Why Bother? Luke 5 And Our Perseverance

Introduction

Good morning. If you’d find a Bible, please and turn to Galatians chapter 6. In a moment, we’ll launch from Galatians 6 and verse 9. That’s where my Bible’s open. As you are turning there, I would join in the welcome that you’ve received. It’s great to see you this morning. Excited to be here with you. And many of the things that Tony said are actually true. We used to be friends up until the moment of that introduction. Tony’s been praying for this meeting. What he’s praying for is that I won’t tell all the things I know about him. We went to school together, and so I have all the good stuff on Brother Tony. It’s great to be with you today. I’m Mark Roberts. I preach for the West Side Church in Irving.

That’s in the middle of Dallas. And I’ve been there an awful long time. Mostly one of my elders assures me because of my wife and my girls.

I’ve got a 25-year-old and a 23-year-old. I’m not sure exactly how that happened. And just joy to see them mature and to see good things. I see lots of parents here, and I sure want you to know there are great things coming in your life. Every day is an adventure, and the Lord plans good things as we raise our children to know him in a great way. We’ll talk about some of those things this week as we get along. Maybe we should start. How about Galatians 6? Well, think about Galatians 6, verse 9 with me for a minute. I’m going to read from the ESV. Some of you may have heard me preach before. You’ll find I’m most insistent that you open a Bible and read along with me.

I’ll give you a couple of passes at the Bible. If you’re looking electronically, that’s great. You might want to set that over in an airplane mode. Don’t want to get master’s updates in the middle of the sermon and spoil your DVR or maybe distract us from worshiping. But whatever you’re looking at, whether you’re looking at a paper Bible, whether you’re looking at an electronic Bible, let’s be in the Word of God. This is Galatians 6 and 9. Let us not grow weary of doing good, for in due season we will reap if we do not give up. That passage is a help to me. Do you ever get do you ever get spiritually frustrated? That passage talks about that. That passage says that I’m not the first person that’s ever been involved in this discipleship process with Jesus Christ, doing and doing and doing.

And sometimes it seems like I’m just not getting anywhere. Ever feel that way? Take a stand for righteousness. Doesn’t change the world, does it? It seems like this world is just circling the drain faster and faster. Invite people to come to church. They don’t come, do they? Maybe working on your own life. You’re taking some inventory, as our brother prayed so eloquently a moment ago. And we look and we feel like we’re not moving forward. Maybe you tried to help somebody. You poured your life into theirs that were available to them and prayed with them and counseled with them, and then they just kind of peter out and drift back into worldliness and serving God. Maybe as a young person, great see some young people here this morning, trying to do what’s right, stand up for what’s right, but it seems like most of our friends, they don’t care about that.

They’re not interested in that. They don’t want to do that. Feel like we’re just going nowhere. Doesn’t take very long until you start saying what? Why am I doing this? Why do I keep on keeping on? Why bother? Let me direct your attention to Luke chapter 5, where we’ll be this morning. I want to read several passages here, beginning Luke 5 and verse 1, because I think this text here is the why bother passage in the Bible. In Luke chapter 5 and verse 1, our context and setting is the Sea of Galilee, which is what you’re looking at here. That’s a long distance shot of that amazing body of water where so many incredible things happened in New Testament times. And as you’re looking at Luke chapter 5, what you’re looking at is a story about some guys that were fishermen.

Now, of course, that doesn’t mean fishermen like it does today. Peter and his brothers didn’t have a bass boat that cost more than a house. They didn’t have graphite rods and Teflon reels and all that expensive gear. They were professional fishermen, the commercial fishermen. That meant nets and lots of work and tacking the boat and getting into position. But the point of all that is to say, these fellows made their living on that body of water. And they knew how to fish, when to fish, where to fish. They understood all about that. And in the middle of that, Jesus says, after a long night of fishing with no results, Jesus says, Hey boys, let’s go fishing. And their reaction to that was, we fished all night.

Why bother? Let’s read that text. Luke 5, verse 1 with me, please. On one occasion, when the crowd was pressing in to hear the word of God, he was standing by the lake of Gennessaret, 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, he asked him to put out a little from the land. He sat down. He taught the people from the boat. When he had finished speaking, he said to Simon, put out into the deep and let down your nets for a catch. Simon answered, Master, we have toiled all night and took nothing. But at your word I will let down the nets.

And when they had done this, they enclosed a large number of fish, and their nets were breaking. They signaled to their partners and the other boat to come and help them. They came and filled both boats so that they began to sink. But when Simon Peter saw it, he fell down at Jesus’ knees, saying, Depart from me, for I am a sinful man, O Lord. For he and all who were with him were astounded, astonished at the catch of fish that they had taken. And so were James and John, the sons of Zebedee, who were partners with Simon. Jesus said to Simon, Do not be afraid. From now on, you will be catching men. When they brought their boats to land, they left everything, and they followed him.

Have you ever wondered? I really want to stay with this. I keep trying to be a disciple. It’s so difficult. What difference does it really make? Why bother? That’s exactly what this text is about this morning. It’s about persevering on. We’ve come to a gospel meeting, and it’s going to be a difficult week, and there’s going to be a million things going on, and there’s going to be all sorts of traffic because Houston, and there’s just going to be craziness. Why are we doing this? Why do we keep on with all of this? And what about that business about inviting somebody else? They never come. Why do I even try? Or spiritual reflection when I realize it seems like sometimes it’s two steps forwards and then it’s it’s three steps or even five steps backwards.

1. We Always Want to Obey God

Maybe I’ll just cash it in. Maybe I’ll push all my chips into the middle of the table. Get up and walk away. I’ll decide I’m gonna live for now like everybody else is living now. Why am I bothering? Why do I keep doing all this Christianity stuff? From this text this morning. I give you three reasons. Enormously powerful reasons that fuel our perseverance, that help us understand again what this is about and why we must continue to serve the Lord. And not only must, why we want. Why we want to keep serving Jesus Christ. Look at the text carefully now with me. Look at verse 5. That first reason comes out of verse 5. Simon answered him. Master. We toiled all night, but at your word I will let down the net.

There it is right there. Reason number one, why we persevere. Reason number one, why we continue. Because we always want to obey God. Peter in his lifetime said a lot of dumb things. He, like many preachers, suffered from foot and mouth syndrome. But what he says right here is five-star good. You tell us, we do it. In fact, that opens with the word master. Do you see that? You’re in charge. I’m not. My function, my purpose, what I’m here to do is not question you, alter your will, fix it, change it. I’m here to do what you say. At your word, we do. We obey you. That attitude is missing in many people today. But my goal, my function in life is what? To obey Almighty God.

Period. When I understand, I obey. When I don’t understand, I obey. When I feel like it, I obey. When I don’t feel like it, I obey. I need to do what God tells me to do. When I agree with God’s commands and say, look at that’s the way to handle that. I’m doing it. But when I look at God’s commands and say, I’m not sure I get that. I must obey. That’s what I need to be doing. That is a basic theme of Scripture. Think about Noah. Did it make any sense to build a big boat? There weren’t a lot of cruise lines back then. Why am I building the first? How about Joshua and Jericho? Here’s a great military strategy. You know what we’re going to do?

We’re going to walk around the city every day. How’s that working? That seems kind of foolish. Over and over again, what you see in the Word of God is that the Lord tells people what to do, and what our function is, what we need to do is we need to do what God tells us. Give you an example of that. Crank over to Genesis chapter 15. Let’s get Genesis 15 here. Here in the story of Abraham, in Genesis chapter 15, the basic issue is the issue of faith. In Genesis 15, I’m reading there in verse 5. In Genesis 15 and 5, God brought Abraham outside, Genesis 15, 5, and said, Look toward heaven and number the stars if you’re able to number them. Then he said to them, said to Abraham, So shall your offspring be.

Lock into verse 6. And he believed the Lord. That’s it. That’s it. I trust you, God. You know better than I do. I’m going to do what you say. He believed the Lord he counted to him as righteousness. You want to see that again? Grab 1 Samuel with me. I’m looking at 1 Samuel 15 and verse 22. This is the miserable story of a miserable king who never trusted God like he should, steadfastly refused to do what God told him to do. 1 Samuel 15, 22, finds Saul making all kinds of crazy excuses why we don’t need to obey God today, Samuel. But Samuel says, 1 Samuel 15, 22, has the Lord as great a delight in burnt offerings and sacrifices as in obeying the voice of the Lord.

Behold, to obey is better than to sacrifice, to listen to the fat of rams, for rebellion is as the sin of divination, presumption is as iniquity and idolatry. You’ve rejected the word of the Lord. Grab on to what Samuel says there. When you disobey God, that’s like being a witch. There ain’t anybody in here that doesn’t know. Sorcery, that’s out. That’s not even close. If you rebel against God and don’t obey God, that is like idolatry. Do what the Lord tells you to do. Saul, you need to obey God. And the reason I’m so focused on that to start with this morning is because we’re losing that. There’s lots of discussion today about finding your purpose in life. That book by Rick Warren, Purpose Driven Life, sold about a bazillion copies and a whole lot of coffee mugs and t-shirts to go along with it.

And some of that, okay, not very much of that, but some of that I’m okay with because I do think that finding your purpose in life, there is a place for that. But let’s be honest, what’s our purpose in life? You don’t need to read a book about that. Well, just read God’s book. You’ll know your purpose in life. It’s to obey the Lord. And I do understand that from that general, we need to filter down to some specific things like what does God want me to do today? And what does God want me to do as my life’s vocation? And those kinds of choices. I get that. I understand that. But you know what happens sometimes? Sometimes we don’t ever get that big overarching principle.

I need to obey God. And we just start filtering into the specific, and it becomes like this. What do I want to do? What’s convenient for me? What would be fun? What would I like to do? And now all of a sudden we’re way off track because then God says crazy things like, go to church on Sunday, or read your Bible, or pray, or ask somebody whether or not they know Jesus Christ, and we start looking at that and saying, you know what? I don’t really want to do that. Because we forgot. We forgot our basic purpose in life right there. We’re going to let down the nets when God tells us to. I realize sometimes we get weary and wilder. And we do ask, why am I doing this?

Why am I bothering with all of this? The answer is because God told us to. Why are we coming to church? We come to church because the Lord said to. And we come when we feel like it, and we come when we don’t feel like it. We come when we get a lot out of it, and we come when sometimes we think, I didn’t have any idea what we were doing today. I didn’t seem to focus. I didn’t get into that. I got nothing out of that, but at the bare minimum, at least I did what God told me to do. I obeyed God. I pleased God if by nothing else, sheer force of obedience. I did what God told me to do. God will never minimize that attitude.

2. When We Obey God, That Brings Reward

God blesses those who seek to obey him. Which brings me to the second thing. Turn back to Luke chapter 5. What happens when you obey God? What happens? This is Luke 5 and verse 6. What happens when you do what the Lord tells you to do? So we’re going to let those nets down. And when they had done this, Luke 5 and verse 6. When they had done this, they enclosed a large number of fish. And their nets were breaking, and they signaled to their partners in the other boats to come and help them. And they came and filled both boats so that they began to sink. It is amazing, isn’t it? When we obey God, that has a way of bringing reward into our lives.

That arc thing seemed kind of ridiculous until it started raining. And that whole business about we’re going to walk around Jericho every day? What kind of ridiculous military strategy was that? And then the walls fell down flat. And Abraham received a son that begins the blessings for all time. And we obey God. More often than not, good things happen. And not just in eternity. We need to focus on that for a moment. Some of that oftentimes happens to you personally and individually. That’s our text here. What happened here to these fishermen is amazing. And some really cool things happened to them because they did what they were asked to do. I’m thinking about Abraham. He personally received his son. You know better. I know better than to promise you if you obey God, you’re going to get a new car, you’re going to get a bigger house, and you’re never going to get sick.

That’s bogus. That’s outside of Scripture. We’re not going there. That’s not going to happen. But you also know that many times, yeah. Yeah. Many times it does happen. Many times it does happen. God seeks to bless those who are seeking after him. But I need to enlarge your vision a little bit. For example, when we obey God, have you ever thought about this? That brings a blessing. It brings a blessing to the people around us. Maybe not you personally, but everybody around you is going to benefit from that. Let’s be honest. Much of what America is today is as a result of the Protestant work ethic. Much of this country and the incredible standard of living that we enjoy, the freedoms that we have come about because our founding fathers, in some shape, form or fashion had some version of Christianity in them.

I’m using that term kind of accommodatively. You saw the official air quotes. Did you see that? There they are. Okay. And I understand that if you and I were talking with the founding fathers, that we would have some differences and some important differences. I’m not trying to minimize that by any means. But it’s just so that those men had some beliefs in the Bible and beliefs in God and beliefs in God as creator. As a result, that put a premium, for example, on civil rights, the right to assemble and worship. It put a premium on ideas that all men are equal before God. So the idea that a king can rule over us because he’s special, the divine right of kings, he’s literally a better human being.

There’s something about him that’s just superior to the rest of us ordinary mongrel folks. Nope. Nope. All men are created equal. Where did that come from? That came from the Bible. So when you have people who have respect for God and respect for God’s word and are trying at some level to do what God says, that brings a blessing. When you have a community full of Christians who work hard and are honest and have good marriages and raise their children to be respectful of authority and to go to school and learn to read and to be educated. You know most education in this country began because our founding fathers saw it. People need to know how to read so they could read the Bible. When you have a community full of people who pay their taxes and respect civil authority, you just get a better city.

Just get a better town. It’s better for everybody. Even hardened, nasty old atheists. They benefit because they live in the middle of a bunch of people who are obeying God. So sometimes I get discouraged because I don’t think that I’m affecting all of society. But as I continue in well doing, I am affecting society. It really does begin one person at a time. And I am that one person. Someone says one person doesn’t make a difference. That’s baloney. Absolutely. I make a difference. When a driver cuts me off in traffic and I’m not screaming profanities at him. When the waitress brings the wrong order, and I’m not yelling. You know people who do that? Do you not have some friends going out to eat with them?

I’m terrified. I don’t even want to go to church with them. They’re going to send the Lord’s Supper back one time. I know it’s going to happen. This unleavened bread, it’s just so flat, okay? We were at dinner with them, and I had a bug in my food, and I thought, I’m just going to eat this, or someone’s going to get hurt. I mean, when we live better than that, then we help the whole world be that much better, don’t we? It brings a reward to others. And maybe the other thing that I need to say about that is lots of times when you obey God, a blessing comes. But the blessing comes later. Much later. Hey, I show you that in the Bible in Exodus.

If you look at Exodus 40. In Exodus 40, there’s kind of this ultimate section here where at Sinai they finally get the tabernacle constructed. And there’s this incredible repetition of phrase in Exodus chapter 40. You always want to watch for when something is repeated again and again. Because that’s God’s way of saying that is important. Maybe you just step back and look at chapter 39 with me. Let’s just try a little of this together. Look in Exodus 39. This is verse 1. From the blue and the purple and the scarlet yarns. Exodus 39, 1, they made finely woven garments for ministering in the holy place. They made the holy garments for Aaron, as the Lord had commanded Moses. Verse 5. Skillfully woven band on it was a one piece with it, made like a gold, purple, blue, scarlet yarns, fine-twined lining, as the Lord had commanded Moses.

Verse 7, set them on the shoulder pieces of the Ephid. Be stones of remembrance for the sons of Israel. As the Lord had commanded Moses. Verse 21, bound the breastplate by its ring to the rings of the Ephid with a lace of blue, so that it should lie on the skillfully woven band of the Ephan. The breastplate should not come loose from the Ephod. As the Lord had commanded Moses. Verse 26, bells and pomegranates, bells and pomegranates around the hem for the rope for ministering, as the Lord commanded Moses. Verse 31, they tied a quart of blue to fast on the turbine. As the Lord had commanded Moses. Verse 43, Moses saw the work. Behold, they’d done it, as the Lord had commanded Moses, so they had done it.

Chapter 40, verse 16. According to all the Lord had commanded, so Moses did. Verse 19, he spread the tent of the tabernacle, 40-19, as the Lord had commanded Moses. 40 21, as the Lord had commanded Moses. 40-23 as the Lord had commanded Moses. 40-25, as the Lord had commanded Moses, 27 as the Lord had commanded Moses. Verse 29 is the Lord had commanded Moses. Verse 32 is the Lord had commanded Moses. Over and over again. The text says he did what God told him to do. And in fact, at the conclusion of this text, verse 34, the cloud covered the tent of meeting. And the glory of the Lord filled the tabernacle. And Moses was not able to enter the Ten of Meeting because the cloud had settled on it.

The glory of the Lord filled the tabernacle. What an amazing, incredible event. But this was about a whole lot more than just that. What’s the Hebrew writer tell us about that tabernacle? The Hebrew writer tells us that the tabernacle was in fact a miniature model of heaven itself. So that Jesus would enter the most holy place, Hebrews chapter 9, with his own blood and offer atonement for our sins. So let me ask you this. What if Moses redesigned the tabernacle? What if Moses doesn’t do it as the Lord had commanded Moses? He didn’t know that the Hebrew writer, a couple of hundred years later, is going to write about this event. That 1,500 years down the stream of time, what he constructed and what he made is going to be significant in the theology of Hebrews and explaining the atoning sacrifice of Jesus Christ.

Moses doesn’t know any of that. He just did what God told him to do. And way down the line, guess what? A blessing came to it because of that obedience. And you know who got that blessing? We got it. We’re getting that blessing right now. A better understanding of the work of Jesus Christ. So sometimes we look, why am I doing this? Why am I keep going on? Because it brings a reward personally to me, it’ll bring a reward to my community, to my city, to my village, to my town. And sometimes it brings a reward to the people way down the line that I’ll never even know. My great-great grandmother became a New Testament Christian way back when she raised her son. He became a Christian.

Dirt farmer out in West Oklahoma, where nothing grows but thorns and mesquite trees. He did a little preaching. And he raised my dad to be a New Testament Christian. And he raised me to be a New Testament Christian. What if my great-great-grandmother had chucked it? What if she said, I don’t know why I’m doing this anymore, I’m not going to do this anymore. Every person who’s ever received a blessing from any teaching and preaching that I’ve ever done in the kingdom of God received a blessing because Mama Chisholm persevered in the kingdom of God. And every person here has somebody who taught them the gospel. A neighbor, a co-worker, a mom, a dad, a brother, somebody who cared enough about your soul, say, I want to talk to you about Jesus Christ.

What if that person had quit? What if that person gave up? What if that person never tried, never spoke, never invited, never talked to you about Jesus Christ? Aren’t you glad that they persevered on? Do you see? When we do what God tells us to do, it brings amazing blessings. And sometimes those blessings are way down the line of time. And we may not even know all the people that were blessed, but it pays off. What Luke 5 is telling us is about one of the biggest catches of fish that there’s just ever been. But more than that, Luke 5 is reminding us that obedience brings good things to the obedient. Maybe not always immediately. Maybe not always just to me personally, but when I trust God enough to do what God says, good things will happen.

I’m making myself available. I’m making myself a conduit. I’m making myself a pipeline for God’s blessings and God’s will and God’s way to flow into my life and to flow into the lives of the people who are around me and who will follow after me. By being obedient, God can bless me and he can bless others through me. So why do we bother? Because we want them.

3. Obeying God Brings Moments of Spiritual Clarity

Which brings me right to the end of that text. Look at Luke 5 and verse 8. When all these fish get caught, Peter’s reaction, of course, is just truly astonishing. In Luke 5 and verse 8, when Simon Peter saw it, Luke 5.8, he fell down on his knees at Jesus. He fell down at Jesus’ knees, saying, Depart from me, for I am a sinful man, O Lord. One of the reasons that we always obey God is because when you obey God. What that does is that brings opportunities and moments of spiritual clarity. Where did this happen to Peter? Peter saw himself, didn’t he? He saw who he was against the backdrop of who Jesus was. When did that occur in Peter’s life? When he was in church?

When he was praying? When he was meditating. When did this happen? It happened when he was obeying God. This was not a time of religious exercise to discover new truths. This was actually a moment of hard work where you’re hauling in wet nets and you’re rowing and pulling and lifting and fish are flopping and fishing everywhere and all these things are going on. And no one imagined that in the middle of that situation, that circumstance, Peter would have one of the all time spiritual experiences. But it actually was. It was a life-changing experience. They were all verse 9. They were astonished at the catch of fish. James and John verse 10. Jesus said to Simon, don’t be afraid, from now on you’ll be catching the end.

Look at verse 11. When they bought their boats to land, the fish didn’t matter. The fish didn’t matter anymore. They left everything. They followed him. Let’s be honest. When do we have moments of real spiritual growth? I’m not talking about the slow and steady spiritual growth that we hardly notice. Both spiritual growth is of that nature. It just takes a little bit at a time, a little bit, a little bit, a little bit. Then finally we turn around and we look back and like, whoa. Hey, I’ve come a long way. I’m not talking about that. I’m talking about explosive growth, power growth. When all of a sudden, we just ratchet it up. We break through a plateau. We just are launched to a better level. All of a sudden we just get it.

We just see it. It is more clear. Suddenly we are up. We are up a big level. When does that happen? You know when that happens. It happens when we are obedient to God. We came to church, and it seemed like another ho hum Sunday. And we’re kind of getting into that. I’m just going through the emotions thing. And then the preacher opens the word of God. And with laser like intensity, he begins to hone in on our sin. And he cuts our excuses to pieces. And our rationalizations are shattered and crushed. We are laid bare before God and we are brought to a time of repentance. Why did that happen? Because we obeyed God. Because we showed up. We think it’s just going to be another Wednesday night Bible class.

And work was miserable. And it was difficult to get here. And we’re really tired. And it’s the first time that we sat down all day. And we look at the text and we think, yeah, whatever. And then the next thing you know, somebody makes a comment about a verse. And somebody adds to that comment, and somebody says, Well, what about this? And somebody asked this really hard question that we’ve always wanted to ask, but nobody was brave enough to articulate it. And then someone said, Well, what about this? And the next thing you know, we’re working together, and we’re cranking the text, and we’re making it come alive, and we’re making application, and our spirit is refreshed, and our cup is filled, and we say, What?

I’m so glad I came. Maybe I’m being patient with another person who does not understand. Customer service. I’m the customer serve. And it’s frustrating. And I want to scream and strangle. I mean, yell, and all those things. And I’m trying to be really calm about all of that. And then I get off the phone, and my coworker says, You really are different than everybody else. I kind of would like to talk to you about where you go to church sometime. Shh. There it is. A moment of obedience that brings spiritual clarity. I’m always amazed at people who say, you know what? I’m not going to church right now. I had sin in my life. I feel like such a hypocrite being there. Oh, really? So, away from the people of God, away from God’s assembly, away from the instruction of the Word of God, away from worshiping and remembering the most important event in human history.

You’re going to get better. You’re going to get better. You’re really putting hypocrisy to death because you don’t come to church? Are you kidding me? Do you not understand what happens when we’re here together? We hunt down hypocrites and help them get over it. We’re going to assist you. You need to be here. Because when we are in church, even when we are worn down and tired, and it was a bear to get the kids ready, and we had to say no to this softball game, and we really wanted to go see this, and we wanted, and we had tickets to that, and we wanted to be there. When we come here, we get out of that a spiritual push that lights us up and that helps us go on and serve God.

And can I say this? You’re not going to get that from listening to a sermon C D. I get that all the time. I’m not going to be there, you know. We’ll get the C Ds. Better to listen on the C D, I guess, than to not get anything out of it. But that feeling that comes when we are all together. And we are in the Word of God together. And someone says amen and someone else says amen. And you can see the PowerPoints. And we’re not focusing on traffic or what the kids in the backseat are saying. We are together. You don’t get that off a CD. You get that when you are here. When you have made the choice to obey God. That brings with it the force and power.

All that comes from worshiping the Lord. The spiritual clarity that we enjoy comes when we do what God wants us to do. And that’s not just in worship. You start swearing and cursing at work, you’re not going to get as many choices to invite people. You’re not going to get those chances to invite people to church, are you? You decide to become a rotten person. And a lot of rotten things will follow all of that. But when you choose to serve the Lord, you will find yourself falling at Jesus’ knees. You’ll see yourself better. You’ll get an opportunity to grow and to be what God wants us to be.

You need to make yourself available to what God can do through his word as you live for him. That’s the amazing thing about doing what’s right. It fuels the hunger to do more of what’s right. And that fuels the hunger to do more of what’s right. It brings good things into our lives. And that makes us want to connect with the Lord in His will even more. Why are we bothering? Because the very next moment of perseverance may be precisely the moment we need it to cause spiritual growth to happen in a new and incredible way. The next moment. If you’ll just hang on, if you’ll just keep on, the next moment may be your breakthrough moment. So I am very much impressed with what happens here in Luke 5.

Conclusion

Luke is my favorite gospel. You know, I say that and I always worry about bumping into Matthew in heaven. He’s like, oh, so you didn’t like mine. Well, it was great. But what is good as Luke? Luke’s gospel is incredible. Because he’s a master storyteller. But it’s much more than a great story. In the middle of a bunch of fish is an insight about why we want to live life for the Lord. And we are facing a week with a gospel meeting. It’s just going to be a challenge. So many things are going to go wrong. The washing machine is going to explode. The cat’s going to throw up. I mean, you know. Crazy things are going to happen this week. And you’re going to think, ah, we just can’t.

Yeah, you can. Yes, you can. Master, at your word. We’ll let down the nuts. Because if Jesus says to do it, that’s just more than enough. But even more, when we obey God, it brings blessings to ourselves and to everybody around us. And on top of all of that, when we obey the Lord, it brings a clarity to our lives that we desperately need. Let’s find the renewed energy to not be weary in well doing, but continue to serve God. Would you pray with me, please? Let’s pray. Oh Lord, we’re awed by what we read in Luke 5. We ask, Father, that you open our eyes to see when you have told us to let down the nets. Help us, Father, to be obedient servants. Help us, Father, to trust your ways, knowing that blessings follow when we obey.

And help us, Father, to use moments of perseverance to bring us to a better service before you. We’re praying for this week particularly. All the things that go on and the conflicts and difficulties bless us. We’ll be able to assemble and to serve and to worship and to gain from your word as we seek to please you. We want, Father, to obey and glorify you. In Christ we pray.