Well, as Freya said, we are indeed in a new term.
Funny September is it? We almost like we have January
and September. These are kind of the the
restart reset, new beginnings, periods of time, isn't it?
And and. As I was seeking the Lord for
for this new term and asking Lord, what have you got to?
Bring the Lord this week. Gave me a picture.
And it's a picture of the splash park at Saint Albans Verolanian
Park. Many of you have seen that.
I don't know how much usage you got during this socalled summer,
but I remember when our three children were younger, they
certainly enjoyed. Splashing around and you know, I
don't know how we managed it, but you would go there with a
picnic and you could spend hours there.
I mean, they just absolutely loved it.
And. The Lord gave me a picture of us
adults. In the in the splash park,
enjoying the the, the splashing around and we were wondering
when we would get the new splash park equipment.
Some more sprinklers, some more. Water, guns, whatever it might
be, we enjoyed being in that splash.
Park, but I felt the Lord say to me that the time is now to move
from the splash park into the deep.
The Lord said to me, stop looking for the new sprinklers
and cast your eyes out into the deep where I am.
You see, it's not that the splash park is wrong.
The splash park has been created for children and Paul said
you've had the milk, but Are you ready for the meat?
And the question I want to pose to you this morning.
Whether you're in this room or watching online is Are you ready
for the deep? Because that's where God's
calling you. The challenge is stop splashing
around in the sprinklers because now is the time to go into the
deep. And the Lord reminded me of a
wonderful story in the scriptures.
Where Jesus calls his disciples. And over the next few weeks, we
are going to look at the call of God upon us.
And I'm going to base this on Luke 5 versus 1 to 11, which is
going to become. If you if you like our anchor
text for this series and so why don't we read that on it's going
to be on the screen if you're in the room and if you're you got
your device at home online it will be on your screen.
And let me read this. And then let's unpack this
together. On one occasion while the crowd
was pressing in on him, that's Jesus.
To hear the word of God, He was standing by the lake of
Gennesarat, which is also the Sea of Galilee, and he saw two
boats by the lake. But the fishermen had gone out
of them and were washing their Nets, getting into one of the
boats, which was Simon's? He asked.
Him to put out a little from the land.
And he sat down and taught the people from the boat.
And when he had finished speaking, he said to Simon, Put
out into the deep, let's all say that.
Put out into the and let down your Nets for a catch and Simon
answered. Pasta.
You know, we we. Toiled all night and look took
nothing but. That's your word.
I will let down the Nets when they had done this thing, closed
a large number. Of fish and then Nets were
breaking. They signaled to their partners
in the other boat to come and help them and they.
Came and filled both the boats so that they.
Began to sink. When Simon Peter saw this, he
fell down at Jesus's knees. Heart for me I am a sinful man,
O Lord, the he and all who are with him were astonished at the
catch of fish that they had taken, and so also.
With James and Johns sons of. Zebedee, who are partners with
Simon and Jesus, said to Simon, do not be afraid now on you will
be catching men and when? They had brought their boats to
land. They left everything and
followed him. Wow, what a story.
I'm sure we've heard that story many times.
It is just such a it's just jam packed, jam packed with truth.
And what we're going to look at is that there are actually three
calls in this. Story There are three calls.
Because I don't know about you, but I suspect that when you hear
that the past is going to be talking about.
The call you say to yourself, right, what am I going to do?
And that's a fair point. You know, we are called to do
the works of Christ, are we not? But in this story, what we can
actually see is that there are three calls and that in some
respects, and. I can't say this is a gospel
truth, but I suspect that the sequence by which we see these
calls are the sequence by which God normally works in us and
through us. And what are these three calls?
Let me just lay them out for you.
The first one is this. There is the call to be with
Jesus. That is the primary foundation
number one call for us, which is the call to be with Jesus.
The second call we're going to look at is the call to walk in
holiness, which it means to be set apart, and then the third
call that we're going to look. At is the call to fulfill his
mission and purpose the Great Commission.
Within this story we see these three calls, the call to be with
Jesus, the call to walk in holiness, and the call to
fulfill the Great Commission. So why don't we start kick
things off as they say with the first call?
To be with Jesus, Jesus came to Simon Peter, did he not?
And he says this getting into the boat.
Which was Simon's. You see, the boats here
represents our hearts and our lives.
Indeed, the heart is the rudder of our lives, is it not?
Our affections, how we how we feel about things, how we think
about things. Our hearts is is the thing that
moves us and inclines us towards what we therefore do.
And you see the boats here? Pryor were empty of Jesus.
There was no Jesus in the boat. And there was a difference, was
there not, between the multitude who had gathered and Simon
Peter, who was in the boat with Jesus.
Maybe you're here this morning. Maybe you're watching me online.
And for so long you have been part of the multitude that.
Comes along to listen. But after the word of God is
given, you leave and you find that Jesus isn't in your boat.
Is that you this morning? Are you part of the multitude?
But you've yet to say yes. To Jesus being in your boat.
Maybe you feel the invitation of Jesus this morning and I want to
give you an opportunity later to respond to that.
But why is the call to be with Jesus foundational?
Why is it our primary calling of God on?
Because here's the thing we need to understand.
The call to do comes after the call to be.
Should I say that again? The.
Call to do comes after the call to be.
Or put it another way, before we are called to something, we are
called to someone. You can say Amen if you wish.
You can be Pentecostal if you like.
You can give you thank you, sis. You can give the preachers and
encouragement if you feel led. Before we are called to
something, we are called to someone.
We're so focused on doing. I mean, it's in our in our
conversation when we meet people, what do you?
I'd like someone to say who, who's, or yours.
I'm Jesus can. You imagine the kind of
conversation you have, but the enemy wants to get you doing
before you ever been you. See we do out of and because of
our position as sons and daughters.
We don't do to gain or earn. Our position as sons and
daughters, You see the difference, I tell.
There is many a person that goes to church that is doing to earn.
The right to be a son and daughter.
Spoiler alert, you can't do anything.
Jesus did it all for you on the cross.
You want a religion of works? Go pick something else.
You want a religion of grace? You're in the right place.
Oh, you're waking up Good. Lovely to be lovely to see you
all on this new term. Amen.
Preach it, right? Listen, my my son and my
daughters do things with me because I am their father.
They don't do things with me so that I become their father.
Thank you, Sis. Let's look at the scriptures.
What happened with Jesus? You're going to love this.
When did Jesus do? After he was baptized And God
said that is my with whom I am well pleased.
We're called to someone before, We're called to something now.
Why is that important? Let me give you some reason.
You see, doing to God is supposed.
To be a fruit, not a manufactured work and.
Fruit grows from the relationship of the root.
You hearing me? Who's who's thinking about Biden
the vine right now? John 15.
You know it well. We are to abide in the vine in
order that we bear fruit. That's the doing.
You see. Our doing for him comes out of
relationship with Him. Our doing for him is fruit that
we bear because we are in Him. You know Jesus when he left his
disciples. Can you imagine?
He's like, I'm about to leave you.
And they're like, say what? That's not in the Bible.
I put that in myself just to clarify.
You can't leave us, Jesus. And then Jesus says something
great. You want me to go?
Oh, yeah. You really want me to go?
Why? Because when I go, the Father's
going to send the Holy Spirit. Why is that?
Good, because I've been with you, Jesus Emmanuel, but God is
now going to be in you, the Holy Spirit.
That is, the promise for all those who say yes to Jesus and
say, come into my boat, is that by the power of the Holy Spirit,
God is in us, and we work from that position, therefore as sons
of daughters, because. And we looked at this during the
gospel series, didn't we? What?
Happens when you become a Christian.
You are adopted into the family. You become a child of God,
that's what happens and as a child you are a Co heir with
Christ. Everything God has is yours.
We are to rule and reign with Christ.
That is the promise of salvation, one of the promises
of salvation. And you see, our identity is so
important because our identity tells us who we belong to and
that we are wanted. When we recognize that we are
his, it meets the need that we have, that we are known and that
we are want. Every human being has a need to
be known and to be want because we have been created for
relationship and fellowship with God.
And when that break happens? We seek that elsewhere.
And you see if you go about doing before you are being with
him and understand your identity in him and walk in that you're
doing is skewered because you are seeking to belong somewhere.
Listen, your discernment can become cut across and weak when
your identity is not rooted in Christ.
Because what you are seeking is to belong somewhere.
And so you do things out of I want to be accepted, I want them
to like me. I want to feel like I belong.
I don't have to do a poll for you to tell me your own stories
to know that you've been there before.
Possible. That your decisions about what
you do has come out of that place of need to be known and to
belong. Do I get a witness in the room?
So don't talk to me about doing unless you're talking to me
about being, because if your identity is not rooted in
Christ, you're doing is going to be skewered.
You get this. It's important.
Why else is it important? Because our identity tells us
what our purpose is. If you don't be with Jesus and
know that he is God as it says in the sun, then that.
Whisper of you can be like. God becomes louder and louder.
Same old lie spun in different ways you can be like.
You can know what's right and wrong in order that you can
decide what you do. And so, if we're not rooted in
being with him, the motivations of our hearts are inclined to
do, to work out purposes that meet our needs, not his calling
man. Out of the mouth of babes comes
true. Your purpose in life, I I hope I
don't break your bubble here, is not to to comfort yourself and
build yourself up. Sorry if that's broken.
A few bubbles, That's the wrong mix.
Burst a few bubbles. Broken.
Something else mate, you know? Your role in life is not to
satisfy all of your desires. Your role in life is to receive
the desires from Him into your heart.
When he says he gives you the desires of your heart, if you
don't root it in your identity as a son of him or a daughter of
him, then you will read this like this.
Hey, good news people. Whatever desire I have, he's
going to give it to me. I find that some movement helps
making the point. If you're rooted in Christ, the
way you read it is this he's going to give me.
The desires into my. Heart that align with him.
But don't talk to me about doing unless you've talked to me about
being. Why else is being so important?
Because, you see, our identity makes us long the home.
Our identity gives us an eternal perspective through this short
and brief so join in the world. We are strangers here.
We are just passing through. We are not of this world.
This is and I says in the Bible. That the enemy is of the is the
spirit of the air. This is his domain now.
As we walk as ambassadors of Christ, we extend His Kingdom
here. That's part of our rule.
But this earth, as it currently is, is not our home.
What do I mean by that? The, the, the successes of this
world that. People strive for should not be
the successes that we seek. The goals of this world that so
many seek are not the goals that we should.
Hold the objectives that the world has.
And not our objectives, because we are ambassadors in a foreign
land. We have other successes and.
That's doing what God's called us to do.
We have other goals and that's to glorify him.
We have other objectives and that's to worship him in spirit
and in truth. You see, our identity tells us,
and we feel it, that we belong to him and where he is.
That's where we want to be. We who's Listen, don't put your
hands up. Who senses inside that there is
more? That this world, it's just not
satisfying me. Just tastes a bit funny.
And you do that the more you go in the boat with Jesus, the more
you go. That's a good thing.
It's the spirit in you reminding you that you are not of this
world. Listen, CS Lewis put it this
way. If we find ourselves with a
desire. That nothing in this world can
satisfy. The most probable explanation is
that we were made for another world.
Kind of makes sense, right? Now what are the benefits when
we realize this is not our other, this is not our home,
that we are going to be with him.
Jesus said, I go to prepare a place for you for where I am.
There you will be also for in my father's house or many rooms
that I go to prepare a place. Come on, bring it on.
Maranatha. Listen, James says we're here
for about a moment. But if you think this is all it
is, your purposes in life are going to be about all this
place, Not that place, new term, you start.
You're enjoying this. Are you want to stay in the
sprinklers or you want to go in the deep?
This is this is meat. But there is fruit from that
meat, There is freedom from that meat.
Now Jesus says do not store up for yourself.
Treasures on. But store up yourselves
treasures in what that says is number one he knows.
Our frailties, humans that we desire to store up treasures
here and #2, he tells. That we can store up treasures
in heaven. Now let's just take this from a
philosophical perspective. If.
I am here for a moment and I'm in eternity for eternity.
Where would I like to store up treasures?
Is that correct? Imagine, right, you're at
university or college or somewhere, and you have.
You, you get a phone call out the blue from from a very, very
rich uncle you never knew you had.
And Amen, brother. Like, I'm open for that.
Lord, that's great. I'll be by my phone this
afternoon and the uncle says, Hey Mark, hello.
This is your Uncle Bobby. Listen if you.
Put your head down these next three years and.
You know what? You just focus on on the.
Course you focus on the objectives.
You you focus on all those things when you graduate.
I will give you £50 billion. Now what are you going to do?
You're. Going to get your head down for
the next three years, aren't you?
Doesn't matter if you're even eating pot noodle.
You're like, it's all worth it. This is nothing I want to focus
on, on on winning the race. I'm getting the prize.
I want to set my face on what's ahead because this isn't really.
I mean, this is important. Hey, have you ever figured that
that might be what life is like? That we are in the proverbial 3
years. And you see Jesus when you read
the scriptures, the reason he uses words like you have an
inheritance coming to you, You are Co air with Christ.
You're going to rule a reign with Christ, you're going to
have treasures, is because Jesus is trying to remind us that this
is not our home. This is akin to going through
the birthing canal. I mean, you tell the little
fetus, hey, there's something bigger outside than this?
No, I don't think so. This is very warm and very cozy
and there cannot be anything other than this room.
You know, CS Lewis says. This is bitter mere shadow of
what is to come. And so when we get the fact that
we are not meant for here, I E that we have our home with him,
we are then willing to make sacrifices, bring him glory that
we wouldn't do otherwise. If you are living for this
world, you're going to make decisions around this world.
But if you're living for him, you'll make difference.
But don't talk to me about doing before you talk to me about
being next week.
We're going to. Look at the call to walking
Holiness now. The call to holiness is about
being. Set apart.
I find it very interesting in this story.
That Jesus gets in the boat with Simon Peter and they leave the
shore. There is a separation that
happens between the multitude and Simon Peter with G.
And we're going to unpack that more next week.
And then the following week will depend on how next week goes.
We're going to look at 10 Kingdom principles, which we're
going to do over a few weeks, the call of God on our lives
that we get from this story. There's 10 Kingdom principles.
And we're going to overlay that the stories from the Bible.
Of a great heroes of faith that have responded to the call of
God on their lives. But I'd.
Like to invite the band up as I attempt to bring this plane into
land. You could please put your fast
and seat belt and put your seat trays up.
No reclining at this point. Please put your seats up.
Thank you. Sharon.
I want to simply ask you this question and and while I say
simply ask you this question, it's not a simple question.
Is Jesus in your boat? Well, do you have a situation
where you invite Jesus into your boat when things are good?
And then? And then and then sometimes you
like Jesus. I got it from here.
If you could just at the next dock, just pop out.
I've got some mates over there and I need to go and visit them.
Jesus is. OK, sure.
Is Jesus in your boat as you start this next term?
Are you thinking about what's coming up?
With a new captain in your boat. Or are you still the captain?
Call him the shots. Was Jesus Call him the shots.
What about this story he was directing where that Pope went
to? Right.
Is Jesus directing your life? Have you relinquished control?
You know Timothy Keller was since passed.
Great theologian and pastor says this.
The heart of the call of God, listen to this is the surrender
of the will. The heart.
Heart of the call of God upon us is the surrender of our will.
Totally, totally. When Jesus says die to yourself,
he wasn't using colorful language.
He was saying, die to your will, die to those desires that are
separate from me, dire to. Guide to the inclinations of the
earth that pull you. Listen, we fight against the
trifecta of the world, the enemy, and the flesh.
Let us stand as I pray.