Simon Peter - Lessons from the Life of a Leader

This morning, as we find our place in our study through the Gospel of Matthew, we're going to be walking through a few verses here over the next few weeks and wanting to do a study on the lives of these 12 disciples. So if one thing I would like to challenge us is memorize the names of these 12 disciples over these next 12 weeks would be a good challenge. Well, it won't be 12 weeks.

I'm not going to spend. I can't say that for sure. But so actually, Matthew will start in chapter number nine, verse 36, just a couple of verses back for context. Our Lord has just done 10 major miracles in the last two chapters.

The ministry is about to advance in an explosive way as he transitions not only himself as being the only one who is preaching and doing miracles, but now he's going to have the disciples do that as well. Verse 36 says, when he saw the multitude, he was moved with compassion on them because they fainted or scattered abroad as sheep having no shepherd. Then he saith he unto his disciples, the harvest truly is plenteous, but the labors are few.

There's a great need and there's few people willing to do the work. Verse 38, let's read together. Pray ye therefore the Lord of the harvest that he will send forth labors into the harvest. That is a prayer. Again, as a church, we have to pray this daily and weekly. We need to pray that God will raise up labors. God, please raise up labors.

I plead with God every week for this. Verse number one, and when he had called unto him his 12 disciples, so he answers the prayer in chapter 10. He called unto him his 12 disciples. He gave them power against unclean spirits to cast them out to heal all manner of sickness and all manner of disease.

Now the names of the 12 apostles are these, the first Simon who is called Peter and Andrew, his brother James, the son of Zebedee, John, his brother Philip, and Bartholomew, Thomas, and Matthew, the public, and James, the son of Alphaeus, and Labious, and whose surname is Thaddeus, Simon the Canaanite, and Judas Iscariot, who also betrayed him. Father, we thank you for your word today. Bless the reading to our hearts. May we be hearers and doers of your truth. Do your work in our hearts. Raise up godly men and women, leaders of people. For your glory, we ask it in Jesus' name.

And God's people said, and you may be seated today. I believe the greatest work that is going on on planet earth right now is not a revolt going on in Russia. It's not a conflict between Ukraine and Russia. It's not at the White House.

It's not conflicts in the Senate. I believe the greatest work accomplished on the planet right now is what God is doing through his local churches. The church is the vehicle through which God has chosen to do his great work. And the church is not a building. It is the people of God who are saved, gathered together, called out from the world, called into the world as missionaries, and servants of Christ who would preach, and teach, and share the Word of God. You are the ones that God is most greatly working through. And Jesus Christ, the Bible tells us in Matthew 16, he said, I've come to build my church.

That's why he came to the earth, and he said, the gates of hell will not prevail against it. He called the church his bride. I'm always saddened when somebody begins to speak ill of the church, and I'm thinking, you don't realize, but you're speaking bad about Jesus' bride.

How would you feel about that? We need to elevate what he elevates, right? Paul declared in Acts 20 verse 28 that Jesus purchased the church with his own blood. If you make light of the church, you make light of Christ. You make light of what Jesus came to do. And so Jesus Christ has called the church to be assembled together where he would teach them, and grow them in the Word of God. They would be edified, and then they would go out into the mission field, the harvest field as labors. And what kind of people here did the Lord call in the beginning? Well, to place over this task, to place over the great work of going and launching the church, which launches in Acts chapter number two, who would be opposed by the Jews, by the Romans, by a pagan world, opposed by Satan and demons.

They would be persecuted, beaten, imprisoned. Death awaited the people who would launch the church. What kind of men would Jesus call to carry this out? And you find in the scriptures, they were just 12 ordinary blue-colored people to do an extraordinary task. It has always, in fact, been the desire of God to use the humble things to do the greatest works. God is exalted when he uses the weak to confound the mighty, the foolish to confound the wise. And God has always chosen small hands to do his great task, so that no one has the ability to boast in themselves, but their boasting would be in the Lord. So over the next few weeks, I want to examine the lives of these 12 disciples, learn truths about them.

And I believe this will be very encouraging. It will be educational, it'll be edifying, because we will see that these were men just like you and I. Ephesians 2-20 tells us that these men became literally the foundation stones of the church. Ephesians 2-20 says are built upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Jesus Christ being the chief cornerstone.

These men were sent out as apostles of Christ, sent ones is what the word apostle means, and the incredible task of carrying on the very work that Jesus Christ himself came to do. And so I want to look this morning at the leader of the 12th, a man called Simon Peter learned some truths about him. If there was ever a day when we need leadership in our country, isn't it today?

We are starving for leaders both at home and business places among our government. We need leadership in churches. And who were these men that Jesus called to be leaders to launch the church? Well, there are four lists of the 12 apostles in the New Testament. Among the 12 disciples, there are three groups of four. There is group one, which had Peter, Andrew, James, and John, two sets of brothers.

Peter and Andrew were brothers, James and John were brothers. Group number two among the 12 was Philip, Bartholomew, Thomas, and Matthew. And then group number three was James, Thaddeus, Simon the Zealot, and Judas Iscariot. People in group one were the first ones that Jesus called. Secondly were group two and then group three. Jesus spent most of his time with group number one.

We know most about those four. He spent less time with group number two, and he spent least amount of time with group number three. And group number two and three, we know less and less about as you go down that tier system.

But he saw fit to call 12 ordinary men and really invest his life into those 12 men. And out of the 12, he invested in three specifically of the first group, Peter, James, and John. Now in each one of these three groups, there is a leader. Group one always has Peter as listed first. Group two always has Philip listed first, and group three always has James listed first.

What you find is leadership is essential to any effective ministry or work. Though they are all equal in person, their reward is equal in heaven according to the Bible. In Luke 22, they would sit on 12 thrones judging the 12 tribes of Israel.

On earth, they did perform different functions, and that's how it is in all of God's systems. People are equal, but God has leadership for structure purposes. Now we know that Peter was the leader of the group because here in Matthew 10 verse 2, it calls him the first. It says in verse 2, now the names of the 12 apostles are these, the first, the protos in the Greek. It can mean first in sequence, but also first in rank. Peter was always listed first among all of them. He is the leader, and as we examine Peter's life, we will learn some truths about what God does to create a leader. What were some tools?

What are some methods? What are some important things to develop leaders? And I think it's important for all of us to know that no matter who you are today, you are in a leadership role at some level.

At some point in your life, you will be if you're not now. You will be a leader in your workplace, your businesses. You'll be leader perhaps among your peers. You'll be leader in your family. If you're a dad or mom, you're in a leadership role. If you are a athlete, you could be in a leadership role in sports inside of the church.

There is leadership structures. And so you need to understand that this is extremely important for you to understand as we're going to look for a couple weeks at the life of Peter and the essential elements that can make up a leader and some truths about them. Now, when you study the life of Peter, you find that he is an extremely prominent figure in the New Testament. Jesus is the main focus of the gospel, but outside of Jesus, no one has spoken of more than Peter. His name is used 161 times in the New Testament.

That is incredible. The name Simon referring to Simon Peter is used another 49 times. Peter speaks more in the gospels than anyone else except for Jesus Christ. Jesus speaks to Peter more than he does anyone else. Peter is the only disciple ever to rebuke the Lord and Peter is rebuked more severely by the Lord than Jesus ever rebuked any of the other disciples are really about anyone else. Peter is not only the most bold personality in the gospels to acknowledge Christ's lordship, but he's also the most bold in denying him. Peter was the one who would unlock the gospel to the Jews on the day of Pentecost and in Acts chapter number two, and then the Gentile Pentecost, which came in Acts chapter number 10. So let's look at Peter lessons from the life of a leader. Just two key points this week.

I thought I could get this in one week sermon, but after about, I don't want to tell you how many pages of notes, I figured I definitely need to cut this thing in half. So first of all, leaders are not born, they are made. Leaders are not born, they are made. Growing up, I had a false assumption that you're just born with it. I don't know if anybody else here felt that way, like either you're born smart or you're born dumb. If you're born with a high IQ, you're born just ignorant.

If you're born with qualities of leadership or you just don't have it. What's interesting is when you study the culture in China, they believe the opposite. They don't believe you're born with it, they believe whoever works the hardest gets it. And we've created a culture in America where people are like, well, I'm just not smart so I don't get good grades.

No, you're lazy is why you don't get any good grades. That sounds kind of harsh, I don't know that just came out kind of quick, but that is an important... Now, not every kid has the same aptitude, we understand that. But that is an excuse that gets used by so many people for why they can't do certain things, why just don't have it. And I think that that's a false understanding. You know, no one saw in Peter what Christ saw in Peter. Because Jesus saw that Peter was just a... Where people would see he was just a rough clump of clay, Jesus saw what he as the master potter could do with that piece of clay. And you need to understand, Peter did not start out as a great spiritual leader.

That's something God made him into. There is a work that God must do in us before he can do it through us. Sometimes we're worried about ministries and God's worried about the men and the women in the ministries.

The man, the woman, the person, the individual, the life. There are things that God wants to do in your life today, like this morning. You need to understand the magnitude of what God could do in your life if you would surrender that to him. Peter didn't start out as some great apostle, he started out as a fisherman named Simon. And if it wasn't for Jesus, no one ever would know about Simon, the fisherman of Capernaum born in Bethsaida.

No one would know about him. John 1 35 records how Peter met Jesus. We'll look at the details of that more in a couple weeks when we examine the life of Andrew. What's interesting in John 1 is Andrew and John are the first ones who follow Jesus. They were followers of John the Baptist and John points to Jesus says, behold, the Lamb of God who takes us, sent the world away. And Andrew and John are like, well, if he's the Lamb of God and you're not even worthy to untie his shoes, John, we're going to have to leave and go to another church, right? I mean, if John the Baptist is the pastor of Lighthouse and Jesus is the pastor of a church across town, we need the empty lighthouse, right?

We'd be all going over there. And so John's like pointing people to him. He said, I must decrease, but he must increase, right? So they leave and Andrew goes and finds... Notice the first thing Andrew does when he learns about Jesus. John 1 41, he first find of his own brother Simon and safe than him. We have found the Messiah, which is being interpreted the Christ. Christ is the Greek rendering for the Hebrew word Messiah, which is where we get the English word Messiah from. Verse 42, and he brought him to Jesus.

Isn't that great? You think there's anything better that Andrew could have done than to bring his brother to Jesus? And when Jesus beheld him, he said, thou art Simon, the son of Jonah. Thou shalt be called Cephas, which is the Aramaic version of the Greek word Petros or Peter, which by interpretation is a stone. So we see here that Peter gets a new name.

Now, the name Simon was a very common name in those days. It would be like John in our day. How many... Raise your hand if your name's John. Okay, we got there's... Yeah, you guys are all Baptist hand raised. You're like, this doesn't even matter now. Let's keep your hand down then, John.

Okay. No, but Simon was a very common name. At least nine people in the New Testament had the name Simon. Among the 12 disciples, you have Simon Peter and then Simon the Zealot. Matthew 13 55, Jesus' half brother was named Simon. Judas Iscariot's father was called Simon. Matthew 26 6, Jesus went to the home of Simon the leper. That was Martha and Mary's brother or their father actually. Simon the Pharisee hosted a meal for Jesus. The man who carried the cross for Jesus was named Simon the Cyrene.

You have Simon the tanner, Simon the magician in Acts chapter number nine and Acts number eight. And so that was a very, very common name. It was just like a John, very, very, very familiar. This simply reflects that Peter was just a common normal guy with a common name. Before he met Jesus, there really wasn't much special about him.

Nothing stood out to be extraordinary. He was just Simon the fisherman. Peter's full name was Simon bar Jonah. The word bar just means son of. Simon son of Jonah. In English, we put son on the end of names like John son, the son of John, Tom's son. So we do it in reverse, but they would say like Simon son of Jonah bar Jonah, that's what that means.

What's interesting is you have Barabbas, the name bar means son of and Abba is father. The son of the father took the place of the son of the father that day. And so verse 10 says Simon, or I'm sorry, not verse 10. Verse number two, his name was Simon, who's called Peter. So the name Simon is a Greek form of the Hebrew name Simeon. What's interesting about that is the word Simeon comes from the Hebrew Shammah, like Shema or the Shammah, where we get the word here.

Hear, O Israel, the Lord of God is one Lord. So the word here is what the name Simeon or Simon would mean. And it carries not just the idea of listening, but it means listen in order to obey it. Listen in order to obey.

And I don't know, this is just reading between the lines. But I wonder if he got that name like after he was born for a couple years. Some of us, if you have kids, you probably want to name your kid. Hey, listen in order to obey. That's his name. Hear, so you'll obey. I mean, that's what his name was.

Hear, so you'll obey. So every time the name Simeon, like that was the meaning of the name. Like, we don't do that in America. We don't give typical names. Typically, we don't give names that have a meaning to it. We just like, oh, I like the name, that sound, that name.

But they didn't do that. They gave names to identify them as something. So Simeon identified the name Simeon as one who needed to hear. And I imagine he grew up as one who probably didn't listen to his parents very well. He was quick to speak, wasn't he? He was slow to hear, probably very opinionated as he was a child, as he was when he was older. Now, the new name Peter means, Cephas, the Aramaic rendering of the same name, but it just means a piece of a rock or a stone.

So it's like rock or stone. Peter is from this point forward, sometimes called Simon here, or sometimes he's called Peter, which means rock throughout the gospel records. I just wonder, when I was studying the names, if when Jesus got to the end of the Sermon on the Mountain, he said these words in Matthew 7 24, there's, therefore, whosoever heareth, Sama, heareth, Simon, heareth these sayings of mine and doeth them, listen to obey.

I will liken him to a wise man which built his house upon what? I just wonder if that caused him to sit back and say, is he pointing this at me? You ever feel like you're getting preached to?

Yeah. I bet that day, Peter's like, is he preaching to me? Because I feel like I've been building on the sand for a lot of years. I bet Peter was a guy who had a lot of grand ideas, but just kept sinking in the sand. And Jesus comes along and gives him that charge. Simon must have learned to listen because when Christ said, who do men say that I am in Matthew 16, it says in Matthew 16 verse 16, and Simon Peter answered and said, thou art Simon Peter. Hearing to obey who became a rock, Simon Peter answered and said, thou art the Christ, the son of the living God. And Jesus answered and said, bless art thou Simon, son of Jonah, for flesh and blood hath not revealed it unto you, but my father which is in heaven. And upon this rock, I will build my church. And the rock there in verse going on is not talking about Peter being the rock of the gospel, but the confession that he made was what the gospel would be built upon.

And he would be a foundational stone of the churches, Ephesians 2-20 tells us. Now by nature, Simon was unstable. He was quick to make promises. He would fail to follow through. He would often jump in headfirst, not always knowing the situation, then often bail out. He was the definition of an unstable man.

He is James 1-8, a double-minded man is unstable in all of his ways. That's who Simon was. I mean, he was a big beginning.

He had a lot of potential, but just up and down. On the other hand, his new nature, Peter was strong, steady, reliable, dependable, courageous, amazing spiritual aptitude. His new nature was bold, passionate to follow Christ. Jesus met this volatile man who Andrew brought to him and immediately said, Simon, you're going to be a rock. The entire span of Peter's life was Jesus turning Simon into Peter. And what's interesting is there were many things that Jesus used to cultivate him as we're going to see next week, but he needed to learn that there is a transitional period between Simon and Peter. He wasn't born as Peter, he was born as Simon. He was born again to become Peter. You're not born a leader, you're made a leader.

You're grown into that. Now, in the gospels, whenever Peter's physical possessions, anything in his natural physical life were referred to, it was always Simon's. Simon's house, it was referred to in Mark 1-29, they would stay out. When they talked about Peter's mother-in-law, it said, Simon's wife's mother. His fishing boat was called Simon's boat. Whenever he had a lapse of faith in his life, some weak time in his life spiritually, the Bible always refers to him as Simon. When he had great displays of faith, it referred to him as Peter.

In Luke 5-5, it said, Simon answering said, Master, we've toiled all night. When he had a struggle with his faith, in Luke 5, when Jesus said, Go out fishing, he called him Simon. But then in Luke 5-8, when he began to obey, it says, When Simon Peter saw it, he fell down, and he begins to worship the Lord. When he made a step of faith, it refers to him as Simon Peter. When Jesus foretells Peter's betrayal, he says in Luke 22-31, the Lord said, Simon, Simon, behold, Satan hath desired to have you that he may sift you as wheat. In the garden that night, Jesus asked him to pray. Peter falls asleep, and Jesus comes, and Mark 14-37 says, He cometh and findeth them, sleeping and safe unto Peter. Simon sleepest out. Notice he didn't refer to the other disciples. He always went to the leader, didn't he? Simon, why are you sleeping here?

Why are you sleeping? After Jesus rose from the dead, Jesus restores Peter to the ministry, but he uses his old name at first. In John 21-15, so when he had dined, Jesus saith unto Simon Peter, Simon, son of Jonah, do you love me more than these? And this would actually be the last time he refers to him as Simon. A few weeks later, his new nature is revealed in Acts chapter 2, when Peter stands up at the day of Pentecost, preaches to thousands, 3,000 people get saved, he no longer is Simon anymore.

God's work had accomplished the rock. I would ask you this morning, what name are you living by? What name are you living by? When you became a believer in Jesus Christ, you became a Christian.

Your identity needs to be wrapped up in him. Your parents may have called you John or Josh or Elizabeth or Sarah, whatever your name is, but Jesus comes along and the Bible calls you a disciple, a mathetes, a follower of Jesus. What name are you living by? Are you living as a representative of Jesus?

Are you living as the name the world calls you by? Peter reminds us of Ephesians 4 verse 22 through 24, doesn't he? Ephesians 4 22 says that you put off concerning the conversation of the old man, which is corrupt according to the deceitful lust. There needs to be a putting off of this old man and we all need to go through it.

What we see in Simon Peter needs to be true in all of us. Verse 23 says, and be renewed in the spirit of your mind. You put off the old man, you renew your mind. Renew your mind is a construction word. It's tearing out the old and then putting in the new. Anybody that knows anything about construction knows that if you're going to go in and do a remodel, a part of it is the demolition phase. That's when you call in the young bucks, the unskilled labor. Come in and if you can tear all that out, take that out to the garbage dump, take this, you know, you have to tear all that stuff out.

It's a requirement. You got to get rid of that stuff. And sometimes it takes great skill to tear that stuff out. But, and then you got to renew the mind. You got to fill your inward man with the right truth.

It's the mind. And then you can put on the new man, which after God has created righteousness and true holiness, you can't put Peter on when Simon's still there. Some of us try to clothe ourselves as a Christian and walk as he walked or lived as he lived. But we can't do that when we're still living in the old man. There's some things you have to put off. And God's calling some of us today that you haven't done that yet.

Today needs to be that day. Put off that old man. Stop living as Simon. So much more that God has for us, right? Our new man is Jesus Christ.

We are to put on the Lord Jesus Christ. Peter wasn't born as Peter. He was born as Simon. But God saw in Simon more than Simon saw in himself. I've always said, I don't want my kids to grow up to be what they want to be. I always want my kids to grow up to be what God wants them to be.

I want God to be their leader. God sees us much different than we often see ourselves. Think about in the Old Testament, there was a man who goes down in the hall of faith as a great man of faith. But when God met him, he was struggling with his faith. He was cowardly in many ways. His name was Gideon.

He led 300 men to defeat the great armies of the Midianites. And when God came to him, he was timid. He struggled to believe. Even though God's telling me things, he's like, well then make this fleece wet in the morning and then I'll know it was you. Okay, you need some water on a fleece to know that God's talking to you.

I mean, really? God's so patient with him. But you know what God said to him when he first met him? He says, Gideon, thou mighty man of valor.

What happens when heaven calls you a mighty man of valor? He's like, are you? It's like, it's like what happens to the guys that I point to to pray. They're like, you talking to me?

Right? Surely there's another Bob behind me somewhere. Is there a Bob back there? He called him Bob.

Is there any other Bobs you want me to pray today? Yes. Happens all the time. You guys don't get to see it. I should videotape.

This is very comical. Says you mighty man of valor. I think about Moses who struggled. I mean, we think about Moses. His name's mentioned 800 times in the Bible. You know what Moses means?

Drawn out. Why did they name him that? Because he drew, he was drawn out of the Nile River by his Egyptian mother, right?

But was that, that was the name they gave him for it. But God had a bigger purpose of drawing out the children of Israel through Moses. Hey, drawn out. Drawn out, I want you to go into Egypt and lead my people out.

Draw them out. I want you to go into, and that's what his name meant. He knew that. We don't hear that when we hear that name, Moses, but that's what they would know, identify all the time.

It was a constant identification. Moses struggled to believe it. I mean, he gave God five excuses.

If you're not familiar with Exodus three and four, if you ever feel unqualified, just read Exodus three and four. He's like, God, I have every reason in the book to say no to you, and I'm going to give them to you right now. I mean, he's like, I can't speak.

I am not qualified. I mean, he just goes through the list. Finally, God's like, would you stop it? I mean, he just, and it says God finally got upset with him. And he's like, all right. Because he said, Moses, you're my vessel.

You're the man. You don't see it in yourself, but I see it. Jeremiah was called from the womb to preach.

We saw that last week. He said, I'm going to set you over the nations, Jeremiah. I've called you from the womb to do this work. Jeremiah's like, yeah, I knew I was born for greatness. Just pour it on me, God. Is that what he says?

Yeah. Jeremiah one, six. Then said I, ah, Lord God. I mean, it's like, ah, but I think it was a shrill. It was a man's, it was probably a female sounding scream.

You know, I don't want to mimic that too much, but he's like, you know, he probably lowered his voice. I can't, I can't even speak. I'm a child. You know, but the Lord said unto him, say not, I am a child for thou shall go.

And all that I said, I mean, he's like, he did not see it himself. What God saw in him. Friends, it has never been about the man. It's never been about what we have naturally.

It's about what God can do supernaturally. If the greatest men in the Bible that God called felt unqualified, do you think we will struggle with that? Well, I, Oh, I could never teach a class. Oh, I could never lead someone to, I could never decide. I could never be a leader in any aspect. I could.

Oh really? You know, there is a difference between feeling unqualified and being unwilling. Our struggle is it's not a problem when you struggle with point number one, the struggle is when you won't surrender. Actually, in fact, it is feeling unqualified that begins to make you qualified because you begin to rely not on the arm of the flesh, but on the arm of the Lord, right? I can't be a leader of others. God cannot use me. I'm unable to speak, to teach.

I'm an introvert. I get so nervous. Let me remind you, I mentioned this, I think last week, the lowest grade I ever got in college was public speaking and that's what God's called me to do my whole life. It's the lowest grade I ever got in college.

It's the only C I ever got. I was so frustrated. It was the most humbling. I never won preacher competitions. I was miserable at it.

I would shake. I felt like I was being choked by colors. I despised it. It was a miserable feeling, but it's not about what we feel we can do. It's not about the flesh. It's about what God can do with a person if they're just willing to surrender. Leaders are not born, they're made.

I like what one man said, God is the Potter who can shape the clay into the vessel because Peter was just one big beginning. So just understand that today, you may feel like God can't do some great work through your life. It's never been about you.

It's always been about him. Secondly, leaders must be willing to follow before they can lead. The greatest leaders must first learn that they have to be the greatest of students. We cannot take people where we have not been. We can't give people what we have not received. Leadership, as Maxwell said, is influence.

And for us to be able to influence right, we have to be influenced ourself in the right way. Godly leaders must fully surrender their lives to the Lord. Now that does not mean everyone becomes a preacher or a missionary, but it does mean that Jesus becomes the Lord of all of your life. I want you to turn over Luke 5 with me in your Bibles. Some of you may not be familiar with this, but Luke chapter 5 is the literal turning point in Peter's life. If Peter doesn't respond like he does in Luke 5, there is no Simon Peter that you find in the Bible. This is how God got a hold of Peter.

Now Peter was a type A. I mean, this guy was action-oriented, speak first, think later. He would have been a challenge to train, right? Wouldn't he? Imagine this guy. I mean, if he's rebuking Jesus, what do you think he would have done to us? I mean, this would have been the guy who showed up with his opinions on day one. You mentioned how dangerous that guy would have been with a college degree with no practical application of how to do the work, shows up on the job site and wants to tell you what to do. This guy had been a mess to work with. He'd have been the young teenager that came alongside you and wanted to tell you as a 30-year experienced workman how to do your job. Like this was that guy, Peter, the opinionated one, Peter who spoke more than anyone else besides Jesus in the New Testament gospels.

This guy always had something to say. I mean, when God comes down on the mount and Jesus and Moses and Elijah there transfigured, he says, do you want us to build like a place for you guys to stay? Like, hey, Peter, it's probably not the time for you to talk. God just was talking.

You're out of turn here, right? And then God's like, this is my beloved son. Hear him. Shammah him. Hear and obey him. Simon, it's not time for you to talk.

You have a lot of learning to do. If we want a little dwelling place, we'll let you know. Luke five is the turning point. This is where Jesus takes probably an overly confident self-made man and brings him literally physically to his knees. Luke five, the crowds of Capernaum are pressing upon Jesus to hear the word of God. He's on the shore of Capernaum.

There's four brothers, two sets of brothers, Peter, Andrew, James and John. They're cleaning their nets. If you've ever fished with a net, I like to use cast nets. I've cast net in different ocean, different places.

You can sometimes get debris in your nets and you got to clean that out. They use two different fishing methods. They had cast nets they would catch sometimes bait fish with, but they had sin nets, S-E-I-N nets that they would take and they would take two boats and they would spread the net across. They had weights at the bottom. They were large nets, heavy nets. And then they had like floating devices at the top. And then they would spread those out around the lake and they'd bring them around. It was a very, very difficult kind of work. They'd bring them in.

They're down there cleaning their nets. Luke five one says, and it came to pass that as the people pressed upon him to hear the word of God. Isn't that great?

Wouldn't that be great if it was said of that in America? That he stood by the Lake of Gennesaret. That's the Sea of Galilee.

Another name they called the Sea of Galilee. And saw two ships standing by the lake. Again, they have two ships because they have two boats that they would do this kind of fishing technique with. But the fishermen were going out of them and were washing their nets. And he entered into one of the ships, which was Simon's.

Didn't say he asked, did he? Jesus wants your boat. He's getting in your boat.

All right? He gets in their boat. And he prayed to him or he asked him, he says, thrust out a little from the land.

And he sat down and talked to people out of the ship. I just want you to know, these fishermen were working. Did you notice Jesus interrupts their work for the word? I wonder how often we start our days working without beginning with the word. And Jesus would tell us, hey, you need to stop working right now. You need to stop working right now. What if Jesus literally came to us tomorrow morning?

We jumped straight up. I got so much to do. He's like, no, you need to stop. Oh, you think you're going to have a beneficial day?

You're going to pull in some empty nets on this one. You better slow down and understand who your God is. It's not your own hands that provide for you. It's the Lord's. Right?

Is that true? So Mary stopped to listen to Jesus, but who didn't stop? Martha. Was Jesus like, Martha, keep cooking.

You're fantastic. No, he said, Martha, Martha. You know, they needed a meal. If it was me, I'd have been like, keep going, Martha. We'll talk about the Bible at the table. Mary, get over here. But Jesus is not like us. He's like the word proceeds, work, food, and everything. Many Christians lost a lot by starting work on Sundays during service times, but I need those extra hours.

No, you need them. You need the word. The Lord knows how to fill our nets. Matthew 6 33, seek the kingdom of God and his righteousness first.

All these other things will be added to you. So after I've gotten off on the rabbit trail, let's go back. So Jesus gets done preaching to the crowds. He tells Peter to launch into the deep for one more catch of fish. Jesus has done preaching to the crowds, but his sermon is not over. He wasn't done preaching to Peter, was he? Just because the sermon's over doesn't mean the sermon's over.

You getting that? You thought he was done preaching? You think Jesus is done with what he wanted you to know that day? Luke 5 verse 4, now when he had left speaking, he said unto Simon, hey, hear and obey.

Launch out into the deep and let down your nets for a drought or a catch. Simon. Now, how does Simon respond to this? Look at verse five. Simon answering said unto him, okay, Lord, no problem.

We'll get right to that. Is that what your says? Was he excited about this? You know what Simon does? Simon responded exactly like we would have responded. He responded just like our kids respond to our instructions. But dad, mom, look what he says. Master, we have toiled all night and have taken or caught nothing before Peter could follow the Lord.

He had some obstacles in his mind to overcome and you need to get this. First of all, he says we've toiled all night fishing. Now some of us like to fish for a hobby. I like to go fishing, but it's a whole different realm when you're fishing for a living. Fishing is hard, dangerous, difficult, stressful, exhausting. It's called fishing and there's a reason it's not called catching.

I like to go catching. Most of the time you're fishing. And as I mentioned, these sea nets that they would stretch across the water, that was a very exhausting type of work. By the way, they had been up all night.

They are exhausted. Why were they up at night? Because fishing at night was the best way to catch fish.

They would oftentimes put lanterns up that attracts fish at night. Early in the morning is the best time. This is like the middle of the day now. This is late morning getting warm out. This is not a good time to fish. After fishing all night catching nothing, being an experienced lifelong fisherman, Peter knew in the heat of the day, if we didn't catch anything last night, we're not going to catch anything now.

By the way, we've just, we're like halfway done cleaning the nets. You think he's hungry? How does a man react when he's hungry? Anybody else feel like you're so spiritual when you don't eat? It's like, you know what? I feel like I'm struggling with my spirituality. Let me just go without food for a while. That really enhances my, no, no. I mean, I fast at times and I feel like I sometimes get even more and it just shows me how frail my flesh can be. And then take sleep away from a man.

Food and sleep. Is he like, you know what? I feel really spiritual right now. Do you have any babies I could watch? You know, I could hold a child right now. Do you have any grandkids?

Could hold that crying baby for hours right now. This is fantastic. All right.

This doesn't work. I mean, this Peter, I just want, you just need to know this. This was very hard for Peter to swallow. He's outspoken. He cannot help to voice his opinion here.

This is not a good idea. We are tired. We've got nothing on all night.

On top of that, we've been cleaning our nets. So at this time when the message is over, Peter would have gone back to cleaning the nets. He would have gone get something to eat. I'm sure gone right to sleep.

Totally exhausted. You just need to understand Peter's opinion and feeling on what Jesus asked was in total disagreement. And have you ever, have you ever been there before where what God is leading you or what you study through the scripture, something God has revealed to you through his word and through life is not what you would have thought. It goes against the grain.

Your opinion opposes what God's view is on it. Peter is there here at this point. So what would cause Peter to say yes when every part of him was saying no. Look what he says in verse five. This is it. Simon answering said in him, master, we have toiled all night and have taken nothing.

Nothing. Nevertheless, the next three words at thy word, I will let down the net. You need to understand the only thing that caused Peter to fish again was the words of Jesus. He had witnessed firsthand the power of the words of Christ to heal his mother-in-law. The only thing that could cause Peter to reject his earthly wisdom was heaven's wisdom. The only thing strong enough to cause Peter to reject his own experiences, opinions, suggestions would have been the word of the Lord. Peter had to sacrifice his own opinion for God's word. He had to choose to follow the word of God even when it didn't make sense to him. Listen to me, those who will be molded into the leader God wants them to be, who live in the blessing of God to see God's fruit in their life must learn to build on the word of God and not their own opinion. What determines your life? What you think or what God says?

When God's word goes against your opinion and suggestion, what do you follow? So many Christians have no time for Jesus because they're too busy throwing out and pulling in empty nets. Marriage is struggling, kids struggling, work struggling, finances struggling. Well, have you ever brought Jesus into the middle of your marriage? Well, we go to church. You ever bring church home to it? You think it might be a good idea to stop working?

You know how much energy it takes to get in a good heated argument? People are so foolish, they waste so much of their life out of the will of God and antagonizing with their spouses, frustrated, and it's like, quit pulling in empty nets. Why do that? Well, I just I've tried to, okay, so your opinion is better than God's, then live with empty nets. Live that way.

Live that way. You're going to pull in worn out life, feeling like you worked yet and you did it your way, but you never did it God's way. I can tell you, Jesus says, my yoke is what? Easy, and my burden is light.

The more you give him, the easier life goes. It's easier carrying the whole cross than half the cross. The last six words of verse five, I will let down the net, wasn't said until Peter wrestled through the struggle to obey. And I would ask you, what are you struggling with God over today? What are you struggling, friend, to surrender to God?

Peter had to surrender. And the result is in verse six, it says, and when they had this done, when they obeyed Christ, they enclosed, they caught a great multitude of fish and their net break literally was breaking. There were so many fish, it was tearing their nets.

It was so overwhelming. They had to call fishing boats to come out to help them. They fill both boats and they're on the verge of sinking.

They've never seen anything like this in their life. You know what Jesus did? Jesus just proved to these experienced fishermen that he is the master of everything. Peter, I'm going to go into your field of expertise and dominate it.

What are you best at, Peter? I'm a fisherman. Let me show you how to fish Jesus.

He's like, yeah, let's go out one more time. Throw on the other side of the boat and let me show you what happens when, when I step into your work. You know what Jesus is wanting us to know?

Whatever you think you know, you have no clue. His ways are always better than yours and mine. His ways are always better. Oh, you think your parenting way was better? Oh, you think you doing that on Sunday or Wednesday? You thought that was better than going into a Bible study? You thought that was better than doing that in your marriage? Doing that here in journal with your... Oh, you thought that was better? God's ways are always better.

You want full nets or empty nets today? And it was teaching Peter that the word of Christ was superior and more trustworthy and reliable than anything in his life. The word of God is the most reliable thing in your life. You know what? When you read 2 Peter 1, it's the last book of Peter. Peter wrote, he dies just a few months after he writes 2 Peter. And you know what he says? He says, we have not followed cunningly devised fables when we made known of you the power and the coming of the Lord, but we're eyewitnesses of his majesty. We receive of God, the father, when he received, when Jesus received of the father, God, the father, honor and glory. When there came such a voice from the excellent glory, this is my beloved son in whom I'm well pleased. He said, in this voice which came from heaven, we heard when we were with him in the holy Mount. What he's saying is this is the greatest experience anyone could ever have had. We were on the Mount of Transfiguration. Anybody got to experience better than that?

Nope. Verse 19, look what he says, we have also a more sure word of prophecy wherein you do well that you listen, you take heed in order to obey it as unto a light that shines in a dark place into the day dawn and they still rise your hearts. What's he saying? Knowing this first that no prophecy of the scriptures of any private origin or interpretation, it didn't come from men for the prophecy came not an old time by the will of men, but holy men of God spake as they were moved by the Holy Ghost. What he's saying in this passage is this, I don't care what you think is trustworthy.

I had the greatest experience that anyone will ever humanly have, but I can tell you what's more reliable than the greatest experience anyone could ever have is the word of the living God. Out on that boat that day, he learned that, and there's nothing greater that Jesus could have taught him. You know what Peter does in Luke five verse eight? He runs up to Jesus, says, give me high five, this is amazing, Jesus.

This is amazing. Is that what he says? Verse eight, when Peter saw it, he fell down at Jesus's knees saying, depart from me. I'm a sinful man.

Oh Lord. You know, Peter recognize, he recognized he was standing in the presence of God and it brought him to his knees. And you know what happens when he says, I am unworthy. Verse nine, for he was astonished and all that were with him at the drought of fishes, which they had taken. Verse 10, and so was also James and John, the sons of Zebedee, which were partners with Simon and Jesus, saith unto Simon, fear not from henceforth thou shalt catch men. You know what they did in verse 11? And when they had brought their ships to land, they forsook all and followed him. You had a broken man in verse nine and 10 because he had some broken nets in verse five and six. You had a broken partnership in verse 10 and 11.

They're done fishing for fish. In Matthew's account, if you read Matthew four, it just records how he walks along and calls Peter, Andrew, James, and John. You ever read that and you're like, man, they just dropped their nets and followed him? Oh, that's, that's Matthew's version, but Luke will tell you the full story. Like why did they drop their nets and following? Because all that just happened.

That's what caused it. For the next two years, the potter takes these clay vessels and molds them. I don't know what God has planned for your life, but you need to understand this. You will never live in the perfect will of God without surrender. You'll never be a good leader if you don't learn to be a good follower. There was a time to teach, but there is a time you must learn and understand. You must be humble, recognize there is much you have to learn. So much God has to teach you.

Peter would have thought he knew all about fishing so much more than Jesus, but God wants us to see that he knows what's best in all areas of our life. To be used by God, listen, involves surrender. Surrender is the issue of deciding what you truly value, what you want to invest your time, abilities, and resources, and lives into. We choose to surrender to things in our life that we value. What do you value in life?

What do you value in life? And in conclusion, I would remind you leaders are not born, they are made. Mom, the hand that rocks the cradle rules the world. You can't take your children where you haven't gone. You can't bring them where you haven't grown. Dads, you can't lead your families where you haven't gone.

They're watching you. Where will you lead them? Where will you lead them?

Where are you leading them? When they mimic you, what are they becoming? Because they're mimicking. You know why I want to get up every morning and feast on the Word of God and come to my King? Because I don't have nothing to give my family outside of Jesus Christ. And it's the best thing I can give them.

I want to be like him because they want to be like me. You understand this? This is a big deal, isn't it?

This is a big deal. Remember Moses, Jeremiah, Gideon, Simon, none of these guys saw what God saw in them. They saw the weakness of the clay. God saw the power of the Potter. You know what Ephesians 3 20 says, now unto him that is able to do exceeding abundantly above all we ask or think according to the power that worketh in us, exceeding abundantly above all that we could ask or think. You know what's standing between Simon Peter and the will of God, you know what's standing between them? His nets. He's holding nets with the greatest catch he ever had. This is the greatest business day they ever had. They just hit the jackpot. Either they're gonna fill their barns or they're gonna follow Jesus. For them to leave their nets, they must have gave all the fish away, right?

Or they just put them back. What do you want, Peter? You want to keep fishing? Oh, you think that's good. Wait till you see what I have planned for you. You thought your plans were better than God's, right? The greatest day they ever had in business was the day they walked away from it.

They never had a bigger day than this. Jim Elliott was right, the great missionary and martyr. He said he is no fool who gives up that which he cannot keep to gain what he cannot lose.

Leaders must be willing to drop their nets. And I would ask you today, what is in your hand right now that you have not dropped? What are you holding that's keeping you from doing what God wants you to do?

Is it really worth it? You're valuing that more than him. Say, God, I don't know what you have planned for me today. I don't feel qualified. I feel like that Jeremiah, I would scream and shrill if you called me to do something beyond what I could have meant.

I would be afraid of that. But all I know is I want to live my life for you. I want to get to the end of my life and say, God, thank you that I did that. We're going to look at the second half of Peter's life next week, some dynamic truths that you're going to need to know about leadership. But every one of us, they say the most introverted person on the planet will affect 10,000 people in their life.

The most introverted person will affect 10,000 people in their life. You're influencing people all day long and all lifelong. And we better get serious about being influenced by the Lord today. Why don't you come? Why don't you kneel down at an altar, whether at your seat or at an altar and say, God, I want to get serious with you. Examine your heart. What is that thing that you say? You know what? I need to just set this aside. I need to put God in front.