Automated Chapters
0:00 Introduction
2:21 Jesus Uses Peter’s Boat to Speak to the Crowd
5:10 Jesus Instructs Peter to Launch Out and Let Down the Nets
10:16 Peter Obeys Despite His Frustrations
15:20 Peter’s Obedience Leads to Blessing
20:15 Don’t Quit When Things Get Difficult
25:12 Obeying in Small Things Leads to Greater Blessings
30:30 Making Excuses instead of Obeying
35:07 The Blessings of Obedience May Not Be Immediate
39:16 God Desires Obedience Over Sacrifice
42:20 Conclusion – Trust and Obey
Automated Transcription
[00:00:02] Go out now with Miss Candy, our art teacher. She’s going to do the arts and crafts this week, I guess, I assume. I hope she always has.
[00:00:16] Trust and obey for there’s no other way to be happy in Jesus but to trust and obey I want you to just take your hymnals back open again. I asked Robin if we could there he goes. If we could sing this song elvis has left the building. All right.
[00:00:47] Just back to the song. Trust and obey as we sing that song. I hope you know it and hope you understood it but there’s so many good messages and songs, and it really speak to our hearts. When we walk with the Lord in the light of his word what glory he sheds on our way why we do his goodwill he abides with us still and all who will trust and obey not a shadow can rise not a cloud in the skies but his smile quickly drives it away not a doubt nor fear not a sigh nor a tear can abide while we trust and obey not a burden we bear not a sorrow we share not our toil he doth alter we oh, I’m sorry. Richly repay not a grief nor loss, not a frown or a cross but is best if we trust and obey but we never can prove the delights of his love until all on the altar we lay for the favor he shows for the joy he bestows are for them who trust and obey then in fellowship sweet we will sit at his feet or we’ll walk by his side in the way what he says we will do where he sins we will go.
[00:02:21] Never fear, only trust and obey. I hope as you sing these songs there’s more to it than just a song. There’s a powerful message there. We cannot have our fellowship in Christ. We cannot have the joy of our salvation that is spoke through all of Scripture unless we trust and obey.
[00:02:47] And those times get difficult sometimes, even when you’re doing well. So in Galatians six nine, it says, let us not be weary and well doing for in due season we shall reap if we faint not. Father now, as we study Your Word, Lord, as we just look into it, and I pray that you’d open our eyes and our ears to help us to see, to understand the truth of that Word. We pray, Father, now for encouragement this morning, for comfort, for the peace that only you can give as you help us to trust you and obey you in all that You’ve called us to do. Thank you, Father, for your goodness to us.
[00:03:27] Thank you for this privilege to stand before you. And I pray that you would just give me every word to say that we may see and hear clearly the truth of Your Word and be doers of that Word today. In Jesus name I pray. Amen. We hear that verse all the time in Galatians six, don’t be weary and well doing.
[00:03:46] You’ll reap if you faint. Not. And those who are in a very difficult time and struggling with everything, and Satan seems to attack you on every side, and nothing seems to be going right, and it’s just hot outside and you’re tired and you’re miserable and you’re like, Shut up. I don’t want to hear that verse right now. Right?
[00:04:06] Am I the only one that feels that way? Why? It is very true. It is very, very true. Sometimes you just don’t want to hear that when you’re in the midst of your turmoil or when you’re in the midst of you just feel defeated and down and out.
[00:04:21] The Bible promises us over and over and over, don’t be weary, don’t faint. It’s going to all work out. Jesus says, I’ll never leave you. I’ll never forsake you. Stand on my promises.
[00:04:35] I want to take you to probably a very pretty familiar passage of Scripture this morning in Luke, chapter five. Luke, chapter five. While you’re turning there, jesus is speaking to the large crowd. And as he’s speaking to the crowd, they just begin to get real close to Him, and it’s almost like face to face that he’s trying to proclaim and preach the Word. And as he gets so close, I mean, he’s right there at the Sea of OOH.
[00:05:10] My brain left me for a minute, miss Tony hot in here. I guess he’s at the edge of the Sea of Galilee. It gives a different name here in the King James, but it is the Sea of Galilee. And he’s backing up, and he’s right on the edge of the water and people right there to him as he’s preaching and proclaiming. And then he does something.
[00:05:28] He makes some requests that you may be very familiar with here that I want us to look at as we are going through our daily lives and we’re going through our routines and those things that we so often do. But when Jesus shows up, everything changes. I want you to understand that this morning. And how does Jesus show up? It says in verse one, it came to pass that as the people pressed upon him to hear the Word of God, he stood by the Lake of Gensherat.
[00:06:02] That’s the Sea of Galilee, in case you don’t know. Why they decided to change it, I’m not really sure at this point. But what the thing is here people were hungry for the Word. What an awesome opportunity or privilege as a pastor to have those that you stand and you preach and you listen, and that’s good. But then when we have Bible study and questions are asked and people are trying to dig deeper into the Word of God, there is no greater pleasure in the world to me than that.
[00:06:33] To see people hungry for the Word of God. I’m sure that Jesus was overjoyed at the people who wanted just hear the word of God. We get so busy in our lives, we say, okay, I’m going to do my devotion for this morning. And we read a verse and say, Good. Thank you, Lord.
[00:06:51] I got to go to work. And that’s it. Never digging deeper, never looking further into His Word, trying to really understand the truth of His Word. We just think, okay, we checked that box off today. I read the Bible.
[00:07:05] Never mind. It was just maybe one verse. God is wanting so much more for us. He’s wanting a relationship. He’s wanting to have fellowship with us through His Word.
[00:07:16] And you check off your box of one verse for the day. That’s not much fellowship. What if I got up in the morning and I told Robin, hey, have a great day. See ya. You go your way and I go my way, and I never speak to her the rest of the day?
[00:07:32] Not much of a relationship, is it? I’d probably have knots all over my head. She’d straighten me out right quick. What’s going on with you? Why aren’t you talking to me?
[00:07:43] I wonder sometimes if God just wouldn’t want to put a knot on her head and say, hey, remember me? Remember the conversations I’d like to have you the fellowship that we talked about in this song. The fellowship sweet with him. And then we have that same fellowship with one another. That’s what he wants for us.
[00:08:07] Let me move on. As he was preaching and he was being pressed next to the Sea of Galilee and he saw two ships standing by the lake. But the fishermen were gone out of them and were washing their nets so that we get the setting here. It may have been early morning. I don’t know how real early morning, but we know that the fishermen would fish.
[00:08:32] The best fishing times in that area in the Sea of Galilee was at night. They had been fishing all night. And once they fish all night, then they’d come in and they would clean their nets. They would get everything out, all the debris out of them. I heard the fish oil from the fish that got in there, the scales.
[00:08:51] They cleaned these nets out and got them all straightened out and ready for the next night. And they’d lay them out on the shore, or lay them out there and stretch them out so they could dry, so they wouldn’t rot. So he sees these two ships, or these two boats. We think of ships, we automatically go to the cruise, right? But these were two large vessels of fishing boats.
[00:09:14] And they take these nets and lay them out to dry to get prepared for the next night. Day after day, week after week, month after month, year after year. This is what they did. They did this over and over and over. This particular morning.
[00:09:30] We’ll see in a minute that they didn’t even catch anything all night, yet they were cleaning their nets. It just shows how we get caught in all of our mundane. Got to go to work Monday through Friday. Saturday, I get to do a little bit of something I want. Sunday, I’m back at church.
[00:09:48] Hopefully. Monday, it starts all over again. It’s just our routine over and over and over and over, and it can get monotonous. It can get tiring. It can get difficult.
[00:10:01] Stacey’s like, Yep, it’s your can. I’ve been there know? And it’s just like, wow, I can’t wait for vacation. So we live our whole year hoping to get off for two or three weeks and get to get a break from this routine and all that we do. This is what these fishermen were doing.
[00:10:20] But Jesus shows up, and he enters one of the ships in verse three, which was Simon’s that was Peter, and prayed him that he would thrust out a little from the land, and he sat down and taught the people out of the ship. So that’s pretty interesting. Jesus said, okay, I’ll fix this crowd problem. I’ll just get in this boat. Hey, Peter, push me out a little bit into the water.
[00:10:48] Take me out a little bit in the water. They’re not going to come out here and get wet. I’ll stay in the boat, and that way they can hear me. Now, I’ve been told if you stand on the Sea of Galilee, or if you’re in the Sea of Galilee off of the shore, and you can almost just talk like this to each other close by, a hundred yards off the shore, the people can hear you talking with the walls of rock and the water and all. It’s a natural amplifier.
[00:11:18] He didn’t need a PA system, and you could hear Him clearly from out in the boat as he would get out there. So it served well. Jesus got to sit down, and the crowd could hear Him, and he’s preaching now from the crowd. Now, I want to take our preaching now from the ship to the crowd on the shore, but I want you to just back up a minute and let’s consider Peter. Now, here’s Peter been fishing all night long in his routine, day after day, sunday after Sunday, teaching Sunday school, year after year, doing vacation, Bible school, over and over and over.
[00:11:58] We just seem to be doing the same thing over and over and over, and sometimes it just doesn’t seem like our efforts are worth anything. Sometimes we just don’t catch anything. And so here’s Peter, who may be a little bit distraught. He’s cleaning his nets. He’s put his boat up already.
[00:12:16] And here’s this guy that comes up, and at this time, he really knew of Jesus but didn’t know Jesus. And this guy comes along, a carpenter from Nazareth says, hey, I need your boat, bud. Take me out a little bit further. And Peter’s like, okay, I’m kind of cleaning my nets here, but whatever you say. And so he takes him out.
[00:12:42] Now Jesus is here preaching. He’s sitting down in the boat. Now, I don’t know if they had anchors back then. They may have, they may not. But I just imagine in my mind that Peter has taken the rope of the boat and he’s walked it out in the water, and he’s standing there holding the boat still while Jesus is preaching, I really want to finish cleaning my nets.
[00:13:03] I got a lot of things to do. My wife is expecting me to be home this morning, but you want my boat, so I got to stand here and hold the boat. I got to stand here and do what you’ve asked. I’m trying to get you in the mindset of Peter, in the mindset that we all share a lot of times when God asks us to do things, there could have been anything, any excuse Peter could have come up with said, I don’t have time. Or nowadays we’d say, well, I don’t know about you getting in my boat, Lord.
[00:13:40] I may have checked with my lawyer for there may be some liability problems here. You get in my boat and it sinks or something, know, then you’re going to sue me and whatever. That’s what we’d do today, right? We want to blame it on that. Where Jesus said, hey, I need your boat, Peter.
[00:13:59] Okay, whatever. I’ll do that. And he stands there or man’s the boat. Maybe he’s just keeping it steady with oars. I don’t know.
[00:14:10] The Bible doesn’t say, but I imagine Peter was there as Jesus spoke to the crowd. Now, Peter could have been saying, why my boat? There’s all these other boats out here. There’s other people that can do it. Why me?
[00:14:27] Why’d you pick me? I’ve already had a frustrating night. I haven’t caught a thing. And you fishermen can attest to that, to going to fishing all night long or all day long. You haven’t caught a thing.
[00:14:40] You’re not in the best of spirits. At least I’m not. Of course, a good day on the lake or a bad day on the lake is better than a good day at work. I understand that. But you still hoped you caught something.
[00:14:52] You still can have frustrations. But see here, what the Lord was doing was he was speaking to the crowd, telling the crowd, and the crowd could now hear him. But what the Lord was really doing was getting Peter’s undivided attention. Peter was there. If you picture him holding the rope of the boat, standing there, he had no choice but to hear the message that the Lord was speaking.
[00:15:20] He had no choice but to hear what was going on and see what was going on and witness it for himself. Sometimes God asks us to do things and we think, why me? Lord, why my boat? Why my car? Why do I got to give up my seat?
[00:15:39] Why I got to give up my time? Sometimes God’s just wanting to get our undivided attention. Hey, I need your attention for a minute. I got something to tell you. I’ve got something to show you that’s going to be very important to you.
[00:15:54] So we see here that Peter obeyed the first command that he gave, and in obedience to that command, to trust and obey, peter may not have understood fully why in the world me, why my boat? Why am. Why? Why? He could ask a thousand things, but he said okay because he did it.
[00:16:16] It didn’t say he said okay, but he did it. So he obviously said, nodded his head or something. So through his little obedience that seemed so insignificant, what took place? Number one, peter got to hear the message drowned and clear, so he was receiving a blessing. Jesus got to sit down from being tired all day the morning and preaching.
[00:16:40] So Jesus got to rest as he spoke, and the crowd could hear Him clearly of what was going on. So the act of a simple obedience to an insignificant thing look how many already are blessed. So what you think is insignificant? What you think mopping the floors or sweeping or taking out the trash or doing a Sunday school or doing VBS or doing whatever, whatever you think is insignificant, god has big plans for that. God uses that for his glory, no matter how insignificant it may seem.
[00:17:19] It says in verse four now, when he had left speaking, he said unto Simon, here’s another command launch out into the deep and let down your nets for drought.
[00:17:36] Now here’s Peter again. Okay. This dude needs to get a life, this guy. This is our terms today, right? What in the world is he thinking?
[00:17:46] He’s a carpenter. First he comes and takes and commandeers my boat that I didn’t ask for. I faithfully stood there and held it in place while he could preach. I’m ready to go home. Mama’s got lunch on the table.
[00:18:02] I got things to do today. And now you’re saying, Launch out into the deep? Excuse me if I’m wrong, Lord, but aren’t you a carpenter? I’m the fisherman. Haven’t I been fishing all night?
[00:18:18] And everybody knows that if you fish at night and y’all don’t please don’t think I’m being sacrilegious. I’m trying to put it on our terms today. You fish all night long here in the Sea of Galilee, and that’s when you catch fish, not during the heat of the day. So we know it was probably mid morning when he first asked for the boat and the crowd was coming because they were cleaning their nets. Now it’s probably lunchtime.
[00:18:44] It’s high noon. It’s hot outside. There’s no fish going to be out there. But Jesus says, Launch them into the deep. And you fishermen.
[00:18:53] Jesus just taught you a lesson on how to fish. The hotter it gets, the deeper the fish go. You’re welcome. But Jesus taught that without a depth finder, without sonar, jesus knew exactly where the fish were at. He created them, remember?
[00:19:12] And he knew in the heat of the day is cooler water cooler, thermals at the bottom than there is on top. And that’s where the fish want to go naturally. So Jesus says, Launch out into the deep and cast your net. Peter could have questioned him here about everything. And don’t I know.
[00:19:31] And you know what? Just a little while ago, peter and his men were disgusted over a night of not catching anything. They were discouraged and down and out. They just wanted to get these nets clean and go home, go take a nap, get something for my belly. Because they probably didn’t have McDonald’s down the road to catch something on the way home.
[00:19:58] Get something in my belly and take a nap. Maybe tomorrow night will be better, guys. I can just hear him talking. Maybe tomorrow night will be better. That was a few minutes ago, but now Jesus is telling them, don’t quit.
[00:20:15] Don’t stop. I know you’ve had a difficult time. I know you’re struggling. I know it doesn’t seem to make sense. Don’t quit.
[00:20:28] Listen to me. Trust me. Obey me and see that I am good. He’s telling Peter, don’t quit. Don’t get weary and well doing.
[00:20:42] Obey here. And so Peter goes on and okay. All right. Lord, he says, launch into the deep and let down your nets for the drone. Rather than say, who is he to tell me how to fish?
[00:21:00] He sort of argues with him, just for a minute. And you can see maybe some of Simon Peter’s frustration or I just don’t understand this kind of thing. And Simon answered and said unto him, master, we have toiled all night and have taken nothing. The fish ain’t biting. Lord.
[00:21:23] We looked at the lunar calendar and who’s that guy on Fox News that used to be the best time to fish, the best feeding time? We looked at all that. It ain’t feeding time for the fish. Lord, we’ve been fishing all night and haven’t caught anything.
[00:21:41] You want me to do that? I’m tired. It’s been a crazy night. It hasn’t been very successful. We’ve tried that already.
[00:21:55] Did I say we’re tired?
[00:21:59] My wife’s expecting me at home. Besides, we just finished our cleaning our nets and now you want us to get them all dirty again? You see the excuses that could have popped up. And by the way, these are excuses I hear all the time around here or at home. Maybe there are excuses.
[00:22:21] You tell the Lord you come up with every reason under the sun why you can’t do something he’s calling you to do. We’re good at excuses, right? Of coming up with reasons why I just can’t. Our number one is I just don’t have time. I’ll move on.
[00:22:43] I know I’ve gone to medlin. Now, Peter could have said all that, but he, you know, we’ve taken nothing, we’ve toiled all night and caught nothing. He says, nevertheless, at Thy word, I will let down the nets. Trust and obey. Even when it don’t make sense, even when it doesn’t seem like things are going like you should, even when you don’t understand, even when the preacher’s giving you fits.
[00:23:16] Trust and obey, for there’s no other way to be happy in Jesus. Peter could have come up with every excuse in the book as to why not to do what Jesus said. But he said, nevertheless, I’ll obey you, even when it didn’t make sense. Even though I’m tired, even though my wife’s expecting me home, I have other things to do. Peter put all of his desires, all his reasoning, all his traditions, all that he thought he knew and said, Lord, I trust you.
[00:23:52] That’s tough for us, isn’t it? Everything I know. I mean, after all, I’m the fisherman. You’ve given me that talent, Lord, and I’ve done the best I can with it. And now you want Me just to go against everything I’ve ever been taught or know or think.
[00:24:11] I believe, nevertheless, at Thy word, I’ll let down the net, and they beckoned. Let’s see. And when they had done this, they enclosed a great multitude of fish and their nets break. When they obeyed the word of the Lord, god bless them. They found blessing in obedience.
[00:24:36] Even if it doesn’t make sense, even if it seems like it’s just nobody cares. What’s the big deal here? See, I believe just in what you see here that Peter started out obeying a very small, meaningful task to bring blessing to others. And because he obeyed that, now Jesus give him another command that’s even a little more, greater, that cost a little bit more, and Peter obeys. And the greater blessing come.
[00:25:12] That’d be a lesson to us. God doesn’t start off with you right there with the big blessings. He wants to see if you’re going to be faithful in the little things. First. Can I trust you with the little things that I tell you to do?
[00:25:29] If you’re obedient, if you’re faithful in that, then I’ll give you bigger things which come, bigger blessings. And I’m not prosperity preaching this morning here. Blessings a lot of time to me, more just come with the peace that I have, the peace that passes all understanding that I have, the joy of the salvation that I enjoy, that God shows me just in little obedience, things of obedience.
[00:26:02] He blessed them because of Peter’s obedience. Yet a little while ago, they were ready to quit. I’m saying the title of this message is don’t give up. Don’t give up. So many times I see people who are right on the brick of God wanting to do something great in their life.
[00:26:22] And do great things in the church, in our lives. And we get so frustrated, all the problems and all the things. And Satan is beating on us from every side. And you say, I quit. I’m thrown in the towel.
[00:26:37] I can’t do this anymore. This is who he’s talking about. He says, Be not weary and well doing. I know Satan’s going to attack you. I know times are going to be difficult, but just trust me.
[00:26:52] Just obey me, even when it doesn’t make sense. And they beckoned unto their partners which were in the other ships, that they should come and help them. And they came and filled both ships so that they began to sink. What a blessing. A double blessing.
[00:27:08] He didn’t just fill up one boat, he filled up two boats. They had to call the others in for the blessing. You see how just an act of obedience on Peter’s part to say, lord, nevertheless, I’ll do what you say. Not only blessed Peter, but blessed all them around Him, exceedingly abundantly above all that they could ask or think just by a simple act of obedience. And that obedience could be anything.
[00:27:40] Don’t go here, don’t look at this, don’t follow that. Don’t say this, don’t do that. Be kind, love, be patient, be long suffering. I’m not talking about act of obedience where God calls you to the mission field somewhere in South Africa. I’m talking about just everyday obedience.
[00:28:04] Just following Him and trusting Him, letting your light shine for Him in the world. What a blessing this was for the others around Peter because he was obedient. It was a life changing it turned out to be a life changing experience for Peter when he realized and he saw this as we read on down, he realized what was going on. And by the way, from what we understand, there’s another account in Matthew Five sort of like this. Some think that Jesus called Peter or sort of made himself known to Peter earlier this and Peter’s just like, yeah, that’s good.
[00:28:45] I’ll follow you. You’re a pretty good teacher. I got to go fishing because that’s what I do. And so maybe this was the second time that Jesus came to Peter. I don’t know for sure.
[00:28:56] Some believe that because of the little difference of the story in Matthew as Matthew records it. Maybe it was, maybe it wasn’t. But this time Peter got it. This time, after the multitude of fish, peter jumps out of the boat and comes and falls at the feet of Jesus and says, I am a sinful man. Forgive me.
[00:29:20] Now I’m paraphrasing. Peter understood so much after he’d obeyed and the blessings of God was poured out on him. He saw that. So notice that he first obeyed with a very small matter. Take me out a little further in the boat.
[00:29:45] Wonder if Jesus said, would you take me out just a little further so I can speak you’d say, lord, I want to, but I got this to do. My car’s broke. I’m busy.
[00:30:05] I’ve just had a long day at work. Lord, I’d really just like to go home and rest.
[00:30:12] Y’all with me this morning, see how we come up with these excuses. Lord, I know it’s Wednesday night. Bible study. I know. Vacation bible school sunday, monday, tuesday and wednesday.
[00:30:27] Do you not know I have a life too? But I tell you what, if one child gets saved, it’s worth 30 days of vacation Bible school. What a blessing that a child will live eternity in heaven with our Savior. It’s worth it all if we trust and obey. Stop making excuses and just do what he says, no matter how small or great the task.
[00:30:59] Trust Him. You don’t know what he has in store for you. You don’t know the blessings that would come.
[00:31:09] See, if Peter hadn’t said, okay, imagine what would happen. Peter said, you know what, Lord? That’s good. Nathaniel down here. He’s got a boat.
[00:31:20] Would you go ask him?
[00:31:24] He’ll be glad to do it for you. Took care of that one. Don’t have to do that.
[00:31:33] Nathaniel would have got a great blessing, but Peter would have missed out.
[00:31:41] Let’s stop making excuses when God asks us to do things, and let’s just do even when it’s difficult, let me move on. Peter didn’t seem to get much out of it the first one. Wow, I get to stand here and listen to him speak. Now, that would have been awesome to us. I know, but you think of that time.
[00:32:04] It’s just another preacher. It’s just another preacher standing up there wanting to preach all the time and expect us to sit and listen for him for 30 or 40 minutes. It didn’t appear that Peter was getting much out of what was going on as he stood there and hold the boat in place. But Peter was getting the greatest blessing. The Holy Spirit was dealing with him, working with him, revealing to him exactly who Jesus was.
[00:32:35] Because later he confessed. Thou art the Christ, the son of the living God. And Jesus said, Flesh and blown has not revealed that to you, but my Father in heaven. I believe it began right here. As Peter held the rope to the boat and listened.
[00:32:53] Wow, this guy speaks with such authority. This guy is something different than I’ve ever heard. What I’m hearing from his is something special. And as Peter obeyed, Peter was blessed. No matter how menial the task and everyone could see, everyone else was blessed.
[00:33:16] So I want you to understand something in that there too. Sometimes it may not seem like you’re getting a blessing at all, but what you’re going through and in your obedience, a lot of times others are getting a blessing. You say, well, that ain’t very fair. Well, I’d say, that ain’t the Christian life.
[00:33:39] See, we’re to consider one another to. Love one another, to put ourselves second to others. You say, I don’t know about that, brother. That’s a hard one. Day.
[00:33:50] I understand. Right. Today I’m number one. Oh, Jesus taught differently. Jesus says, I’ll give myself all of myself for you.
[00:34:03] I made myself a little lower than the angels to redeem you, to save you from sin, to buy you, to put you back into the right fellowship with God the Father. He sacrificed it all for a blessing for us. That’s what Christ wants us to do. Think of others more than ourselves, to consider others. And if God is trying to bless others, let me be that vessel through which he blesses them.
[00:34:39] Peter may not have seemed like much, but the crowd got a big blessing the second time Jesus asked Peter to obey. He could have made a good case as to why that wouldn’t work. After all, Peter was a fisherman, knew all about fishing. Yet Peter obeyed Jesus and received exceedingly abundantly above all that we ask or think.
[00:35:07] See, when we’re obedient to the Lord, we never are disappointed, no matter how great or small the task.
[00:35:18] And in obeying the Lord, a lot of times I find myself, and maybe you do too lord will say something to me, and I’m like, okay, Lord. It’s just not how we do it today, lord, could we do it? Maybe go this route instead? Because that’s kind of old fashioned, that kind of don’t make sense. And that sound like a good plan, Lord, but since I’m an expert in this area, I’ll help you with it, okay?
[00:35:49] Anybody ever been there? Oh, no, I’d never do that. I bet you have. You just don’t realize it. Because when Lord asks you to do something and you feel a calling to Lord to lead you and do something, the first thing we do is come up with every excuse in the world why we can’t or why it won’t work or why we shouldn’t.
[00:36:08] And we miss out on that blessing. If we trust and obey, we’ll be happy in Jesus. We receive the blessings that he has for us. It may not come instantly like it did with Peter here. It may come years down the road, those who are parents and you raise your children in the nurture and admonition of the Lord.
[00:36:30] When they become teenagers, you may think, wow, I have messed up. There is no way. But I promise you, they come back around. Because the Bible promises that raise them up when they’re a child and when they were old, they will not depart from it. It comes back full circle.
[00:36:51] God’s word still is true. May not happen just like that. And it may take what it take, Tiffany, 25 years for you to get your brain back? No, I didn’t say that out loud.
[00:37:05] But me and her and still do today. We do this sometimes because she’s just like her daddy.
[00:37:15] But I’m proud of what they do. I’m proud of who my children are. I did the best I could to teach them about the Lord and serving the Lord and loving the Lord. And now I see them serving the Lord 25, 30, 40 years later. Not quite 40 yet, is it?
[00:37:35] Not yet, but sometimes it takes a while to see that blessing. So don’t think it just, you’re going to get two boats of fishes today because you obeyed five minutes ago. That’s patience, people, in which we don’t have anymore. But the blessing will come. He’s promised that, and he will fulfill that if we trust and obey.
[00:38:00] One Samuel 1522 says, behold, obey is better than sacrifice. This is all the way back in the New Testament when the sacrifice was the main thing and you couldn’t oh, you had to do the sacrifice. You had to keep the law. Samuel says God wants obedience more than he wants sacrifice. He don’t want you just sacrifice your time and just say, okay, Lord, I gave you 45 minutes this week.
[00:38:31] He wants an obedient heart, a heart that’s obedient to whatever he says, whether it’s ten minutes or 10 hours, be obedient. And I’m using time because that’s the most precious to us today. That’s what we have the least of, it seems anymore, but you could put anything in there. What does he want from you? What is he asking you for?
[00:38:55] And what are you denying Him of? Even David said it in Psalm 51, verse 17. The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit and a broken and contrite heart. O God, thou shalt not despise. He didn’t want a sacrifice.
[00:39:16] He wanted a heart after God, a heart that wanted to serve Him, a heart that wanted to obey Him, a heart that wanted to trust Him. That’s what God wants. That’s what he truly wants from each and every one of us. Trust and obey, no matter how insignificant. Trust and obey, even when it doesn’t make sense, because the promise is there.
[00:39:42] Don’t be weary and well doing. What is the well doing? Trusting and obeying him. For in due season you’ll reap if you faint. Not in due season, the blessing will come.
[00:39:55] He promises that if we trust Him and obey Him.
[00:40:02] I hope that’s been helpful for you today, and I’m going to let you out five minutes early. Don’t you just love your preacher today? I know it’s a long day and I actually meant to quit ten minutes ago, be honest with you, because I know it’s a big day. I know we’re getting ready for vacation, bible school and all that hard work and a long week and all that stuff, so I’m going to try to shut up real quick and let you have a few minutes early.
[00:40:30] But leaders, as you go through this week, you’re going to have some times with the children that you’re like. This don’t make sense. I got other things I could be doing. But you’re obeying the Lord and you’re sharing the gospel with these boys and girls.
[00:40:48] If one of them comes up and hugs your neck, says, thank you for teaching me about Jesus, that puts me on cloud nine. I don’t know about you. That’s what it’s all about, the one to understand that Jesus loves Him and died for Him on the cross. There is no greater blessing than that. So hang in there this week like a hair in a biscuit.
[00:41:12] Don’t be weary and well doing. Don’t be giving up and thrown in the towel when it gets tough and it doesn’t make sense. Hang in there. God’s got you. God will bless you for your obedience.
[00:41:27] God. We thank you for your word. We thank you for the comfort we find in Your Word, the assurance we find in Your Word. Lord, we just praise you for Your goodness to us, for Your blessings to us, Lord, as we just try to follow you and serve you, obey You, Lord, and things do seem difficult. Satan does try to destroy satan does try to just get at us at our weakest moments, Lord, which we pray that you have overcome the world.
[00:41:58] In this world we will have trials and tribulations, but you have overcome the world, Father. We’re just going to rest in our Savior, Jesus Christ. We’re going to just trust Him, what he tells us to do, Lord, that we bring honor and glory and praise to Your name. And in doing that, you bless Your children. Father.
[00:42:20] We just thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you for your love. We thank you for the workers we have.
[00:42:26] We thank you for those in the church that are committed week after week, time after time, to serve you no matter what. We thank you for them. We thank you for Your blessings now this day. Lead and guide us in our Vacation Bible School. Lead and guide us as we go forward as a church to seek Your will to reach this community with the Gospel of Jesus Christ.
[00:42:53] Help us not to be weary and well doing. Help us always to have our eyes focused on you. In Jesus’name I pray. Amen.