Sermon Tone Analysis

Call to worship

Welcome everyone!

It is the first day of a brand new year

Rev 19:1-8 “After these things I heard something like a loud voice of a great multitude in heaven, saying, “Hallelujah!

Salvation, glory, and power belong to our God, Because His Judgments are true and righteous; for He has judged the great prostitute who was corrupting the earth with her sexual immorality, and He has avenged the blood of His bond-servants on her.”

And a second time they said, “Hallelujah!

Her smoke rises forever and ever.”

And the twenty-four elders and the four living creatures fell down and worshiped God who sits on the throne, saying, “Amen.

Hallelujah!”

And a voice came from the throne, saying, “Give praise to our God, all you His bond-servants, you who fear Him, the small and the great.”

Then I heard something like the voice of a great multitude and like the sound of many waters, and like the sound of mighty peals of thunder, saying, “Hallelujah!

For the Lord our God, the Almighty, reigns.

Let’s rejoice and be glad and give the glory to Him, because the marriage of the Lamb …”

LET US STAND AND WORSHIP!

“Worthy is the Lamb”

Words and Music by Hillsong

PRAYER OF PRAISE FOR WHO GOD IS

Father, we thank you that are worthy.

We thank You that You are all we ned.

That you fulfill us to the inner most being of who we are.

We thank You that You have given us another year to serve and worship You.

So we invite You to this place today, and ask that You we be aware of Your presence here.

In Jesus name, Amen.

“Because he Lives”

Words and Music by Matt Maher

“Great are You Lord”

Words and Music by All Sons and Daughters

PRAYER OF ILLUMINATION TO OPEN OUR HEARTS

Our Heavenly Father, we pray today, in the name of Jesus, for an anointing as I teach your Word.

And we pray that the Holy Spirit will impart truth to hungry hearts and warnings to sinful hearts.

In the name of Jesus we pray, Amen.

SERMON

Introduction

INTRODUCTION

Today is the first day of a brand new year.

And it is a very special New Years Day because we get to spend it with our church family worshiping the Lord Jesus.

I was planning to start back in the Gospel of Matthew today, but I want to share a message that the Lord showed me a few days ago that I think is very fitting for our New years Day Service.

New Year’s Day is often about what kind of good habits we are going to set in place.

Some people make New Years resolutions to get rid of bad habits and others make plans to develop new and healthy habits.

Dave Ramsey said this: “we should set goals in each of these 7 areas of our lives to WIN in 2023!”

1. Spiritual goals

2. Financial goals

3. Career goals

4. Intellectual goals

5. Fitness goals

6. Family goals

7. Social goals

I’m not disagreeing with Dave that we shouldn’t set goals, but the truth is many of us do not do very well when it comes to keeping the goals we set.

So I want to mention just focus on one thing for us to consider moving into 2023 and why it is vital for our walk with Christ and the future of this church.

We will be in Luke 5 today, and most of us have heard this story and remember it well.

Jesus is teaching a crowd of people at the Sea of Galilee and sees Peter washing His nets.

He gets in the boat with Peter who has been out fishing all night, and tells him to put out into the deep and let down his nets.

And Peter a little reluctantly does what Jesus tells him, and catches so many fish that two boats are filled and begin to sink.

All miracles are pictures that teach us something about Jesus.

When Jesus calms the storm, it represents His ability to calm the chaos in our lives.

When Jesus makes the lepers clean it represents Jesus’ ability to cleanse us from our sin.

When Jesus gives the blind man sight, it teaches us His ability to give us spiritual vision.

When Jesus raised Lazarus from the dead, it teaches us that He is the giver of life.

And in this story, when Jesus produces a miraculous catch of fish, it teaches us that only when the church learns to depend full upon Jesus can we be successful at winning people to Jesus Christ.

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In Luke chapter 5 beginning in verse 1, the Bible says, “Now it happened that while the crowd was pressing around Him and listening to the word of God, He was standing by the lake of Gennesaret; and He saw two boats lying at the edge of the lake; but the fishermen had gotten out of them and were washing their nets.

And He got into one of the boats, which was Simon’s, and asked him to put out a little distance from the land.

And He sat down and continued teaching the crowds from the boat.

Now when He had finished speaking, He said to Simon, “Put out into the deep water and let down your nets for a catch.

Simon responded and said, “Master, we worked hard all night and caught nothing, but I will do as You say and let down the nets.”

There are two things I want to point out: v1 “the Word of God” and v5 “but I will do as You say”

What is the “The Word of God”?

This is not referring to the Bible.

Jesus was not standing in front of this crowd reading from an OT scroll.

There are places where Jesus did this such as in Luke chapter 4 where He read from the scroll of Isaiah.

What this is referring to is the very words that Jesus was speaking.

Why does Luke refer to this as, “the Word of God?”

To stress the authority of what Jesus was saying.

This was not just another man speaking, but the what was being said was from the mouth of God!

The Words of Jesus carry ALL authority and our lives as followers of Christ should reflect that

God has authority over nature

Matthew 8:27 “The men were amazed, and said, “What kind of a man is this, that even the winds and the sea obey Him?”

God has authority over humanity

John 17:1-2 “Jesus spoke these things; and raising His eyes to heaven, He said, “Father, the hour has come; glorify Your Son, so that the Son may glorify You, just as You gave Him authority over all mankind.”

God has authority over the rulers and kings of the earth

John 19:11 “Jesus answered him, “You would have no authority over Me at all, if it had not been given to you from above”

God has authority over the spiritual realm

Col 1:16 “for by Him all things were created, both in the heavens and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones, or dominions, or rulers, or authorities—all things have been created through Him and for Him.”

God has absolute authority over ALL THINGS

That is why the supreme authority in this church is the Bible.

It is the very words of God.

We do not trump the Bible with Robert’s Rules of Order or what people think about God, or people’s ideas about church.

We follow the Word of God because He is the LORD ands what He says has greater authority than anything else.

Notice what Jesus says to Peter: “Put out into the deep water and let down your nets for a catch.”

Now I really like how the ESV translates this: “Master, we toiled all night and took nothing!

But at your word I will let down the nets.”

Peter is not just getting advice from anyone but from the very mouth of God.

It was the Word of God who was speaking to Peter!

It was the all knowing Christ who knows the future, who changes the laws of nature, who knows EVERYTHING about EVERYTHING! Nothing is impossible for God!

But Peter hesitates, because he has been out fishing all night.

And in these days, night time was the time to go fishing because that is when the fish were biting.

And Peter is not a weekend fisherman, this is what he does for a living.

This is how he feeds his family, this is how he pays his taxes, this is how he puts sandals on his feet, and this is what he has been doing for years!

He is an experienced fisherman!

And Here is Jesus.

Who was not a fisherman but a carpenter by trade.