Why Bother?

Introduction

Good evening, everyone. Good evening. Need you to open a Bible to Galatians chapter 6. I’m going to start in Galatians 6 in just a moment. Please, if you turn the word of God to Galatians 6, we’ll get ready to go. And as you’re getting over there, I sure would like to say a word or two to this church in way of appreciation for the opportunity to be with you. I know you come to the last night of the gospel meeting, and the fella gets up and says a bunch of thank you sort of things, and we kind of roll our eyes. Come on now. Let’s get on with it, get to the preaching part of things. But but when you’re on this side of the equation, it just seems absolutely thoughtless and indeed ungrateful, not to say a word or two of appreciation when folks have just been so kind to you, have listened so well, been so encouraging to you.

Appreciate so much the elders asking me to come and to be here, giving me this opportunity. And appreciate so much the way that you have received Ian and I. We’ve just uh eaten way too much in folks’ homes and in good restaurants. We’ve enjoyed visiting with you. Appreciate your prayers and your just careful attention to the things that we’ve talked about together. Really impressed with this church. Very impressed with Brother Josh and his good wife. Really impressed with the work that they’re doing here. Your shepherds here, what they’re all about in this place. Good things are going on here in this church. The Lord blesses you and uses you in a mighty way. And I pray that that will continue very much so. Really do appreciate Brother Bob Harkrunner and his good one.

I I told Bob the other day, it has been my privilege to get to associate some in various preaching endeavors and in meetings with some men that I hold as just real heroes. People that I grew up and I heard them preach, and I thought, now that guy, he can get it. He just he’s got it going on. Been like Brother D. Bowman, Dan Shifflin. And I would be less than candid if I didn’t say that I uh think a very great deal of Brother Hark Ryder, even though I worried about his faith when he left Texas to move to Florida. But Brother Bob is one of those fellows, as he mentioned on Sunday, I’ve known of him and known him since I was in high school and just think an awful lot of him, but mostly from a distance, had not had opportunity to be with him and with Sister Arlene, and this has been a blessing for me to be with them and to get to know them better.

I need to tell you, this is kind of something not everybody knows if you’re not in preaching circles. Sometimes you get around some of these fellows that are a little bit older than you are, and it’s not a good experience to be around someone you held as a hero. You find out that they have a disdain for anybody who’s younger than they are, because, well, they just weren’t around preaching during this time of trouble in the brotherhood, and they just don’t know anything, and they’re just wet behind the ears, and they just treat you bad. And that’s kind of hard sometimes. But I’ve just enjoyed being with Brother Bob. Has treated me in a wonderful fashion as if I am a peer, which I am not, and have just been built up and encouraged to be around him.

Commend him and his good wife to you. Know that you understand the treasure that you have both in him and in Brother Josh, and I know that you’ll continue to cherish them, and together, you’ll just do good work together. Hope that if you’re in Dallas, you’ll come see us at West Side. I miss being there terribly. I know they’re having Bible class just about starting here directly. It’s just a wonderful church. You have opportunity, you just come and see us. In the end of the summer, usually the last weekend in July, sometimes the first weekend in August, depending on how the calendar falls. We have an amazing event we call youth lectures Friday night, Saturday afternoon, and Sunday morning. We have two speakers on Friday night and two speakers on Saturday afternoon and two speakers on Sunday morning, and folks come from all over Texas, all over the country to come and be a part of it.

We call it Youth Lectures. It’s a great, great event. David Banning has spoken there. Brother Bowman has spoken there. I get to speak on Sunday mornings. The elders asked me to close our lectures every year. It’s a pretty cool deal. We really enjoy doing it. And last year at every service, we had over five hundred every time. You put 500 folks in that building and let them sing a little bit and then get a preacher warmed up and get him working in the Word of God. Some really good things are going to happen. You have opportunity to come our way in the summer. You make room for youth lectures on your schedule. You’ll be glad you brought your teenager. You’ll be glad you came even if you didn’t have a teenager.

It’s just an amazing weekend. Hope to see you maybe sometime with us at West Side. Finally, in all of my thank yous, I need to thank that lady in the green there sitting behind Brother Dennis. That’s my wife Dina, and she consented to come along. If congregations knew how much better preachers preach when they have their wives with them, they would insist they always bring them. My wife is a tremendous uh asset in my work and just a tremendous joy. Congregations and elders and folks and preachers are always asking preachers’ wives to do all kinds of difficult and hard things. And they do those things in a great and wonderful, wonderful way. Dina comes and listens and encourages me as she hears sermons that she’s heard many times before.

And she smiles in all the right places and laughs at jokes that she doesn’t think are all that funny. She’s just a great encouragement to me. I love her a lot, and I appreciate her coming and being with me in this meeting. Well, that was a lot of thank yous. How about we talk about the Word of God for a minute? Could we? How about Galatians 6? Galatians 6, please, and in verse 9, one of my favorite passages in all of God’s Word. Paul says in Galatians 6 and 9, let us not grow weary of doing good. For in due season we will reap if we do not give up. I love that verse. I’ll tell you why I love that verse. I love that verse because it says that I am not the first person to get really tired of doing and doing and doing and doing and doing and doing some more.

And it doesn’t really seem to be making a difference. Ever feel that way?

They didn’t come, did they? And there’s folks here who have been praying for a real long time about a relative, a loved one who does not know the Lord. And you know what? They don’t seem like they’re any closer to loving the Lord and knowing the Lord now than before. Maybe even worse. They seem to be more steeped in their indifference. Or perhaps you have one who has one time was a Christian, but now is away from the Lord and involved in sin and in wickedness. They’ve gone to the prodigal spar country, and you’re concerned about that, and you talk to them about that at every opportunity, and you pray about that, and you get other people to talk to them, and they are not making any movement back to God.

It just gets tough sometimes, doesn’t it? We’re all the time trying to do things that are right, we’re praying for the unsaved. We’re asking folks for Bible studies or to watch the television program. We’re seeking to win the loss. We’re doing all sorts of things, trying to help people do what’s right, and it doesn’t seem sometimes like it is a mounting to anything. We spend a lot of time with somebody working with them, trying to study, and it just peters out, they seem unchanged, or maybe now they’re mad at us. You do good to somebody and there is no return, not even a word of appreciation or thanksgiving. You minister faithfully, there appear to be no results at all. Doesn’t take very long, unless you’re really dumb, to just say, hey, why am I doing this?

Why do I keep beating my head against the wall? Why do I bother? I think a big part of the answer to that is found in some teaching Jesus did by the Sea of Galilee. That’s actually a picture of the Sea of Galilee. If you look over in Luke 5, I want to read with you, Brother Duncan, I’ll read this verse in about two seconds. I want to read 11 verses there where Jesus says an awful lot of things that help us better understand why we must persevere in Christ Jesus. Why we’re going to keep doing what’s right no matter what’s going on around us. The Lord powerfully helps us see why we bother. Let’s read that. Luke 5. Going to read the first 11 verses there, please.

On one occasion, on one occasion, while the crowd was pressing in on him to hear the word of God, he was standing by the lake of Gennesaret, and he saw two boats by the lake. But the fishermen had got out of them and were washing their nets. Getting into one of the boats, which was Simon’s, he asked him to put out a little from the land, and he sat down and he taught the people from the boat. And when he had finished speaking, he said to Simon, put out into the deep and let down your nets for a catch. Simon answered, Master, we toiled all night and we took nothing. But at your word I will let down the nets. And when they had done this, they enclosed a large number of fish, and their nets were breaking.

They signaled to their partners in the other boat to come and help them, and they came and they filled both the boats. So they began to sink. When Simon Peter saw it, he fell down at Jesus’ 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 that they had taken. So also were James and John, sons of Zebedee, who were partners with Simon. Jesus said to Simon, Do not be afraid. From now on you’ll be catching men, and when they brought their boats to land, they left everything. They followed him. Well, it’s a great story, isn’t it? It is an amazing story. And right there, as we’re reading along in Luke and we’re hearing from Jesus, we’re just going to see some things about perseverance.

You understand this is a fishing story. And when I say that this is a fishing story, I’m not talking about graphite rods and reels and hundreds of fishing lures and a bash boat that cost more than a house. Peter was a commercial fisherman. That meant nets and the laborious work of tacking a boat back and forth to get it into position while huge nets were let down into the sea, so that large quantities of fish could be taken. These were men who made their living fishing. That meant they knew about fishing. They had fished all night long and they knew today wasn’t the day to go fishing. And yet, what’s amazing about Luke 5 is when Jesus said, hey, fellas, let’s do a little fishing, their answer wasn’t, why bother?

Their answer was, we’re going to go out there and fish. And I think we can learn a little bit about that. As we evaluate our lives, and you need to do that. As you mark spiritual milestones, you’re going to find a place where you realize you’ve made some progress. Maybe you’ve done well with Bible reading. You know, we make that promise to ourselves on the 1st of January, we’re going to read our Bible through in the year. All right. Now we’re getting to the end of February. Sometimes we’re bogged down in Leviticus. How are you doing with that? Alright, so we get to a place where we’re evaluating a little bit. And we realize, yeah, I’m doing better with that Bible reading thing. Or I’m doing a little better job controlling this, or I’m defeating this temptation.

But the truth is, as we do that evaluating, we’re also going to see what. Need to grow over here. I got to get that under control. I need to do a better job with that. And as we evaluate all of that, I’m talking about those internal things. And then we begin to look at all of those external things, that long list of difficulties that I began with this evening. We’re going to find some disappointments from time to time. And we will be asking ourselves, why am I keeping at this? And I’m going to give you three reasons this evening from Luke 5. That’ll help you. That’ll help you right from what Jesus is doing there to continue to persevere. Let’s just start that in verse 5.

1. Master: You Are in Charge, We Are Not

In verse 5, look what Peter says there, because there’s the first key. There we read, Simon answered, Master, we toiled all night and took nothing, but at your word I will let down the net. I want to focus very heavily right there in verse 5. Because there’s a lot of things that Peter said that were really, really dumb. He is afflicted with sandal and mouth disease. You know what I’m talking about? But this is just five star good. What Peter says here is dead on and I need to begin right here. It’s found in that word master. You are the one in charge we are not. We will obey you. And I need to say to you this evening if I don’t develop anything else, if I end up stopping at point one, this and this alone is more than enough.

You’re in charge, God. We are not. We are here to obey you not question you. This is an attitude that is missing in many today. And understanding that my goal in life, my function in life, my objective in life needs to be to obey God. Period. When I understand the Lord and I see all of the reasoning behind that command, I need to obey the Lord. And you know what? When I don’t understand the Lord, when it doesn’t make any sense to me at all, when I think, you know what, I can find a better way to do that. When I get to thinking I’m smarter than God, you know what? I just need to humble myself, realize I’m just wrong about that. God’s still right, and I need to obey him.

I will obey God always, every time. That’s what I need to be doing. He is the master, and I am not. That is a basic theme in Scripture. I think sometimes we fail to stress that enough. The basic idea of obedience. How much sense did it make for Noah to build an ocean liner? It hadn’t even, as best we can tell, ever rained. Or what about the military strategy of marching around Jericho? What’s that going to accomplish? Joshua must have wondered. Well, what about Abraham being promised a son, now that he and his wife both were far past the day when they could have had children. Or think about this. You’re going to need somebody to evangelize Gentiles? Hey, I got an idea. Let’s get the most Jewish Jew, the Pharisee of the Pharisees.

We’ll get Paul to do it. Think that makes any sense? Yet every time in all of those scenarios, indeed woven through all of the word of God, is the idea of basic obedience. Look in Genesis 15, please. In Genesis 15, basic trust in the Lord that leads people to obey. In Genesis 15, in Genesis 15, I’m reading there in verse 5. In Genesis 15, please, and in verse 5. There we read, Genesis 15 and 5, God brought Abraham outside and said, look toward heaven and number the stars. If you’re able to number them, then he said to him, So shall your offspring be. Now get verse 6. And he believed the Lord. And he counted it to him as righteousness. Do we trust God? And then do we trust God enough to do as Abraham did?

Obey the Lord. I should tell you that in some ways I’m impressed with the emphasis today on finding life’s purpose. Have you seen this book, The Purpose-Driven Life? I’m not a big fan of that book, to be honest with you. I think there are some things in there that are not as good as they well could be. But I should say that I think there’s something to be said about that, finding your purpose. As we come to understand that I need to be obeying God, that I need to do what the Lord wants me to do, I need to seek the Lord’s will for my life. There’s something to be said for understanding the principles of Scripture that guide us in our day-to-day decision making. So that I am doing the will of the Lord.

The trouble with that is, is that lots of folks want to get down to the minute details of today without ever first beginning with that general overarching idea, I will do what God says. That’s the beginning of that. I need to please God. What’s the purpose of life? Obey the Lord. That’s life’s purpose. And before I start fine-tuning that down to what kind of job I should have or where I should go to school or who I should marry, I need to begin with. I’m doing God’s will. All too often, the problem is that’s not where folks are starting. Life is what I want it to be. Life is what can I do? What can I get? What would I enjoy? How can I bring pleasure to myself?

What is good for me? What is convenient for me? Then Jesus comes and says hard and difficult things. Like go to church. Or talk to your neighbor about sin and salvation. Or read your Bible. Or let down your net. And the answer from a lot of folks is, I don’t see the good in that. I’m not doing that. No. We need to obey. We need to do what the Lord has instructed us to do. We need to obey Him. And sometimes we ask why we’re bothering, and this is the answer. The answer is, Master, at your word, I will let down the nets. We come to church on a Wednesday night, and we’re worn out, and we’re tired, and we didn’t much feel like it, and it was difficult to get here, and traffic was a bear, and some of you didn’t even get to eat before you came.

What am I doing here? I’ll tell you what you’re doing here. You’re obeying the voice of the master. You’re doing the right thing. And if nothing else could be said about that, you please God by nothing but sheer obedience. We need to stress that more. We bother. We keep doing what’s right. We persevere because God commands that of us. And that spirit of I will obey God is honored in Peter’s life. It’ll be honored in your life as well. Let me show you something else, though. Someone said, I think I heard him say he was going to quit after one point. Oh, so optimistic. How about Luke chapter 5 again? In Luke chapter 5, let’s try a second idea from this chapter. In Luke chapter 5, let’s read verses 6 and 7 again, please.

2. Obedience Brings Reward

When they had done this, what happened when you let down the nets, Peter? Luke 5, verse 6. When they had done this, they enclosed a large number of fish, and their nets were breaking. They signaled to their partners, verse 7, now in the other boat to come and help them, and they came and filled both the boats. They began to sing. Why do we bother? Because obedience brings reward. We need to understand that doing what God says has a way of working out, doesn’t it? Building that ark may have seemed kind of silly, but when it started raining, really looked like a good idea. And that whole marching around.