LUKE 5:1-10

1. SOMETIMES OUR EFFORTS, TOO, SEEM FUTILE:
1. Whenever I think of futility I automatically think of
1. Sisyphus, mythical king of Corinth, who was compelled for eternity to roll a rock up a high mountain. Every time he just got to the top, the rock would slip and roll back to the bottom of the valley and he had to begin all over again, and again, and again.
2. Moses, who time and again tried to lead the people the right way but time and again they rebelled and he cried out to God, "Why are You treating me, Your servant, so miserably? What did I do to deserve the burden of a people like this?" Numbers 11:11 (NLT).
3. The disciples at the foot of the mountain, who were unable to cast out the demon in the boy.
4. Paul the apostle, who established church after church only to see them riddled by pride, division and heresy.
2. Certainly anyone who has ever tried anything has felt that same futility.
1. In our prayer life: we pray and supplicate and beseech but heaven seems not to hear or heed.
2. In our Bible study: we read and meditate and search the scriptures but it seems a silent book.
3. In our home-life: we try to have peace and harmony but there is strife; we try to raise our children right but they seem to be so influenced by other forces; we try to get ahead but the money runs out before the month does.
4. In dealing with some besetting sin: we pledge, we promise, we try, but we do the very thing we detest.
5. In our vocations: everyone else seems to get the promotion, the raise, the recognition.
3. Sometimes there are frustrating roadblocks before us:
1. Sometimes other people put them there.
2. Sometimes our own foolish choices put them there.
3. Sometimes Satan seeks to block our progress.
4. Sometimes God has closed a door.
5. Sometimes circumstances beyond our control have hindered us.
4. We feel powerless, we lack resources, we are all thumbs, we don't have the wisdom we need -- and so we face futility.

There was a road block before Hannibal and he was angry. All efforts to remove the rock failed. So Hannibal cried out, "Burn it!" Burn it?!?!? Burn a rock? To the troops it seemed madness; surely their commander was not serious. They'd tried everything sensible and the rock wouldn't move; but burn it? The command made no sense. Nor did the command of Jesus. He saw the tired disciples and knew they'd toiled all night and were weary. But He said, "Put out into the deep water and let down your nets for a catch." "Put out into the deep water??? That doesn't make sense! "The fish have sounded by now; they're too deep for nets to catch them; it isn't fishing time, Jesus!" Do you wonder if they were tempted to say, "Jesus, You are a carpenter; do we tell You how to build stuff? We are fishermen, we know fishing; please don't tell us our business!"? The command made no sense to those who knew fishing.

2. SOMETIMES GOD'S COMMANDS SEEM FOOLISH TO US, TOO:
1. If that's the case it is because we are thinking like mere humans.
1. Solomon reminds us: Proverbs 16:25 "there is a way that seems right to a man, but in the end it leads to death."
2. God reminds us: Isaiah 55:9-11 "as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are My ways higher than your ways and My thoughts than your thoughts. As the rain and the snow come down from heaven, and do not return to it without watering the earth and making it bud and flourish, so that it yields seed for the sower and bread for the eater, so is My word that goes out from my mouth: it will not return to Me empty, but will accomplish what I desire and achieve the purpose for which I sent it."
2. There are many paradoxes in the Bible. A paradox is an apparent contradiction which in reality conceals profound truth. There are seemingly foolish statements, there are mind boggling concepts in the Bible: but though they may seem foolish, they are true and good and right. Hear a few: we are told to:
1. Take up a yoke that we might find rest.
2. Become great by serving.
3. Become fools for Christ that we might be truly wise.
4. Become His bond servants that we might be free.
5. Count troubles as all joy that we might be perfected.
6. Lose our lives for Christ's sake that we might find them.
7. Bless those who curse us, to feed our enemies that we might be like our Father in heaven.
3. God thinks like God (He knows the end as the beginning; He knows all the hidden factors, the details, the results, the interplay of all the parts) but man thinks like a man (narrow, lacking insight, unaware of all the details or the ramifications). Therefore what God sees as perfect sense may seem foolish to you and me.
4. But who are we to argue with God? Who do we think we are to question His call? Who gives us the place to contend with the Most High?

No matter how foolish the command of Hannibal seemed, he was the commander. So the troops fell trees and stacked the wood around the boulder. They built a huge bonfire and kept it roaring for hours. Finally, the rock yielded to the heat and with a deafening "crack!" it was split into sections. The troops were able to clear the way and Hannibal and his army descended upon the Roman outpost. Hannibal and his men won several successive and significant victories in the next couple of years because his troops were obedient. The disciples, weary though they were, dismayed by the command of Jesus though they were, still obeyed. Peter said, "Master, we worked hard all night and caught nothing, but at Your bidding I will let down the nets." And when he did, they caught so many fish their nets began to break and it took two boats to carry the catch. At His bidding, do what He says! That's how it works! That's what brings results!

3. ALWAYS, WHEN WE ARE FAITHFUL, GOD BRINGS FORTH RESULTS:
1. Listen:
1. His word does not return void.
2. Nothing is too difficult for Him.
3. What God purposes, God performs in God's own good time and in God's own way!
2. If we want God's blessing, power and providence in our lives, we must live by faith. We must take God at His word. We must do as He says.
3. Ours is to comply, His is to perform. Ours is to follow orders, His is to bring the victory. Ours is to burn the rock, His is to crack it; our is to cast the nets, His to fill them with fish.
4. One man said, "if God tells me to jump head-first through a brick wall, my job is to jump; His job is to make the hole in the wall." That's the way to blessing, to victory.

Even though Hannibal had some key victories, still the Roman enemy, in the end won; there was one more Punic war to be fought and then Carthage was utterly ruined. Hannibal ended up committing suicide rather than be humiliated. You know, it is not enough for us to win a few skirmishes in life; we must win the war. And there is a way to do that -- it is to give your life, all of it, obediently consecrated to Jesus Christ. He is the general who has already won the war. He is the one who makes us more than conquerors, not in just a few battles, but for all eternity. And we enjoy that victory in consecration to Him. Consecration means setting ourselves apart from all conflicting allegiances and commitments to be His alone, to serve and obey Him unconditionally, and to do what He says without hesitation or argument. Have you done that? If not, will you do that this morning as we sing our hymn?