A Net Breaking, Boat Sinking Revival 5/30/2021 9 AM

i'm reading in the book of luke chapter five and unusually today i'm going to read this story in the new king james nearly king james version luke 5 and 1. luke 5 1. so it was as the multitude pressed about him to hear the word of the lord that he stood by the lake of gnesserat also called tiberius or galilee and saw two boats standing by the lake but the fishermen had gone from them and were washing their nets then he got into one of the boats which was simon's and asked him to put out a little from the land and he sat down and taught the multitudes from the boat when he had stopped speaking he said to simon launch out into the deep and let down your nets for a catch but simon answered and said to him master we have toiled all night and caught nothing nevertheless at your word i will let down the net there's a sermon there and when they had done this they caught a great number of fish and their net was breaking so they signaled to their partners in the other boat to come and help them and they came and filled both the boats so that they began to sink when simon peter saw it he fell down at jesus's knees saying depart from me for i am a sinful man o lord for he and all who were with him were astonished at the catch of fish which they had taken and so also were james and john the sons of zebedee who were partners with simon and jesus said to simon do not be afraid from now on you will catch men so when they had brought their boats to land they forsook all and followed him i'll announce my title later i'm not preaching a memorial day theme but what i feel fits with the theme of the spirit in our church right now god bless you you can be seated i believe that there are no accidents with god we believe that every promise in the book is ours that's given to us as his people i believe that every word jesus spoke every place jesus went everything jesus did had purpose it had intent in the days of his flesh there were no accidental meetings there were no incidental miracles that took place the writer john said that the world itself could not contain the books that could be written of all that jesus did in three and a half short years of ministry but john tells us that these things were written that we might believe that jesus christ is the son of god and that by believing we might have life in his name through his name so everything written in this book that jesus said and did his words and his works were recorded for an intentional purpose the gospels are a dramatic presentation of the life and ministry of jesus christ written for an intention for a purpose it is not a complete history of jesus everything jesus said or did but written to guide us toward eternal life so with that background i want you to see this story in the gospels there's a multitude pressing around jesus and it's hard for him to really address them standing on the shore of the sea of galilee so he sees two boats that are there to the shore there's no fishermen in the boats they are out of the boats they are up on the shore and they are washing their nets they're not washing fish scales out of their nets they're not pulling fish out of their nets they're just cleaning debris and trash that might have been hauled in as they spent the night fishing well the bible said that jesus got into one of the boats i doesn't say he asked permission he just did it happened to be simon's boat simon peter's boat and he asked simon to push out a little from the land so now he has created a little space kind of like an altar area except it's water and uh he can see the people they can all see him he can teach them and his voice would carry across the water and perhaps up the hillside i was looking at satellite images of the sea of galilee yesterday just to refresh my memory and jesus is sitting in the boat and teaching the multitudes from the boat he needed some breathing room and simon's boat provided that now these boats are owned by simon peter they're owned by james and john his business partners in evidently with their father zebedee and jesus sees simon peter who's the captain of his of his boat but now he's a captive on his boat he's on the boat with jesus and he has no choice but to hear jesus teach now we don't really know that simon had a good attitude about being there uh the bible doesn't indicate anything about that but he'd been fishing all night he'd been up all night they've now come to shore they've docked their boats beach them and now they're they're working they're trying to finish so they can catch a little sleep so they can go fish again the next night but he's there on the boat while jesus teaches the bible doesn't say how long the message was the bible doesn't say what jesus taught but we just know simon is now on the boat hearing the sermon and the multitudes are hearing the ministry of jesus now when jesus borrowed simon peter's boat he didn't make an agreement with him he didn't sign any waivers he didn't tell him he would pay him so much per minute or hour to teach from his boat and it's interesting that that jesus is a borrower sometimes he will use your stuff or your time with no promise of remuneration that he owes you anything or that you own anything he might borrow your donkey or your car he might call your kids into ministry you never know what jesus wants to use but in the case of simon and his boat evidently it's in jesus's mind that he's going to pay a little rent for the use of simon's boat he's going to pay him for his trouble so after the teaching is over luke 5 and 4. jesus speaks to simon and he said launch out into the deep and let down your nets he says plural for a catch get out in some deep water i want you to use more than one net and jesus is talking about something pretty special that he believes and knows is going to happen but jesus is not a fisherman sometimes i have people ask me questions about things and i have no background no education through the years i'll say i don't give medical advice and i don't give legal advice please don't call me to ask what color car you should buy or what brand i'm not in that business i don't know much about that but i've learned this about god that when god speaks when god speaks to a man when it is god god is an expert in everything and if god speaks it is always perfectly right when paul tells those on the boat in acts 27 that that there's going to be danger if we go they disregarded his input because he didn't know anything about sailing but when god speaks it's always true and it is always right jesus as a non-fisherman seems to be a little bit out of touch with reality but simon peter offers jesus a dose of reality have you ever told god anything like this have you ever told the lord that sorry lord but you don't know what you're talking about you don't understand my situation so simon peter tells jesus in verse 5 he answers and says master that's a good title for the lord right master master of everything he doesn't know that yet master we have toiled all night and caught nothing we'll stop right there look lord we know what we're doing obviously you don't and we spent all night fishing we lowered our heavy commercial fishing nets into the sea of galilee by hand we dragged them behind the boat we hauled them up to the boat we did this over and over all night long and we didn't catch a single fish sea of galilee is about 13 miles long about 8 miles wide but it's 141 feet deep relative to sea level it is the lowest freshwater lake in the world and we don't really know what kind of fish they caught i i did a little research on it and i found that a little over a decade ago they tried to restock the sea of galilee due to overfishing and far agricultural runoff and and they put six hundred thousand tilapia in the sea of galilee and i think they're putting in another four hundred thousand and they call it saint peter's fish and i'm not sure if it was tilapia or not but they fished and fished and fished the night before simon peter and james and john evidently they worked together they struck out they got skunked they didn't catch one thing i hate to go fishing and catch nothing i have been known to keep fishing until i catch something just because i don't want to lose i want to catch something and scott systron's wedding weekend i fished in carla's grandfather's farm pond and david river was ready for me to quit and i finally caught one little bass and i said okay we can go now i think peter james and john felt like that they didn't fish half the night they didn't give it up this is how they made a living they fished all night long dropping the nets dragging the nets pulling them up to the boat and all of that they caught nothing amen now i don't know what jesus was teaching on peter's boat that day i don't know what came in simon's ears that doesn't say that he was snoozing while jesus was teaching but maybe there was some hope coming into the futility of his empty night of fishing and so simon peter says to jesus luke 5 and 5 just focus on this last phrase well we'll read it all simon answered and said to him master we have toiled all night and caught nothing nevertheless even though it makes no sense at all even though this seems irrational even though this is out of touch with reality nevertheless at your word and only because you told me to i will let down the net i don't know if he had faith or he was just obeying obeying i don't know if he felt something or he just did something i've learned that sometimes god doesn't give you a feeling he just gives you a word you may not have an emotion but you have a directive you might say that jesus gave him an instruction but it really was an invitation to something that was beyond rational beyond reality amen nevertheless at your word i will let down the net reason said there is no fish here now they don't even have to be hungry they just have to be here we're not using bait we're using nets now on the sea of galilee is in many places during the day the sunlight the fish would descend go deep and stay there at whatever level at night they would come near the surface to feed i'll venture to say that simon peter james and john and other commercial fishermen on the sea of galilee did not have nets that could dredge 141 feet deep they were counting on the fish at night feeding on the surface and and they could drag their nets and they could haul in fish so for whatever reason the time the phase of the moon that the rain the weather i don't know why but that night before there were no fish in the area at all simon peter had every reason to believe that nothing was going to happen it was a bad time to fish in the day it was a bad season of fishing they had already proven that it was pointless but nevertheless at the lord's word he would let down the nets again this is what faith says that in spite of my circumstances if god says it it can happen it is beyond reality it is bond beyond rationale amen and sometimes you act in faith sometimes you just act in obedience because we've learned that god is not bound by circumstances when god performs a miracle he suspends the laws of nature amen we believe and we have learned by experience and from god's word that there is nothing too hard for god we know that he can part the waters of the red sea we know that he can walk on the water amen he can perform any miracle if he can perform a miracle amen it doesn't it doesn't matter whether you think it can happen it just matters if you believe that god does not lie and you're willing to obey him simon peter is going to oblige the mass he's already followed jesus to the marriage of cain of galilee somewhat of a follower but he went back and he's still in the fishing business he's not a full-time follower disciple or apostle of jesus christ verse 6 and when they had done this when they just did what jesus told them to do this is really not the heart of my message but i want to tell some doubters today i want to tell some people who are trying to think it through and figure it out and you feel like maybe you know something god doesn't that he knows what you don't know he sees what you cannot see and he is in control of what is out of your control nevertheless at your word when they had done this obey jesus and let down the nets they caught a great number of fish and their net was breaking i'm interested to know why they didn't fully obey the lord when he said let down your nets they let down their net and so verse seven these signals to their partners and the other boat to come and help them and they came and filled both the boats so that they began to sink peter he knew that this was not just a lucky day on the lake he knew that this was the result of a miraculous event when god more than a fish whisperer called schools of fish out of the deep into the shallow into the net so many fish that their net was breaking and their boat was sinking just i'll mention this again maybe later but jesus gave them more than they could control or manage peter verse 8. he falls down at jesus's knees depart from me lord for i am a sinful man o lord he doesn't feel worthy to receive this kind of a miracle i don't know if he's confessing sins in the past or unbelief but he falls down at the feet of the lord and and those that were with him were astonished at the catch of fish which they had taken amen i i don't know exactly what he was feeling but he was feeling unworthy of such a great miracle now on another day in the ministry of jesus in the life of discipleship and apostleship for the apostle peter jesus would tell peter look the taxes are due temple tax we don't really have any money i want you to go down to the lake cast in a line with the single hook so the apostle peter knew how to use nets he must have had a spare fishing pole with him at all times or borrowed one or made one and he got a line and a pole and went down to the sea of galilee and he threw it in and he caught a fish and one fish and jesus said i want you to look in that first fish you catch now it implies that he might have caught more but the first fish you catch i want you to open his mouth and when you look inside you're going to find a coin and with that coin i want you to go pay our taxes now if jesus would have said that on this day suppose jesus is there he's in peter's boat he tells him i want you to go out into the deep grab your fishing pole peter i want you to just lower a line on the side of the boat and catch a fish you know there's none here they're all in the depths they're all somewhere else i want to prove to you that i can help you catch a fish you could have said that that would have been a miracle that day and that could have been the end of the story that he would have caught a single fish and from the single fish he would have had faith in jesus christ that jesus could do what he said he would do but in this story i believe that jesus was saying something about their future he was saying something about what they would one day do that he would give them something bigger than they could handle they could wrap their brain around he was telling them something he was creating a paradigm verse 10 got their partners and jesus said to them the last phrase do not be afraid from now on you will catch men so when they brought up their boats to land it was then that they forsook all and followed jesus christ jesus told them in your former life you caught fish in your future life you will catch men and because of what had happened and what he said they walked away from boats nets business a rather successful enterprise and they followed jesus christ why would they walk away from everything to follow him and what did they expect their future would look like what mental picture do you think came to mind as they followed jesus and they looked into the future that he had called him to do you think for a minute that simon peter imagined the church dispensation as sitting on a creek neck somewhere and dropping in a line and catching a single fish i believe that jesus wanted them to envision something that was beyond meager results and marginal success he wanted them to get a picture that was bigger than just a farm pod and a brim or a pass that you would pull up on a hook he wanted them to know that their future would not be one of laziness or leisure it was a future that would be filled with hard work that would produce extraordinary results they were looking for something big in the kingdom of god something crater they were seeing something from this miracle a mental picture of what jesus would one day do let's review the verses again verse six when they had done this they caught a great number of fish and their net was breaking so they signaled their partners in the other boat to come help them and they came and filled their boats so that they began to sink and this miracle their net was breaking their boats were seeking and from now on jesus said in verse 10 from now on you will catch men in verse 11 they left everything to follow him and here's my title i preached it way years and years ago that i believe jesus called them to a net-breaking post-seeking revival [Applause] he called him to a church dispensation that would boggle their mind and blow their mind it was something bigger than they control bigger than they could handle it was bigger than they had ever imagined in their life i'm not calling you to smallness i'm not calling you to some marginal success i'm not calling you to a hook and lying future i'm calling you to hay net breaking vote seeking revival [Applause] [Music] [Applause] can you see what they saw can you see what they saw can you see people that will not fit in the building can you see churches being baptized in the name of the lord jesus christ some people some people see church growth and church leadership as a hook and line operation now you've got it all in your hands and under your control and it is manageable one little two little three little christians church with us for no more family owned and operated think small stay small mono cultural church like jerusalem at the beginning big but all jewish know it may seem to you that churches grow one at a time the lord added to the church daily such as we're being saved but this does not fit the picture that jesus showed peter james and john in luke 5 on this day on the shores of the sea of galilee i've learned that it may start with one but it often extends to an entire family or a city or it can happen even to a nation the early church in the book of acts grew by families and cities and entire provincial regions acts 2 3 000 souls in a single day 247 the lord added to the church daily acts 4 and 4 the number was about 5 000. acts 6 the number of the disciples multiplied greatly in jerusalem it is estimated that the church in jerusalem number some 30 000 believers at its peak acts 8 there is great joy in the city of samaria philip initiates a city-wide revival in acts chapter 9 with the healing of a man named inaeus the whole city turned to the lord people that lived in little and sharon and area turned to the lord in acts 9 42 when tabitha or darkest was raised from the dead many believed in the lord i'll spare you the balance of the book of acts that involves more the ministry of paul than peter but i wonder what it felt like to peter when in acts chapter 10 verse 44 while peter yet spoke the word the holy ghost fell on them that heard the word i wonder what went through his mind when he saw gentiles speaking in other tongues for the very first time in history i wonder if it would have been me my mind would have raced back to that day in the sea of galilee when jesus taught me that i've got a future for you i'm going to give you a net breaking potential revival [Applause] amen i know this is memorial day weekend and i realize we've had 14 months of covet craziness church online from march to may last year limited church attendance even now with the social seating i know it's memorial day weekend and everyone somewhere else except for you and me right but i mean in churches across everybody went somewhere and we're glad you're here i told shannon i'm glad you guys took up a whole row we need you today we we've not had a problem with too many guests we've not run out of baptismal robes we've not had so many people receive the holy ghost that we didn't have enough altar cards or altar counselors to guide those people in their new experience with god i know that some people have become a little laid back i call it coveted complacency some of the coven margin in our lives may be healthy i'm not preaching that we need to live at a frenzied frenetic pace of life amen but i've been fishing before usually with my brothers and you call it mahi-mahi florida dolphin when there were so many fish you were pulling them in the boat as fast as you could and they bleed everywhere and it was all over you and all over the boat and you didn't care it was messy it was more than you can manage at one time but you were pretty excited about it and you were very busy at it it wasn't leisure but it was sure a lot of fun if your nets are breaking and your boats are sinking you are busy you are amped up you're excited but it is the greatest joy in all the world to celebrate one or a hundred or a thousand new people born into the kingdom of god amen i thought about why the lord put this message in my heart after so many years on a weekend like this but i thought about this memorial day it is significant because men and women laid down their lives no so we could squander our freedom or surrender our nation to paganism absolutely not they died not so we would silently surrender to those who do not believe in god but they died so we could preserve our freedom and that a nation could be built jesus did not die for us foreign no more jesus did not die so churches could be complacent jesus did not die so that just you and your family could go to heaven he purchased this church with his blood he purchased this church so that the gospel would be preached in all the world as a witness to him before he came back he purchased this chart so we would see a net breaking boat seeking revival and a gathering of lost souls that would blow our minds and break our nets and seek our boats something that would be bigger than we can manage in 2021 we have the ability to cast the gospel net in ways that never existed a couple decades ago that's why we say please like comment share share the good news that's why we've gone back to saying please take two business cards before you leave today we're blessed with social media we're blessed to live stream and archive our services for other people you can have an online bible study with someone anywhere in the entire world if they have internet access last week in the wisconsin district united pentecostal church their district hosted a statewide crusade and brother josh herring preached i i heard about it and i started texting him thanking him i text brother booker the district superintendent josh sharon told me we had 500 guest cards 72 baptized in the arena 12 to 15 baptized at satellite locations 50 people testified that they were healed there are 300 people baptized with the holy ghost in the arena 700 filled with the holy ghost in the country of mexico in spain it was two o'clock in the morning about 11 people were filled with the gift of the holy ghost there is no telling what god will do here or what god will do from here i've just come today to remind you of the picture of the church that it is a net breaking boat sinking revival it is bigger more powerful broader than anything we've ever fathomed in our lives [Applause] and jesus said i'll say it's four months and then comes the harvest said i need you to lift up your eyes get your eyes up they've been down lift up your eyes and look look on the fields plural they're already ripe king james says widen the harvest already so ripe that the grain is ready to fall off the stock he said i want you to know that what i'm going to do has got fields and people groups and through that one woman at the well that samaritan sinner woman the entire city turned to the lord i wonder if it kind of set up what happened in acts 8 with philip in the book of revelation chapter 7 verse 9 after this i beheld and lo a great multitude a great multitude now i know people like to quote straight as a gate narrows away that leads to life a few that be that find it and compared to the billions of people who have ever lived on the face of the earth and jesus was saying that there's a skinny gate it leads to a narrow way if you're going to go to heaven you can't go in just any gate you've got to make up your mind to go when you go through that gate don't just think you've got a lot of latitude to live however you want to live it's a narrow way there's a way to live it's a path of holiness amen amen and you've got to find it you're not going to wander into it you've got to look for it jesus said but in revelation that few becomes a multitude john saw it in revelation 7 and 9 a multitude which no man could number of all nations and kingdoms and people and tongues and they stood before the throne and before the lamb they were clothed with white rooms everybody that got there was holy they were robed in the righteousness of god and they had palms in their hands they didn't have willows that are signs of mourning but they had palms that are signs of joy and victory and there was a multitude there were so many people that you could not count them you could say that somewhere in the history of the world that somebody's nets were breaking somebody's boats were sinking that god had given somebody somewhere a revival bigger then they can control or manage would you please stand i want to pray lord i ask in your holy name that you would forgive me and forgive our church lord of tending to grow inwardly lord of declining lord to serve and to lead small groups or to teach a bible study to lead a lost soul to you i pray lord that you would forgive us for thinking that we might lose our seat or our parking spot or that someone from another culture might come that would make us uncomfortable i pray lord that you would forgive us jesus for small-mindedness i pray i pray that you would forgive us lord for wanting something that we can control that we can hold in our hand a hook and line revival where we can target a certain kind of fish lord and pull it in with a certain type of bait lord i pray that you would forgive us of that kind of stinking thinking and i pray in jesus name that he would unstop our deafened ears lord to hear the cries of lost people and hear your voice that would say launch out into the deep a place that you know that is away from where you are and let down your nets because i have in store for you a net breaking boat sinking revival now let's pray together now instead of just i know you've heard my prayer i appreciate that that's the prayer that i jotted in my thoughts last night mmm would you stretch your faith right now i know i know this weekend i understand how we think on seasons like this but i'm asking you to engage with jesus christ right now i want you to think about what he's calling you to do the invitation to launch out into the deep and let down your nets to look beyond yourself to look beyond what you can manage or control hallelujah thank you jesus while you're praying i want to just say this anybody here today or watching online that maybe you felt like we didn't want you in our net that you didn't we didn't want you in our boat but you were not worthy of salvation i want to tell you today that the gospel is for whosoever will and if you will come you can partake of eternal life today so in a moment i'm going to open this altar and invite everyone who would like to come to come i know some of you may still be uncomfortable our rule is if a person is praying wearing a mask that you would dawn a mask to pray with them but it's time for us to open our hearts and open our eyes to see what jesus has prepared for us the spirit has revealed to his church a net breaking boat sinking revival if you need the lord or if you want him to use you would you step out from where you are would you make this altar a place of prayer for you but you believe the lord now yeah in your work in your neighborhood and your family lord i don't see it but nevertheless at your word i will [Music] [Applause] [Music] i said pray where you're standing where you're seated in this altar let's pray find someone to minister to or agree with for what god desires to do in us and through us [Applause] [Music] is [Music] [Applause] [Music] cry [Music] now we're crying [Applause] [Music] we're crying heavenly [Music] [Applause] we [Music] we've away brave [Music] we're [Music] [Applause] [Music] crying [Applause] we've been praying [Music] [Applause] [Music] away [Music] crying [Music] oh [Music] [Applause] [Music] oh [Music] we're [Music] and now we're crying away [Music] is [Music] oh [Music] foreign [Music] [Applause] [Music] is [Music] [Applause] [Music] my god [Music] oh [Music] are [Music] great you [Music] are how great how great you are hey man i think that jesus christ would allow us to be partners with him in a net breaking boat sinking revival [Music] i understand human nature you know like let me see what do i get out of that well you get a boat full of fish you get to be blessed to be part of the miracle that miracle becomes a blessing to you as you share in what god does through you amen today our purpose is reaching lost people and if you have never been baptized in water in the name of the lord jesus christ for the remission of sins we're prepared to baptize you today we have changing rooms we have baptistry garments towels hair dryers clean warm water people trained to safely baptize you explain why that opportunity is for you today if you're in our online audience you can always email us at connect awpc.org someone will respond to you and lead you to baptism pray with you to receive the gift of the holy ghost help you make your way to god amen i think it would be good if i'm just gonna ask this i i know we all have things in our life but maybe find a little carter put it on your phone that pops up where you'll see it net breaking boat sinking revival net breaking boat sinking revival now they're both did not sink they did bring in those fish but it was a lot of work and a lot of fun and it was kind of scary a little but i would think that oh my goodness is are they going to be lost and are is the boat going to sink living right on the ragged edge of faith and the miraculous and only jesus can make it happen at the end brother abernathy and i were just chatting briefly and after the resurrection they pull in the net and the net does not break amen so we're going to keep what we catch amen that would may not be lost net breaking boat sinking revival big big bigger than you ever dreamed i didn't even do all the passages in acts where two years they taught the bible in the school of taranis and all of the province of asia heard the word from that one location over and over and over in the book of acts it is bigger than you can wrap your brain around or you can control with human hands and minds but it is god's promise to his church and what a great opportunity we have to be participants in and recipients of a move of god so big that it would be a net breaking boat sinking revival let's pray again if you've not been baptized if you'll tell someone we'll lead you to the water let's open our hearts to the lord maybe thanking him as we worship now lord i love you and i thank you lord that you control the natural world and then you have ways lord of showing us what you desire to do in us lord i recognize that in your word the great struggle of your people to believe what you promised that it would be jerusalem samaria judea the uttermost part of the earth then it would be jewish and gentile that it would reach around the clone that it would be every tribe and kindred and tongue and nation and people or that it would be a global revival that it would be a multicultural revival that it would be a multi-generational revival of old men and young men and sons and daughters lord i pray god help me see it help me see it in my faith help us realize it in practice in jesus name but you'll call the greatness of our god when you thank him that he is able to do exceeding abundantly above all that we can ask or think according to the power that worketh [Music] continue to pray fellowship make it a great week honor those who lost loved ones serving our nation