"i'm A Sinful Person"

“I’m a Sinful Person”

Luke 5:1-11

It’s been said that “Life is what happens to you while you’re making other plans.”

The disciples didn’t get their call from Jesus when they were looking for it.

Rather, it was at the end of a long, sweaty night, when they were discouraged and ready to pack it up and go home for the day.

They weren’t doing anything unusual—for them.

They were just washing their nets.

And this is when Jesus comes along, enters into their normal, mundane lives and changes everything.

(pause)

At this point, Jesus has been healing people and He now has a crowd of people following His every move.

It’s teaching time, and because of the large crowd…and because there were no microphones available in that day…and sound carries on water…

…Jesus got into Simon’s boat, and asked him to put that boat back into the water.

And Simon made, perhaps, the most important decision of his life.

Even though he was tired, even though he was frustrated, even though he didn’t feel like it—he listened to Jesus and served Jesus by putting his boat out to shore and letting this stranger teach this crowd of people from his boat.

Then, after Jesus gets finished teaching, He says the strangest thing.

He tells Simon, this professional fisherman who hasn’t caught a thing all night to take his boat “out into deep water, and let down the nets for a catch.”

What do you suppose was going through Simon’s mind at that moment?

Did he think Jesus was crazy?

Did he feel a twinge of frustration since the nets were already clean and he knew, deep down inside, that he wasn’t gonna catch a single thing…

…that it was going to be an effort in futility?

What do you think?

In any event, “Simon answered, ‘Master, we’ve worked hard all night and haven’t caught anything.

But because you say so, I will let down the nets.”

It does sound like he’s just doing it to placate Jesus or humor Him…

…doesn’t it?

Or, maybe he’s doing it so he can prove to Jesus how foolish an idea this is.

Like, “I’ll show him. I’ll go ahead and do it and when the nets come up empty, He will see what a ridiculous request this is.”

“Then, maybe, I can get this guy off my back and go home.”

We don’t know, but I suspect that thought might be in there somewhere.

Have you ever felt like Jesus was asking you to do something, calling you to do something but you didn’t believe it would work…you didn’t think it was possible?

I remember when we had the idea for the food pantry, there were some people who thought it wouldn’t work.

Or when, at my last church, we decided to house the homeless people who had been kicked out of the Superior Creek Lodge.

Everyone got involved though.

God’s Spirit moved and worked.

And folks in the community and other churches donated $85,000.

We were able to find stable housing for 70 displaced families.

When we step out with Jesus, into the deep waters, doing what He calls us to do—even if it seems an impossible task—miracles happen.

And there is nothing like living inside of a miracle.

It changes you somehow.

And when Simon Peter, James and John took the leap of faith—took the chance, did what Jesus asked them to do even though they didn’t think it was possible or didn’t think it would accomplish anything “they caught such a large number of fish that their nets began to break.”

It was a record haul!!!

They filled both boats with the fish, and when they did so, the boats started to sink.

How would you react to something like that?

I think I’d do just about what Simon Peter did.

I’d fall on my knees in utter terror and say: “Get away from me, Lord; I am a sinful man!”

In other words, this is something only God can accomplish.

And to be in the presence of the Holy God, especially in the Jewish religion, was a scary thing.

You had to make sacrifices first.

You had to confess your sins.

You had to be clean before you could be in God’s presence.

And Peter knew he was not clean.

But this passage of Scripture gives us new insight as to how God works.

We don’t have to have cleaned up our act before Christ comes knocking on our door and calling us to action.

We don’t have to have it all together in order for God to use us.

We don’t have to be perfect, to be sinless for God to love us and invite us to be His disciples.

We don’t have to be anything.

We just have to be receptive.