Well, the title for tonight's message was the last thing that I came up with. It's a message that I did in part last night in Duluth, so if you were there last night, some of it will be a repeat, but some of it's different, going with a different angle, taking it a little different. And it's called learning abandonment because that's really ultimately what we're going to see. We're going to see it from the life of Peter and several different biblical passages. And what do we mean by abandonment? There are several definitions for that in the dictionary. So, Merriam-Webster has five different shades of meaning here. But it's shade of meaning number four that I'd like you to remember. And it means to give oneself over unrestrainedly. That's what we mean by abandonment. To give yourself over to someone or to something without restraint. And that is the idea we can learn. That is indeed what Peter has done, will do, will learn from him in that regard in our passages tonight. The first one we find is in Luke chapter 5. So you can open your Bibles there. Or if you prefer, I will have the passage on the screen. I'm going to divide this story of what happens in Luke 5, 1-11, we're going to divide it into two sections to just kind of walk through it. And Luke 5, verses 1-5 is where we'll begin reading. So it was, as the multitude passed about him to hear the word of God, that he stood by the lake of Gennesaret. And he saw two boats standing by the lake, but the fishermen had gone from them and were washing their nets. And then he got into one of the boats, which was Simon's, and asked him to put out a little from the land. And he sat down and he taught the multitudes from the boat. And we'll stop there. Let's just make a few observations of the setting of the scene. Just think here, we have fishermen coming in in the morning after being laboring all night long, as professional fishermen would fish often through the night. This was their trade. This was their career. They do this over and over. And this would have been more relevant years ago when we used to call this the men's fishing trip. But we don't anymore. Because perhaps what happened to these men is what happened to our men year after year. These men are barefoot in the boat. Just imagine as they're working and they're in shape and their muscle is over, they have to pull hand over hand. these nets that are drawing in, catching fish live, bringing them into their boats, these massive nets, calloused hands, hands that were trained by their father, whose hands were trained by the grandfather, whose hands were trained by great-grandfather perhaps. So these men know their craft. Time and time again, they go out, and now they're out, and time and time again, they're throwing their nets aside, dragging them in, pulling them in, And yet, this time, there's nothing. The fishermen had gone from them and they had rolled their boats in, as we're going to see in a minute, they had caught nothing. In fact, we'll see that in verse 4. When he had stopped speaking, he said to Simon, launch out into the deep and let down your nets for a catch. And Simon answered and said to him, Master, we've toiled all night and caught nothing. Well, like any fishing village, when you come in, people will be milling about on the shore. As the boats come in, people will be asking, how's the fishing? How'd you do? Children would be there. Boys especially might help grab the bow and pull the boat in. They want to see the fish. They want to see the fish in the boat. They want to see them squirming around. And they want to see the biggest fish. They want to know the strangest creature they maybe happened to have caught. They want to touch these fish. They want to play with them. They want to poke their eyeballs. They want to see if they can cut one open and see what it ate. This boat comes in. Mister, you got any fish? No. Well, Mister, weren't you all fishing? Shut up, kid. If this isn't a hobby for them, this is their livelihood and how frustrating it is to come home empty. And so they come now and they're perhaps diverted, they're helped a little bit because as they come in and to the shore, there's a crowd gathering over here listening to the teacher. This is a nice diversion for them in light of their non-catch. And the people have gathered in verse 1 to hear Jesus. Jesus Christ. And I notice that's in complimentary this time, the multitude pressed about him to hear the Word of God. So we know what Jesus is preaching. We know what he's up to. He's preaching the Word of God that he's standing in front of the lake. So as he is looking for a way to improve this, he sees these two boats that were right offshore there, and he wants to get into one of them. And he wants to use, then, the request of Jesus, Peter's boat, to go out a little to teach. Because the acoustics are, when you go out to the water, the acoustics are better, people can hear you. So he's asking Peter, I need a little bit of your time, I need to use your principal asset here. Now, Jesus and Peter are not strangers at this point. They've met. They know each other well. Peter had been called by Jesus way back in John 1. We won't look at that now, but Peter and Andrew, as well as a few others, we see their calling early on in the ministry of Jesus Christ. If you go back to Luke 4, notice in verse 38 how Jesus arose from the synagogue and entered whose house? Simon's house. Peter's house. But Simon's wife's mother was sick with a high fever, and they made request of him concerning her. So he stood over her and rebuked the fever, and it left her. And immediately she arose and served them." So here Jesus had healed, miraculously, Peter's mother-in-law. So Peter has heard the things of Jesus, has heard Him teach, has even seen some miracles, even has personally benefited from some blessing of Christ. Peter knows the Lord. And he is favorable to Jesus Christ. He's a believer. So this isn't a random encounter here at all. And Jesus says to Peter, can I use your boat? Can we go out a little bit? I'll continue to teach. But as he's out in that boat and he finishes teaching, we see, at the end of verse 3, he sat down and he taught. But verse 4, when he had stopped his speaking, he said to Simon, launch out into the deep and let down your nets for a catch. Let's go for a catch. Kind of like he's trying to be a sportsman lingo maybe a little. Now Peter, Besides, it's a good opportunity to instruct Jesus. And by the way, when you see words in red like that, and then verse 5, the next word you see is the word but, it's probably not going to be good. But Simon answered and said to Him, Master, we've toiled all night and caught nothing. Nevertheless, at your word I will let down the net. So Peter's going to say to Jesus, who, by the way, is the creator of the lake, creator of the water, and creator of the fish. But he's respectful here. He says, Master, and remember that, Master, look, you're a great preacher and all that, but I'm a fisherman. And I know fish and I know how to fish. This is my skill. Jesus could have said, really? How many did you catch last night? See, Jesus got him on a bad day. But as we're going to see, actually, he got them on a really good day. So, you don't fish in the day. We've already been out all night. But notice Peter says, at your word, I will. So he performs the command. He does what Jesus asks him to do. Why? At your word. So we can easily categorize this as an act of faith. In light of what you said, I will respond. Maybe this is in light of verse 1, as we saw, that many people gathering to hear the Word of God. And Peter's hearing the Word of God. He knows Jesus. He's heard Him teach. He respects that. Okay. Okay. At your word. But this isn't how you do it. But we'll do it. So we get to verse 6. And when they had done this, they caught a great number of fish. And their net was now breaking. So they signaled to their partners in the other boat to come and help them and they came and filled both boats so that they began to sink. That's a miraculous catch. Imagine being on the shore and you're watching this. They're out there. Jesus is teaching. He's now done. And the crowd is dispersing and you're about to leave, but all of a sudden you see they're rowing farther out. What are they doing? And then pretty soon you see they're casting their nets. And you think, what in the world? Is Peter trying to be a show-off? What's going on? Middle of day? And then you see all this activity and the boats. The other boat has to help. What a sight this would have been. And it's at this point when this miraculous catch occurs and the boats are filled with fish, that everything changes, as we'll see. You see, Jesus kind of invades and steps into what Peter was good at. You know, Peter's not really a teacher, or a speaker, or a theologian. And so, he listens to Jesus. He's the teacher. He's the theologian. That's good. Jesus is the expert. But now, Jesus is getting involved with what Peter is good at. And he's having him go about it all wrong and have overwhelming success. This is an awesome and obvious display of who Jesus is. We have two boats full of fish nearly sinking. Nets unable to hold all the fish. Fish caught in the middle of the day after they had caught nothing all night long. Like popcorn, fish are popping up and out of the nets. Nets are breaking, the boats are sinking. This is amazing. So we see then, Peter's response. And verse 8, when Simon Peter saw this, he fell down on Jesus' knees saying, depart from me, for I am a sinful man, O Lord. Depart from me! What a strange thing. You've got to go. Go! And I sense what he's really saying here is, you don't know what kind of man I am. You shouldn't be in my boat. There's a conviction here. I am a sinful man. And he's aware now of this great gulf between who and what he is and this man who is Lord over the fish and the lake and the sea and so forth. He's aware now of more and more of who Jesus Christ is. So he's convicted, obviously. I'm a sinful man. And you know, I think also what's here is a dimension of he's just overwhelmed by grace. He's saying, you have to go, I cannot handle this anymore. We know how relationships work. You do your part, I do my part. I scratch your back, you scratch my back. But I can't keep up with you. I can't keep up with all that you've been doing in my life and the things that you say. You healed my mother-in-law, for example. It's too much. I can't keep up. I don't deserve any of this. Stop blessing me. You get a sense of that maybe? I'm a sinful man. I can't keep up. I'm done. You need to go. And we see in verse 9, his colleagues, he'd said all that were with him, they were also astonished at the catch of fish which they had taken. That word astonished, you see if you turn back to chapter 4 again, look how it's used after Jesus healed a man in verse 35. I mean, cast out a demon. But Jesus rebuked this man saying, excuse me, this demon and said, be quiet and come out of him. And when the demon had thrown him in their midst, it came out of him and did not hurt him. Then they were all, the people now were all what? Amazed. Same word. What does that word mean? This word helps us define it. And they spoke among themselves saying, what a word this is. For with authority and power he commands the unclean spirits that they come out." Turn the page, chapter 5, verse 9. The same group of men on the boat are amazed, astonished, and they're going to be saying the same thing. What kind of authority does this man have? It's amazing the fish of the sea beckon at his call. We're not dealing with any ordinary man. Now, Peter goes on to say, depart. You need to depart. And he gives the reason. For I am a sinful man. The word for indicates the grounds of Simon's request. This is why. Now, he's not confessing his personal sins here. What he is, is he's acknowledging his own character next to the amazing character of Christ. And he comes to a realization, he knew it before, but it's very impressed upon him now. And we know it before. We know we're all sinners, right? We're all of sin and come short of the glory of God. But isn't it true that the Lord at various times in your life impresses that heavy upon us? Our sin? We're all sinful men at times. I'm a sinful man. If you really knew me, you'd never let me stand here and teach the Word of God. Right? We all have skeletons and paths and so forth. And sometimes we're humbled in a very sincere way, as Peter was here. I am a sinful man. I know who I am, and you shouldn't be in my boat. And you notice Jesus doesn't say, oh, no, no, Peter, it's okay. You're not that bad. You've got some goodness in you. There's no argument from Jesus to contradict that. No, no, no, that's a stated fact. Peter has said it as it is. So we see a recognition here, don't we? Peter gets a much better recognition of himself in light of the holiness and the glory of the One who is in his boat and what has just occurred. And he sees the Lord Jesus Christ. He's much more aware now of who this Jesus is. Because notice the end of verse 8, I'm a sinful man, then how does he address Him? O Lord. And verse 5, how did he address Him? Respectfully. Master. Lord. Commentators will argue whether this was an acknowledgment fully of His deity or not. It doesn't matter. He's obviously gone up the scale, hasn't He? He's obviously seeing Jesus Christ in a much more potent way. And obviously, we know He will recognize His deity by His confession in Matthew 16 later. But if He's not there yet, He's much, much closer. O Lord, I'm a sinful man. You know, in order to really follow someone, you have to realize who they are. What they're like. And here, we see Peter giving a good impression upon his heart. Just who this Jesus is. Now imagine what that boat ride back to shore would have been like. Here's the men rowing, constantly looking over their shoulder. Little spear. Who is this man? His holiness, their conviction. It would have been pretty awkward, but it's not. In fact, it's far from it. It's the exact opposite. It's amazing because of what Jesus says. Notice how Jesus responds now in verse 10. And so also were James and John, the sons of Zebedee. This is who's with them. Partners with Simon. And Jesus said to Simon two things. Do not be afraid. Do not be afraid. And from now on, you will catch men. Do not be afraid. Yes, Peter, I'm God. Yes, I'm holy. Yes, you are a dreadfully sinful man guilty in my presence. You deserve everything you should get. But don't be afraid. Because I didn't come here to judge you. And I'm not here to be against you. Do not be afraid. In fact, I want you to have the opposite. I want you to have peace. The opposite of being afraid. Do not be afraid. Jesus is saying, I've not come to judge. I've come to forgive. I've come to love. And I've come for you. And you're mine. And I've accepted you and I'm not angry at you. Now why is that? We already know from the Gospel accounts the reason why Jesus is not judging Peter, or God is not angry with us today, is because God has a rightful, holy, hatred, wrathful anger toward all sin. But where has that been dealt with? God has poured out His wrath and His punishment on an innocent substitute, Jesus Christ at Calvary. And God has vanquished His wrath and has set down His gavel. And now the Bible records, it is finished, paid in full. And therefore, our sins have been dealt with. And that's what Jesus is looking forward to. And He says, do not be afraid. There's a reason He can say that. Your sins will be paid for when I die on the cross for you. And so, I'm not angry. So don't be afraid. Relax. Because from now on, you will catch men. You're who I want, Peter. You're who I'm looking for. I know you. And I accept you." And in a sense, they look at each other on this boat. Peter is staring at grace right in the face. Because what is Jesus Christ full of? Grace and truth. And Peter's overwhelmed by grace. He is amazed that this Jesus is offering him comfort. in light of the conviction of his sin and the awareness that he's had and how he was humbled here. And Jesus offers him a new vocation, a new way of life. From now on, you'll be a fishers of men. He uses the fish as an object lesson. Now, they represent men. They represent a worthwhile task to pursue. Now, they'll have a pause in their life of drying nets, metaphorically, drying them and bringing men alive into the boat, where they obtain eternal life. And so, verse 11, they reached land. And when they brought their boats to land, they forsook all and followed him. Abandonment. Unrestrainedly, they're going to go a different direction. They're going to leave something behind. Now, let's put ourselves on that shore. And these two boats, they came in a few hours ago empty and humiliated. No fish. Now they come in and they leave heaping piles of fish like you've never seen. And we're on the boat and we see they're walking away. Peter's walking away. Wait a minute, Peter! Stop! Peter, you've just experienced the greatest night of fishing in your life. Peter, this is your career. This is your trade. You, right now, are at the very height of your career. And you're just going to leave it there? You're just abandoning this and walking away? What are you thinking? What about those fish? At least sell them for a nest egg to fall back on. Do something. Peter, it doesn't have to be either or. It can be both and. Right? You're just going to abandon it all? Peter, look at those fish. That's quite a revenue stream. What does Peter say? He just turns and looks at us and he says, I just don't care anymore. I just don't care anymore. See, I have a new treasure to pursue. I've been given a whole new perspective on life. In fact, this man here, he's God. So what does it matter? And now, if the fish mean anything to me, they represent all humanity and how I've been called to work, to be, to labor with my Savior. What's encouraging here is Peter's already a believer. This means that even believers like you and I, assuming you're saved here tonight, we can be dull. We can maybe not see things accurately or whatever. And you can have an epiphany. And the Lord knows how to reach the details of your life to stir you up and remind you of who He is and have a way of humbling us, motivating us afresh as we know that it's the grace of God in Titus 2 that teaches us. how to live godly, acceptably in this life. Peter found his treasure. He found what he really wants to pursue, what he really loves now. He's going to walk in a new direction. And what is this treasure? It's his Savior. And the Savior who's accepted him and has given him a commission, the Savior, in that boat ride, something happened. And we can relate to 2 Corinthians 5.14 where we read, the love of Christ compels us. And Peter probably had a love for Christ before that, but now there is a process of being humbled and a process of further recognition of himself in the Lord. And the Spirit of God motivates him all the more. This is where it's at, Peter says. I don't care about the fish anymore. You have them. I've found my treasure. I'm walking in a new direction. Note the progression in our story. First, Jesus is saying to Peter, can I use your boat? Can I have a little bit of your time and sit in your boat out in the water where I can teach? Okay. I'll let you do that. That's good, yeah. But then they're out there and then Jesus says, now, can we go out into the deep and cast your net and fish? More time. And fishing in a way that's not by the book. But Peter said that. Your word. Okay. And then the miracle happens. Everything changes. And now Jesus says, don't be afraid. I know you. I want to use you. Here's a commission. I'll make you a fisher of men. They get to verse 11, and what is Peter? He's all in, isn't he? He's all in! Like a Texas hold'em hand, only he doesn't have a hand to fall back on and he's not bluffing. But he's done with any resistance. This is maybe what you'd call reckless abandon. He is no longer going to hold to what was. He has an unrestrained desire. to leave something and follow something. You know, a word that parallels this thought is the word surrender. Oh, we hate that word, don't we? Men, do you like that word? Surrender. What does it mean? There's two definitions in the dictionary that could apply here. It means stop resisting an opponent and submit to their authority. We certainly see Jesus exercising His authority and manifesting who He is. And Peter would come to grips with that. But it also carries the idea of abandoning oneself entirely, too. And isn't that what happens here in verse 11? A recognition of his authority and a willingness to abandon themselves entirely to this person now. We don't like that term, you know. It's like, say uncle. Submit. This isn't how you get saved. This has nothing to do with salvation here. This is now, in the Christian life, as you decide, what are we going to pursue? What are we going to follow after? Is it going to be our will? Or will we surrender our will to His will? We don't like that word. A lot of you can tell stories about how you harass one another when you're brothers or kids or whatever. To surrender. My brother was 10 years older than me. When he had to babysit me, he put up with nothing. And I tested it. What would he do? I was like eight years old. He put me in the dark closet, put barbells over my neck, you know, whatever weight was on there. I'm not able to get out. Sometimes he'd sit over me, right over my mouth. Maybe you suck it back up. I don't want to cry out now because it'll go in my mouth. What do I have to do? Just have to say the right words. No. Not going to do it. Not going to do it. Until eventually, what do we do? You do. So there's a superior power over you. Right? And we resist this concept as independent, proud people. We resist this idea of submitting, so forth. As we think of that, surrender is defined by who you surrender to, isn't it? You're not surrendering to an enemy. You're not surrendering to someone who's an ogre. This is God. This is Jesus Christ. He's saying, I want to take your life. I want you to follow after me. He's fundamentally good. He's patient. He's kind. He's smart. He's all-knowing. Why wouldn't you? You know, an example of this might be marriage. For those of you who are married, when you got married, you said, I do. Regardless of how your marriage is, you said, I do. And thus, you're saying, I don't, to a ton of things. Because from now on, your life, emotionally, physically, spiritually, sexually, is given to her. Why would you do that? Why would you surrender that? Because of who she is. and this relationship and this love. So you're willing and gladly to give that loyalty, which means you're going to have to say, I don't, in a lot of ways, in order to fulfill the I do. Maybe you're saying here tonight, no, I was then. No, I don't like her. God wants me to be married to someone else. Agreed. He does. But it's the same person. only one who's changed. You see, that's your department. That's our department, man. When it comes to our wives, we're to lead them. We're to help them. We're to point them to Christ. We're to be a spiritual leader, their coach, their companion, their encourager, their pastor. We're the tool God wants to use to bring about the positive change. Is that what we're doing? That's a challenge, isn't it? We don't really have The right to sit back and say, I don't like this, I don't like that. That's your department. Be the man that God wants you to be. Be the example. And thereby, give her something to respond to. Point her to the Lord. Direct her in her thinking. Be patient. She could become something you like. The problem is often we're not that way. But by the grace of God, we can be that way as well. So, as we think of this, the hardest part of surrender is that you're no longer in charge. And that's what it comes down to. Am I going to live life my way, or am I going to live my life the way God wants it? Am I going to pursue my will, my agenda, my desires as a Christian who's saved and belongs to Christ, or am I going to yield? Just another word here, same vocabulary, same idea. to what the Lord wants. To His way. Because you know what? He makes a better God than I do. Wouldn't you agree? The best thing about yielding, surrendering, however you want to term it, is that you're no longer in charge. There's a dichotomy, huh? And that's good news, because we live in a crazy world. A lot of hurt, anger, rape, cancer, corruption, villains. You can go on and on. What a comfort to know that we're not responsible for our family in that sense. You see, there might be semantics, but men, we are responsible to our family to be the men we should be. The spiritual leaders, the point them, just like I was saying. We're responsible to our family, but it's the one who's in charge who's responsible for our family. Do you see what I'm saying? And there we can be relaxed. God is in control. Jesus Christ is fundamentally good. He's all-knowing. He's all-powerful. He's issued all these promises. We know how this whole thing ends. We can yield to Him. Because let's face it, there's all sorts of things going on that we can't control. You don't know what's growing inside your child right now by way of cells or whatever. Or what's going to happen in the future or all these things. We can't control all that. Who's responsible for all that? God has a plan. It might involve negative circumstances. It might involve positive circumstances. But He works all things together for good. He can be fully trusted. And what a relaxing point of view we can have. And just pray, by the grace of God, we're responsible to our family and all the things we're to be and should be as a father and a husband. And then we can just breathe knowing that God is responsible for it all. He knows exactly what He's doing. And He's sovereign. So we see here in Luke 5, verse 11, they're just walking away. Reckless abandon. What's changed? They are compelled by this encounter with Christ. Now if we go to Mark 8, we see Chapter 2 of this. So it's interesting because, you know, once we really get a glimpse of the Lord and we're just thrilled to follow after Him, that's not a once-for-all. It's not done now. Peter just recklessly abandoned and just faithfully followed the Lord. That's something we have to contend with daily. We remind ourselves again and again of who he is. Desiring with repeated responses of faith to you, Notice in Mark 8, verse 28. I have it on the screen too. So they answered John the Baptist. Jesus is asking, who do these people say who I am? They answered John the Baptist. Some say Elijah. Others, one of the prophets. When Jesus said to His disciples here, but who do you say that I am? And Peter answered and said to them, you're the Christ. Christ is a title. It's not a name. It's a title, meaning the Messiah, the Anointed One. You're the one that we've been waiting for since Abraham and the one that's been promised. You're the one! You're the Christ! And he strictly warned them that they would tell no one about him. And he began to teach them that the Son of Man must suffer many things and be rejected by the elders and chief priests and scribes and be killed. And after three days, rise again. He spoke this word openly. Then Peter took him aside again to rebuke him. Let's just think about what's happening here. Who am I? You're the Christ. You're the ultimate, ultimate One. And Jesus talks about how the whole plan is going to end differently than what he must have been thinking. The whole plan is going to have a different twist and ending than what Peter would have thought. So Peter pulls him aside. You know, yes, you're a god here, but this is a better plan. That can't happen. And Jesus must have thought, wait a minute, you just said I'm the Messiah, the Son of God, and now you're saying my plan is wrong? So what does Jesus do? When he turned around and looked at the other disciples, he's looking at the others and he's pointing to Peter. He's Satan! He points at him. Get behind me, Satan. You're not mindful of the things of God, but the things of men. And what he just simply means here is you're thinking, Peter, you just shifted over back to your agenda, your thinking, your wisdom, your ways, and now you're actually arguing with me over this divinely instituted, foreordained plan. How many times do we do that in our life? We find ourselves forgetting that view of Christ that we have, becoming dull or whatever. And so Peter gets rebuked in front of all of them. His thinking becomes not in accordance with Jesus Christ. Jesus is saying, listen, it's not your ways, it's not your plans, it's not your agenda. No. So we have to remember this yielding, this surrender is a daily mindset. It's not a one-time decision. We always ask ourselves of the Lord, will it be Your way or my way? And we have to admit, in my heart, I feel my way is better. Or in my mind, I think my way is better. But daily, over and over, at Your word, Lord, as Peter did, okay. That's where we would trust, men, we can become more and more consistent than growing. At your word, Lord. We'll do it your way. And it always works out. You'll never regret a by-faith decision. That's why the Christian life involves repeated responses of faith. And because you're doing well on one day and truly seeing the Lord for who He is and humbled before Him, does not mean the next day you'll function the same way. But as you renew your mind in the Word of God, renew your mind in this person of Christ, and renew your mind so that you can again place your faith and say, at Your Word, it's Your way. And always remember, He makes a better God than you do. A verse that reminds us of that is Romans 12, 1 and 2. I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that you present, surrender, yield. These would be relatively synonymous ideas. A living sacrifice, wholly acceptable to God, which is your reasonable service. But notice the important part is to not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. And when we are doing that, The Lord can show and prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God for you. Doesn't it make sense here? He's saying in verse 1, this reasonable, this reasonable service in light again of who He is, in light of these truths that we know and we trust you believe. It's a reasonable response. This abandonment. This abandonment of our own agenda and self and desires, our own plans and thinking, following and pursuing Him. We'll end up in John 21. We'll see the third phase of this. Because as Peter learned it in Luke 5, got a glimpse of Christ and forsook all and abandoned and went after the Lord, And he continued with the Lord, even though he made mistakes and was rebuked, he continued on. He walked by faith, even though it wasn't always what it should have been. But as he was renewing his mind, we see some growth. Can there really be change? Well, look at this. In John 21, verse 3, this is after the Lord has been resurrected. These men are not with Him. And verse 3, Simon Peter says, I'm going fishing. I scale. That's what I used to do. And I said to him, we're going with you also. And they went out and immediately got into the boat and that night they caught nothing. Sound familiar? But when the morning had now come, Jesus stood on the shore. They're obviously coming in. And the disciples did not know that it was Jesus. And Jesus said to them, children, have you any food? Fishermen, have you caught fish? No. And he said to them, cast the net on the right side of the boat. You'll find some. Sound familiar? So they cast and now they were not able to draw it in because of the multitude of fish. Sound familiar? A repeat. But now verse 7, Therefore that disciple whom Jesus loves said to Peter, It's the Lord. And instead of saying, depart from me, what does Simon do? When Simon Peter heard that it was the Lord, he put on his outer garment, for he had removed it, and he plunged into the sea. And what did he do? He swam as fast as he could to shore. How do we know that? Because in verse 11, he's on shore. When they come and bring the boats on shore, Peter's there. He doesn't say, depart from me, Lord. He dives in to get to him as quickly as possible. Now mind you, the last time he saw Jesus and Peter saw each other was after Peter had betrayed him three times in the night of the trials. Remember? And Luke says how Jesus looked when he saw Peter. But what's amazing is Peter's learned. He's learned how to have daily responses of faith. He failed. He stumbled here, there, wherever. He responded to the Lord, the grace of God. Obviously, he knows that Jesus loved him, that Jesus has accepted him, that he was a friend of Jesus. It's the Lord! Splash! Off you went. Real change. Peter's transformed, wasn't he? Just as Romans 12 says. Transformed. That's encouraging. So as we wrap this up, we think we need to ask ourselves, what do we want in our lives, man? What do we really want? You know, we could do it this way. We could study and train and go to the right school and be an excellent lawyer, dentist, musician, whatever. Fill in the blank. I can work hard. We're going to practice and move up and be accomplished and be anointed. Whatever. That's where it's at. I'm going to practice my talent. I'm going to achieve good success. I'm going to be known as a good plumber, doctor, whatever. And I'll be a good Christian, too. Well, that's nice, isn't it? That's nice. I'm going to work hard here. I'm going to pursue this. I'm a man of fish. I'm concerned about the pile of fish. And I'm a boast of fish. But I'll also nod myself to God. You know what's amazing is the grace of God, He'll take that. And He'll use you in your flash moments here and there. It could be so much better. How about this? I want to be faithful to Jesus Christ. I want to learn to serve Him for His glory. I want to be found pleasing to Him and discover, we could say, His will and be usable, fisher of men in caliber. I want to enjoy an intimate relationship with Jesus. I want to jump in the water and swim to Him. And by the grace of God, be a good whatever as well. You see the difference? Now why wouldn't we want the second one? What's holding us back? Hopefully not a pile of fish, because that's really what life is. A lot of tangibles, a lot of things that don't last for eternity, a lot of things that are like sand through the fingers, a lot of things we really can't control. But that relationship with Christ, that eternity with Him, that future with Him, that daily intimacy day by day now, that will never be taken away. So you have your agenda, purposes, what you want to do, what you want to accomplish, and you're going to do it. Okay. But I would appeal to you, what is your reasonable service? And what will really garner well done of good and faithful service? Reckless abandonment. It's not mindless abandonment. It's reckless maybe only from the human side. What are you doing? Look at this great career! Look at these fish! But it makes total sense on the other side of eternity. What a privilege we have to follow after the Lord. Let's pray. Father, we thank you for