February 10 2019 More Scouts...More Love

February 10 2019  *Luke 5.1-11, Psalm 138 “More Scouts…More Love” Pastor Jacqueline Hines

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There is something enjoyable about a nice crowd. Jesus attracted a crowd of nice people who were hungry for a word from the Lord. [slide# 1 crowd around Jesus] Perhaps you have been to a Christian concert or an arena for a conference taught by Joyce Myers, [slide # 2 Joyce Meyer] T.D. Jakes, [slide# 3 Rev. Jakes] or David Jeremiah. [slide # 4 Rev. Jeremiah] Perhaps you visited Christian Cathedral with the capacity to seat over 2500 people –the largest glass building in the world – [slide # 5 Crystal Cathedral] in California when Robert Schuller was pastor before it went bankrupt. There is something enjoyable about a nice crowd, especially if Jesus is there. So the crowd was there, enjoying Jesus teaching, taking mental notes, selfies of sorts, and memorizing memorable quotes of the master. It was so crowded that Jesus decided he had to manage the crowd to avoid chaos. He politely, got into a boat so eager listeners couldn’t suffocate him or trample each other. It is nice to have friends and associates with a boat. Simon Peter was a fisherman and he let Jesus use his fishing boat. [slide # 6 Peter and his boat] It wasn’t necessarily a yacht, but the folks gathered were not necessarily into yachts. There were several other boats around taking care of one business of another, fishing for one thing or another, out to have a nice time enjoying the shore, preparing dinner. Maybe even a little fishy business was going on as there often is in a crowd as all the boats were sprinkled throughout the area. [slide # 7 two boats]

If you are accustomed to riding in boats, you probably would not make the mistake a few of us made on a boat ride one day. We could not understand why the hosts gently encouraged us to wait to go ashore before using the facilities….

After Jesus finished his teaching and the crowd had dispersed, it seems a few hours had passed by and Jesus asked Simon to take him for a boat ride. He urged Peter to go into deep waters and let down his nets. Apparently, Peter wasn’t deep enough. Perhaps Peter, like some disciples who are called to be fishers of men and women boys and girls, think that the shallow waters are where they ought to be and all there is to fishing and finding. It takes Jesus to help us see beyond where we are to where we need to be.

This is as good a day as any to wait for Jesus to show up and do for us what he did for Peter. It is as good a day as any to ask Jesus to forgive us for arguing and defending ourselves like Peter did when he said, “Lord, we’ve been here all night long and haven’t caught anything.” Of course, Peter seemed to be implying that Jesus did not know what he was talking about and that Peter knew it all. Nevertheless, Peter wisely decided to obey the master, anyway!!

There are days when we have done all that we think we should do and when we do not get the results that we think we should or that others get for doing the same or less than we do. It is still good to serve and love as Jesus asks us to do. What we do matters more than we think, even if we do not perceive it.

You may have heard the story of a certain church goer who wrote a letter to the editor of a newspaper and complained that it made no sense to go to church every Sunday.

He wrote: "I've gone for 30 years now, and in that time I have heard something like 3,000 sermons, but for the life of me, I can't remember a single one of them. So, I think I'm wasting my time, the preachers and priests are wasting theirs by giving sermons at all".

This started a real controversy in the "Letters to the Editor" column.

Much to the delight of the editor, it went on for weeks until someone wrote this clincher:

"I've been married for 30 years now.  In that time my wife has cooked some 32,000 meals.  But, for the life of me, I cannot recall the entire menu for a single one of those meals.

But I do know this:  They all nourished me and gave me the strength I needed to do my work.  If my wife had not given me these meals, I would be physically dead today.

Likewise, if I had not gone to church for nourishment, I would be spiritually dead today!"

When you are DOWN to nothing, God is UP to something!

Faith sees the invisible, believes the incredible & receives the impossible!

Thank God for our physical and our spiritual nourishment!

IF YOU CANNOT SEE GOD IN ALL, YOU CANNOT SEE GOD AT ALL !

B. I. B L. E.  simply means:  Basic Instructions Before Leaving Earth!

I got that story from a Bethel Den Mother who will be sharing in the second service her family’s story of how faith overcomes her fears of her daughter’s undiagnosed illness.

The scouts at Bethel bring lots of love to Bethel. We need all the love we can get in this world. Without love we are like that annoying gong on the gong show, [slide # 8 red / gong ] we are nothing, we gain nothing.  But love, love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. It does not dishonor others, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres. Love is as good as it gets, love is the greatest thing of all. Love never fails!

Jesus said, if you love me, you will obey my commandments. [slide # 9 If you love me…] Peter understood this, and despite the fact that he thought he knew all there was to know about catching fish that night, he humbled himself and respectfully proved his love and respect for Jesus by obeying his command to go deeper and to let down his precious nets – which they had probably spent hours that week mending.

Not only did Jesus instruct Peter to go deeper, he was told to put the net on the right side of the boat. If we are going to go into the deep, we need to be on the right side. [slide # 10 calm…go right] God is waiting for us on the right side. What we need and long for can be found on the right side.

This is as good a day as any to listen for the voice of Jesus. Is he calling you to go deeper? To pray before you speak. To meditate before you take action? To pause before your pride gets the best of you. To serve without complaining, criticizing, or making excuses. Is he calling you to go deeper?

Do you want to go deeper even though you do not hear Jesus calling you to go deeper? Then dare to ask him to lead you and wait for an answer. [slide # 11 Jesus said ask…]

Make sure you cast your net on the right. For, when Peter and the disciples cast their net on the right, they were amazed at the catch. They had so many fish. They went from nothing to something just by going deeper and getting on the right side. It was scary, but Jesus said to them in verse 10 as he says to us “Do not be afraid. From now on you will be fishers of men.” [slide # 12 do not be afraid]

This is as good a day as any to be courageous and go deeper and get on the right side, to prove your love [slide # 13 yes/no]  so that we too will go from nothing to something in amazing ways. Amen. [slide # 14 go deeper…]