humble and gentle, patient, bearing with one another in love. It has to do with our relationships. Our humility is demonstrated in our relationships. The outworking of the humility that God is doing in us and changing us and transforming us is demonstrated in how we treat one another and how we live for one another in humility. James chapter 4 verse 6 says, but he gives more grace. That's why the scripture says God opposes the proud but shows favor to the humble. Humble yourselves therefore before the Lord and he will lift you up. Sound familiar? James is quoting the same passage as Peter. 2 Chronicles chapter 7 verse 14 says, if my people who are called by my name will humble themselves and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, their repent, then I will hear from heaven and I will forgive their sins and will heal their land. Luke chapter 14 verse 11 says, for all who exalt themselves will be humbled. and those who humble themselves will be exalted. Proverbs 3, 34 says, he mocks proud mockers, but shows favor to the humble and the oppressed. Proverbs 11, verse two. When pride comes, then comes disgrace, but with humility comes wisdom. These are all proverbial statements that point us to the fact that we are to be humble people and not proud. And I tell you what, we live in a world today where we designate in this country a whole month for pride. The exaltation of pride. It's the exact opposite of what those scriptures tell us. When pride comes, then comes disgrace. With humility comes wisdom. 1618 says pride comes before destruction. Peter's told to go out, come be followers, follow me, be fishers of men. Be fishers of men and women who are filled with pride. And share the good news of the gospel with them. And tell them about me. And then maybe the Holy Spirit will do His work in their life. Proverbs 18, 12, before a downfall, the heart is haughty, but humility comes before honor. Humility is the fear of the Lord. Its wages are riches in honor and life. Humility is the fear of the Lord. It's exactly what Peter did. When he realized who Jesus was in humility, he fell and worshiped the Lord. He feared the Lord in awe and reverence. and saw Him for who He really was. And how did that happen? It was God working in his heart, transforming him and changing him. Proverbs 27, 2 says, let someone else praise you, not your own mouth. Are you humble? Don't answer that. Don't answer that. Prove it. Let people see it in your life. Peter and his cohorts and his fellow employees and co-workers, they left their livelihoods. Begrudgingly? No. They were willing to go. And now they had a special call. God had a special call for those 12. But all Christians are called to God to live a life of humility and love and shed and reject pride. Pride is what makes us fall. Be humble. Be humble. Follow the pattern. Yes, be a good person. Be honorable. Do good things. But in doing those, have humility in your life. Amazement. And people will be amazed. The cost of humility. We have the call of humility, the cost of humility. What's the price? The cost of humility will be your life. It'll cost you your life. Jesus says, follow me. Be like Jesus, the most humble man that ever existed. Philippians chapter 2, verses 5 through 8 says, in your relationship with one another, as you relate to one another, have the same mindset as Jesus Christ, who being of the very nature God, the reality of his existence, of who he really is, the second person of the triune God, did not consider equality with God something to be used for his own advantage. Rather, he made himself nothing. By taking the very nature of a servant, being made in human likeness, and being found in appearance as a man, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to death. Humility will cost you your life. I'm not saying it's going to cost you your physical life, but it means that everything about you, may Christ be all and I be nothing. That's what happens when you really see Christ really is, and it's a response of humility. Humility means accepting others who are not like you, who are more like you than you might be ready to admit. Humility means you have the ability to accept others in which you may not particularly like. It's not easy. There's a cost. Humility means loving your neighbor as yourself, even if your neighbor is not loving. Humility means submitting willingly to God's call in your life. If God is calling you, then be humble. Demonstrate humility. and you will demonstrate to others who will look at your life and say, that person genuinely loves Christ. Do you love Christ? Humble yourself. Pride comes before destruction. Let's pray. Father in heaven, we are thankful that you have come to us very much like Peter, not in a boat, But in our own circumstances, in our own context, and Lord, we know that as you called Peter and all the rest of the disciples, you called us. We don't come to you. As a matter of fact, we sang a song today that talks about how you accept us. It's not a matter of our accepting You. You accept us. You bring us to Yourself. Lord, You bring sinners to Yourself, filled with pride, filled with ourselves, filled with a life that is focused only on what we have in the here and now. And so Lord, I pray that as You call us unto Yourself, And this is a call, a once and done call, but it's also a call that is continuous, Lord, all the way to the ends of our life on this earth. As you call us into yourself, as we follow you, may we see you and model your life before us, and may we see the cost of humility and live a life that's pleasing to you, Lord, as we worship you for who you are. Not only because of what you've done, but because of who you are. Where we see that Peter, he cast his net willingly. He bowed to you and worshipped you, and he left all and followed you. He was willing. He had a desire to follow you. His heart was changed. and He was full of commitment to you. Lord, we know that You don't accept half-hearted Christians. And really, in reality, there are no half-hearted Christians. We can't be divided. We must be focused fully on You. May we serve You, O Lord, as we recognize that we're sinners, and then may I trust You by faith, whether we can see the end results or not. We thank you for that, Lord. We thank you that you have brought us together as a church, together, to work as a team. Lord, we know that the disciples left together to follow you, Lord, as a teamwork and teamwork, Lord, and so we too, as a church, work together and strive together. Even as we heard today from Philippians chapter one, verse 27, that we are to strive together for the sake of the gospel, Lord. I pray, Lord, that we would be ever mindful of this, and then in our own personal lives, we might see what's inconsistent and repent and come to you because you're worthy of our praise. And we thank you for it in Jesus' precious name. Amen. Stand with me as we close our service with, gladly what I leave behind me. Gladly what I leave behind me. Gently, Lord, I leave behind you all the pleasures I have longed for. You, surpassing treasures, have the throne of God assigned. of the joy of Christ the King. ♪ Gladly would I give you Jesus ♪ ♪ On a bench or in every room ♪ ♪ For the watching of His mercy ♪ ♪ Makes my ransomed heart to sing ♪ ♪ Holy, holy ♪ Where else can I go? Jesus, You're the one I was made to know. What else can I do? Jesus, You're my all. I gladly run to You. Gladly would I play temptation. More than troubles, through the Father's love. Let me seek my God and take away all His goodness. Thieves break in and robs, destroys. What is that awesome splendor? What else can I do? Jesus, You're the one I was meant to know What else can I do? Jesus, You're my all I gladly come to You Gladly would I give to Jesus All affection and everything For the washing of His mercy Makes my mind so dark to see Father, we do again just praise you for the message of your word this morning. It's a remarkable scene, just earthy in some sense. I mean, you're out on the boat and the fish, and yet there's Jesus, King of the universe, sovereign Lord. And we thank you for His call with Peter and the response of Peter. And when they brought the boats to shore, they left everything. And they followed, and gladly would I leave behind me all the temptations, all the attractions of this life. Father, help us to ponder Your Word and just think about what we just sung, too, and know that by Your grace and Your mercy, the mercy of Jesus, our ransomed hearts I'm made to sing. We praise you for that. Father, help us to go from here with a song in our heart because of the work of Christ in our lives. We pray these things in his name. Amen. I love you. Still experimenting with it. I know you told me how you'd make this little tractor in the way. Yeah, I'm still I know I'll put layers on it, I'll put layers of water on it, but a lot of it, and even in my little compost bin, it's just the other things. You should be able to put your hand in it, and feel moist, and you get any water out of it. I'm trying to get going. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. I have some money. Um, so anyway, you put one can. Okay. Four. Five. Busy working yesterday? Yeah, there was. th th Yeah. Yeah. He must love me. I love you. I love you. So just yesterday... And I know you didn't apply, I hear something good. Different people. Nice. You get energy from this, somebody gets energy from that. We work here, we work in Florida. I'm going to take a shower. So anyway, we'll do that kind of school. You know. That's why we're doing it today. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. So, we'll see. We've got these little levers you have to get while you're driving. But it's got almost 300,000 miles on it. I'm not being mean or whatsoever, it's just... But... light casing, and it got through it until you could never move it. If you think about that, a little stiffness. There's just some real sketchy photos. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. But he had it even over there. It's just beautiful. So, yeah, I'm a little connoisseur. I'm not sure. I came outside my room. So, you're still on that little list? I'm still on that little list. I'm still on that little list. I'm still on that little list. I'm still on that little list. I'm still on that little list. I'm still on that little list. I'm still on that little list. I'm still on that little list. I'm still on that little list. I'm still on that little list. I'm still on that little list. I'm still on that little list. I'm still on that little list. I'm still on that little list. I'm still on that little list. I'm still on that little list. I'm still on that little list. I'm still on that little list. I'm still on that little list. I'm still on that little list. I'm still on that little list. I'm still on that little list. I'm still on that little list. I'm still on that little There's times I'll probably respond to that too. I'm surprised you left. I'm surprised you left. I'm surprised you left. I'm surprised you left. I thought, well, this is the 50s, 40s, 30s. They just dig a hole and throw it in. I mean, they probably didn't know a lot of this stuff went right away. I mean, it did not. Back then, you were all like, fuck it, we're going to do this. We don't have much of a house on the road. Well, they used to. They had these old tricycles, these big chain tricycles. And it was like for watering or whatever. But they had a big spray bar at the back. They go down the dirt road. I need to turn that thing on. Salt the road, buddy. That's the way it works. We had to change our oil. We bought in a ditch in front of the house. We put up a sign. Come through the ditch, let the soap in. That was just the way it worked. Yeah, well, yeah. Yeah. Anyway. Good timing with you. Okay. Yeah. Yeah. Okay. Okay. Oh. th th Okay. Yeah. Yeah. Okay. All right. Okay. Thank you. Okay. Hello, Bishop. Hello, Bishop. Did you already write this? No, I will write something. Okay, that's good. th th