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Advent HOPE Sabbath School

Weston Fargo

Why Settle for Less?

This past week I got news that a good friend of mine actually got the cover of a prominent skateboard magazine.

And so growing up in that atmosphere, my brother and I, we've had numerous friends who've gone on to become professional surfers or skateboarders.

So it was cool to kind of have 1 get on the cover of this magazine.

So I went looking for the issue that he was on.

And so when I went to the store, I was looking at the magazine stand, if you will, and the first thing that caught my attention wasn't a skateboard magazine, it was actually a surfing magazine.

I mean, you see the beautiful blue water on the front and some exotic place in Tahiti, so it caught my attention, so I started flipping through that instead.

I came across an article talking about perfect waves, essentially.

As I was going through, I noticed 1 name I recognized, this professional surfer's name, his name was Shane Dorian, I'd come across him in a prior article years back.

And what's fascinating is, you know, these surfers, their search, if you will, their search is ultimately to catch and find the perfect wave, the perfect ride.

And way back when, 2007, Shane Dorian had been searching through the storm charts, had been looking at the weather reports, and finally he came across what he thought was going to be the perfect storm.

So he called his best buds, his buddies, and he said, you know what?

We have to go out to this remote location, this undisclosed location.

Out somewhere in the South Pacific, he said there's a storm coming, and we want to be there for it.

And sure enough, they found exactly what they expected, perfect waves 1 after another.

The article heading, by the way, was something along the lines of surfing's version of heaven.

And he went on to say that day they let waves pass by them that would have been the best ride of anyone's life.

The article then goes on to make this statement.

The waves were so wide, so perfect, such a guaranteed thing that it almost got, and I was expecting it to say something along the lines of unimaginable, fantastic, crazy, incredible.

You know, interestingly enough, these surfers, their whole life was spent searching, waiting for this specific day.

And when they finally made it, when they finally achieved their goal, if you will, they were essentially less than satisfied.

So I went on, came across an article in Huffington, and I think it was like the Huffington Post or something, and it was titled essentially, Why success has you feeling empty.

And then I looked through Forbes and I found a similar article, why successful people often feel empty.

And then I was having a conversation with a friend of mine And I asked him about, we were talking about this phenomenon, and he's like, look, when you finally get to the point where you are good enough to do what you love, you oftentimes don't end up loving what you do.

In other words, when you finally get good enough to get to that point where you do what you love, you've so exhausted it that you no longer essentially love what you do.

And it's like, man, isn't this what you've wanted to do since you were young?

Isn't this what you thought would satisfy your heart?

And I couldn't help but think to myself, you know, oftentimes we search after things that are only temporary, only to find that it only satisfies us temporarily.

True joy, true satisfaction is making God's plan our plan, making His will our desire for our own life.

I want to quickly go through 4 illustrations with you this morning.

3 we're just going to go through quickly, then we're going to emphasize the fourth.

If you have your Bible, let's turn to Luke chapter 5.

And in Luke chapter 5, Simon, Peter as he's better known, is out with James and John and they are out fishing, toiling all night long.

And here notice after they get back, stressful night to say the least, they caught nothing.

Luke chapter 5, verse 4, Jesus then comes to them when they get back.

Jesus doesn't look at them and say, hey, bummer, you didn't come back with anything.

He actually looks at them and right away calls them to action.

When he, referring to Jesus, had stopped speaking, he said to Simon, launch out into the deep and let down your nets for a catch.

But Simon answered and said to him, Master, we have toiled all night and caught nothing.

Nevertheless, at your word, I will let down the net." So Peter, a couple of weeks ago, we had a wonderful message here at Adam and hope on the difference, the distinction between emotions and faith essentially.

Here, Peter could have easily made an emotional decision and he could have said, you know what, I've been out all night, I'm tired, forget it.

God says go out, launch, launch out back out into the sea and let down your nets.

And Peter acts by faith and notice what happens next.

Going on to verse 6, 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 and help them.

And they came and filled both the boats so that they began to sink.

When Simon Peter saw it, he fell down to Jesus' knees saying, depart from me for I am a sinful man, O Lord.

If you had come to Peter, I want you to put yourself in Peter's shoes just for a second, is that okay?

If I were to ask you, hey Peter, what would make you happy?

You know, what would make you feel content today?

Peter would have looked at me, most likely, or maybe you'd look at me today, and you'd say, hey, how about catching 10 fish?

And I'm like, Peter, think about it for a second.

Okay, I see where you're going with this Weston.

I'm like, Peter, Peter, just use your imagination.

Like how many fish would you like to catch today?

If you were to catch any amount, if I were to give you the fish, all right, how about a boat full of fish?

He's like, that would be crazy, something I've possibly never seen before.

Peter comes back with 2 boats full of fish, so much so that they were sinking, the Bible tells us.

But let me tell you something, those 2 boats full of fish could have only satisfied Peter temporarily.

We often, the natural inclination of the heart, the natural inclination of the human mind is to focus on things that are temporary.

And God focuses on things that are eternal.

You see this interesting kind of the opposite here?

We often put our emphasis on things that we want that are temporary.

We want that car, we want the money, we want the house.

Things that are meaningless compared to the eternal joy that God is trying to bring before us.

So Peter here, maybe just worried about or just focused about the fish, but notice what God says here in verse 9.

Excuse me, he says in verse 10, but let's start at verse 9.

For he and all who were with him were astonished at the catch of fish which they had taken, And so also were James and John, the sons of Zebedee who were partners with Simon.

And Jesus said to Simon, do not be afraid from now on you will catch men.

Peter was focused on catching fish and God said, now you will be a fisher of men.

Not a long message this morning but I pray that we'd grasp this concept so follow with me intently if you can.

Here we have the story of the woman at the well.

This woman comes, she's thirsty, essentially just coming to draw water from the well, not expecting to see anyone but comes across more than just anyone, comes across Jesus.

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Why Settle for Less?

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