Things Jesus Borrowed

THINGS JESUS BORROWED

INTRODUCTION

A. HUMOR: Don’t you just love those sales calls?

1. THE TELEPHONE CALL. A grandmother was preparing lunch for her granddaughter when the phone rang. "If you can answer one question," a young man said, "you'll win ten free dance lessons."

Before she could tell him she wasn’t interested, he continued. "You'll be a lucky winner if you can tell me what Alexander Graham Bell invented." "I don't know," she replied dryly, trying to discourage him.

"What are you holding in your hand right now?" he asked excitedly. “A bologna sandwich." "Congratulations!" he shrieked. "And for having such a great sense of humor you’ve won ten free dance lessons!"

2. CALL WAITING. Scott, an insurance broker in Florida, loves ocean fishing and takes his cell phone along on the boat. One morning he was drifting about ten miles offshore, discussing business on the phone.

Suddenly his rod bent double, and the reel screamed as line poured off the spool. Scott was master of the situation. "Pardon me," he told his customer calmly. "I have a call on another line." [I think these are from Reader’s Digest]

B. THESIS

1. How do you feel when someone asks to borrow something from you? Oh brother! The reason that we feel that way is because people just don’t take care of other people’s property. I long for the day that I won’t have to borrow things from people to get my jobs done.

2. I looked and found a promise from God. Deut 28:12-13, “The LORD will open the heavens, the storehouse of his bounty, to send rain on your land in season and to bless all the work of your hands. You will lend to many nations but will borrow from none. The LORD will make you the head, not the tail. If you pay attention to the commands of the LORD your God that I give you this day and carefully follow them, you will always be at the top, never at the bottom.”

3. It’s interesting then that our Lord Jesus had to borrow things to get His job done. (The secret is, that since everything belonged to Jesus as the Creator, all He borrowed was actually His own.)

4. I learned as a Boy Scout that you always leave/ return things BETTER than when you got there/ them. And Jesus did this. Every time Jesus returned something He borrowed, it was better than before. Let’s look at five things Jesus borrowed.

I. PETER’S FISHING BOAT

A. BOAT LOANED FOR THE GOSPEL

1. “One day as Jesus was standing by the Lake of Gennesaret, with the people crowding around him and listening to the word of God, he saw at the water's edge two boats, left there by the fishermen, who were washing their nets. He got into one of the boats, the one belonging to Simon, and asked him to put out a little from shore. Then he sat down and taught the people from the boat” Luke 5:1-3.

2. Jesus borrowed Peter & Andrew’s fishing boat to use as a floating church. After the Lord had finished He asked Peter to launch out into the deep to let down his nets for a catch.

3. If you’d just fished all night (the best time), with no success (back-breaking – hauling wet nets), and had just washed your nets and put them away – would you want to do it again? NO! But Peter honored Jesus by saying yes.

4. There’s a lot of times we don’t want to obey the Lord; a lot of times what He’s asking us to do makes no sense. That’s when we just have to trust Him and do it anyway.

B. THE REWARD FOR LOANING TO JESUS

1. “When they had done so, they caught such a large number of fish that their nets began to break. So they signaled their partners in the other boat to come and help them, and they came and filled both boats so full that they began to sink. When Simon Peter saw this, he fell at Jesus' knees and said, "Go away from me, Lord; I am a sinful man!" Then Jesus said to Simon, "Don't be afraid; from now on you will catch men." So they pulled their boats up on shore, left everything and followed him” Luke 5:6-8, 10-11.

2. Jesus rewarded Peter & Co. with undoubtedly the largest catch of fish they had ever made or heard about in their lifetimes! What a great blessing after a fruitless night of catching nothing.

3. It's awesome to serve the Lord; you can't out give God! Whenever we loan God something of ours, we shouldn’t count the cost because God will be a debtor to no one! You can’t outgive God!