Episode Transcript
[00:00:04] Great passage of scripture this morning, as I say, we're carrying on this series that we are calling the Fullness of Christ. What an absolute privilege it is to read through the book of Luke, concentrating on Jesus and when he was on the earth. But I want us to really imagine today, church, how it must have been to be there. Caleb did a great accent then, but imagine, Imagine how it was all the way through my preach. Will you imagine how it was to be on the earth? Stood right next to Jesus.
[00:00:33] He came to walk amongst us, didn't he? As humans, he walked this earth. Can you imagine how it was there? Imagine that day when that scene happened. Can you imagine how it must have been so far up to this point that had John the Baptist preparing the way of Jesus. Then they see Jesus arrive on the scene. Imagine you're those disciples. Yeah, they've heard of John the Baptist, they've heard of this preparation. Then Jesus arrives on the scene. They see him cast out demons, they see him do miracles, they see him do healings. But today, in this passage, this is the first time there's a real. I've written down here a sort of a taste of a personal connection with Jesus. For the first time, we're sort of grasping why Jesus really came. There's this personal connection where Jesus Christ, the God of all heaven, who came down in human form. Yeah. I think the real reason he came was for Peter, Simon, James and John. Two thousand years later, it was for you and for me. He came for all mankind, didn't he? This passage is the first. He's done some healings, he's done some miracles. But today we see him getting personal, right up to Simon Peter. It's the real reason why he came. But what does he say to them? And this is the main point that I've got this morning and it's what I want you to take away with you. He says to Peter, James and John, these words so powerful, two little words. He says, follow me.
[00:01:57] Follow me again. I want you to imagine that you're Peter, you're James and John. You've seen this guy do miracles. You've heard of the coming. Is it possibly the coming of the Messiah? But he's a human and he says, follow me. You might have thought at first, I'm not sure, but you're a fisherman. You've just seen what he's done. You think there's something about this guy. And he says, follow me. Just imagine, imagine being Simon. Imagine any of us being there that day. Imagine when you saw the miracles Imagine when you did that. Imagine you're a fisherman and you know how to fish. What they actually do is they throw a net out or studded it in, like a bell kind of thing. They didn't have fishing rods where they put bait on. They would just throw a net at the side of the boat and it had lead weights all around the edge. I don't know if you saw it on the video. And then they'd scoop it up, pull in a cord and hope to catch a few fish. Wow, what a catch. They knew that was impossible as a fisherman. They knew their trade. They knew that was a miracle. What did he do? He goes and kneels at Jesus. Imagine looking straight into Jesus eyes. Come on, Church. I want us to imagine how it was that day. You're looking at the Messiah. He even said in him, the baptizer. You know, John the Baptist spoke of you. And now there you are, stood in front of me. And what does he do? He says, follow me. Looks right in his eye. Do you see that sketch? Wasn't it powerful? He said, follow me.
[00:03:17] Amazing. I love the Chosen, by the way.
[00:03:20] But for some of us that know that passage of scripture, he actually filled two boats. That's what the scriptures tell us. In verse seven, he said there was two boats that were filled. So they only filled one boat. So I'm going to write, Dear Mr. Chosen, there was two boats. Next time. But doesn't it depict the scripture? Well done. It feel like you were there. That's what I want us to do. You know, Jesus loves you and he loves me just like he loves Simon Peter. Kind of hard to get your teeth around that sometimes, innit? Here we are 2000 years later, but he does. He sent his Holy Spirit when he went back to heaven. We can experience, so to speak, looking in the eyes of Jesus through our hearts. Through the eyes of our heart. We can look at Jesus and just say, like Simon did, I am a sinful man. Forgive me, Lord. Come on, Church. We're all sinners. And you can look in the eyes of Jesus and he says, follow me, Phil.
[00:04:09] Follow me. Wow. So, Church, we need to read our Bibles. We need to get this message of Jesus. It is the most precious message in the world. My title this morning simply is follow me. The only really point I've got. But it's a good one. Jesus says, follow me. Wow. Wow. Just remember those words and remember who's saying it. It's Jesus saying it to us. And he's saying, follow me. Follow me. The guy that cast out demons did healings and miracles. Was right in front of the nose. And he said, follow me.
[00:04:44] The guy after John the Baptist baptized in Matthew 3:17. Remember when it came there when Jesus was baptized by John. What happened on that day? Just remember. I want you to be there in this time when Jesus walked the earth. So far those fishermen had heard of this story. Matthew 3:17 says this. Listen to this. Imagine still you're there. Matthew 3:17. It said, A voice from heaven. Wow. A voice from heaven said, this is my son. Can't quite do it as well as Caleb whom I love with him. I am well pleased. That boomed out of heaven. So those people there heard a voice from heaven saying, this is my son whom I am well pleased. Don't you think? Church? If you were there you're kind of getting a bit of rhythm here. You're kind of getting thinking there's something about this guy. There's something different about this guy. He's a human as he looks in front of them. But there's something about him when they're the voice from God. The Father in heaven says, this is my son who I'm well pleased. As he comes up out the water of baptism. Wow. Again. Church. I want you to imagine how it was on that day. A voice from heaven spoke. How amazing must that be? And the voice simply said, this is my son. Wow. So I reckon the word would have got round the area pretty quick. They didn't have Instagram and social media. But I certainly think humans know how to tell other humans. The word would have shot around the whole area. Is this possibly the Messiah? What did they put in the chosen area? A picture of his dad at the end. Said you worried about coming home for tea and missing supper. This is who we've been praying for. Is this the Messiah? Follow him. Same Messiah. Same Jesus. We can know. Was it really God's son? But he's just human. Remember what Tilly shared with us? Well the other week? Just about. You're just Joseph's son. You're just a carpenter. Who are you? You're a human. Stood in front of us. But a human that came from a virgin. A human that was supernatural as Paul shared Supernaturally put into Mary's womb.
[00:06:49] I think people will have been confused at the time. And I think that's okay to be confused because they saw a human in front of them. But I think they were starting to realize Church. There was somebody special who stood amongst them. Don't you? And we see in this passage today this miraculous catch of Fish fishermen that had fished all night, all night and not caught anything again, try and be there. Try and be them. Try and get yourself on a par with Simon Peter. Try and think of stood in front of Jesus thinking, jesus, I'm a fisherman, I know what I'm doing. We've fished all night. There's none around here, mate. That's my Leeds accent for you. Hey up, lad. There's no fish around here. I've been doing it all night. None round here, mate. You're wasting your time. Do you see how he smiled at him? I love that he just smiled at him. He said, put down your nets again. And there was a moment, wasn't there, for a little second where they looked at each other and Simon Peter says, okay, go on then, I'll do it again. Because you said so. There's this traction starting to get going with. There's something about you. I know what I'm doing. I'm a fisherman. But you said, put down your nets. So I'm going to do. And then, wow. Wow, Church. All those fish that came out of the water, do you see him running to the boat again? I want you to imagine what it was like there, how it must have been. And Jesus simply says to Simon Peter, follow me. What was Simon's response?
[00:08:10] Falls to his knees and he said, what? I am not worthy. I'm a sinful man.
[00:08:17] Any of else been there. Anyone else think we're not worthy of God's grace?
[00:08:22] Rebuke that Jesus died for us all. He died for us all. He loves us. And just like Simon Peter, his wonderful grace is available to all. If you don't know Jesus this morning, I don't know everybody here and I don't know everybody's story. If you don't know Jesus as your own Lord and saviour, let me tell you, he's saying to you this morning, follow me, Follow me.
[00:08:44] Jesus reaffirms again to Simon. He says, follow me to such powerful words.
[00:08:50] As I said earlier, I follow Leeds United. I do. I'm really proud of it. The top of the league at the moment. Manchester United are top of the league. Caleb are. We might actually swap places this year. You might go down and we might go up. Won't that be good?
[00:09:07] But I follow Leeds United with a passion, right? And I think in life as humans, we can follow many things. I love it when Leeds score. There was a thing that went around Instagram this week. It was hilarious because Leeds fans, I don't know where it is in Yorkshire, they get so passionate about it, just kicking a bag of wind around a pitch. I know, but last two games, we were losing to the team that was second and we were losing the team that was fourth. So they call it a six pointer in football. So if you're top and the guy's second is two points below you, if they beat you, they go above you, don't they? But if you beat them, you go five points ahead. Well, that was the game. It was first against second against Sheffield United, and we were one nil down at half time and we beat him three one. And when the third goal went in, it was a bit of a screamer of a goal. A guy had put on Instagram, his cat went out of the window and it went viral, this thing, because he was sat down and his cat had just landed on his lap at the wrong time on the pillow and he went, yes, right, just at the point. His wife had opened the window to let some air in and the cat went straight out the window.
[00:10:08] That's the cost of following Leeds United. But it did make me chuckle when I read that. But what are you following, Church? What are you following in this world? Come on, what are you following here? For Simon, this was a request from possibly the Messiah, as we said, possibly the Saviour of the world. Remember, he hadn't seen the cross yet, had he? He hadn't seen the cross saying, come on, follow me. And as I said earlier, this is what I love about this. This is the first time we're seeing here, as we're going through the book of Luke, as we're going through. It is about Jesus. This is the first time we see a personal invitation from Jesus to a human, to Simon looks straight in his eyes and he says, follow me. As he looks in your eyes this morning, Church, and he says, follow me. This is the reason he came to earth. He did the miracles partly to show that he was God. They had to believe who he was first, didn't they? But then he came with his personal invitation. Follow me.
[00:11:02] So what about you, Church? Do you remember the day, I'm guessing most of you are Christians, that you committed your life to Christ? You remember that day?
[00:11:10] It's the most amazing day in anybody's life. It's better than anything. Your wedding day is pretty good, I'll give you that. It was. I couldn't sleep the night before my wedding. I was up all night, so I was so excited, and then got to about 5 in the morning, thought, I'm not going to sleep. And then I thought, will she come? You do think that as a man because you're there stood waiting for it. It's quite hard. And I was staying in this fleeper in widness because I'm a Yorkshireman, I'm tight. I stayed in this little room for about 20 quid a night. That was shocking. And I just laid there in this smelly bed thinking oh no, I hope she'll come. And she did. And it was a wonderful day and I wasn't tired all day. I got through the day. But the day you find Jesus, Church is better than that. The day you find Jesus, you seal your life in eternity. The day you say Jesus, Jesus says to you follow me. And you say I will. You better mean it Church, you better mean it from the bottom of your guts. Follow me. And it wasn't just for Simon Peter, it was for all mankind. Jesus is available to all but we have to choose to follow him. We have to make that conscious decision to follow him. So I love that 2000 years later church Jesus is still saying follow me to humans. We might not have seen the miracles firsthand like the disciples did but you can feel that deep call inside I've shared many times. Mine was on a dance floor and I knew, I knew that. I knew I'd grown up in a Christian home and I think if Jesus comes again he ain't taking me with him. And I burst into tears. I don't know what your story is but you know when that call comes inside there's nothing tastes sweeter than Jesus wrestling with your heart saying follow me. You feel it deep within side.
[00:12:46] And I remember my life, I remember that age as a young man wanting to commit to build my life with him. I had all the questions, I knew the cost. You know, I was a jack lads lad, being a bit of a plonker I kind of knew the cost inside.
[00:13:02] But do you know what I did think? I thought if I'm going to do this, I ain't doing it half hearted. I'm going to do it with a full heart. Don't be half hearted for Jesus.
[00:13:11] Yeah. If you're going to say yes to Jesus is following me, you better believe it. There's usually a build up though Church. There's usually things around your life that are building up to that day. For me I stood on the top of the Alps skiing and I looked out and it was amazing. And I thought if God didn't make this, who did? Because it was stunning. It was like this today. It was a blue sky, the sun was shining on the Snow, we were 10,000ft up in the air. I was just about to go down on my little beds and do some tricks, but I thought, wow, God, I think I believe in you. Because if you didn't make this, I'm not so sure. I believe that a big bang did. I reckon there's a creator and I reckon you're real and I reckon I need to know you. So just go with that call inside church. You know, the Bible I believe is so relevant still today as it was then. It's hard that, innit? Because many things come through seasons in life. Let me tell you, the Bible doesn't. The Bible is not out of shape, it's not out of fashion, although it was written 2,000 years ago. I want to show you something pretty amazing. Can we show the picture of that boat, Gordon, please?
[00:14:16] So the Sea of Gennesaret in the scriptures is of course the sea of 10 out of 10.
[00:14:23] See this? You can google it while you're talking to me if you want, which is a bit irreverent in the middle of me preach, but I'll let you off if you want to google.
[00:14:33] The boat that was found at the Sea of Galilee, that was the boat. That is a picture of the actual boat. Listen, listen to this. You can research it. It was found, this boat at the Sea of Galilee in 1986, right? So nearly 2,000 years after Jesus was on the earth. Nearly 2,000 years after he looked in Simon Peter's eye on the edge of that Sea of Galilee and said, follow me. Right? This is what you can research yourself from Wikipedia, okay, The gospel of Wikipedia.
[00:15:05] But listen, it says this, it says this. This is obviously a scientist has written this, so this is fact, right? So that boat put this into Wikipedia. The boat has been dated to 40 years before Christ in brackets, plus or minus 80 years. This is based on very accurate radiocarbon dating, whatever the heck that is. Sounds good. Radiocarbon dating and 50 BC to 50 AD so kind of a hundred year window. Jesus birth maybe 50 years before, 50 years after based on pottery technique because it had a cooking pot and a lamp were on the bot on the boat and nails were found in the boat that linked all that together as well as the hull construction technique. All this evidence together and the repeated repairs show the boat was used for several decades, perhaps nearly even a full century. When the fishermen that owned it thought it was beyond repair. Listen to this. They removed all wooden parts and the hull would have eventually sang to the bottom of the boat. There it was covered with mud, but which prevented bacterial decomposition. So they moved the best bits of wood off it, which you can see there, can't you? They'd taken some good wood off it. The rest of it they just let sink to the bottom. And there it lied in this mud that preserved it till 1986.
[00:16:28] Now, it doesn't say in Wikipedia, but, you know, I read it. You know, I thought inside whether it was the Holy Spirit, I don't know. But first thing I thought was, what's so special about 1986? Why was that boat suddenly found now? Because what does that boat do? It pulls a lot of these Bible stories together. Yeah, it's just a little glimpse of. Yeah, there was a boat by the Sea of Galilee with fishermen, and that could have happened. Full of fish when Jesus around. So then I went back again. 1986. I was 12 then. Thought, I wonder what happened. Do you know what happened in 1986? It was the year of the Chernobyl disaster.
[00:17:01] Wow. Remember that? Those that are old enough, the amount of radiation that killed hundreds of thousands of people.
[00:17:08] Did God's earth want to be full of nuclear weapons that could do what they could do? Never had that 2,000 years ago, did they? This massive nuclear outburst for the first time, this disaster in Russia, Right. It was also the year of the rise of Muslim terrorism.
[00:17:24] Go back to the line in the Bible.
[00:17:26] It was the year of the space shutter Challenger disaster. Anybody remember watching that? It was heartbreaking, wasn't it? Shutter went straight up in the air with those seven astronauts, remember seeing as clear as day on the news, and blew up. So man was trying to go to the moon. Man trying to build nuclear power that can have massive, fatal destruction. Man doing a lot of things here. And then the rise of Muslim terrorism. Why President Reagan sent planes. You all remember that. That morning there was a bit of tension in Libya. Remember Colonel Gaddafi in Libya, 1986. Reagan sent planes with a specific aim of taking out Libyan terrorists. Muslim terrorists. Wow. That all happened in 1986. So when I read it, I thought they found this boat at a time when there was a lot of human things starting to go on that Jesus is saying, hey, I'm here. This is my world. I made it. Follow me, follow me. I'm the creator of this world. You're starting to do a really good job, humans, of messing it up.
[00:18:26] You know, flying people at the moon that get blown up. I know it was a natural disaster, but, you know, man flying to a moon.
[00:18:33] Nuclear outburst, like it was a lot of Things Jesus is saying, I'm here, I love you, this is my world. Follow me. I thought that was kind of quite in rhythm with that finding of that boat. So maybe God was allowing this to be found in a world to remind us what a mess it was and that this boat resembled the time when Jesus was here, when he said, follow me. Maybe it was just a reminder to the world, Come back to me. Come back to me. I am Jesus, I'm your saviour. I'm just staggered it lasts all those years in the mud, aren't you? A boat like that lasted all those years in the mud. I kind of think it was meant to have lasted to come out at a certain time. But anyway, I want to look briefly now, this morning, just briefly, at each of those disciples. In the story we had Simon who became Peter, didn't we? Simon Peter, who Jesus says, follow me to. And then the other guy is James and John, right? You know the cost of following Jesus, Church? It's a full on life surrendered to him. You know that, don't you?
[00:19:31] Yeah. You listening? You ready? What happened to James and John and Simon Peter?
[00:19:35] Well, get this. James was the first disciple to be beheaded by King Herod. It's quite a cost, isn't it, to end your days as a human. He knew Jesus as his saviour. The first disciple to be killed by King Herod, beheaded.
[00:19:52] Simon Peter, anyone know that one?
[00:19:56] He was crucified upside down.
[00:19:59] Wow. Imagine being crucified upside down, but he's in heaven with Jesus. So this is the first people on the earth. Remember, after Jesus has come, the first time Jesus has come in human form, fully God and fully man. This is the end of their story of following Jesus. So you wanted to follow Jesus this morning.
[00:20:17] Wow. Well, there's a cost to it, Church. There's a cost in our lives. Last one, John, he was the last surviving disciple and he was actually put out to exile on the island of Patmos, wasn't he? But there he wrote Revelation, which is a bit of a tongue twister to read as Christians, but it is good and if you really study it, especially during your series you did at Widnes or what was the island you went to? Oh, I can remember.
[00:20:46] Began with S. It didn't matter.
[00:20:49] Do you remember John when he wrote in Revelation, Sargis. Sargis. Sardis. Sardis. Sardis. It was awesome. So he needed Esther to explain it because you can read some of Revelation and think, what the heck does that mean? But John wrote that on the island of Patmos. But he was exiled, so. Exiled. Head cut off, hung upside down. Not a great ending, is it, to your human life? Are you ready to pay the price, Church? Are you ready to pay the price of what it is to be a Christian when Jesus says, follow me. So I want us to ask today, Church, are we fully following Jesus? And I mean that. Are you fully following Jesus in your Life here in 2025 in this town of Newton? Abbot, don't live with regrets.
[00:21:34] You know, we're all going to stand before him one day, Church. I say that with great sobriety. Why? Because I have to look in the mirror every morning and think of my life. We are all going to stand before Jesus one day.
[00:21:45] Romans 2, 5, 6, says, you are storing up wrath for yourself for the day of God's wrath. Wow. When his righteous judgment will be revealed, God will repay each person. Not your wife, not your son, not your dad, you. We all stand naked before the King of Kings one day. And it said, God will repay each person according to what they have done. You ever heard that expression, Church? Pay now, play later, or play now and pay later.
[00:22:22] So if you eat a lot of food, more than you probably should do, and you never go and exercise, I've known both in life. I've had times where I've gone running, feeling great after a different pair of trousers on because I can't. The other ones are too big. I've known the opposite. But, you know, if you don't exercise and if you don't eat well, usually in later life, generally you will have health issues towards the end of your life. But if you do eat well and you do look after your body, you see, I remember we went on a men's cycle weekend at the church was in up north, and a fellow that cycled to work every day was 6, 64, 64. And he nailed me up this hill. At that point, I was running half marathons. I was about 32, and me and him had gone, right. And because it's me and I don't like to lose in sport, which is not a good trait, but I don't. And he set off up this hill in the Yorkshire Dales, right. Wow. No, actually, it was before I met. Yeah, I'd have been about 28, right. And I thought, right, I'm gonna have him. And I got literally about 200 foot from the top of this hill and he was still going. And I thought my spleen was gonna come out. I was gone. I was out of breath. I was absolutely panting for breath. And he Got to the. He was out of breath, but he got to the top and he beat me and just turned around. Bit like Paul in his lorry the other day. Winked at me as if, do you like that? And I thought, wow. But it shows he paid now. He kept himself fit and strong and at 64, he was healthy. Let's think of that in our spiritual walk with God. Jesus tells us he will reward us according to our deeds. Deserve. How are you living your life for Jesus down here? Church affects things. Do we want to follow him? That's got to look like something, Church. It's got to look like something. There's times in our life where we've got to make a decision.
[00:24:04] Are we going to stand on the edge of this rock and follow Jesus and do the right thing? Because let me assure you, there's moments of temptation. It's all through the Bible. There's moments of times where you think, do I do that or do I not? And you'll get a nudge inside, straight from heaven. Right, I want to share this little story again. I know I shared. It's hard being a preacher for a long time in the same church because you know, all my stories I was telling Ellie this morning, but this was a powerful one in my life, so I think I shared it a couple of years ago. So if you heard it then just maybe just grace me. But I think a lot of young people will have heard it and it's especially to the young people. I want to share this story again.
[00:24:42] So I was about 28, 29. It was the year before I met Esther and I went away on holiday to Spain with my friend Pete, who was a lovely Christian man. And we were out round, down at the bottom of the hotel. We'd had a meal just hanging out outside and there was these two Croatian girls. One of them was stunning looking with blonde hair and me being cheeky. Phil just started chatting. We were playing pool and nothing too bad, but it sort of.
[00:25:11] The flirting went to another level. And everybody's old enough here to understand this. There was only one way this was going to end, right? And I knew that, right? And she actually, in the end, ushered me up to her room, right? And I stood outside her room. And I kid you not, church, I just felt this. I feel it now. I felt this real sense of I've got to do the right thing before God. I am praying. I had a little flat in Leeds with a little balcony. Used to sit on my flat Saturday morning, praying for a Christian wife, right? I thought I can't do this. I cannot do this. Every inch of me inside would want to do because I'm a hot blooded man and I'm human. But I thought, I can't do this. But I'd initiated it by flirting with her, right? Do you know what I did? I stood there, I thought, I'm not doing it. Bit like that guy when he wanted to, when he smashed my lorry up and I wanted to punch him on his nose. I thought, I'm preaching on forgiveness tomorrow. I'm not going to punch him. I'm going to preach unforgiveness tomorrow. You have a moment, Church, don't you? These are my moments I'm sharing with you to try and make this passage real. You love moments, right? And I ran back to my hotel room. I said, I'm sorry, I can't do this. She must have thought it was a right lemon. I said, I'm not doing this. And I ran back to my hotel room. I shut the door. My friend Pete was still down playing pool, right? It was about 10:00 at night. And I literally put the quilt over my head, right? And she was knocking on the door.
[00:26:32] I went, go away.
[00:26:34] I thought, Jesus, I'm 101 here. And eventually she left the noise, stopped knocking and she'd gone. And I took the quilt off my head. Imagine that. What a plonker. And I got my Bible out and started reading the Bible. I want to tell you, Church, it was one of the most intimate times I've ever had with Jesus. And I woke up that next morning and I felt as pure as pure could be. I thought, I love you, Jesus. Thank you for helping me, right? A year later, I met the woman of my dreams. A year later I met a godly woman. And I want to encourage you young people this morning, or any of you, keep the marriage bed pure. Honour God with all that you are. Honour God with your body, honour God with your mind. Honour God in those moments where you want to scream and you want to do something that the flesh is crying out. If sin wasn't fun, right, it wouldn't be a problem to miss out on it, would it? If it wasn't fun going out and having a beer, all those things, right? I know the fun, right? But he said, didn't he, I'm a sinful man. And Jesus says, get up, follow me, I've got grace. When we're that side of salvation and where that side of saying, jesus, I commit my life to you, Church. Commit your life to Jesus, surrender all that you are to your King of Kings who loves you. There's grace for when you slip up. But let's not use the grace card. You know, we play Monopoly. You get a card that says, get out of jail free. Get in. I've got it. Get out of jail card. You going to jail. You're like that. Thank you.
[00:27:54] Carry on with the game. No, that is not grace. That's trampling on grace. That's trampling on the cross. Grace is when you mess up and you sincerely get on your knees and say, jesus, forgive me. I shouldn't have done that, not enjoy it and then say, it's all right tomorrow. I'm just going to pray for forgiveness. No, if you say, follow me and you mean it, you say, jesus, I accept this call to follow me. You follow him with all your heart. Okay? So when those moments come, you can stand on the edge of a cliff and think, no, I'm going to go back that way. I'm not going to jump. I felt so clean that day. After church, young people, hear that. Please, today, honour God with your body. Honour God with your mind. I know this is hard. And I know you look at me and think, it's all right for you. Phil, you little bold old man. I'm young and 21 and full of vigour. I used to be. I used to have more hair and I used to be full of more vigour. When we get older, don't we? Do you remember the thing when you're young and you hear a parent say, I still feel like I'm 21? You're like, what are you talking about? You've got grey hair. You're nothing like me. You don't know how I feel. We do. We still feel like we're 21 in our mind, even though we're not. I know. I know that not following the crowd is hard when you're young. I know the peer pressure is hard. I know it's hard, but do you want to play now and pay later, or do you want to pay now and play later? Imagine eternity with Jesus. And you can look back on those days and think, get in. I put God first. Get in. I committed my life to him. So what is it going to be in our lives? Are we going to live our life for Jesus now or for ourself?
[00:29:28] How does that look?
[00:29:30] What does it mean to follow him with a full heart now? Well, I've just written a few thoughts down.
[00:29:37] Spend time with him.
[00:29:39] Spend time with him. Church. Get to know him. Spend time with Jesus, give him our first fruits. I hate talking about money. That's why you've never really heard me talk about it in this church. But we have got story after story after story where we have committed to Jesus and we have given in an area because we felt God tell us to. What? Never, ever with an expectation of getting something back. But God has seen us through so many storms. We once lost absolutely everything. I lost a 50 million turnover company that employed 150 people and we walked away 50 grand in debt and we moved in with Esther's mum and dad's house with nothing. Right. I have seen God restore me and look after me. If you commit to Bible economics of putting Jesus first and giving of your first fruits to the King of Kings, your life will be blessed. And sometimes it doesn't come back with a financial reward. That that's why you should never give to get back. It might come back with a health thing, it might come back with an answer to prayer, I don't know. But give of your first fruits. Church. Give of our time to Jesus. Spend time with him. Tell others about him. You've had a follow me experience that changes the rest of your life. Tell others about him. Ready for a big one? I'm going to have a drink before this one.
[00:30:54] Are you ready? Church?
[00:30:59] Okay. You ready? You're not going to throw tomatoes at me. Attend prayer meetings.
[00:31:05] Attend prayer meetings. There you go. I said it. Get your tomatoes out.
[00:31:11] The best meeting in the church is better than. This is the prayer meeting, right? It's the prayer meeting. Attend prayer meetings. Honestly, be a praying people. Just trust me. Church. Be a praying people. You know, if you're in a prayer meeting and let's say half the church is there, I appreciate sometimes there's mums and dads and the kidneys, I get all of that. But we should see at least half of our church at a prayer meeting. And if you do get this, we were once at a church and I was at church in Leeds as a young man before I met Esther as a young single guy. And it was probably the most well attended prayer meeting church I ever went to. But you know when somebody prays something publicly in a prayer meeting and you all stand in faith, in agreement with it, if weeks later what that prayer has been prayed comes to fruition, all of the church in harmony, rejoices. They think, wow, do you remember so and so prayed for that and then you see the result. Come on, let's be a praying people. We watched last night gather, see the gather 25. Yeah. There was a church in Rwanda that has exploded. This is where they want to send people from the uk.
[00:32:15] Rwanda, right? In Rwanda, there's this church that are praying because the pastor felt to pray every morning, and I mean every morning at 5am they have seen that church explode. Supernatural things happening, answers to prayer. The church is growing because they're on the knees every morning at 5am, just like that Scottish island that saw revival. Two old ladies praying. One of them couldn't even see and walk, really. But they prayed every night till three in the morning. Prayer changes things. Church. You want to be a Christian, you've got to pray.
[00:32:43] Sorry if that hits hard. I told you, you can throw tomatoes at me. Come on, let's be a praying people. The word says, if my people will humble themselves and pray. I get it, I get it. Do you know what, though? If you get home from work, you've had a tough day, you put your feet up, you've just had your meal, you think, oh, I've got to go to the prayer meeting. You never come home. Think, I wish I hadn't gone. You don't. You come. Think, that was mint. I enjoyed that the other morning when the men's prayer thing went off at quarter past six when Esther kicks me out of bed, you're like, oh, I could have just done another hour. You never leave the prayer meeting and think, I wish I hadn't got up for that. It's so fulfilling as a Christian. It's the key to our heart. Give Jesus your whole heart, Church this morning. Give him your full heart. Do we love him because he first loved us? Paul shared this with me at work. He said, phil, what are you speaking about on Sunday? And I told him and he gave me a little nugget that I've written down here. And he said, you know how you love Jesus? Phil says, go on, Paul. He said, out of a place of intimacy. A man loves a wife because he's intimate. Forget the actual part of that marriage, although that comes out of intimacy. Just think of the word intimacy. Not in a bed department, in a love department.
[00:33:53] My mum said to me when I was younger, I'd throw myself under a train for you. And I remember being about nine, thinking, no, you won't, silly woman. You wouldn't throw yourself under train for me and then you become a parent. You think, yeah, I would. If it meant me dying and saving one of my kids. I'd probably chuck them out of the way. And I go under the train. That's Intimacy. That deep place of love, right? That deep place of love says, I'm going to love you. If we love Jesus with a full place heart, sorry. Of intimacy. If we truly love Jesus out of that intimacy, we're able to spend time with him, we're able to pray, we're able to do these things.
[00:34:33] Yeah. Out of a heart of love, we were able to sacrifice and lay your life down for Jesus. Like he lived his life down for you. Out of a heart of love, out of a heart of intimacy for him, you can lay your life down for Jesus.
[00:34:50] Jesus, we love you, Lord. Do we wake up in the morning church? He says, follow me. Do you ever wake up in the morning and say this, God, what do you want me to do today, dear? Do you say, God, what do you want me to do this week?
[00:35:04] We should do, shouldn't we? We get so busy in life with phones and things and work and blah blah, blah, blah, blah. Do we ever get up and say, what have you got for me this week, Jesus? Come on, come on, church.
[00:35:17] In closing, I just want to remind you of that last sentence in our passage this morning.
[00:35:23] It says this. It was Jesus, remember Jesus, the one who had done the miracles, got to the edge of that lake and he looked straight in Simon's eyes and he says, don't be afraid.
[00:35:35] Don't be afraid. For now on you will fish for people. So they pulled up their boats on the shore, left everything and followed him.
[00:35:45] I love my life application Bible. It has a little commentary at the bottom and it says this, it says this about that passage. It said this was the disciples second call. Actually if you dig back, it said after the first call, Peter, James and John still went back to fishing.
[00:36:03] They continued to watch Jesus in the synagogue as he healed the sick, drove out the demons. But here he established authority in their lives. They suddenly saw Jesus as something different. He established authority in their lives. He also met them on their level. He got down, didn't he said, follow me.
[00:36:24] From this point on, church, they left their nets and remained with Jesus.
[00:36:30] For us, following Jesus means more than just acknowledging him as Saviour.
[00:36:38] We must leave our past behind and commit our future to Him. That's what I want to encourage you with this morning. If you say follow me Jesus and you say yes, you're committing your whole future to Him. You've got to leave your past behind.
[00:36:51] Matt, are you out? Yeah. Can we stand church?
[00:36:57] If you can come out band, that'd be great.
[00:37:09] Following Jesus.
[00:37:11] It has to look like something in our lives. Church here, the disciples, they left everything, everything and followed Jesus.
[00:37:22] I want to ask you, are we playing now and we're going to pay later? And I want you to think in the light of eternity when I say that not just the day you die in your ill health, in your old age, are we playing now and paying later? Or are we going to commit our lives fully to Jesus, to truly be at the centre of all that we do?
[00:37:44] You know, following church, following Jesus. Church is a daily thing.
[00:37:49] It's a daily thing. Commit your lives afresh to Jesus.
