Speaker 1: Hey, this is Stephen Ferdick. I'm the pastor of Elevation
Speaker 1: Church and this is our podcast. I wanted to thank
Speaker 1: you for joining us today. Hope this inspires you. Hope
Speaker 1: it builds your faith. Hope it gives your perspective to
Speaker 1: see God is moving in your life. Enjoy the message
Speaker 1: I thought we'd study in Luke chapter five today. This
Speaker 1: is one of my favorite action passages. Gives us a
Speaker 1: real picture of three different elements of faith that I
Speaker 1: want to bring out today. And one of my friends,
Speaker 1: who is really astute, actually happens to be my barber
Speaker 1: as well. What's up? Fly Tie? Fly Tie ran a
Speaker 1: marathon yesterday. He said, pray for me, Pastor. I have
Speaker 1: a marathon. I have not trained. And I said, do
Speaker 1: you never listen to anything I preach. You can't come on,
Speaker 1: you can't skip training and then blame it on prayer
Speaker 1: when you throw up on mile six. But he finished,
Speaker 1: He finished, and he was telling me the other day
Speaker 1: he said, you tricked us. I thought this was a
Speaker 1: giving series at the end of the year, and in
Speaker 1: a way it is because we're giving an off like
Speaker 1: was given to build Elevation Blakeney, like was given to
Speaker 1: build the campus that you sit in today, and we're
Speaker 1: doing that at the end of the series six weeks series,
Speaker 1: I believe six weeks, and that'll be very special and
Speaker 1: very important because we use that offering to build the church,
Speaker 1: but God uses the offering to build your faith. And
Speaker 1: so he said, I thought it was a giving series.
Speaker 1: It's really a faith series, isn't it. And I said, absolutely,
Speaker 1: you got it. That's what way maker is. And now
Speaker 1: faith is the way God blesses you. Grace is the means.
Speaker 1: Faith is the way. Write it down. Grace is the means.
Speaker 1: So we are saved by grace through faith. That's Ephesians
Speaker 1: chapter two. And so the way that God blesses you,
Speaker 1: the way that God delivers peace to your nervous system,
Speaker 1: is through your faith. And so if we can build
Speaker 1: your faith ending this year and going into the next year,
Speaker 1: you will see God do what Ephesians three twenty calls
Speaker 1: immeasurably more than you could ask her. Imagine today, my
Speaker 1: passage may be familiar to you if you have some
Speaker 1: Sunday school, vacation, Bible school experience, this will probably not
Speaker 1: be strange waters for you. In Luke chapter five, verses
Speaker 1: one through eleven, but I really like it, so I
Speaker 1: was excited when God led me to preach it. One day,
Speaker 1: as Jesus was standing by the lake of Genessaret, the
Speaker 1: people were crowding around him and listening to the word
Speaker 1: of God. He saw at the water's edge two boats
Speaker 1: left there by the fishermen who were washing their nets.
Speaker 1: Got into one of the boats, the one belonging to Simon.
Speaker 1: Later his name was Peter, same guy, but Jesus so
Speaker 1: changed his identity that what people called him changed. And
Speaker 1: do you know God can do such a deep work
Speaker 1: in your life that people don't even recognize you as
Speaker 1: the same person anymore. And people who used to call
Speaker 1: you a failure will have to step back and rethink
Speaker 1: how they assessed you and labeled you when God gets
Speaker 1: a hold of your life. So he got into one
Speaker 1: of the boats. There's two boats. He gets into the
Speaker 1: one belonging to Simon and asked him to put out
Speaker 1: a little from shore. Then he sat down and taught
Speaker 1: the people from the boat. When he had finished speaking,
Speaker 1: he said to Simon, put out into deep water and
Speaker 1: let down the nets for a catch. And Simon answered
Speaker 1: with an attitude, Master, we've worked hard all night and
Speaker 1: haven't caught anything. Your little talk was really good, But
Speaker 1: we are professionals. You're a preacher. You do the preacher.
Speaker 1: We'll do the fishing. But you got to give him
Speaker 1: credit because even with a bad attitude, he obeyed. God
Speaker 1: can bless obedience even if you do it with a
Speaker 1: bad attitude. I mean, you don't really have to feel
Speaker 1: the mood for a workout for your muscles to receive
Speaker 1: the benefit. I mean you have to feel like coming
Speaker 1: to church for God to get a word through to you.
Speaker 1: How many of you didn't feel like coming to church today?
Speaker 1: All right, you're gonna get the biggest blessing of everybody,
Speaker 1: because that's called the sacrifice of praise. Is when you
Speaker 1: don't consult your feelings, because the foundation of your decisions
Speaker 1: is your faith. Would y'all calm down and let me
Speaker 1: read my scratch out, Master. We've worked hard all night
Speaker 1: and haven't caught anything, But because you say so, I
Speaker 1: will let down the nets. When they had done so,
Speaker 1: they caught such a large number a fish that their
Speaker 1: nets began to break. That's probably enough for us to
Speaker 1: work from for now. Verse two says he saw at
Speaker 1: the water's edge two boats. Verse six says when they
Speaker 1: had done so, they caught such a large number of
Speaker 1: fish that their nets begin to break. So look at
Speaker 1: your neighbor and give them my subject for it today,
Speaker 1: say neighbor, Say, favorite neighbor, we are on the edge
Speaker 1: of a blessing. Now look at him, look at him,
Speaker 1: real serious now, and tell them my titles. Say, but
Speaker 1: there's a catch. There's a catch, because central premise, the
Speaker 1: edge of my next blessing will often be the place
Speaker 1: of my greatest frustration. And certainly the scene in Luke
Speaker 1: chapter five seems to be that Peter has decided to
Speaker 1: try it again tomorrow, And just at that moment when
Speaker 1: he has all the nets cleaned and ready to be
Speaker 1: stored away, just at the moment where he has the
Speaker 1: boat's positioned to be dry docked, here comes this radical
Speaker 1: rabbi with the big crowd standing room only. Everywhere Jesus
Speaker 1: Christ went to preach, people who don't like big churches
Speaker 1: wouldn't like Heaven, just a side note. Everywhere he shows up,
Speaker 1: the crowd comes, and the first element I want to
Speaker 1: mention in this sermon, I want to talk about conditional miracles.
Speaker 1: Three of these points I like you to write them down.
Speaker 1: That way you can preach them back to your wife
Speaker 1: when she's acting crazy this week. You get it. You
Speaker 1: are your husband, are your mother in law. By conditional miracles,
Speaker 1: I mean that there are certain conditions in which God
Speaker 1: is most likely to perform miracles. There are certain conditions
Speaker 1: in which you are most likely to see the power
Speaker 1: of God. Now, God can do what he wants to,
Speaker 1: But it seems to be a pattern in scripture that
Speaker 1: over and over again God reserves his greatest glory for
Speaker 1: our lowest points. Seems to be over and over again
Speaker 1: that it is after we have fished all night caught nothing,
Speaker 1: that He now, after all this frustration, will give us
Speaker 1: the blessing that we could not achieve in our own strength.
Speaker 1: I think is so well know who blessed us when
Speaker 1: he does. That's the best thing that I can figure.
Speaker 1: I was at this location a few weeks ago, actually
Speaker 1: was there at the Sea of Galilee. The NIV calls
Speaker 1: it the Lake of Ganessaret. It's more accurate to call
Speaker 1: it a lake. When you call it the Sea of Galilee,
Speaker 1: it sounds major, but it isn't necessarily a major body
Speaker 1: of water. It's the largest in Israel for fresh water.
Speaker 1: But it's also the lowest, it's the lowest, it's the lowest.
Speaker 1: This place would become the base of Jesus earthly ministry.
Speaker 1: Eighteen of thirty three miracles that the Son of God
Speaker 1: performed on the earth. What happened around the Sea of Galilee.
Speaker 1: This is the region where he revealed his glory. And
Speaker 1: so is there any significance I believe there is to
Speaker 1: the fact that Jesus Christ picked the lowest point. This
Speaker 1: is the lowest lake, freshwater lake in all of the earth.
Speaker 1: Did he choose the lowest lake to do his ministry
Speaker 1: because it was the closest? Or does it say something
Speaker 1: about a God who often chooses our lowest moments and
Speaker 1: our weakest places to do his greatest work. Now that's
Speaker 1: not for everybody. Some people are doing just fine without God.
Speaker 1: And you got money, and you got women, and you
Speaker 1: got stuff, and you got a full schedule and you
Speaker 1: don't have time for this God thing. But just in
Speaker 1: case there is anybody in here who has been in
Speaker 1: a little bit of a low place, the conditions touch
Speaker 1: somebody say the conditions are right for a miracle? Is
Speaker 1: conditions for a miracle? Because Not only is Peter frustrated
Speaker 1: having fished all night and caught nothing, but the people
Speaker 1: are frustrated because they can't get in to hear Jesus.
Speaker 1: And the Bible uses a phrase you see it over
Speaker 1: and over again in reference to Jesus. You even see
Speaker 1: it a little later in Luke five. We don't have
Speaker 1: time to tell you about one time Jesus preaching in
Speaker 1: the house and the bouncers wouldn't let this poor man in,
Speaker 1: but his friends wouldn't take no for an answer, so
Speaker 1: they go to ripping off the roof. Do not try
Speaker 1: this in overflow. I promise you We've got armed guards
Speaker 1: that will do something about it if you try. But
Speaker 1: they rip that roof off and got that man down.
Speaker 1: Because the Bible says there was such a crowd to
Speaker 1: hear Jesus that they couldn't get in. And so then
Speaker 1: you have excuse makers who would turn around and go home.
Speaker 1: And then you have way makers who decide, I'll do
Speaker 1: what I have to do and leave what I have
Speaker 1: to lead in order to experience a touch from God.
Speaker 1: So it's crowded and Peter is fishing, So we got
Speaker 1: a we got a full crowd and empty nets, and
Speaker 1: in this condition God performs miracle. They were listening to
Speaker 1: verse one, the Word of God. What were they doing.
Speaker 1: They were listening to the Word of God. Not like
Speaker 1: you're listening to the Word of God today. What you
Speaker 1: are doing today is listening to someone attempt to preach
Speaker 1: the word of God. That's not the case here, because
Speaker 1: you got to understand John chapter one. In the beginning
Speaker 1: was the Word, and the Word was with God, and
Speaker 1: the Word was God. He was with God in the beginning.
Speaker 1: Through him, all things were made. Without him, nothing has
Speaker 1: been made that has been made. In the beginning was
Speaker 1: the Word, and the Word was with God, and the
Speaker 1: Word was God. Who is this Word, This Word that
Speaker 1: was made flesh and dwelled among us, so that we
Speaker 1: could behold his glory, the glory as of the only
Speaker 1: begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth. They
Speaker 1: were not listening to a man preach about the Word
Speaker 1: of God. They were listening to the Word of God.
Speaker 1: Preach the Word of God and encounter with the Word
Speaker 1: rapped in flesh. They were listening to the Word of God.
Speaker 1: Heaven had a committee meeting, needed to find a way
Speaker 1: to get the Word into the earth. How shall we
Speaker 1: do it? How shall we get the word into the earth.
Speaker 1: Perhaps we could find a Palestinian teenager, a virgin womb.
Speaker 1: Perhaps he could be born into a crowded stall. Perhaps
Speaker 1: he could be born into a place that no one
Speaker 1: would have imagined, nor would they have sought him there.
Speaker 1: God likes unlikely conditions to perform great miracles. I'm just
Speaker 1: pointing out a pattern. I'm just pointing out a pattern
Speaker 1: that it is often at the place of your greatest
Speaker 1: frustration that God will reveal his greatest glory. I've seen
Speaker 1: this so many ways, so many ways in my ministry.
Speaker 1: Even in creativity. Sometimes it's when you're just about to
Speaker 1: give up on an idea. How many creative people do
Speaker 1: we have, just when you're about to throw it away,
Speaker 1: that you'll see what it was meant to be all along?
Speaker 1: And we write songs for our church all the time,
Speaker 1: and some of them are better than others. Some of
Speaker 1: them you never hear, and you ought to thank God
Speaker 1: that you never hear them. We don't want to inflict
Speaker 1: that kind of pain on you. Some of them are
Speaker 1: just private songs. But sometimes you work and work on
Speaker 1: a song. I remember back in twenty fourteen, and I
Speaker 1: sent this screenshot to Holly on Thursday because I wanted
Speaker 1: her to see something, just a contrast of how something
Speaker 1: starts and how something finishes. And I sent her a
Speaker 1: voice memo because I walk around mumbling all the time,
Speaker 1: little voice memos, little melodies. I have been known to
Speaker 1: slip away from the table at a restaurant, go in
Speaker 1: the bathroom stall and sing a song idea into And
Speaker 1: so if we ever share a restroom spacemen and you
Speaker 1: hear some weirdo, that might be me, That might be me.
Speaker 1: And I sent her a memo of this this old
Speaker 1: song that I tried to write, weird little idea called
Speaker 1: my Life be an Altar. And it was a really
Speaker 1: really bad idea that it was a very complicated thought
Speaker 1: that I had for the song. So I gave it
Speaker 1: to Wade and I was like, do something with this.
Speaker 1: This is twenty fourteen, and he went over to try
Speaker 1: to write something with it. We were on a songwriting retreat.
Speaker 1: He came back into the room five hours later. I said,
Speaker 1: you got something, You got something that you just on
Speaker 1: the way. This good idea, right, He said, yeah, Well,
Speaker 1: you know, we we fished all night and we caught nothing,
Speaker 1: basically is what he said. He said, we tried, we
Speaker 1: just can't find anything going on. I said, yeah, it's
Speaker 1: kind of dumb idea. He said, no, it's not dumb.
Speaker 1: We just can't you know, I just don't think it.
Speaker 1: I don't know. I just know. And this little thing
Speaker 1: had been sitting around Alex for six I should come
Speaker 1: over to School of Worship and play it for him.
Speaker 1: I'm not going to play it for the whole church.
Speaker 1: It's way too humiliating. But it sat around for six months.
Speaker 1: And and Wade said he couldn't make anything out of it,
Speaker 1: and and Chris said that he didn't ever really get
Speaker 1: it either. And they all said it real politely, but
Speaker 1: they were basically saying the same thing. And I said, well,
Speaker 1: we should probably just throw it away, unless, hang on,
Speaker 1: what if it wasn't my life be an altar? Well,
Speaker 1: it was just like it was just like six '
Speaker 1: eight time, and it was like not that moody vibe
Speaker 1: that I had down there, but just like what I
Speaker 1: it was just oh, come to the altar, we'll do
Speaker 1: you know, like, oh, oh, come to the altar. Am
Speaker 1: I exaggerating the story. Chris, the father's arms are oh
Speaker 1: ben wide what if it was just that? And Chris goes, oh,
Speaker 1: if you're going to do that, I got this thing
Speaker 1: that I've been mumbling into my phone that I thought
Speaker 1: was stupid too, and he plays it and it's oh,
Speaker 1: you hurting and broken with me? I said, Chris, did
Speaker 1: you just say are you hurting in Brooken with it?
Speaker 1: He said, no, all you're hurting in Brooklyn with And
Speaker 1: I said, no, it's our You're hurting and brooken within.
Speaker 1: It's a question. It's going to open the whole song.
Speaker 1: It's going to be an invitation. And four hours later
Speaker 1: we had the song, and three and a half years later,
Speaker 1: this week it was the number one song on all
Speaker 1: Christian streaming songs. But I was telling you that because
Speaker 1: you got some things in your life that you're just
Speaker 1: about to throw away. I mean I was just about
Speaker 1: to quit. Just when I thought it was nothing. God said,
Speaker 1: give me that back, just when I was putting up
Speaker 1: the boats on the shore, just when you were walking
Speaker 1: away from the marriage, just when you were about to
Speaker 1: quit praying for your kid. God says it's not over.
Speaker 1: High five three people and say not yet, not yet.
Speaker 1: The temple thought he had him on Saturday. But there's
Speaker 1: a catch. It's a setup. Sunday's coming. It's not over.
Speaker 1: Don't your neighbors say there's a catch because it's conditional.
Speaker 1: What's a conditional upon your obedience, your perseverance, your willingness
Speaker 1: to do something you don't understand to watch this? This
Speaker 1: is This is funny, possibly illegal. What Jesus does next?
Speaker 1: I think so, because Jesus, who is the Word of God,
Speaker 1: who spoke the world into existence Colossians one sixteen, needs
Speaker 1: a way to get out into the world that he
Speaker 1: made the message that he is. He needs a way.
Speaker 1: This is crazy because the Maker in the beginning was
Speaker 1: a word, and the word was with God. In the
Speaker 1: Word was God. He was with God in the beginning.
Speaker 1: Through him all things were made that were made, And
Speaker 1: without him nothing has been made that has been made.
Speaker 1: That one. The Maker needs a way to get the word.
Speaker 1: The Word needs a way. The Maker needs a way
Speaker 1: to get the word into the world that he's so
Speaker 1: loved that he came wrapped in flesh. He needs a way.
Speaker 1: And it says that he saw two boats at the shore,
Speaker 1: and one of them was belonging to Simon. WA's what
Speaker 1: he does Verse three he got into one of the boats. Okay,
Speaker 1: you're looking like that's normal. No conversation, no lease agreement.
Speaker 1: You don't think that. If you don't think, if you
Speaker 1: don't think this is weird, try it when you leave
Speaker 1: church today. No, I'm serious. If you don't think this
Speaker 1: is weird, just find the nicest car that you like
Speaker 1: in the parking lot. Just the nicest one. Don't do
Speaker 1: a Camray. There's nothing wrong with Camri's. But if you're
Speaker 1: gonna steal a car, pick the nicest one in the
Speaker 1: parking lot and just do what Jesus did. Just get
Speaker 1: in it. And when they come up to the window
Speaker 1: and ask you, what are you doing in my car?
Speaker 1: Say I noticed your elevation sticker. I figured you're a Christian.
Speaker 1: I need to use it. Can I have your keys?
Speaker 1: Because it's essentially what Jesus does. He sits down in
Speaker 1: the boat, the one belonging to Simon Peter. Okay, why
Speaker 1: did Jesus pick Peter? You ever thought about that? I have,
Speaker 1: because I can think of a lot of reasons why
Speaker 1: he wouldn't pick Peter. A lot of reasons why he
Speaker 1: wouldn't pick Peter. Peter was impulsive, Peter was a know
Speaker 1: it all. Peter was violent. You don't cut off people's
Speaker 1: ears if you had a normal upbringing. That's not something
Speaker 1: that Peter had. A filthy mouth. Peter, Peter, Peter. I
Speaker 1: heard one preacher. He said, because Peter was bold, that's
Speaker 1: why Jesus liked him. He was bold. I don't think so,
Speaker 1: because remember the the Bible was written pre uber and
Speaker 1: Jesus had a lot to accomplish in three years. The
Speaker 1: word had to get out touch. Somebody said, we got
Speaker 1: to get the word out. How are we going to
Speaker 1: get it out? No Facebook, no YouTube, no Instagram. You
Speaker 1: know why? I have come to believe that the reason
Speaker 1: Jesus picked Peter is because he got boat. How how else? Okay,
Speaker 1: let me preach point number two. I want to talk
Speaker 1: about creative collaboration because now here is the creator partnering
Speaker 1: with his creation. Here is the Word of God, who
Speaker 1: has the ability to walk on water. Don't forget that
Speaker 1: if Jesus had wanted to just get away from the
Speaker 1: crowd and preach and create a little distance. We know
Speaker 1: from Matthew chapter fourteen that if a storm comes up
Speaker 1: and the boat is not available and Jesus needs to
Speaker 1: get somewhere he will just suspend the laws of buoyancy
Speaker 1: that he himself created. In the beginning was the word,
Speaker 1: and the word was with God. If Jesus can't find
Speaker 1: a boat to ride on, he'll speak a word and
Speaker 1: walk on the word that he is to the place
Speaker 1: that he But yeah, and I want to do it
Speaker 1: like that. And I would have done it like that,
Speaker 1: because this is early in this ministry. And if you
Speaker 1: moonwalk back on the water and then preach to the crowd,
Speaker 1: they'll pay more attention. Don't you think he said? No,
Speaker 1: I want to boat. I want to boat. I want
Speaker 1: his boat, I want her boat. I want to use
Speaker 1: their life. I want to Yeah, I want to use
Speaker 1: their weakness. Yeah. I want to build a church. I
Speaker 1: want to call people together from all different nations around
Speaker 1: the world, will be a part of the e fam.
Speaker 1: I want to I want to call people from different backgrounds.
Speaker 1: I want to call people of different kinds, different types.
Speaker 1: I want I want I want some people who own
Speaker 1: their own businesses. I want some people who are unemployed.
Speaker 1: I want some people who suffered great abuse in their childhood.
Speaker 1: I want to bring them together. I want to I
Speaker 1: want to use your boat it's the hardest thing for
Speaker 1: us to understand sometimes. Why would the one who can
Speaker 1: walk on water have any use for our boat? And
Speaker 1: I think the devil uses it to give us excuses
Speaker 1: why we don't offer God what we have. Because my
Speaker 1: boat's not as big as his. My boat, my boat,
Speaker 1: My boat's thirty my boat, my boat. I fished all night,
Speaker 1: I caught nothing. What would you want with me, Jesus?
Speaker 1: So I went from thinking Jesus needed Peter's boat to
Speaker 1: realizing that Jesus didn't need Peter's boat. Peter needed jesus
Speaker 1: blessing on his boat, because that same thing happened to
Speaker 1: me in the area of giving. When we give the offering.
Speaker 1: I thought that giving was the way that we supported
Speaker 1: the church, to keep the lights on, to keep the
Speaker 1: salaries paid Forgive me for being so naive. I thought
Speaker 1: God needed my boat. I thought he needed my gift.
Speaker 1: A little bit of life rolled by, and I realized
Speaker 1: that God was God before I ever showed up. And
Speaker 1: I'll put this out to you. There were two boats
Speaker 1: on the shore, so I believe if Peter had said no,
Speaker 1: Jesus would have gotten the other one. Means he doesn't
Speaker 1: have to use us. He chooses to use us. So
Speaker 1: we get up here this time of year, and I
Speaker 1: got to say, I'm pretty impressed because usually in a church,
Speaker 1: when you go to a series where you challenge people
Speaker 1: to give, like, we're challenging every person in the church,
Speaker 1: young and old, to give a gift to God at
Speaker 1: this year in to begin to tie the you're not
Speaker 1: doing that, to begin to give the first ten percent
Speaker 1: of your increase to God, to set it up online
Speaker 1: so that you're not praying about something that God has
Speaker 1: already clearly commanded, and then to give above and beyond that.
Speaker 1: When we challenge you to do that, we are not
Speaker 1: speaking the language of obligation. We're speaking the language of opportunity.
Speaker 1: You know the difference. You know the difference. It's in
Speaker 1: verse three. It says that he got into the boat
Speaker 1: belonging to Simon, and I love the phrase. It says,
Speaker 1: and he asked him, you want to do this? I mean,
Speaker 1: you don't have to. I can totally do this without you.
Speaker 1: But I like your boat, bro your I like your boldness.
Speaker 1: I like your brokenness. Can I borrow your boat? Can
Speaker 1: God borrow your boat? The gifts that He gave you?
Speaker 1: Can he use them for his glory. Or did you
Speaker 1: get so confused about who made the trees that you
Speaker 1: lost sight of the fact that everything that God gave
Speaker 1: you is on loan. You can't take it with you.
Speaker 1: Giving releases me to remember that it was his boat
Speaker 1: to begin with. In the beginning was the Word, and
Speaker 1: the Word was with God, and the Word was God.
Speaker 1: He was with God in the beginning. Through him all
Speaker 1: things were made. Peter had a boat, but the boat
Speaker 1: had to be made of something. Peter had a boat,
Speaker 1: but the boat had to come from somewhere. And now
Speaker 1: the one who spoke the cedars, and who spoke the
Speaker 1: cypress into existence, the one who spoke the ocean and
Speaker 1: the chemical balance of the old that would create and
Speaker 1: sustain the life of the fish, the one who put
Speaker 1: the gills on the fish that Peter was looking for
Speaker 1: at the bottom of the ocean unsuccessfully, said, can I
Speaker 1: get on your boat? Because it's a cool thing when
Speaker 1: God becomes your partner. He knows the best spots to fish.
Speaker 1: It's a great thing to have the Son of God
Speaker 1: on your boat. It's a great thing when you don't
Speaker 1: have to fish alone. It's a great thing when you
Speaker 1: say God, all I have is yours. It's a freedom
Speaker 1: to it. I can't explain it if you've never experienced it,
Speaker 1: but it's a freedom to it. When you come to
Speaker 1: the end of yourself and your boats are pulled up
Speaker 1: on the shore, and Jesus says, now that you've done
Speaker 1: all you can do, will you give me a push?
Speaker 1: And all Peter had to do watch this, no tenure plan.
Speaker 1: All he had to do was obey and give Jesus
Speaker 1: a push. Now, when he pushed that boat out into
Speaker 1: the water, he thought he was loaning Jesus the boat
Speaker 1: for an hour. He did not know, because God will
Speaker 1: trick you into stuff touch somebody said, there's a catch.
Speaker 1: There's always a catch. He did not know that he
Speaker 1: would spend the next three years taking this crazy miracle working.
Speaker 1: He didn't know that the death ears would be opened
Speaker 1: after they got off this boat. He didn't know that
Speaker 1: blind eyes would see because Jesus got a ride on
Speaker 1: his boat. You never know what God will do until
Speaker 1: you let him on your boat. You don't know. You
Speaker 1: can't know. And that's what faith is, is pushing out
Speaker 1: into the deep when you don't know the result. Wow,
Speaker 1: and it's letting down the nets for a catch. Touch
Speaker 1: somebody say, there's a catch, there's a catch, there's a
Speaker 1: catch all Jesus said, I know you can't see it,
Speaker 1: but I can see it because I stocked these waters
Speaker 1: you're fishing in. There is a catch. See. I think
Speaker 1: Tom Lahman was telling me this. He said, fishing is
Speaker 1: like the Holy Spirit. You can't see the fish, but
Speaker 1: they're there. And the more you learn about it, the
Speaker 1: more you will know how to fish in the right places.
Speaker 1: The more you follow him, the more you hear him,
Speaker 1: the more you get acquainted with his voice. And say,
Speaker 1: I don't see it, I don't feel it. But God,
Speaker 1: if you speak it, I'll do it. Not because I
Speaker 1: feel it, not because I see it, not because I
Speaker 1: understand it, and not because it makes sense. But if
Speaker 1: you say so, I will. If you say do it,
Speaker 1: I'll do it. I want the obedience of God to
Speaker 1: be the guarantee of my inheritance. And this brings me
Speaker 1: to my final point. Can't believe it's over already, ken you.
Speaker 1: I don't think I'll be able to preach it this
Speaker 1: way again. This is a special moment. God is doing
Speaker 1: something in this moment. I want to talk to you
Speaker 1: about connected blessings. The biggest problem that Peter and his
Speaker 1: boys had before Jesus occupied their boat was no fish.
Speaker 1: One word from Jesus, and their biggest problem was breaking nets.
Speaker 1: That's the way I really see the church that God
Speaker 1: is building here, and he's building it, but we get
Speaker 1: to let him use our boat. You see the volunteers
Speaker 1: out there, that's people who brought their boat to church. Oh,
Speaker 1: in every church there's there's two different groups. There's the crowd,
Speaker 1: and they get the message. They come, they get the message.
Speaker 1: If they feel like coming, they come if they don't facebook.
Speaker 1: But then within every crowd there's a crew. And when
Speaker 1: Jesus spoke to Peter, he said, I see you out
Speaker 1: there in the crowd. Would you be interested in stepping
Speaker 1: out of the crowd and be a part of the crew.
Speaker 1: Can I use your boat now? The crowd is not bad.
Speaker 1: It's a great place to start. The crowd gets the message.
Speaker 1: The crowd gets the message, but the crew gets the miracle.
Speaker 1: When they had done so, they took in such a
Speaker 1: large number of fish that the next thing they had
Speaker 1: to do was call their partners. I believe this is
Speaker 1: verse seven. So they signaled their partners in the other boat.
Speaker 1: See here's what God will do. He will bless you
Speaker 1: so much that other people will get blessed just because
Speaker 1: they were next to you. Touch somebody and say, you
Speaker 1: want to be glad you're sitting next to me today
Speaker 1: because I am so blessed with the presence of God,
Speaker 1: everything next to me is gonna get blessed too. Good measure,
Speaker 1: press down, shake it together, come on, play me for
Speaker 1: seven years? You want to shower and run it over.
Speaker 1: That's why I come to church. I want to be
Speaker 1: connected to the head so I could get the blessing
Speaker 1: of the oil and lumps down through the pier. I
Speaker 1: sat the boys down. I sat the boys down. Tell
Speaker 1: somebody say there's a catch. Okay, don't say I didn't
Speaker 1: warn you there is a catch to this message. I
Speaker 1: sat my boys down yesterday to write my check for
Speaker 1: this offering. I always hate these series until I write
Speaker 1: my offering, because it's a process of going through inventorying
Speaker 1: my nets and my boats and seeing how much of
Speaker 1: it I still think is mine, and asking God, do
Speaker 1: you want to use any that you gave me? Now?
Speaker 1: When people do it, they do different amounts. Some people
Speaker 1: their amount may look big to somebody, but it might
Speaker 1: be a million dollars. People have done that, but for
Speaker 1: them it was something they could do alongside somebody who
Speaker 1: could do fifty dollars. Then you get to see everybody
Speaker 1: do something together. The rich men's gift, the widow's might
Speaker 1: now blended in these walls. So we get to do
Speaker 1: something bigger together when we partner together, when we connect together,
Speaker 1: we can do something that none of us could do alone,
Speaker 1: because we got to get the word out. And the
Speaker 1: crowd just takes the word in, but the crew gets
Speaker 1: the word out. And every blessing that God has given
Speaker 1: me in my life has been connected to my obedience
Speaker 1: to His word. And every blessing that God has given
Speaker 1: me in my life, I can I can prove to
Speaker 1: you if I had time from the first campaign that
Speaker 1: we did in the church in two thousands and make
Speaker 1: some noise, if you are really really elevation old school
Speaker 1: and you were here for the dominate campaign when I
Speaker 1: stood up and I said, we're taking an offering, but
Speaker 1: we're not going to do it today. In fact, we're
Speaker 1: not taking an offering today at all. We're giving the
Speaker 1: offering away. And I told everybody to look under their chairs.
Speaker 1: True story. Look under your chairs and there is money
Speaker 1: under your chairs. Reach under your chairs. Half the people
Speaker 1: didn't move because they thought I was pulling something on them.
Speaker 1: But there was really money under every chair at the church.
Speaker 1: Don't go feeling right now. I don't do that anymore.
Speaker 1: The church is too big. That was a one time thing,
Speaker 1: but it was something. The lawyer spoke to us and
Speaker 1: I had them pull out the money, different amounts, somewhere
Speaker 1: a dollar, most were dollar, there were some five dollars,
Speaker 1: ten dollars, one hundred dollars, even one thousand dollars in
Speaker 1: one thousand dollars. But I said, that money is yours.
Speaker 1: We're not taking an offering. We're giving away the offering
Speaker 1: this week, the amount that would normally be the offering.
Speaker 1: It's under your chairs. We divided it up. It's under
Speaker 1: you chairs. But there's a catch. There's a catch. Don't
Speaker 1: spend it, use it to bless somebody. Put it online.
Speaker 1: What you did. We'll see what God can do through
Speaker 1: us and everybody. I think everybody did it. I prayed
Speaker 1: that everybody who spent the money will get diarrhea. So
Speaker 1: but here's the point, I said, it's a blessing under
Speaker 1: your seat. You're sitting on a blessing. But there's a catch.
Speaker 1: You don't get to sit on it. You don't get
Speaker 1: to spend it, use it. And the next week they
Speaker 1: came back and we had we had high attendance next week,
Speaker 1: and I said, hey, did you all enjoy that last week?
Speaker 1: We're going to do it again. And everybody looked at
Speaker 1: me like you're kidding, right, And I said, yeah, We're
Speaker 1: going to do it again. I said, but this time
Speaker 1: we call it the blessed Back project. God has blessed you,
Speaker 1: He gave you your boat to be a blessing. I said, so,
Speaker 1: so here's the deal. We're going to do it again,
Speaker 1: but this week the money is not under your chair,
Speaker 1: it's in your bank account. There's a catch. There's a catch.
Speaker 1: It's a mentality. What happens next in the passage proves
Speaker 1: that the greatest blessing that God gave Peter was never
Speaker 1: the fish in his boat, because when they saw what
Speaker 1: Jesus was able to do only after they had obeyed.
Speaker 1: Can I say that again? They only got the blessing
Speaker 1: after they obeyed the way we would have liked for
Speaker 1: Jesus to do it if we had been loaning him.
Speaker 1: Our boat is to fill the boat with fish, and
Speaker 1: then you can use it to preach. Right, God, you
Speaker 1: bless me, and then I'll bless others. But the scripture
Speaker 1: says something very interesting. Give and it will be given
Speaker 1: to you. Whatever it is, encouragement, finances, time, give and
Speaker 1: it will be given to you. So it is only
Speaker 1: after study the construct me out. See if I'm right.
Speaker 1: It is only after, not before, only after obedience that
Speaker 1: evidence is manifest only after. Yes, I'll do it only after. Okay,
Speaker 1: God has you right now on the edge of a blessing.
Speaker 1: But there's a catch. There's a catch. The blessing will
Speaker 1: follow obedience. It will not proceed it. It wouldn't take faith.
Speaker 1: God's greatest goal for your life is not fish, it's faith.
Speaker 1: So God wants to know, do you have the faith
Speaker 1: to fish in the midst of your frustration? Do you
Speaker 1: have the faith to push the word of God out
Speaker 1: and to trust Me to fill your boat? And when
Speaker 1: he does, Simon, let down the nets. The boats are full.
Speaker 1: Hey get over here, Hey, come on over, boys, come
Speaker 1: on over, Come on over, James, come on over, help
Speaker 1: me out. And the boats come over and it's amazing.
Speaker 1: And the boats look at over seven got so full
Speaker 1: that they began to sing. Both boats got full, Peter's
Speaker 1: boat and his boys, everything connected to Jesus got blessed.
Speaker 1: I want my life connected to the one who is
Speaker 1: the creator. I want to stay connected to my source
Speaker 1: and not dependent on my stuff. And when Simon Peter
Speaker 1: saw this verse A, he said, boys, get the scales ready,
Speaker 1: we're about to be millionaires. When Simon Peter saw this,
Speaker 1: that wasn't the real scripture. He fell at Jesus needs
Speaker 1: and say, I don't deserve this. That's a good posture.
Speaker 1: I know I don't deserve it. I told the boys
Speaker 1: the other day when I sat him down, sat them down,
Speaker 1: I know. I brought it up here. Yeah, this checkbook
Speaker 1: I had to teach them what to check was No,
Speaker 1: I've done this before. I said, we're getting ready for
Speaker 1: the offering. I took them back to two thousand and seven,
Speaker 1: when the people gave toward a building that we hadn't
Speaker 1: even identified yet. We didn't even know what we were
Speaker 1: raising money for, just raising it by faith, and they
Speaker 1: did it. They did it and over and over again.
Speaker 1: You can see it now. Seventeen campuses, all the millions
Speaker 1: of dollars of outreach all around the world, the online community,
Speaker 1: getting the word out, just getting the word out, get
Speaker 1: in the word out, thousands of people, get in the
Speaker 1: word out, Get in the word out, Get in the
Speaker 1: word out, get in the word out, get in the
Speaker 1: word out. And so I explained the story behind this
Speaker 1: offering to them. This is one of those that I
Speaker 1: did not ask colleagues permission before I wrote the number,
Speaker 1: because it's significant to me, because this amount of money
Speaker 1: of something that was a dream of mine that came
Speaker 1: true this year. And I don't have one stream of income.
Speaker 1: I have different streams of income, and this is the
Speaker 1: stream of income that I've been praying for, not the income,
Speaker 1: but the influence that created the income, and I've been
Speaker 1: praying for it for many years now. In fact, without
Speaker 1: going into great detail about it, I prayed about this
Speaker 1: before I prayed about starting the church, and it happened
Speaker 1: for me at a new level this year. Without boring
Speaker 1: you on the details of that, I went and looked
Speaker 1: up the exact amount of the increase that came that
Speaker 1: from that dream that came true in my life, and
Speaker 1: I made the check to the exact amount to the
Speaker 1: penny of that. Here's why. Here's why I did it.
Speaker 1: Because I was studying about this passage, and I noticed
Speaker 1: how Peter the moment of this great miracle in verse eleven, Well,
Speaker 1: we should probably read verse ten when Jesus looked at
Speaker 1: him and said, don't be afraid. From now on you
Speaker 1: will fish for people. And then I read what Peter
Speaker 1: did next. It said that Peter pulled his boat up
Speaker 1: on the shore, and not just Peter, but they, because
Speaker 1: the people connected to you will follow your example, fathers, mothers.
Speaker 1: So they pulled their boats up on the shore, left everything,
Speaker 1: They left what they had just been blessed with for
Speaker 1: a greater blessing that was ahead. So I heard an
Speaker 1: impression in my heart. God speaks to all of us
Speaker 1: in different ways. He said, do you want the fish
Speaker 1: or the favor? Wow, do you want to keep the
Speaker 1: fish or do you want to flow in the favor
Speaker 1: that told the fish where to swim to begin with?
Speaker 1: Ain't it it's expensive too? But I imagine on the day
Speaker 1: of Pentecost, and this is what I told the boys.
Speaker 1: I said, look around at all this that God has
Speaker 1: given us. And I don't just mean the house. The
Speaker 1: house is nice. The house is nice. I don't just
Speaker 1: mean your switch. Is that what it's called. I don't
Speaker 1: just mean your clothes. I mean this, the ability to
Speaker 1: touch people's lives. I mean this just us being together.
Speaker 1: I said, everything we have is a result of God's
Speaker 1: favor following our obedience, and I don't want it to
Speaker 1: ever stop. So you can have the fish. I want
Speaker 1: the favor. You can have the fish. I want to
Speaker 1: walk in the favor of God, and surely goodness and
Speaker 1: mercy will follow me all the days of my life.
Speaker 1: If I follow Jesus favor follows me. You can have
Speaker 1: my booth, you can have my heart, you can have
Speaker 1: it all. Stand up, God is moving in this place.
Speaker 1: You never miss the fish that you leave behind to
Speaker 1: follow God in faith. You think Peter stood up on
Speaker 1: the day of Pentecost and preached and three thousand people
Speaker 1: got saved in Revival was unleashed in Jerusalem. That led
Speaker 1: to revival in Judea, that led to revival in Samaria
Speaker 1: that led to revival to the ends of the earth.
Speaker 1: You think Peter was standing up there in the pulpit
Speaker 1: on the day of Pentecost, thinking, man, I miss those fish,
Speaker 1: because long after the fish stink, the favor of God
Speaker 1: will still be long after the stuff is out of style.
Speaker 1: Only what's done for Christ will last only one life.
Speaker 1: It soon south passed. Only what's done for Christ will last.
Speaker 1: Can I get a push the word of God needed
Speaker 1: away into the earth. Can I get a push? That's
Speaker 1: what God is asking his church today, as so many
Speaker 1: times before. You want to go deeper, you want to
Speaker 1: go farther, You want to flow, You want to flow
Speaker 1: in the favor of God. Let me use your boat.
Speaker 1: If you don't want to, it's fine because there's another boat.
Speaker 1: There's always another boat. I sure would like to get
Speaker 1: in yours because I made you, and I gifted you,
Speaker 1: and I graced you, and I blessed you, and I
Speaker 1: kept you, and I put you where I put you.
Speaker 1: Can I use your boat? We pray another prayer of surrender,
Speaker 1: not my will, but yours be done. Because you say so,
Speaker 1: I'll let down. Then that's no negotiation, no justification. We
Speaker 1: don't need an explanation, We just need a word speak,
Speaker 1: Holy Spirit. Thank you for joining us. Special thanks to
Speaker 1: those of you who give generously to this minute. Is
Speaker 1: because of you that this ministry is possible. You can
Speaker 1: click the link in the description to give now or
Speaker 1: visit Elevationchurch dot org slash podcast for more information and
Speaker 1: if you enjoyed the podcast, you can subscribe. You can
Speaker 1: share it with your friends. You can click the share button,
Speaker 1: take a screenshot and share it on your social stories
Speaker 1: and tag us at Elevation Church. Thanks again for listening.
Speaker 1: God bless you.