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Peter sought. If you will please
take your Bibles and turn to Luke 5. We'll be reading verses
3-11. Here Simon learned something
I wish we could all see this morning. You can listen and understand
facts, take those facts into your head, but that will only
be storing knowledge. But I'd like for you to see this,
just get a hold of you, get into you. I'd like for you to see
this with your heart, and that'll put what you learn into action.
We all know that the Bible says, Be not hearers of the Word only,
but doers, lest ye deceive your own heart. So when we hear what
God's teaching us, comes into our heart, it becomes
action. I have a real problem in later
years, and that is people come and make decisions, but there's
no change in their life. In fact, I have a total problem
with this idea of people thinking about it or not thinking about
it, that this is me. I've told our people several
times If that were my attitude, this is me, they wouldn't have
a pastor and we wouldn't have the church. When God called me
to preach, He changed me totally. When I say totally, totally. And it wasn't that I was in deep
sin or drunkenness, but it seems as though we're afraid to change. We just are so proud that we
just say, this is me. first surrendered to preach,
I couldn't speak. I told the people just recently,
I went to nine years of speech therapy. I learned how to put
my tongue on my nose. I was the shyest guy you ever
wanted to find. Understand what I'm saying? I
don't think we allow the Bible to get into our hearts to the
place where it changes us. And this morning I'm asking you
to ask God to let this get into your heart and move you. Again, our text is Luke 5, starting
in verse 3. And he entered into one of the
ships, which was Simon's, and prayed him that he would thrust
out a little from the land. And he sat down and taught the
people out of the ship. Now, when he had left speaking,
he said unto Simon, launch out into the deep and let down your
nets for a draught. And Simon answering said unto
him, Master, we've toiled all night. We've been doing this
all night and we've taken nothing. Nevertheless, at thy word, I'll
let down the net, singular. And when they had this done,
they enclosed a great multitude of fishes in their net break. And they beckoned on to their
partners, which were in the other ship, that they should come and
help. And they came and filled both
ships so that they began to sink. When Simon Peter saw it, he fell
at Jesus' knees saying, Depart from me, for I am a sinful man,
O Lord. For he was astonished in all
that were with him at the draught of fishes which they had taken. And so was also James and John,
the sons of Zebedee, which were partners with Simon. And Jesus
said unto Simon, Fear not, for henceforth thou shalt catch men. And when they had brought their
ships to land, they forsook all and followed him." Let's pray. Our Heavenly Father, You know
how thankful I am for our friends to come to this meeting. You
know how we want to be a blessing. I want to be a blessing this
morning and I can't be without you. So I just ask that you give
me freedom as I preach and empower what I have to say and speak
to somebody. We know you can't make them,
but Lord, speak that at least somebody would change to the
place where they're more useful for you. In your name we pray,
Amen. Simon was one of the best men
that God had as he walked this earth. But Jesus knew that Simon
Peter needed to learn a lesson if he was going to be a really
good servant, if he was going to be truly useful and happy
and successful. So Jesus said, I need to borrow
your boat. Now, here's a crucial time of
decision for a Christian. And we all have these times.
And as I said already, most people just say, I'm that, not that
way. We have people come to our church
and they'll say, boy, I need this. But they never do anything
about it. And they go on their way and
never, never progress. Now, again, this boat meant everything
to Peter. It meant his job, his income. It's the way he fed his family. And here's a question that I
have for you this morning. Will I give all I own to Jesus? You say, oh, yeah. Oh, yeah?
Won't you think? Won't you apply it to yourself
personally? Will I give all I own to Jesus? Now, I could have said, I'll
let you have this boat, but as soon as the sun rises, I've got
to be out on this lake catching fish. It's my living. If we want God's blessings, though,
we've got to be able to give up everything. Anything I want,
I don't want to get off. But I wanted to be an architect. Then I wanted to be a pilot. In fact, I joined the Navy Air,
came this close to being a pilot, I wanted to be a pilot. And so
when I surrendered. I My pastor was a good man and
our church was a decent church. But he was run by the deacons. He's relegated to a little apartment,
I don't know how many kids he had, a lot. Just a little tiny
apartment up in the corner of the building next door. And I
thought if I was in a surrender, I fought God's call to preach
for 10 years. If I were to surrender, it was like being a monk is the
way I looked at it. I wasn't going to accomplish
anything for God. That's the kind of Christianity
I came from. I lived in Chicago. I remember
always seeing the bus drivers, their pants were real shiny in
the back. And my pastor had shiny pants.
Now, this might seem silly to you, but I'm not trying to joke.
When I surrendered, I surrendered to shiny pants. and to being
relegated to a little apartment up in the corner, and to do nothing
with my life. You understand what I mean by
being a monk? Just kind of nothing. Accomplishing nothing. But I'm glad I gave my life to
God. Sharon and I were ready to get
married. And I said to her, and that's
a lot of years ago, but I said, Sharon, how do you like to be
a preacher's wife? And I, you know, whatever, I
was going to be youth pastor. She said, I'd hate it. I said, well, that's what I'm
going to be. I hadn't talked to anybody for 10 years, just,
just fought. What I'm saying is whether you're
going in a full time service or not, you have to trust God. Trust him. I've counseled people down through
the years, good people, people who believe the Bible, said they
love the Lord, hated this world. But everybody has to make a decision
at this crossroads in life if they're really going to be used
of God. And that is, well, I give everything to God. I'm not saying everybody should
be in full time service, but I'm saying everybody ought to
be willing to say, I'll give everything to God. I remember one guy represents
a group. He was a bus captain here. But
the ends weren't meeting. And he came to me and he said,
Preacher, he said, the church is growing. Church needs money. I can't afford to stay in the bus
ministry. I'm going to quit the bus ministry
and my ministry is going to be giving. Well, I'll tell you,
the guy whose ministry is going to be giving, as opposed to everything
else, will soon stop giving. On the other side, I think of
another fellow that was saved here. He represents another group. Boy, did he work. Did he love
winning souls and knocking on doors and everything else that
was in the church. But he said, I can't give. If I gave, I couldn't pay my
bills. And I say, your lack of faith
will kill your ministry and soon kill your soul winning. By the
way, it did. What a decision. It'll dictate
your future Christian life. But Peter said, I don't know. When it'll come back, but OK,
Lord, take my little boat. Now, we know that Jesus just
wanted to use it, just push it off a little bit and teach the
Bible to the people, get away from the crowd so he could do
a better job. But when he came back, he looked at Peter and
thought, you've learned a lesson. You gave me a ship. Now I want
to complete that lesson. You have fished all night and
taken nothing. I want you to take your nets,
plural, and I want you to put those nets down exactly where
I tell you, and you're going to reap like you never have before. Now Peter, halfway, half-heartedly
believes God and he took one net and he thought he'd appease
the Lord. In verse 5 it says, And Simon
answering said unto him, Master, we've toiled all night. We've
taken nothing. Nevertheless, at thy word we'll
let down the net. You're God. I'm the expert. I've been doing this all my life,
but you're God. I'll throw a net in. Oh, how our life. How we miss out teenagers. College students. How we miss
out by just half heartedly following God. I am positively convinced. That God. wants to bless every
Christian family on the face of this earth positively convinced. I also I'm not a prosperity type
guy, but I do believe God wants to open the windows of heaven. I don't understand that. Malachi
3.10 says, Bring ye all the tithes into the storehouse, that there
may be meat in mine house. And prove me now herewith, saith
the Lord, if I will not open you the windows of heaven and
pour you out... What's it saying? A blessing
that there shall not be room enough to receive it. Well, I
believe in the King James Bible. You practice it. Understand what
I'm saying? He's saying, I'll open the windows
of heaven. He's God. And by the way, I could
stand here for hours. I've seen miracles. I've seen Him open the windows
of heaven to the place where it scared me. John Hall, our
engineer that's helped build the buildings around here, I
think he can remember right after our court case, within a year,
God sent so many people here, I was afraid the floors were
going to cave in. And I remember coming to him
and saying, will the floors hold them? Right when we were supposed
to be dead, right when the newspapers wrote our obituaries, we had
so many people we couldn't handle them. And we could look at so
many, the point being, we say we believe the Bible. By theology
and doctrine, we say we believe the doctrine. But do we practice
it? The Bible says, train up a child
in a way he should go, and when he is old, he will not depart
from it. Now, you preachers are there
making excuses. Either that's the Bible or it's
not. When I left Iowa State, I was
fighting geology, evolution, and I went to Bible college and
I was fighting this. It doesn't say that, my first
class professor said. It doesn't mean that. And the
devil used to say that to me. If you spank those kids too much,
they're going to hate you. And my relatives said that to
me. Everybody but my wife. Do we believe or not is what
I'm saying. We waffle. We play games. Peter caught so many fish that
his neck broke. And he had to call his partners
with the other ship. And can you see with me as those
two ships try to make it toward shore? If you read the Bible,
they were sinking. The water was lapping over the
edge because they were so full of fish. And Peter saw it. I want to say something. God
wants to show us also. Peter suddenly realized that
Christianity was true. Sorry, people, you hear me say
this. Everybody here doesn't. I am just so convinced that there's
not much difference between most Baptists and most Episcopalians,
except they have the right doctrine. The problem is they don't believe
the doctrine. They don't practice the doctrine.
What good is it if you have the right doctrine if you don't live
it? He realized that what Jesus taught
was a fact. All I did was give him my little
boat and he gave it back. Plus, he showed me how to catch
fish like nobody ever has on this lake, ever. I've learned
a new truth. This thing has finally got into
me. Peter saw it. In verses 8 and
9, it says, When Peter saw it, he fell down at Jesus' knees
saying, Depart from me, for I am a sinful man. We like to act
like we're so good. God's so lucky to have us. If
we see God, we don't feel that way. For he was astonished in
all that were with him at the draught of fishes which they
had taken. We used to call them hippies.
Long, stringy hair, never took a bath, stunk. I don't know what they're called
today. But they have rings in their nose and every other part
of their body. They tattoo themselves all over
and shack up, just like the hippies. They haven't seen it. We know
that. But the pastor, who, as the Bible
says, is afraid of the faces of the people. Afraid to take
a stand for what's right and trust God to take care of him. He hasn't seen it any more than
the hippie. And the church member. Boy, today
it's not in vogue to knock on doors. The church member who won't knock
on doors because people are mean. The church member who makes excuses
isn't doing everything he can to raise his children. He hasn't
seen it. The church member who can look
around the world and look around, in our case, Chesterton, Indiana,
and see the sin, and could it ever get any worse, See people going to hell. Kids going to the devil. Drugs. And then look at a church. Look
at your church. Our church. And see what God
has given us. The opportunities. If that doesn't
excite you, something's wrong with you. Bad wrong. I remember a guy who came down
here to visit from Milwaukee and. He was visiting his brother,
if I remember correctly, and he got saved that morning, he
and his wife. And when he was being dealt with. He. We realized he he wasn't
married. And so I married him that day. We say, how can you do that?
I don't care about the paperwork. He can take care of the paperwork
the next day. But I married him before God
that day, because that's what he needed to do. And then that
night, I was talking to him about the
Holy Spirit. I said, now the Holy Spirit lives within you,
and He'll show you what you need to do. And he said, that must
be what's telling me to move to Chesterton. Now here's a guy
who got saved, got married, got baptized, and made the decision
to move to Chesterton in one day. You say, how did that happen? He saw it. He saw it. I don't know whether
it was, I shouldn't say I don't know, honestly, I believe about
80 percent ignorance and about 20 percent faith when I came
here. All I knew is that God wanted
me to start a church in Chesterton, Indiana with one family that
was here. And we had no support. Zero support. And we would just
pray. I say, just pray. It was hard. Every praying for food, praying
when Jeff was born, doctor and hospital bills and pray and you
know God not only always paid the bills they always came in
always came in But they came in in a timely manner it seemed
like I could remember where we lived in the little parsonage I'd go in that living room sit
on the couch, and I'd say okay God here we go again But God
did it And I'm so glad that I didn't. And I'm not saying you shouldn't
have support. Courtney, we support him. I'm not saying you shouldn't
have support, but I'm so glad I did not have support. Because I saw God take care of
us week after week after week after week, never asking for
a thing. And we expected it. And then
it came to our first building, the house, our house we met in
the basement right here someplace. And the first building was where
those glass doors are down there. And we were going to build our
first building. And we went to get a loan. They wouldn't give us a loan
because we had a loan on the property here. We had eight acres
in that house. And so we decided to place bonds. And we placed bonds. Now, there
were 10 total family units, that's including single men, women,
and stuff like that. And I personally talked to everyone
and I asked them about their neighbors, their grandparents,
everybody, you know. Have you talked to everybody?
And it came in until the last payment, supposed to be $18,000. And I revisited everybody, everything,
we've talked of everything, we couldn't do nothing else. And
I got up, it was like that building was like a spook to me, it was
scary. And I was preaching, I used to
preach really wild back then, excited, pressure. And I remember
I was preaching away and I said, you know, we're supposed to have
$18,000 by Tuesday to pay our bills. And if God can't pay our
bills, then we're going to shut the doors. And I got out of pulpit, when
I say went home, went upstairs and Sharon says, what did you
say that for? I wasn't planning to say it. She wasn't questioning the wisdom
of her husband, but I wasn't planning to say it. Now, we were
starting a school. And so I went down, and I mean,
we didn't have, I'm not stretching it, I mean, we didn't have money.
I mean, I wouldn't call Sharon on Monday, but I had a call Tuesday,
because it was due Tuesday night. And I remember I was in Chattanooga,
Tennessee, recruiting teachers, and I called and I said, did
it come in? She said, yeah, 19,500. Now, there was nobody else to
see. But people that wanted 500 got
2,000 or something, or somebody said they didn't want anything,
there it was. God did it. You understand? And I'm so convinced. And I'm
not just talking to preachers or full-time workers. I'm talking
to you college students. I'm talking to everybody. We
always stop when God wants to do great things. I say to our
students in our church, in fact, that's why the stone says it
out there, find God's will. And then do it! If you know it's God's will,
do it! Don't be afraid. Through the
years, time after time, this kind of thing has happened. And
I guess my question is, have you forgotten what God said He'll
do? Peter sought. And because he's
God, he's absolutely supreme and holy. Peter saw the holiness
of God and he fell down on his knees and said, depart from me,
for I am a sinful man, O Lord. And that's where we need to be. Not making excuses, not reasoning
things out. We're dirty, rotten men and women. We know nothing. God wants to
bless us. Turn to Revelation 4. Have you ever come to that place?
If so, are you still at that place? Revelation 4, 8, they
rest not day and night, saying, Holy, Holy, Holy, Lord God Almighty,
which was and is and is to come. Revelation 15, verse 4, Who shall
not fear Thee, O Lord, and glorify Thy name? For Thou only art holy,
for all nations shall come and worship before Thee, for Thy
judgments are made manifest. We read in 1 Samuel 6.20, Who
is able to stand before This holy God. I think that's our
problem. We're just staying in there. Job said in Job 15.15,
the heavens are not clean in His sight. Have you got there? Isaiah 6.3, holy, holy, holy
is the Lord of hosts. The whole earth is full of His
glory. Do you see it? Or do you treat
Him like a spare tire? Just used in an emergency. Or
do you treat him like some union worker at a factory? Always telling
him what you want and what you deserve. Do you just come to
church and go through your Christian motions because it's the thing
to do? Or have you seen him as Isaiah
did in Isaiah 6? High and lifted up in his holiness. Now I want to bring home a point. Seeing Him as God, coming to
that place where you cross the line and fall at His feet is
key to all that's good for you. I believe that God will bring
into a good church every person He needs to pay the bills. Don't
need high-pressure gimmicks. Just if everybody does what they
should, the bills will be paid. I think most would love to see
revival in their lives at least. You see this, you'll have revival
in your lives. Have all your kids grow up and
not have to make excuses to be proud of what God has done? How
would you like to be a soul winner? Maybe you've got an unsaved father
and you'd like to see him saved and go to heaven. or win some
child and give him direction in a real life. Once you see
what I'm preaching about, you have the key to all these things.
Let's take being a soul winner, and I'm not talking about a pep
rally, but I'm talking about the kind of soul winner that's
powered by God in its second nature. The first prerequisite
to being a soul winner is giving everything that you have to God. Now, you think about it. Peter
wasn't a soul winner until this point. But when you give your all, then
soul winning is second nature. Again, in our text in verse 10
at the end, it says, from henceforth thou shalt catch men. But until
you give your job, I'm not saying quit your job. Give your job,
your home, your family, your pride, all to God. You won't
have a longing for souls. You won't have a desire to catch
men. But when you give your all, you'll want to win souls. You'll
want to see souls saved. You'll want to be in a church
that sees souls saved. You'll want to pray for the pastor,
pray for the church. But you won't do it until you
see God's holiness. And let me say, part of that
is getting your worldly affairs in order. I'm convinced it just
goes right together. We know Jesus said in Luke 16,
11, if therefore ye have not been faithful and unrighteous
mammon, who will commit to your trust the true riches? What's
unrighteous mammon? Dirty, filthy money when it comes
to American, ma'am, and it's not worth anything. And if you can't trust God with
that. He's not going to trust you with souls. Or good children
or anything else. Did you know that your spirituality
is directly related to your finances? This is what the Lord is teaching. And when Peter saw it, he gave
all. Jesus said, now, Peter, you're
going to be able to catch men, you're going to be a soul winner.
And by the way, I think Peter's still catching men 2000 years
later. Who was it that the Lord chose
to preach at Pentecost and see 3000 saved? It's the first time
he ever preached. He didn't have an analytical
outline. But he saw what was needed to
be a success for God. And Simon Peter saw it. He fell
down at Jesus' knees saying, Depart from me for I'm a sinful
man, O Lord. No quartets that look like thousand-legged
jitterbugs. But Peter stood and preached
in the power of God and caught three thousand men. That's not
learned in the classroom or from other great preachers, people
who want to go follow other great preachers, it's not caught by
idol worship. But he saw that he must give
himself and his resources and God blessed. Now, I'm not a fisherman. I don't
like to fish. Well, these kids saying, oh,
man, my grandkids saying I didn't know granddaddy was a heretic.
All my grandkids love the fish. But I don't like to fish. Now,
I'd like to catch fish. There's a difference. I only went fishing as an adult
one time. I took Jeff down our lake. There's
a lot of, if you want to catch, there's been some big bass caught
down there and stuff. I'm not exaggerating. You can
catch them down there. My wife likes to eat them. But
one time I took Jeff down there, I believe it was 15 minutes and
that was it. I don't have the patience. But I go back again
and say, I would like to catch lots of fish. Just pull them
out. And the point I want to make
is that Jesus didn't say He'd make us fishers of men like we
sometimes say. But henceforth thou shalt catch
men. Just like you put your net down
and it broke and you had to call the other ship, you'll catch
men. You don't have to be a fancy
soul winner. I'm not. You don't have to be one of these
guys that know everything. You don't have to be confident
in yourself. Just do it. I'm going to tie things up, but
look at verse 11. And when they had brought their
ships to land, they forsook all and followed him. Now, if you
really see it, It'll be so exciting and so thrilling that you'll
forsake all and follow God. We lose sight. Of the holiness
of God. We need to fall in love with
him again. There's an illustration that
I think all have seen. There's a girl. Lives in a very
nice home. Her parents love her. Her father
spoils her. Maybe she's in her own bedroom. Big closet full of clothes. Always
food on the table. She doesn't have a need. She
doesn't have a want. But she leaves that to marry
some knucklehead They're always knuckleheads, aren't they, Dad?
I've got two knuckleheads. They leave that to marry a guy
and live, and maybe my girls first lived in a one-room utility
apartment. Maybe they don't even know if
they're going to have food. Maybe she has to go work in order
to help put food on the table and pay the bills. Now why would
somebody leave that beautiful home with all that security to live like that? Because she
found something she likes better than security. And when you see
it, you'll forsake all also. I don't mean that in most cases
you have to sell your house or quit your job. I don't mean that. But when you see it, all else
fades into oblivion. You'll be at the prayer meetings,
and you'll be praying, and you'll be wanting revival. When there's a need in the offering,
you'll be taking care of it. When you see it, you won't give
in to financial pressures. When you see it, you won't give
in to pressures on the job. When you see it, you'll fall
on your face and you'll cry, holy, holy, holy. Your car will be God's, no matter
how much the gas costs. Your family will be God's, no
matter what the excuses. Your time will be God's and you'll
always be ready to change your schedule. Your money will be
His. When he has a need, you'll fill
it. Sometimes I hear people say something to the effect, my,
how they have sacrificed. Probably mean well, but it's
an ignorant statement. You can't sacrifice for God.
I'll swap a pocket full of dirt for a pocket full of diamonds
any day. I've never given anything up
for God. Anything I've done, for God was
an improvement. Anything I've given to God has
been a blessing. And the best thing that could
ever happen to you is for God to let you have a position of
service. Peter said, I see it. I understand
it now. I see your holiness and I see
my sinfulness. And the Lord said, Now that you've
put me in perspective, now that I'm not only your savior, but
I'm your Lord. Now you're going to see miracles.
I believe God wants that for everyone. I say again, I'm through. I believe God wants to bless
everybody. I believe everybody he wants
all everybody in this room to be able to pay their bills. I
believe he wants everybody here to raise children to live for
God. I believe He wants to bless every church in the world with
souls. I do. And growth. Strong people. Every church. But we have to see it. We have
to step out on faith. Let's pray. Our Heavenly Father,
we thank You for Your Word and thank You that it still excites
me. And I pray that You'll get into
the heart or hearts of people here. Stir them up. Not emotionally,
not physically, but spiritually, Lord. I say again that somebody
make a decision That would mean they'll have to change maybe
their personality and change some of their practices. But in result, they'll see you
do great things. Lord, I pray that You'll bless
this invitation. Holy Spirit, deal with hearts. In Your name we pray, Amen.
Peter Saw It
Series Preaching Conference 2012
| Sermon ID | 8270518320 |
| Duration | 43:03 |
| Date | |
| Category | Special Meeting |
| Bible Text | Luke 5:3-11 |
| Language | English |
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