Introduction

I don’t know how many of you go fishing, but I went fishing last summer on the TFC Young Preachers trip. And one day, towards the end of the trip, I told Jeff that I wanted to fish in his boat. Well, little did I know, Jeff had a competition set up that day for everyone who fished in his boat. Jeff’s boat was one of the smaller ones, so there was only room for three guys – Jeff, me and Taylor. So, this competition was one that I knew I couldn’t win from the start. It was hopeless. The deal was whoever caught the least amount of fish had to jump in the lake, with all their clothes on no less. And the lake water is usually cold, I mean very cold. And I was up against two of the best – Jeff and Taylor. Jeff, obviously has been on the trip for years and so he is very good at reeling in those fish. And Taylor, well he’s just Taylor. Like’s to do things his own way. And I don’t mean to put him down, but he literally liked to reel in almost every bite he got. I mean you can almost see him sitting there and he feels a bite and, oh there he goes reeling. So, naturally he had a lot of opportunities to catch them fish, and he took full advantage of them. Now, me on the other hand, I’m not the best fisherman so I was doomed from the start. We went out to fish, and during the whole time I was nervous. I really believed that they were going to throw me into the lake. So I sat in the boat, gripped with fear and threw out a cast every once in a while in hopes that the fish might have pity on me. Well, after fishing for several hours and me far behind in the competition, it was time to go back to the island we were staying on. When we got there, I learned the truth – Jeff and Taylor weren’t going to throw me out, they showed their mercy upon me – very gracious of them.

Well, I’ve got another fishing story to share with you, and this one comes from the Bible. So, if you’ve got your Bible, please turn to Luke 5. This is my text for the night.

READ Luke 5:1-3

Alright, so do you see this picture? Jesus is teaching huge crowds of people and the crowd is so massive that it is pushing into Him, trying to get closer. So, what does Jesus do? He looks and finds two fishing boats. One of them owned by Simon. And so he asks Simon if he can sit in his boat and use it as a pulpit to preach from. Simon agrees and brings Jesus a little out from shore. So, Simon is sitting there in the boat listening to Jesus’ message.

READ Luke 5:4-5a

So Jesus finishes preaching, and now he wants to go fishing with Simon. Problem is that Simon had already been out for the entire night of fishing and hadn’t caught anything. Simon was probably thinking: “What does this Jesus know about fishing? Isn’t he a carpenter?” Simon was an expert fisherman by trade, that is what he did for a living. So, surely he knew when and how to fish, right? Well, let’s take a look at Simon’s response to Jesus’ request.

READ Luke 5:5b

“Because you say so”. Simon really trusted Jesus. I mean he had just heard all the preaching He had done, so Simon probably figured this man had some wisdom. But to go fishing during the day time? You see, that just wasn’t done in those days. Fisherman would go out at night to throw out their nets because the fish were close to the water’s surface, but during the day the fish liked to stay at the bottom of the lake, so it would be hard to naturally catch many at all during the day. And in addition, Jesus had just finished preaching to a multitude of people – many were probably still present watching Jesus. So, for Simon to accept such a request might hurt his reputation – people knew that you don’t fish during the day. Nevertheless, Simon displays trust and agrees to go fishing with Jesus despite the apparent absurdity of the situation. I wonder what the result is.

READ Luke 5:6-7

Do you see what happened here? They went fishing during the day when there was little chance of catching anything, and yet they caught so many fish that their nets began to break. Jesus had given Simon a promise that they would go out into the lake, put down the nets and make a catch. For some reason Simon had trusted Jesus enough to do what he had asked. And look at the results! Jesus more than followed through with his promise. There wasn’t just a catch of fish, but there was so many fish that the nets began to tear and break. I mean this was like the biggest catch Simon had made of his life, this was huge! Way more than enough to make up for the previous night of catching nothing.

This image of overflowing fish, has some spiritual implications as well. When we trust God so fully that we go out fishing with Him, He will give us a blessing just like he gave Simon. Now, it may not be real live fish, but God blesses us with what we need. Our act of obedience causes God to bless us to the point that we overflow with life, joy, peace, and these things don’t just affect us. Just like Simon had to call over the other boats in order to contain the huge catching of fish, our blessing affects others around us. Our attitudes of joy and peace, given to us by God, in the midst of the storms raging around us, demonstrate God’s power to those around us.

So, let’s look at Simon’s response to this supernatural blessing of fish.

READ Luke 5:8-10a

At this moment, Simon realized his inadequacy. He was nothing in comparison to Jesus. He had spent an entire night trying to fish during the prime conditions and caught nothing. Now under the guidance of Jesus, they had gone fishing under normally non-ideal circumstances and caught a multitude. Because of this feeling of nothingness he fell at Jesus’ feet. He fully realized who this man Jesus was: the Lord himself. And the closer he got to Jesus, the more he realized his sinful state. Simon was like nothing. And he knew it. He knew he wasn’t worth anything, and he realized that he couldn’t even perform daily tasks of life that he was supposed to be an expert at, like fishing, without Jesus. But, Jesus didn’t think we was worth nothing, in fact He believed the opposite. And the same is true for us.

READ Luke 5:10b

Jesus humbled himself to the level of natural fisherman to teach Simon a lesson and give him a promise, which related to spiritual fishing – fishing for souls. And if you’ve read the book of Acts, you know that this promise is fulfilled. On the Day of Pentecost in Acts 2, Simon gives his first sermon per se, and the people are convicted by it. Three thousand come to accept Christ that day as Lord because of just 1 message. Now, let’s pause and think for a moment – 3,000. Imagine if the entire high school was gathered all at one place hearing a speaker. And then after the speaker gave the message, the entire school stood up and accepted Christ. That would be earth shatteringly amazing! – the entire school! And that’s only about 2400! So, throw in the 9th grade class and then ya got around the 3000 mark. So, 3000 is huge. Now, back to the text in Luke 5. Here, Jesus again more than fulfilled his promise relating to making Simon being a fisher of men. And this sermon that Simon gave was just his first, he gave others and many people came to accept Christ through them. The point is that Jesus follows through on what he promises to do for your life. When He tells you to do something or to go to a certain place, if you willingly obey and leave the consequences to Him, the results will be His will. And as we have just seen, His will is pretty amazing.

READ Luke 5:11

By this time, Simon had made up his mind. He was willing to follow Jesus. Jesus had more than convinced Simon that He knew what He was doing, and Simon recognized this. So, what does Simon do? He leaves everything – he puts down all of his earthly possessions (except probably his clothes), abandons everything and follows Jesus. This is quite a sacrifice! The profession of fishing was a somewhat, prosperous, respected profession. He had relative security as a fisherman. But instead of just basking in this security, Simon gives up this worldly security and follows Jesus, not knowing where he would go. But that didn’t matter to him; he knew he was in good hands. In fact, he knew that he was in God’s hands and that these hands’ would take him amazing places. These hands had already proven that they could be trusted, so Simon believes in these hands. Instead of being a fisherman that catches fish, he now agrees to take on a higher calling – to catch people.

You know, we are like fish in God’s lake. We like to swim around in every direction, going our own way, controlled only by ourselves. But, God has thrown a hook out to us. In fact, it’s been there since we were born. Now, some of us may have seen this hook, and even grabbed onto it, but there might be some of us who haven’t fully realized that this hook is present; just floating here in the water above our heads. You see, God has provided a way for us to be saved – through the death and Resurrection of His perfect son, Jesus Christ. That is why the hook is available to each one of us – to grab hold of it, to “confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and to believe in your heart that God raised from the dead.” If you embrace this, your life will never be the same.

USE RULEBOOK

A relationship with God is not one where He gives you His rulebook to follow. He doesn’t go to you every morning and say:

“Son, here ya go. Obey all of these rules and live. But disobey just one, and you’ll die!

No, this is not at all what a relationship with God is about. God loves each one of us, and He seeks to have a personal relationship with us. Not one where we are subject to His wrath at our every sin, but one where he firmly, yet gently, guides us back onto the right path when we sin. God is interested in an intimate relationship with each one of us. His goal is to love us, and for us to love Him back with all we have. What does this take on our part? Obedience. It takes obedience. Just like Simon and those around him left everything and followed Jesus, we too must leave all of our earthly passions behind.

Remember that lake that we are swimming in? Well, there’s bad news. The lake is contaminated. The presence of sin has caused it to become murky to the point that we can’t see what’s in front of us. We don’t know where to swim, or if where we are swimming lead to disaster, unless we have a light to guide us. And this light is God.

READ Psalm 119:105

Unfortunately, God is not the only one who is offering to guide us. There is another, his name is Satan. His purpose is to bribe you into following him through giving you various worldly treasures. Maybe for you these treasures consist of money, or of other distractions. But whatever they may be, his sole intent is for you to bite into his hook, becoming ensnared, and then for you to blindly follow him wherever he wants to bring you. And we know that he will only bring you to destruction and death.

However, there is a way out. There is a way to resist this temptation of earthly power. It is by accepting God’s gift to us. God has given the true gift, the one that has eternal value. Sure, Satan’s supposed gifts look great, but they don’t last. His gifts will surely rot. But, God’s gift of salvation stands the test of time and will endure throughout all of eternity. For it is God who has the power to deliver us from darkness!

READ Colossians 1:13-14

So, it comes down to decision time. Because, whether you like it or not, a decision must be made. There is no middle ground. Either you have accepted God’s free gift and you are bathing in His light, or you are still swimming in darkness. The choice of how you will swim for the rest of eternity rests in your hands. God has sacrificed the life of His only son Jesus, so that you might have fellowship with Him; fellowship with the living God who created you. Are you willing to accept this fact? If you’re not sure, I encourage you to talk with Jeff or any other adult here about your decision. Maybe you have questions, and that is just fine. Don’t be afraid to ask them, they are more than willing to help you find answers. Time is running short, only God knows how much time is left in your life. Maybe you have years left, but maybe you only have a few minutes. Maybe you are going to get into a crash tonight that costs you your life. Where will you spend eternity? Will you spend it with the loving God because you confessed and believed in Him? Or will you spend eternity in hell, because you never got around to making this kind of decision. You were just too afraid to ever pursue such an issue. Well, the time to decide what your fate is, is now.