Followers | Luke 5:1-11

Hey everyone, welcome to the Downtown Community Church Podcast.

We're so glad you decided to listen in today.

This Sunday, Pastor Ben Kempfer continued our series followers with a message from Luke 5.

In this passage, Jesus meets Simon Peter after an unsuccessful night of fishing, performs an incredible miracle, and calls him to leave everything behind and follow him.

Throughout the message, Pastor Ben explained that truly experiencing Jesus changes the way we respond to him.

When we understand that Jesus did not come to condemn us but to give his life for us, our faith no longer has to be driven by fear or depend on our performance.

We can trust and obey God because we know he loves us.

When we realize we are in the presence of a God who fully knows us, deeply cares for us, and willingly died for us, we are invited to surrender our old lives and live completely for him.

Jesus does not cast us aside or declare us unworthy.

Through his death and resurrection, he has broken the power of sin and death and calls us into a new life of following him.

Like Simon Peter, every follower of Jesus must consider the question, what has Jesus called you to leave so you can follow him?

At DCC, our mission is to love God, make disciples, and be great neighbors.

And following Jesus means loving him enough to trust his direction, helping others grow as his disciples, and allowing his love to shape the way we care for people around us.

One practical way we live this mission out is through generosity.

Giving includes our tithes and offerings, but generosity is not limited to money.

It can also mean offering our time, talents, and energy and willingness to serve others and strengthen the body of Christ.

If you're ready to take your next step, find community, or use your gifts to serve, visit downtowncommunitychurch.com to learn more and get connected.

You can also follow us on social media to stay updated on everything happening at DCC.

Thank you for joining us today, and we pray that this message encourages you to trust Jesus in the face of opposition.

Release whatever is keeping you from following him, and respond faithfully to his call.

Now let's hear today's message from Pastor Ben Kempfer.

Good morning.

Please remain standing for the reading of God's Word.

Today's scripture comes from Luke 5, starting in verse 1.

One day, as Jesus was standing by the Lake of Genesaret, the people were crowding around him and listening to the word of God.

He saw at the water's edge two boats left there by the fishermen who were washing their nets.

He got into one of the notes, the boats, the one belonging to Simon, and asked him to put out a little from shore.

Then he sat down and taught the people from the boat.

When he had finished speaking, he said to Simon, Put out into deep water and let down the nets for a catch.

Simon answered, Master, we've been working hard all night and haven't caught anything, but because you say so, we will let down the nets.

When they had done so, they caught such a large number of fish that their nets began to break.

So they signaled their partners in the other boat to come and help them, and they came and filled both boats so full that they began to sink.

When Simon Peter saw this, he fell at Jesus' knees and said, Go away from me, Lord, I am a sinful man.

For he and all his companions were astonished at the catch of the fish that they had taken.

And he and so were James and John, the son of Zebedee, Simon's partners.

Then Jesus said to him, Don't be afraid, from now on you will fish for people.

So they pulled their boats up on shore, left everything, and followed him.

You may be seated, and kids, you are dismissed.

See you, kiddos.

Love you guys.

Want to say bye to the kids?

Bye.

Yeah, there you go.

All right.

So my name is Ben, and I have the honor of serving as lead pastor here at Downtown Spirits.

Hey, want to say first and foremost, um, thank you guys for being here, especially if you are a parent of a student.

Um, the fact that you are here with your kid at church, and let me just say this um they do go to church when you're not here, which I know is crazy and absurd, and some of you are thinking, do you actually show up on Sunday?

And it's almost like a miracle that there's droves of students walking every um every week.

So uh so go fill their groceries up from Publix, by the way, on the way.

That's what that's kind of that comes down to.

Um, no, we're just thankful that you guys are here, and and honestly, today we just want to kind of let you see a little bit of what our normal church life is.

Um and so my name is Ben.

I have the honor of serving here at uh downtown church as lead pastor.

I founded the church about, I don't know, 14, 15 years ago.

Um, and we've been walking faithfully with Jesus and inviting college students into the life of just a general local church uh where they are, you know, hopefully at some point, you know, able to, as they're maybe they're studying accounting or nursing or going to be a teacher, and then they're invited into a community group with adults who are who are not you, right?

But there are other adults who follow Jesus and they can see what does it look like to do that professionally?

What does it look like to actually follow Jesus with your life?

And so um, we just want to say thank you if you're appearing here for the fact that you showed up to your kids' church and you're investing in your love your kids that much.

And so just want to say thank you.

Let's let's pray together as we open God's words.

So, Jesus, would you speak to us wherever we are in our relationship with you?

Some of us walked in this room and we have been faithfully loving and following and serving you for a long time.

I pray for those of us in that boat, it would you would help today to be challenging, helpful, refreshing.

For those of us who have recently started following you, show us what a life looks like.

Live for you, King Jesus.

And for those of us who are in the room who are just not really sure, skeptical, questions, not really sure what to believe about this whole Jesus Church, God Bible thing.

When you showed up, Jesus, you changed how everybody viewed you and how they viewed themselves.

So would you do that with us this morning?

We just see you clearly, King Jesus.

And it's in your name we pray.

Amen.

Amen.

So we are going through the book of Luke.

In fact, we're doing that um pretty much the whole year.

This semester, we're taking Luke chapters about four through nine, because it's points.

Luke chunks his his um his his account of Jesus' life.

The first couple chapters are kind of the birth narrative.

We're gonna talk about those during Christmas time.

Chapter three is about his baptism.

We're gonna talk about that uh baptism Sunday, it's the last Sunday of the semester.

But we're pointing towards Jesus' Galilee ministry.

And let me tell you why.

In fact, one of my favorite things is to dig into some of the history and the context around these books, because the book of Luke was actually written to people who were just like us.

And what I mean by that is when Jesus came and he lived and he preached and he healed and he did a ton of stuff, and there was a lot of momentum.

But when he died, it all went away.

Because frankly, no one had a theological category for God dying.

No one had a theological category for God being hung on a Roman cross and then laid in a tomb.

And so everybody kind of like dispersed, everybody took off.

And then as he rose from the dead, started to show back up, it just flipped everything, it changed the world.

And all of a sudden, about 40 days later, you know, 50 days later, Holy Spirit comes down at Pentecost and Peter stands up and he gives this sermon, and thousands of people believe that Jesus is the Messiah, the Son of God, to take away the sins of the world.

And they they're all on board, and then it continues to grow and grow.

And in the early church, here's the problem: they had so many stories about Jesus.

Because the ones that we read are not the only things that happened.

The teachings that we've heard are not the only teachings that he taught.

But they didn't have the documents at this point.

There were stories that were circling.

And there's this one person named Luke.

Luke, who is not an original follower of Jesus, but Luke who followed the original followers of Jesus.

Luke, who interestingly wrote to his friend Theophilus.

He says, most excellent Theophilus.

We don't know if Theophilus paid him for this or if Theophilus was just there, but Theophilus is somebody else who also hasn't seen Jesus.

And he's in the same situation we are.

I haven't followed him myself, but what was he like?

What were the stories?

What was it like to actually follow Jesus?

And so Luke, literally in the first chapter, the first couple verses, says, Most excellent Theophilus, there are many people who have written accounts of this, but I have spent time talking.

I have followed for a long time.

And Theophilus, I am writing to you this account because you've heard tons of accounts.

These are the ones that we know are true, so that you can have certainty.

Not faith and faith, not hope and hope, not belief and belief, but I documented, I talked, and these are the things that actually happened.

And it was different.

It was different than almost every single person assumed.

Because you're the son of God, right?

Imagine you're the son of God and you're starting your ministry.

What would be the first thing you do if you go to your hometown?

That's where you go to gain the most momentum.

Come on, let's get on board.

He goes to his hometown and he stands up and he reads from the prophet Isaiah, and everybody hears him reading, and he basically reads this thing that people have been reading for hundreds of years that was the prophecy about the Messiah that was to come.

And he says, Me reading this has been fulfilled in other words, I'm him.

I'm the Messiah.

They were amazed.

And then he says, No doubt, y'all are gonna say, because I'm from the hometown, you think I'm gonna do some special stuff here.

Well, I'm not.

In fact, I didn't come for you.

And at first they marveled at how well he spoke.

And then he says, Actually, let me just tell you who I'm here for.

He says, You know, there's this Old Testament story.

God could have sustained anybody when there was this massive drought.

You know what, you know who he has sustained?

This widow who was not a part of the nation of Israel and in fact was was worshiping a different God, a pagan worshiping widow.

That's who I'm here for.

And in fact, you know, people, he's at the temple.

I know that you might think I'm here for you, but I'm actually here for people like Naaman.

Who was Naaman?

Naaman was in the Old Testament part of the uh an army who was against the nation of Israel, against the people of God, against the Hebrew folks.

The only way he knew about them was he actually human trafficked a Hebrew woman.

He found out who she was, he found out there was a prophet, and he went and was healed of leprosy.

And Jesus in his hometown says, Okay, let me tell you, you think I'm here for you, who I'm here for?

I'm here for that pagan worshiping widow, and I'm here for that one guy who trafficked some other people, who then found out and who God healed, and he could have healed anybody, but he healed this oppositional, again, pagan-worshiping general.

And you know what they did?

You want to talk about a start to a ministry?

You want to talk about different than the theological categories that we typically read about Jesus?

His hometown, they want to throw him off a cliff.

And then he goes to Capernaum.

Does tons of miracles, does the opposite.

But they say, stay here, stay here, and both he walks away from.

And today we're reading the story in somewhat of a contrast to the very first person who actually stuck, the very first group that he actually invites in that Luke documents.

And it happens in a way that's almost like, you know, sometimes the Bible, there's a lot of detail that it records, but sometimes the detail of the human experience is my favorite because he tells it just like a fishing story.

Have you ever been fishing?

Luke chapter 5, verse 1.

Luke 5:1

He says, well, on one occasion, while the crowd was pressing in on him to hear the word of God, he was standing by a lake.

Gennesaret.

And he saw two boats by the lake.

But the fishermen had gone out of them and were washing their nets.

And so getting in one of the boats, which was Simon's, he asked him to put out a little from the land and sat down and taught the people from the boat.

Now, this is not, if you remember, if you were here last week, you know this, this was not his first experience with Simon Peter.

Jesus saw Simon.

He had just healed some people at the temple.

Or cast out a demon at the temple.

Then he goes and he heals his mother-in-law, Simon's mother-in-law.

So he goes to Simon's house, mother-in-law was sick, he healed her.

She got up and started to serve them.

Well, this time, Jesus is again, he's talking, some people gathered.

I don't know how this works, just to be honest.

Like I would love to just see the mechanics of this.

I've never in my life thought, you know what, a lot of people listening to me, they can't hit me.

Let me go get in a boat, you know?

That just seems like very inefficient, but for some reason I love it, it's the way the wind was carried.

We don't know, but somehow, right?

Jesus gets in this boat and he starts talking.

Everybody's listening.

And he finishes up.

And it's almost like he's like, you know what?

And I think this is Jesus.

This is what was cool about him.

He could do examples on the fly.

Like I couldn't be like, hey, throw out your nets to the concrete.

But Jesus is talking and he almost gives an example at the end of this.

So this is what he says.

And when he had finished speaking, he said to Simon, Put out into the deep and let down your nets for a catch.

Now, again, Simon Peter has a very reasonable response.

And Simon answered, Master, we toiled all night and took nothing.

The reason that they were mending their nets, the reason that they were cleaning their nets, was because they had been out and they had tried to fish.

In fact, this was what they did.

This was their profession.

They had done this for a living.

And they had been out for a while.

They hadn't caught anything, and they got to the point where they basically said, you know what?

It's better for us.

This is one of those days, I think this is what they said.

This is one of those days where they call it fishing, not catching.

You know?

And we're not going to throw anything else out there because, you know, what's the point?

Nothing out there today.

Not biting.

So Jesus says, hey, throw your nets.

And he's like, you know what?

Master, we toiled all night.

We took nothing.

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

Can I tell you why that's powerful?

Did you know that the exercising of faith is not to say that doing the thing that God's called you to do does not have reason to not do it, doesn't have pushback, doesn't have you, you God can call you to do something, and you have reasons why not to.

The exercise of faith is not the lack of opposition.

It's a decision to trust God in the midst of that opposition.

He got every reason to not drop his nets out.

He said, you know what?

In fact, at this point, he's not even sure he's Lord.

He says Master.

He's seen some stuff.

He's seen the way he taught.

He's seen the way that he he healed his mother-in-law.

So he says, Yeah, I'll put down my nets.

Master, we told all night, took nothing, but at your word I will let down these nets.

And when they had done this, they enclosed a large number of fits of fish, and their nets were breaking.

This is beautiful.

He's like, This is the day we're calling it catching, not fishing, right?

Like, this is unbelievable.

We're trying to get these things in, and he's reeling them in so much that the nets literally start breaking.

And this is how I now, there's like so much detail that's recorded.

This is how you know, at least for me, that this is true.

Because if you've ever been fishing, this is exactly what you would do, especially if this is what you do for a living.

The nets are starting breaking.

So does he decide, you know what, we've had enough.

Let's stop.

No, you know what he says?

Billy, come on, get your boat too, right?

Let's fill as many boats as we possibly can with this fish.

So they signaled to their partners.

It wasn't really Billy, it was actually James and John.

They'd be disciples too in a couple minutes.

But they signaled to their partners in the other boat to come and help them.

And now, how much, if the fish are jumping into your boat and you're a fisherman, how many fish do you get?

You don't get a responsible mountain, you get borderline irresponsible, right?

So many fish that they began to sink.

I love that.

And it's the most amazing thing that happens.

They came, they filled both boats, they began to sink.

But when Simon Peter saw it, he fell down at Jesus' knees.

And he said, Depart from me, Lord.

For I'm a sinful man.

Depart from me, for I'm a sinful man, Lord.

Now notice in Nazareth.

Jesus, do this for us.

In Caverna.

Jesus, stay.

Do this for us.

And he's on a boat.

Simon Peter says, Good God, please get away from me.

You're too holy.

We we I I I shouldn't be here right now.

I shouldn't be in your presence.

In the presence of a holy God.

I think it's interesting that he didn't have that moment with his mother-in-law.

I don't know what it was about this.

He had seen probably Jesus cast out the demon.

He had seen him heal the sick.

There was something about this, I just want to say, there was something about this particular miracle that was different than the other ones.

I don't know if it was because for the first time Peter, this was his domain, this was his place or his area of expertise.

And what he was thinking was maybe, maybe those other ones are afloat.

We don't really know.

But something happens in Peter in this moment that he comes to this deep awareness, this awe, this reverence, this realization, this is God.

And his reaction is, you're too holy and I'm too sinful.

That's a very biblical reaction, by the way.

This is what happens with Isaiah, Isaiah 6, and he's he's experiencing God in this vision and this presence, and he says, He just says, God, I woe is me, I am a man of unclean lips.

This is this is God, who am I?

Who is what is man that you are even mindful of him?

You know, the sons of men that you would even think about us.

John in Revelation, John who, when Jesus walked and talked and he followed him closely, he he put his head on the heart of the Savior.

He could literally hear the heartbeat of the Savior.

And when he sees Jesus in Revelation, in his glory, he can't even describe him.

He's like the bottom half, it's like this glowing like fire.

It's unbelievable.

And then the top half, it's like this fire.

I don't know.

It's just I just I'm having a difficult time describing the indescribable because it's crazy, because I'm seeing God.

And you know what happens in Revelation?

He doesn't see Jesus in his glory, and he's like, that's my homeboy.

I grew up in that Jesus is my homeboy generation.

People have like shirts and hats and everything.

He falls over as if he's dead.

Because he's that holy.

And here's what's beautiful about this.

If you've ever felt that, that feeling, that he's so holy, I don't even know if I should be around him.

I don't even know if I should be in this category.

I don't even know if I should be in this people group.

I can't tell you how many times I've heard this story at our church where somebody walks in and they say, something along the lines of, man, when I walked in, I I just thought I was gonna get hit by a bolt of lightning.

I'm like, yeah, we stopped that for this week, you know.

Like, as if, you know, there's like this like, you know, concurrent theme that always happens in churches where, you know, people walk in, it's like, oh, that person's here at the lightning bolt.

But we feel that deep down.

Because we're aware of us.

And isn't this true?

Sometimes when you're the presence of the eternal God, you just become not just aware of him, but you become more aware of yourself and your deficiencies.

And Peter in this moment just says, I shouldn't even be here.

What I think is so powerful about that is Jesus doesn't leave him there.

But everybody else's response was, we deserve you.

Stay here.

Do this for us.

Peter's response is, I don't deserve you.

Get away from me.

You see, when Jesus was talking in the temple and he talked about this, you know, this pagan widow and this kind of pagan worshiping, like foreign like war, you know, commander of this army, his point to the people wasn't that I don't love you.

His point to the people was you don't realize you're broken.

You don't realize that you shouldn't be able to stand in my presence.

And if you've ever felt that, here's the beautiful thing.

You are on the precipice of the discovery that that is the exact posture that every single disciple that he called had.

Because it was never about God coming for those who are healthy.

It was for the sick that the doctor came.

The problem was everybody's sick, just not everybody would admit it.

And so Peter in this boat says, Oh my god, I'm with God and I shouldn't be.

I'm not, and he falls over.

And it's this beautiful moment.

Jesus doesn't leave him there.

Verse 9, for he and all who were with him were astonished at the catch of fish that they had taken.

And so also were James and John, son of Zebedee, who were partners with Simon.

And Jesus said to him, Do not be afraid.

Do not be afraid.

In other words, Simon?

Peter.

I know you have every reason to be afraid right now.

But one of the things that he would learn was that Jesus didn't come to rebuke us, to cast us away, and to judge us because of our sinfulness.

He knew we were.

And that's the exact reason he came.

To die.

And so he looks at him and he says, Don't be afraid.

Don't be afraid.

I know you've got reason to be afraid, but don't be afraid.

One of the most beautiful arcs in Scripture is the narrative of Peter.

In John 21, after Jesus, after John had been, or after Luke, sorry, after Peter had been following Jesus for a while.

Luke doesn't record this story, but John captures it.

John goes through, by the way, of an extraordinary, about half of John's gospel is the last 48 hours of Jesus' life.

And he goes into immense detail.

I wanted to read you this story from Luke 21.

Or sorry, from John 21.

Verse 4.

Just as day was breaking, Jesus stood on the shore.

Yet the disciples did not know it was Jesus.

Now, why was he staying on the shore?

Why didn't they know it was Jesus?

Well, because he had just died.

Again, no one expected the resurrected Jesus to come back.

Everybody expected the dead man to stay dead.

And so when Jesus came back, it surprised everybody.

It shocked everybody.

Nobody knew what to do.

But here was the crazy thing.

Many of you know this.

Just before Jesus died, Peter was aware of his sin at this point, right?

Or at the at the first story we read.

At this one, Jesus has just died, and Jesus talked to his disciples at the last dinner.

He says, you know what, Peter, you're gonna do some things for me someday.

But actually, Peter, before this happens, before this day goes, you're going to deny me three times.

He denied him once, he denied him twice.

The third time, it was legitimately, as the Bible talks about it, basically to a middle school girl, a grown man so intimidated by the guy that's being crucified.

He doesn't want anything to say that he has to do with them for fear of what it means to his life.

This is one of the first times Peter is experiencing the resurrected Jesus.

Do you think he was aware of his sin?

Oh my goodness.

Think about your best friend.

Think about your leader.

Think about whoever it is that holds that place, that you have a place of hope, of trust, and you saw them go through something excruciating.

They said you were going to do this, and then you did it.

His disciples didn't know it was Jesus.

And Jesus said to them, Children, do you have any fish?

I bet they were like children.

I'm a grown man.

They know it's Jesus yes.

They just answered no.

No.

He said to them, Cast the nets on the right side of the boat and you'll find some.

So they cast it.

So they cast it.

And now they were not able to haul it in because of the quantity of fish.

That disciple whom Jesus loved, that's John, he's kind of shouting out by the way.

The disciple who Jesus loved, therefore said to Peter, It is the Lord.

It is the Lord.

Now both times he realized he's Jesus.

But at this point, he is far more aware of his sin, but he's also far more aware of the man that he's following.

He's walked with him, he's talked with him.

He saw how he dealt with the sinners.

He saw how he dealt with the tax collectors.

He saw the lepers.

He saw the demons.

He saw the sick.

He saw all of these people that all of culture said the reason why they are the way that they are is because of their sin in their lives.

In other words, they're sinful.

We're not.

And let me just tell you this.

As churches, we can have this exact same posture.

This isn't particularly the point of the sermon.

But one of the things that I have realized, not too long ago, about a year, year and a half ago, I realized we were at church, and this is this is how I felt like God.

This is, you know, you kind of have these phrases that you're thinking, okay, God, I think it's what you're speaking to me.

And it felt like we were a church that was kind of afraid to get our hands dirty.

And then I realized, as God's been working, and I've been trying to put words to God, what have you been doing in our church?

How does this?

And I realized that He's not just moved us to a place of a church that's not afraid to get our hands dirty.

I realized the extraordinary arrogance in assuming that we were the church that had clean hands.

Our hands are already dirty.

We live in sinful humanity.

We do our best to glorify God.

But we're not with God because of what we do.

And so in that moment, Peter had had so many experiences with God that he sees Jesus, he sees him on the side, and John says, It's the Lord.

I want you to see what his reaction.

The first one, he falls over, I'm not worthy.

Now he knows he's not worthy, but his holiness, which felt like it pushed him away, he had experienced the grace of God.

This is what happens.

The disciple, whom Jesus loved, said to Peter, It is the Lord.

And when Simon Peter heard that it was the Lord, he put on his outer garment.

Why?

Because he had stripped it for work and he threw himself into the sea.

Dude, Forrest gumps it in.

Some of you guys remember that, right?

He's on the boat, he's got Bubba, there's Lieutenant Dan, Lieutenant Dan, right?

I'm just saying, this happened first.

Watch, see what happens next.

Because you're like, oh, but force, you were close to the shore.

Here's what happens.

When Simon Peter heard that it was the Lord, he stripped, he threw himself in the sea.

The other disciples came in the boat, dragging the net full of fish.

For they were not from off land, about a hundred yards.

They're like, Peter, bro, you could have waited.

He's like, Are you kidding me?

Jesus is here.

Give me my stuff.

Most times you like take off stuff to swim.

He's like, give me all of my stuff.

I'm running after Jesus.

I'm jumping in this thing, following him.

Why?

Why?

Because he had experienced a man who was so different.

Who loved, who served, who redeemed, who restored.

And what he knew, I think, intrinsically was this.

It has nothing to do with our good works that we stand in God's good graces.

It's that we would look at him and say, God, I'm not even worthy to be around you.

The holiness of God creates this feeling of separation, which is normal.

Right, if you read Genesis, God says, if you eat of this, surely you'll die.

And in the last verse in chapter 2, it talks about this man and woman.

And you know what it says?

It's the first emotion ever mentioned in the Bible.

And it's not actually an emotion, it's the absence of it.

It said they were both naked and without shame.

The presence of the love and the grace of God is the absence of shame.

But what happens, Genesis 3?

They eat, and I don't care how you interpret this verse, this is the human response to our sin every single time in light of a holy God.

They eat, they realize what they've done, they cover up and hide from God.

They eat, they realize what they've done, they cover up, they hide from God.

What Peter's doing in this first thing, he knew.

This was a holy God.

I've sinned, I gotta cover up, I gotta fall down, I can't stand in your presence.

But God did not come.

And if you don't haven't heard this before, the purpose of Jesus, the purpose and the point of Jesus was not to come to convince the world, to condemn the world.

Why?

Because the world already stood condemned because of our sinfulness.

He came to do the opposite.

To love, to restore.

And in fact, it's the people who think they don't deserve it, who think they're not qualified for it.

If you're the person in here who says, God might strike me with a lightning bolt if I walk into the church, if you're the person in here who thinks, I can't go back to reading my Bible because of I've sinned so many times, I can't go back to praying because I've done it one too many times, and God just has to be so incredibly cosmic.

If you have been avoiding God because of the sin in your life, you need to know that that's the exact reason he came.

And when Peter sees this, he has experienced Jesus and he sees him and he says, I don't care what I've done, and he just jumps in the boat or jumps in and goes after him.

And in Luke, he meets this grace.

And Jesus says, Do not fear.

Do not be afraid.

From now on, you'll be catching in.

I have not just loved you, died for you, forgiven you.

I've given you a mission, a calling, a purpose, a new purpose.

Not your kingdom, but his kingdom.

He says, Don't be afraid.

Our sinfulness and the holiness of God will always make us feel.

But it's the experience of someone.

When you've seen Jesus, you know Jesus, you followed, and you know that his purpose was not to condemn us, but was to die for us.

And there is no basis on by which our activity or our obedience will make God happy with us, pleased with us, in his presence.

And if that ever makes you uncomfortable, it should.

Because if nothing rides on our performance, if nothing about my standing with God rides on my performance, then perhaps the reason I trust God is not because I'm afraid of God's cosmic punishment.

Perhaps it's because I just love him and trust him.

I don't want my kids to do what I say because they're terrified of my punishment.

At the core, I want it to be because they love me, they trust me, and they know that I know what's best.

So they get done and they get back to the shore in verse 11.

And when they brought their boats to land, they left everything and followed him.

Simply put, when you meet the real Jesus, when you realize that you are in the presence of the Almighty God who sustains all things through the power of his mighty word, when you realize that that is the God, and he knows you, he cares about you, and he came to die for you.

And when you get that, and not only that, but he's given you a purpose, he's given you a mission, he's giving you something to latch on to, because at the end of this life, what he promised in Genesis will happen.

Death will happen, decay will happen, destruction will happen.

In fact, the only thing on this planet that will last for all of eternity are two things, the word of God and the souls of people.

We can either spend our lives building our kingdom or his kingdom.

And when we have experienced his holiness and yet his grace, it calls us to abandon our lives and follow him.

When we experience the holiness of this God and the fact that this God has not cast me away, he has not thrown me by the side, he has not said you're not worthy.

He says, No, no, no, you're the exact reason, this sin, this death, this destruction, because the consequence of sin is death.

But thanks be to God that he sent Jesus, who was the perfect, was the perfect spotless Lamb.

And just like any loving father, he would go and he would send prophets to say this is what's gonna happen, he would send Isaiah to say this is what's gonna happen.

He would send all kinds of folks to say this is what's gonna happen, prophecies through David, this is what's gonna happen.

Not only that, but he would, imagery, he would create these beautiful pictures, stuff like Exodus.

Hey, people of God, you're going to escape enslavement, you are going to pass through the judgment of God through the blood of the Lamb.

And on the way out, you're gonna walk through this water, you're gonna walk into the pro to freedom, you're not at the promised land yet, you're in the already not yet, already having been delivered, not yet fully in the promise.

That's the Christian life.

And he would layer it over and over and over and over.

Why?

Because if he would send his only son, he would want us to know.

And when we experience that son, that God, he calls us to spend the rest of our lives spending it for what matters most, and that is helping the souls of men to see the grace of God.

Here's my question: What has Jesus called you to leave?

And I don't even mean like most of you, you're you're you're an accountant and you're called to be an accountant.

Jesus hasn't called you like Matthew out of the tax collector's booth, he's called you to follow him in the tax collector's booth.

But yet to still build his kingdom.

Fish for men.

And I'm gonna pray for us.

Because what I see when I read this is there is a God who, when we encounter, it's terrifying.

And yet his grace is so intimate that we would jump off of a ship to run and grab and embrace him, even though we've done so much wrong.

Because he loves each and every one of us so much.

If that's true, then that's worth spending the rest of our lives chasing.

Let's pray.

God, would you give us the wisdom to see areas maybe where we're holding back?

God, for any of us who walked in the door, and we just felt unworthy of your love.

We felt like because of our past, because of our present, maybe when we got planned for the future.

We're just not even worthy.

But Jesus, that was the posture that you were looking for the entire time.

That's the posture you were looking for in the temple.

That's the posture you were looking for in Capernaum.

That's the posture you found on the boat with Peter.

And yet you looked at Peter and said, do not be afraid.

And on the cross, you gave us the ultimate, the ultimate display of your love poured out for us.

Jesus, I pray that we can spend our lives chasing you, our lives following you.

And that the sin in us and around us wants to condemn us and make us feel shame, God, we know that you are greater than any of that.

So we love you, we trust you.

Jesus, we want to follow you.

And so, Jesus, we just in these last few moments turn our eyes to you, our King, our Messiah, the author, the perfecter of our faith.

Amen.