|
Lafayette Church of Christ
Follow Him, and Mean It
Sunday Bible Class & Morning Sermon · August 2, 2026
|
|
Two lessons worth carrying home this week: a Bible class on the morning Peter left everything to follow Jesus, and the sermon on a people who honored God with their lips while their hearts drifted far from Him.
|
At a Glance
|
|
Scripture
Luke 5:1–11 (class) & Matthew 15:1–20, Isaiah 29 (sermon)
|
Speakers
This week's Bible class teacher & preacher
|
Theme
Rescued to follow Him, with a heart that matches your lips.
|
|
|
Part One · Sunday Bible Class
The Morning Peter Left the Boat
Luke 5:1–11
|
| 01 |
The Man Who Caught Nothing |
|
| · |
Everything in Peter's life up to this point depended on how good he was at being a fisherman. Feeding his family, providing for them, all of it "relied solely on how good or how bad he was at being a fisherman." |
| · |
He had fished all night and caught nothing. Up all night, likely grumpy, hungry, and with nothing to take home to his family. Our teacher asked us to sit with that mood before a stranger ever stepped into the boat. |
| · |
Then Jesus, whom Peter had never met, tells the professional fisherman where to fish: "Put out into the deep and let down your nets for a catch" (v4). Peter's answer amounts to, why not, I hadn't caught anything already. The nets come up full. |
| · |
Peter's reaction is the point. "When Peter saw it, he fell down at Jesus' knees, saying, 'Depart from me, for I am a sinful man, O Lord'" (v8). That, our teacher said, is the moment Peter finally got it, who he was dealing with. |
|
|
Ask Yourself
Peter met Jesus on a tired, empty-handed morning, not a mountaintop. When was the last time you let Jesus into the ordinary, frustrated part of your week instead of waiting for a Sunday when everything felt right?
|
|
| 02 |
Rescued, Then Followed |
|
| · |
Notice what Jesus offered. Not fame, not more money, not popularity. Only, "I'm going to make you a fisher of men." That is the exact opposite of what the world tries to sell us as valuable. |
| · |
A soccer coach put words to it. Pulling out his phone, he told our teacher, "We cannot offer what this offers kids now." Everything the world sells is instant, and it never satisfies: "chasing the tail of a cat that you're never going to catch." |
| · |
What did following cost Peter? Everything. His only income, his family, his status. And he said, in effect, "I don't care. I'm following him." The question turned on us: what has following Jesus cost you? |
| · |
Peter needed rescuing, and so did we, more than in any hard spot we have ever been in. We couldn't earn our way out, and He did it for us. The steps are plain: he was rescued, then he followed. The teacher's question lingered, when we got rescued, did we follow, and are we different now than we were then? |
|
|
Ask Yourself
Every strong person of faith in Scripture had outward actions that showed it. Think back to the day you were rescued. If someone only watched how you live now, would they see anything different from who you were then?
|
|
Key Quotes · Bible Class
|
This week's Bible class teacher · on our need for rescue
“There's nothing that you're ever going to experience in this world, no matter how awful it gets, that is worse than being separate from God.”
|
|
This week's Bible class teacher · on faith that acts
“If we want to be considered people of strong faith, there has to be a component of action.”
|
|
Part Two · Morning Sermon
Lips Near, Heart Far
Matthew 15:1–20 · Isaiah 29:13–14 · from the series “Voice in the Wilderness: Echoes of the Messiah”
|
| 01 |
When Tradition Wears a Command's Crown |
|
| · |
Our preacher opened with the gut-drop of a rug pulled out: the pilot who never flew, the coach who only watched YouTube videos, the consultant whose last eight companies all went bankrupt. That is how the crowd felt when Jesus called the Pharisees, the people they trusted most, hypocrites. |
| · |
In Matthew 15 the Pharisees ask why Jesus' disciples ignore the tradition of the elders about washing hands before eating. Jesus answers with a command they had broken, "Honor your father and mother," and the loophole they invented to get out of caring for their parents by declaring their support "given to God." |
| · |
They kept a tradition like a commandment and let an actual commandment quietly fall away. "It is not what goes into the mouth that defiles a person, but what comes out of the mouth." |
|
|
Ask Yourself
Is there something you hold to firmly and call biblical that you have never actually traced back to book, chapter, and verse? What would it take to open the Book and check, honestly, whether it is God's command or just the way it has always been done?
|
|
| 02 |
Lining Up the Heart and the Lips |
|
| · |
How does a tradition harden into a supposed command? Slowly, and with the best of intentions. God's word is received, applied as faithfully as people know how, and the reasons get explained. All good. But over a generation or two, that one application becomes the only application, and then it gets taught as the meaning of the text itself. |
| · |
This all traces back to Isaiah 29:13, read that morning: "This people draw near with their mouth and honor me with their lips, while their hearts are far from me." Yet read one verse further and the warning is wrapped in grace: "I will again do wonderful things with this people." |
| · |
That is the sober part: blessings all around us are not proof we are exactly where we should be. "We can be close to God in our lips, praying, praising, present," and still have a heart far from Him. |
| · |
He closed with his grandfather's Air Force depth-perception test, lining up two rods just right. That, he said, is the daily work of faith: doing what we can each day to line up our hearts and our lips as close to the Lord as we can. And with three baptisms in recent weeks and a rededication that very morning, the invitation was simple, come as you are and get lined up with Him. |
|
|
Ask Yourself
Nobody keeps their heart and their lips perfectly aligned, and this week's preacher was the first to admit he doesn't either. So the real question is the one he left us with: are you here because you want them to be? Where is one place this week your words about God and the state of your heart are out of line, and are you willing to keep adjusting rather than give up?
|
|
Key Quotes · Sermon
|
This week's preacher · on tradition
“Just because it's called a tradition doesn't mean it's not being treated as a commandment.”
|
|
This week's preacher · in closing
“It's okay that you don't have them perfectly lined up right now, because I don't either.”
|
|
Subscribe & Read Past Issues
Share that link to invite others to join, manage your own subscription, or read past issues anytime. Want a paper copy? Open any issue there and print it right from your browser.
|
|
Last week: crowds watched Jesus heal, raise, and calm the sea and still would not see, while Isaiah looked up and beheld the King who was Christ.
Lafayette Church of Christ · August 2, 2026
|
|
|