Sunday Morning Sermon Series - Pastor Jeff Shipley (Date: 07/18/2021)

Doctrine, Grace, and the Difference Between Church and the People of God

Now I want you to pay attention. It wasn't anything in Israel. It wasn't their military size. It wasn't the type of people they were down to use.

The guy who prays God and your Bible to Luke chapter 5 verses 1 through 11. Luke chapter 5 verses 1 through 11. I want to talk to you today about doctrine, just for a second. Now I know some of you were brought up in church.

And you were taught basically the same thing over and over and over and over again. You were taught that Jesus is good and the devil is bad. And you need to obey and tithe and go to church and be just like this.

Don't smoke, don't drink, don't have tattoos. Man, if that was really a rule, my church would be in hell. I mean it really would. That and colored hair. We would just be jacked up. Right? Well, she's a troll.

Guys, but we didn't learn the Word of God and so then we think something is wrong with God's grace because when trials and temptations come, we fold up like a lawn chair. You see, it is the doctrine, the absolute truth of the Word of God that gives you that joy and that strength to move on.

It is not the religion of your youth nor the nostalgia of belonging to a religious organization. You can be by yourself and be just as strong as you are when you're sitting here singing with an orchestra.

You can be that strong because it is the Holy Spirit of God, not the religion of man, that gives you the power to persevere in today's time. Now, how do you get that? Well, some people think you've got to pray a certain way or you've got to observe some sort of religious culture.

Some of you actually go to church when there is no such thing as going to church. Nowhere in Scripture, the word ecclesia doesn't ever refer to a building or a local organization. It refers to the people of God throughout all time.

I am as much a part of the church as Abraham was. And yes, Abraham is part of that church. Now, okay, that's not how you get it, pastor. How do you get it? You need to surrender some things. Listen to me.

Conversion, Surrender, and Sanctification as a Daily Process

Conversion. When were you all saved? Well, hold on, let me ask it in the right context. When did you accept Jesus Christ your Lord and Savior? When was it? And some of you dorks sit and go, well, back in August of...

No, you were saved before the foundation of the world. Go read actual Scripture. You were saved before time began. But at some point in your life, you were converted. You understand the difference between the two?

God did the saving. I didn't find God. God found me. His grace found me in the depths of despair and absolute corruption. And God in His sovereign grace reached down and picked me up and saved me. You see, my conversion experience is when I realized and I surrendered to what God had already done.

God has been at work. He didn't wait for me to say, go, for God to go, weep, weep, weep, you know. Oh, well, Jack's walking down the aisle. Let's all run. The finished work of Jesus Christ when He said, it is finished means it is finished.

Now, I came to realize that. But here's the second thing. The doctrine of sanctification is that lifelong process. What's the word sanctified mean, church? Set apart. I'm so happy y 'all aren't from Bellevue.

That's right. I actually learned them doctrines. Bellevue's a good church. Sanctified means to be continually set apart for holiness. Holiness. You see, my surrender and my conversion and my sanctification are all the same thing and it has to happen on a daily basis.

Remember when you got saved? That little failing in your heart? And then after three days or six months or whatever, the newness wore off? Guys, that is found nowhere in Scripture. What happened is God delivered you and you went back into bondage again because you thought that surrendering was a one-time thing when you walked down the aisle.

To be the Christian of power and maturity, what you come to realize is you need to walk down that aisle every day. Some of you need to walk down that aisle every hour. Some of us, when we're driving in Memphis, need to be walking down that aisle every minute, right?

Some of us, when we're UT fans on Saturday afternoons, we, in the last 20 years, have constantly been in a place of surrender because UT has been, so we might as well, right? Surrender is an everyday thing.

Peter, Simon, and the Call to Follow Jesus

Luke 9, 23. If anyone wishes to come after me, let him deny himself, take up his cross, and follow me. Guys, let's read about a guy named Peter. Let's call him Rocky, shall we? Petros is the word. Petros and Petra.

Petros is a small stone that can be moved. Petra is the unmovable rock. And for those of you, just a real quick thing on Peter. That's what Peter's name is. Peter met Jesus, and Jesus looked at Peter and said, your name is no longer going to be Simon, it's going to be Petros.

Peter, okay? So, here we go, a couple of months later, Luke 5, verse 1. As the crowd was pressing in on Jesus to hear God's word, he was standing by Lake Gennaroset. Now, that's also in Scripture known as the Sea of Galilee.

Sometimes it's called Lake Tiberias or the Sea of Tiberias. Anyways, he saw two boats at the edge of the lake. The fishermen had left them and were washing their nets. He got into the boats which belonged to Simon, i .e., Peter, belonged to Simon, and asked him to put a little out from the land.

He then sat down and was teaching the crowds from the boat. When he had finished speaking, he said to Simon, put out into deep water and let down your nets for a catch. Master, Simon said, we've been working hard all night long and have caught nothing.

But at your word, I will let down the nets. When they did this, they caught a great number of fish, and the nets began to tear. So they signaled to their partners, which were James and John, they signaled to their partners in the other boat to come and help them.

They came and filled both boats so full that they began to sink. Okay, now they're sitting out in 40 feet of water. You know, this is waist deep. They'd gotten them up on the shore, or gotten them near the shore, and they were throwing them in the boat, and they were starting to begin to sink.

When Simon Peter saw this, note the word change, Simon, Simon, now Simon Peter. When Simon Peter saw this, he fell at Jesus' knees and said, go away from me because I am a sinful man, Lord. For he and all those who were with him were amazed at the catch of fish they took.

And so were James and John, Zebedee's sons, who were Simon's partners. Don't be afraid, Jesus told Simon. From now on, you will be catching people. Then they brought their boats to land, left everything, and followed him.

Distractions. You know why it's so hard for us to surrender sometimes? It's because of distractions, man. Now, this is not the first time Peter had met Jesus. In John chapter 1, we see that Peter had already met Jesus.

Remember the whole thing with Philip, right? And Nathaniel, remember that? They went to Peter, or at that time his name was Simon, and they said, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey. Kind of like Justin Alger. Hey, hey, hey, I got a guy who's the Messiah.

Come and meet him. And so Peter was like, I ain't got nothing else to do. So he went and met Jesus. He walked up to Jesus, and this is how the conversation went. You can find this in John 1, 35, 36 on there.

He walked up to Jesus and said, Jesus looked at him and said, oh, you're Simon. Your name's going to be Peter now. Now, I don't know about you, but let's get rid of the church felt board theology for a second.

Let's think about this in real life. I just met someone. I can't remember who it was. I just met someone new. And if I walked up to him and he goes, hey, my name's John, I go, not anymore. Your name is now Bubba.

Man, he's gone. He's leaving. That's what Jesus did to Peter. And you know what Peter did? Peter was like, okay, Captain. And he went on back to fishing. But that's still not the only time. A couple of months later, Peter's mother-in-law got sick.

I mean, she was bad sick, like sick unto death. Now, it doesn't say that Peter went and sought out Jesus. I mean, let's be honest. It was a mother-in-law, not that big of a loss. But Peter is sitting there and Jesus shows up at the mother-in-law's house.

He shows up there and he says, be healed. And the Bible says immediately Peter's mother-in-law was healed. You know what Peter did? I'm going back to fishing. And he went back to fishing. Third time is what we're reading today.

The third time, Peter's sitting there fishing again. Now, he is intrigued. He has been intrigued. He has some questions. He is curious about who this guy is that healed his mother-in-law. He is curious that this guy has some sort of self-identity authority to go around changing people's names.

So he's sitting there and he's fishing. And it's the morning time and Jesus comes up and the crowd's pressing in around him because it was the latest book about 40 days of purpose or whatever. And Joel Holstein's crowd was crowding around because there was something new.

Because I can't stay fired up on Jesus unless I'm constantly entertained. Some of y 'all's spiritual life is like a two-year-old. You've got to have a cartoon and dancing cucumbers to stay focused, right?

Okay? So they're sitting there and this latest, greatest thing of God's Word is here. And people are like, Whoo! This is fresh! This is fire! This is smoke machines and electric guitars and ahhh! And so they were all gathering around Jesus.

Jesus was like, Whoa! The crowd's too much. And he got into Peter's boat and pushed out just a little bit. Now, the disciples are sitting there washing them nets. And after Jesus finished preaching, he looks at the guys, Hey, kind of a little payment here.

You know, for letting me use your boat maybe. Actually, it was an awesome encounter in which Peter was about to start coming to realize some things about conversion. He says, Boys, push on out. You see, Peter had constantly been distracted by work.

He had constantly been distracted about the cares of the world so that his surrender was not fully realized. And he thought that just because, and if you read there, Jesus said, Hey, go throw your nets back out.

What did Peter call Jesus? He called him Master. Look here. You can read it. Verse 5, I think. Verse 5, it sits there and says, Where is verse 5? There you go. Master, Simon replied. You see, Peter had come to realize there was something special about Jesus.

Like some of you in this room today. You realize that this whole Jesus and God thing, there's something to it. This whole Jesus and God thing, that hole in your heart that religion cannot fill. That hole in your heart that no matter how many accomplishments you make it work, there's still something missing.

That hole in your heart that you keep trying to feed in the codependent idea of a significant other or more money and all this, and you achieve it. And just like Solomon said, there is nothing new under the sun and all life is vanity without God.

You keep trying to search for something else. That's where Peter was. He had a moral respect. He had an ethos of respect of who Jesus was. But to Jesus, He was just a master, a teacher. He was someone to be respected.

Guys, one of the biggest distractions you will have in your sanctification process is you will treat your Christian life as a Christian life rather than a disciple of Christ. Come here for a second. Do you know how many times the Word of God calls us Christians?

Five. Do you know how many times it calls us disciples? Over 300. But we have adopted a cultural norm of a nom de guerre that has nothing to do with really telling us who we are. Our job as a Christian, listen to me, is not to be part of a religious sect.

We are to be followers, i .e. disciples of Jesus Christ. The very thing that we hold in high regard, our religion, our beliefs, our faith, are actually a distraction from the surrender to the person of Jesus Christ.

You can't go to church and be surrendered. In other words, if you're here on a Sunday morning, I go to church every Sunday, and that is the hallmark, that is the high watermark of your Christian achievement, you are missing out and are distracted by the very thing that you think you're serving, but you're serving religion and not Jesus.

Discipleship is every moment of every day. It is a continual. Thessalonians tells us, pray without ceasing. I remember when I was confirmed. I was confirmed, and I remember that at that point I was told, I was 13 years old, I went to confirmation.

How many of y 'all been to confirmation class? Okay, well the rest of you are going to hell. You have to have confirmation class. It's there in the Greek if you read it. No. I remember going, and I remember the priest coming up to me and telling me, now you are filled with the Holy Spirit.

He gave me a little tap on the cheek. And I was like, yo man, what's up? You gonna hit me again? I'll knock you out. No, I didn't say that, but I was now filled with the Holy Spirit. Mm-hmm. I wasn't filled with no Holy Spirit.

Yeah, it wasn't no Holy Spirit. Yeah, some of you knew me back in the old days. You know that wasn't the Holy Spirit. Guys, you get distracted by religion. You get distracted by your morals. You also get distracted by your work.

Look at this. Understand this though. Some of you, like Peter, are still looking for something. Here's the whole Jesus thing right here. And you're kind of like, remember when you were a kid and your mama ran the bathtub or something, you know, or when you're getting in a pool and it's 930 degrees outside, but you dive in and it's like, oh, it's still cold.

You're doing with Jesus kind of like that. You're kind of dipping your foot into it going, yeah, I know I need something. I know something needs to change. But you're being distracted because of fears or a sense of control and you're staying away.

Peter's sitting there. He had seen Jesus change His name. He had seen Jesus turn water into wine. He had seen Jesus heal his mother-in-law. And he was interested in what Jesus said. He obeyed a rule or obeyed Jesus' voice when He said, hey, go cast out your nets.

But it was still not a full surrender that God commands us to do at salvation. Some of you in this room are going to end up going to hell in a handbasket because you asked Jesus Christ in your heart, but He never has ever been there because you never fully surrendered to the Lordship of Jesus Christ.

Now I know that doesn't make some of you happy in here because you have metastasized the lie to such a degree that you hold more faith in your prayer than you do the blood of Jesus Christ. Guys, listen to me.

Listen to me. The road to destruction is broad. And it's not going to be filled with people who are drugs and guns and liberal democrats. Okay? Even though that is going to be a large section. But guys, listen.

The road to hell is paved. I promise you it's paved by the blocks of religion. I promise you that. Listen to me today. Do not be distracted in your surrendering to Christ. Here's the second thing. The second thing is doubt.

Distractions hurt you. Doubt will kill you. Watch this. Jesus said, Hey, Peter, throw your nets out. Throw your nets out. And you're going to catch a big old load. Now look what Peter responded. This is me.

I'm just like Peter. I'm the biggest loser in the world. Watch this. So Jesus said, Hey, Peter, do this. Now watch this. He said, But Master, I'm going to show you that respect. I'm going to be a nice guy.

But Master, we've worked hard all night and caught nothing. But at Your word, I'll let down the nets. Now I actually read a sermon by a pastor in the 1950's and this was his main text. And it said, Oh!

Look at this faith of Peter that even though this didn't seem logical, what great faith he had in Jesus. No. No. You're really reaching there, buddy. Let me tell you what this is. Think of it like this.

Peter's looking at Jesus and going, You carpenter, I fisherman. I know what I'm doing. Dude, stay in your lane. But he was a non-confrontationalist. Do you know what I mean? You know what I'm talking about.

He didn't want to rock the boat. Huh? God, that was so good. Oh, I'm hanging around Ashley way too much. He didn't want to rock the boat. This wasn't an act of faith. This was an act of compliance. How many of y 'all have limitations?

How many of you have standards that have more to do with compliance in the acceptance of the Christian social norm than an absolute wanting to love Jesus Christ and wanting His approval? How many of you in this room seek the approval of the men and women of a church structure more than you assume or more than you want to have the approval of Jesus Christ?

Well, I don't know. Well, I'm going to help you out with it. Here's the great litmus test. How do you act on here on Sunday morning? And how do you act when no one else is watching? In other words, what you do in private does not match what you confess in public.

You see, you doubt. You have this offering that you give. Now guys, you're sitting there saying, why are you harping on it so much? Well, number one, I'm not. It's called the Holy Spirit. If you're feeling conviction, I promise you it's not for me because I'm a high school dropout.

Okay? I'm an idiot. If you're feeling conviction, don't run from it. Don't resist it. Surrender to it. And not like Peter did on the outside by being religiously culturally accepted. Surrender to it on the inside and watch Him change your life.

Look what Peter sat here and did. He sat there and he went, well, okay, I'll do it. So he threw it out there. Now, guys, remember this. If you don't remember anything else today, remember this. Respect is not repentance.

Please remember that. Respect is not repentance. I'm going to finish up this last thing. Do you know what Peter needed to actually obey? And this is where I think I've been here sometimes too. Peter needed a miracle to move.

You know what I'm saying? I'll be honest with you. Maybe y 'all are better Christians than I am, but I'll be honest with you. There are some times where I just go, is Robert and Candace here today? Okay.

He's still in the hospital. I'll be honest with you. 39-year-old guy with cancer, with Down syndrome kid. I know this ain't going to sound very pastorial, but I've prayed several times, God, what's the deal?

Can you throw this guy a break? I'm just being honest. Yes, that's doubt. Yes, I falter. Guys, I don't walk on water and I wasn't born in a manger, okay? I'm just like you. I'm struggling just like you.

And I'm sitting here looking at Robert. I'm going, I know this sounds stupid, but I have this thing in my head where I'm like, God, can you put this on a child molester on death row? I know that sounds harsh, but that's where my brain goes.

Sometimes I sit there and I go, okay, I don't want to put anything else on Jesus. So like the microsecond before Jesus dies, God, can you put that cancer on Him? God, can we make that cancer go into the middle of the sun?

God, please. Do you ever get tired of praying? I'm sorry if that sounds bad. I do. I'm sorry. I do. I'm like, God, really? Seriously? God, just show me a miracle. God, how much more would our country heal if you would just show up and look at Joe Biden and say, get thee behind me!

Right? If you would walk up to Nancy Pelosi and just, right? I mean, you know, couldn't happen to a nicer chick. God, just show up. Show out. We'd repent. Ah, but it wouldn't be in faith. It wouldn't be in faith.

And that would grow as cold as the religious commitment. By the way, do you need a miracle to move? Coded three times in ICR. Doctors saying whatever. Docs told their husband, sign the DNR. She ain't going to make it.

Need a miracle to move? I got alcoholics in here that have been dry. I got drug addicts in here that are clean. Guys, I got godless pigs, heathens in here that have been converted. Guys, we got religious church people that grew up in church and hated everything that God softened their hearts and brought them back to Christ.

You want a miracle in here? You can't swing a dead cat in here without hitting someone as a miracle. Guys, sometimes you need to look at the very trophies of God's grace that are sitting beside of you instead of waiting for the red seat apart.

Guys, recognize God's work. Last thing, and I'm done. You got distractions, you got doubt. Here's the point where you can be changed today. Where you can sit there and go, I'm done. You ever reach that point?

How many times have you been arguing with your wife? I mean, I personally have never argued with my wife. Oh, Sarah and I never argue. There you go. He don't lie neither. How many times have you been arguing with someone and you go, I'm done, whatever.

You know? I mean, I know none of you men do, but that's what the chicks do, right? I'm done, whatever. I'm going to go get my nails done. That sounded more gay than feminine, but you get my point. You get my point.

You get my point. Guys, be honest with you though. That's where some of y 'all need to be this morning. You need to be done. Look at what Peter did. Now watch the transformation in one verse. Watch this.

It says right here in verse 5, Master, we have worked hard all night and caught nothing, but at your word I'll let down my nets. Now the nets are filled. Oh my gosh. And look at what Peter did. Peter ran to the feet of Jesus and said this, Get away from me, Jesus, for I am a sinful man.

Now if I was Jesus, I'd be like, Well, you ran up on me, you know? Tell me to move, you stand back. No, but that's not what Jesus did. It's really cool. Peter ran to Christ and said, Look at me, watch the name change, Lord.

Do not look at me, Lord, for I am unworthy. We went from Master to Lord in one heartbeat. Some of you in this room, you believe Jesus as your Master on an ethical or moral level, but you've never accepted Him as your Lord.

Romans 10 says, Confess with your mouth, Jesus Christ as, for whoever shall call upon the name of thee will be saved. It ain't the little baby Jesus in the manger. It's Jesus Christ as your Lord and Master.

Listen, Lord will always precede Master.