Living for Jesus
Christ shall have dominion
Praise and Worship Songs
Come, now is the time to worship
Ten thousand Reasons
O God, You are my God
Speaker held up a lamp.
Q. What is a lamp created for? What is it's purpose?
A. To give light.
Tell you what....you sing.. and that will turn on the light
Oh.. that didn't work
Q. Why not?
A. It's needs to be plugged in. Because it needs electricity.
Plugged it in. It worked.
Q. What happens if we unplug it? It should stay working right, it should be able to remember that right?
A. Needs to stay plugged in to continue working.
It can work as other things, a paper weight, abstract art, etc.. but is that the job it is meant to do? No.
To do the job it was meant to do it needs to stay PLUGGED IN.
Q. So why did God make us?
A. To glorify him, to show others who he is.
If we don't stay plugged in or hooked into God do you think we can do that?
The best way to do the job that God would have us do is to stay connected to him through his bible. EVEN IF we are really good at all kinds of other things, the best way we can our job that God created us for is to read the bible, go to church, and learn more about who God is. Then we can do our job as we stay hooked on him.
18 While walking by the Sea of Galilee, he saw two brothers, Simon (who is called Peter) and Andrew his brother, casting a net into the sea, for they were fishermen. 19 And he said to them, “Follow me, and I will make you fishers of men.” 20 Immediately they left their nets and followed him. 21 And going on from there he saw two other brothers, James the son of Zebedee and John his brother, in the boat with Zebedee their father, mending their nets, and he called them. 22 Immediately they left the boat and their father and followed him.
Parents like to keep their children busy. The way pastor's mom kept them busy as children was to send them fishing. Sending them off with homemade fishing poles.
Today in the bible we have a fish story.
In this story Jesus is walking on the beach with the intent to find followers.
Just regular people doing their job. Fishing and repairing nets.
The normal course of events was for students to look for their teacher. But in this case the teacher approached his students. He came to them and called them to "follow him".
Jesus never intended for ministry to be a solo affair. He continues to call them today.
Calling, training, equipping his followers to find more followers.
He hooked them on him.
Immediately they left their nets, immediately they left their father. No hesitation, they simply left and followed.
Jesus immediately had their attention.
So they went following and listening and learning so they could be acting. Successfully following Jesus and doing what they were called to.
They let Jesus use them to find others. Despite their failings, they lived for who Jesus called them to be.