We're gonna take a temporary break from Thessalonians and turn to the book of Luke, chapter five. So we have been preaching through the book of Thessalonians and just feel this morning to step away from that for a Sunday and look somewhere else. So we'll take a reading from the book of Luke, chapter five. This account is given in a variety of places, but I think this is the most detailed occurrence where this takes place. and I hope this morning it'll be of some help to you. Honor the Lord today. Luke chapter five, and we'll read the first 11 verses of our scripture reading today. And it came to pass that as the people pressed upon him to hear the word of God, he stood by the lake of Genesaret and saw two ships standing by the lake, But the fishermen were gone out of them and were washing their nets. Or verse three. And he entered into one of the ships, which was Simon's, and prayed him that he would thrust out a little from the land. And he sat down and he taught the people out of the ship. And when he had left speaking, he said unto Simon, launch out into the deep and let down your nets for a drought. And Simon answering said unto him, master, We have toiled all the night and have taken nothing. Nevertheless, at thy word, I will let down the net. When they had done this, they enclosed a great multitude of fishes and their nets break. And they beckoned unto their partners, which were in the other ship, that they should come and help them. And they came and filled both the ships so that they began to sink. 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 was astonished, and all that were with him, at the drought of the fishes which they had taken. And so was also James and John, the sons of Zebedee, which were partners with Simon. And Jesus said unto Simon, Fear not, from henceforth thou shalt catch men. And when they had brought their ships to land, they forsook all and followed him. That'll conclude our reading this morning. The title of our message today is Laying Down Your Empty Nets. Laying Down Your Empty Nets. Just pray for me this morning that the Lord would speak to your heart. That's certainly the desire of my heart. Thankful today as I consider this scripture reading before we look at this as a text, that Jesus does not call us to anything that he himself has not first tread that path for us. It struck me At some point, not last week, but the week prior, about Jesus' last words upon the cross, into thy hands I commit my spirit. And then the Bible says he gave up the ghost. And I was looking at that scripture for a little while, and it struck me that that was not the first time that Jesus had said that. Not literally, that I know of, there may be places you can find that he said that or close to that. But I believe that that was the first thing that he said in eternity past whenever he knew that a plan of redemption was needed. Father, I commit myself to your will. To truly do that is an unutterably difficult thing. To realize that naked we came into the world and that's how we'll leave with nothing. That as much as things feel like ours and smell like ours and as much many titles as we have to our homes and our vehicles and as much personal ownership as we project and as our world creates, ultimately everything is the Lord's. And so what he calls us to do is not, in some sense, to lay those things down as if they are ours. We are stewards of them, I won't deny that. but just to acknowledge what is. Lord, all of this and all of me is in fact yours to do with what you choose. Christ set that example that in everything, He surrendered Himself, all that He was, His will, His desires, the few coins and bread that He ever got in this life, and He laid it down to the will of the Father. It was all His. And there was not a day where he selfishly, during his ministry or prior to his ministry, held anything back. Now, from the vantage point of faithlessness, that seems like a great fear and sacrifice. But through the eyes of faith, we come to learn that that is truly the only safe place to live. The only place that is safe, the only place that is right and true is the place where we have surrendered everything to Christ and seek nothing for ourselves. The retention of anything in our hearts deprives us of more than what we know. Because in the end, like what Peter found out, our nets are empty. We may get to this here in a few moments, and maybe I'll just talk about it now in verse five when he says, We have toiled all night. I think that takes a moment of acknowledgement here. Obviously, they were devoted to their craft. Obviously, they had made a partnership with John and with James. and they were devoted to doing what they thought was right, and they had accumulated ships, and they had set theirselves on whatever business endeavors they had, and indicative of this point, they were working all night to make whatever business venture they had as successful as they possibly could. They devoted their time and their talents to accumulating those things and not even condemning that for it. They were just doing what they thought was right, and perhaps, At that time in their life, it was right. And they toiled all night. And in the end, after all of the toil, they had empty nets. Oh, what a powerful figure to all of us. What a powerful truth. Now, notice what has happened here, that just in the previous chapter, the Bible teaches us that Jesus had begun His earthly ministry, so we could really begin in Matthew 3. And we can see that Jesus is baptized and God has anointed him with the power of the Spirit in his ministry, and now he is going out under the power of the Holy Spirit, guided by him to go and do the work and the will of God. And he's led by the Holy Spirit to that place where he is tempted by Satan, and then place by place from Galilee and into Nazareth, there he's going under the direction of the Holy Spirit with his power, and he's spreading the message of the gospel, and it's just the beginning of God's work. Just the beginning of God's work through the ministry of Jesus. And so, We find multiple times in chapter four where it says, the Spirit of God was resting upon Jesus. So there was a work that had begun. Peter was not yet fully part of this work. Maybe it's because he was not looking for it, or maybe it's just because it was not the time that God had designed for him to be incorporated into the great work he would be incorporated into. And I want to make a point about that. There is a time where God sometimes will allow us in our ignorance, he will wink at our ignorance and permit us for perhaps years of our life to give our attention to various things in life, just like he does evidently to Peter here. But then, God calls us directly. I find this very comforting. There can develop in our minds and hearts this idea that, and I wanna be careful how I express this because it could be, we need to seek the Lord's will for our life. I don't wanna discount that. You need and I need to be, Proactive, saying, Lord, guide me into whatever endeavors that you would have me to go into and lead me into the path that you would have me. Allow your Spirit to speak to me. But frankly, sometimes we don't do that. And sometimes there can be this idea projected that unless you're just groveling at the feet of the Lord, begging for something, He's just gonna kind of ignore you and do His own thing and allow you to do your own thing. But I wanna bring something out about the context of this chapter, that in verse 42 in the previous chapter, we find this, it says, and when it was day, he departed and went into a desert place, and the people sought him and came unto him and stayed with him. that he should not depart from them, or state to him that he should not depart them. And then it comes down into verse one in chapter five, and it says, and it came to pass that, as the people pressed upon him to hear the word of God, he stood by that lake. So in your minds, I want you to imagine that Jesus has gone through with the power of the Spirit, and he's begun to preach the gospel and heal various people. And because of that, there are many groups of people that are thronging upon him, wanting to hear more. And so they've come, they've sat down near this lake to listen to Jesus, even in so much that it says there was a press. So Thursday night we kind of saw that here, right? There was a press to be in the room. There were people that had no choice but to go down to the fellowship hall and to pull out chairs and couldn't help to wonder if the firemen came by here whether we'd be allowed to stay here because it was just packed to the brim. And there was a press. And you would think that among the press of people, among the people eager to hear the word, that certainly if you and I had to guess, one of the apostles would have come from that group of people. But God had a different design. You see that? that amongst all the people that were pressing to hear, God had chosen a time and a place and a location where he knew there would be some people in the peripheral not particularly giving their attention to what Jesus was doing, but rather they were intent on serving their own nets. But Jesus had a plan. I'm thankful this morning that maybe today you're a nominal Christian. Maybe you've convinced yourself Wednesday night's not my thing and Sunday night's not my thing and all the things that the church does, you know, it's just a little over religious to me. Maybe trying to share with people the gospel and diving in the word of God, it's just not a particular interest to me, and it never has been. And maybe for God's reasoning of his own, maybe you've not particularly felt a conviction. Maybe God has not deliberately sought you out and drawn you to a place where deeper commitment to the cause of Christ has become apparent in your heart. Well, I wanna tell you that doesn't mean that God doesn't want you to follow him closely. Here, Peter is preoccupied with his own thing, but in the heart of God, he wants Peter. Now, what a blessing that is. I wanna pause for a moment. Aren't you thankful this morning if you're saved that God sought you out I mean really, aren't you thankful today? That it's not because you were so desirous of the Lord. I look back on my Christian life and I realize that very often my intent in going to the house of God to hear the Word of God was not a holy and sanctified intent. I was not going to hear God. I was not going to have God speak to me. I had all number of reasons why I was being in the presence of God's people or around the things that I was around or even studying the word of God. My intent has not and always is not pure. But thank God, despite my sin, God seeks me out. so thankful that God loves me despite who I am and what I do, and the hidden motivations of my heart, God loves me. And whereas there are people throughout the world that I've witnessed with my own eyes that press upon him in ignorance, that for some reason, God has sought me out. What a blessing to have the opportunity to serve the Lord, to be drawn by Him. These people are pressing all around Him. And Peter is just over there cleaning his nets from a hard-fought night, failing to make any substantive difference in his life. Here, Jesus comes along. Maybe you interpret this different, that's okay. Jesus kind of gradually gets Peter's attention. So the first thing he says is, Peter, do you mind if I use your boat for a pulpit? Now, in the chapter before this, we learn that Peter's mother-in-law was healed. And so we know that Peter had had some exposure to the Lord already. But evidently, despite him exposing himself and his power, Peter was not yet ready to follow him. His prerogative was still set upon self. And yet the Lord doesn't give up on him. And so he calls him and he says, hey, I'm gonna go to this place, to this part of the lake. And it just so happens, Peter is within earshot. And he asks Peter, he says, can I get upon your boat to preach to the people? Can you launch out a little bit? And so, no doubt, if I own this boat, I'm gonna be there, at least to facilitate the interaction between Jesus and the people. And so, I presume here that Peter is listening to Jesus speak to these people who are pressing around him to hear the word. And Jesus gets done preaching the gospel, and yet it seems as though the major purpose of this interaction has just begun after Jesus has finished. You know what would behoove us as God's people to recognize? That when we come into the house of the Lord, and there's the preaching of the gospel, and there's the testimonies of the gospel, that very often it is the things that happen after we dismiss in our hearts that ought to be prayed for most fervently. It's easy to get within a big group of people who all their eyes are upon Jesus and feel this inspiration to follow the Lord. But the real difference made in our lives is when we leave God's people, what we do with the things that we have heard and seen and felt and experienced with the Word of God in our hearts. And for those of you that wanna see the progress of God's people, it would behoove us to spend many times not just praying for those things which are to come, but to pray for the word which has already been spoken. that those truths which resonated and reverberated so deeply in both our hearts and the hearts of God's people would continue to echo over the days and nights ahead, that it might make a difference in our lives once and for all. Here, Jesus has finished what would be perceived as the big interaction. And then he tells Peter, hey, Why don't you go out there again and fish again? Now here, Peter's response is very interesting. Because it's like he's suspended between two worlds. On one hand is his own understanding, his own experience. Well master, we've gone all night and we've not caught anything. And I want you to know this morning that when God's Word often speaks to us, the first response that our hearts can have are all the doubts and fears that are even based upon the true history of our own life. That we can look back and we can see times where somebody did what we're contemplating doing, and it didn't work out so well. We can think about times that we've invested our own life and felt like we failed and that caused us to be fearful to continue to go back and obey the call of Christ. And yet, does the proverb not ring true? I mean, really, what if you've done the same thing 1,000 times? And in all of those times, God was preparing even in the failure the one time he was going to call you to make it successful. I think this right here talks more people out of following God's will than all the demons in hell ever have. Because there's this natural propensity, if I can't trust anyone else, I will trust me. So here Peter is. He's had evidence that the way and power of Christ is the best. He has that evidence already. And he sees the impact that it's having upon the world just in its elementary stages. Which listen to me, if you're a young person, you've only seen a little bit of what God can do. That's just because of your age. Peter here at this beginning place, he's seen a little bit of the power of Christ. But evidently there's enough where he says, I'll try. I'll try it. But I can't help but notice in His response all the reticence that decorates His obedience. Lord, we've toiled all night. I'm not saying this was Peter's intent, but I'm gonna apply what is often my intent when I pray a prayer like this. I've tried this and it's never worked. I'm gonna try it again at your bidding and what's assumed in that statement so that if it fails, let's just be clear, this was your idea, not my own. Nevertheless, verse five, at thy word, I will let down the net. And when they had done this, so I don't want to just skip over that very quickly. They did it. They did it. I want to say one of my favorite things, because it's not, but a humorous thing that can happen when your kid is just getting around that corner of obedience, where they're starting to obey more routinely. You know, Callan was there probably a year ago or so, where, you know, My expectations of him obeying, whether he wanted to or not, were slowly being raised. And I remember a number of times, he was less like that than the other boys were when they were that age, but I would tell him to go do something, and he didn't want to do it at all. And so he'd cry, and he'd pitch a fit, but if we said, put those toys in that basket, all the while that he's crying and pitching a fit, guess what he's doing? He's obeying. Now, that's not the way I want him to do it. But let me tell you, friend, it's progress. It's progress that his heart is beginning to realize that at the most foundational level, when you are commanded by one in authority to do something, whether you go kicking or screaming or not, you need to do it. And say, friend, very often that can be the place where Christian discipleship and obedience begins. Is Lord, everything in my flesh is screaming, don't do this. But I'm gonna try and do it. I commend. the child who, kicking and screaming, does what mom and dad tell him to do, as opposed to the child that politely declines and runs away. Whatever the outward appearance doesn't really matter. Peter, he does what the Lord says. And it's at, please hear me, it's at the place of reluctant obedience that he discovers more of who Christ is. Did you pick up on that? So the human understanding, let's begin Peter's mindset, that does not sound like a good idea because I've tried it before and it never works. God gives him the call and he says, Okay, I'm going to do it. But based upon my understanding, this just doesn't work. But I will obey. He goes out and he launches into the deep. And here's one thing I want you to pick up, if you don't pick up anything else about the text, please hear this part. The fish was not the point. Wasn't the point. You see, behind this act of obedience, and behind the results, was something about God that was revealed to Peter's heart. They began to go and lay out in the deep. They began to launch out in the deep, and they began to take all these fish in. And it's more than they could ever imagine. They begin to bring it in, and more, and more, and more, and they begin to try to bring it up on the boat. and they couldn't do it. So they called their partners and they said, please come help us. Their partners come, they begin to pull the nets in and all the fish start coming out. But it tells us in one of these verses, verse seven, that they begin to fill one boat and the boat begins to sink. So they begin to fill another boat with all the fish and that boat begins to sink. And it's then as though Peter, seeing what's going on, recognizes in the midst of what God was doing, what God was saying about Christ. And so it's though, as all of this is happening, he leaves the boats, he leaves the fish, and he goes to Jesus, and he falls down at his feet. Isn't that a beautiful picture? Isn't that a beautiful story? In the middle, you know, he could have said, man, this must mean that God wants us to keep being fishermen. That's what a lot of people will do. Use God's blessings as a justification to continue following their way of life. Could go something like this. I tithe a lot of money to the church. The church benefits from that. That must mean God wants me to keep working my life away so that I can support the work in the church. Or is that just a personal justification to continue in a path of sin? Could be one or the other, right? God's got to speak to your heart and reveal that to you. What is the intent? What if he calls you in this to lay it all down? I don't think, at the very end of this series of verses that we read to you, I don't think verse 11 is when Peter forsook his nets and decided to follow Jesus. I believe it was in verse 7 and 8. When the boats began to sink, and all of a sudden, he couldn't care less about fishing anymore, and he went to see Jesus. Two more verses I want to comment on very quickly. Verse 8. two weeks ago, really kind of grabbed me a little bit. I think there's a difference between guilt and shame. Guilt can often cause shame, but to me, shame seems to have an additional nuance to it, an additional nuance to it that guilt does not. I have often, perhaps even too much, felt guilt over my sin. Shame is another level. Guilt can come in the form of this nagging conviction. Like, I should have done better, but I didn't. And I gotta shake that off. Guilt can even go deep. Whereas the night passes, you have a hard time forgetting about the things that you did. But shame is this, I need to cover myself from being seen because what I have done and who I am is so guilty and filthy. It seems like with Peter, He feels shame. Like he's saying, Lord, I don't wanna even be involved in this interaction with you because you're too high and I, like, I know myself. Why would you ever come to my house and heal my mother-in-law? Why would you ever come to my boat and wanna speak upon it? Why would you ever then take it even a step farther and providentially reveal to my calloused, hard-hearted eyes that you want me to follow you? Why would you do that if you know who I am? Get away from me." And that's what he kind of tells the Lord, Lord, go away. I'm shameful, I'm ashamed of who I am, and that you would deign to call me to follow you. It's like this recognition that the privilege and the honor being bestowed upon you is done out of ignorance by the other person. It's how you would almost think, right? Like if you only knew me, you wouldn't do this. And so he says, depart from me, go away. I'm a sinful man. I'm not adequate, I'm not, do you know the things that I have thought? You know, that's one of the things I've realized about people, and I hope you hear this, if this is you. A lot of people really feel that the disqualification to serve the Lord with any deep intent is lost in their depth of their sin. In other words, People sometimes will come and wanna talk to me, and they'll put off this air at the beginning. Well, Brother Brad, if you just knew how sinful I was, you wouldn't be giving me this advice. And sometimes I wanna tell people, no, I'm already assuming you're a lot worse than what you're saying. I mean, really. Because even if you tried to quantify how bad you are, you've probably forgotten the deepest sins of your heart that you couldn't articulate. And yet God is still calling. Hello. Romans chapter 5, where sin abounded, grace did much more abound. Paul struggled with the same thing. And he said, the reason I was called was to be an example to all those who would believe after. That God could call a blasphemer and a murderer and one who plotted against Christians, God could call him and make him an example to all those who would come to believe that despite the gravity of your sin, God is calling you to follow him. And I believe it's the very, willingness that Peter had to so humbly in shame confess his unworthiness. That is why Jesus called him, is that he saw him as one truly humble and repentant Had Peter said, you know what, I'm not that bad of a guy. It makes sense why you would call me. I have a lot of talents and gifts and they could be employed and taken from the fishing business to the ministry business. It'd be really good. I am apt and able to do these things. Jesus probably would have chose somebody else. Or changed Peter because that, exalting ourself, we have to be a base to be useful to the Lord. Thankfully, Peter was abased. He felt shame. Finally this morning, verse 11, and I'm gonna be done today, says this. When they brought their ships to land, they forsook all and followed him. I think this morning sometimes when we talk about a verse like this, people put up this shield. Because here's what they say, they say, well, Brother Bradley, you just told me to sell everything I have, and what do I do right now? That doesn't make any sense. You're right, that doesn't make any sense. I'm not telling anybody here, go sell everything you have and, you know. I think this verse, verses 7 and 8 took place in the heart of Peter. Verse 11 was the manifestation of what was in the heart. It is necessary for a Christian, privately between them and God, to lay everything down. Everything, to lay it down. What I like to do is go through the things that are hardest for me to lay down to him in prayer. Like, start listing them. Lord, if you told me to give up my security in all these different areas. I'm not gonna listen this morning, you know what they are. I don't know that I could do that. Here, Peter was actually called to leave everything and follow him. Now, I'll bet this was particularly hard on this particular day because they had never caught anything like that. Isn't that how it works? Like isn't that just how it works? My heart, I've surrendered. But the very next moment, I'm confronted with the height of what I'm required to sacrifice. They had probably spent years, years and years and years looking for professionally this day, this moment, and it is on this moment that God reveals. I own a cattle on a thousand hills. I own all the world and I'm gonna let you taste it only so that you can forfeit it. That's a hard one, isn't it? You can see it, you can, oh, it was in your grasp and it didn't slip out. You had it and you had to offer it. It appears to me, I don't know this, but it appears to me in the Gospels, they didn't struggle at this moment to do that. They just did it. They just said, you know what? I think here's, Jesus tells them, fear not, that's probably good advice in this moment, fear not, from now on, you will catch men. You know what's beautiful about this? of all the fish they caught that day, which none of those fish are eternal. Those fish have been decayed for 2,000 years now. They have no value whatsoever. Peter went at the instruction and under the power of the Lord and caught men. And the amount that he brought in in that net Let me rephrase that. The amount that he continues to bring in, in that net, could never be contained by two piddly ships in Galilee. Because to this day, on this very morning, most likely, all around the world, the messages of Peter, the hooks of Peter, the nets of Peter still are broadcast all throughout the world. And more and more and more people continue day after day after day and year after year and millennia after millennia. The work that Peter has done by laying down those empty nets and picking up the net of the Lord, it continues to accumulate wealth in heaven. He caught men, didn't he? Praise the Lord. He caught men this morning. I guess here's how my invitation would go today. If you are a nominal Christian, lay down your nets and follow Jesus. He wants you not to be nominal, not for God to be fifth or sixth or eighth or 10th on the list. He wants to be your number one. Not only number one because there's others, He wants you to be your only. That Christ or nothing. All you have to do is lay down empty nets, nests. Nets, excuse me. That's all you have to do. This morning, it's my prayer, sincerely, that people will do that this morning, that they'll feel the conviction to do that.