“The Search for Meaning” - Luke Chapter 5:1-11 - Pastor Rick Brown

Good morning to everybody. I don't I don't need an introduction just because I'm Scotty's younger brother and assistant

Pastor here to out west so when I'm called upon to come hang out with you guys

It's like old home week when I look around and see all the years and all the water that's under the bridge

I was just joking with

Glenn and Kathy Jensen because we've started a church about four weeks before months ago over in star by Boise and

they had emailed and threatened that they were gonna come because it was their silver wedding anniversary and they were gonna come to church and

So I was just remembering

Back through their journey and and Kathy's mom came to live with them and she was a little firecracker

she was a little bitty lady and she was on her deathbed and

She wanted pastor Rick

Will you please come pray for me because though I know Jesus and want to go to heaven

I just want to get through the Super Bowl

And

She was a big San Francisco 49ers fan. So I show up here. She is in bed. She's got her jersey on

You know, she's ready for the Super Bowl and we prayed for the grace of God

To take her to heaven after the Super Bowl

Well, she made it through the first half and then slowly slipped away till Tuesday that next week and this room

Is filled with those stories?

filled with those stories of

Literally, I spent half my life here pouring my heart out

Just curious about what God would do through his word

Because true revival is the Spirit of God working through the Word of God through the people of God and that's how revival lasts

It's not built on a personality. It's built on the Word of God

Danny Kishama came to a funeral that I did back in the day and

and

God radically got a hold of him through that that funeral process and

So, I mean just everywhere I look is a story Steve's up here doing announcements I remember the first Sunday morning

I met Steve he was it was a Sunday morning

We were doing Saturday night three Sunday services and the last service

I never go out because I'm just I'm so spent if I go out and talk to the people for a full hour then come to

Preach the last service. I just had no more energy in the tank

so I'm back there in the green room with the worship team and Steve comes busting through the doors and

He is having to come apart. I mean whatever God is doing in his life. He was having to come apart and he just

He just burst onto the scene and here he just starts us. He's still bursting on the scene

he just came up here and act like you own the room with the announcements and

You know, I guess it has to do with temperament once Jesus gets ahold of you and it's just very fun

I want to apologize. I might slur my words. I have a little bit of a grandpa hangover and

we've been at this family and friends music festival over at Hi-C and

that my son organized and so my grandson was my bunk mate for the last two nights and

his name is Tiberius and we call him Tiber and he's three and

So he he is a handful all night long. He just never stops moving and I haven't slept very good for a couple of nights

but the topper this morning I was coming out of this camper that we had written rented and

everybody was in the camper and I was gonna sneeze and

So the camper door was open because we're loading stuff out of the camper and I turned and I sneeze

But I didn't realize this little three-foot guy was he was on the stairs right underneath. I didn't cover my foot

I just showered him just

And

He looks at me in these little cowboy boots who goes hey, they call me boppo. Hey boppo

You just blessed you all over me

It's sad to say and you sneezed on me we always say hey god bless you or bless you

He's like you just blessed you all over me. And so I'm hoping to sneeze on you today and bless all over you

I'll try to hold back the spit from that whole process. If you have a Bible turn to the Gospel of Luke chapter 5

Luke 5 · chapter mention

As we look at our message the search for meaning

Because that's what ultimately brings all of us on this big journey in life

Paul the Apostle when he was speaking to the Athenians who they spent all of their time

just finding out what the latest trends and cultural changes and

dynamics are and

Paul the Apostle told them that the God of

Creation had created them with this futility in their hearts so that they might grope for him

And all through life. It's like where these blind people just groping around in the dark trying to find meaning

We try to find it in relationships and in putting families first, but some of you did not win the lottery on your family

Right. So you're like this is the the counter lottery

whatever is the kind of the the

Consolation prize of that some people since they can't find fulfillment in their families

then they begin to find it in achievement and

accomplishments and they're going to win accolades in athletics or academics or get the degree and they

Arrive only to come up empty

There are those who are trying to move through life and have some kind of notoriety or or fame

Hollywood all these people move to Hollywood or they've moved to Nashville because they want to be famous in music or famous and here they're

Waiters and waitresses and they're looking for their big break that the rest of the world could finally see how special they are

And would give them the opportunity that they're looking for

Some people think it's the accumulation of material wealth, you know he who has the most toys wins

Or in recreation. Hey, I just I discover God out in nature nature is beautiful and God created all of it

but if you

stop short

Along a nice stream with pine trees and don't discover Jesus. You're still just as empty as

before you win

The whole journey of life is groping in the dark trying to find that

That fulfillment that missing piece to the puzzle. We used to do thousand piece jigsaw puzzles and the long winter nights of Idaho Falls

With our children it would be on the dining room table

and so rather than turn on the TV we would be doing these jigsaw puzzles and

Every without fail all the puzzles we did through the years you get down to the end and you're convinced

We've lost one piece of the puzzle

And we would look our little schnauzer who was named Brownie and we say Brownie

Did you eat this piece of puzzle and he'd pull his ears back and slink off into the other he got blamed for so many things

He was not innocent until proven guilty and then we would find the piece of the puzzle fulfill the puzzle and then apologize to Brownie

That's the way it would go over and over and over again

But I find in our hearts and our lives and what has brought all of us together

Is that Jesus is that missing piece to the puzzle?

But you see here in Luke chapter 5

Luke 5 · chapter mention

Peter Andrew James and John have not fully discovered that yet

in

This passage there's ten thoughts in which a follower of Jesus

Engages and begins to surrender their life in a greater way of usefulness to the Lord

It first starts by

Retaining meaning that here. How are you going to be captured captivated or a

Retraining in your worldview because most of us when we came to Christ our worldview was skewed

we had some really funky messed up worldview and

Jesus is starting the training process with teaching in verse 1 it says so it was as the multitude pressed about him to hear the

Word of God that he stood by the lake of Gennesaret

It's also known as the lake of Chenarith and also the lake of or the Sea of Galilee, but it

Gennesaret and Chenarith mean the shape of a harp if you have an aerial view of the the view of the Sea of Galilee

14 miles long 7 miles wide if you if you've ever been on a boat ride on the Sea of Galilee

It's it's quite euphoric as a Christian like man

My Savior was on this Sea of Galilee preaching around these regions

But they came to hear the Word of God that the multitudes were pressing upon him

And isn't that the thing that attracted to you you came to church?

If you're like me, I I dreaded going to church when I was a kid

I did not I had we had some Christian family and we did not go very often

But when I got drugged at church, I truly had a drug problem because I did not want to go

and

I

Was not open to it. I tried to go to sleep whatever it might be

but as soon as I discovered Jesus, I fell in love with the Word of God and

Scotty and I threw a series of events. We stumbled into Calvary Chapel back in the summer of 1984 of Twin Falls

And I would come to church and that preacher would open his Bible begin to teach it and I felt like he had been following me

Around all week you ever have that. I

Could not wait to get to church the next Sunday to find out what I've been up to

But it really felt like that. I felt like wow, what why what is this it felt like this weird supernatural mystery

But then discovering it in 1st Corinthians chapter 14

That's actually prophecy which when somebody's speaking under the anointing of the Spirit of God through the Word of God

That the secrets of your hearts will be revealed and you will fall on your face and say God is in this place

That's what was happening to me and I wanted to keep coming and find out what God was going to tell me

Once you discover that God's Word has the answers to life you begin to press in you begin to lean in

to the transformation that comes from God's Word

Because all true transformation is going to happen from you discovering the Word of God through Holy Spirit illumination

The Christian whose Bible is not falling apart

Your life is probably falling apart and you just limp along from Sunday to Sunday to get some starvation diet

you got to discover how to read the word and all these multitudes they showed up because

Jesus and him speaking under the anointed. He's not only declaring the Word of God, but he is

We got background music I thought it was Marshall for a moment. No, it's okay. It's not Marshall

But so we need retraining your mindset

You are either living your life by divine revelation from the Word of God or from human opinion

Those are just two radical different things. I'll be sharing God's Word with someone and they'll tell me something like this. Well

I don't agree with that. I think

And I'm like, well, that's valuable

Your opinion right that's super weighty

because you think you're smarter than God and

You go through and I know even Christians do this in the sense that I don't think God's Word is really saying that I'm like

well

if a third grader read it, that's what I would say to the third grader and

Why do you think you're some professor of idiocy?

That you don't get that simple sense

because if the plain sense makes good sense seek no other sense lets you come up with nonsense and

That's the place where we see the church about 50% of the churches in America are now woke because they're embracing

Anti-biblical Christian worldview and they're exchanging it for human opinion

Rather than divine revelation and divine revelation Paul the Apostle said let God be true and let every man be a liar

If God is true and somebody comes up with some other human opinion

I don't care what PhD or letters the alphabet they have behind their name

The Bible says that if the fool says in his heart, there is no God

You're a total fool

So the people have discovered the source of being

Retrained and having a new worldview, but also there's a regard God is speaking to us

But have you just thought about this morning? You're getting ready. You're brushing your teeth. You're in the shower

You're getting the kids ready. You're running around like a chicken with your head cut off and you're trying to get the kids loaded up

Isn't it something it's like a rodeo every single Sunday if you got kids and you're trying to get it done and

Like one woman said she said I we have three kids

I've been trying to get them ready and my husband sits out in the car and he honks the whole time

So I told him I went out that Sunday very frustrated with half my hair curled because I couldn't get the other half

And I told him I said let's do this next week you get everybody ready and I'll sit in the car and honk the horn

It's kind of a team effort. You kind of got a you know, everybody participate

But do you know that God sees you here Jesus it says regards. It means to take notice of someone in

verse 3 then he got into one of the boats which was

Simon's and asked him to put out a little from the land and he sat down and taught the multitudes from the boat

He sees Simon in his boat and he's cleaning his nets after fishing all night

They would clean the net so that it would preserve them because otherwise they would rot faster. They would deteriorate

So here's a hard-working guy

He's fished all night now if you've ever been up all night and then you're invited to a Bible study or a prayer meeting

How's that go?

Let me show you

That's how it goes right I'm exhausted I'm not gonna go to China I I have a grandpa I'm up here

I want to go to sleep right now in this moment from not very much sleep and

So the Lord takes notice and I want you to know the Lord takes notice of you

I don't care if you're 14 or you're 72

The Lord sees you he sees your heart. He sees your struggles. He sees what's going on in your life

He regards you one of my favorite promises in the scriptures

Is that the eyes of the Lord run to and fro throughout the earth to show himself strong on behalf of those whose hearts are?

Loyal towards him. Do you know that God's eyes are just looking all around planet earth for men and women

That would want to give their hearts in a loyal way to him

He takes notice of you sometimes we come into a room like this and especially if you're really discouraged or depressed

You come into a room like this and you see the joyful music and you look around and you see these happy families and I believe

The devil that some of his best line in church on Sunday morning as he whispers in your ear. See you're the only one

You're the only one struggling like this you look around like look at all these happy couples

They don't have struggles like bozo and me here

They just don't they just don't have those, you know, look at that family with those beautiful kids. Those kids must be little angels

You have no idea right? We'll truly you just

Everybody in this room is a hot mess dumpster fire

So that's why you're welcome. Here we go

This is church and we all have struggles. We all have challenges, but I think sometimes we think that

We've been praying about something God has an answer

God don't you notice don't you see isn't that some of the cries of the psalmist throughout the Psalms? Don't you see?

God, where are you?

But I want you to know the Lord sees and he sees Peter here and he asked him he says hey, you know Pete

Can I get in your boat? It's Pete's the first uber driver on the Sea of Galilee

Gets in the Sea of Galilee pushes offshore a little bit and the water the water is a natural amplification of his voice

He speaks to thousands. These are thousands of people around the Sea of Galilee. He speaks to them and

But here's this

Incredible requests when the Lord begins to ask you

To step out and serve him. He usually starts in small ways small ways. God's not asking you to be the next Billy Graham

He's not asking you. You don't have to cross the ocean to see the cross. He's not asking you to go to Africa

He asked you to do some small things people ask me all the time. I love Jesus pastor Rick

I want to get involved and I'm like, well, what's the needs in your church?

And I'll say well, they'll they're always saying this and that and this and then I said well just be faithful with something in a simplest

way

You have to be doing big things, but he asked him in this simple request

So Pete no doubt exhausted tired

But Jesus goes from requesting now to basically being the captain of the ship in verse 4 when he had stopped speaking

He said to Simon launch out into the deep and let down your nets for a catch

Now when Jesus who is a carpenter from Nazareth

Give some fishing advice. I just want you to know if you want some fishing advice in this room

You want to talk to Danny? Okay, you want to talk to Danny Kishiyama?

Who is such a crazy?

Radical fisherman that recently when he injured his shoulder the doc said hey we can have you all bunched up here

Or you can learn to fish left-handed. So what he's fishing left-handed

Can't slow him down

Michael Dodge also loves the fish. These are guys I would ask where's your fishing hole?

And only people only if you're their pastor and they really love you. Will they tell you where their fishing hole is?

But I promise you there is a not a day that I've ever known Danny or Michael Dodge that they've ever asked me for fishing advice

ever I

am NOT a fisherman and

Here when Jesus takes over

It's very much like Paul the Apostle in the last chapters of the book of Acts

When he warns the captain of the ship, I think if we go on this journey

We're all gonna die and and we're gonna lose the ship, but he's a preacher

What's he know but by the end of that storm who's in charge of the boat all the fossil why because he knows God and

Here Jesus tells him to get launch out into the deep

Because the Lord goes from a simple request to see if you'll take a simple step now to launch out into the big step

Because if you won't take step one, he's not gonna reveal step two

launch into the deep what seems quite ominous and

Peter's natural resistance is the kind of resistance that you and I have when the Lord asked us to be

to do big things that are outside of our realm of

Comfort so it says in verse 5 but Simon answered and said to him master

We have toiled all night and caught nothing nevertheless at your word. I will let down the net he's like Lord

I'm gonna do what you're asking, but I'm just letting you know

I'm gonna tell you I told you so in advance

I'm gonna tell you we fished all night. We know we know what we're doing

I've only fished all night one night. We can't got back just before daybreak

Down by Twin Falls, Myrtle Lake we catfished all night

We were around this wood that we had brought which was green wood

So it gave more smoke than fire and I didn't realize it

but when I fell into bed shortly before the Sun came up I fell into Scotty's bed and

I was covered from head to toe with black soot and I didn't even know and

and so I just fell into bed and Scotty came in there and here he is a

His little brother is in his bed covered with

black soot and

I got a tongue-lashing because before Scotty and I knew Jesus things were much more rough than they are now

Right now let's praise the Lord back then it was I'm gonna knock you out. So

But

The resistance is that hey we fished all night we caught nothing

But this is the reality, isn't it?

Why did you fish all night and catch nothing because Jesus is not in the boat

right

You've been fishing all night. You've been coming up empty. You're fishing all night in your marriage

Coming up empty you thought this would be the ultimate fulfillment in your life

You put all your expectations and hopes in a dream in your husband or in your wife and no human being can fulfill your deepest needs

Yet you're frustrated with that wife or that husband

Because you're putting that burden on them a burden that only God can fulfill

Only God can fulfill my deepest longing to turn my heart into an individual

That's gonna love and serve the people in my life rather than how come they're not loving and serving me the way I want

Tell you what, you're gonna fish all night

You're gonna catch nothing over and over and over again

You're gonna come up empty and many of us have been living life

Fishing our whole life coming up empty. I was over here at water springs years ago and this guy walks in

Him and it he has a songwriter and he had written a number of songs and some of them were on the charts

He was 70 years old and he had lived his whole life his adult life as an alcoholic. He had accolades

They had won awards him in this specific

musician that he had

Collaborated with and he came in and as he just set and wept in my office at 70 years of age

They gave him like three months to live

They said

This is my life and he explained his life. He said my life is

Basically like a puff of smoke

I

I've lived my whole life this way

in emptiness

No fulfillment

And he gave his life to Christ

We baptized him a few months later. He was dead

But through that process the Lord reached his kids and God began to do an incredible work

some

of you are the recipients of

your parents fishing all night and they came up with nothing and

they gave you the answer in Jesus from day one of your life and

You've grown up in the church resenting it because you've known Jesus so long. Oh the church. I don't need the church

What happened the church?

Hey, the church is never gonna save anybody

Only Jesus saves and so if you get your eyes on the church

We're gonna let you down

Right. This elders gonna let you down. This preacher is gonna let you down this worship person. We're gonna let you down

This is the craziest thing to me in a whole generation of church kids that I know

So many of them are out of church and out of fellowship because of the problems that they saw in church and

All those problems can be directly

traced to

humans

being in the church

Hello

And I don't know why for whatever reason but I have never been stumbled

By people in their idiosyncrasies or their failures or this or that because I

grew up in such a dysfunction junction

When I met Jesus

It was the first time in my life. I met someone who never let me down

And he's never let me down since 40 years

You

Might be young you meet the 15 year old they go. I don't want to surrender to Jesus yet. I

Want to do some living on the wild side right and I'll do that

I'll do that prodigal thing at that 30 after I've sowed my wild oats, then I'll pray for crop failure that that doesn't grow

And then they'll come I want you to know I only have one regret my whole life

That I heard the gospel crystal clear when I was 13 years old and that I did not surrender on that day

When regret my life I should have a million, but I got one regret

That I did not walk with him because it is the best thing that's ever happened to me and until you've personally fallen in love

With Jesus, I don't mean family. I don't mean people. I don't mean I don't mean anything but Jesus

He is the way the truth in life and he is the only one that's gonna bring you into a satisfied fulfilled life

So when he finally responds in verse 6 it says when they had done this they caught a great number of fish and their

Net was breaking

Holy cow, Jesus is in the boat. We fished all night

We caught nothing and I'm convinced Simon hasn't Peter has never caught a caught catch a fish like this

the nets are breaking and

and

Because the Lord now is going to bring such an abundance in this realm of his occupation

To point to greater spiritual truths in his life that the nets are breaking and this is what happens when you declare the Word of God

And people begin to be transformed pretty soon. Okay, our nets are breaking. There's not a not enough room in the nursery

There's not enough parking spaces. They're not oh wait, we got to figure out how do we put more people?

We got to do more services because when Jesus is in the house, you know that wonderful story when the four men brought the man

To Jesus, but they couldn't get to him because the house was packed

They ripped the roof off right to lower Jesus down like if Jesus is being proclaimed in the house. It's a packed house

People are being transformed and changed

But that means now the nets are beginning to break as the Lord began to bless the early years at water Springs

We had the school and the church and I wanted to do both because I love the kids and I love the church

and the only way I could think to duplicate myself was for Scotty to come to be the pastor of the school and

He you know, even in the hallway the kids would be confused

They would call me coach or Pastor Scotty and then they would kind of look at me like a calf looks at a new gate

Like what's wrong with this picture?

But our nets were breaking God was blessing but we just didn't have enough people to do those things I'd asked Gordon to

retire early from his

Deputy sheriff position Gordon. I need your help man. Come help me

Like there's too many people after six months Gordon working with me said Rick. I've been with you six months

He said I'm busy busier than I've ever been he goes. How did you do this all by yourself?

I said I have no clue and no idea but I'm so glad you're doing all this and I couldn't train Jordan Gordon because I didn't

Know anything right and Gordon's like well, well train me. I said, I don't know how to train you figure it out

I had to figure it out figure it out

And so our offices were right next to each other and he would listen to me counsel

You know for a year or so and his office was next thing

He said I learned to counsel by eavesdropping on Rick counseling. So he said well, I just started doing what you do

But your nets begin to break and now there's this abundance of what God is doing in our lives

So you got to recruit other people to get involved in verse 7

So they signal to their partners and then the other boat

To come and help them and they came and filled both the boats

So that they began to sink so the nets are breaking now the boats are sinking and they call so there's Peter Andrew James and John

Now this is not the first meeting according to John chapter 1

John 1 · chapter mention

Andrew and Pete and all these guys have met Jesus earlier. And so this is a little later on

They've been growing on their walk with the Lord listening to the Savior as he preaches around the Sea of Galilee

And so now these guys are recruited

To come along and to help because it says James and John or excuse me inverse

The realization hits them in verse 8 when Simon Peter saw it

He fell down at Jesus's knees saying depart from me for I am a sinful man

Oh Lord for he and all who were with him were astonished at the catch of fish

Which they had taken so also were James and John and the sons of Zebedee who were partners with Simon

Check this out

They all are so thunderstruck now that this is not a normal rabbi

This is the Son of God. This is God in human flesh

This is nobody does miracles like that. This is this is overwhelming and do you know when you get a glimpse of the glory of God?

It it devastates your soul man. It wrecks your soul

Pete falls on his knees and he's

Repenting he's he's asking God please you I can't interact with you. I'm a sinner. You're holy

How do we do this? And

As he in his brokenness and it says James and John the sons of Zebedee and Andrew also, they're all there

they're they're in this place of brokenness and let me just ask you and your

Approach to Jesus and how there's been a brokenness Jesus said if you fall on this rock

You will be broken

But if this rock falls on you in judgment, you will be ground to powder. I

Would much rather be broken at Jesus's feet

humbled

When I got saved at the age of 19

And the Lord spoke to me. I was home alone and it's still small boys

Why don't you pray I laughed out loud because I could never remember praying

and

Then the presence of the Lord filled the room and I fell on my knees and I just began to sob and beg God to forgive

Me for all the wicked stuff I had been doing

and

That brokenness moment when you meet Jesus now for some it's not as dramatic like you've grown up in Sunday school

You've you've went through, you know, you you've grown up in a culture where you don't remember not knowing Jesus

But there is that awareness that you will have at different times as God does something amazing that you go. Wow

The God that I serve is awesome. And this is an awe-inspiring moment for Pete Andy

Jimmy and John I mean the whole gang they're just like totally blown away

So then there's a redirecting right when God gets a broken man broken woman and now you're actually broken and surrendered

to the God of the universe to be useful to him to be a servant of his to offer yourself as Romans 1 and 12

Wanted to say to offer your bodies as living sacrifice is wholly unacceptable to the Lord

Which is your reading will service when you finally just say Lord here I am. I know you don't have much to work with

here I am and

And when you're in that place and Jesus says in verse 10 and Jesus said to Simon do not be afraid

From now on you will catch men

Peter now is going to have to surrender his life his career. No doubt his dad his grandparents. They were all fishermen

James and John the sons of Zebedee the John's Gospel says that dad was there

I mean

This is the father and son fishing business

right and they have to walk away from the father and son business to go serve Jesus and

Jesus tells him you know how you've been catching fish

Now you're gonna catch men

All through the scriptures God takes that skill that people have and he says now

I want you to surrender that to me and watch what I do

Moses he's at the burning bush. He's been a shepherd for 40 years and the Lord says what's in your hand and he goes

Staff it's rod. He goes throw it down. So he throws it down and it becomes a serpent

Says now pick it up and he picks it up by the tail

that picture

He had a shepherd's staff. He goes Moses. You've been a shepherd for 40 years. I

Want you to surrender your life from shepherding sheep to now shepherding people. He doesn't ask him like Peter

Hey, you're gonna catch fish. No pizza fishermen you talk to him on a fishing, you know illustration

But I find for many people

Whatever God has called you to and you've been fruitful out to the Lord says hey, do you want to surrender this?

To me, even if you continue in that occupation so that you can be useful one of the I love doing construction

I was a tile setter by trade the thing I miss most about tile setting is witnessing to all the heathen dogs on the site

Because I was one of them right so to be a witness to these guys and to share Bible stories

And I mean I would just have a lot of fun

I mean there's times that I thought I was gonna get my teeth knocked in but it was just a lot of fun and

And I'm doing this in this occupation, but I'm wanting to share the Lord in the place of my

work

And God begins to use that and goes, okay

You took that step of faith. Now. I'm gonna give you another opportunity and God will give you other opportunities

For Moses is hey, what's in your hand? I want you to surrender that to me

You're gonna shepherd men now women for David David. What's in your hand a sling? I kill bears and lions

With a sling the Lord's like, okay, you're gonna slay Goliath and you've been a shepherd

But now you're gonna shepherd the entire nation of Israel

For

Someone like Paul the Apostle. Hey Paul, what's in your hand?

It's a pen. I'm a scholar

It's like okay you surrender your life to me and you're gonna write half the New Testament

Isn't it amazing that you know here Danny kashama as he surrendered his life if you don't know Danny was quite notorious

He was a drug dealer in our area for about 25 years

Which made a very?

Jacked up marriage because you see his beloved Nancy was in probation and parole

That's why Nancy and Danny are married three times to each other true story, right

Married Nancy got a clue divorced him

Danny smoozed her sweet after married again

She divorces him again

She was about ready to get to married to somebody else that third time finally got daddy's attention

Right and here they are in the front row. So when you asked Danny Danny, how long you been married?

He goes now do you want the accumulated marriages?

or do you want just

That right is that right and Nancy is this all correct?

Got ya. Well, I've only heard daddy's side of it. So Nancy could correct us afterwards anyway

But how do you go? I mean dealing drugs

You know cooking with the family business at the North, you know

Highway cafe and dealing drugs out the back and eggs out the front. I don't know how that worked Danny, but something like that

But then when he surrendered what's he want to do? What's the do pure word?

now he wasn't convinced because he was doing 12 steps and

Him and Michael Dodge who had to come to Jesus meeting about hey that this pure word

It's different than that. They went round and round and round and round finally Daniel Dan's like, okay

I'm just gonna teach pure pure word

and all these years later

I've never heard the conversation Danny. What's in your hand a bag of weed?

You want you want to go share with other people how they don't need that bag of weed? Yeah, I guess I'll do that

When we surrender you have no idea what God is gonna do I mean honestly you just don't know

Scotty's a heavy equipment operator. He's working a track hoe for a canal company

But he's known as the Twin Falls Canal preacher

Everywhere Scotty's preaching the gospel everywhere. No, he's a heavy equipment operator, but everybody that's gonna do a funeral

They're having Scotty come and he's preaching here and he's preaching there and he's Scotty's like a feather in the wind

Whatever God wants him to do. He just hit there and yawn, but everybody is hearing about Jesus

As he surrenders, you know what you've been digging trenches to bring water to the dry Magic Valley

I want to use you to dig trenches for the glory of God

To bring the refreshment of the Spirit of God into people's lives so that they're like well watered souls

What's in your hand what's in your heart

Doesn't mean God's gonna pick you up and put you on staff somewhere or send you to go preach

It's just simply this beautiful way to live

Like Lord, this is who I am. I don't have much to offer

I know that you're awesome and I'm not that's that's a great lesson to look great

Best truth in the world. There is a God and I'm not him there. There we go. That's all my theology right there

But then there's the relocating and there's had to be tough verse 11

So when they had brought their boats to the land they forsook all and followed him

They brought their boats to shore and said say la vie

And they're gonna go follow Jesus

James and John say say la vie

adios

To the family business and they go to serve him

You know when we surrender the Lord that means he's in charge. You can't say Jesus is

Lord without doing what the Lord says, correct?

When the Lord called me to go into ministry back in Twin Falls

And I was there for seven years the last two years as an assistant pastor

Then the Lord said go to Pocatello, Idaho and start a church man

I really thought I was taking one for the team because there's nothing about smoke at Elo, Idaho that I ever liked in my whole life

we had drive through there and we we smell simplot and FMC and the inversion of the stinky fertilizer factories and I'm like

Is this what this means to pick up my cross and deny myself and go to Pocatello, Idaho and serve Jesus? Okay

So I went there and started the church and we were going for a while

And I'm driving home after doing the church one day and Tammy was asleep with our two new, you know, our young kids and

The Lord spoke to my heart. Hey, you're gonna start this work, but you're not gonna pastor here. I was so ecstatic. I

Was pumped we got home and Tammy says well you seem awful chipper with that big smile

I said Jesus just spoke to me and said I don't have to be the pastor of that church

I'm gonna start that church handed off and we don't have to live and smoke at the L. Iowa. Whoo. Hallelujah. Praise the Lord

And

Tammy says was that a thing? Is that the way that works?

I said well Paul the Apostle did it all the time came to town started something left

Went to prison three years later to write a letter. How you doing? You know, I mean, I'm just gonna do it

And then the Lord calls me to go to Idaho Falls and I come here and

Spend half my life

In 2017 the Lord spoke to my heart and said hey, you're done here at Water Springs. You've crossed your finish line

I want you to hand it off

And I have some other things for you to do and you're gonna come back here to the Boise Valley and start a work for

Me here. I thought a few things was gonna be like take six months and

I even told people yeah, we're gonna you know, eventually I don't know what's gonna happen

I didn't know what the few things were

You know do some few things and I said but I'm gonna end up in Boise

So the rumor was I mean people that knew me. Hey, where Rick's coming to Boise

And then six months went by and then a year went by and all through this

I'm like about every six months I would pray and I would talk to Tim and I say hey do you think you know?

And the timing just just felt like the Lord said you are gonna go but not now. I've been sitting at a stoplight for

Basically six years and then the Lord said why don't you start that work?

so we started to work four months ago and star, Idaho and

Outside of Boise and we've been going four months. We're meeting in tents we have

We back in the day when I was at Water Springs

I bought a couple of 40 by 40 tents for our vacation Bible school program and I asked Gordon there

They're not using them and so they gave them to us so that we could be meeting in tents over there for the last four

months

We got about a hundred people coming and it's just so exciting

Because I only want to be under the spout where the blessings flow out, which means you're the Lord

I'm your servant. Where do you want me to be?

now those few things took me from New York to Phoenix to

California and all over the place meeting new people doing new things and God has really

Taught us a lot in the last six years before we came back

There were things we had to learn and we learned those things and that's a blessing

Somebody has said life's the best teacher if you can afford the tuition. It's been a rough go, right?

But here we are and then we started this church and we're about a mile from this childhood home

Scotty and I we went to school in I went to school in the sixth grade and star Scotty went to Lowell Scott and meridian

and my sister who's here with us - she was at Lowell Scott and

The house is about that little farmhouse where we lived is still there about a mile from where we started this new church and

Some epic things happen there

Your beloved pastor shot himself in the foot with a 38 while we lived there. That was a very exciting thing

And my my sister Shawna fell asleep smoking cigarettes and cut her mattress on fire

So we almost caught the house on fire. That was very exciting

and

The old cowboy that's the oldest son of the the people we used to rent from his name's Dale Stevens

And I went knocked on his door and chewed the fat with him for about half an hour one day

And I said hey Dale I said cuz he's living in that house

I said hey Dale we used to live here when I was a kid and

And he's kind of thinking back his mind because we Scotty and I were friends with his his youngest brother Leland

and I said, you know Leland and I mean, uh, we were friends with Leland and

I said, you know, my brother shot himself in the foot in this rental house

I mean, that's a notable thing right? We remember he remembers things like that

He had this blank look my sister started her mattress on fire about burn the house down kind of a blank

Look, then he looked at me and said

Was your mom that really good-looking woman I said, there you go, right

Leave it to a man. He doesn't remember the gunshot doesn't remember that, you know, you can be shot in our house

You could start it on fire, but he remembered my good-looking mother which was true. Just very beautiful and

When we left when when my mom left that home

she left my sister who was 16 at the time just left her there left her with the furniture and

She was homeless for a bit after that

Our family is such a messed up thing and yet here today

Our search for meaning in life was fulfilled when we met one person

Jesus the Savior of our life

Jesus is my sister Savior. She's Scottish Savior. She's my Savior and you know until we came to that surrender

We were fishing all night and catching nothing

but Jesus has so blessed us now with his overflowing goodness and all that he's teaching us and

Jesus truly has ruined me for this world. What's the world got to offer me? I mean sex drugs and rock and roll

I mean pleasure is probably the

American idolatry right the pleasure of sin and

So there's a big thrill but boy come payday the next day or the next week or that whatever it's painful, isn't it?

Right that pleasure comes with the hangover it comes with the divorce or it comes with all of these other things

but Jesus will satisfy your deepest needs and

You know what happens even in your Christian life

You go through these seasons where you're just dry

You've lost touch with Jesus. You haven't been in the word

You haven't been abiding yet haven't been really planted by the rivers of living water and God's Word refreshing you

You're just going through the motions and here you are

You're like this tree that everybody that looks at your life right now would say you're a healthy tree

My dad has some friends that in California. They're crazy about trees, right?

You if you move on to a piece of property, you can't cut that oak tree down

Because they're certified and they're certified and so you have to ask for permission to cut your own tree down on your own property

so this guy built this beautiful new home and

In this beautiful new home

There was this certified oak tree out there and they have to come out and you know certify that's great

And then a big storm came and that tree fell over and went right through the new house. They're supposed to certify that as

Healthy it went right through David's house didn't pop and when they looked inside it was total dry rot

They're like you couldn't tell on the outside the leaves were still there

But I want you to know in this room there are those who are just overflowing

With the abundant life of Jesus, but there's also people in this room that you are like that oak tree

There are leaves on

the branches

And on the outside it looks great but you know on the inside of your heart your mind your marriage

your private life is

dry rot and

It's only waiting for the right storm to bust you wide open

Break you wide open

And I hope when that day comes

And it breaks you wide open

That there is a refreshing work of grace and Jesus is love because Jesus is compassionate. He is merciful. He is forgiving and

He will do a fresh new work in your heart in your life, too

But you know what? You don't have to have that you can just choose to abide in him each day

Peter later in life when Jesus taught some really hard things he was saying in John 6

Hey, if you don't eat my flesh and drink my blood you can't follow me

It sounded like cannibalism Jesus was speaking to us about a spiritual reality unless you feed on who I am and

Are nourished and experience all the goodness of me. You're you're gonna be malnourished, right?

You're gonna be dehydrated, but they didn't get that. They only heard the physical illustration

So it's a lot of the disciples left on that day and when they left Jesus turned to the twelve

Apostles and he said are you guys gonna leave too?

And Peter looked Pete looks at him. I mean, here's the guy with the he caught the he's like

Lord where we gonna go?

Lose paraphrase you've ruined us for this life

Right. I mean you alone have the words of eternal life

We have believed and come to know that you are the Christ you are the Messiah you alone have the words of eternal life

There's nothing

That this world could offer me that would lure me

From the incredible intimacy and abundant life that you bring when my soul is connected to you

The thing I long for most is his love and his joy and his peace and that's what the world is looking for

They want love they want joy and they want peace. They look for it in all the wrong places

But that's what they're looking for. And Jesus the Savior is here

Alive and well resurrected from the dead present with us

To do that work in each one of our hearts. Let's pray father

We ask that your spirit would bring the refreshment Jesus that you have

Ordained this Sunday to be for the human hearts here

Lord I ask for the men and the women the young and the old Lord

I pray that your spirit would draw them into this place that you would break us all wide open Lord in a fresh renewed way

To surrender to you

So we're just an attitude of prayer if you want to open your heart and just invite the Lord to do a work of

Refreshment inside of you. I just want to invite you to pray with me right now

Lord Jesus, please forgive me

For

Going through the motions

The routine

Playing the game

You know and I know I

Just feel dead inside

And Lord, please forgive me

Then my heart and mind

I've been focused on the wrong things

Thinking other things are gonna satisfy me

And they've been leading me astray

So Lord today I just ask for your forgiveness

You're cleansing and your redemption Lord buy back

Lord these lost years of the hardness of my heart and bring your abundant life

In your grace in Jesus name amen

Amen

our friend Roxy

Boyle likes to say that she prays that the Lord doesn't have her get old and cold and

If you know Roxas heart, she's got such a truly

Beautiful heart for the Lord. Let's stand together

Once you know as we sing this closing song if you need prayer the prayer team is gonna be over here and

If you're going to be baptized you can head your way out there for those who are gonna be baptized

They have a few minutes to set things up

But I want to invite all of you to celebrate with those who are gonna follow the Lord in baptism today

And then afterwards we're gonna have a potluck and just have a great meal and food and fellowship together. So I pray that

We can rejoice with those who are making that decision. Let's worship the Lord

with this closing song