Musty Minds – Luke 5: 1 - 11
Intro: A young high school athlete was a part of a relay race. It involved a group of 4 athletes running around a one mile track with each person stationed at ¼ mile intervals where a baton was passed to the next runner. The young man in my story ran the last leg of the race. It was his job to remove the starting blocks from the track and get into position when he heard the starting gun. One particular day he had trouble getting the starting blocks up and as he retrieved the last one, he realized he only had enough time to drop them on the sidelines and run to his place. As he got into place, he noticed he still had his sweat pants on. He whipped them off as fast as he could and ran to the box. Bam! The baton was slapped into his hand and he started his sprint to the finish line. The crowd was yelling more enthusiastically than usual. He looked down realizing he had taken off a lot more than his sweats. Caught between running for the locker room and dashing for the finish line, he ran straight across the finish line to win the race and continued running straight to the locker room. He could have quit; but, he finished the race in spite of his embarrassment.
I VV 1 – 3 set the scene. Look at VV 4 “When he (Jesus) had finished speaking, he said to Simon, ‘Put out into deep water, and let down the nets for a catch.”
A Simon was an experienced fisherman who had, according to VS. 5 had been fishing all night and caught nothing! Can’t you just imagine how he felt when Jesus said, “Hey, let’s go fishing!”
B Can you picture the look on Simon’s face? You know that look. You’ve probably used it yourself, especially when someone says, “wouldn’t you like to each a Sunday school class?” Wouldn’t you like to be church treasurer? Wouldn’t you like to volunteer to . . .?
C Some answers to those questions are as follows: “Been there; done that; don’t want to do it again! / I’ve done my share. / I’m too old / It’s been my experience that . . . These are all examples of a musty mind.
II Imagine that you are the young athlete in my story. . . The next week the track coach tells you she is counting on you to run the same race this week on your home track.
A How would you feel? What would you answer? If you are thinking with your musty, closed mind, you would probably say, “NO!”
B Every fisherman knows that when the fish aren’t biting, they just aren’t biting. Personal experience has told Simon that he should just quit and call it a day. HOWEVER! VS. 5 – “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.’”
C Sometimes our initial attitude is like the possible attitude of Simon. We just want to quit, especially when things aren’t going well. We want to throw in the towel, wipe up the floor and move on. Times when it seems as though no matter what you do, thing just aren’t going to change. As I see it, you have two alternatives: 1) stay and tolerate the situation, or 2) quit and leave.
III VV. 6 – 7 - “When they had done so, they caught such a large number of fish that their nets began to break. So they signaled their partners in the other boat to come and help them, and they came and filled both boats so full that they began to sink.” There are 3 observations to be made here:
A The fishermen were NOT called because of their qualifications and neither are we. In situations like this, the fishermen and we must rely on God and not our own abilities.
B The call didn’t come in a holy place. Our Christian “calling” may come to us in the midst of everyday life and work. God does not wait for the time when life is settled and still to call us.
C Here, the call of God does not include the words “follow me.” Instead, Jesus says to Simon, VS. 10 – “Don’t be afraid, from now on you will fish for people.” This is a call to venture into new ground or new depths, pointing out new challenges in mission and ministry for us.
Concl: VS. 11 – “So they pulled their boats up on shore, left everything and followed him.” We, like Simon, James and John are faced with a choice. We continue on with business as usual, thinking the same thoughts and doing the same things. Or we venture forward into the chaos of our world leaving behind the familiarity, values and behaviors or our old, musty minds.
