As many of you know, at the beginning of January, we started a colonial Hills young adult life group. Natalie and I are hosting that life group, and we've only had the opportunity to meet a few times over this past month. But what a privilege and what a blessing it has really been to get to know them and how God is working in their lives. They have such incredible talents and gifts, and they, they love Jesus, and they, they want to be a part of our church, and they want to be used in our church. As a matter of fact, we even saw you, saw six of them leading us in worship this morning. I I can't imagine as a 1920 21 year old, standing up in front of the entire church and in leading worship in this way. And they do it so well with such great hearts. And I'm so proud of them. And just it's again, it's an honor to be able to to open up our home and and to share life together with them, as we've had some conversations with some of them. Many of them are asking, in this season of their life, Jesus, is there something that you are calling me to? I mean, is there something specific, some specific way that you want to express your life through me, in the church or out in this world, or through a vocation, or just something that you're uniquely calling me to do. I remember thinking along those lines when I was their age as well wrestling with many of those kind of things. Maybe you even remember wrestling with that at their age, and quite honestly, maybe you're still wrestling with it today, no matter how old you've gotten. I remember Jesus speaking to me about some of those kinds of things, but then it changed later on, and I still had questions about things, and he continued to work in and around those and maybe that's where you're at today. I mean, what are what are you here for? What? What does Jesus want to do uniquely through you? Is there some kind of a calling that he has on your life, specifically for you, that He's not calling anyone else to do. Well, as we continue to make our way through the Gospel of Luke this morning, we're going to see how this played out in the life of Simon Peter, which will speak to us today about how Jesus does the same thing in our lives helps us answer those questions about our calling. And so let's jump right in and see what Luke says again, where I asked you to turn earlier, Luke chapter five, beginning in verse one, Luke says one day as Jesus was standing by the Lake of Gennesaret, that's just another term for the Sea of Galilee, he says the people were crowding around him and listening to the Word of God. The word is translated crowding there in the original Greek, is the same word used to describe the pressure and power of a terrible storm, like a like a hurricane, which, I think, when you know that, it gives you a little bit more of a picture of what was happening with this crowd, right? I mean, there was some intensity as they were pressing up against Jesus. There was some passion and an urgency to hear what Jesus had to say. Why? Well, Luke reminds us because he says they were listening to the Word of God, and that's what they were doing. I mean, John tells us that in the beginning, was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God as a reference to Jesus. And now the Word of God was sharing the words of God with them. They were hungry for that. There was teaching with authority, and so they're pressing in crowding in. There's a passion and an urgency. What is what does Jesus have to say? And Jesus, of course, feels that in order to teach effectively, you kind of need some space. I need you to back up a little bit. So Jesus is going to create some space. Verse two, he saw at the water's edge two boats left there by the fishermen who were washing their nets. They were washing their nets because they had just finished fishing. They had been out fishing all night long. And that's what you did after fishing. You washed your nets for several reasons. I mean, they would begin to stink if you didn't do that, there would be mud and seaweed and and maybe dead fish and all of that stuff. And plus, if you didn't do it, they would just weaken and maybe break so Peter and as we'll learn in a little bit, he's with James and and John and and they've been out all night fishing. They're washing their nets. They're getting ready to put them up and and move on and get some rest. Jesus is about to interrupt their process. Verse three, he got into one of the boats, the one belonging to Simon, and asked him to put out a little from the shore. Then he sat down and taught the people from the boat. Now, some of you who have read the gospels before may be wondering if Luke is talking about the very first time that he met Simon Peter. Is this the very first time that he's doing an introduction with Peter here? Or is this. Is after the fact. There's a little bit of debate about that. But here's the deal. What we see recorded in some of the other gospels, Matthew, Mark and John. It seems as if Jesus and Peter had met before, and that Peter James and John had begun to follow him, just not completely, not full time, maybe yet, we have record of them traveling with him some in Capernaum and then in Galilee. But here Luke is saying, well, they were following him, but they also stepped back and went back to their trade. They continued to be fishermen for a while. There was this part time kind of following as they continued their trade of fishing. So here, while Jesus is trying to teach, he sees Peter and James and John, who he had a relationship with already, and he asks them to put their boat, or Peter to put his boat out a little bit from shore to create that space, create that distance that he needed from the people pressing up against him so that he could teach more effectively. Now, when I read that, I think that that says something to us about the way that Jesus will express his life through us today, because that's the whole point of this series. What we're saying is is we're looking through the Gospels to learn more about Jesus, because once we put our faith and trust in Jesus, we have this new life in Christ, and he begins to express his life through us. So the more we know about his earthly ministry and what he did, then those are the kind of things we know to look for in our own lives today. And what do we see happen here? Jesus borrowed someone else's stuff for His Kingdom work, and he'll do the same thing through you and through me. Today is Peter's boat, and he asks Peter to push it out and to use his stuff. Jesus will use your resources to express his life through you to make impact on the people around you. I remember learning this as a young adult. I had a guy in our own community who became kind of like a spiritual mentor to me, and he used to always say, Jason, my stuff isn't really my stuff. God owns it all. He's the one who provided it for me. It's his and it's always available for him to be able to use. And I remember him having the opportunity to host some students, some kids in his home. Honestly, they didn't ask him. It was one of those things where it was a church plant, they didn't have a building that was great for what they wanted to do. And he found out about it, and he was like, Well, I have a home, and it's really God's home. And he sensed the Lord saying, I want you to open it up for them to be able to use in this way. And so he cleans his house every single week and gets it ready for them to come over. And they came over, and they began to do these things that they called Bible wars, where they were watching a chapter through one of those videos that kind of acted out word for word scripture, and then he would ask questions about it, and he would pause and share the gospel in and through it, making it a fun kind of competition through the whole thing. And I watched them learn more about Jesus. I was there. I watched them invite their friends. I watched some people come to know Jesus, who are now going to be in heaven one day because he opened up his home to be able to use because Jesus expresses his life in and through us, through our resources, through the things that he provides for us. I remember when I became a youth pastor, there was a guy who came up to me and said, Jason, one of the things that the Lord has impressed upon me and my wife, is that our money really isn't our money, it's all God's money, and he gave it to us. And we understand that you guys are getting ready to go to camp, and if you have a need, there's a student who needs a scholarship, we'd be happy to pay for them to be able to go to camp. We know that Jesus really can work in their lives. We've seen it. We believe in that, and we want that and we want that to happen. We don't want that to be a reason somebody doesn't go well. I didn't know of any student that had a need in that way, and I just said, thank you. And we continued to go on. And about two or three days before we left for camp, this student in our group came up and said, Hey, there's a friend of mine. It's an unchurched friend. She doesn't know Jesus, she's available to go to camp. I really want her to go to camp and hear the good news about Jesus, but she can't afford to go. And I said, Well, you know what? I believe Jesus has already taken care of that,and we were able to get the money. They had a spot for her. She goes to camp, she hears the gospel, she comes to know Jesus. She's going to be in heaven one day, because Jesus expresses his life through us, through our resources. He gave this guy, one of his children and his daughters, his son and daughter, money, and then he guided, enabled them to use it in this way, and he did his kingdom work in and through the. It all little bit earlier this week, I learned of an example right here in our own church. I was talking to Joe and Joyce Davis. Many of you know them. They're sitting right over here. Usually, there they are, and they lead our 456 ministry. And I learned how when their sons, who are one of the young adults now that are in our young adult life group, were in the youth group, they used to use their own vehicles and their own money to go pick them up from school and take all of their friends to go eat on Wednesday nights and then bring them to church. And there were some who came to know Jesus, and others who learned more about who they were in Christ and God's calling on their life, and a few of them are even in training to become pastors today. Why all because they said, We understand that Jesus expresses his life through us, through the resources that he provides for us, and they are available to him, and he takes over from there and does his thing. Isn't that beautiful? The same kind of thing happens to each and every one of us as we make ourselves available to him and the resources that he's blessed us with, he will express his life through us with those resources. So the question is, what resources do you have that are available for Jesus to use? Peter has made his boat available to Jesus. Here, Jesus uses it to teach from. But he's about to do even more than that. He's about to use it to have an impact on Peter in a way that will impact his life forever. Verse four, he says, When he had finished speaking, When Jesus had finished speaking teaching, he said to Simon, put out into deep water and let down the nets for a catch. 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. Now think about that for just a moment. I mean, Peter, we've just learned from Luke, had been out all night fishing. I mean, if you're up all night doing anything, you have a tendency to be really exhausted and really tired after that thing. Not only that, they had been washing all the nets, doing all the hard work of getting ready to just now put them up so they can go and get some rest. And Jesus is saying, push out into deep water, and let's get them dirty again so you have to wash them again before you can go home and rest it in. And not to mention that Peter is the professional fisherman here, and the son of a carpenter is trying to tell him, let's go put the nets out for a catch. How would you react sometimes, when Jesus wants to express his life in us and through us. What he's gonna lead us to do isn't gonna make a lot of sense to us, but he sits in a chair that sees things from a different perspective than you and I didn't make a lot of sense to Peter to actually do this, but this is what Jesus does. Sometimes he will lead us and express his life through us in ways that make no sense to us, but then later we find out, Oh, I guess he knew what he was doing after all, in and through that experience, I had one of those moments when I was coaching tennis in my young adult days, I used to have these little meetings with our tennis players after the season was over, and just to check in, see how they were doing, evaluate how they did what they could do to get better, what I could do to help them all the above. And I kept sensing, as I was talking to this one little freshman Girl by Jesus to that he wanted me to ask her if she was ready to accept him as her lord and savior. And Savior, and I'm going, Jesus, this is a tennis meeting, like I'm talking to her about tennis. This isn't really the moment for that. And then secondly, this girl comes from a predominantly Muslim background and family. I don't know how that kind of thing is gonna go, but I couldn't shake it. He kept putting it on my heart that that was what I was supposed to ask about. And so I just said, Hey, I know that you've got these really good friends, girls on the team who go to church, and I know they've invited you, and you've been to church with them a number of times. And I'm, I'm just curious what it is that you've, you've learned about all of Jesus through all of that. And she said, You know, I've really been thinking a lot about that, because I've learned so much about how much Jesus loves me and that he left the glory and riches of heaven to come here to die for me and my sins, because those are the ones that separated me from God, and I can't believe that he loves me so much. And I said, Well, are you ready to receive Him as your Lord and Savior then? And she said, Yeah, I've been so ready. I just didn't really know what to dodidn't really make sense to me,but apparently, Jesus knew what he was doing.He sits in a different chair than we do. Sometimes he's going to lead you to do some things that may not make any sense to you either. Her, and my hope is that you'll trust him with it. Just leave the results to him. Don't worry about how it plays out. Just trust him. Depend on him and what he wants to do in and through you in that moment, Peter trusts him, even though it doesn't make sense. Let's see what happens verse six, when they had done so, when they had put the nets down for a catch in the deep water, they caught such a large number of fish that their nets began to break, so they signaled to 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. Apparently, Jesus was a good fisherman after all. And even though Peter had been in a relationship with him before, had seen Jesus do some different things, no doubt, by this time, for whatever reason, this miracle, this one, shakes Peter to the core. I mean, look how he reacts in verse eight. When Simon Peter saw this, he fell at Jesus' knees and said, Go away from me, Lord. I am a sinful man, for he and all his companions were astonished at the catch of fish they had taken, and so were James and John, the sons of Zebedee Simon's partners. There was something about this that turned the lights on for Peter. It's seen Jesus do other things, but, but this one made him realize that he was standing in the presence of Emmanuel, God with us, God in the flesh, and it wrecked him. Why Did it scare him so much? Listen, when you stand in the presence and you come to a real understanding of who Jesus is, being holy and perfect, the Lord, God Almighty, the creator of the universe. It won't have any other effect than that on us, because he's so holy and perfect and pure that you will begin to realize the depth of your own sin, you will quit trying to compare yourself and justify yourself to not being as bad as everybody else around you, because you'll come to an understanding that he's the standard and you're not there, and you'll scream, go away from Me, Lord, I am a sinful and wretched man. You and Peter was right. He was a sinful man. None of us deserve his love, none of us deserve his blessing. Man, we see the mercy and grace of Jesus and how he replies next. Look at how he continues as verse 10 continues on. He says. Then Jesus said to Simon, don't be afraid. From now on, you will fish for people. So they pulled up their boats on the shore, left everything and followed Him. Jesus says, I know you're scared, Peter, I can sense that, but don't be afraid. I'm not here to harm you. I'm actually here to reveal your calling to you. How good the good news is, how you're going to be able to be forgiven one day, how I'm going to put my life in you one day, and I'm going to begin to express my life through you one day, so that you will fish for people. You'll catch people in a good way instead of fish Peter, you'll see me meet people's needs through you. You'll see me speak through you to share the good news of my death and resurrection, you'll see people's lives change forever through what I'm going to do on you. This is my calling on your life. This is what I'm inviting you, a wretched sinner, to be a part of with Me in My Kingdom work. It's my grace. It's my gift to you to get to participate in this with me. And of course, this is exactly what Jesus did in and through Peter. If you've never read the book of Acts, go read the book of Acts. And by chapter two, you'll start to see Jesus doing this very thing, fishing for people through Peter. In this again, in the second chapter, Jesus catches 3000 people through Peter one day in one moment, and then Luke spends 28 more chapters just telling us more and more examples of how Jesus caught more and more people. They were the people that Peter was fishing for. So Jesus used an event related to Peter's work to capture his attention about this specific calling on his life, this unique calling that he had for him, for Simon Peter.Did you know that he has one for you too? Hehas one for all of us. We. Talked a little bit earlier in the series about Jesus unrolling the scroll of Isaiah, revealing His purpose and calling, and what he would be about to selflessly serve those people who were in need. It was His mission. It was his calling. And we talked about how, really, I don't know if we put it this exact way, maybe we did, but really, you have three callings. You have a primary calling, first and foremost, to be the child of God, to be a child of God and to be in an intimate relationship with him. It's how you were created to live. And we even see that when Jesus was baptized, before he started his ministry work, and all of those things that God the Father was going to express his life through him doing, he talked about how when he was baptized, Jesus or God, the Father says, This is my son in whom I'm well pleased. Hadn't done anything yet. He's just He's my boy, and I love him. And it's his primary calling to be my son and to be relationship with me forever. And that's your primary calling, too. And if you've never received or stepped into that calling, then it's the experience that Devon had, you learn who Jesus is. You learn that you're a sinner. Simple gospel message says you can't do anything to make up for that sin, but if you receive Jesus's gift of salvation, you'll be completely forgiven, and you'll be made his child. You'll enter into your primary calling who you're supposed to be. The secondary calling is to be Jesus's instruments, where he specifically meets people's needs, serves people who are in need, in and through you. But then there's this unique calling that each one of us like. That's the secondary calling for all of us. I mean, we're Jesus's instruments. It applies to every single one of us. He's going to selflessly serve those people in need around us. But then there's a unique way that he's going to do that in and through you, a unique calling, through the gifts that you have, through the abilities that you have, through the experiences in life that you've been through, through the resources that he blessed you with that we talked about earlier. There's only way that he can take your resources, that you have that I don't have, and your gifts that I don't have, and and your personality and all of those things and uniquely call you to what he's got you doing in his kingdom work. So we look the more we keep our eyes fixed on him, I believe that he will reveal that calling to you. He did it in the life of Peter. I've seen him do it in my own life. I remember whenever I finished college, I was serving as an interim youth pastor at my parents church, and I was totally anticipating God calling me into full time vocational ministry, but I got a phone call from someone about my old high school tennis coach leaving and wanting to know if I would apply for the job. And I said, No, it didn't make any sense to me, because I'm working in a church, and God's going to call me into full time ministry. But the Lord said, No, that's not what I'm doing here. What I'm going to do is I'm going to take all the experiences that you've had in tennis and all your background with that and the gifts and abilities you have in that area, to put you in relationship with students and their families and watch how I express my life through you to make impact on them. You're not going to do that, but I'll do it. You're just going to be my instrument. That's my unique calling for you to do that through the relationships that I build on a tennis court. Maybe you didn't have those experiences. That's not your unique calling. You never picked up a tennis racket in your life, but he's got something else for you. Later on, that unique calling changed. I told you I've wrestled with that off and on, and then later on, it was like, Well, I'm moving you away from this and into vocational ministry. Now that didn't make sense to me either. You got the wrong guy, but here we are. So again, that may not be the same for you throughout your entire life, he did it through Peter. He's done it in my own life. He will do it in yours. I've seen him do it in some of your lives. Johnny burcheld was here earlier in the first service, and it made me think about a story that he had told me about how he felt this calling on his life to serve and to be involved with King's Academy school early on in that. And then some weird things happened and dynamics, and all of a sudden there was this pull away from that, and he was released from that. It didn't make sense to him that was part of what he was called to be doing. But as he kept his eyes on Jesus and he shut that door, it's what opened him up to become the leader of our Men's Ministry here. And he didn't step into that vocationally in some way. That's the other thing we got to get out of our mind, is that we hear pastors talk about that and go, Well, I got my calling into ministry at this point in time. We think, well, that's just for pastors. Thank goodness, not for me. No, no, that's for all of us, right? I mean, it wasn't something that he was going to be paid to do or a part of, but it was through his own experiences, through his own gifts and abilities, and through the resources. He said, Stay. In your job, keep making money. I'm going to bless you with stuff, and then I'm going to use that stuff to bless men and through the relationships and help save marriages and help point them to their roles and calling in the church. And he's been doing that in and through him ever since. And I could tell you a number of other examples, but I don't have time to do that. The question is, what is he uniquely calling you to do? What is he uniquely going to do through you as youWednesday nights, there are men's Bible study that I've been leading. We've been going through Ephesians. We were in chapter two this past week. Many of you are familiar with this verse. Chapter two, verse 10. It says, For we are His workmanship, his handiwork, his masterpiece, created in Christ Jesus for good works which He prepared beforehand, so that purpose we would walk in them. God created you, knit you together in your mother's womb with your physical characteristics and attributes and personality and gifts and talents and abilities. And then when you came to know Christ, He took those and recreated you in Christ spiritually, so that he can empower you to be able to use those things that he created just for you, so that he could express his life through you in those ways, to do the good works that he thought of when he was knitting you together in your mother's womb, so that now on this day that you're here, you would begin to walk in them, participate in them with him, as he does the primary work in you And through you. Again. What is your unique calling some of you know it, yet Maybe you just haven't been making yourself available to him as his instrument really stepped into it and trusted him with it. It makes sense to you. Some of you don't, but I promise you, the more you keep your eyes fixed on him and that you're available and keep walking with Him. He will reveal it to you in His perfect timing. My prayers that you'll trust him with it. Depend on him. Leave the results to him, and just enjoy it, because you're getting to experience it with the God of the universe, who loves you so much that he let his one and only son leave the glory and riches of heaven to die on the cross so that he could be in that relationship with you and do these good works in and through you.