Will You Do It?
Exodus 14:1-16 Luke 18:18-23 Luke 5:1-11
1/13/2018
There is a question that we have to answer probably a thousand times a day without even thinking about it. The reason is, there is always something seeking our attention saying, come follow me. How many times have you sat down to do something, and all of a sudden something else caught your attention, came to your mind, appeared on your computer screen, flashed across your phone saying come do this or pay attention to me and you have to answer the question, whether or not you are going to do it.
In can guarantee you, in 2019 there will be thousands of times you will hear, “will you do it.” There are many times when we find ourselves in situations in which we face a problem in life, and we say, “if only I knew what God wanted me to do” as though “if we knew it, we would do it.” How many of you know that it is not always the case? Part of the problem is actually choosing to do it. Most of us know enough of God’s will to carry us through a lifetime, but we are not convinced that we want to do God’s will. We automatically know its going to cost us something.
In our Old Testament Reading , God had delivered the children of Israel out of the ruthless hands of the Egyptians, who had made them slaves for 400 years, beaten them, abused them, and even murdered some of them. They were so glad when God delivered them, and the Egyptians told them get out of country and take whatever you want with you. Now that they were on their way to the promised land, God led them and Moses up to the Red Sea as part of the journey.
Once the Egyptians got over their fear of the God of Israel and reality began to sink in of everything they had lost, and, they realized their slave labor was gone and so were their possessions. They knew where their gold and silver and clothing were. They decided to go and bring the people back and make them their slaves all over again. They thought this would be easy because with the sea in front of the people, and the Egyptian army behind them, they would trap them from behind.
When God’s people realized the Egyptians were coming after them with soldiers and chariots, they panicked. They did not have swords and spears or an organized army. They knew God’s will was for them was to go to Canaan. But the Red Sea was in front of them, and the Egyptians were closing in from the rear.
They were afraid because they didn’t see a way out. How could they continue to plan to go ahead to the Promised land. Some of them wanted to form a negotiating committee and see what terms they could arrange to go back to Egypt where they had been beaten and abused. We should never be so afraid of the future that God has for us, that we go back into an abusive situation. It’s not God’s will for you to be in an abusive relationship with anyone. Don’t let your fear of the future of leaving, keep you from going forward. Here is where the church has to be the church in helping those who are willing to take a step to escape.
Moses tried to calm the people down by telling them if you stand firm, you will see the deliverance the Lord will bring to you. Standing firm does not mean doing nothing. God told Moses to tell the people to move on. They had to keep moving toward what they thought was hopeless, in order to experience the miracle.
God wanted to grow their faith just like he wants to grow ours. They had to decide if they were going to do it? Now the pragmatist wanted to negotiate with Egyptians for a settlement. Of course it would mean slavery. The revolutionaries, wanted to organize to fight. Of course it would mean a suicidal battle they would lose. The timid wanted to just hope for the best. Of course they would have stayed in fear right up to the end. The believers wanted to do what God said, and move on as Moses directed.
The thing is we serve a supernatural God, who can intervene whenever God wants to in our lives. He knows our situation. We are so afraid of the army that’s coming at us that we think we have to inform God about it. God, there is an Egyptian army coming my way. The reality is, it’s God that sent the army just so that we might be delivered and drawn closer to Him. I want us to know, an Egyptian army is headed our way, but God has it under his control.
Nobody could have known that all it would take was for Moses to stand up, and stretch out His hands, and the Lord would send an east wind strong enough not only to split the Red Sea, but to hold it in place so that the people could be saved. No matter how desperate your situation may get in 2019, God has an east wind with your name on it, so that you can pass through your situation and get to the other side. When it comes time for us to raise our hands before God, will we do it. Jesus tells us, come to me you who are weary and are carrying burdens and I will give you rest.
There is a price we are going to pay if we’re going to get closer to God. In our New Testament, we met a young man who by most standards had lived an exemplary moral life. When he ran into Jesus, and saw how Jesus talked about living for God, he realized, he was still missing something in his life. He wanted to serve God, but he knew something was holding him back, but he didn’t know what it was. Have you ever been in his shoes, where you wanted to get closer to God, but something just took away your time, your focus or your energy.
He was bold enough to ask Jesus for an honest answer. He said, “Jesus, I have kept the commandments to the best of my ability. People will tell you, I am serious about following the Lord. What is it that I’m lacking? Why can’t I break through this situation? What keeps pulling me back?”
If you were to ask Jesus this question, would you be surprised at what Jesus would tell you, or do you think you already have a pretty good idea of what Jesus might say? Are you hoping Jesus will affirm something, that’s been troubling you for a while? Lord, just say its okay for me to hold on to this. What if Jesus says it’s not okay, give it up, will you do it? We are all called to deny a part of ourselves that we don’t want to turn over to God.
Jesus was lovingly yet brutally honest with the young ruler, and told him, “you have an unhealthy love for money and possessions and they have you trapped. Sell everything, you have and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven. Then come follow me.”
Now that he has an answer from Jesus, will he do it? Would we do it? Sometimes I wish the young ruler had of had some other sin problem than love of money, because we are tempted to believe that since we don’t have great wealth, Jesus certainly couldn’t be talking to us.
Yet Jesus is saying to all of us who had become captive to something in our lives, if we get rid of that thing, we will have true treasure in heaven. This world is not all there is. We only are looking at what we are leaving behind and not what we are receiving.
In Luke 5, Jesus had been doing a little preaching on the side of the Sea of Galilee. More and more people are crowding around him to listen to him. Jesus sees a couple of fishing boats sitting idle while their owners were cleaning their fishing nets. To keep from getting pushed into the water by the crowd, Jesus asks Simon Peter to borrow his boat so he could continue the service. He asks Peter to push the boat a little from the shore.
While Jesus is sitting down preaching, Simon Peter is cleaning his nets. All he can think about is the fact that they caught nothing all night long. He catches a lit bit of Jesus’ message, and then his mind goes back to his problem of no money for the day. He couldn’t wait to finish cleaning the nets and go home and get some rests. He had worked third shift.
Now Peter has heard some stories about Jesus being a good teacher. He’s heard stories about Jesus healing people and casting out demons. He has heard the one about Jesus being baptized, a dove coming down on him, and a voice saying, “This is my beloved Son, with Him I am well pleased .” He was even there when Jesus went to his house, rebuked a fever his mother-in-law had, and his mother-in-law, got up waited on them.
Peter was wondering how long Jesus was going to preach. He just wanted to pull up his boat, finish his nets and go home for the day. Jesus finally told everyone, thanks for coming out today. Take what I said, and share it with others. May the Lord bless you on your way home. The people got up and started to leave. Jesus got out of the boat and said to Peter, “Put out into deep water, and let down your nets for a catch.”
Uh uh. Jesus is about to get out of his lane. It’s fine for him to talk about God, but to now talk about how I should do my job as a professional fisherman. What does Jesus know about how to fish? He’s a carpenter. What does Jesus know about computers? What does he know about medical technology and medicine or auto-mechanics or supervising staff, or running a company? Why do we try to keep Jesus in the church, when he knows how every part of our lives is suppose to work. We are so quick to say, that Jesus stuff is not going to work where I live, where I work, where I go to school. Why not? Jesus knows what’s going on there better than any of us do.
Simon answered Peter, “master we’ve worked hard all night and haven’t caught anything.” Have you ever felt like you have given something your best shot and it just has not come together, and you’re not sure you even want to aim for it again. That’s how Peter was feeling. He had plenty of reasons for why this was not going to be a good idea even though it was coming from Jesus.
First of all it was a daytime when the fish would have gone back into the very deep water where it was cool. The best time to catch the fish on the lake was during the evening when the fish came close to the surface to eat. Second, the nets were not equipped to go into the very deep water where the fish would be during the day. The ropes would not be long enough and the fish could easily scatter. Jesus was not giving good fisherman advice.
Then he said, “But”. Did you know your life can turn on the three letter word but, especially when it is given to God. Peter goes on, “but because you say so, I will let down the nets.” Have you ever done something you didn’t want to do, but because of who the person was that was doing the asking, you agreed to go ahead and do it? You might have said, “if anybody else had of asked me to do it, I would have said no.”
You know when we can get to that point where we love God so much, and respect God so much, and trust God so much, that when God says, “will you do it”, we just want to say yes, because we can’t so no because we know how much He has done for us.
Peter did what God asked, and the nets were so full of fish, that their nets began to break. So they signaled to their partners who rushed out to help them, and there were so many fish, that boats began to sink. With all the fish around him, Peter’s mind was not even on the amount of money he was going to make that day or the number of fish they had caught. When God fills some of our nets unexpectedly, we get so caught up in the filling that we forget who actually filled them. But not Peter.
This situation caused him to realize, that Jesus was more than just a good religious teacher with a few magic trips. He realized somebody had broken all the rules of fishing to make this happen. Somebody had to have called all those fish together at that exact time, in that exact place. Somebody had to have held those nets together, because they were not designed to hold that many fish. Somebody was keeping those boats from sinking, because they were not built for a catch like that. He realized that if Jesus had not spoken directly to him to cast out his nets, this never would have happened.
As Jesus stood on the shore, Peter came back running, dripping wet and fell at Jesus’s knees, and said “Go away from me Lord; I am a sinful man.” There is something about the moment you recognize that Jesus is the Son of God, you sense you are not worthy of His presence. Yet God desires to be with you all the more. You also develop a healthy fear of God, because you realize that all things are subject to his command, even your very life itself.
Jesus told Peter; “Don’t be afraid; from now on you will fish for people.” Why does God perform miracles for us? So that can use us to bring others into the kingdom of God. Why did God bless us with the Nelson Fund, so that we could bring others into the kingdom of God. Peter, James and John made a decision that day that changed their lives and our lives.
People often wonder, why we hear so much about Peter, James, and John ahead of the other disciples. I think it’s because of what happened in verse 11. When Jesus told them about fishing for people, it says. So they pulled their boats up on shore, left everything and followed him. They walked away from the career and their biggest success to make Jesus Lord of their lives.. Nobody had to ask them, “will you do it”, they just did it and their lives showed it.
We are going to only get one life to live for God. Will we spend it pursuing things that ultimately do not really matter? Will we spend it seeking after God for God’s eternal purposes for ourselves and for others. You and I are going to live forever. Let’s remember that as we live this brief life on this side of death. God has a plan for you in 2019, will you do it.
