Luke 5

(Audio: English)

SUMMARY: The passage in Luke 5 speaks about the challenges of service and the rewards of service. When we are called into the Kingdom of God, we are called to serve sacrificially and to adopt a new way of looking at the world. The passage also illustrates how Jesus faced a dilemma with a multitude of people pressing upon him, and he chose a natural solution to step away from the crowd and preach from a boat. This serves as a metaphor for the need to proclaim the message of salvation to the world, and how God has chosen to assign that task to his church, human beings.

God could have chosen a supernatural way to proclaim the message of salvation, but instead, He chose to use human beings, specifically the Church. Our lives are like Peter's boat, the vessel that Jesus wants to use to solve the dilemma of the ages and proclaim His message to a needy multitude. We have a choice to allow Jesus to step into our boat and fulfill His need, whether it's through serving in a fellowship, visiting someone in the hospital, or becoming a pastor. Sometimes, we may have a crisis moment where God asks us to give sacrificially or serve in a project, but we must always say yes and obey God. Depending on our choice, certain rewards will emerge.

The speaker talks about the importance of serving God with all our resources, including our time, money, relationships, and talents. He emphasizes the paradoxical nature of the Christian faith, where sacrificing oneself leads to fulfillment and blessings from God. Using the story of Peter lending his boat to Jesus, the speaker encourages listeners to give sacrificially and trust God for their needs. He also highlights the importance of obedience and putting God first in all aspects of life. The talk ends with a call to commit to a life of service to God.

The speaker calls for a life of service to God, giving all gifts and resources to Him. They pray for the courage to be used by God in big and small ways, every day. They ask the audience to embrace this call to service and say yes to God's will.

Luke 5, I’d like to speak to you about servants. In my mind, as a matter of fact, last night we had a meeting with the team that’s leading this effort to sort of, send off this English ministry, and we were talking about the need for people. Also Greg was suggesting to do different things for ministry. We really want to raise our servants right from this group, rather than import them from the Spanish service.

And you know, when you begin a new ministry there’s always a need. It’s a great time, by the way, when a church is much larger, you know, people come and they want to serve, and it’s sometimes hard to find them a place because everything seems to be taken. But in the beginnings of a ministry it’s always so much easier, there’s need everywhere.