Fearless Week 4

Well, a few years ago, I had the unique opportunity to go to Africa.

Got to go to Africa on a mission trip a few years ago.

It was an amazing couple weeks that I got to spend in Africa.

And we worked with some schools and some children's homes and some local churches, and we had a great time being there.

It's totally new and different experience for me.

But the leaders of the trip they had for us planned a little bit of fun midweek through the two weeks, and it was for us to go and to go in a little safari.

There's a game farm that was there close, and so we all went to this preservation site for wildlife.

And so we all pile into this van and we're driving through this game farm area and we're seeing different African animals, gazelles, and this, and we're just having a great time.

I'm just being complete tourists, taking pictures out the window, having a blast.

And as we're driving down this road, the guide who was the driver, uh, kind of slammed the brakes because there was a baby elephant right in the middle of the road that was crossing the road right in front of us.

And we were just like, oh, you know, just like picture perfect.

But not really realizing the implications of seeing a baby elephant, that that baby elephant also has a mother.

And so uh, right after the baby went across the road and back into the thicket there, the mother elephant stepped out onto the road.

Now, the guide who was driving said, Everybody stay calm.

That is not what you want to hear from the guide on the safari wilderness experience, okay?

I don't want him telling me to stay calm.

And what we didn't realize is that we had cut off this mother from her child with our our van was right there in the middle of the road.

And so the guide of the safari, he threw the van into reverse and he turned around and slammed on the gas.

And when he did, that elephant that was it was moving its ears, a huge African elephant started running towards us.

Now, I did not think that my death was gonna be Kentucky man trampled by elephant, okay?

I didn't think that that was what it was gonna be, but it was in that car, in that moment, I was thinking, what is about to happen?

I was we were all terrified.

And the car pulled back and the van pulled back, and the this elephant was running towards us, and finally reached a point where the elephant could then go off the road and could be reunited with its baby, and we all collectively just sighed uh the big relief, a big sigh of relief together.

Now, I don't know about you, but I was terrified in that moment, and the reason why is because neither me nor that God had any control over that elephant.

We were completely at its limb.

And that I know I was in a van, but that elephant was bigger than a van.

Y'all ever seen Jumanji?

Okay, something could have happened.

I think for each of us, when forces, there are forces that are outside of our control.

Sometimes that even seem larger than life or bigger than us, that that's when we start to feel anxiety and fear.

Anxiousness is created when these forces that are outside of control then begin to control us and our emotions.

Now, it's God's plan for our life that we would not be overwhelmed or controlled by fear or anxiety.

Now, all of us have different times where we get afraid for whatever reason.

But you know as well as I do that anxiety, that fear, depression is at an all-time high right now.

And it's not God's plan for our life that we would be overwhelmed or controlled by fear or anxiety, but instead that we would have a heavenly perspective that allows us to have peace even under pressure.

Even when things seem to not be going right or going well, that we can still have peace in God.

I don't know what causes fear for you.

You all know we're a church plant.

We've launched in March.

We've been doing things together as a church for about a year and a half.

I remember last year, somebody who was connected with our church was wanting to invite a friend.

He kept inviting his friend, and his friend kept saying, I cannot go to your church because if I go to your church, the walls are gonna fall in on top of me, okay?

And we said, Hey, we don't even have a building right now, so you don't have to worry about that.

We're meeting into the park, we're meeting at the house, we're meeting all these places.

You don't even have to worry about the walls of the church falling in on you.

Some people, I don't know if you've ever told heard somebody say before, you know, if I walk into a church, I'm gonna get struck by lightning.

Y'all ever heard that?

It's not God's plan for us that we would be fearful, especially that we would be fearful in the presence of God.

We're gonna see an encounter of Jesus and his disciples this morning, where Jesus, head on, in the midst of the fear, that he speaks directly to the disciples and tells them a better way and shows them a heavenly perspective.

I don't know about you, I don't know what's happening in your world right now, but it's quite possible that fear is trying to grip you.

That fear and anxiety may be knocking on your door and on your doorstep right now, whether you're thinking about the economy, whether you're thinking about your employment, whether you're thinking about your family, whether you're thinking about illness.

And all of us can fall into the temptation of being controlled by that anxiety and fear.

Jesus has something to say about it, and has something to say to you about it today.

Look in Luke chapter 5, starting in verse 1.

Luke 5 · chapter mention

Jesus 1 starts this uh 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.

He noticed two empty boats at the water's edge, for the fishermen had left them and were washing their nets.

Stepping onto one of the boats, Jesus asked Simon, its owner, to push out into the water.

So he sat in the boat and he taught the crowds from there.

Now here we are in Luke chapter 5.

Luke 5 · chapter mention

Jesus is preaching, he's teaching.

Many scholars believe that the disciples, Simon Peter and his brothers and others, have been aware of Jesus, have been around Jesus for almost a year now.

The chapter right before this in Luke chapter 4, Jesus actually goes to Peter.

Luke 4 · chapter mention

Simon Peter, the owner of this boat, goes to his house and heals his mother-in-law of sickness.

So they have somewhat of a relationship, a relationship enough for Jesus to step onto his boat and tell him what to do and say, push it out to the water.

But these disciples were not yet fully following Jesus in their full-time ministry.

Jesus steps onto this boat, he's teaching from the boat, and in verse 4, we see 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.

Master, Simon replied, We worked hard all night and didn't catch a thing, but if you say so, I'll let the nets down again.

Now this request from Jesus, it didn't make sense.

This request from Jesus for them to lay down their nets or put down their nets didn't make any sense.

See, because the fishermen, these Peter and you know, these other guys who are out there, they're professional fishermen, and they fish at night.

You don't fish during the day, you just fish at night because you fish at night because they're using nets to catch these fish, and at nighttime is when the fish come up from the bottom up towards the moonlight and they're able to catch them in their nets.

But during the day, the fish go down deeper into the sea, into the lake, and you're not able to catch them with the net.

And so Jesus gives this command to them, gives this direction to them that doesn't make a lick of sense.

Now we've all had an experience like that.

When your boss comes to you and tells you to do something, and you think, I've already done that, and it doesn't work.

Peter looks at Jesus and he says, Hey, we worked hard all night and we didn't catch a thing.

But if you say so, we've all done that to a parent, we've all done that to a boss.

It's like, oh, you're telling me to do this?

I know it's not gonna work.

I'm gonna do it anyway, just so I can prove you it's not gonna work.

And then I'm gonna look at you and say, Well, you said to do that.

Well, if you say so, I'll do it.

Now I don't know Peter's tone.

Maybe it was different than that, but I imagine if it was me, that's how I would be thinking about it.

Okay, Jesus.

I've already done this all night.

Now you want me to go out here and do something that make a lick of sense?

Okay, if you say so.

I'll let the nets down again.

Look at verse 6.

And this time their nets were so full of fish they began to tear.

A shout for help brought their partners in the other boat, and soon both boats were filled with fish on the verge of sinking.

When Simon Peter realized what had happened, he fell on his knees before Jesus and he said, O Lord, please leave me.

I am such a sinful man.

For he was awestruck by the number of fish they had caught, as were the others with him.

Verse 10.

His partners, James and John, the sons of Zebedee, were also amazed.

Jesus replied to Simon, Don't be afraid.

Everybody say, Don't be afraid.

Don't be afraid.

Don't be afraid, for now you'll be fishing for people.

And as soon as they landed, they left everything and followed Jesus.

Jesus performs a miracle.

Jesus performs a miracle that something that's not supposed to happen and not make sense.

Jesus performs a miracle that they have all these fish, so many fish that they aren't prepared for, that it's literally sinking their boat.

And there's several effects from Jesus doing this miracle.

The first of those effects is that when it happens, Peter is immediately aware of his sinfulness as a person.

In the presence of Jesus, in the presence of miracles happening in his life, he says to Jesus in verse 8, he says, Oh Lord, please lead me.

I am such a sinful man.

When we get into the presence of God, we begin to realize that we are not God.

We are not God.

You know, it's interesting that in the midst of this miracle, that Peter's response is, I'm not worthy to be around you, God.

I need you to leave.

Some of the believers and some of the Christians that in the midst of that struggle, in the midst of that terror, some of them have a response of walking away from God.

God, how could you do this to me?

That they fall away from the faith and fall away from the church.

But I have also seen, I have also seen people who have lost jobs.

That was their own fault.

People who have been terminally ill.

That instead of saying, God, get away from me, they've walked towards God.

They pressed in farther with God in the midst of Jesus' presence for them.

I've seen the Lord do some amazing things in people's lives.

Peter, awestruck, is aware of his sinfulness as a person.

You may be here today, and maybe you're one of those ones who think if I walk through the door of a church, the walls are gonna fall in.

You may be here this morning, you have butterflies walking up into the church today, thinking, what's gonna be said, what's gonna happen, who's gonna talk to me, what's gonna go on in here?

You may have those little anxieties, those little butterflies.

Let me tell you, Jesus loves you and wants you in his presence, and his presence will be bringing peace to your life.

Jesus' presence will bring peace to your life.

Peter also, in the midst of this miracle, he experienced fear.

He was afraid.

Now, I don't know if he was afraid because there were so many fish that they weren't prepared for it, their boats weren't even set up for that to the point that they were sinking.

And maybe he was thinking, My boat, my boat's about to sink.

We can't be having this.

Or maybe he was in fear because he realized that he was in the presence of the Son of God.

That he was in the presence of someone that not only could heal his mother-in-law of her sickness, but also commands creation.

Could bring a whole host of fish to come and to be caught and to bring it into their boat, which they were not prepared for.

Now the next thing that happens is that Jesus directs the attention away from this large catch of fish.

Now I think about these guys who are commercial fishermen, professional fishermen.

Y'all ever seen that show Dirty Jobs?

I was watching a clip the other day, and there was this guy who his job is to clear out septic tanks, you know, people's houses.

And he pulls off the cat to the septic tank, and he's got his hose there to clean it out.

And y'all know, you know, he's opening up its waste.

He says, ooh, it smells like money.

Smells like money.

I think about these fishermen who are pulling all these fish into the boat, these stinky fish, and they're probably sitting there thinking, ooh, these stinky fish smells like money.

More fish than they had ever caught before.

You know, you may hear this passage at some point be misinterpreted by a pastor or a preacher to say something like this.

See this scripture?

If you follow Jesus, then your business is gonna run over.

If you follow Jesus, then you're gonna have more money than you could ever imagine.

They had so many fish they had no idea.

If you just follow Jesus, then your business, your life, you're gonna prosper if you will follow what Jesus says.

But I want you to see this.

That's not what Jesus did.

Jesus changed the focus from the fish to the future.

Jesus changed the focus from the here and now and the dollars and cents, and he changed the focus to speak directly into the future of these people who were standing right in front of them.

This story is not about following Jesus to get rich.

There's a lesson in here that we follow Jesus to get free from riches.

Speaking of Africa, earlier I heard a story recently or about um how people in Africa, at some point, tribes would catch baboons.

Now you may have heard something this before, but basically the way that they would do it is they would bore a hole into a bank, embankment, or into a rock, and they would make it a small hole and they would put some salt into that hole.

And the baboon would come along and would stick his hand into this hole to grab the salt.

But when he grabs the salt and makes a fist around the salt, then when he tries to pull the salt back out, the hole is too small.

His hand can't get out of the hole.

Now all he would have to do, all he would have to do is just what?

Let go of the salt.

To just let go of the salt, but he doesn't.

He stays and he fights and he fights and he fights and he holds on to it until the hunters come and knock him over the head and put him into a cage.

Some of us need to be aware today of the fact that there's something that we're holding on to that's creating fear and anxiety in our life.

That we need to let go.

We need to let go.

And we need to invite God's presence into it.

Jesus changes the focus from the here and now, from the fear of the sinking boat, from the circumstances of life, and he speaks to their future, and he says in verse 10, don't be afraid, for now you'll be fishing for people.

These commercial fishermen who've just been seeing Jesus do ministry, as they're now invited into the ministry with Jesus.

He speaks to directly and speaks to their future.

And he says, Up until now, you've been out here catching fish that you bring into your boat and it will die.

But now I want you to go and to catch people who are dead spiritually and see them come alive.

To change the whole direction of their life.

From the focus on their profession, the focus on the here and now and their everyday to speak into their future and say that they have a purpose, and that purpose is to love and see people come alive in Jesus.

Jesus places that same.

Call and ask on each one of us.

That we wouldn't just waste our life only focusing on our jobs and only focusing on the here and now and only focusing on all the difficulties and the fears and the anxieties of life, but instead, he invites you into seeing other people.

Awaken.

Other people brought to life.

Kids, teenagers, college students, adults, senior citizens, some of them that have no idea that they're walking through life and that they're spiritually dead without Christ.

But instead, if they were to find Christ, that they would find freedom.

And I speak that to you as well.

If you don't remember anything else that I say today, remember this.

That you and I, that we are going to find freedom on the other side of your fears.

We're gonna find freedom in Christ on the other side that we would care more about the heavenly things than the here.

That we would find freedom in Christ.

That we would Let go of whatever thing that is that's holding us back.

It may be a relationship, it may be an addiction, it may be a focus on ourselves and believing that we're God and that we have every single thing that we need and that we can just do it on our own, that we need to let it go and let God enter into our life and bring his peace and presence to us in the midst of our fears and struggles.

Galatians 5, 1 says this, and I just love it.

It is for freedom that Christ has set us free.

Stand firm then and do not let yourselves be burdened again by a yoke of slavery.

It is for freedom that Christ has set us free.

What is it that you need freedom from today?

I heard a story not too long ago about a family that their house caught on fire.

Family ran out of the house, fire trucks is coming, not realizing that their daughter, their young daughter, who's legally blind, is stuck in the upstairs of the house.

She's able to open up the window.

The smoke is coming, the flames are coming.

She's terrified.

And she hears a voice of a firefighter down below that yells up to her and says, Jump! Jump! I'll catch you.

I'll catch you.

And she yells back and she says, No, I'm afraid.

I'm afraid, I'm scared.

And then she heard another voice, yelled out, Honey, jump, I'll catch you.

She leapt from the window and they caught her.

The voice that she heard was the voice of her daddy.

And in the same way, Jesus is calling out to you and saying, Come on, jump into your father's arms.

What is it?

What is it that you need to leave behind, to let go so that you can find freedom in Christ.

You can find freedom in the power in the presence of Jesus today.

Imagine with me for a moment what it would look like for people and us, individuals, kids, and teenagers and adults to be set free from overwhelming fear and anxiety here in Frankfurt.

Had a conversation two weeks ago with a social worker that's at one of the local middle schools.

And she told me that last year she had over 600 meetings with middle school students here in Franklin County.

And every week she was doing a suicide assessment on a child last year.

Can you imagine with me for a moment what it would be like for us for us to become fishers of people to see people come alive and set free here in Franklin County and beyond.

Jesus is inviting you into it.

That you would be free and that you could bring freedom to other people.

To kids, to teenagers, who whoever, your family.

Imagine with me for a moment the grips of fear and anxiety if they were to be let go and replaced with the freedom and love that God has for us.

Can you see it?

Can you see what that would be like?

I can.

God wants to use you.

God's calling you into a future that's filled with purpose.

What will that look like?

Maybe you came through the door today and you're one of those folks that ooh, that fear and anxiety is gripping you right now.

Maybe you're in the house today and you're on the edge of something coming, a valley is coming, and you're gonna have a decision to make.

Am I gonna press into the presence of God and his peace, or am I gonna say, God, leave me?

When God so desperately wants you to be in his hand, in his body, in our church, seeing people come alive.

Maybe that day is for you today.

Maybe today is your day that you move from death to life in Christ.

The way you do that is by taking on and receiving the free gift of salvation that we just read in Galatians 5 1, that it is for freedom that Christ has set us free.

And he did that on the cross 2,000 years ago.

And he went up on that cross and he took the sins of the world on his back, yours and mine included.

And he gave us the opportunity to receive that forgiveness on the cross by way of giving our life to him as he's given his life for us.

Today may be your day to be saved.

Today may be your day of salvation.

Will you pray with me?

Father, all over this room, God, I pray against the grips of fear and anxiety.

God, I pray against, Lord, a feeling of doubt.

That God, you are going to be bring peace into our hearts and into our lives, no matter the circumstances.

Father, I pray right now over each one of us.

That God, as you call us into a fearless future, that God, that you would use each one of us powerfully to see other people come alive.

And today, as I pray, Lord, under the sound of my voice, there may be somebody here today who needs to receive your forgiveness and be saved for the very first time.

And God, if that be so, Lord, I pray right now, Lord, that they would just speak out to you, Lord, in their heart and mind right now.

They would say, Jesus, save me.

I believe that you are the Son of God, that you died on the cross for my sins.

Forgive me.

Cleanse me so that I might be in heaven with you one day.

Thank you for saving me.

I give you my life as you gave yours for mine.

In Jesus' name.

Amen.

Amen.

If you prayed that prayer today, I would love to encourage you.

We would love to encourage you.

You came through the door today, you got a little connect card, and on there there's a space that says, I want to follow Jesus.

We'd love to talk to you more about that.

I'd love to invite all of us right now to stand to your feet as we close and worship.