Invite Series

Invite

Luke 5:1-11

Wonderful things happen when we invite Jesus into the routines of our lives:

1. Jesus uses our routines for His higher purposes

2. We get a fresh glimpse of who He is

Confronted with the wonder of God, we more clearly see our own frail and flawed humanity

Being overwhelmed by the grace of God should do at least two things: (build)

Break us

Propel us

3. Our past experiences can become fresh opportunities.

Story about invitation…Back in 1998, Sue and I received an invitation to the inauguration of George Bush as Governor of Texas. It was pretty neat. Then two years later when he was elected president, we got an invitation to his presidential inauguration. Didn’t go, but I heard it was cool. No body took notice that we were in Austin in 98 or weren’t in Washington in 2001. But-- what if we had invited Bush to come to our house for some burgers and dogs and he and Laura had come—now that, my friend, would have made the news.

Turn to Luke 5:1-11 as we continue our series entitled “Wonders”. One of the saddest things that can happen in the life of a believer is that they get caught up in all the madness and chaos of living in the 21st century and miss out on the wonder and the splendor of Jesus.

Last week we talked about the necessity of faith; that if you want to see and experience the wonder of Jesus in your life, you’ve got to bring your faith. When you bring your faith into a trying or difficult circumstance, then you begin to see the power and wonder of Jesus in that circumstance.

This morning we take a look at a passage of Scripture reminds us about inviting Jesus into the routines of our lives.

Read Luke 5:1-11 (On screen)

This is not the first time Peter had met Jesus. Jesus had already healed Peter’s mother in law. Peter was already recognizing that there was something different about Jesus. But now Peter finds himself in a situation where Jesus presumably asked to get in Peter’s boat and Peter invited Him in.

If you can imagine the scene: Peter, Andrew, James and John have been fishing all night on the Sea of Genessaret. (pic) Also known as the Sea of Galilee and the Sea of Tiberias. It’s really just a large fresh water lake, about 8 miles wide at it’s widest point, and about 13 miles long. They hadn’t caught a thing. When we were in Israel, we went to a museum of a boat that had been discovered in 1986 in the mud, cleaned up and put on display. (pic of discovery, pic of museum display, and pic of what it would have looked like in Jesus time). Dates back to the time of Jesus. The way they fished was not with rod and reel… but with a net. Not like in Alaska…dip netting/fish netting (http://cdn.c.photoshelter.com/img-get/I0000dsSCA7fh7pw/s/750/600/dipnet-salmon-fishing-0006.jpg) But fishing with a net (http://thepaintedone.files.wordpress.com/2010/02/fishing_net3.jpg) Describe process. At night, the fish couldn’t see the net coming, even though they could sense it, and so the fishing was better at night usually.

So here they are, on the shore, cleaning their nets to get all the moss and algae and stuff like that off the nets, then hang them up to dry so they wouldn’t rot. And Jesus was teaching real close to them—and the crowd kept pushing him back toward the water, so Jesus asks if He can get into Peter’s boat. So Jesus gets in, then Peter and another guy, probably Peter’s brother Andrew get in the boat and push a bit out into the water so Jesus could continue to teach.

Finally the teaching ends, the people leave, and Jesus says go out a bit further and fish some more. Then the miraculous happens and the power and wonder of Jesus is on display all over again.

You know something? Wonderful things happen when we invite Jesus into the routines of our lives:

1. Jesus uses our routines for His higher purposes

Jesus gets into the boat, right? He commandeers it. And in the process, He uses the boat and the men for His higher purposes.

Q: Have you invited Jesus into the routines of your life? To take over your boat? Or do you live a duplicitous life; you know, at church get the happy clappys and all praise the Lord and thank you Jesus…but then Monday morning you get up, and go through the week, trudging through and MISSING the splendor and the wonder of God in your job or school?

Are you seeing God at work at work?

Brad Wilemon—guy he’s been witnessing to

Vincent Anderson

Kim Vann, a teacher, prays for her children and calls on God to draw him to herself.