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Bonus: We Tell Something Good · Finding God at Work

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(Transcribed by TurboScribe.ai. Go Unlimited to remove this message.) Hi, I'm Chris.
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This is Finding God at Work.
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As a cherry on top to our Gentle
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Witnesses series, I wanted to share this sermon.
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I got to preach it back on Super
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Bowl Sunday, so just a few weeks ago,
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and I thought thematically it fit right in
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with our series, so I wanted to just
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include it here for you.
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It's a little bit longer, about half an
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hour, so longer than our normal episodes, but
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thought you might enjoy it.
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So, this sermon was originally preached at City
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of Light Church on February 9, 2025.
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You can find out more at cityoflightarora.org.
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So six years ago, in February of 2019,
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was also the month of my 27th birthday.
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And my 27th birthday was the worst day
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of my life.
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I had recently started a job that I
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was really excited about with a wonderful college
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ministry at the University of Illinois at Chicago.
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Still there, it's called Chicago Campus Initiative, it's
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connected with our diocese.
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And I had anticipated that the job would
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be a great next step towards pastoral ministry.
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My job was to create spaces for healthy,
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spiritual conversations with students from all different backgrounds.
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And so I was leading something called the
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Alpha Course, which is like kind of an
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introduction with room to ask questions about faith.
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I was leading Bible studies, talking with students
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one-on-one in the cafeteria and in
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other places.
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And I had gone into this job expecting
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that this job would be something I was
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good at, that I would be competent at
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it, that things would go well, and that
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it would launch me into my next season
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of ministry smoothly.
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But as I began the job, I was
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overwhelmed.
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I felt like I didn't know what I
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was doing.
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My boss, for various reasons, was not as
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available as he had planned to be to
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coach me and guide me into the job.
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So I kind of felt like I was
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suddenly in the deep end of the pool.
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I was floundering physically.
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I had a 90-minute commute each way
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because Katie and I were still in the
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suburbs, and I had not anticipated how taxing
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that would be.
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I realized that talking with college students for
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eight hours a day, five days a week
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is also emotionally taxing.
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And I also was not seeing a lot
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of fruit.
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Not very many people were coming to this
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Alpha course.
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Not very many students were coming to the
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Bible studies.
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And on my birthday, it was just all
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hitting me.
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And I just felt like, what is my
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life?
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I was trudging through the snow on a
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dark Chicago winter and just feeling like, where
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is my life going?
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I don't know.
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Katie and I were also going through a
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uniquely painful time in our personal lives, and
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I was just kind of discerning and realizing
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slowly as each day went on, like, it
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is not going to make sense for me
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to go into pastoral ministry anytime soon.
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And so I just felt like I was
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adrift.
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I was overwhelmed by the challenges of life
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and didn't know where I was going.
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And I don't know if you've ever felt
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that way about a challenge in your life.
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Maybe at work, you feel like if you
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could just crack the code on this one
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problem, then you'd be all right.
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But you can't crack the code.
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Or maybe at home, you love your roommate,
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you love your spouse or your kids.
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But then you find yourself somehow saying something
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untrue or unkind.
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And then it's just beyond you to repair
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the damage.
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Maybe it's with your mental health.
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I suffer from seasonal depression.
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So often this time of year, I feel
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like I have to shove like a pile
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of bricks off my chest just to get
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out of bed in the morning.
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Or maybe it's in your spiritual life.
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You want to love others the way that
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God has loved you.
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You're deeply committed to the way of Jesus.
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But you find yourself stumbling into the same
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distractions and patterns of sin again and again.
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Well, if you can't connect with any of
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that, if you've never experienced a sense of
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personal inadequacy, if you've felt competent as you've
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met every life challenge again and again and
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again throughout your life, that's awesome.
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But I really worked hard looking at this
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text in Luke chapter 5 for today.
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I just couldn't find any good news for
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you.
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It's just not there.
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And so I'm sorry.
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I'm fresh out of good news if that's
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your situation today.
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But have a hashtag blessed life.
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But for the rest of us, for those
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of us who at least every once in
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a while feel overwhelmed by life's challenges, feel
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inadequate to do what it takes, whatever it
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is.
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There's some really good news in today's passage.
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So let's dig into that.
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So this is Luke chapter 5.
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It's there in your bulletin if you want
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to look at it.
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Just the first 11 verses may be a
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familiar story.
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And if you've been here the past couple
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of weeks in our sermon series, tell me
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something good.
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You may know some of the moments leading
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up to this moment.
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So this is still fairly early in Jesus's
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ministry.
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He's in his home region of Galilee.
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He had recently been baptized in the Jordan
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River by his cousin, John the Baptist, as
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kind of this beautiful launch to his ministry
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with the voice of his father affirming him.
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He had gone into the desert and faced
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off with the devil and overcome that challenge,
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ready spiritually in his soul to now minister
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in a public way.
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He had launched his public ministry in his
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hometown of Nazareth.
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And word was getting out.
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Luke tells us that the news about Jesus
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was spreading throughout the region.
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So as he's going from town to town,
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not just Nazareth, but other places in this
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region of Galilee, he's doing mainly two things.
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He's healing people and he's teaching people.
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So verse 443, right before this passage starts,
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tells us that he's proclaiming the good news
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of the kingdom of God.
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And people are experiencing the good news of
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the kingdom of God as they come to
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him for healing.
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So that brings us up to the beginning
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of today's passage.
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One day, as Jesus was standing by the
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Lake of Gennesaret, the people were crowding around
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him and listening to the word of God.
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So these are some of those crowds.
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They've come to Jesus.
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They're eager to hear this message about the
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kingdom of God, or maybe they're eager to
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receive a healing for themselves or for a
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loved one or for a friend.
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So they're seeking Jesus out.
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They're crowding around him as he's standing by
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this lake called Lake Gennesaret, also known as
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the Sea of Galilee.
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Now, I don't know if you've ever tried
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to manage a crowd in a relatively uncontrolled
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environment, but it can get kind of dicey.
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I've done a lot of student ministry and
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it's just like, oh, what's going on?
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Crowds have this energy.
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They're always kind of moving forward unless there's
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something to stop them.
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So I know if I had been standing
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by a body of water with this crowd
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of people who are very excited, you know,
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with great anticipation, I would have ended up
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having to take a step back and I
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would be ankle deep and then I'd be
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knee deep and then there'd be problems.
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I don't know if that's what happened with
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Jesus.
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All of the gospel witnesses indicate that Jesus
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had no problem handling crowds.
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But for whatever reason, Jesus decides, you know,
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it's going to be good to maybe get
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some distance, get some elevation.
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So he asks Simon, a fisherman, if he
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can get into his boat and then sit
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down and do his teaching there.
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Now, Simon and Jesus had already met.
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One of the healings that Jesus had done
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was of Simon's mother-in-law.
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And so it could be that Simon is
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very grateful to Jesus for that.
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And so he's more than willing for Jesus
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to use his boat.
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It could be that Simon, like the others,
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is captivated by Jesus' teaching, eager to hear
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more about the kingdom of God.
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So he welcomes Jesus to sit down in
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his boat.
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But then what happens next in this story
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is really unusual and really unexpected.
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And it's hard because we're familiar with this
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story, right?
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We just heard it read.
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You might have heard it many times before
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if you've been around church circles for a
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while.
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But if you can, just imagine with me
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that you've never heard this story before.
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What would you expect to happen based on
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what we've seen so far in this story?
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Jesus has been going around from village to
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village teaching and healing, proclaiming the good news
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of the kingdom of God, laying hands on
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people, delivering them from demonic oppression.
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So now he's in this moment where he's
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doing some teaching.
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He sits down in the boat, he does
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his teaching.
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He wraps up his teaching, he's done.
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What would we expect to happen next?
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He would get off of the boat, go
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on shore and do some healing, right?
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That's the expected thing.
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But that's not what happens.
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There's this very unusual request that Jesus makes.
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Now, before we get to the request, I
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think it's important to note that Jesus was
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sitting down in the boat.
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You notice how Luke mentioned that?
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And that's not just like a random detail.
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Luke is giving us a clue about something,
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because in that time, when rabbis did their
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synagogue teaching, they would do it sitting down.
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That was the tradition.
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It was like the seat of teaching was
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a seat of authority speaking from the word
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of God.
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And so when it says that the people
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are crowding around and listening to the word
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of God, and then Luke says Jesus sat
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down in the boat, he's saying, this is
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a rabbi moment.
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Jesus is teaching something really significant here.
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It's almost like Luke is saying, pay attention
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to what happens next.
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The lesson is about to begin.
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But it's really interesting.
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Luke doesn't give us any details about what
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Jesus actually said, which means that the lesson
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is what Jesus does.
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The lesson is this unexpected thing that Jesus
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is about to do.
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So we're supposed to pay attention.
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We're supposed to see rabbi Jesus teaching through
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action in the next few moments.
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So what is this unusual request?
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He says to Simon, put out into deep
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water and let down the nets for a
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catch.
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Now, this is unusual and unexpected for a
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couple of reasons.
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One is that Jesus is a rabbi, not
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a fisherman.
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So this is almost like if John Wiest,
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who's a home renovator, if he was like
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redoing the tile in a bathroom somewhere and
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Father Trevor showed up on the work site
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and was like, hey, I see what you're
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doing with the grout there, but could you
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consider doing it like this instead?
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Or like if Deacon Casey visited the Cancer
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Infusions Center where Grace Wahlbaum works as a
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nurse.
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And he was like, Grace, I know you
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already assessed the patient in room number four,
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but I feel like you missed something.
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Could you go assess them again?
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He's like, seriously?
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Like, you know, what does Jesus know about
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fishing?
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The second reason that it's unexpected and unanticipated
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is that Simon knows it's not going to
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work.
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Simon is a fisherman.
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Simon knows how fishing works.
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He's been working all night.
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He has nothing to show for his efforts.
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The fish are just not coming in today,
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right?
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It's over, it's done.
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Nothing is going to happen.
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And so what's intriguing to me is that
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despite it being so unusual and unexpected, Simon
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still does what Jesus says.
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And at cost to himself and his companions,
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right?
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Like they've already been cleaning the nets we
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see in verse two.
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They were ready to go home.
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They were no doubt exhausted.
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You know, this is like their version of
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the 90 minute commute to downtown Chicago, right?
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They're ready to be done for the day
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or for the night.
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But Jesus makes this request.
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This is almost like that moment when a
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restaurant is open till 9 p.m. and
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the line cook has already cleaned up the
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kitchen and is about to hang up their
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apron.
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And then a customer comes in and orders
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a cheeseburger at 8.59. It's like, okay,
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sure.
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But Simon clearly, he has this honor for
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Jesus, right?
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Maybe he's grateful again for the healing of
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his mother-in-law.
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Maybe he's been captivated by the teaching.
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He clearly respects Jesus.
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And so we seem to see that he
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decides to respectfully humor Jesus and honor his
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request, even though he knows it's not going
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to work.
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So he does what Jesus says.
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He says, because you say so, I will
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let down the nets.
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Because you say so, I will let down
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the nets.
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He and his companions go out into the
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deep water.
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They put down the nets.
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And then the miracle happens.
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It's not just one or two fish, like
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a compensation prize for a wasted night's effort.
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It's not just like a really good haul.
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It's a record catch.
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There's so many fish that the nets start
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to break.
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The fish are piling in.
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They have to signal they're partners in the
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other boats, James and John.
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So they come and they've got two boats
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together.
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And then they're somehow hauling the fish into
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the boats.
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And then the boats start to sink.
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Like, can you imagine how many fish we
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were talking about?
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To make boats sink, boats that are designed
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to float.
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So then they're trying to get the boats
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back to shore before they sink.
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And it's one for the record books.
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It's more fish than they've ever caught in
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their entire lives.
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It's amazing.
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It's a miracle.
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And how does Simon respond?
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He responds to Jesus, go away from me,
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Lord.
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I am a sinful man.
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Simon's response to this miracle is to be
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completely overwhelmed by a sense of his own
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personal inadequacy.
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He says, I am not smart enough.
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I am not strong enough.
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I am not good enough for this.
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Whatever this is, I can't hack it.
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Go away from me.
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Now, in our kind of cultural setting, this
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can strike us as kind of strange religious
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language, right?
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It's hard to imagine like, let's say you
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have your best day at work ever, and
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then your response to your boss or to
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whoever helped you with it is, go away
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from me, I'm a sinner.
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It's just like, well, that's not the language
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we use.
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That's kind of weird language.
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And I think some of that is that
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in our increasingly post-Christian cultural moment in
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the West, including in the United States, sometimes
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we're uncomfortable with the language of holiness and
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unholyness, the language of righteousness and sin.
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Some of that discomfort is really understandable because
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we may know historically or in our own
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experience even, sometimes that language is used abusively.
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Sometimes it's used to manipulate or to control.
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Sometimes people are taught to hate themselves with
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that language.
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And that does incredible damage to the human
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soul.
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But the other extreme where we more often
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find ourselves is we just don't have the
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language.
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We don't have words to name ideas like
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holiness and unholyness, like righteousness and sin.
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And so we're adrift in these experiences of
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personal inadequacy and we don't know how to
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name it.
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We don't know how to give voice to
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this idea that some of the stuff in
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our life that's deeply problematic is in fact
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our responsibility.
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We don't know how to give voice to
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the idea that we really do need some
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outside help because we can't hack it.
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And we have this culture where we're trying
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to always positively reinforce each other saying like,
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you are strong, you are good, you are
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smart.
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And of course that desire to encourage is
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beautiful.
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And yet it often leaves us empty when
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we know deep down that we're not smart
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enough, we're strong enough, we're good enough for
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the challenges that we're facing.
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Simon has an advantage over us in this
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regard that in his cultural and religious context,
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as problematic and flawed as that was, his
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culture was problematic, our culture is problematic, but
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in that culture he was given language to
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name what he was experiencing.
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He was given words to say, I am
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a sinful man.
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I know that I don't have what it
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takes.
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I know that something's happening here that I
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am inadequate for.
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As a devout Jew, he would have understood
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the idea that holiness is the presence of
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God and that it's dramatically different from what
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human beings often bring to the table.
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That holiness cannot be in communion with sin
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or with unholyness because it's so good.
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And Simon's also realizing something about Jesus in
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this moment.
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Because Simon already knew that Jesus was a
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healer, Simon already knew that Jesus was a
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teacher, he's already grateful to Jesus, he already
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wanted to honor Jesus, he already was obeying
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Jesus.
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But in this moment, Simon recognizes that Jesus
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is holy.
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That whatever's happening here, this is the presence
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of God.
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And that just reinforces his sense that this
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is not for me.
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I can't be here, go away.
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And then what I think we could call
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the second miracle in this story happens.
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We've already had a literal miracle, right?
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A miraculous swamping of boat sinking fish.
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But now we have the real heart of
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the passage.
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This is a quieter moment.
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It's a more intimate moment.
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It's not as visually dramatic.
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Some of the crowds were probably still there
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to see the thing that happened with the
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fish and they would have gone home and
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told that story.
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They probably missed this moment.
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Because it's just between Jesus and Simon.
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This is the real miracle.
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This is the real presence of God breaking
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in in the story is how Jesus responds
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to Simon in his moment of deep personal
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inadequacy.
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He says, don't be afraid.
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From now on, you will fish for people.
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Jesus is tenderly catching Simon right where he
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is.
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Turns out Jesus does know a thing or
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two about fishing.
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He's meeting Simon right where he's at.
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He's intuiting that Simon is afraid, that Simon
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is overwhelmed, that Simon feels inadequate.
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And so he's telling him, don't be afraid.
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Now that phrase, don't be afraid, as you
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know, it pops up all throughout the Bible.
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It was in our Gideon reading today, right?
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Gideon similarly has a realization that holiness just
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showed up and he's like, ah!
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What do I do?
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I just saw the angel of the Lord
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of hosts.
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And again, God does them, don't be afraid.
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This is a constant theme of the Bible,
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don't be afraid, don't be afraid.
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And it can be hard to hear that
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message because like, well, is it a literal
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command to not experience the emotion of fear?
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Because that would be hard to obey, right?
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Like, fear is a physiological response to scary
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situations that just happens for us as human
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beings.
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It's not like something we're choosing to do.
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So that can't be what Jesus means.
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That would be impossible to obey.
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We even know later, Jesus himself was sometimes
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overwhelmed with anxiety to the point of death
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right before his crucifixion.
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So he experienced those physiological things.
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I think what Jesus is saying is, you
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don't need to be afraid.
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This situation is scary, that's true.
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You're feeling inadequate, that's true too.
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But you don't need to be afraid because
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I'm here.
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I'm with you, I'm for you, I've got
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you, I've caught you.
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That's what Jesus is saying to Simon.
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And you notice in this verse, it keeps
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referring to him as Simon, but it's actually
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at this moment when he says, go away
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from me, I'm a sinful man, that it
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first calls him Peter, calls him Simon Peter.
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First time in the Gospel of Luke, this
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exact moment.
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We later learn that that's actually the name
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that Jesus gives to Simon.
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Jesus is catching Simon, and he's saying there's
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a new reality coming for you.
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But I've got you right where you are.
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You don't need to be afraid.
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And this is different than how we often
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reassure each other, right?
19:15
Again, in our culture, we're so positive that
19:18
we often, we wanna say to each other
19:20
like, oh, no, no, no, you're not a
19:22
sinful man.
19:23
You are so smart enough, you are strong
19:25
enough, you are good enough.
19:26
That's how we tend to reassure each other.
19:28
And there are moments where that may be
19:29
appropriate, but that tends to minimize or to
19:34
discount the inadequacy that we can deeply feel
19:36
sometimes.
19:38
And Jesus doesn't do that.
19:40
Jesus doesn't minimize Simon's sense of inadequacy.
19:44
He doesn't discount it.
19:46
He doesn't contradict it.
19:48
But he tenderly catches Simon in it.
19:53
That's what Jesus does for us.
19:56
Jesus tenderly catches us in all of our
20:00
inadequacy and says, you don't need to be
20:03
afraid.
20:05
I'm with you, I'm for you.
20:08
I've got you, I've caught you.
20:14
And for some of you today, that's where
20:16
you need to rest.
20:17
That's the whole sermon, right?
20:19
Ignore the rest of everything I say, right?
20:20
You just need to pause there.
20:23
Some of you are feeling overwhelmed.
20:26
Has anybody felt overwhelmed in the past few
20:28
weeks by one thing or another?
20:30
Maybe in our national life, maybe in your
20:32
personal life.
20:35
And you just need to hear Jesus say
20:37
to you, you don't need to be afraid.
20:38
I am right here with you.
20:43
But some of us might be in a
20:44
different place.
20:45
And there is that second half of what
20:47
Jesus says, right?
20:50
Jesus says, don't be afraid.
20:52
From now on, you will fish for people.
20:56
So what does it mean to fish for
20:57
people?
20:58
And if you've spent some time in certain
21:00
Christian subcultures, you might be having a little
21:02
moment of anxiety right now, right?
21:04
You're like, oh, we're gonna talk about fishing
21:05
for people now.
21:06
Or somehow about like talking to people or
21:08
like gathering people in and it's like, oh
21:10
man, there are some ways where that's practiced
21:13
where it can feel like salesy or pushy
21:15
or even manipulative or like we're somehow not
21:17
honoring other people's sense of agency or their
21:19
convictions.
21:20
And it can just feel fishy.
21:27
Okay, now granted, sometimes it is fishy, right?
21:30
Sometimes there are ways of trying to fulfill
21:32
this maybe with good intentions that are just
21:34
bad.
21:35
They don't make social sense.
21:36
They're not honoring to other people.
21:39
Sometimes they're ham-fisted intellectually.
21:43
That's all true.
21:46
But let's not let whatever baggage we might
21:50
carry from our particular Christian subculture keep us
21:53
from hearing what Jesus is saying in this
21:55
passage, right?
21:57
We don't wanna put our particular assumptions on
22:01
this passage.
22:02
We wanna meet Jesus where he's at and
22:05
hear what he's saying when he says, from
22:06
now on, you will fish for people.
22:12
Because what Jesus is inviting us into must
22:14
be beautiful like he is beautiful.
22:17
It must be good like he is good.
22:20
It must be true like he is true.
22:23
It's not something that's gonna manipulate people or
22:25
hurt people if we do it in his
22:27
spirit and his way.
22:30
And it's actually really funny.
22:32
So this is a New Testament Greek nerd
22:33
moment.
22:35
And the gospel of Mark is the first
22:37
time that this is written down.
22:37
Mark beat out the other gospel writers.
22:39
He wanted to get it done.
22:40
He wrote it fast, first on the record.
22:44
And in his passage, when Jesus says this
22:47
phrase, it literally translates as fish for people.
22:50
Like it's clearly like the fishing metaphor is
22:52
what's on the table.
22:53
But then when Luke writes this down, Luke
22:55
is like a little bit more like literary
22:56
than Mark is.
22:57
He's more of a craftsman with his words.
22:59
And this phrase when Jesus says, don't be
23:03
afraid, from now on you will fish for
23:05
people.
23:06
Apparently, my Greek isn't excellent, but from the
23:09
commentaries I read, it would be more literally
23:12
or accurately translated, from now on you will
23:15
catch people alive.
23:17
From now on you will catch people alive.
23:20
It's almost like Luke is like imagining the
23:23
ways that this metaphor could go bad.
23:25
He's like, with fish, you take them out
23:27
of a great environment where they're breathing and
23:29
they're doing fine.
23:30
And then you put them on a boat
23:31
and they're like gasping for air and blah,
23:33
blah, blah.
23:33
He's like, that's not, no, that's not what
23:35
we're doing.
23:36
We're catching people alive.
23:39
And I think that's really reassuring, right?
23:42
That we're catching people alive.
23:43
Take a look if you can at your
23:44
bulletin.
23:45
This beautiful work, The Great Catch by John
23:48
August Swanson.
23:49
Trevor's in Minneapolis right now.
23:50
He said he walked into the retreat center
23:52
and this exact icon is in that retreat
23:55
center, a huge version of it, yeah.
23:57
So I just feel like the Lord's like
23:57
affirming that this is for us to pay
23:59
attention to.
23:59
And you can see a kind of a
24:02
fuller picture on the back of the bulletin
24:04
if you need to zoom out a little
24:05
bit.
24:07
Those fish are doing great, right?
24:11
Those fish are colorful.
24:13
Those fish are alive.
24:14
Those fish are not gasping for breath.
24:17
John August Swanson knows what he's doing, right?
24:19
These fish are being caught alive and experiencing
24:21
something beautiful right here.
24:25
That's what it means to catch people alive.
24:27
It's to gather them in to this way
24:30
of life and this community where they can
24:32
experience life with Jesus.
24:35
Almost every ancient commentator on this passage says
24:38
in as many words, the boat is the
24:41
church.
24:43
The boat is the church.
24:46
Because Simon couldn't do it by himself.
24:47
He needed his companions.
24:48
And then he and his companions couldn't do
24:49
it by themselves.
24:50
They needed to call their other companions.
24:52
They needed two boats.
24:52
They needed a community to come together and
24:56
bring all those fish in.
24:58
And so if you have that sense of
25:01
baggage of like, ah, I feel like I
25:02
can't do this.
25:03
I feel like I can't fish for people,
25:06
whatever that means, you don't have to do
25:08
it by yourself.
25:10
That's not what it's about.
25:11
It's not about you being amazing, masterful, skillful,
25:14
fisher, right?
25:16
Simon was not an amazing, masterful, skillful fisher.
25:19
But he was able to say to Jesus,
25:21
but because you say so, I will let
25:24
down the net.
25:26
So what would that look like for us
25:27
as a community and each of us individually
25:30
and in our families as we have opportunity
25:31
with our friends, with our coworkers, with our
25:33
neighbors, with other family members?
25:35
What would it look like for us to
25:36
say to Jesus, but because you say so,
25:38
I will let down the net?
25:41
Well, remember how Luke queued us in that
25:43
this was like a rabbi moment, right?
25:45
That Jesus was gonna teach by doing in
25:47
this passage.
25:48
So I think we can actually look at
25:49
what Jesus does.
25:50
Three ways that Jesus fishes in this passage
25:55
that we can learn from, that we can
25:56
put into practice ourselves.
25:58
So the first was Jesus started by teaching.
26:00
And we know again from verse 443 that
26:02
he was proclaiming the good news of the
26:04
kingdom of God.
26:06
So whatever fishing for people means, at some
26:09
point it probably includes telling people the good
26:12
news of the kingdom of God.
26:15
Okay, and if you're getting anxious, stay with
26:17
me, okay?
26:18
But it's good to tell people the good
26:21
news.
26:22
It's good to tell people the good news.
26:24
A lot of people have never heard it.
26:27
It is news to a lot of people.
26:29
You would be surprised.
26:31
And what is that news?
26:32
Well, we know from 1 Corinthians 15 when
26:34
the apostle Paul kind of summarizes it for
26:35
us that it's Christ died for our sins
26:37
according to the scripture.
26:39
That he was raised on the third day
26:40
according to the scripture.
26:41
And that he appeared to Simon and then
26:43
to others that these things really happened.
26:45
And then now that everybody who turns to
26:46
him in faith can enter into the kingdom
26:49
of God.
26:50
That's really good news.
26:52
And that's good news to share with other
26:54
people who haven't heard it.
26:56
Okay, so now you might be thinking like,
26:57
okay, but how does that work, right?
26:59
I have all these images of how I
27:00
don't wanna do that, but how do I
27:02
do that?
27:02
How do I actually in a relationally intelligent,
27:06
emotionally intelligent, socially sensible way do this?
27:08
Well, I think Jesus helps us with this
27:10
too actually.
27:11
The second way that Jesus fishes in this
27:13
passage is he unexpectedly invites Simon to go
27:17
into the deep water.
27:19
That was unexpected.
27:20
The expected thing would have been to go
27:21
back to shore, but Jesus has this unexpected
27:24
invitation.
27:25
I think there's lots of moments in our
27:27
lives and conversations with friends, neighbors, coworkers, family
27:30
members where the expected thing might be to
27:33
stay in the shallows.
27:35
But we have the honor as disciples of
27:39
Jesus to invite people to go into the
27:41
deep water.
27:42
If they want to, if they're willing.
27:47
Just a quick example.
27:48
Let's say you're showing up at work on
27:50
Monday morning, catching up with the co-worker,
27:51
ask them how the weekend was and they
27:53
say, oh, I was at a family wedding,
27:55
really happy for my cousin, but it's like
27:57
all I could do to put up with
27:58
my fundamentalist great aunt.
28:00
What's the expected response?
28:03
Laugh, move on to the next topic of
28:05
conversation.
28:07
What would be an unexpected response maybe?
28:11
Wow, that sounds like a really fraught family
28:12
relationship for you.
28:15
Just show that you're willing to listen.
28:18
You're inviting them into the deep water if
28:20
they want to go there.
28:21
And if they don't, that's okay.
28:23
You're not forcing anything.
28:26
But who knows what might happen out there
28:27
in the deep water for them.
28:31
And the third way that Jesus fishes in
28:35
this passage.
28:37
So once he's out there in the deep
28:38
water with Simon and Simon's having this moment
28:41
of being personally overwhelmed with his inadequacy, Jesus
28:45
catches him tenderly.
28:47
He reassures him.
28:49
He says, you don't need to be afraid.
28:52
And so when you're in conversations with people,
28:54
as you're privileged to hear their story about
28:57
what's happening in their life, occasionally somebody might
28:59
begin to articulate a sense of personal inadequacy.
29:02
They might begin to share how they feel
29:04
like they don't have what it takes for
29:05
the challenges in their life.
29:07
How they feel like they're not strong enough
29:08
or smart enough or good enough.
29:11
And in that moment, we have the honor
29:13
of saying to them in the name of
29:15
Jesus, you don't need to be afraid.
29:19
Jesus is right here.
29:21
He's with you.
29:22
He's for you.
29:24
He's got you.
29:25
He's caught you.
29:27
That's what it means to catch other people
29:29
alive.
29:31
It's not to somehow determine something for them
29:33
or control something or force something.
29:35
It's about meeting people where they're at in
29:38
their inadequacy and saying, Jesus is here for
29:40
you if you're willing to receive him.
29:46
So if you're in a place today where
29:50
you just feel that sense of inadequacy about
29:53
anything in your life, where you feel like
29:57
things aren't working the way it is,