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Canoeing the Mountains – Week 1 Luke 5:1-11 “Drop the Canoe”

INTRO> On September 1st of this past year we preached a vision series called, “Extraordinary Times” Do you recall that? In that series we laid out what the vision was for our church for the year and the words behind me are a reminder of that… my oh my how we didn’t know… The last time that we gathered together was the second week of lent, March 8th…. never before in our lives have we experienced something like this in light of the pandemic. Schools closed early, our kids didn’t get to say goodbye to their friends and teachers, graduate kindergarten. We lost a family member in this season… my how so much has changed in 14 weeks. The unemployment rate is the highest that it has been since the great depression, a global death total of over 370,000 from COVID-19 and now in recent days cities are in flames and rage and racism are tearing us apart… The financial, mental, emotional, physical and spiritual turmoil is no doubt overwhelming… so.. What do we do?

APP> Well, there is one word that dominates when you boil everything down really… “Change”. The O.E.D defines change as “Make or become a different substance entirely; transform.” So much has changed… but what I want us to do is to focus on what remains the same…

Big Idea > When everything is changing the call of Jesus remains the same, “Follow me.”

APP> There is a tension when it comes to Jesus invitation and it’s… We have never gone this way before.

*ILL> Which brings us to our series and title, “Canoeing the Mountains” which comes from Tod Bolsingers titled book on leadership and it involves the story of Lewis and Clark and the history of the Louisiana purchase. in 1803 the US under president Thomas Jefferson purchased land from France for 15 million dollars, or $18 a square mile (PIC).. Marriweather Lewis and  William Clark (PIC) are sent out to find “The Northwest Passage” which everyone swore existed.They basically thought that the Pacific Ocean butted up against the land and then through connecting river streams went all through the US, which would be like owning the internet today for trade. They set out from St.Charles Mo and paddled up stream for 15 months, losing a comrade. They had followed the Missouri River all the way North to the Columbia River and arrived at an elevated place where the Indians said was the source of the NorthWest Passage, Meriweather Lewis climbs up to see the beautiful water passage and sees this (PIC)… Thousands of miles of, mountains… Rocky Mountains to be exact. Everything changed at that very moment… they hadn’t prepared for this, they where water experts… not mountain hikers. They were at a moment of crisis and change…

APP> We have all been right where Lewis was right? In our marriage? In our parenting? In our Relationships?

CONTEXT> Which is much like what we see in our text today with the call of the disciples. They encounter Jesus and everything changes… literally everything, look at that last verse v11 “they left everything and followed him.”

APP> How do we answer the call to follow Jesus when faced with changing circumstances?

1. You have to drop what you know.

• • • There is a single thread that shows it’s self two times in this encounter of Jesus and each time it happens, Peter and the disciples respond the same way, and at there response, everything changes. They drop nets and boats.

1. Drop your net. v4-5

• • • • • • • • Peter is a professional fisherman! Jesus is a homeless preacher, what does he know about preaching!
              • Wilcock: ‘As long as Simon’s boat is being used for a pulpit, the owner has no objection to Jesus’s saying in it what he likes. But when it reverts to being a fishing-boat, it is Simon’s once more, and Jesus no longer has a say in how it is to be used. Fishing is Simon’s job. In the same way, people will listen to Jesus, will consider what he says, and will even ask him to ‘make them better’ when they are sick; but for him to do as he does in this fourth episode, and to interfere in their job, their home, their leisure, that is another thing altogether. Those matters have nothing, surely, to do with ‘religion’.’

APP> Dropping your net is obeying without knowing the outcome. (This miracle is different from all the others, this is for the disciples)

1. Drop your boat. v11 Do you notice that the word boat is used 6x in 11 verses? That’s important right?

• • • • • (Pic of boat)
        • This was a family business (partnership) Everything they had known.

APP> Dropping your boat is answering the call of allegiance that Jesus demands. (Remember what Peter does on Resurrection Sunday…. goes fishing!)

*ILL> When Merriweather Lewis saw those mountains he knew that everything he had prepared for was insufficient for the journey ahead.

APP> The road in front of you with Jesus is nothing like the road behind you without Jesus.

Big Idea > When everything is changing the call of Jesus remains the same, “Follow me.”

Application:

• • • What specific act of obedience is Jesus asking of me right now in my life that I am delaying? (Drop your net)

• • • What am I still holding on to that is hindering me from answering the call of Jesus? (Drop your boat)