Episode 1514: Left Everything and Followed

[00:00:00] Scott Maderer: Thanks for joining me on episode 1, 514.

[00:00:03] Johnny Crowder: Hey, I'm Johnny Crowder and I'm challenging you to invest in yourself, invest in others, develop your influence and impact the world by using your time, your talent, and your treasure to live out your calling. Having the ability to train your brain to combat anxiety is key.

[00:00:28] And just one way to be inspired to do that is to listen to this. The Inspired Stewardship Podcast with my friend, Scott Maderer.

[00:00:43] Scott Maderer: From now on, you will be catching people. You will become fishers of men. That happened because someone who's willing to hear the invitation to live deeper. And that keeps happening then and [00:01:00] now and always. If you're willing

[00:01:06] Welcome and thank you for joining us on the Inspired Stewardship Podcast. If you truly desire to become the person who God wants you to be, then you must learn to use your time, your talent, and your treasures for your true calling. In the Inspired Stewardship Podcast, you will learn to invest in yourself, invest in others, and develop your influence so that you can impact the world.

[00:01:39] In today's Spiritual Foundation episode, I talk about Luke 5, verses 1 11. I share how sometimes we miss the obvious invitation, and I also share how there is always a call to look and to live deeper. Luke 5, verses 1 11 says, Once while Jesus was standing beside [00:02:00] the lake of Geneserat and the crowd was pressing in on him, he to hear the word of God.

[00:02:05] He saw two boats there at the shore of the lake. The fishermen had gotten out of them and were washing their nets. He got into one of the boats, the one belonging to Simon, and asked him to put out a little way from the shore. And he sat down and taught the crowds from the boat. When he had finished speaking, he said to Simon, put out into the deep water and let down your nets for a catch.

[00:02:25] And Simon answered, Master, we have worked all night long, but have caught nothing. Yet if you say so, I will let down the nets. When they had done this, they caught so many fish that their nets were beginning to burst. So they signaled their partners in the other boat to come and help them, and they came and filled both boats so that they began to sink.

[00:02:44] But when Simon Peter saw it, he fell down at Jesus knees, saying, Go away from me, Lord, for I am a sinful man. For he and all who were with him were astounded at the catch of the fish that had been taken. And so also were James and John, sons of Zebedee, who are [00:03:00] partners with Simon. Then Jesus said to Simon, Do not be afraid.

[00:03:04] From now on you will be catching people. When they had brought their boats to shore, they left everything and followed him. You know, this passage, this idea, this conversation that's here in the gospel text, if you pay attention, you'll notice that it hadn't been a good night for Simon. Fishing, you see, was done at night in those days.

[00:03:28] The fishermen would spend the night in the shallows, tossing their nets and pulling in the catch. And then as dawn broke, they would bring the fish to shore and sell them at market. There were no real refrigerators or facilities for preserving fish, so this was a daily event. Except on this day, this day for Simon, this was a hungry day.

[00:03:51] He'd come in with nothing to sell. nothing to take home for his family, nothing at all. It might even have been that [00:04:00] he was sitting there in his boat because he didn't want to go home and tell his family that he had caught nothing. Maybe he was sitting there and like so many of us do, he was measuring his worth based on his accomplishments, and he was feeling empty, worthless, and shallow.

[00:04:19] And then Jesus stepped into his boat and asked him to go out into the deep water. Luke says that Jesus was teaching and everyone kept pressing closer and closer. The crowd grew and it pressed in to hear him. So Jesus looked around for options and saw Simon Peter sitting there in his boat with failure on his hands.

[00:04:41] So Jesus stepped in and asked, Hey, would you mind rowing out a little way so I could teach without risk of getting shoved into the water? Think of it, a little invitation, a small inconvenience. And before you know it, Simon was really [00:05:00] in over his head. You know, we don't know. Did Jesus show up there that day looking for followers?

[00:05:06] Or was this a bonus, the catch of the day, so to speak? They don't tell us here in the passage of Luke. He doesn't tell us what the lesson was that day. He doesn't say what Jesus was teaching. Luke seems to be rushing forward to get to Simon Peter's story, and he skips over Jesus's message. Honestly, I would say that's probably typical in many ways of us.

[00:05:35] We sometimes miss what's right in front of our faces because we want to get to that thing that's more personal. We don't pay attention to the real message or the words because we want to see is, are we there? Is our name there? Is a message to us there? Is this about me? We scan the crowd looking for a familiar face.

[00:05:54] We look into the program to look for the name we recognize. We miss [00:06:00] everything and everyone else because we're so focused on seeing that one thing. Who knows? Jesus's message that day may have even been About paying attention. I mean, if you look at a lot of the parables, that's a common theme in his teaching.

[00:06:17] It could have been here. He talks about consider the lilies, consider the flowers of the fields, look there, wheats and weeds growing together. Look at that road, these seeds, those fields. He was always calling out, pay attention to what's around us. Look and see. But the truth is, he really wasn't wanting us to look and see those things.

[00:06:41] It wasn't the appearance. It wasn't the stuff. It wasn't the real seeds, the real fields, the real weeds, the real lilies. Instead, he was saying, look at these things, but then look deeper. That's what he says to Peter as the teaching is over. Go into the deep water. [00:07:00] After all, going in deep, that's where the passion is.

[00:07:04] That's where the drama is. That's where real change is. And Peter, to his credit, was open. He didn't know it, maybe because he wasn't paying attention, but he was. He was open to going in deep, even though it was against his better judgment, even though he said, this isn't how we do things. We don't. fish in the day, we fish at night, we've already fished all night, we didn't catch anything, I've been completely unsuccessful, why do I believe it would work now?

[00:07:36] He could have just blown Jesus off. He could have said, you know, you don't know what you're talking about, you're not a fisherman, you don't know what we need, you don't know what we want, you don't know how our job works, you know nothing. Instead, he was open, and that small opening, that literal moment of accepting the invitation is all it takes for miracles to occur.[00:08:00]

[00:08:01] If we're willing to look deeper, to live deeper, there's so much happening right in front of our faces that we miss. Peter knew he was in over his head. Go away from me. That's the first thing he thinks to say, because he sees that Jesus is living in a way that is deeper than he is. Go away. I can't handle it.

[00:08:24] I'm not good enough. I'm not worthy of it. I don't have the strength to do this. Remember, Peter, just moments before, was there struggling with his failure. Sometimes Jesus doesn't come to us In fact, I would say often, if not always, Jesus doesn't come to us when we're well rested and ready and prepared.

[00:08:44] Instead, often Jesus shows up when we're ready to give up, when we think there's nothing left, when we feel like we're not any good at life. Then Jesus shows up beside us, puts his arm around us and says, Look deeper, go [00:09:00] deeper, live deeper. From now on, you will be catching people. You will become fishers of men.

[00:09:09] And that happened because someone was willing to hear the invitation to live deeper and that keeps happening then and now and always if you're willing to go deep. Thanks for listening.

[00:09:33] Thanks so much for listening to the Inspired Stewardship Podcast. As a subscriber and listener, we challenge you to not just sit back and passively listen, but act on what you've heard and find a way to live your calling. If you enjoyed this episode, do me a favor Go over to facebook. com slash inspired stewardship and [00:10:00] like our Facebook page and mark it that you'd like to get notifications from us so that we can connect with you on Facebook and make sure that we're serving you to the best of our abilities with time and tips there.

[00:10:16] Until next time, invest your time. Your talent and your treasures develop your influence and impact the world.