With Jesus or Without Jesus

Short Talk (SHT137) With Jesus, Without Jesus © Jane Hulme 2019 Aim of Short talk: Use of Short talk: Main themes: Biblical references: Lectionary: To challenge people to respond to Jesus’ call to follow Him, by showing them that with Jesus in their lives they will be spiritually safe and fruitful but without Him they will not. This is a short All Age talk picking out one issue from the Lectionary Gospel reading of the Sunday main service. The talk stands alone and assumes that the Gospel Bible reading may not yet have been read to the congregation. It could be used for example, for the whole congregation before the children go out to their age specific groups, leaving the adults with a full sermon later. Jesus, Following, Fruitfulness Luke 5:1-11, John 15:5 Year C – The Fourth Sunday before Lent SHORT TALK: “With Jesus, Without Jesus” .................................................................................................................. Some of you here may have seen the action film “Knight and Day.”  In it Cameron Diaz accidentally gets caught up with the secret agent Tom Cruise who is on the run from the CIA. At one point in the film Cameron Diaz is in very great danger.  She wants to run away from Tom Cruise because she is not sure that she wants to follow him any longer.  Listen to what Tom Cruise says to her.1 “Your life expectancy is like here.” (Lower your arm down to your waist to indicate a low point with your hand extended out flat)  “With me it’s here”(Lift up your arm above your head with your hand extended out flat to indicate a high point)  “Without me it’s here” (Lower your arm again)  “With me” (Raise your arm again)  “Without me” (Lower your arm again)  “With me” (Raise your arm again)  “Without me” (Lower your arm again) In other words, Tom Cruise told Cameron Diaz that her life would be a lot better if she was with him, than if she went off on her own. Something similar happened to a man called Peter over two thousand years ago.  One day he discovered that his life would be a lot better if He was with Jesus, than if he was on his own. 1 If you want to see the film clip, it can be found on You Tube (www.youtube.com) by putting “Tom Cruise with me without me” into the search bar. © Jane Hulme 2019 2 Peter was a fisherman and he lived in a town called Capernaum in Galilee.  No doubt he would have seen and heard all about Jesus who was staying in his town  He may have even wondered who Jesus really was;  but one day it got really personal for him. That day began in quite an ordinary way with the task of washing nets after a night’s fishing.  Peter was probably feeling very fed up because he hadn’t caught a single fish all night. But then Jesus turned up.  Jesus got into Peter’s fishing boat and asked Peter to cast off into the lake so that He could teach the crowds of people who had gathered by the shore.  After Jesus had finished speaking He said to Peter, “Put out into deep water, and let down the nets for a catch.” (Luke 5:4) Now Peter had a moan at Jesus saying that they’d been out all night and caught nothing but eventually Peter did what Jesus told him to do.  He let down the fishing nets and to his amazement they became so full of fish that they began to break. Without Jesus, Peter caught nothing (Lower your arm down to your waist to indicate a low point with your hand extended out flat)  With Jesus, Peter’s boat almost sank with the number of fish he caught (Lift up your arm above your head with your hand extended out flat to indicate a high point)  “Without Jesus” (Lower your arm again)  “With Jesus” (Raise your arm again)  “Without Jesus” (Lower your arm again)  “With Jesus” (Raise your arm again) Peter realised that Jesus was someone very, very special.  As a result he left everything to follow Jesus. Now Jesus invites each one of us to follow Him too.  He says that with Him our lives will be safe for all eternity. (Lift up your arm above your head with your hand extended out flat to indicate a high point)  With Him our lives will be fruitful,  whereas without Him the opposite is true. (John 15:5) (Lower your arm down to your waist to indicate a low point with your hand extended out flat)  “With Jesus” (Raise your arm again)  “Without Jesus” (Lower your arm again)  “With Jesus” (Raise your arm again)  “Without Jesus” (Lower your arm again) I wonder how you will choose to live.  “With Jesus” (Raise your arm again) or “Without Jesus” (Lower your arm again)  “With Jesus” (Raise your arm again) or “Without Jesus” (Lower your arm again) © Jane Hulme 2019 3