I'll Take You At Your Word

Well, who can't wait to get into a
sleeping bag in a tent?
>> No thunderstorms.
>> Brilliant.
>> Well, good morning church.
>> Let's turn, can we, to the the Bible in
the New Testament, the book of Luke and
chapter 5.
Luke chapter 5.
Nevertheless,
at your word.
Luke 5:1. One day Jesus was standing by
the lake of Ganessat. And the people
were crowded 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 the shore. Then he sat
down and taught the people from the
boat.
When he had finished speaking, he said
to Simon, "Put out into deep water and
let down the nets for a catch." Simon
answered, "Master, we've worked hard all
night and haven't caught anything. But
because you say so,
I will let down the nets.
>> 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. For he and all
his companions, were astonished at the
catch of fish they had taken. And so
were James and John, the sons of
Zebedee, Simon's partners.
Then Jesus said to Simon, "Don't be
afraid.
From now on, you will fish for people."
So they pulled their boats up on shore,
left everything, and followed him. This
event uh came early
in Jesus' public ministry. He'd been
baptized by John the Baptist. He'd
overcome the temptations of the devil in
the wilderness. He declared himself to
be Messiah in the temple. He had already
healed many people of diseases. And now
he began to assemble for himself a bunch
of of disciples to train and teach.
When Jesus was preparing and he's doing
his preaching and teaching there that
day, he'd already attracted a great
number of people, a crowd of people and
they'd become so large they were
pressing up against him uh on the
shoreline. So he decides to take a boat,
get Simon's boat and say, "Simon, let's
just take out a little into the water um
so that I can preach from there." So
they had a natural outdoor theater on
the boat.
Everybody then could hear the teachings
of Jesus.
After he finishes preaching to the crowd
and telling them who God is and what his
will is, he says to Simon Peter, he
says,
"I want you to catch fish, but I want
you to go on and catch people."
He said when he finished speaking, he
said to Simon, "Put out into deep water
and let down the nets for a catch."
Simon answered, "Master, we've worked
whole night hard and haven't caught
anything. But because you say so, I will
let down the net." So, I want us to just
take a a little look at this passage
this morning. Just go a bit deeper into
perhaps what God wants to say to us as
people today. The first thing is this.
The motive of deep water. How many of
you like getting into deep water?
You know, we we think about getting into
deep water as being a problem, right?
>> It's a problem to be in deep water
because somehow we're going to sink if
we can't swim good.
>> And so he says to Simon, he said, "I
want you in verse four, he said, I want
you to go out into deep water."
What was Jesus trying to say here?
Perhaps it was that he wanted us today
and Peter to notice that day that
actually uh this was a an obedience
despite experience test. An obedience
despite experience test along with James
and John the sons of de Zebedee. Peter
Simon Peter was an expert fisherman.
Anybody experts today in fishing? No.
a little. Anyone expert in something
today?
Come on. I'm sure there's a few of you
that are expert in something today.
God requires our obedience despite our
experience.
Peter along with them, they obeyed
the command of Jesus, who by the way was
known as a carpenter from Nazareth. What
does he know about fishing?
He might know a bit about woodwork,
>> but what does he know about fishing?
Yet,
when Jesus said it, Simon did it. It's
amazing, isn't it? Simple. Do you know
the the Bible can be summed up by this?
Hear what God has to say and obey. Let's
shorten it. Hear and obey.
You can sum up the Bible with this. Hear
God, obey God.
Simon did that.
Yet, here's Peter, an expert in his own
field of fishing, hearing the master say
these words to him, and he's thinking,
"This is the wrong time.
It's during the daytime." How many of
you know that fishing happens in the
nighttime or very, very early morning
before dawn, right? Fishing, come on.
Anyone that fishes here knows this.
It's the wrong time. is daytime. It's
the wrong place. It's deep water. And
see, the the fishermen in this season,
in this time, in this place, tended to
fish more shallow waters.
Jesus said, "I want you to go into the
deep water." And Peter's obedience here
actually teaches us that obedience to
God's word needs to override human
logic.
How many of you know when God speaks, it
often doesn't make natural sense to us.
>> God tells him to go to the wrong time in
the wrong place to fish.
But Peter says, "Okay, God."
I want to say that that God will require
at times from us to be in the wrong
place at the wrong time because he wants
us to teach us something about the fact
that he sees what we don't see. He knows
what we don't know.
Notice here there is comfort in the
shallows.
I don't know about you, but when I was
young, before everybody could swim, I
was happy in the shallow end of the
pool.
It was nice and comfortable.
>> And one day with my rubber ring on,
I got bow and I decided my rubber ring
would keep me afloat.
And so I dived into deeper water.
Guess what happened? My rubber ring
didn't stay on me.
I learned that day.
It was the wrong time in the wrong place
to be trying that out. I wasn't a
swimmer.
Thank God I live to tell the tale.
Do you see? There's comfort in the
shadows. In the shallows. And most
fishing in that time occurred in the
shallows because they were more easily
caught there. And so by demanding that
Peter should launch into the deep during
the day, he was challenging Peter to get
out of his comfort zone, out of his
safety, out of the comforts of human
logic and known patterns. He was
demanding that actually he trusted what
he said to him.
One of the things that as we get to know
God more and more is we understand that
we can trust him.
We can trust him.
But even when we become a mature
Christian of many years of following
Jesus, he still calls us to trust him.
How many of you know, those of us that
have been Christians for a long time,
that we can we can get into the comfort
of where we are at, what God has already
done for us. And when God says something
that is the wrong time and the wrong
place, it can still be scary.
God, scare us some more.
Scare us some more, God. So that we can
trust you. Learn to trust you. Learn to
hear your voice and obey.
God calls us out of control.
Because one of the safety nets for most
of us is the word control. I'm in
control of my circumstances. I'm in
control of my job. I'm in control of the
finances. Whatever it may be, God calls
us out of control into his into his
keeping, into his safekeeping.
So there is there is the comfort of the
shallows, but there's also the cost of
deep water. To appreciate the deep, as I
found as a young boy, you have to launch
into it. And deep water represents areas
of life that where we can't touch the
bottom and we have to rely on our own
strength.
But if we're going to be people that
trust God, he wants to take us to a
place where we can't any longer rely on
our own strength. We can't rely on what
we know or the logic or the the things
that we've already learned, but we've
got to trust him who wants to take us
even deeper.
So being a follower of Jesus actually
means to trust him to believe in him to
understand that actually we need to
place oursel in his keeping. In fact the
word believe means that it means to
place yourself into his keeping.
Who's the keeper of my life?
Who's the keeper of your life?
>> We take oursel and place oursel. That's
what the word believe means. Some of us
think that believe means a mental
agreement. No, it doesn't actually. It
actually means more than that. There's
an action involved in believing. And the
action is to place oursel into God's
keeping to trust him.
Isaiah 26:3 says, "You will keep him in
perfect peace whose mind is stayed on
you because he trusts in you." God wants
to bring us to a place in the deep where
our trust is completely in him. And so
the motive of deep water is to is
complete trust and reliance on Jesus.
Number two, the moment of nevertheless.
I love this word. Nevertheless, is not a
word we use very often in English today,
but it is a good word. Nevertheless,
here we see Peter, James, and John all
like fishermen. They expect to catch
something.
These guys didn't fish for fun like
maybe some of us have done at times.
These guys actually fish because it was
their livelihood. They did what they did
for a living. This is how they fed their
families. Their whole lifestyle depended
on what they caught.
Of course, experience taught them that
they should expect to catch fish. They
were seasoned fishermen. They had the
right equipment. I knew what time to go
and make a good catch. And this is why
Peter says in verse five, "Master, we've
worked all night and caught nothing.
Sometimes it seems that we're at work
all night. We stand in faith and still
catch nothing. Still see nothing
happening." So Jesus says to Simon in
verse four, "Put into deep water and let
your nets down for a catch." Peter's
response, I love this. This seasoned
fisherman who understood fishing, Jesus
the carpenter, his master says to him,
he says, "Put out into deep water. Let
down your nets for a catch." What does
Simon say? Not God, I know better.
How many times have we thought that when
God has been speaking to us about
something, thought, "Well, actually, I
don't know about that.
>> I don't know if I agree with that. I
don't know if I like that.
But Peter says,
"Because you say so." I want to catch a
hold of that word for us today. Because
you say so, God. Because you say so, I
will. Because you say so, I'll let down
my nets.
The NIV
says it that way. But the New King James
Version uses the word nevertheless. And
I love this word. It says nevertheless.
at thy word. See, this marks the
transition from professional expertise
to a growing personal disciplehip. Peter
did what he knew to do until Jesus said
otherwise.
Nevertheless, at thy word. Here's a good
lesson, isn't it? We do what we need to
do. We do what we know to do, what we've
already learned to do until God says
otherwise.
And then we say, "Nevertheless, at thy
word
I will."
When he speaks,
we respond.
When he speaks,
we respond.
Nevertheless,
at thy word,
I will do what you say. When you speak,
I will respond.
Peter acknowledges reality. He doesn't
ignore his frustration because he must
have felt a bit frustrated. I think I
would have done. I'm the expert God.
We've worked all night. We've caught
nothing. True faith isn't the absence of
facts.
The facts are always the facts, but the
truth is always the truth. And by the
way, facts aren't always the truth. The
truth is always the truth. Truth and
true faith recognize failure. They
recognize fatigue. They recognize the
lack of resources. But God's word
carries more weight than any of those
facts.
John 17:17, "Your word is truth. So
nevertheless,
whatever the facts, nevertheless,
at thy word." Peter acts with submission
over his understanding.
This is what I know, but I choose to
submit to what God says. I choose to
hear his voice and say, "Nevertheless,
at thy word."
We just need to know he's speaking to
us.
So many things speak to us today.
Social media, the news.
I would like to believe that there's a
lot of facts in those things. And
probably there is quite a few facts, but
they aren't necessarily the truth.
The things that we read aren't
necessarily the truth. Lots of facts,
opinions.
We need to know who's speaking. I don't
know about you, I need to hear God. I
need to hear what he wants to say to me.
In these days of uncertainty, these days
of of wars and rumors of wars, I need to
know who's speaking to me. God, I want
to be somebody that hears your voice.
It's who's speaking that counts. It's
God's voice we need to hear.
Not everything makes sense.
God doesn't always make sense to us.
Sometimes we think, "What? What, God?
What do you want me to do?"
I love what Isaiah 55:8-9 says, "For my
thoughts are not your thoughts, nor are
your ways my ways, says the Lord. For as
the heavens are higher than the earth,
so are my ways higher than your ways. My
thoughts than your thoughts. God, I want
to submit to your understanding. Submit
to your word. I want to embrace what you
say.
Nevertheless, at thy word. Number three,
the miracle of catching alive.
It says in verse six, when they done so,
they caught such a large number of fish
that their n net nets began to break and
they had to call their partners from the
other boat. This was a miracle catch. So
much so that they there was no way that
their boats were able to contain it.
Even the two boats couldn't contain all
of the fish that were caught. The boats
began to sink.
Notice a couple of things here. Their
abundance required teamwork.
Whatever it is that God blesses us with,
it's never just for us.
Whatever God blesses us with is not just
for us. Remember we talked a while ago
about when God pours in
If it keeps pouring in, we're filled,
right? Just like your glass is filled
with water. When God pours into us, we
become full. If we don't pour out, what
happens? God can't pour more in. So the
the the heart of God always is whatever
God blesses us with, we use that to
bless out. And as we do that, there's a
flow. God continues to pour in. Some of
us have proven this to be true in our
lives, our experience. The more we pour
out, the more God pours in. And so it
goes on. God blesses us as we bless
others. What God does in an abundant
miraculous catch is to be shared. Is to
bless outwards both to those around us
and those in the community, in the
workplace, and wherever we find
ourselves to be a blessing outward. And
the second thing we see there is their
abundance signaled a new vocation.
Jesus said, From now on, you won't catch
fish. You'll catch people,
a new vocation, a new calling.
Whatever it is that God has caused us to
be experts with,
and that's good. That's great to be an
expert in an area. Whatever it is that
we're good at, God has put a vocation
upon us that's even greater. And that is
to catch people.
We are here to catch people.
Whatever our vocation, we're here to
catch people for Jesus. The Greek word
there for the catching the fish was a
Greek word that actually means to catch
alive.
What do you normally find with fish is
that when you catch them, they die,
right? They come on the boat and they
die. You put them in ice, but they die.
These fish that
Jesus was calling Peter and the others
to catch from now on were people. They
were to catch them alive. Praise God.
Not dead, but to catch them alive.
Catch them out of the waters of death.
Bring them alive into God's kingdom. The
church. Peter becomes a fisher of
people. Is a miracle of catching alive.
And lastly this morning, the move in
identity.
Look at verse eight with me. When pe
when Simon Peter saw this, he fell at
Jesus' knees and said, "Go away from me,
Lord. I am a sinful man." So they pulled
their boats up on the shore, left
everything, and they followed him.
Following this miracle catch, Peter's
response to Jesus moved from master,
notice this, to Lord.
Not just master and teacher
but Lord.
He acknowledged Jesus is God.
We see here a couple of things that
Peter had a conviction of sin. On seeing
the miracle he cries out, "Go away from
me, Lord. I am a sinful man." See, the
miracle did not just fill the boat.
It exposed the heart.
Peter encountered Jesus. His heart was
convicted of wrong attitudes and motives
and doing wrong. He and James and John
recognize in that moment they were
sinful men. In fact, the truth is we
cannot encounter God without it exposing
all of our inner and outward flaws.
I don't know about you, I don't like to
be exposed.
But when we encounter Jesus, it is. But
it doesn't stay there. Thank God.
God is a God that saves and heals and
delivers.
We see also here that Peter cast aside
everything
as a result of that conviction on his
life, that realization of where he was
at. He wanted to follow Jesus from there
on. He wanted to make sure that he was
the number one priority in his life. He
cast aside everything.
This is the largest catch they would
have ever had in their lives. And they
left it all. And they left their boats.
and they left their nets and they
followed Jesus. See, they realized that
the provider of fish was more valuable
than the provision.
It's probably needless to say that Simon
Peter and the others walked away from
that incident as different men. Their
lives would never be the same.
One day, Peter would give his life for
Christ.
Legend says that he was crucified but
wouldn't be crucified like Jesus. He had
to be crucified upside down.
>> His career changed. Jesus told him,
Simon, don't be afraid. From now on, you
will fish for people. He didn't stop
fishing catching fish for income. He
would rather he would stop catching fish
for income and start catching people for
Jesus.
He's gone from being a great fisher of
fish to being a great soul winner. He
encountered Jesus, his career changed.
You know, when we encounter Jesus,
things change in our lives.
I'm not suggesting your career will
change, although it might.
But God will bring about change in your
lives when you encounter him.
They left everything and followed him.
Nothing was more important to Peter than
Jesus.
Let's stand together.
Some of us here need to do exactly that.
We need to leave everything
and follow Jesus.
This whole story in the Bible here
demonstrates what it really means to be
a follower of Jesus.
Being a Christian involves
obeying God even when it doesn't make
sense.
Acknowledging Jesus for who he really is
and leaving everything
to follow him.
In Luke 9 verse 23 Jesus said if anyone
wishes to come after me he must dei deny
himself and take up his cross daily and
follow me.
Following Jesus simply means
to die to our own self, our own pride,
our own desires, our own ambitions
and choosing to follow Jesus.
Taking up our cross to follow him. What
does that mean? It means where our will
crosses God's will. Where our will
crosses God's will, we choose his will.
That's what taking of our cross means.
Where our will on a daily basis crosses
God's will, we choose his will.
What would you forsake all and follow
Jesus?
Maybe you're sitt here or standing here
today and saying, "Lord, I've tried
before. I've attempted it before."
But say it this way. Would you say it
this way? Nevertheless,
at your word, I will.
Who will place Jesus first in their life
today?
Who will go before the Lord as Peter did
and recognize
that you are a sinner? You've done
wrong. You've thought wrong. You've had
wrong attitudes.
a sinner in need of salvation.
The truth is the whole world needs
Jesus.
My prayer this morning is that every
person here has a personal relationship
with Jesus Christ. Everyone here asks
God for forgiveness through the blood,
the shed blood of Jesus Christ as he
hung and died on the cross for us. that
each of us here today would ask Jesus
Christ to come into our lives to forsake
all and follow him
as I close this morning.
When you ask Jesus to be your personal
Lord and Savior,
you will witness a miracle firsthand
because I promise you this, Jesus will
change your life.
For those that know the Lord this
morning, already have a relationship
with God,
pray for the Lord to speak a word like
put out into the deep waters and cast an
air over your life. Pray for a great
catch of people. Who will pray for that
this morning?
Pray for partner churches.
Pray for fishes
of people.
Peter said, "Depart from me, Lord, for
I'm a sinful man." Thank God Peter
didn't Jesus didn't pardon. Peter had
his life turned upside down.
Forsoke all and followed him.
Just while heads are bowed this morning,
we're going to pray. Eyes are closed.
I want to say a prayer for those that
want to follow Jesus.
They want to hear his voice and say,
"God, I want to follow you. I want you
to come into my life. I want you to
forgive me for all my wrongdoing." The
Bible calls that sin.
I want you to wash me clean. Give me a
brand new start and help me to follow
you for the rest of my life.
I'm going to say a prayer. I'm going to
start it this way. Dear Lord Jesus,
my name's Phil. If this morning you want
to put your name there and in your
heart, say this prayer this morning. At
the end of it, I'm going to say amen.
Amen's a very powerful word. It means it
really means God so be it. Do it Lord.
And if you can and in the bottom of your
heart say amen to this prayer for the
first time today,
I believe that you will start to see the
miracle working God change your life.
Forgive your sins and make you a brand
new person. Let's say this prayer.
Dear Lord,
my name's Phil.
God, I know that I am a sinner.
I know that I deserve the consequences
of my sin.
However, I am trusting in Jesus Christ
as my savior.
I believe his death and resurrection
provided for my forgiveness.
I trust in Jesus and Jesus alone as my
personal Lord and Savior.
Thank you Lord for saving me, for
forgiving me, for coming into my life
in Jesus name. Just pause for a moment.
If you meant that prayer this morning,
would you say amen?
Just while heads are bowed and eyes are
closed. If you said that prayer or a
prayer like that for the first time this
morning, just where you are, just so I
can acknowledge you.
Just raise your hand.
Thank you.
Is there anybody else this morning?
Just where you are. Raise your hand.
Just so I can see it.
Thank you. Anybody
else this morning?
These are
eternal moments
and God is at work.
One last call. Anybody else today? Give
your life to Jesus.
Father, thank you for those that have
responded today.
Lord, we pray your blessing over their
lives. We pray your come to their lives,
Lord Jesus.
save them, heal them, Lord. Make them
brand new people for you that that
follow you.
In Jesus name we pray. Lord, for the
rest of us,
God, help us to be amazing fishes of
people. In Jesus name we pray. Amen.
Amen. Thank you, Lord.