First of all, I want to thank Tom for filling in for me last week. I know God used you man, and I am so grateful for your willingness to step up to the plate and share that message.
I want you to know how wonderful it was to be able to get away and spend time with my family. We have not had a vacation like that since we have been at Emmaus, and it was wonderful to do that.
This week we are continuing our study of Jesus’ life and ministry as we fix our eyes on Him. Remember that we are doing this study as a result of our look at Hebrews 12 where the writer says to “fix our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of our faith.” All of this is because we are to Run a race called the Christian life, and the way we do it is to look at Jesus, and to keep looking at Jesus. So that is our purpose this summer. We want to look at Jesus’ life, and some of the things He did so that we know His example, and so that we might grow in our affections for Him, and increase our worship of Him!
Open your Bibles if you have one to Luke 5 we are going to be reading from verse 1-11. While you are finding that in your Bible, let me pose this question: Why do you follow Jesus? Now that assumes that you are a follower of Jesus, so for the sake of those who may not follow Jesus, you should be asking yourself this question: Why am I not following Jesus? So whether or not you follow Jesus, let me suggest this. Whatever it is you are following in life, here is the ultimate reason: You will follow the thing that you are convinced will bring you the most Joy. If you are not following Jesus, you believe that you are capable of providing yourself with the most joy, be it through some type of activity, or hobby, or pursuit, or pleasure. You do what you do, or follow what you follow because ultimately you are convinced it will bring your heart the most joy. Now, I think all of us will admit that at our core, if we are convinced that something will in fact bring us the most joy in life, we will leave all other things and pursue that thing.
Blaise Pascal put this truth into these words:
“All men seek happiness. This is without exception. Whatever different means they employ, they all tend to this end. The cause of some going to war, and of others avoiding it, is the same desire in both, attended with different views. The will never takes the least step but to this object. This is the motive of every action of every man, even of those who hang themselves.”
― Blaise Pascal

So, the question I hope to answer is this: What will bring you true joy?
That is what we are going to find out in our reading today. Lets get into it.

I want to say right off the bat that my goal here is not to guilt you into giving up more stuff for Jesus, or for leaving everything to follow Jesus, because that is not the point. The point of this story is this, these disciples of Jesus did not have to be convinced to give things up for Jesus. They saw something in Jesus that was so compelling that they dropped EVERYTHING to follow HIm. So the end game of Todays message is not a guilt trip, but a clearer view of Jesus’ call to follow him.
So what was so compelling to the disciples?

Jesus is better than any occupation. Luke 5:27
Jesus is better than a home. Matthew 8:18
Jesus is better than stuff. Matthew 19:16
Jesus is Better than Your family. Luke 14:25
Jesus is better than life. John 6:66-69