What do you think the purpose of your life is? You think it's just to make lots of money, to retire wealthy, have a few kids, play with your grandkids, leave them some money? I'm telling you, Jesus intends for you to have a life that impacts eternity. He wants to take the net that you've been fishing with and he wants to fill it with things of eternal value. Thanks for joining us today for the Summit Life podcast.
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Sign up today at jdgreer.com slash resources. That's jdgrear.com slash resources. And while you're there, check out message transcripts and other tools to enrich your faith and encourage your spiritual journey. Today on Summit Life, Pastor JD invites us to view Jesus the way his original disciples did, with overwhelming awe at his radical love.
So grab your Bible and a pen and let's join Pastor JD now. Luke chapter 5, if you got your Bible. Before we jump into the passage for this weekend, I want to throw out a picture for you. If you'll give me just a few minutes leading into the passage, a picture of who our church is and where we are going, because I think Luke chapter 5 explains beautifully why we do this and why this church strives to be what it strives to be. Our mission statement at the Summit Church is following the Holy Spirit, we want to create a movement of disciple-making disciples in Raleigh, Durham, and RDU, and men around the world.
A movement of disciple-making disciples. We believe that that is more important than simply growing a big audience. You know, sometimes I think we think of the book of Acts as the good old days of the church. We think, you know, small groups regularly prayed through the night, and Peter and Paul preached with breathtaking boldness before seething Caesars and cantankerous crowds. Martyrs cheerfully sacrificed their lives in the Colosseum.
Peter's hankies healed the sick and impostors got struck dead in the offering. And we think, man, that would have been awesome to be alive during that time. The church must have felt like this unstoppable, powerful movement. The only problem church historians say is that had you been alive during this time, it would not have felt to you like an unstoppable movement. Here's what I mean.
The best estimates, the best estimates that historians can come up with to the total number of believers. Followers of Jesus that were alive in 99 AD, at the end of the first century, total number was 7,530. Which I know is oddly specific, but that's what they say. About 7,530 total. I want you to let that sink in.
In fact, the early church father Origen, who was born late in the second century, described the Christian movement in his day. Which would have been a couple hundred years after Jesus lived. He described it as still just a few scattered communities. geographically broad, but numerically insignificant. And yet, and yet, by 312 AD, Christians have become so numerous in the Roman Empire that the Emperor Constantine felt like he needed to convert to Christianity for political reasons.
Over half of the Roman Empire had converted to Christianity and to keep favor with the people, Constantine had to follow suit.
So here's the question. How do you go from less than 10,000 in 100 AD? to over half the Roman Empire by 312 AD. I mean, think about it. The early church had very, very little compared to what we have today.
They didn't have big budgets. They didn't have grand auditoriums like the one that I'm standing in. They didn't have publishing presses or TV station. They had no representation in the Senate. But what they did have church historians say.
What the one thing they did have that we don't is an ingrained sense that the Great Commission belonged to everybody. They believed that every single Christian and every single church, every follower of Jesus was called to multiply. They believe what I'm going to show you today from Luke chapter 5, and that made Christianity take off. Y'all remember that annoying math riddle from middle school? You remember this, hopefully, where you were given a choice between...
Receiving one penny. And doubling it every single day or getting $10,000 a day. By the way, this is not $10,000. I can only get our CFO to give me $1,000.
So it tells you a little bit about my trustworthiness. He's like, I'm not sure you'll come back with all of it. But here it is.
Okay.
So this is $1,000.
So let's just pretend this is $10,000. Um kids, right, if you get a choice between you get $10,000 today and then $10,000 every single day for 30 days. That's option one. Or you get one penny. Today, and then we double it tomorrow, and then double it the third day, and then keep doubling it for 30 days.
Which of those two would you choose?
Well, like most middle school students, I chose the $10,000 a day. And then my math teacher explains to me that that was a foolish choice because it's true after 30 days, I'd have $300,000. And I was like, I could buy so many pairs of Air Jordans with $300,000, every video game available on the Atari 2600, and even get one of those DeLoreans like Michael J. Fox drove in Back to the Future.
So it seemed like a no-brainer. But my math teacher explained that how I started with the penny. Sure, after the first week, I would have only had a couple of bucks. But by the end of the month, I would have $10,737,418.23. I asked our CFO if I could bring that amount up here and he definitely said no.
But that's a whole fleet of DeLoreans, right? That's the power of multiplication. That's the power of multiplication. And that was what was going on in Luke 5. Did you know today, today there are more Baptist churches, there are more Southern Baptist churches in America.
than there are the number of Starbucks, Subways, and McDonald's combined. The question is, what if every single one of those churches saw that it was their responsibility to multiply? What if every believer in these churches saw the Great Commission as their responsibility? What if just a handful of people in each of those churches did? Might not our great-grandchildren look back on this time period and see these as the good old days?
How does it go? But what this means for us, if that's true, is that we've got to have a change of emphasis in the mission of the church. It means that we're not just going to be focused on church expansion, we're going to be focused on church multiplication. We're not going to be focused primarily on growing a massive audience. We're going to be focused on creating a movement of disciple-making disciples.
The church, I've heard it said, often functions in practice like an ACC football game. At an ACC football game, you got 22 guys in desperate need of rest surrounded by 22,000 cutouts of people in desperate need of exercise. No, that's just 2020, but 22,000 people in desperate need of exercise. Or I've described it like this to you before. Say you were watching Super Bowl.
The most recent Super Bowl and Tom Brady. You know, by the way, can we just stop for a minute? And just acknowledge That's a 43-year-old man that has won his seventh Super Bowl.
Okay, that gives a lot of us mid-40s guys a lot of hope. All right, so here we go. Tom Brady, you're watching the Super Bowl and you watch him get, you know, his... Team out there. I don't know who it's going to be next year, but he gets everybody out there.
And he calls this play. And you don't know what the play is, but you watch all the players stand up and be like, wow. That was an amazing play. We have never heard a play caller like Tom Brady. Is he not the greatest of all time play caller?
And they clap and they go back and they sit down on the bench. And then, after a couple minutes, they run back out the field. They get back in the huddle. He obviously calls another play, and this time they're like, woohoo, that was amazing. Literally, this is the greatest play caller of all time.
I got chills when he was calling that play. And they call their friends and they podcast the play and they pass it around to all their friends. Like, you got to listen to this guy called the play. And they keep doing this over and over and over again. At some point, you're going to look at this team and going to say, guys, run the play.
The point is not how well Tom Brady calls the play. The point is running the play. What I think we've got in a lot of churches like ours is you've got a lot of people who are like, man, I love hearing the pastor call the play. The point is not me calling the play. The point is you running the play.
And the play is not what takes place here on the weekend. The play is what you do in being a disciple-making disciple in the world.
So it's time for us to run the play. I think our dream for what our church should look like was summarized by a guy named Francis Chan, who made this statement. I thought it was fantastic. Listen, long gone are the days when we should be content with a bunch of people who sing out loud, don't divorce, and give to missions. I want to know that I can drop off any member of my church in a new city, and that person could grow in Jesus, make disciples, and help start a church.
That's the vision. All this leads to Luke 5. And something I want to call you to here in a couple weeks. In a couple weeks, I'm going to ask you, you've heard about this, to renew your commitment to being a disciple-making disciple. Right, and to making disciples.
One of the things we've talked about as we emerge here from lockdown is that we ought to look at this season like a church relaunch. When we come back, we're going to ask what new ministry should we be starting back? Which ministry should we stop?
Well, part of this relaunch is I want you to recommit to being more than just a spectator here. I want you to commit to being part of the mission. I want you to commit to not just hearing the play, but running the play and not just gathering together weekly in a huddle. For Jesus, there was no such thing. As a follower who wasn't actively engaged in the mission, let me show you, Luke chapter five.
As the crowd was pressing in on Jesus to hear God's word, He was standing by Lake Gennesaret, which was another name for the Sea of Galilee, which name you might have heard. He saw two boats at the edge of the lake. The fishermen had left those boats. and were washing their nets after a day of work. Verse 3, he got into one of the boats, which belongs to Simon, which was another name for Peter.
And he asked Simon, Peter, to put out a little from the land. Then he sat down and was teaching the crowds from the boat. That served two purposes. First, it gave Jesus a little distance from the crowd, those who were wanting to touch him or get his autograph or take a selfie with him or whatever. Secondly, water, of course, serves as a natural amplifier.
If you've ever stood on a boat on a quiet lake and yelled at somebody across the water, the amplification is amazing. And so, pushing back a little bit gave Jesus both benefits: a little distance and natural amplification. Verse 4: When he had finished speaking, He said to Simon Peter, put out into the deep water and let down your nets for a catch.
Now, here's what a New Testament fishing net actually looked like. This is not an actual ancient Jewish one. This one comes from Dick Sporting Goods, but it'll give you the picture. All right, you've got these weights all around it. And what the fisherman would do is he would just cast it out, goes out into the thing, he pulls up the string, pulls up the fish.
And it was quite a bit bigger than this, but they would do this over and over again. Cast and pull, cast and pull, cast and pull. Peter has been out the entire night casting this net, drawing in fish, and he has caught nothing.
So Jesus tells him, go out a little deeper and try again. Here's the problem. That's what Peter has been doing all night, casting and picking up, casting and picking up. Peter is a professional. And he knows when the fish aren't biting, and Jesus telling him to give it just one more toss.
frankly is a little insulting. Plus, we know that Jesus was not a fisherman professionally. He was a carpenter. And Peter was probably like, listen, man, if I got a wobbly chair, I'll call you. But don't be giving me any advice about fishing.
Verse 5, Master, Simon Peter replied, respectfully, but I'm sure with a little irritation. We've worked hard all night long. and caught nothing. But If you say so. I'll let down the nets.
Y'all, sometimes I like to think about how much Peter's life changed in that pause. I call this the pause of eternal significance. Your heart is filled with doubt. But you decide to obey anyway. How much did Peter's life change because of that pause?
Can you look back on your life? And see places where your heart was filled with doubt, but you decided to obey anyway. That pause of faith can make an eternal difference in your life. Verse 6: When they did this, they caught a great number of fish and their nets began to tear.
So they signaled to their partners in the other boat to come and help them. They came and filled both boats so full that they began to sink. When Simon Peter saw this, he fell at Jesus' knees and said, get away from me. Because I'm a sinful man, Lord. Verse 10, don't be afraid, Jesus told Simon.
From now on, you're going to be catching people. This net, Peter, this net that used to just bring in fish that were only worth a few pennies. From now on, you're going to cast that out. It's going to come back not with fish that's just worth enough money to get you through the day. It's going to be filled with the souls of people.
It's going to have eternal significance. Your life is going to become something valuable and meaningful that lasts even longer than you're alive. And so they brought the boats to land. They left everything, their nets and all. And they followed him.
Let me give you, use this passage to give you three qualities that are necessary for you to be a disciple. All right, number one. First one's the longest. Number one. Oh.
Chapter 5, verse 8, a sense of all. In Luke chapter 5, Peter got overwhelmed by a glimpse of Jesus' power.
So overwhelmed, verse 8. That he fell at Jesus' knees and said, Get away from me because I'm a sinful man, Lord.
Now that might seem like an odd reaction to you until you really think about it. You see, when you're in the presence of true greatness. You ever notice that your heart is mixed? It's filled with a weird mixture of attraction and repulsion at the same time. You're not sure if you want to draw close.
Or run away. If you've ever been in the presence of true greatness, you've had those conflicting feelings. I've told you before, when I was in middle school, I got to meet Michael Jordan. I don't know if you could actually call it meeting Michael Jordan, but that's how I see it. He came to a golf tournament.
And this was, by the way, when I was in middle school, he was in the height of his fame. You know, everything was just getting going with him. And so he was the hottest thing around. And so I found out it was going to be this golf tournament. I go to this golf tournament.
My best friend and I looked all day long for Michael Jordan. We could not find him.
So whatever his security detail was, had successfully hid him from people like me.
So the whole day felt like a waste. I'm waiting on my mom and dad to come pick me up at the end of the day. And I'm standing there. Along the the the road and I see coming down the road this purple Porsche Carrera that I knew was like that's Michael Jordan's car so um I and so I turned and yelled at my best friend who was getting something from the the con the concession stand I was like hey it's Michael Jordan So a group of people heard me. They all come running up.
Michael Jordan comes right, starts good, gets really slow. He lowers the window down, that dark tinted window. He's obviously looking for somebody, not me. And he lowers the window down. He's going about five miles an hour.
So I walk on the side of the car. My best friend takes me from behind, shoves me into the car.
So I'm now like waist up, up, you know, leaning through the passenger window. I was this close to that man's face. I could have licked him. And one of my lifelong regrets is that I did not. And I had all these things I just wanted to say to Michael Jordan.
And in that moment, I couldn't say any of them. I just like, like, and he, I remember he, he's, you know, he's driving his car, he looks over at me. And he uh he says Get out of my car. And I said, yes, sir, Mr. Jordan.
And I pushed back out of that car and I turned around in that crowd and I was like, he talked to me. We had a conversation. Right. Right, attraction, I'm just overwhelmed at his greatness, but But there's also something about their greatness that just makes you feel really, really small. Right, in the presence of true greatness, you're both attracted and you also want to run away.
That's what happens to Peter. When Jesus calls people to follow him, he often begins with this overwhelming vision of terror. I mean, think about it. Think about the stories in the Bible that you might remember. God called the Old Testament prophet Isaiah to be his messenger.
And what was the first thing he gave to him, Isaiah 6? A glimpse of his glory.
So much so that Isaiah cries out, woe is me. Which means let me be cursed, let me be damned. Because I'm a man of unspeakable filth, and I've got a dirty mouth. When Jesus called the Apostle John, Revelation 1, to prepare his church for what was ahead. He gave to John a glimpse of his glory.
And so that John, who had been a friend of his, a friend of Jesus' in his earthly life, John was so overwhelmed at what he saw that he fell on his face, just positive that he was going to die. I'll tell you that when God called me. He did it by first giving to me a glimpse of his awesome glory. And just his awesome power, how long eternity was, how terrible it would be to go into eternity as his enemy. And as a teenager, that kept me up late many a night, scared to death of dying and meeting God and being under his judgment.
Question is, why does Jesus do this? Why does he sometimes terrify you before he calls you? Here's the reason. It's because only awe compels obedience. Until God is big to you.
You'll never have the strength to obey him. In fact, for some of you, I would say that's your problem. You don't obey God. You don't seek God. It's not because you're not self-disciplined enough, it's because God is distant to you.
He's small. He's almost unreal. One of my favorite stories I love to tell here is Um when I got invited a few years ago by a group of fraternity guys that went to the summit church from UNC Chapel Hill, they invited me to come into their fraternity and do a Bible study.
Well, I definitely want to take that opportunity.
So I went in and I was doing this Bible study, and the subject they had chosen was sexual temptation. And I know this is all ironic, but I'm in there doing a Bible study on sexual temptation, and I made a comment just kind of offhandedly. That you could turn off your sexual desire. You could turn it on and off like a light switch. I'll never forget the look in these 19-year-old guys' faces.
when I made that statement. One of them actually shook his head and he said, bro, that's crazy talk. And I was like, no, no, that's true. He said, we knew that your body changed when you got older, but we had no idea. That when you were 40 years old, you would say something that dumb.
What do you? And I said, no, even for you at 19 years old, you could turn your sexual desire on and off like a light switch. I said, that's crazy. I said, no, it's not. Here, let me prove it to you.
Say you're with your girlfriend and you're at her apartment, you're by yourselves, and lights are down low, and one thing's leading to another. I don't know what y'all call it anymore, but when I was in college, it had something to do with a baseball diamond. And so you're working your way around the baseball diamond, and you get to that point. The point of no return. They're all nodding their heads.
I'm like, you feel like at this point, there's no pulling back. They're all nodding their heads like that's what we're talking about right there. I was like, okay. There you are in the apartment. Right?
You're at the height of your passion and... All of a sudden, in that moment, into the room, burst. This girl's Navy SEAL father who's just gotten back from Afghanistan. Off like a light switch. And the guy was like.
Oh yeah, yeah, that's a good point. I was like, no, what happened in that moment? Is it that, you know, like you just lost all your sexual desire? No. The problem in that moment or with the solution was Your sexual desire got outweighed by a larger desire.
The desire to stay alive. Right, to keep all the limbs of your body attached to your body, whatever. And I told them, I said, the problem with you guys is not that your sexual desires are so big. The problem is that your God is so small. When God becomes big to you, when you have a sense of awe over God, then you'll have the strength to obey.
It's why I tell you, if you got an obedience problem this weekend, it begins as an awe problem. God's just simply not big enough to you. Awe, it's the first quality of the disciple. I wanted to take a quick break here to let you know more about who we are. At Summit Life, our mission is to take people deeper into their understanding of the gospel and then help them advance that gospel message wider into their world.
It's a simple mission at its core. Just remember, deep and wide. We believe that everyone should have access to the life-changing truth of Jesus Christ. Through broadcasts, devotionals, podcasts, and other resources, we work tirelessly to make the gospel not only known to you, but more accessible to a world in need. This vital mission is made possible by friends like you.
Will you join us? Your prayers and financial gifts help us bring hope-filled teaching to homes, cars, and workplaces. Every contribution, whether small or large, plays a significant role in advancing the message of Christ to the lost. Visit jdgreer.com to learn more about how you can support this ministry today. Remember, it's time to go deep yourself with Jesus and then take that good news wider into your world.
Now that's a mission we can all get on board for.
Now before we leave this point... I actually feel like I would not be serving you well if I left you here. Because this whole discussion of awe doesn't end in Luke 5. You see, the all that Peter experienced here was not sufficient. Peter, even after seeing Jesus this way.
He's still gonna struggle with pride. He's still gonna deny Jesus. He's gonna, after his denial and failure and shame, he's going to flee away from Jesus. And so Jesus repeats this exact same miracle to Peter at the end of Jesus' life. And it's got a whole new, whole different effect.
John 21, you stay there in Luke 5, but at the end of the Gospels, right after the cross and the resurrection, after Peter's denied Jesus, Jesus does this whole miracle again. Peter's out fishing again. This time Jesus appears to him on the shore and he calls out to Peter who has again been out fishing all night and caught nothing. He tells him again to cast his net on the other side. It starts with the exact same problem, y'all.
Peter's been fishing all night and caught nothing. Right? In both stories, Peter doesn't initially recognize Jesus. In both stories, Jesus gives the same odd instructions: go out into the deep and put the net out on the other side. In both stories, the final cast pulls in a miraculous haul.
It's the exact same miracle, but there's one humongous distinction. In both stories, Peter has got this really strong reaction to the miracle. But in the first story, our story here in Luke 5, Peter tells Jesus to get away from me. But in John 21, after seeing the miracle, John 21, let me read it to you. Then Simon Peter.
Tied his outer clothing around him for he'd taken it off. And he plunged into the sea. Peter jumps out. naked except for his underwear and swims to Jesus. Talk about a different reaction.
In the first one, Peter felt so unworthy that he just wanted to get away. And the second, he feels so comfortable that he swims back toward Jesus in just his underwear. I mean, listen, I feel comfortable around many of my guy friends, but when I'm willing to run toward one in just my underwear. That's comfortable. What makes the difference?
What makes the difference in these two reactions? This last one happened on the other side of the cross. Where Peter had seen just how much Jesus cared for him and how committed he was to him, even after Peter had sinned. You see, Peter's first reaction makes him think, I've got to live up to Jesus. After the denial, Peter knows, I can't live up to Jesus.
Yet Jesus still came for me. If anything, Jesus' love for Peter seemed stronger after Peter's failure than it had before. Peter had seen after the cross how Jesus felt about Peter even during his failures. Y'all see, this glorious Jesus who calls you to follow is not some Navy SEAL father who is coming to threaten you. He is a tender father that is coming to comfort you.
He loves you just the same when you're wounded as when you struggle. He loves you as much when you fall as when you succeed. Here's my question for you. When you think about how Jesus feels about you right now. What do you think?
When you think about Jesus before you, if he were standing before you in all of his glory, what emotion comes over you? When I was Little my dad took me out fishing. And he always baited the hook for me. It was just, oh, I get, you know, he just bait the hook. Then that one day came where he wanted me to do it on my own.
I was 19 years old. No, I'm kidding. Yeah, I was like 10 years old or something. But it was like a coming-of-age moment. A lot of guys maybe had this.
You have that experience. Remember the worm is dirty and it's wiggling and you're trying to poke it and you poke it and it starts writhing and this gross stuff starts coming out? You know, you just kind of this feeling of revulsion. That's how we think Jesus is with sinners. But I'm telling you, that's not how he is.
Everywhere we see Jesus in the Gospels interacting with broken people, he moves toward them. Rapidly. Right when the prodigal son returns from traveling in the far country The father is waiting. And watching. And he picks up his robe to run to him.
When Jesus looks out over a rebellious Jerusalem, he's not filled with seething anger. He breaks down and he weeps over them. When Jesus hangs on a cross next to a thief whose sin and stupid decisions have ruined his whole life. And that thief utters the slightest prayer for mercy. Jesus, who is barely able to speak himself.
What's he do? He hoists himself up to assure that repentant thief that that very day. He's going to welcome him into paradise. When Jesus looks at the lives of those of us who have messed up, Messed up our lives with sin. What emotion does he feel?
Angler? Disgusting. Righteous wrath. No? His first emotion is compassion.
A compassion that makes him draw near. A compassion that makes him weep right alongside of us, of you, in your pain.
Now, yes, if you resist him and you shut him out, you will face his wrath, of course. But the point is the first emotion that he feels is mercy and tenderness towards you. Seeing this is what changed Peter's heart. All of Jesus' awesome power in Luke 5 may have commandeered Peter's will. But wonder over Jesus' mercy in John 21 is what captured his heart.
So here's my question. Has your heart had that revelation? Here's your test. When you've messed up. When you feel at your lowest, you're most embarrassed, when you've failed, what does your heart tend to do?
Does it run from Jesus? Or in that moment, does it pull toward Jesus? Are you the first Peter or the second Peter? Do you sense Jesus looking at you with the disgust that I had for that worm? Or at best, he's merely tolerating you with this low-grade kind of annoyance.
I am here to tell you this warmest morning, that is not how he feels. What he feels is tenderness. Even when you failed him. What a friend. What a friend we have in Jesus.
Oh, what needless pain we bear. All because we do not carry everything. The good, the bad, our failures, our embarrassments, everything to him in prayer. It's all that compels obedience. Number two, it's a commitment to multiply.
Verse 10, don't be afraid, Jesus told Simon. From now on, you're going to be catching people. Jesus not only commanded Peter to follow, he commanded him to go. Around the summit, we say that Jesus is like a spiritual tornado. He never pulls you in.
without also hurling you back out. If you know Jesus. He's got a plan for you. He wants to take whatever nets. Whatever nets, we don't have many professional fishermen in this church.
But whatever nets you have. He wants to take them and use them for eternal purposes. It's an image for you. He wants to take a life of subsistence. A life where you just get up, make money, take care of your kids, leave some to your grandkids and die.
He wants to take that life and he wants to fill it with eternal significance, a life of value. What do you think the purpose of your life is? You think it's just to make lots of money, to retire wealthy, have a few kids, play with your grandkids, leave them some money? I'm telling you, Jesus intends for you, not just me. But for you to have a life that impacts eternity, he wants to take the net that you've been fishing with and he wants to fill it with things of eternal value.
You say, well, how could I do that? I've not been a seminary. I'm not a pastor. Neither was Peter. That Peter was as blue collar as they come.
He's just willing to follow Jesus. Just want to follow Jesus and learn from him. All Jesus wants from you is your willingness to follow. Around the summit church, we say, he didn't need your ability. Peter didn't have any of that.
What he wants is your availability. In fact, here's how Jesus would explain it a few chapters later in Luke, Luke chapter 12. He says that when we're in that moment. where we need to testify. We're in that moment where we need to be, we're in that moment.
He wants to use us for something eternally significant. Don't worry in that moment about what you should say. You don't need to have gone to seminary. Seminary is great. You should go if you have a chance, but you don't need to go there.
To be witnessed, you don't need to go there to be used by God, for the Holy Spirit will teach you at that very hour. What must be said What a great promise The lesson God has taught me over and over again throughout my life is that if I'm just willing to obey, he will do the impossible through me. Obedience often isn't some huge, dramatic event that takes place in my life. It's just the small, seemingly mundane acts of following Jesus step by step. I was taking an early morning flight.
About seven years ago. Uh, early morning flight somewhere, I can't remember where, but you always go through Atlanta if you leave Raleigh and you fly Delta. In fact, when Jesus raptures us, I'm pretty sure I will route through Atlanta to go up to heaven. But I was going somewhere, and so I get into the gate area at the Raleigh airport, and I see a girl. Mid-20s or so, reading a book that was written by an atheist.
And I don't know. I know you feel like I probably do this everywhere. I don't everywhere, but I just sense the Holy Spirit in my heart saying, you need to go ask her about that book. All right, let me just let her tell you the story, okay? Check this out.
So I happened to be coming off a night shift and was traveling to meet some friends and we were in the RDU airport and I had brought along some reading materials. I'd been exploring religious outlets and of all natures and I'm not a Christian at this point. I was not a Christian at this point. I was very lost. But a gentleman who happened to be you was sitting a couple seats down and looked over and tapped me on the shoulder and you just like, huh, interesting choice of titles there.
And you asked if I'd been invited to a church and I said, actually, yeah, I have a great co-worker who I love who's a Christian and has invited me numerous times to a church in the area. I don't remember the name, but it's one of those big mega churches. There's like some mountains in the background of the emblem, I think. But other than that, I don't remember much. You were like, oh, interesting.
Like, well, have you thought about going? And I went on probably a two to three minute rant about mega churches and how awful they are. And you just looked at me pretty expressionless and said, you know, I'm sorry you've had that experience with churches or that impression. And you. Just so you know, I encourage you to continue to talk to your friend and others in your life and really make sure you're exploring Christianity as one of your searches here.
I was kind of like, okay, and went on about my life for the next several weeks. And my friend actually invited me to the summit again. The words resonated with like, well, I encourage you to just try one more time before you make your final call. And so I went. And then they introduced Pastor J.D.
Greer to have to start the sermon. And you walk out in front. And I have never wanted to be less seen. I definitely had that. I really inserted my foot in my mouth that day.
And then what happened after that? Because you didn't become a Christian that weekend. I did not become a Christian that weekend. What had started several years prior with family praying for me, with me, over me, and me thinking it was ridiculous. Started really just softening my heart.
Yeah, so it's things like that that make you understand and believe in God's pursuit of you. He was looking for you before you were looking for him. Exactly. And it's so clear to me now, looking back that he put so many people in my life along the way that just stepped out of their own comfort zones and. Approached me when again I just was so hurt and broken.
They saw past that and they saw that he loved me and they loved on me through that.
So one thing I am curious about through the moments of Tapping. Grumpy looking me in the morning on the shoulder. I feel like in my day-to-day life, sometimes crossing those lines and reaching out to people in that way can be really scary and nerve-wracking. How have you gotten to where you're so comfortable doing that?
Well, I don't know if I would say that. I would say that, you know, I understand, I read this thing years ago that essentially walking with God. means that every day you get up and join him in what he is already doing.
So, one of the things I pray in the morning is, God, take me to people that you're already working in so that I can play a part of that. And I'm not sure what it was that's probably the book you were reading, and I saw it had something to do with atheism and thought that's not a good direction to go.
So, let me ask her about it. For every one conversation that turns out like this one, there's probably a dozen that don't really go anywhere. But it's an exciting thing to think that the Spirit of God is doing, He is seeking people, and I get a chance to be a small part of that. By the way, the first I heard anything about that story, literally knew anything about it, was when Stacy stood in my kitchen. And she was my daughter's small group leader.
And on her way out after a small group meeting, she stopped. She said, I need to tell you a story that you probably don't know. And she tells me that story.
Now, I know you hear that and you think, well, that's just the life of a pastor. And that's just all. That is not true.
Okay.
In fact, being a pastor in that story actually was a liability, not an asset there. There's a couple of things in that story that she didn't actually reveal. And one of them was, you know, she said, when we got on the plane, she said, I was already a little annoyed. We'd had this conversation. She said, I sat a couple rows behind you.
And she said, you're seated next to the guy on the plane. And she said, the entire way to Atlanta, you're telling him about Jesus and sharing your testimony. She said, you know, you don't have an inside voice, right? And I said, yes. She said, so everyone could hear.
And so I just had to sit there and listen for 40 minutes as you shared the gospel with him. She said, then when we landed, when we landed at Atlanta, she said, there was only one thing I wanted to do. And that was to get to Atlanta Bread Company and have my morning bagel. She said, so I put my headphones. In and I just went.
She says, I walked, I stood in line. She says, I look up, sure enough, you're standing right in front of me in line. She said, but the woman in front of you, she had two kids and her credit card was not functioning or something.
So she said, you just volunteered to pick up the check of the person in front of you.
Now, I don't do that everywhere, but in that moment, it was just the Holy Spirit saying, hey, I didn't even know this girl was behind me. I'm not saying that to brag, I'm just giving you context for what's happening. What I'm trying to tell you is Um that morning Before I left the house at Odark 30, it was like, Lord, I don't know what you're doing out there today. But I know you've called me to be a disciple-making disciple, and here am I, send me. That same thing is available to you.
The same Holy Spirit I got, someone you got. And that Holy Spirit wants to lead you to do something eternally significant if you'll just obey. It's not about abilities. He's calling fishermen. He's saying, just present your net to me.
Let me fill it with eternal value, which leads me to the last quality of a disciple. Total surrender. Total surrender. Look at verse 11. Verse 11, he says, Then they brought their boats to the land.
They left everything and they followed him. Y'all, that's a recurring theme in Luke, isn't it, that you've seen? I'm not going to spend long on it because we discovered it a few weeks ago. But the requirement to be used by Jesus. The requirement to be a follower of Jesus.
is total surrender. You got to let it all go. And I would say that's where many of you falter. You're religious? You try to do the right thing.
Religion is important to you. It's an important part of your life. But have you ever taken your hands fully off of your life and just said, you just spread out a net before Jesus? And they said, this net represents everything that I have in life. I'm just going to spread it out before you and say, why don't you put in it what you want to put in it?
God, let it represent my talents, my dreams, my hopes, my future. What do you want from it? I'm going to put it right there on the ground before you. Fill it with what you want. I promise you.
Whether you're the most talented in this room or the least talented person listening. I promise you, he's going to fill it with things of eternal significance. Is that what you want from life? Don't you want a life that matters? Don't you want a life that makes a difference?
There's more to life than making money and having kids and retiring with a beach house. That's a bold move to put out this net before God. I realize that, but I want you to think of it in light of what you've learned today. And how tender and trustworthy Jesus is. Why would you not trust him with the net of your life?
Why would you trust Jesus to save your soul? But not take care of your needs. Why would you think that he'd be loving enough to die for your sins, but not loving enough? that guide you into green pastures of happiness. and besides still waters of fulfillment.
This weekend, why not let your nets down as an act of surrender? And just say, Jesus, put it into what you want. This is my schedule. My finances, my heart. Relationships, everything is yours.
You ready to do that? Thanks for listening. Don't forget to visit jdgreer.com for free resources and to sign up for our daily devotional. You can also learn how you can be a part of this life-changing mission with your gifts and your prayers. Your support truly makes an eternal impact.
Thanks for being here today. We'll see you next time. Today's program was produced and sponsored by JD Greer Ministries.
