Gone Fishing

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Child Dedication

Matthew 19:13–15 CSB

Then little children were brought to Jesus for him to place his hands on them and pray, but the disciples rebuked them. Jesus said, “Leave the little children alone, and don’t try to keep them from coming to me, because the kingdom of heaven belongs to such as these.” After placing his hands on them, he went on from there.

The family is the divine institution ordained of God from the beginning of time. Children are a heritage of the Lord committed by Him to their parents for care, provision, protection, and spiritual training. It is good when parents recognize all of these obligations and responsibilities and make every effort to fully carry them out. In this act of dedication these parents acknowledge these responsibilities and come before us today to dedicate themselves and their children to God and his will for their lives as a family.

At Hockinson Community Church, we dedicate children rather than baptize them. Just as Hannah dedicated Samuel to the Lord and Joseph and Mary dedicated the infant Jesus to the Lord according to Jewish custom, we believe dedication more closely follows the biblical pattern than baptism, of which we have no precedent of an infant or child being baptized in the Bible. Thus, this dedication ritual does not impart faith or forgiveness of sins to these kids. Rather, it is the parent’s public acknowledgment that their child is a gift from God to them, and that they have a spiritual responsibility for the Christian nurture and training of this child.

FATHER’S NAME and MOTHER’S NAME, you have brought CHILD’S NAME before us today to publicly dedicate her to the Lord. I have a series of questions to ask you, and please affirm your desires by answering each of them, “WE WILL.”

Will you accept your God-given responsibility to raise your child in a Christ-centered home?

Will you teach and discipline them in your home so that you are not solely dependent on the church or school system to impart biblical knowledge and spiritual values to CHILD’S NAME?

Will you not assume that your careers or peer approval are the highest goals in life; but rather what will advance the cause of Christ?

Will you not make your life’s choices based on secular trends or material gain, but rather will you make your life’s choices based on what will benefit and strengthen the faith of your family?

FATHER’S NAMEs as her earthly father, will you give your child the time and attention and affection that show the true nature of her Father in Heaven?

MOTHER’S NAMEs, as her earthly mother, will you give your child the special attachment she craves from you and the special nurturing touch that you are uniquely gifted by God to give her?

Congregation, will you as the community of faith support FATHER’S NAME and MOTHER’S NAME and CHILD’S NAME by the Christian love and example you set by your lives? If so, please say, “We will.”

Pray

Gracious God, Giver of all life, We pray for these parents. Give them wisdom and patience. Let Your peace and joy dwell in their homes. Instruct them in Your gospel truth. Strengthen them in faith. Sustain them through prayer. Order their lives by love. We pray for these children. Be gracious to them. Draw them to Yourself. Help them to love and trust Jesus. We pray that You will grow them in faith, So that they might be like arrows in Your hand. For Christ’s sake, Amen.

Sermon

Thank you to Harley and Dennis for bringing the word while Monica and I were on vacation. It was a wonderful time for the two of us to connect and refresh.

This last week we spent in San Diego. My apologies for not bringing the weather back with me. I tried.

San Diego is interesting. There is a feature you can see here in this map that dominates the whole area.

Water. Right. The Pacific Ocean, the bay, the islands. Everything is impacted by the water. With that much water, you know you are going to see lots of? towels. That’s right…no boats. So many boats…for so many purposes:

See if you can identify what these boats are for:

This is the “Spirit of San Diego” - ? - Sightseeing, dinner, entertainment

Sailboat - small one - ? - Recreation, sport, You can sightsee, but not relaxed

Whale watching boat - ? - Sightseeing…but you’re not sitting down for a romantic dinner on that bad boy

What about this boat? The tubes of Shipwreck Rapids at Sea World - ? - No, the purpose of this one is to completely soak Monica. Mission accomplished.

Two More - Coast guard boat - ? - Security, rescue...

Last one - USS Midway - ? - Warfare…specifically naval dominance.

Dozens of aircraft - Each with a specialized purpose. Fighters, bombers, rescue, supply, surveillance.

Take the tour you realize there are hundreds of people on board

Each with a purpose

Captain, navigator, engineer, cook, law enforcement, post master, mechanic, pilots, air traffic control, janitorial, Just on the deck they have yellow shirts, green shirts, red shirts…each with their own role in just the management of aircraft coming and going. Chaplain, assistant to the regional manager, warehouse, munitions, quartermaster, communications, and that’s just the beginning.

All those roles…very unique purposes…but all doing their part for one purpose.

This is true of any ship, right? Even a ski boat needs a spotter. One person can’t go ski alone…takes a minimum of 3.

imagine for a moment if someone confused their role with the mission. If the cook decided that feeding men at sea was the primary purpose of an aircraft carrier. Silly. Now…is that job important? OH YES…but why? - because it allows the accomplishment of the mission

In the gospels, there are two different versions of the calling of the first disciples. Harley shared with you John’s account. I get the other three.

In the version they share, there is a boat involved. A boat with a purpose and several roles. Let’s read before we move on.

From Luke’s account:

Luke 5:1-11 “As the crowd was pressing in on Jesus to hear God’s word, he was standing by Lake Gennesaret. He saw two boats at the edge of the lake; the fishermen had left them and were washing their nets. He got into one of the boats, which belonged to Simon, and asked him to put out a little from the land. Then he sat down and was teaching the crowds from the boat. When he had finished speaking, he said to Simon, “Put out into deep water and let down your nets for a catch.” “Master,” Simon replied, “we’ve worked hard all night long and caught nothing. But if you say so, I’ll let down the nets.” When they did this, they caught a great number of fish, and their nets began to tear. So they signaled to their partners in the other boat to come and help them; they came and filled both boats so full that they began to sink. When Simon Peter saw this, he fell at Jesus’s knees and said, “Go away from me, because I’m a sinful man, Lord!” For he and all those with him were amazed at the catch of fish they had taken, and so were James and John, Zebedee’s sons, who were Simon’s partners. “Don’t be afraid,” Jesus told Simon. “From now on you will be catching people.” Then they brought the boats to land, left everything, and followed him.

Matthew simplifies the story, and gives a slightly different invitation:

Matthew 4:19 ““Follow me,” he told them, “and I will make you fish for people.””

more recognized translation from several versions: “Follow Me, and I will make you fishers of men.”

Let’s pray

Here is an image archaelogists have uncovered of an actual fishing boat from the first century in the sea of galilee: It’s been nicknamed the “Jesus boat”, not because it’s the one in this story, but because it was the type that we read about here.

27 feet long, 7.5 feet wide it’s pretty a pretty cool find

If you’ve ever watched deadliest catch, dirty jobs, or anything else with Mike Rowe on the water, you have an idea of the roles on a fishing boat no matter the size.

1 captain, 1 navigator, Net menders, net pullers…bigger the ship, the more the roles. and the more specialized. The smaller the boat, the more job overlap there is.

Peter was the owner of this boat, the captain. But he was also cleaning the nets and helped with hauling them in.

That boat had a specific purpose: Catch fish. Actually, what was the purpose? To provide for their families. Commercial fishermen don’t fish to have fish. They fish to provide.

And this night of fishing had not gone well.

Jesus was teaching by the lake and getting crowded. He could use a platform. He sees Simon’s boat and asks him to put out a little while he teaches.

So cool for Simon or Peter. A famous teacher asking to use his boat as a pulpit! I imagine he was listening with a glow about him. That he got to be a part.

But then Jesus asks another question:

Luke 5:4 “When he had finished speaking, he said to Simon, “Put out into deep water and let down your nets for a catch.””

Peter knows his business. He knows that the night time is the time for catching their quarry.

He also knows the fish aren’t biting today.

Peter has a choice to make.

He chooses to obey

Luke 5:5 ““Master,” Simon replied, “we’ve worked hard all night long and caught nothing. But if you say so, I’ll let down the nets.””

The boat starts to overflow, they call over other boats to help with the catch. the nets are tearing, And Peter and his brother and their partners James and John are overwhelmed

luke 5:8-10a “When Simon Peter saw this, he fell at Jesus’s knees and said, “Go away from me, because I’m a sinful man, Lord!” For he and all those with him were amazed at the catch of fish they had taken, and so were James and John, Zebedee’s sons, who were Simon’s partners.

These men knew their place in the world, their role in the boat and they knew they were in the presence of something bigger. They were scared, not because they felt a threat, but because they felt their size in relation to the glory of this one who used the boat for a platform.

And then Jesus invites them to a new boat.

Matthew 4:19-20 ““Follow me,” he told them, “and I will make you fish for people.” Immediately they left their nets and followed him.”

Follow Me. And I will make you fishers of men.

That’s our mission statement in a nutshell. Love God, Follow Me. Love people…also following Jesus. And make disciples. Fishers of men.

I liked Harley’s recognition that a sermon titled Come and See was easier to swallow than “Evangelism, everyone’s obligation”

I laughed when I heard that a bit…because that’s what this message is in a nutshell.

Not a how to - That’s more than a message. Harley shared the three story method in his message which I find one of the most helpful tools in understanding personal evangelism.

In fact, this message isn’t about you doing evangelism at all. We’ll come back to that. It’s about the church existing for making disciples. Period.

See, I want you to get the reason this church, HCC exists. Not the building. That was made so a group of Christian Finnish immigrants had a place to gather and worship. Good thing. But why does this group of people exist?

The tragic story of nearly every church body is that at times we confuse the roles with the purpose. In a way that could never happen on an actual vessel. Every person on an aircraft carrier is IN THE NAVY before they they are an engineer, a cook, or a navigator. Their roles are understood in the way they contribute to the primary purpose of the carrier. Which means a cook in a moment of need will drop the ladle and man a gun if needed. A pilot will grab a wrench.

A church can be a warm and special place where we are loved and cared for, where we learn and are fed, where we have friends and family…and at the same time can be absolutely failing in the one thing it was created to do if we lose sight of that WHY.

What Jesus calls these first disciples to do, is what he tells them to do before he returns to heaven, it’s what Paul tells the churches he plants to be about, and what Jesus in Revelation holds his churches accountable to. Did you go fishing?

Let me key in on the main problem for one moment and then we’ll get on to the good news.

In any job, task, or obligation, our tendency is to get focused in the task, rather than the WHY. We clean up after our toddlers, and get focused on the clean rather than the kid. And so we get frustrated when they dump food on the floor…again…because the clean is ruined. Missing that a clean floor isn’t the point of a kid…loving and raising the child is the point.

We get bored with paperwork on the job because it is …boring…forgetting that the paperwork is a part of a larger purpose, maybe helping someone own a home, or start an education, or launch a business. Paperwork can be quite thrilling if the why is understood.

Jesus is calling us to look up from our roles on the boat and freshly capture the big mission again. Our leadership team in every conversation, in our budget, and every planning is working to refocus and get clear on that why, BECAUSE WE KNOW how prone we are to getting focused on the thing right in front of us, while we miss the reason the captain called us into the boat in the first place.

So Good news. There is a clear call and we have a great leader.

Gone Fishing

It starts with following Jesus

Matthew 4:19 ““Follow me,”

When I was small, I was taught that to be a Christian, you needed to believe the right thing.

Easy. Convince me and i will believe. I was convinced of the facts, it all made sense, and I believed. As Bill Schonley liked to say: Bingo bango bongo.

But…that’s not the invitation. Paul will mention belief as essential to salvation…but not as a description of what saving faith is.

Paul, James, and Peter use long explanations and arguments in their letters just to press their readers toward these two words Jesus uses. Follow…ME.

This is why this series matters, and why we will spend so much time in it. Because at the heart of our faith is watching Jesus and then going with him. We never need to ask what would Jesus do, if you watch him, you know.

He is fixed in his purpose

He empties himself

He loves others fully without bending to their agenda

He trusts God’s word and spirit for what is right and wrong

He gives his life

All of that for what? 2 Corinthians 5, one of my favorites will tell you that all of it is about reconsiling God and man.

Jesus isn’t telling us to go fishing on our own, he’s asking us to join him on his trip! He says, I have a mission, you were a target of it, now you’re a part of it. FOLLOW ME.

You were rescued to be a rescuer. Saved to point toward the savior.

Every job on the ship still follows the captain.

Doesn’t matter if you are mowing the lawn, folding bulletins, praying, teaching, providing nursery care, or anything else, it’s all about following Jesus fishing.

When we follow…something happens.

When we follow, Jesus “Makes”

One of the things that held me back in personal evangelism for so long was the fear of not doing it right. So I didn’t do it at all.

The number of books I thought about writing but never did because I had the idea…but not the step by step.

Our efforts can only get us so far. If our effort is successful, we get prideful…if not, we feel shame…but Jesus is doing something different.

He says:

Matthew 4:19 ““Follow me,” he told them, “and I will make you...””

When you join the marines, they don’t expect you to make yourself a marine…that’s what boot camp is for. You have to come ready to do the work, but they will make you a Marine.

Jesus does less shouting.

but all the same, Jesus does the real work.

When we follow Jesus, he goes to work making us into the fishers of men he designed us to be.

There are a few Billy Grahams and Luis Palaus who are called to stand on stages and proclaim the gospel. There are millions of Larry Badtens who makes a living with his hands but then gives time to troubled teens who at first think this old retired guy who dresses…like an old guy, acts…like an old guy…and has doesn’t jump out as the center of attention…but in the slow and steady building of relationships he leads them one by one to the Jesus who invited him to go fishing.

There are only a few Dan Wolgemuths and Franklin Grahams who lead giant organizations of people committed to evangelism and change, but there are millions of Shelley Dements who commit to teaching children about Jesus week after week.

Millions of Diana Coreys who care for the fiscal responsibility of this body, millions of Joans who serve the nursery, Julios who use their musical gifts, Leonards who give their time to teens, Katies who smile at everyone as they walk in the door…none of those things the main point…but all essential examples of what happens when we follow Jesus and He makes us. He shapes us to be a part of His fishing expedition.

All of those things are good things in themselves, not good when they become main things, but so much more when we understand them in the context of the mission!

An old senior pastor of mine told me about two janitors he work with in his youth ministry days.

The first expected him to clean up after all youth group activities. They shouldn’t leave a mess for me.

The second made it very clear that it the youth pastors job to make a mess and his to clean it up. “Ministry is messy. I clean, so you can reach kids.”

The second got the why.

The best worship team understands they don’t sing for themselves, but they lead others into the throne room to bow before the king.

The best sunday school teachers understand they aren’t trying to fill a head with information, but to lead others to follow Jesus better.

But Jesus does that making. And he does that when and only when we follow him. If you aren’t seeing growth in your relationship with Jesus, consider whether you have been following him where he’s been trying to lead you.

Ending where we began…the why...

The purpose is clear

Matthew 4:19 ““Follow me,” he told them, “and I will make you fish for people.””

“Come Follow me, and I will make you fishers of men.”

There are lots of good reasons people gather in community.

Companionship

Education

Service

Charity

Friendship

Meals

Personal Growth

All of those are good things. Jesus didn’t come for those. The church does those things. But those are not the reason Jesus left us here.

If the church gives you a community where you feel at home, but the church fails to follow Jesus fishing…

If the church serves the poor, but fails to cast the net and reconcile them to the God who loves them...

If the church plans awesome children’s and youth events that are fun and encouraging to our families but do not invite in our neighbors for who Jesus died on the cross...

If I teach you the bible in a way that helps you grasp the Greek meanings, but doesn’t move you to find your place in the boat and follow Jesus fishing...

If you are inspired to a better marriage, better parenting, better working, better finances, but not to join Jesus in the salty air on rough seas doing whatever it takes to bring in full nets...

Time passes quickly. I wish I could go back to every moment of parenting little ones and remember the why. I wish I could go back to every moment when I stood as a bank teller and better grasp my role as a fisher of men. We can wish…and it won’t matter.

But I can take today and remember that I am here as a follower of Jesus Christ who gave his life that I would be free from sin. I am filled with the power of His Holy Spirit enabling me to do everything that really matters. And he is inviting me…he is inviting YOU to go fishing…today.

Worship team up

One of the memories of our tour of the USS Midway that will stick with me forever was our tour of the “Island”. The part on a carrier that sticks up. Tight steep stairs going up and up and up. The guide, a veteran himself giving us explanations of each level, the jobs of the men and women in each area, the lives at stake if anyone left a task undone.

Then we got to the top. The bridge. He pointed out the captains chair, the best view in the place, where the orders came from.

The navigator chair, where information from the navigation room would come, be considered, and then directions shared with the captain.

Then he pointed back to the big brass wheel, the helm. And there was a little old man on the tour with us who stood right near it. The guide then shared with us that this man, who just happened to be in our tour had served on the USS Midway for three years…as the helmsman. The man smiled and placed his hands on the wheel.

Up to that point the man had seemed unremarkable. Bent, very soft voice, a little confused in his speech. His wife, kids and a teen age grandson with him. The grandson had seemed pretty bored with this tour.

When his hands touched the wheel, his eyes lit up. His voice grew clear. His grip firm. In a moment you could see a twenty something Naval sailor at his duty, knowing exactly why he was where he was.

The guide asked him what his job was. “To follow orders and steer this ship.”

The guide asked him other questions, but he wasn’t really listening. He was lost in a time when he knew who he was…when he knew not only what he was doing, but why.

You have that chance today. To know what and why.

Today, if you are not a follower of Jesus…have i got an adventure to invite you on. This isn’t about sitting on a cloud someday, this is about being restored to a right relationship with the God who created you, who loves you, who you sinned against, but then who died for you so you could still have all of him if you’ll surrender. I’m going to ask our prayer team to come forward now so people can see you. These people would love to pray with you and walk you through what it means to follow Jesus.

For those who already believe in Jesus…how is your following going? Maybe you are already serving a role in the body here…are you passionate about the role? or about the why? Maybe you attend but haven’t found a place to serve, maybe you don’t know how? In a couple weeks we’ll be sharing a chance to find your fit here in serving at HCC, really excited to share more.

Jesus is inviting us to follow him, to be shaped by him, and to join him in the most vital mission in all of eternity. Will we go? As for me, I want to follow the example a few fishermen set.

Matthew 4:20 “Immediately they left their nets and followed him.”

Matthew 4:22 “Immediately they left the boat and their father and followed him.”

Mark 1:18 “Immediately they left their nets and followed him.”

Luke 5:11 “Then they brought the boats to land, left everything, and followed him.”

Next week we will look at one more calling of a new disciple, one that teaches us a bit more about the fish we are looking for.

Pray