Transcription downloaded from https://sermons.northharris.freechurch.org/sermons/81676/21925-am-following-jesus/.

Disclaimer: this is an automatically generated machine transcription - there may be small errors or mistranscriptions.
Please refer to the original audio if you are in any doubt.


[0:00] A good morning. A warm welcome to our service this morning. A warm welcome to any visitors that are with us.! A warm welcome to those online. We pray that our time together, we would know the Lord's blessing over us, speaking to us through His Word as we draw near to Him in prayer and praise.

[0:21] Just to highlight a couple of intimations, this evening there will be tea and coffee after the morning service, so if you can, please stay behind for that. You're very welcome to.

[0:33] There will be no evening service here this evening. If you can make it over to Scalpy or if you need a lift, get in touch with someone or we can help arrange a lift to get to Scalpy.

[0:44] Scalpy Communions are this weekend, so for this evening, we attend Scalpy if possible at half six. So please be encouraged to go to that.

[0:57] Cresha available behind me in the room behind me and Sunday school will be on for the children today. Just to mention, I think the intimations had Youth Fellowship on tonight. I don't think it is on tonight.

[1:09] It's not on tonight. Just with people going to Scalpy as well. And also just to highlight the men's breakfast is cancelled for the coming week.

[1:21] And also just to highlight there's a preaching pathway taking place on the 29th of September in Stornoway in the MA Hall. So for any that are thinking about preaching or would like to preach or has got that in their mind, be all welcome to attend that.

[1:41] So that's all the intimations and all these are God willing. So we'll begin our time of worship together by singing in Psalm 23.

[1:51] Psalm 23. The Lord's my shepherd, I'll not want. He makes me down to lie in pastures green. He leadeth me the quiet waters by.

[2:03] And then end of that Psalm. Goodness and mercy all my life shall surely follow me. And in God's house forevermore, my dwelling place shall be.

[2:16] So we'll stand to sing, if you can, these words to God's praise. The Lord's my shepherd, I'll not want. The Lord's my shepherd, I'll not want.

[2:35] He makes me down to lie. In master's dream, he leadeth me.

[2:53] The quiet waters by. My soul be done, restore again.

[3:11] And he to walk the faith. Within the paths of righteousness.

[3:29] If for his own name's sake. He though I walk in death's appeal.

[3:48] Yet will I fear the hell. For thou art with me and thy wrath.

[4:07] And stop me comfort still. My table of God's permission.

[4:25] In presence of my foes. God's mercy. My hand.

[4:36] My hand. My hand. My hand. My hand. With oil. With oil. And eyes. And my cup.

[4:49] Overflows. God's holy holy holy holy holy holy holy holy holy holy holy holy holy holy holy holy holy holy holy holy holy holy holy holy holy holy holy holy holy holy holy holy holy holy holy holy holy holy holy holy holy holy holy holy holy holy holy holy holy holy holy holy holy holy holy holy holy holy holy holy holy holy holy holy holy holy holy holy holy holy holy holy holy holy holy holy holy holy holy holy holy holy holy holy holy holy holy holy holy holy holy holy holy holy holy holy holy holy holy holy holy holy holy holy holy holy holy holy holy holy holy holy holy holy holy holy holy holy holy holy holy holy holy holy holy holy holy holy holy holy holy holy holy holy holy holy holy holy holy holy holy holy holy holy holy holy holy holy holy holy holy holy holy holy holy holy holy holy holy holy holy holy holy holy holy holy holy holy holy holy holy holy holy holy holy holy holy holy holy holy holy holy holy holy holy holy holy holy holy holy holy holy holy holy holy holy holy holy holy holy holy holy holy holy holy holy holy holy holy holy holy holy holy holy holy holy holy holy holy Where in place shall be.

[5:35] Let us join together in prayer. We bow in prayer. Lord Father in heaven, we give thanks that you have taken us here this morning.

[5:45] That we have the availability and resources and freedom to join together and worship you. And Lord as we have sung these words.

[5:58] Words that maybe we have known for many years. Words that we have been taught from our youngest days. They speak about a good shepherd.

[6:10] They speak about a sheep. They speak about the difficulties of life and the blessings of life. Blessings and difficulties that are part of our lives.

[6:24] Part of the Christian life. And Lord we pray that we would learn to follow you. That we would be glad to be your sheep.

[6:35] And that we would rejoice to have you as our shepherd. And Lord we pray with thankfulness that we have a shepherd. That a shepherd has come for us.

[6:49] And that God the Father sent him to us. So that we would not be lost. But that we would find salvation.

[7:01] That we would find the path that leads to life. That we would know the only way to follow him. Lord we pray.

[7:11] Lord we pray. As we join together. As we draw near to you. As we open up your word. That you would speak to us. That we would hear the voice of the shepherd.

[7:25] Calling us to follow him today. That we would know your spirit. Blowing us to wind us. Over us.

[7:37] And through us. That we would know your spirit. Speaking right into the depths of my heart. Right into my situations.

[7:49] My worries. My anxieties. Speaking to my sin. But we thank you. That the shepherd.

[8:01] Is a shepherd that came. To pay the price for sin. He willingly came. From heaven. From the glory of heaven.

[8:13] To become a man. To rescue. A people. For himself. To rescue us. That we would know.

[8:26] That we would understand. How great his love is towards us. That he would willingly. Suffer death. Suffer the agonies of this life.

[8:39] Suffer mocking. Suffer beating. Suffer the nails. Being driven through his wrists and feet. Suffer the agonies of the cross.

[8:50] Suffer the agonies of which we. Can barely understand. The magnitude. Of the suffering that he went through. Nothing.

[9:01] In comparison to anything that we can suffer in this life. But he did it for us. He did it to rescue us. To save us.

[9:11] To be the payment for sin. For us. To be the payment for us. And so. As we read. Of these promises in scripture. That we would lay hold of them.

[9:25] And pray them out. And repeat them in our minds daily. The hope of the Christian. We have Christ as an anchor to our soul.

[9:37] That we have life promised to us. Even though we die. We shall enter into. The great blessings of eternity. Of Christ as ever.

[9:49] And Lord we pray. This message of the gospel. This good news. To be proclaimed across. Our islands. Our villages. Our nations. With great power.

[10:01] And to the ends of this world. To reach a people. Who are in need. To rescue them. And to show them.

[10:13] To produce more. To this life. To show them. The truth of eternity. We pray.

[10:25] For those that will gather. And remember the death. Of the Lord Jesus Christ. We pray for those in Scarpe. And elsewhere. That you would be a blessing to them.

[10:37] That you would strengthen them. As they do so. And we pray. Mindful that we often come in our weaknesses. Often we come with our doubts.

[10:48] But you tell us to come as we are. And we see in the disciples. People that weren't perfect. People that fell in the Bible. People that sinned.

[10:59] People that made great mistakes. But people that you still call. Even knowing that they would fail you. In such a way. It is these men.

[11:10] That you have used. These women. That you have chosen. To bring your blessings. Into this world. To use them for your glory. And so we pray.

[11:21] That you would use us. For your glory. That we would learn. To live lives. That glorify you. In all that we do. We pray for those.

[11:32] Who have committed their lives to you. In great ways. Missionaries. Ministers. We pray for them. Akeller. We pray for them.

[11:43] And the worries that they will have. We pray for them. In uncertainties. We pray that you would bless them. We pray.

[11:54] That you would guide them. By your spirit. We thank you for. News. Locally. Good news.

[12:06] Where people. Ruthie and Dole. Are united. In marriage. In a. Engagement. To be married. We pray your blessing. Over them. We pray.

[12:18] That you would guide them. In their life. Together. As they set out together. That you would. Be a wall around them. And guard them. And protect them.

[12:29] And strengthen them. We pray. And we pray for our marriages. We pray that you would. Protect us. And pray that you would. Guide us in them.

[12:41] That we would all. Who are married. Learn to live lives. That are honouring to you. Together. As we are mindful. Of each other.

[12:52] In all circumstances. Lord. We just pray. For those who are laid aside. In sickness. We remember Lydia. And we ask that you would.

[13:03] Be with her. And the family. We pray for many. Who know the weakness. Of the body. And we pray. That you would give them. Peace. In all these difficulties.

[13:14] And anxieties. And worries. That they have. That they would know. Your hand with them. Guiding them. And keeping them. In all situations. We pray for Gordon.

[13:26] We pray. For Stuart. As they set out. In ministry. We pray for David. That is over us here. We pray for his family.

[13:37] And we pray. That you would encourage them. And strengthen them. Daily. As they proclaim. The riches of Christ. So we ask now. As we. Join together.

[13:47] In worshipping you. That you would bless us. And keep us. In all things. That you would protect us. From the evil one. And that we will say. It is good. To be here. We ask all these things.

[13:58] In the name. Of Jesus Christ. Your son. And our saviour. Amen. Just want to say. A word to the. Younger one. The children. That are here with us. So.

[14:09] If you could. Come round. And take a seat. Come down. To the front. I was meant to take. Something in for you. But I forgot.

[14:20] So. Do we have any on the roof? I'm looking up the roof. I'm not seeing any. There's one over there. Okay.

[14:32] I want to talk. To you today. We'll tell you a little story. About. An alarm. Now.

[14:43] If you look over there. Above Joyce's head. There's an alarm. We read alarm on the wall. And what. What noise. What noise. What noise will that make? Anyone know?

[14:57] If there's something wrong. It'll just be a big. Howl. Or a big. Beep. Beep. Beep. Beep. And they'll be telling us. There's something wrong. Won't it? If an alarm goes off.

[15:08] Smoke alarm. In your house. Goes off. Tells us there's something wrong. Isn't it? Yeah. I don't know if it's a smoke alarm. We need to get out of the house. But you know what?

[15:20] On. Tuesday morning. I think it was. I was in the house. And I was hearing this alarm go off. I didn't know what it was. And when I was at the back of the house.

[15:33] I couldn't really hear it. And that was fine. But when I went to the front of the house. I could hear this alarm. Wah. Wah. Wah. Wah. Just kept going like that.

[15:44] I thought. What on earth is that alarm? Wah. Wah. Someone knows what I'm talking about. I was trying to find this alarm.

[15:59] It doesn't sound like anything I've heard before. Something's wrong somewhere. What do you think, Cal? Fire engine. It wasn't a fire engine. No, it wasn't a fire engine. It didn't sound like a fire engine.

[16:12] But when I opened the door and went outside. It was really loud. And I thought, wah. What's that noise? That's waking up the whole of Scalpy. It was wah.

[16:23] Wah. Wah. Wah. Wah. And Katie, do you remember where it was coming from? The noise. Whose boat? Kenny's boat. Yeah, yeah.

[16:34] Kenny's boat. Kenny's yellow boat. And I was looking out. I was watching this yellow boat. I was thinking, what's wrong here? There's something wrong.

[16:45] Because this alarm's going off. And I thought, is this boat going to sink? I was thinking, maybe it's going to become a yellow submarine. But it didn't. It stayed the same.

[16:56] And I thought, well, it looks OK. And if I can hear it, Kenny can definitely hear it. So I kept an eye on the boat. And the boat was fine.

[17:07] But the alarm was just going off and off and off and off. And then in about 10 minutes time, we see the wee van coming down. And Kenny coming down. And turning the alarm off.

[17:21] I'm thinking, the Bible is very much like that. The Bible sends out a warning to us. It tells us about sin.

[17:34] It's a warning. To pay attention to sin. But you know, I could hear it. When I went outside, I could hear this alarm going. And I knew there was something wrong.

[17:46] And when we open our Bibles, sometimes it tells us there's something wrong. It tells us about sin. It's wrong. It's wrong and it's bad. But I could have gone to the back of the house.

[17:59] And I could have put my headphones in. And I could have pretended that there was no alarm going off. And it would have just been like me closing the Bible. And saying, oh well, there's nothing wrong.

[18:12] Just pretending and ignoring what the Bible tells us. But that's not a good thing to do. When the Bible tells us there's something wrong, we should listen. Okay?

[18:23] When it tells us there's something wrong with sin in us, we should listen to that. And just like Kenny came down, we turn that alarm off.

[18:37] The Bible warns us. But the Bible tells us another thing. It warns us about sin. It tells us something else. Second thing. That a man has come to fix it.

[18:49] And who do you think that man is? That has come to fix the problem of sin. Jesus. Yes. Yes. Jesus.

[19:01] Jesus has come to fix the problem of sin. So the Bible gives us a warning. But the Bible also tells us about the man that comes to fix sin.

[19:18] And to take away all sin. And that we are so happy that he has. Just like I was happy that Kenny came and turned that alarm off. I wasn't going to be going all day.

[19:32] And there's a version of the Bible that tells us these two different things. It says, whoever believes in the Son has eternal life. That's Jesus coming. But whoever does not obey the Son shall not see life.

[19:48] Two different things. And that's in John 3, verse 36. John 3, verse 36. You have one three. And you have another three.

[20:00] And these two things equal six. It's just like you have the Bible tells us one thing about sin. It tells us another thing about Jesus Christ. But it tells us one great gospel.

[20:14] One good news. That if we trust in Jesus and we believe in him, he will save us. And take away sin from our lives.

[20:26] And my microphone's come off. So the people online probably didn't hear me. So you remember that? The Bible tells us what about, firstly? It's not only sin, but it also tells us about the man, Jesus.

[20:45] Who came to sort out that problem that we have of sin. And we thank him for coming. So we're going to sing now.

[20:57] Okay? We're going to sing now in a hymn. 1086. Mission Praise. And it's a hymn that says, Here I am to worship.

[21:10] Here I am to bow down. Here I am to say that you're my God because you're altogether lovely. Altogether worthy. And wonderful to me. Jesus who takes away our sin should be wonderful to us.

[21:26] Okay? So we'll stand to sing this praise together. Light of the world, you step down and do that. Light of the world, you step down into darkness.

[21:57] Open my eyes and me see. Beauty that made this heart adore you.

[22:11] Hope of my life spent with you. So here I am to worship.

[22:23] Here I am to bow down. Here I am to sing that you're my God. You're altogether lovely.

[22:36] Altogether worthy. Altogether wonderful to me. King of all days.

[22:50] Oh, so highly exalted. Glorious in heaven above. How free you came to the earth you created.

[23:08] All for the sake we came through. King of all days. So here I am to worship.

[23:19] Here I am to bow down. Here I am to sing that you're my God. You're altogether lovely.

[23:33] Altogether worthy. Altogether wonderful to me. And you're holy holy holy holy holy holy holy holy holy holy holy holy holy holy holy holy holy holy holy holy holy holy holy holy holy holy holy holy holy holy holy holy holy holy holy holy holy holy holy holy holy holy holy holy holy holy holy holy holy holy holy holy holy holy holy holy holy holy holy holy holy holy holy holy holy holy holy holy holy holy holy holy holy holy holy holy holy holy holy holy holy holy holy holy holy holy holy holy holy holy holy holy holy holy holy holy holy holy holy holy holy holy holy holy holy holy holy holy holy holy holy holy holy holy holy holy holy holy holy holy holy holy holy holy holy holy holy holy holy holy holy holy holy holy holy holy holy holy holy holy holy holy holy holy holy holy holy holy holy holy holy holy holy holy holy holy holy holy holy holy holy holy holy holy holy holy holy holy holy holy holy holy holy holy holy holy holy holy holy holy holy holy holy holy holy holy holy holy holy holy holy holy holy holy holy holy holy holy holy holy holy holy holy holy holy holy holy holy holy holy holy holy holy holy holy holy holy holy Here I am to worship, here I am to bow down, here I am to swim and to find all.

[24:22] All together lovely, all together worthy, all together wonderful to me.

[24:41] Okay, thank you for listening and pray for the boys and girls as they go through to Sunday school. If you have a Bible, please turn with me to the Gospel of Luke, chapter 5.

[24:55] The Gospel of Luke, chapter 5, and we'll read from the beginning of that chapter. The passage about Jesus calling his first disciples. We'll read down to verse Matthew 11.

[25:11] So let us hear God's Word. Luke, chapter 5. On one occasion, while the crowd was pressing in on him to hear the Word of God, he was standing by the lake of Gennesaret.

[25:32] And he saw two boats by the lake, but the fishermen had gone out of them and were washing their nets. And when he had finished speaking, he said to Simon, Put out into the deep and let down your nets for a catch.

[26:02] And Simon answered, Master, we toiled all night and took nothing, but at your word, I will let down the nets. And when they had done this, they enclosed a large number of fish and their nets were breaking.

[26:20] They signaled to their partners in the other boat to come and help them. And they came and filled both the boats so that they began to sink. But when Simon Peter saw it, he fell down at Jesus' knees saying, Depart from me, for I am a sinful man, O Lord.

[26:42] For he and all who were with him were astonished at the catch of fish that they had taken. And so also were James and John, sons of Zebedee, who were partners with Simon.

[26:57] And Jesus said to Simon, Do not be afraid. From now on you will be catching men. And when they had brought their boats to land, they left everything and followed him.

[27:13] Amen. May the reading of God's word be a blessing to all who hear it. Before we come back to that passage, we'll sing in Gaelic in Psalm 63.

[27:27] We'll sing Psalm 63, verse 6 to 8. I'll read them in English. When I do thee upon my bed, remember with delight.

[27:44] And when on thee I meditate, in watches of the night. In shadow of thy wings I'll joy. For thou my help hast been.

[27:55] My soul thee follows hard. And me, thy right hand, doth sustain. So we will remain seated for singing in Gaelic. To God's praise.

[28:05] And you will find holy holy holy holy holy holy holy holy holy holy holy holy holy holy holy holy holy holy holy holy holy holy holy holy holy holy holy holy holy holy holy holy holy holy holy holy holy holy holy holy holy holy holy holy holy holy holy holy holy holy holy holy holy holy holy holy holy holy holy holy holy holy holy holy holy holy holy holy holy holy holy holy holy holy holy holy holy holy holy holy holy holy holy holy holy holy holy holy holy holy holy holy holy holy holy holy holy holy holy holy holy holy holy holy holy holy holy holy holy holy holy holy holy holy holy holy holy holy holy holy holy holy holy holy holy holy holy holy holy holy holy holy holy holy holy holy holy holy holy holy holy holy holy holy holy holy holy holy holy holy holy holy holy holy holy holy holy holy holy holy holy holy holy holy holy holy holy holy holy holy holy holy holy holy holy holy holy holy holy holy holy holy holy holy holy holy holy holy holy holy holy holy holy holy holy holy holy holy holy holy holy holy holy holy holy holy holy holy holy holy holy holy holy holy holy holy holy CHOIR SINGS CHOIR SINGS

[29:35] CHOIR SINGS CHOIR SINGS CHOIR SINGS CHOIR SINGS CHOIR SINGS CHOIR SINGS CHOIR SINGS CHOIR SINGS CHOIR SINGS CHOIR SINGS CHOIR SINGS CHOIR SINGS Amen.

[30:33] Amen. Amen.

[31:08] We'll turn back together to the passage we read, the Gospel of Luke, chapter 5. I'm going to read again at verse 11. And when they had brought their boats to land, they left everything and followed him.

[31:27] Amen. As we turn to this passage this morning, I want to have on your mind the idea of following. It's something that we do from our youngest of days.

[31:41] It's a simple concept to follow something or someone. When we were young, we learned to follow our parents. As we grew up, we maybe learned to follow our tradesman or someone who showed us how to work, skills of work.

[32:00] We followed them. And in our own lives, we end up following people. Follow people that we admire, maybe more so influenced in our younger years.

[32:12] And even in the world of social media, people will aim to gather as many followers as they can.

[32:26] And now we can follow many good people. We can follow many good practices. But equally on the other side, we can follow many bad practices and many bad people.

[32:37] Following, in the simplest of terms, actually has huge consequences for us. And spiritually, eternal consequences.

[32:51] And the world, it'll give us so many things to follow. It'll set before us so many things that are attractive to us, the good and bad, wonderful and dreadful, even smart and stupid things for us to follow.

[33:10] And often we follow the wrong thing. And as I was saying to the children, the Bible, it warns us. It warns us about sin.

[33:23] It warns us about following sin. And what the Bible does, as I was saying to the children, it boils down to two simple things. Of who are we going to follow? Are we going to follow the world?

[33:36] Our own desires? Are we going to follow Satan? Or are we going to follow Jesus Christ? We want to lead to heaven.

[33:48] We want to lead to heaven. Following has huge consequences for us. And in this passage, it introduces us to men that start following Jesus Christ.

[34:04] They begin to follow Jesus Christ. And often this is the time when it can be most difficult. When we begin to follow Jesus Christ. So I want to look at four steps that are taken here.

[34:16] That these men go through. As they turn to follow Jesus Christ. And leave everything. And first, in this passage, we have a crowd.

[34:28] We have a crowd that are gathered to hear. That's their first point. They gather to hear the word of God. And as they do so, as they hear all these wonderful things from Jesus' mouth, they become to know who he is and why he has come.

[34:47] Maybe not fully. Nor will we all know fully the extent of Jesus' coming, his death, his resurrection. But as we come to know, it should provoke some form of response from us.

[35:07] Responding to Jesus and who he is and what he has done. And as we respond, it should lead us on to follow him. So four points and four steps.

[35:23] To hear, to know, to respond, and to ultimately follow. So what did they hear?

[35:34] Well, the Bible tells us in Romans chapter 10 that faith comes by hearing and hearing through the word of Christ. Here in this passage, we have this crowd that have gathered.

[35:45] In verse 1, it tells us, Such was a crowd that they're pressing on him to hear the word of God. They've come to hear what Christ will say to them.

[35:58] Now, it was not uncommon for rabbis to go about teaching people and even outside, more commonly in the synagogue, but even outside, rabbis would teach the people in that time.

[36:08] And they would sit as they would teach. And this is what we find Jesus doing. But in a strange place, we find him at this lake where he has no room to stand on solid ground, as it were, and he gets asked to put out into this boat.

[36:27] And what you have here, if you can picture this scene, you have Jesus being pushed out in this boat. You have this huge crowd on the shore. And it's almost as if it creates this almost amphitheater.

[36:39] The people are coming up on the shore around, and Jesus is there. We have this stage. We have this purport from where Jesus would teach the people the word of God.

[36:54] But there's a difference between the crowd here. Many have come to follow. That's what it says.

[37:07] They were wanting to hear. They followed him there. But there's a difference between the crowd. Because as many came to hear, there was a few that didn't follow.

[37:23] Because Jesus came to them. And Jesus came to speak to them. And they were the fishermen. They were doing their nets.

[37:36] They had just been working. They were doing their duty. All the tasks that had to be done. Going about their daily business. But Jesus came to them.

[37:47] Because they needed to hear something of the word of God. He came right to them. He came right into Simon's situation in these fishermen's lives.

[38:02] And he stood on their own boat to announce this word to the people. They're washing their nets.

[38:15] After catching what it tells us in verse 5, absolutely nothing. All night they were working. They caught nothing. Many of us come to hear the gospel.

[38:33] to hear what it says. To hear the truth of the word of God. And it can be for different reasons.

[38:44] We can have an interest in it. It can be something that speaks directly to us. And we know it does. The truth of sin.

[38:56] It can be something that, you know, we do hear and we do listen to it. But maybe it doesn't have any effect on us. To come and hear about the gospel.

[39:10] To hear about Jesus Christ. To hear about all these wonderful miracles that he has done. To hear about that sacrifice. To hear about the price he paid for sin.

[39:28] For my sin. For your sin. To hear these things not just so we do nothing with it.

[39:40] not just to appease us. But to hear us. Hear these things so they take root in our hearts. So that they are meaningful to us.

[39:53] How many times have you heard the gospel? How many times have you sat there and listened to this message and it has had no impact on you? To be here is great.

[40:09] It's our great privilege to sit under the gospel weekly. To have an opportunity to come and hear the word of God.

[40:21] And as the Bible tells us that faith comes by hearing. And so that as we come we ask that the Lord would work faith in us.

[40:40] That we would hear these things as meaningful words. Whether we've chosen to come or whether Jesus comes into our experience.

[40:51] If he comes into our experience as he did for these fishermen. Whether we're seeking or whether we may be hostile to the gospel. Maybe there's situations where you can think where you are working.

[41:09] Where you are mending your nets as it were. Where you are just doing your own business. And someone came in and said a word to you. Did it have an effect?

[41:21] Has it remained with you? Did you hear what they were saying? Are we hearing the word of God?

[41:39] Today is an opportunity to hear. to listen. To listen. It's not just for no reason.

[42:00] The gospel is pronounced declared preached so that we may know who Jesus Christ is. That's our second point.

[42:11] As we hear we come to know. How did these men come to know Jesus Christ? Well he revealed himself to them.

[42:23] He tells them to do something in verse 4. He tells them when he had finished speaking to them he said put out into the deep and let down your nets for a catch.

[42:33] But Peter Simon Peter respectfully answers Jesus here. And he says we've been fishing all night.

[42:45] We've caught absolutely nothing. But he answers him as master. And of course they take in the greatest haul of fish that they have ever seen.

[42:58] We see that in verse 6 and 7. Two boats absolutely full as Jesus reveals to them who he is and what he can do. They would normally fish at night but it's broad daylight.

[43:12] They would normally fish in shallow waters but he tells them to put it out into the deep. It usually takes great effort to catch all these fish but in one foul swoop they've landed the greatest catch that they've ever seen in their lives.

[43:26] and it has a great effect on them. Who is this man? But he knew. He knew who this man was.

[43:42] He knew this was Jesus. And we see that in the way that he responds as we think about. If you go back to chapter 4 verse 38 Jesus comes in to Simon's house and he heals his mother-in-law.

[44:05] But that doesn't seem to be the thing that has the greatest effect on him. What gets his attention is this haul of fish for some reason.

[44:16] Why? We can't say. But certainly what we can understand from it is that it has taken time to know to grasp who Jesus is bit by bit.

[44:31] And that can often be the same for us. Sometimes it's a slow and gradual process of getting to understand bit by bit who Jesus is. What he has done.

[44:44] as we hear the word of God it shouldn't come down to who's preaching it the eloquence of him his ability.

[44:56] The word of God should be opening our eyes to understand and to know who Jesus Christ is. Even if it's only a word even if it's only a verse every time the word of God is announced it should help us to grow in our understanding of who he is.

[45:19] And we shouldn't want to miss that. We shouldn't want to miss gathering together to hear God's word. I remember sitting in church as a young boy and the preaching having no effect on me.

[45:34] I also remember sitting in church as a young boy and the preaching having a great effect on me. It was the effect that I didn't want to be there. It was so uncomfortable because it was God speaking to me.

[45:49] It was the same man I was preaching. It was the same place I was in. The Spirit of God was giving me ears to hear.

[46:07] To know more about Jesus Christ. That it would have a great effect in our life. As it should today.

[46:18] As we pray for the work of the Spirit to come and speak to us. It's the Spirit that illuminates these words for us. That makes us hear the gospel.

[46:31] That makes it to have a profound effect on our lives. as we come to know who Jesus Christ is. He is the Savior of the world. He has died for my sin and my sin was why he went to the cross for me.

[46:45] Even though I die, yet he shall live. I shall live. It should have a profound effect on our lives. Am I saying that you're going to have a miraculous experience?

[47:02] Not certainly. Sometimes he does work in that way. Sometimes Jesus will do a miraculous thing in your life where it comes to a point where you can say I know for sure that this is Jesus.

[47:24] And you think, well if I saw it I would believe. You want to see great works of God's great power of healing people, of saving people, of making people that were hard as stone and making them soft.

[47:43] They're here. Christians that are here. It's a great work of God. Evidence of the Spirit.

[47:56] Hear their stories. Ask them why they believe that you may come to know and be sure this is Jesus.

[48:08] This is the Lord. But the key thing is how do we respond when we know? We hear, we come to know, but how do we respond to Jesus?

[48:26] Peter, Simon Peter, adhere, here's this message. And he says in verse 8, in his response, depart from me for I am a sinful man, O Lord, as he bowed on his knees before Jesus.

[48:44] What's going on here? When he knows who Jesus is, when he realises who he himself is, he falls before them.

[48:57] that is the way that we should react to God. We see that even in the Bible and elsewhere.

[49:11] When the Israelites are gathered at the mountain of Sinai, they don't want to go up Mount Sinai, lest we die, is what they say. Isaiah, when he seen the vision in chapter 6, he says, Lord, it's me.

[49:26] He doesn't want to face the presence of the holiness of God. The majesty of God, the glory of God makes him fall, realising exactly who he is in himself.

[49:41] A sinner. And a great sinner. It's as if what he says is, he is not worthy to have Jesus in his presence because he is a sinner.

[49:54] there's a funny thing that goes on here. You know, we often ask for Jesus to come into our lives.

[50:07] Maybe you're asking that in your mind just now. And we often ask for the presence of Jesus to be over us and with us. But what it truly does is it illuminates our sinfulness.

[50:26] As a non-believer, does the weight of sin bother you? Probably not. But when you start to hear and you start to know and you start to understand who Jesus is and what he has done for you, does the weight of sin bother you?

[50:39] It does. It should. you see your stains like never before. They're so evident and they stick out.

[50:52] And these are the very things that should separate you from God. And you know that you are not worthy to enter into his presence. And yet we are called to come.

[51:05] Jesus calls us to come before him. That's the only way to come. That's the only truth and that's the only life.

[51:17] There on the wall, I am the way, the truth and the life. He's the middleman for us.

[51:31] He's the man that takes our sin, cleanses us and enables us to enter into the presence of God. Without him, there's no salvation.

[51:48] But to know him is the greatest salvation. If we come and confess our sins to him, that's what the Bible asks us to do.

[52:02] That's repentance. Repent and believe is what Jesus proclaimed. Confess our sins and he is just and faithful to forgive us.

[52:14] Isn't that great? Isn't that wonderful? The siren was going off on scalping on Tuesday morning, Monday, Tuesday morning, and I could have blanked out the problem.

[52:27] We can open our Bibles and we can read about sin, we can read about the condemnation that we face, the reality of hell, of going there, if we do not believe in Jesus Christ.

[52:43] But we can close it. We can blank it out, we can put our headphones in, we can go about not hearing these words so that they have no effect on us and we do not have a great impression of knowing Jesus Christ.

[52:57] And it's our loss. And we're not following him. We can follow two roads.

[53:11] Simple, simple of imagery. You can follow two roads. Which road are you on? Which way are you going?

[53:25] One leads to hell. One leads to hell. One is the world, flesh, and everything else that the world of.

[53:37] And one is following this word, following Christ, following life. That's the way and the truth. how are you responding to Jesus today?

[53:59] Are you professing him to be your master? Are you professing yourself to be a sinner? Is Jesus Christ your Lord? Well, maybe it's time to follow our last point.

[54:13] We've heard, we've come to know, we've hopefully responded, and the next and final step is to follow. These fishermen not only follow, but they left everything and followed him in verse 11.

[54:33] They could down their nets after the catch. The best catch that they've ever had in the world would not stop them from following the man. And it was fishermen that he called.

[54:48] ordinary men, not great academics, just men that were about doing their business, ordinary lives.

[55:10] He calls them, as he calls all of us. each of us. He loves the ordinary man, woman, boy, and girl.

[55:28] And he wants us to hear the message of the gospel. He wants us to know about Jesus Christ. He wants us to respond and he wants us to follow him. But we live extraordinary lives when we do.

[55:48] He takes the ordinary and makes it extraordinary by following Jesus, which is the great difference. That's what we say about the believer.

[56:01] When did they start following? Because we begin to follow at some point. And I hope you will all follow Jesus Christ and resolve to even leave everything and follow him as your greatest importance.

[56:22] But beginning is hard, undeniably hard to begin. There's so many worries, so many concerns in your life, but what does Jesus say to Simon?

[56:39] Do not be afraid. In verse 10. Do not be afraid. Maybe you're worried, maybe you have concerns about setting out in this life.

[56:55] Worries about changing your direction and going and following Jesus. You're worried about sitting at the Lord's table because you're not good enough. Maybe you're worried that you'll be a bad witness in your life.

[57:10] Was Peter perfect? Far from it. But Jesus still followed him and Jesus would have known of the mistakes he would have made in his life even to deny Jesus.

[57:30] Is any Christian perfect? No. Are you perfect? No. Will you be the greatest witness for Christ in this world? I hope so. But are you or will you be?

[57:41] Probably I hope so. But we're going to fail him for sure at some point. But the amazing thing is that he calls us to come to follow him.

[58:01] That we would come and hear this gospel message. Knowing all the fears that they have in their minds even right now.

[58:12] He says do not be afraid. Which road are you going? He who does not take the step of faith and so enter upon the road to heaven will perish.

[58:31] It will be an awful thing to die just outside the gate of life almost saved but altogether lost. Spurgeon around the wicked gate.

[58:43] A great wee book if you're thinking about following Jesus. But the disciples and us we are told in the Christian life we are to count the cost of following Jesus.

[58:58] Luke 14 there can be a great cost associated with following Jesus. For these men they left their boats, they left their families, they left everything they had.

[59:10] The profit of the day of catching that fish did not matter because nothing in comparison mattered to following Jesus Christ. And so Jesus asks us all to follow him today.

[59:27] To follow Jesus even in the darkest of valleys. To follow Jesus on the greatest of mountains. The hard things and the easy things.

[59:41] When your mind is saying this can't be right, surely this is not the way. We trust ourselves to follow and follow and follow and faithfully follow Jesus Christ.

[59:54] Each and every day of our lives, in every circumstance, in every temptation, and even when death comes to us, it's him we follow.

[60:09] We follow him. And following him, we follow him into a great eternity. Revenant fear of God is the key to faithfulness in any situation.

[60:28] our own redpath. Revenant fear of God is the key to faithfulness in any situation. In every situation, and any situation, Jesus asks us to follow him.

[60:44] So will you follow this man today? Will you follow him tomorrow? Will you follow him in the hard things and the easy things? Will you follow him when you have an abundance of material things?

[60:57] And will you follow him when you have absolutely nothing? Will you follow him when you feel like you have loads of people around you and when you feel like you're on your own? These men, they had empty nets.

[61:13] Of everything they tried to gain for themselves, it was empty. But Christ filled the net for them. But it wasn't just the net he filled. He filled their hearts.

[61:26] He filled their souls. They were satisfied with him, content with him, and they followed him. Following this world will leave us empty, but following Christ will fill us with abundance of eternal blessings.

[61:46] That arose in Christ Jesus, if we follow him. so we'll conclude there.

[61:58] Follow Jesus. We'll sing before I conclude in prayer, and we'll sing in Mission Praise 1209.

[62:13] 1209, my heart is filled with thankfulness to him who bore! He bore He bore my pain, who plumbed the depths of my disgrace and gave me life again. And at the end, for every day I have on earth is given by the King, so I will give my life my all to love and follow him.

[62:34] We'll sing these words to God's praise, and we'll stand to sing, if you can. holy My heart is filled with thankfulness To Him who bore my pain Who brought the depths of my disgrace And gave me life again Who crushed my births of sin from this And wrote me with His eyes And wrote His law of righteousness With power upon my heart My heart is filled with thankfulness

[63:35] To Him who was beside Who brought my weaknesses with strength And caused my fears to fight Whose every promise is enough For every step I take Sustaining me with arms of love And crowning me with grace My heart is filled with thankfulness To Him who brings our love Whose wisdom is my perfect peace Whose heavenly heart is love For every day I have on earth This given by the King

[64:37]  So I will give my life, my all To love and joy Lord, we pray that Your Word would be a blessing for us to hear it And that we would trust in You every day of our life And every step that we take That You would sustain us with Your arms of love And crown us with Your grace We pray in Jesus' name Amen