#The Call to fulfil the Great Commission – Part 4

We are together here and we are continuing in our course series,

and what a series has been. I've been grateful to the Lord

for the opportunity that I've had as I've studied His word

each week in terms of what God is speaking to us and teaching

to us. And before we get into this

week, I want to say that when we talk about the call, of course

it relates to us individually that we have a call that God has

placed on us individually to walk in the gifts that He's

poured upon us. Excuse me, but of course each

church has a call as well. Do you know that that as the

body corporately, we are called to extend His Kingdom, that the

church is the way in which God extends His Kingdom here on

earth? Excuse me.

And and you know, we have been on a journey this call for the

past 35 years. This church was founded 35 years

ago by founding passes Chris and Flis Lane in their lounge.

And here we are today, 35 years later meeting across three sites

here Hatfield and the Mounts and what a journey it's been, but

the best is yet to come. Ladies and gentlemen.

God has done a tremendous work this year.

It's been so exciting to see what the Lord's doing as we

launch reach 23 last year. And as we hold on what you're in

now reached 22 last year, is that correct?

Reached 23 this year and we've got some exciting developments

for Reach next year as well. But I want to invite you to

November the 5th. On Sunday.

We have a very special Sunday morning service, in fact, all of

our sites except for the Mount of course.

And if you're wondering why I said that, the Mount is our

prison site where we have almost 70 guys every Sunday.

They're meeting at the moment. Isn't that beautiful?

Worshipping. God.

I just feel like I want to pray for them.

And we're going to say thank, Thank you for our Mount site.

We thank you for those guys that are hungry for you, for the

worship team that's there of inmates, Lord, that are

passionate about you. We just pray your blessing upon

them as they meet, as we meet together, as one church across

multiple sites. Would you bless them and bless

Hatfield as well as they meet together this morning?

Thank you, Jesus. Amen.

And so on November the 5th, Hatfield and St.

Albans will be here. We have two very important

announcements as we continue on the call that the Lord has

placed on us as a church. You know I I said just before

COVID hit, I said I feel the Lord is saying that we're going

to look different, sound different, feel different and

smell different. Do you remember that?

And that has certainly been the, the process and the journey that

we've been on. And so I want you to be here on

November 5th to hear from me about some important

developments and announcements in the life of our church.

OK. So it's November 5th, You got

that? It's in your diary.

You're going to be here, right? Fantastic.

Good. Well, with that, guys, I'm just

going to pause and pray and we're going to get in the word

for this morning, Lord, we say we want to say thank you.

We want to say thank you for speaking to us so clearly these

past number of weeks and just challenging us, Lord, to move

from those shallow places into the deep with you that you are

calling us to move away from the metaphorical splash park into

the deep, deep ocean with you, Lord God.

Because there is a promise there of blessing.

There is a promise of newness of life in that place.

There was a promise of meeting you in a new way in that place.

So, Lord, I pray this morning that as I speak, you would just

help me. Lord God, give me the words that

I need. That which is not of you would

just fall away. And what I pray that each one of

us, as we hear these words, you would just prepare our hearts.

It would be fertile soil. And that these words would bear

fruit. Lord, I pray in your precious

name. Amen.

Well, there's a way of recap. We have been in the core series

and just in case you've missed any of those, you can catch up

on our YouTube channel. If you're watching right now,

hit the subscribe button and that Bell notification to get

important updates for all the new content that we'll be

releasing during the week. Got it done.

Hit that subscribe. But you can catch up there.

There's a lot of heckling going on by our worship pastor over

there. Thank you, brother.

I appreciate it. Thank you for the encouragement.

And we've been looking at the story when Jesus calls the first

disciples and when Jesus gets into the boat with Simon and he

says push away from from the shore, they go there, Jesus

speaks to the people. Then he says, right, let's go

into the deep and throw your Nets over, do you remember this?

And we've been looking at that call, the way it represents that

first before we do anything, we're called to be with Jesus.

That before we're called to do something, we're called to be

with someone. Because often time in our modern

lives we think when we hear the call that I'm called to do

something. But fundamentally the priority

with our walk with Jesus is the call to be with him.

And it is from that place of being that the doing comes.

It is a fruit. The doing is a fruit of

relationship with Christ. And then we looked at when they

moved away from the multitude, We looked at how that is a

picture of separation of a holiness, being separated from

the world and being consecrated to him.

We unpacked that and then we looked at the doing bit and

we're unpacking the 10 hallmarks. 10 hallmarks of the

call of God upon our lives. And we looked at God number one.

God calls us at the point where we feel weak and tired, #2 it

will require us to go deeper than we did before, and #3 it

doesn't always seem to make sense to us and we unpack those

together. And so that brings us to

Hallmark #4 and why don't we turn together to Luke chapter 5,

Luke 5 · chapter mention

which we've been spending much time in and hopefully benefiting

from. Let's look at verses 1 to 11 and

what I want to do is zoom into verse 5 and it says this and

this is when Jesus says go into the deep and throw your Nets

over him and see what Simon Says.

This Master, we have toiled all night and caught nothing and we

unpacked what that looked like a couple of weeks ago.

Nevertheless, that's an important word.

Nevertheless, at your word I will let down the net.

Now what happens when he lets down the net?

Does it come up empty or full? Does he have to get his friends

to help him? Yes.

Now this brings us to Hallmark #4 and it is this.

The call requires us to be obedient to His word.

The call requires obedience to His word.

Now what do you think when you hear the word obedient, what

does it conjure up for you? But think about it.

Obedience. Well, I think for many of us it

may be it triggers some negative feelings.

Got some nodding heads. I know.

For me, when I hear obedient, I have visions of my father

telling my brother and I off. To be fair, we needed to be told

off. We were rascals.

You need to be obedient, Mark. Anyone heard that?

Well, maybe for you it's Eat your greens, sit up straight,

brush your teeth. Be quiet.

You see, what happens is is that our notion of obedience in

adulthood is often formed by our childhood experiences, right?

I mean, who knows that we bring from our childhood baggage into

our adulthood? Do we know that for sure?

Yeah, But not only do we bring baggage, those issues that we

struggle with in our adulthood, these issues become lenses by

which we perceive truth. So when we hear obedience, the

lens by which we understand that word is baggage and negativity.

We think that obedience means some submission against our

will, and it's not very fun. Is that a fair sum up for most

of us when we hear obedience? But that's not the case

necessarily, and certainly within this context.

What if we have it wrong when it comes to obedience?

What if obedience was something positive rather than negative?

What if obedience was a doorway into blessing rather than a

place of feeling that you need to submit against your will and

that you'd rather not do it? What if blessings came from

obedience? Well, that's exactly what we're

going to see this morning. And for us, we need to look with

a different lens. When we hear about obedience, we

need to look at it at a lens through which God looks at it.

And that's what I want us to do this morning.

You see, what does it mean to be obedient?

Well, in simple terms and in in a general sense, and within this

context, it means hearing the word of God and acting on it.

That is simply what it means to to be obedient to God, hearing

His word and acting upon it. Another way you could look at

the word obedience is that it is an action word.

Obedience needs to result in an action, right?

Is that fair? You can feel free to respond if

you wish, Don't need to be obedient to that, by the way,

you know. It's just a suggestion.

You know, so far in these three hallmarks, we've seen how God

works towards us, right? Listen, He calls us to the point

where we feel weak and tired. He calls us to go deeper than

we've been before. He his call doesn't seem to make

sense to us. And then we come to this

hallmark and it's now all about how we respond.

It's about us and the choice we make.

Now when you think about the call of God upon your lives,

this is a pivotal point because at this point you can either

say, I'm not going to put those Nets in, I am tired, It doesn't

make sense. I am feeling weak, therefore no.

And then there's no point in listening to the rest of the

hallmarks. You see, Hallmark #4 represents

a decision marker in the call with God.

It represents a decision that we need to take whether or not

we're going to move in what God has for us or stay in that boat

and decide to go back to the shore.

And what happens when you do that?

You miss out on the fish. You miss out on the fish.

And I believe that some of you here this morning, you're almost

up to Hallmark, You are up to Hallmark #4.

You've yet to be obedient. You've yet to say yes.

You've heard God clearly. You're in the boat with Him.

You've seen him move. You feel weak and tired.

You hear the call to go deeper. It doesn't seem to make sense to

you, and therefore you say no. But you see, Hallmark #4 is not

about saying no. It's about obedience to His

word. And I want to look at, well,

let's look at this. What?

What is obedience? And what is the blessing of

obedience? Let's look at this first one.

Obedience is an act of surrender.

It is an act of surrender. And there's a keyword in this

verse. Maybe we'll get it back up.

There you go. Let's have it up.

The previous verse actually, that we looked at, There's a

keyword in this verse and it is this word.

Nevertheless, this is an extremely important word.

This is the pivot word. This is the word.

Nevertheless, it means in spite of what I think, in spite of

what I know, in spite of what I feel.

Never the less, this is the moment of decision.

Nevertheless is the moment where obedience becomes action.

And you see, obedience requires us to say nevertheless.

Why? Because nevertheless is an act

of surrender. Who to?

What did Simon say? Master, we have toyed all night.

We surrender to our Master. We surrender to our overseer.

We surrender to our Lord and Saviour who is enthroned on

high. And here's the thing you see.

Why is it important that we are with Him before we do it?

Because we need to. We need to know the Master

before we can surrender fully. I said that doing came out of

relationship. It comes out of a relationship

and an understanding that he is our master and we are his.

The biggest thing that will stop you from saying nevertheless is

I am the master. You're not the master.

I'm the master. I mean, that's just a definition

of pride, isn't it? And a definition of humility is

an understanding that he is the Master and we are his.

That is what it means to be humble.

And as at the start of this series I quoted Timothy Keller

who, a great theologian and pastor, he passed away last

year, I believe. He says the heart of the call of

God is the surrender of the will.

It is the place. And and I, I, I, I see what

Timothy Keller is saying here. You see, nevertheless, it is a

word of surrender. It is a place where you let go

of something you've you've held and embraced on, and then go and

embrace the word of God that he has spoken because you're

embracing him. You see that?

Surrender of our will, surrender of our desires, surrender of our

experiences, surrender of our expectations, surrender of our

own views, surrender of our fear of what others may think about

us, and surrender to the one who loves us to our master.

That is what nevertheless means, because Simon in this story knew

how to fish. And we looked at this a couple

of weeks ago. He knew that you needed to fish

at night because their Nets were made out of linen, and so the

fish would see during the day. And he thought he knew it.

He was a professional after all, and Jesus wasn't.

How many times have we said this?

Well, Jesus, I'm the professional here.

You don't know my job. We don't use those words, but we

imply it. I'm like I'm the God of the

universe. But you see what happens here is

that Simon surrenders his experience and his

professionalism and his view of doing things and says

nevertheless, nevertheless, I would choose to surrender to

you. And so maybe this morning you

need to proclaim to God nevertheless.

Maybe that word nevertheless is the word of the season for you,

because nevertheless is a doorway into walking into the

call that God has for you #2. Obedience, while it is also

surrender, is an outworking of our love.

You see, our obedience to Him should be motivated by our love

for the Master. And we see this throughout the

scriptures. John 1415 is a very, very famous

verse. If you love me, Jesus says you

will what? Obey my commands.

You see, love is another doing word, isn't it?

We often think that love is a feeling.

And of course there is an emotional element to how we

experience love. But love has an outworking love

is a doing word. And you see, the connection

between love for Christ and obedience to him is a theme that

we see throughout the New Testament and specifically with

John's writings. Let's look at one John 5.

Two to three says this. This is how we know that we love

the children of God by loving God and what carrying out his

commandments. In fact, he says this is love

for God to keep his commandments.

I meet so many Christians who say I love Jesus and in the next

moment say but I'm going to carry on doing what I know God

doesn't approve of. I respectively say you might

feel an emotion of love towards God and I don't want to minimize

that. But the type of love that the

Bible talks about, a love where we give him our all, that we

surrender to him, that we recognize the work that he's

done on the cross, that love has a response, That love is that we

follow his commands and his word.

Feel like I want to go a bit deeper in that I don't want to

offend you guys. But like we got to take sin

seriously here because if Jesus so loved, if the if God the

Father so loved the world that he what gave.

In other words, his love had an action, right?

But God so loved the word that he sent his only begotten Son

that whoever should believeth in him will not perish but have

eternal life. And So what did Jesus do?

Because of his great love? He died on the cross for our

sin, right? So what is that like when then

we turn around, say, Jesus, I love you, but I'm going to put

you back on the cross again by sinning all the time, because

that's what we're doing. You hear me?

If he so loved us that he died on the cross for that sin and

that stuff, is not our response. That we should offer ourselves

as a living sacrifice to him? That if we want to take

seriously the work of the cross and worship him for that and

thank him for that and love him for that, that we should walk in

the freedom that Jesus purchased on the cross for us.

Now, I'm not suggesting that it's easy to die to self and to

walk away from sin. I know it's not.

We have the world, the enemy, and our flesh.

But what I'm talking about is not not not moving in and out of

sin. What I'm talking about is making

a decision not to move out of that sin.

That's what I'm focusing on here.

But it's in that place we say, Lord Jesus, I love you.

And so I'm going to say even though I love this sin, even

though it makes me feel good, even though I don't know a way

out, even though my friends will think I'm crazy, even though

it's going to cause issues. Nevertheless.

Why? Because I love you, and I want

to demonstrate that love to you. Just how you demonstrated that

love to me. And that's the heart of it, you

know, as we walk with the Lord, as we become mature in Him, as

we spend time in the boat with the Master, His love changes us

from the inside out. And guess what?

We want to obey Him. We want to.

And as we grow in our love for him, we see that it becomes

easier and easier to say. Nevertheless, seemingly he gives

us bigger things to say nevertheless about.

And so I want to encourage us all to say, listen, let's not

just use that word. Love glibly like the world does.

Love island flock. Do not watch it.

Protect your eyes, people. Don't let the enemy twist love.

Anyway, I'm not going to go there.

Haven't got the time or the energy.

Let's not use love glibly. Let's think about what we're

saying when we say we love you, Jesus.

Let's have a life that reflects that love, a life that is one

that says I want to obey you. Why?

And I'll give you a a little peek into next week's hallmark

because there's blessing and obedience.

He's He is so wanting to give you all those fish saying

listen, being obedient is really good for you.

My commands to you. This is another thing.

You see, we have a negative connotation of command.

We think it's a negative thing, don't we?

Most of the time, a command is a direction that we have to

follow. What if that is not so?

What if God commands a life giving words of truth that he

wants us to walk in? Would you not listen to it

differently? Would you not want to say I want

to obey you, Lord be God? Because, quite frankly, that's

the place of freedom. That's the place of blessing.

That's the place of truth. That's the place of healing.

That's the place where I meet with you.

That's the place that I honour you.

That's the place that I worship you.

That's the place that I experienced you.

That's the place that brings you glory.

And that brings me to point #3. Obedience is a result of faith.

It's a it's a place of surrender.

It's an outworking of love. And it is also a result of

faith. You see, obedience is a

demonstration of our faith in the one who spoke Hebrews 11/6.

This with Hebrews 11/6 says this thank you and without faith it

is what to what please him? What really.

Wow. You mean God can be pleased or

not pleased with us. But I thought he loved us no

matter what. Of course he loves you no matter

what, but he doesn't always have to be pleased with you.

I mean, I love my children no matter what.

But I'll tell you, there's some moments when I'm not very

pleased with their behavior. And I know you are the parents

out there who can heal. Feel me right.

God says listen, I love you so much.

I just you are the best thing since sliced bread.

In fact, I knitted you together in your mother's womb.

In fact, you're fearfully and wonderfully made.

In fact, I dance over you and sing over you.

And I'm not very pleased with you right now, because you're

not walking in the faith, the gift that I've given you.

I want to please God. I want to please Him.

Without faith, it's impossible to please him.

For whoever would draw near to God, listen, must believe that

he exists and listen to this, that he rewards those who seek

him. Ah, the blessing is there in

that place Absolutely. And you see, nevertheless is a

doorway into pleasing our Father.

Nevertheless is a doorway into the rewards that he's waiting

for us. I want to say, Nevertheless,

many times today I feel, I feel like I want to say nevertheless.

Give me an opportunity, Lord, to say, actually, you've got to be

careful with that prayer. Be careful what you pray for.

So obedience, the outworking of obedience, is a demonstration of

our faith in the one who spoke the Word.

Yeah, but obedience is also a demonstration of our faith in

his ability to be true to His word, right?

Why? Because when we say

nevertheless, we are choosing to trust God in the call, even if

it looks impossible in the Nevertheless, we're making a

choice to say your word above my word.

It says in Two Corinthians 574, we walk by, Not by rights.

They've ever tried doing that. Everyone's going to go home and

turn the lights off and put a thing on the sidewalk.

This is really difficult. We want to have sight.

We want to know what happens. We want to have a certainty that

we have figured it out and then we'll do it.

But what? But what God is calling us is to

live a life where our sight is in His word and His Word alone.

Proverbs 3/5 and six. You've heard this from this

pulpit many a time. Trust in the Lord with all your

and do not lean on your own. Well done, All in all your ways.

Acknowledge Him, and He will do what exactly?

Make your path straight. You see that is a nevertheless

first right? Right.

There's a nevertheless 1 Nevertheless.

Nevertheless you know. It says in James 226 that

without that, faith, without works is dead.

Now we have to be very careful when we quote this scripture,

because some have turned this to say that your faith comes by

works. It's not what it's saying.

Our salvation is a gift of God. It's by grace, not by works.

Lest any man should boast right. You can't earn your salvation.

You come as you are and you just say yes to Jesus and he does it

for you by the power of His spirit.

Yes, we then once we justify just if I'd have been on that

cross, we then need to walk in what's called sanctification,

which is a partnership between US and God to say change me and

conform me to the likeness of His sun.

That's sanctification. And then the good news is

there'll come the glorification where we're raised again with

Christ. Amen.

But what it's saying here is that process of sanctification

and we're in that journey. This is the Corbet is to say,

listen, there is no faith in Jesus, no saving faith if there

is no words. In other words, a saving faith

in Christ will demonstrate itself in godly works, right?

Because this is what it means. If you believe, IE, that he died

on the cross, that he saved you, that he is eternal, that he is

God, then surely that therefore means that we will put our trust

in Him. I mean, it sounds so simple when

I say it like that, but who knows?

It's not easy to walk like that, right?

But you see, what it should, what it should be is that our

saving faith enables us to trust in Him and His Word and say

nevertheless, nevertheless, and in a moment we're going to pray.

And I want to pray in this House for a gift of faith.

I want us to be a people of faith, a people that can say

boldly nevertheless, that doesn't even think twice.

That says nevertheless, if you have called me, if, even though

I feel weak and tired, even though Lord, it doesn't make

sense to me nevertheless, nevertheless, nevertheless,

because that is a doorway into the blessings that God has for

us. So that's obedience.

Just there are only three points.

There are many more. With the time that's given to me

and the focus that I felt the Lord wanted to give.

Obedience is an act of surrender.

Obedience is an outworking of our love and obedience as a

result of faith and what I want to find, finish on and I've been

implicit in this throughout the talk.

But let me be more specific. Obedience to what?

And more specifically, to whom? Obedience to His Word and

therefore to God Himself. The Greek word used in this

story is the word Rhema Word that is the spoken word of God.

And what that means is His word is living and His Word is alive,

that His word is life. His word brings correction.

His word brings blessing. We can trust His word because we

can trust God says in Numbers 2319, God is not man, that he

should lie. Maybe for some of us, our

heavenly Father, our earthly fathers, you know, we have an

issue with trusting because of our earthly fathers.

And no father is perfect. I'm certainly not perfect.

And there are times where I've let my kids down.

And I say to them, listen. I want to say to them, listen,

Your heavenly Father will never let you down.

When your Heavenly Father says something unlike your earthly

father, he'll keep his word because God is not a man that he

should lie, nor the Son of Man that he should change his mind.

We're not saying nevertheless to a God that will be really

focused on one thing and then next week say, sorry, what was

that? I know you said nevertheless,

but I've. I've changed my mind about that.

I think it was a mistake on hindsight, you know, God doesn't

turn around and say, yeah, I actually, upon reflection, you

really shouldn't have said, nevertheless, I'm really sorry

about that. Would you forgive me?

God doesn't do that. He doesn't change his mind and

he doesn't lie. Or has he not spoken?

Will he not fulfill it? We can trust him because he

doesn't lie. He doesn't change his mind and

he will fulfill his word. When God says go, you say yes.

When God says I will do it, you say Amen.

When God says this is what I'm saying now, you can be confident

that he won't change his mind tomorrow.

That is the God who we trust. We trust the God that never

changes. But I want to say there's

another dynamic to this. It is this.

The word of God is Jesus. John Chapter one in the

beginning was the Word and the Word was with God.

The Word was God and the Word became flesh.

Jesus, And you know what happened says in Revelation

12/13 about Jesus at the second coming.

His eyes are like a flame of fire, and on his head are many

Diademes, and he has a name written that no one knows but

himself. He is clothed in a robe dipped

in blood, and the name by which he is called is the Word of God.

Why can we trust his word? Because we can trust our master

in the boat with us. I want to end by asking a

question that maybe you're asking yourself, but I certainly

ask myself when it comes to the nevertheless, nevertheless,

moment. God, this is really hard.

I'm not wanting to suggest to you that this is really easy.

I want to suggest to you that actually it's not that the enemy

would tempt you to question his call.

The enemy would tempt you to question the character of God.

The enemy would come to tempt you, to question your ability

even to say yes. But we have good news because

when Jesus went to be glorified with the Father, what did he

say? I'm going to leave you.

And you can imagine the disciples like that is bad news.

Please stay. So no, it's good news because

I'm going to be the Father and he is going to send the Holy

Spirit, and the Holy Spirit is going to guide you and comfort

you and strengthen you, and he's going to walk with you and equip

you and give everything you need.

You see, we don't need to be obedient on our own.

The Holy Spirit is here to help us, to say.

Nevertheless, I'd like us all to stand now.