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Preachers Collective- North England Conference of SDA

Clive Coutet

No Turning Back

Father in heaven, we thank you for bringing us here today.

I pray, Lord, that you'll use me as I speak to your people, help this message come straight from you, and empty me of anything of myself that is hindering me deliver this message to your people.

So I hear that you had Adam Ramden here a few weeks ago presenting something on lineage.

Those of you who don't remember or weren't here, lineage is a series of videos that we're making to do with the Reformation.

And it's caused me to do quite a lot of traveling in the last 9 months.

I've been to France, to Scotland, to Switzerland, to Spain, not to Spain, to Prague, Czech Republic, Sweden, Denmark, all since November.

But 1 of the things that struck me the most was somewhere we went 2 weeks ago.

Now, Castelluzzo is a cliff edge on top of this, on top of sort of in the mountain range of the Waldensie Valley and back in the 1600s what happened was the Waldensies were under extreme pressure from the papacy and they were hiding for their lives.

They were trying to survive by hiding in the mountains.

But occasionally, and in 1 particular instance, they got found by the Papal soldiers.

And instead of killing them there and then, they marched them to the top of this mountain and they were on this cliff edge and they made them look down at their death and say, you recant or I throw you down.

And these Waldensians were faithful and they did not recant.

And as I was there 2 weeks ago, I sat on top of this mountain and I looked straight down like this, and it's a sheer drop.

And I said to myself, if I was in this position, would I turn back or would I be faithful?

In this very moment, if I had death staring me in the face, Would I be faithful to God or would I recant?

The message of my title today is no turning back.

If we take our Bibles to Luke chapter 5 and we're starting at verse 1 and we're going to be reading to verse 11.

So it was, as the multitude pressed about to hear the word of God, that he stood up by the lake of Gennesaret, and saw 2 boats standing by the lake, but the fishermen had gone from them, and were washing their nets.

Then he got into 1 of the boats, which was Simon's, and asked him to put out a little from land.

And 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 nets for a catch.

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

Nevertheless, at your words, I will let down the net.

And 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 at Jesus' knee 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.

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.

So when they have brought their boats to land, they forsook all and followed him.

Simon, who was a fisherman, who I'm sure he knew what to do as it was his trade, had spent all night trying to catch fish and he didn't catch anything.

And here we have Jesus preaching to the multitude, but there's so many people around Jesus that he needs to use a boat to get out of land so that he can see more people to preach in the gospel.

Now Peter, who must have been extremely tired, I don't know what jobs all of you have, but if you spend all night doing something and you're at the point where it's time to go home, you know, I don't know what some of you do, but let's say you're a nurse, you're a doctor, you're a lawyer, and whatever it is that you're doing, the aim of your job, you have been unable to do that night, bearing in mind you're working through the night, you're going to be frustrated, you're going to be tired, most probably going to be hungry, most probably just want to sleep.

I know I've done some all-nighters before and it's hard work And at least I got some stuff done.

But Peter got nothing done, and it was his livelihood.

So he's there now washing his nets, ready to go home.

And Jesus asked him if he can use his boat.

Now the main thing we can learn from this is, is Peter, first of all, willfully allowed Jesus to use his boat and took him out.

So he was tired, he was hungry, but he used his business in the aid of the gospel.

He used the only thing he knew what to do to help Jesus to spread the gospel.

Now after Jesus had finished delivering this message he didn't just leave Peter in the moment.

Peter's act of allowing Jesus to use him in Jesus's ministry actually blessed Peter because Peter was now able to catch a multitude of fish.

How many of you have been fishing before?

I've been fishing before and I was having a competition with my sister.

I caught none she caught 2 It's hard work to do fishing extremely hard work Now picture this Peter Has been told to cast his net into the water, into the deep of the water.

And there's so many fish that the boats begin to sink.

There's so many fish in fact that they had to call another boat across which also began to sink because of the multitude of fish.

So number 1 we can learn is when we use our businesses for the glory of God, He will abundantly bless you.

There's a story by a man who I'm not gonna say the name of it just yet but it's just come to my mind.

He decided to leave the country, his city sorry, his village to go into the country And he decided to use his business for the glory of God.

He said to the Lord, whatever I give back, I'm gonna give you 20% instead of 10.

He said, okay Lord, I'm gonna give you 30%.

He ended up giving I think about 80 or 90 percent of his money to the Lord.

Now this company is a company all of us have heard of.

In fact we use this company on a daily basis to brush our teeth.

How many of you heard of Colgate toothpaste?

He used his 1 and only thing that he knew what to do for the service of the Lord and he got blessed abundantly.

But the story doesn't end there, because now we have Peter who has caught all this fish, so much fish that the boat is sinking, that Jesus says to him in verse 10, he says, do not be afraid, from now you will catch men.

So when they had brought their boats to land, they forsook all and followed him.

So despite the blessing, Peter understood that I don't need this job anymore because I'm following you now because you can provide me fish and food and clothing in an instance.

So then he spent the next 3 years following Jesus.

He watched Jesus feed the 5, 000, turn bread and fish and multiplied it to feed thousands of people.

So it's very interesting that we get to a stage in Peter's life where he turns back.

Now, if all of us took ourselves in our lives right now and we moved back 3 years and we remembered where we were 3 years, 3 years ago.

I'm sure many of us have grown in many different aspects, whether it's increases in salary in your work, whether it's spiritually, all of us have grown, whether it's grown older, All of us have grown in some stages of our life in the last 3 years.

Now with Peter, they had just experienced Jesus dying on the cross.

And they would have been sad, they would have been weary, they would have been frustrated because they've just given up the last 3 years.

Now we've just seen how much fish Peter was able to attain from Jesus.

And if you think about giving your life up for something for the next 3 years and that 1 thing that you're giving your life up for then falls away.

No Turning Back

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