Go Deep… | Sunday, June 1, 2025

Amen. Praise the Lord. Thank you, Anthony and the worship team. Good morning. You guys can have a seat for a moment. Don't worry; I'll make you stand in a few minutes, but we have some things to do this morning. It's an important day.

It's the first day of June, which means, if I could for just a moment embarrass my dad, it is my dad's 78th birthday today. I asked him if he felt any older, and he said two years ago he definitely did. Happy birthday, Dad! Happy birthday to Ron! Happy birthday to you! Happy birthday, dear Ron! Happy birthday to you!

Now, Solomon in Ecclesiastes 12 says, "Remember now your Creator in the days of your youth, before the difficult days come and the years draw near when you say, 'I have no pleasure in them.'" Hopefully, you've not reached those days, but because of that verse, we also have something special this morning. We want to acknowledge and recognize our graduates this year. We have five of them here at the church.

Our graduates this year are Alyssa, Mackenzie, Breck, Jason, and Gabe. If you guys are here, we want you to come up. Come on, Gabe; you're one of them. I know I saw Jason earlier. Mackenzie's there, and Jason's back there. Come on up, please! We also want to invite any of our elders and pastors who are here to join us. We want to pray for you.

Goodness gracious, you all look like adults all of a sudden; it's kind of scary! We definitely want to lift up these graduates to the Lord. We are super blessed by them. Some of our youth workers are here as well. This is a big point in your life, and we want to pray for you as you step into a new phase of life.

Our youth pastor, Pastor Garrett, is going to pray for you guys this morning.

Absolutely. Heavenly Father, I thank you so much for Mackenzie, for Breck, for Alyssa, for Gabe, and for Jason. Lord, it has been such a pleasure to have them in our youth ministry here at Cross Connection. Father, I pray that you would bless them as they take this next step in life going out to college.

Lord, we pray for wisdom. We pray for courage for them. Most importantly, Lord, we pray that you would give them an ever-growing love for your Son, Jesus Christ. Father, would you fill them fresh with your Holy Spirit as they journey on to the next stage of their life? We pray for your blessing and protection over them. May they be a light and a witness for your glory. In Jesus' name, Amen.

Can you guys give these guys a hand? Congratulations! What a blessing.

Before we get into the Scriptures this morning, I want to take a moment to express my gratitude to our staff and leadership team here at the church. Obviously, I was gone the last couple of weeks, and it is a blessing to have the team that we have here. I don't have to worry about anything when I go. Pastor Jason and Pastor Garrett gave great messages during my absence, and Pastor Nick and Pastor Mark led the camping trip up to Herky Creek. We had about a hundred people up there, and it was just an awesome time. It is truly a blessing to be a part of this team, so thank you to our staff.

I also want to express my gratitude to the church body here. Thank you for your prayers and your support. Someone asked me as they were coming in today if I had a fun time off the last couple of weeks. It was a lot of work. Part of it was spent in Kentucky at Southern Seminary, where I presented and defended a paper that I've written for the PhD program I am in. I want to thank all of you for your prayers and support as I've been on this path.

First, I completed a Master of Divinity degree from 2018 to 2022. Then, I started a Doctor of Ministry program, which I did for about a year and a half before transitioning into a PhD program. A few people have asked me what I am studying. It may seem like a strange subject for a pastor or theologian at a seminary, but I am studying the ethics of artificial intelligence. As we see this field developing, I believe it is very important for Christian theologians to speak into it. I think it will be beneficial to have people with a biblical worldview engaging in this conversation.

Just to reiterate, thank you for your prayers and your support. Some of this will actually tie into what we are going to talk about today. If you would take out your Bibles, if you don't have a Bible, you can raise your hand. We will also put the passage on the screen.

To the Gospel of Luke, chapter 5. As you're turning there, would you stand with me, and we'll read this passage this morning. Luke 5:1 is where we'll begin.

There, Luke writes, "So it was as the multitude pressed about him, about Jesus, to hear the word of God that Jesus stood by the lake of Gennesaret, which is the Sea of Galilee. He saw two boats standing by the lake, but the fishermen had gone from them and were washing their nets. Then he got into one of the boats, which was Simon's boat, and he asked him to put out a little bit from the land. He sat down and taught the multitudes from the boat.

When he had stopped speaking, he said to Simon, 'Launch out into the deep and let down your net for a catch.' But Simon answered and said to him, 'Master, we've toiled all night and we've caught nothing.' Nevertheless, at your word, I will let down the net. When they had done this, they caught a great number of fish, and their net was breaking. So they signaled to their partners in the other boat to come to help them. They came and filled both boats so that they began to sink.

When Simon Peter saw it, he fell down at Jesus's knees, saying, 'Depart from me, for I am a sinful man, O Lord.' For he and all who were with him were astonished at the catch of fish which they had taken. So also were James and John, the sons of Zebedee, who were partners with Simon. Jesus said to Simon, 'Do not be afraid. From now on, you will catch men.' When they had brought their boats to the land, they forsook all and followed him.

God, I pray as we consider this powerful passage this morning, that you would continue to open our hearts and our minds. Speak to us by your Spirit through your word. Lord, continue the work of transformation that you do by your word and by your Spirit in us, making us more and more into the likeness of your children. Transform us by the renewing of our minds so that we would be able to display in our daily lives what is your good and perfect will. Lord, make us more like you, we pray. We ask this in Jesus's name. And all those that agreed said, Amen.

Amen. You may be seated. This is most certainly a rich and powerful passage of Scripture. It's one of the most significant stories related to Jesus's ministry among his followers.

Disciples. If the Gospels are to be believed—and of course, I think that they are—then what we have here is the calling of four individuals who would become Jesus's apostles. First, they were disciples, followers of Him, and then eventually He will call out or separate twelve individuals who will be those He sends out. They become apostles, sent ones. Here we have four of those individuals: Andrew and his brother Simon, and then James and his brother John, who are called. There is a corresponding passage in the Gospels of Matthew and Mark as well; they align together.

What is given to us in the Gospels of Matthew and Mark is just a brief snippet where He calls them to follow Him and says, "I will make you fishers of men." We have the same sort of thing happening in this passage, but here we are given a little bit more detail. We are provided with the story behind the call. These are four of the individuals who will become Jesus's apostles. Not only that, three of them are considered to be part of the inner circle: Simon, whose name would be changed to Peter, and then James and John. Some people say that Jesus kept Simon, James, and John close because He had to keep an eye on them. That is a good possibility. Regardless, these four are important to the story of Jesus.

The story that we have here in these verses is not complicated. A child can understand it, and children do understand it. We share this same story in our children's ministry, and they completely grasp the basics of what is going on here. You don't need to dig deep to understand the story. You don't need to parse any Greek words to find some deep meaning here. There is no great metaphor in this passage that needs to be deconstructed or opened. It is very simple.

Jesus has returned to Galilee in chapter 4. If you were with us several weeks ago, in chapter 4, Jesus was in His hometown of Nazareth, and He was not well received there. Not only was He not well received, but eventually they rejected Him and sought to kill Him. He leaves there, and from what we can tell in the Gospels, He never returned to His hometown. However, He did go back to the Sea of Galilee.

Now, one of the challenges with just the name "the Sea of Galilee" and the lake going at...

Here is probably more helpful because, in our minds, I don't know about you, but when I imagined the Sea of Galilee before I saw it, I envisioned a great, huge body of water. Then you go and see it, and it's like a moderately sized lake that you could easily go around in a day. The picture you get there is surprising; you think, "Oh, that's the Sea of Galilee." Most of Jesus's life and ministry was lived around the Sea of Galilee, most specifically around the northern tip, where He would travel from city to city, teaching and preaching.

As He traveled between the cities of Bethsaida and Capernaum, people began to follow and listen. Multitudes and crowds came. As the multitude pressed around Him along the Sea of Galilee, you can imagine the scene: pressed against the water, He saw a couple of boats belonging to fishermen who had been fishing that night. One of the individuals, Simon, already had some relationship with Jesus. They were connected; if you study Matthew, Mark, and John in connection with this, you see that Simon knew who Jesus was, and Jesus knew who Simon was.

Jesus asked Simon, "Can I sit in your boat and you just put out a little from the shore so I can talk to the people as I sit there?" It was a very practical request that made perfect sense. Simon did just as Jesus requested. After Jesus taught, I found myself wondering, as you may have before, what He taught while sitting in Simon's boat. I have a feeling—though I could be wrong—that it had to be at least moderately applicable to Simon. He was probably listening as he sat there, watching Jesus and the multitudes.

After Jesus was done, we read in the text that He said to Simon, "Launch out into the deep and let down your nets for a catch." One of the things we discover as we follow the story here and in other passages of the Gospels is that Jesus tends to work incrementally in our lives and not all at once. He takes slow steps. The progression in this section, as well as in Peter's life, is clear. As I mentioned a moment ago, this was probably not Simon's first meeting with Jesus. He had already seen Him before. Jesus spent a lot of time in the town of Capernaum.

The town that Peter lived in was probably where his little base of operations for his fishing business with his partners, James and John, was located. No doubt his family, including his father, grandfather, and maybe even his great-grandfather, all lived there. Just like so often was the case, he was one of a successive generation of fishermen, the same as James and John, whose father was Zebedee. They were all fishermen.

Peter had seen Jesus and kind of knew who He was, or at least he thought he did. Jesus may have known him on a first-name basis as Simon, although eventually, He changed his name to Peter. Jesus asked him if He could sit in his boat, and Peter was fine with that. He agreed to stop his work for a moment so that Jesus could teach. After Jesus finished teaching, He said, "All right, I know you let me sit in your boat for a little while. You put out a little bit from the land, but now I want you to launch out and let down your nets."

Eventually, when we get to the last verse of this section, Jesus calls Simon and Andrew, his brother, and James and John to forsake everything and follow Him. That is a big call, but He didn't start with that. I think it's a reminder that Jesus is so gracious with us and the way He works incrementally in our lives. If you look at the life of Peter in this story, and also at your own life as you have begun to follow Jesus or have walked with Him for a long period of time, you will probably see a similar incremental process.

He doesn't start with, "Hey, I want you to leave everything and follow me." If He did, you would resist. You would probably run the other way, be reluctant, and hesitant. You likely would not respond very well. Instead, He works step by step, incrementally in our lives.

If you study the lives of many individuals in the Bible, this is exactly what you see. Go back to the Old Testament, to the book of Genesis, and look at the story of Abram. When we meet Abram in Genesis 12, God calls him and says, "Abram, I want you to leave your family and your father's house for a land that I will tell you of. Come follow me." This is kind of the same thing He is going to say to these four individuals in this passage.

It's interesting to me that Genesis 12 states, "The Lord had said to Abraham, leave your father and your mother, your house, and come follow me." I wonder how long He had been saying this, because we do know from the text...

Abram was 75 years old when he finally followed the call of God. How many years passed during which God was saying, "I want you to come follow me"? The Lord had spoken to Abraham, and if you follow his life story, you will see that after God gives him the promise of a son, he had no child. Twenty-five years passed from the moment he followed the call until God made good on the promise. During that time, there were many instances where you could see his reluctance and hesitancy, but God was working with him.

Eventually, Abram received the son of the promise, whose name was Isaac. Years later, God told him to do something that seemed absolutely absurd. In Genesis 22, God said, "Take now your son, your only son, Isaac, whom you love, and take him to a mountain that I will tell you of and sacrifice him there as a burnt offering." This command was contrary to everything that Abram knew or had heard from God previously. Yet, he set out to do it. However, he did not sacrifice his son. I believe God was testing his faithfulness and obedience, but He did not start with that heavy call.

This pattern is not just true in Simon's life or Abram's life; we see it throughout the Scriptures. We see it in the grandson of Abram, Jacob. If you follow Jacob's life from the time his name was changed to Israel, you will notice these slow, incremental steps where God is moving him toward His purpose and plan. Later, we see this with Moses, Joshua, Gideon, and David. Many different characters in the Bible illustrate this progressive, incremental process, which is clearly seen. I think we can observe it in our own lives as well.

In part, Jesus works this way because He is full of grace and merciful to us. In this story, we see exactly that. For a moment, Simon stopped his work. The text tells us that he was cleaning his nets. He paused his work and allowed Jesus to come into his boat, graciously putting out from the shore to let Jesus teach for a time. Then, Jesus pushed Simon just a little bit further, which is what He does in Simon's life and in our lives. He wants to move us in the direction of His purpose and plan. If He told us everything about His purpose and plan, we would probably resist and might even run away entirely. But He moves us step by step.

Incrementally, notice that Simon did not immediately comply. I know there are probably many of you, myself included, who can identify with Simon Peter in a number of ways. When you see the rest of the story with Peter in the text, there are so many times when you think, "Oh man, Peter, it's like looking in the mirror," because he is really good at putting his foot in his mouth. Does anyone want to fess up to that here? A few of us, right?

However, he does not immediately comply. He voices a little bit of hesitancy. We read that Simon answered and said to Him, "Master, we've toiled all night. We've caught nothing. Nevertheless, at your word, I will let down the net."

I have a friend named Nick Long, who pastored a church in Germany for many years. He came into the pastorate out of the fishing industry, and he has a take on this that I can't necessarily validate, but I've never been a fisherman like him. He tells me that it's interesting that Simon caught nothing according to what he said, yet he is washing his nets. It’s kind of like, "No, you don’t really need to do that. You didn’t catch anything."

Maybe Simon has worked all night long and doesn't really want everyone to know that he caught nothing. I mean, it’s kind of human nature a little bit. But he’s doing what you do; he’s cleaning the nets. My friend Nick says, "I kind of think when Jesus said to Simon, 'Hey, launch out into the deep and let down your net,' Simon might have responded, 'Oh, listen, Jesus, we worked all night long and didn’t catch anything, but at your word, we will let down the nets because all the multitudes are there.'"

Now, I don’t know if that’s how it went, but it is an interesting way to look at this passage of Scripture. Remember, Simon is the fisherman; he’s the pro. Although I will say this: the great Galilean fisherman in the Bible is never seen catching a fish without Jesus's help. That’s not to say he didn’t, but it is kind of funny that, as you follow the story, we have these miraculous catches of fish, and it’s not because of his industriousness.

Simon may have known fishing on Galilee, but Jesus had more information than Simon did. He says, "I want you to launch out into the deep for a catch." Again, Simon knows fishing on Galilee. This is not...

Something you do in the middle of the day. He is kind of tenderly letting Jesus know this is not the way we do things. I know none of you would ever say such a thing to Jesus, but we're going to see this is kind of like a character quality of Simon. Later in the text of the Gospels, Jesus is going to be informing his followers about something that's going to happen, having to do with his arrest and betrayal. Simon will stand and get in his face and say, "Not so, Lord. This shall not happen to you." That's not really the way you talk to the Lord Jesus Christ. However, we kind of love the bombastic nature of Simon Peter.

Simon believes he knows fishing on Galilee, but Jesus knows more than Simon, and he knows more than you and I. Because he is gracious, point number two, Jesus usually reveals his greatness gradually rather than all at once. It is my conviction that Jesus is the most awesome individual that has ever walked the earth, but he doesn't overwhelm us with his awesomeness. He reveals his greatness just a little bit at a time to show who he is.

Simon did as Jesus said, even though he was reluctant and there was some hesitation. He still obeyed. I appreciate this passage. I'm glad it's here because I don't always obey perfectly at the first. I'm not always fully all in my obedience. Yet the Lord is gracious and patient. Here's the amazing thing: though Simon was reluctant, though he thought, "That's not the way things are done here on Galilee, preacher boy," he still did what the Lord told him to do.

Notice the result. When they had done this, they caught a great number of fish, and their net was breaking. They signaled to their partners in the other boat to come and help them. They came and filled both boats so that they began to sink. This is most likely the biggest catch that Simon ever got, and he had to invite his partners, probably James and John, to bring their boat over.

Filling both boats so much that they are starting to sink, this is not a private happening. This is not just Jesus with these four guys; there is a multitude of people that Jesus has been teaching prior to this. They are all watching this take place—the huge catch of fish—and their friends come to their aid, and now the boats are sinking.

What is amazing to me is point number three: Jesus frequently rewards reluctant obedience to build future faith and faithfulness. I find this remarkable. He did not rebuke Simon for his reluctance; he rewarded his obedience, even though it was not prompt obedience or full obedience. He still rewarded it. This is not the way that the world typically works. It is certainly not the way that your world works. If someone is hesitant to do what you ask, and if you are a manager or a boss, you probably do not respond very well. You probably do not give a bonus for that.

But it is a reminder, as Jesus said in John chapter 8, that he is not of this world. It is a reminder that, as God reveals through the prophet Isaiah in Isaiah 55:8, his ways are not our ways; they are higher than our ways. He does things differently. I like the way that he does things. I like Jesus's style. Does anyone else? Amen.

I find in myself, much like Simon, that a lot of my obedience is slow and partial, at least at the start. The fact is, so is yours. Yet Jesus is gracious and merciful. The reason he is is that he is training disciples; he is not recruiting slaves. He is seeking to build up these individuals because, remember, this same Simon is the one whose name is going to be changed to Peter. This same Peter is going to be the one who stands up and gets in Jesus's face, saying, "Far be it from you, Lord. That will not happen."

This is the same guy who will deny that he knows Jesus three times on the night that Jesus would be betrayed by Judas. But this is also the same Simon who will stand up on the day of Pentecost and preach to thousands, and 3,000 will be saved. We are going to celebrate that next.

Sunday. He's the same Peter who will go on to write Scripture. You can read it in First and Second Peter. He stumbled and fell; he put his foot in his mouth. Slowly, incrementally, and progressively, because God is gracious and merciful, the Lord restored him and continued to set him on the path. He didn't kick him to the side. This is Jesus's style. He's not developing servants who obey out of fear; he's raising up followers who respond in faith.

We can learn a lot from the way of Jesus, the style of Jesus, in a passage like this, especially if you are someone who has people under you. Many of you, most of you, are parents, so you have children under you. Some of you have grandchildren. There's a lot that we can learn about how we respond to and relate to our kids or our grandkids. There are more than a few of you who are employers or managers, and you have people who are under you. Maybe you're a teacher and you have students under you. We can learn an awful lot from the way that Jesus interacts with people.

The style of leadership for Jesus is unique. What is the result? What's the response to this? When Simon Peter saw it, he fell down at Jesus's knees, saying, "Depart from me, for I am a sinful man, O Lord." For he and all who were with him were astonished at the catch of fish which they had taken. So also were James and John, the sons of Zebedee, who were partners with Simon.

Point number four: the Jesus style is redemptive, transforming fallen sinners into faithful saints. That's what He does in our lives. He redeems and transforms. It's an awesome thing to see. It has been one of the great blessings of my life as a pastor to see people's lives redeemed and transformed in a way that is miraculous. It can be nothing other than a miracle to see the way that God takes an individual like Simon and transforms us.

We are going to see this gracious, patient, redemptive, transforming work of God in Simon throughout the rest of the New Testament. There will be more than a few falls and stumbles. It's not only demonstrated in Simon's life; it's demonstrated in our lives as well. There are probably more than a few here today who would be like Simon.

The fact that you're a little bit reluctant to believe and hesitant to follow is understandable. However, incrementally, Jesus is working to get you to move a little bit further into His purpose and His plan. Every day, He seems to be saying, "Just a little bit more. Go deep." We're not always ready to do it. There are times when we hesitate and put on the brakes. But over time, He is slowly moving us in that direction.

Jesus said to Simon, "Do not be afraid. From now on, you will catch men." When they had brought their nets to the land, they forsook all and followed Him. As I mentioned previously, the corresponding passages to this in Luke chapter 5 are found in the Gospel of Matthew and Mark. In Matthew 4:19, Jesus explicitly says to these four individuals—Simon, Andrew, James, and John—"Follow me, and I will make you fishers of men." This is the story behind that call.

I don't think we can go any further without acknowledging that this is not the climax of the story; this is the beginning. While it serves as a great conclusion to this event, it is just the start of what God wants to do in these individuals' lives. Simon, as I've said multiple times, is going to have his slip-ups. He will fall on his face and put his foot in his mouth. Still, Jesus will be gracious, merciful, kind, and redemptive because He is making a disciple, a follower.

Simon, Andrew, James, and John’s response is recorded in verse 11: they forsook all and followed Him. There is so much in that simple clause. Their entire lives, from their youngest stages, were spent in those boats on that sea with their dads, granddads, and uncles fishing. They had taken over the family business, and in this moment, Jesus says, "Okay, I want you to follow me, and I will make you fishers of men." They forsook everything.

Could you imagine that conversation with Zebedee? "Hey, Dad, that preacher guy? We're not going to be doing this fishing thing anymore." They forsook all and followed Him. Immediately, they left their nets.

Matthew 4:20 says, "Immediately they left their nets and they followed him." Point number five: Jesus seeks faithful followers. Note this, not perfect subjects. And that's good because none of us would ever fit the profile of a perfect subject. We can grow into faithful followers, but we'll never be perfect subjects. Many times, we don't jump in fully; we don't embrace the call immediately. This faith and faithfulness are developed over time.

At the start, there can be some hesitation, resistance, and reluctance, and that certainly has been my experience. I didn't launch out into the deep on day one. In fact, looking back on my life, there have been many times where I didn't launch out into the deep even by year five. It took time to reach the point where I was ready to follow. It took time to reach the point where I was willing to follow.

This is why one of my favorite passages of Scripture, as I've shared here many times, is Philippians 2:12-13, where we read, "Work out your own salvation with fear and trembling, for it is God who works in you to desire and do his good pleasure." He begins by working in the area of desire. I can remember when I was in high school, probably about my sophomore year, I really started to follow and seek the Lord, realizing He was seeking to do a work in me.

However, there was some hesitation. It took a couple of years to even get me to the point where I was ready to be baptized. I remember when I was about 17 years old, Pastor Tony baptized me at a men's retreat in Marietta Hot Springs. But it took a while to get to that point. I still had my vision, my plan, and my imagination of what things were going to be.

I had this thought—maybe you've had this kind of thought as well: If I go all in and follow Jesus, He's going to make me do something weird. Can anybody else relate? I remember thinking that He would make me go to Africa. Years later, I actually went to Africa with Cross Connection Outreach on a mission trip a couple of times. But there was that hesitation. It took time to reach the point where I was willing to set aside.

Maybe my aim, my ambition, my goals are to follow His plan and path. Not realizing that, as we do so many times, God brings back an interesting convergence with the previous things that we had in our minds about what we were going to do. When I was getting ready to graduate from high school, I thought I was going into the tech industry. God had a little detour for the last 26 years.

What's interesting about that is that now, all of a sudden, He has brought me back into this area. It's like I didn't see that coming. The Lord was like, "Yeah, well, I kind of do this for a living." I have not arrived and have not been perfected, and neither have you. I love what Paul says in Philippians chapter 3: "Not as though I have already attained or am already perfected, but I press on." This is awesome! That I may lay hold of that for which Christ Jesus has laid hold of me.

What does that mean? It means that He saved you and me for a purpose. You see, Jesus could see Peter standing before multitudes on the day of Pentecost years before when Simon was saying, "Well, we toiled all night. We didn't catch anything." He sees the end product and blesses the small steps of obedience along the way. Paul's desire was to fully embrace what He saved him for.

Brethren, I do not count myself to have apprehended, but this one thing I do: forgetting those things which are behind—all the reluctance, hesitation, the trip-ups, the failures in the past—and reaching forward to those things which are ahead, I press toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus.

As the years go by, as we walk with God, we'll reach new points where He is kind of saying, "Hey, I want you to launch out into the deep." We can be hesitant and reluctant. I'll tell you, it was probably more than a decade ago. In fact, it was around 2011 or 2012 that I had a friend of mine, a mentor named Mickey Stonier, who had coffee with me. He said, "Listen, I'm having coffee with you because..." Actually, it was kind of interesting. I sat down with him, Dr. Stonier, and two other doctors, Dr. Allers and another PhD. We sat down for coffee, and they all did this one.

"Doctor, how are you?" "Oh, I'm good. How are you, doctor?" Then they looked at me and said, "Dr. Miles..."

And I said no. Mickey responded, "I think you need to go get your degree." I replied, "I don't want to do that. It's too much time, too much effort, and too much money. I don't want to do that." It took me about five years to get to the point where I finally said, "Okay."

There are many days when I find myself thinking and actually praying, "God, why am I doing this?" The sense that I get from the Lord many times when I pray that prayer is that He simply says, "Just follow and obey." We don't always see the outcome or the purpose, but God calls us to follow and obey, one incremental step at a time. That's what He is calling you and me to do—one incremental step at a time.

It's easy for us to identify with Simon. Maybe you can see yourself in his boat. You've heard about Jesus, listened to some of His teachings, and perhaps you've put yourself in places where you know He is going to show up so you can learn a little bit more about Him. Then, after a while, He says, "Hey, can I get in your boat?" You might respond, "Oh, sure. Can you push out a little bit from the shore?"

But then there comes a point where He says, "Okay, listen. I want you to take a little bit bigger step. Go a little bit deeper." He has that incremental step-by-step approach where He calls us to follow, leading us into something we never imagined for ourselves. We didn't plan it.

For some of you, that next simple step of obedience is the same step I took when I was 17, when Pastor Tony baptized me. Next week, we're going to have baptism. What is it that you're doing in baptism? Well, you're making a public declaration that you have decided to follow Jesus. That's why we give those shirts that say, "I have decided." It's a public declaration to others that you are a disciple.

What is a disciple? It's not a perfect subject; it's a growing, faithful follower seeking to be obedient by the Lord's grace. The same Simon Peter who sat in the boat and listened to Jesus speak is the same Simon Peter who stood before the multitudes on Pentecost. They asked, "What must we do?" and he replied, "Repent and be baptized, and times of refreshing will come from the presence of the Lord."

So, next week, we're going to have a baptism.

Baptism is an important step in our faith journey. We have a website you can visit at ccurch.com/baptism to register. If you don't register, that's fine; it just means that you won't be fully prepared to go into the water for baptism. You might show up in nice clothes and then get all wet, having to drive home in those wet clothes. However, Jesus calls us to step into the waters of baptism to declare publicly that we have decided to follow Him. This is one way we acknowledge that we are followers of Christ.

Another way we acknowledge our faith is by partaking of His body and His blood in communion. I would like to invite Anthony and our worship team up this morning as we prepare to partake of communion together. This is a time to remember our Lord's body that was broken for us and His blood that was shed. The same Jesus who got into Peter's boat on that day on the Sea of Galilee is the same Jesus who went to the cross to redeem you and me.

Anthony will lead us in a song of worship. If you don't already have the elements for communion, some of our ushers will bring them to you and make them available. Please hold on to them, and we will partake together in just a moment.

Father, I pray that You would work in our hearts to begin to move us into the purpose and plan that You have created for us. Help us to lay hold of that for which You have laid hold of us. Every single person here has a purpose and plan that You desire to accomplish in their lives. We do not see the end product; we only see the next step. Sometimes that next step seems foggy and dark, making us afraid to take it.

Lord, would You help our unbelief? Help us when we are questioning what You are calling us to do, just as Simon did. This preacher boy doesn't know how we do things in Galilee. God, help us to trust in You and follow by faith, even when we don't see the exact outcome. We ask this in Jesus' name. Amen.

The Lord Jesus, on the same night in which He was betrayed, took bread, and when He had broken it, He said, "This is my body which is broken for you. Do this in remembrance..."

Let's partake together. In the same manner, He also took the cup after they had eaten, saying, "This cup is the new covenant in My blood. This do as often as you drink it in remembrance of Me." Let's partake together.

Let's stand together. You can pass your cups to the center aisles; the ushers will receive them.

Father, we do stand before You today because of Your grace. We stand before You today because Jesus, You said, "It is finished." You paid the debt for our sin. You took the punishment for our sin. Lord, we thank You for Your grace. We thank You for Your mercy.

I pray, God, that as we identify ourselves with You, partaking of Your body and Your blood in this way, would You shine brightly upon and through our lives? Lord, help us to take that next step, whatever that next step may be, as You lead us into Your purpose and Your plan. Help us to trust You as we do whatever it is that You are calling us to do, even if it seems so far out or deep. Lord, help us to trust.

We praise You, Jesus.

And now, may the Lord bless and keep you. May He make His face to shine upon you and be gracious to you. May He lift up His countenance upon you and give you His peace. The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, the love of God the Father, and the fellowship of His Holy Spirit be with you all. Amen.