Promises Or Preferences | Mark 1:16-20

Camp Theme: Surrender

Considered what to preach this afternoon, wanted to deal with a text I covered a few years ago about surrender.

Surrender is a concept that applies to everyone, not just campers, but I hope to use it as a way to help the young people prepare themselves for the week ahead. And maybe give the rest of us a direction for prayer this week.

There’s no telling what God wants to do in our lives any week, but especially a week specifically designed for Him to work. When you think of it that way, surrender is probably the most important subject we could deal with, apart from salvation.

Here’s the reason: Jesus Himself said that an unwillingness to deny self disqualifies us from being a disciple.

Luke 14:26–27 “If any man come to me, and hate not his father, and mother, and wife, and children, and brethren, and sisters, yea, and his own life also, he cannot be my disciple. And whosoever doth not bear his cross, and come after me, cannot be my disciple.”

Matthew 16:24 “Then said Jesus unto his disciples, If any man will come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow me.”

The reason surrender is so important is we will never be the disciple God has designed us to be without it.

That doesn’t mean we don’t have our own preferences. We all do. We all have things we prefer. Things we’d rather do.

My Preferences As A Teenager

Businessman, WTC, NYC

Tall buildings, big cities, lots of money

The Disciples Had Preferences

They lived to fish

The four disciples in this text – Peter, Andrew, James and John – were full-time, successful, fishermen.

Some of you are fisherman. I am not!

Their preference was fishing. They knew it. They were good at it. It was successful.

Vs. 16 – The symbol of their preference was a net.

The net represented the success of their business. It was a picture of their life’s work.

Jesus Came By With A Promise

Vs. 17a – “Now as He walked by the Sea of Galilee”

Jesus came by on purpose. He knew they were there fishing and came for a reason.

Vs. 17b – “Come ye after me and I will make you to become fishers of men.”

He was telling them, “Right now your lives are about fishing. But if you’ll follow me, I’ll give you something to live for that’s more meaningful.”

Notice He didn’t say, “You’ll never fish again,” because we know they did.

But he was saying, “Fishing will no longer be your primary purpose in life. Your life will no longer be about a fishing net. It will be about something bigger.”

And this wasn’t a simple choice. Their livelihood depended on fishing. Their families depended on their business. Which makes their response all the more remarkable.

Vs. 18 – Right away they forsook their nets & followed.

The Disciples Had Two Options

They could hold on to their nets and keep fishing for fish or they could drop them and follow Jesus and fish for men.

Their nets represented their preferences. Everything they knew.

But Jesus came by with promises. “If you follow me, I’ll give you a greater purpose. I’ll give meaning to your life you haven’t known to this point.”

And in that moment, the disciples had to choose between preferences or promises.

In the decision to follow Christ, your choice comes down to the conflict between your preferences and God’s promises.

Preferences Vs. Promises

This NET represents our PREFERENCES.

For the disciples, the net meant they would catch fish.

There’s nothing wrong with fishing. It’s fine to fish. But here’s the thing about fishing – Fishing is limited to what fish can provide.

Meaning, all you get from fish is what fish can provide. So if you catch fish on a day and take them down to the market where people buy them and eat them, you’ll have to go back down to the boat the next day and fish again because people will get hungry again.

Catching a fish is limited to what fish can provide. It’s not a bad thing, but its impact is short-lived.

In the grand scale of things, the impact of fishing is about (hold up fingers) this big.

When you live according to your preferences, all you get is what your preferences can provide.

But when you live according to God’s promises, you get all that God’s promises have to offer.

Hold on to your nets and you’ll catch fish. (this big)

But drop them and you’ll catch men. (Which in the grand scheme of things is THIS big)

So the disciples were facing a choice that essentially was this: Follow my preferences, make money, and put food on the table.

OR lay all of that aside and follow Christ’s promises and make a difference in the lives of men and women who will live somewhere for eternity.

If I follow my preferences, I’ll only get what my preferences can provide. But following Christ’s promises will produce all that He can provide.

So the thought this afternoon is this: It’s Time To Drop Your Nets And Embrace God’s Promises.

Applications:

Most obvious application is reaching souls. This is for all of us. Can you imagine spending 80 years down here living for things that don’t matter in eternity? Many will. But the only thing around the throne will be the souls of men and women and boys and girls. If we don’t give at least part of our lives to reaching the lost, we are pursuing our preferences over God’s promises and we’ll regret it.

It’s time to drop the net of pride and tell our neighbors. Or drop the net of fear and start telling the people you meet about Jesus. Or drop the net of complacency and do something, anything!

But this principle applies in so many ways: Am I going to hold on to my preferences or let them go for God’s promises?

The Net Of My Future

Young people have plans and dreams. But God could interrupt that this week and give you a vision for something greater. Will you be willing to drop your net and follow?

Parents, what if your young person says, “I want to give my life to ministry” this week? But you have a desire for them to be successful in some other way? Are we willing to drop our nets when it comes to our kids? To let go of our preferences and follow God’s promises?

It’s not always young people with nets to drop.

Young Person

What net do you still carry in your heart?

The net of pride when it comes to submitting to your parents?

The net of friends that you know aren’t helping your spiritual life?

You have to believe that’s God’s promises are better than your preferences. That if God says He’ll bless us when we obey our parents or separate from certain influences that we believe Him and embrace His promises over our preferences.

This week will test your preferences:

You may not get the seat on the bus you wanted

You may get called down for doing something and you may not even be the guilty party

You might not get the bunk you expected

Someone may cut you in the food line

Someone may not take a shower when you want them to

One of the adults may talk to you about something and you don’t like it

You can either hold on to the net of preferences or embrace God’s promises that He gives grace to the humble and blesses those who submit to His process of growth.

You can keep your nets, but you’ll miss God’s blessings.

The decision is yours.

My Preferences Vs. God’s Promises

I told you earlier that I was carrying a net of preferences as a teenager.

Preferences: Financially secure, lofty position, a corner office in the WTC, comfort, security, the pleasures of life (all things that are temporary).

Promises: As a kid I had surrendered to serve God with my life. As a teenager I tried to forget about it and hoped God would too. But I knew that’s what I was supposed to do with my life. And when I recognized that God’s promises of obedience and surrender were better than my nets of preference, I decided to drop them and trust His plan.

And now, after 24 years in ministry, I can tell you that His promises are far superior to my preferences. The best decision I ever made was to drop my nets and follow.

When I look at the people I’ve been able to meet and influence, that’s so much better than anything I could have done.

Because anything I could have caught in my net would either die with me or burn up eventually. But every person we impact will still be alive somewhere in 1 billion years.

So I can either choose to invest my life in that which will last for 80 years, or give my life to invest in people that live forever.

My nets might have made me money and comfort, but dropping them to follow God has given me the opportunity to have an eternal impact on people’s lives.

Illustration: A few years after I dropped my net of having an office at the top of the WTC, guess what happened? 9/11.

The WTC towers fell over 20 years ago. The material that would have been in the office I dreamed of having was either pulverized or carried off to a landfill somewhere.

And yet every person you give your life to reach will live forever somewhere.

Every promise of God you embrace has eternal ramifications.

So you can either hold your nets or drop them and follow. That’s the question this week, not just for the young people, but for all of us.

The Best Way To Start This Week Is To Let Go Of Your Net

Your preferences will only give you what they have to offer. But God’s promises will provide all that God can offer.

Illustration: One-way missionaries about 200 years ago. Packed coffins. One way tickets. One of those was AW Milne. He went to Vanuatu in the SP and reached an island of head hunters. 35 years, lived among and loved them. When he died, tribe members put this on his tombstone: “When he came there was no light. When he left there was no darkness.” Most would say he died with nothing, but I say he died with nothing left. He gave it all to God to make an eternal difference. He set aside his preferences and embraced God’s promises, and I can promise you this – he has no regrets.

I think we probably all have some nets to drop.

Maybe it’s the net of pride. Complacency toward the things of God. The net of not taking seriously your walk with God. Or not being committed to the Lord as a genuine disciple.

Parents, is there some net about your kids that you need to let go of and tell the Lord, “They’re yours. Do with their life what you will.” So even if they come back with a higher standard of holiness? Are you okay with that? Or if they come back convinced they want to give their lives to God? Be willing to drop the net.

Teens, you’ll be confronted with a lot of nets this week. Would you be willing to drop your net of proud complacency and say yes to all that the HS through the Word asks of you this week?

Time to drop some nets and follow Christ to enjoy His promises instead of your preferences.