Latest / The Woman at the Well Ministries Podcast / 676 | At Thy Word; Launching Out Into the Deep

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676 | At Thy Word; Launching Out Into the Deep · The Woman at the Well Ministries Podcast

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Hello, friends, and welcome back to the Woman at the Well Ministries podcast.
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With Kimberly Miller, where we believe that every man, woman,
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boy, and girl must come to Jesus just like the woman at the well in John chapter 4.
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Our highest priority is helping you experience the reality of God in your everyday life.
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Whether you're listening in our app, on your favorite podcast platform,
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are on our website at watwm.org.
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We invite you to sit down with us as we open the scriptures to learn more about
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who God is and to strengthen your daily walk.
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Simon Peter and the other fishermen had worked all night and caught nothing.
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Yet Jesus entered Simon Peter's boat and gave him a command that challenged his experience.
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Launch out into the deep.
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At the word of Jesus, they launched into the deep and let down their nets.
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Their obedience led to an overwhelming blessing.
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God blessed them with an enormous catch of fish and ultimately a personal call to follow Christ.
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When we trust and obey Jesus, He transforms ordinary people into faithful servants.
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How has God challenged your experience, and what was your response?
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Join us in this podcast of Woman at the Well Ministries as Kim takes us on a
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journey through the Scriptures, encouraging us to launch into the deep.
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Hello, and thank you for joining us in this podcast of Woman at the Well Ministries.
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I love Peter. And if you listen to me often, you know that Peter and the account
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of Peter walking on water makes it into a vast majority of the number of messages that God gives me.
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But this is another look at Peter.
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And it's another look at Peter that really impacts my heart.
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Because Peter wanted to do the right thing.
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And Peter may have been impetuous, and Peter may have been,
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exuberant and enthusiastic, but he was also a man who wanted to do what God wanted him to do.
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And this passage of Scripture is such a convicting passage to most of us because
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Peter doesn't give a second thought to doing what God commands him to do.
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He simply obeys.
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And this obedience that Peter exhibits, it lands him a blessing beyond comprehension.
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So obedience to Christ, it brings us from empty nests to fruitful service.
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And throughout this account in Luke chapter 5, beginning in verse 1 and concluding
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in verse 11, we see that faith is really obedience in action.
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Faith is obeying Jesus' words, especially when it doesn't make sense,
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and your circumstances may contradict it.
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If I had to sum up Luke 5, 1 through 11 in one theme, it would be this.
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When we trust and obey Jesus, he transforms ordinary people into faithful servants,
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and blesses them extraordinarily.
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Let's pray.
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Our kind and most gracious to Heavenly Father, Lord, I pray that you walk through
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my heart and mind and that you use these lips of clay to speak what you have
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placed in both my heart and my mind.
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Lord, I pray that you would remove me as far as the east is from the west from
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this message, and I pray, dear God, that you would touch the hearts of those
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that you have preordained and orchestrated to hear it.
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And Lord, that the message you have for each of those is not only heard but received.
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And, Lord, that we would renew our mind so that you would transform our lives.
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Lord, have your richest blessing on the reading of your word.
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Luke chapter 5.
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Beginning in verse 1 and reading through, verse 11 says this.
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And it came to pass that as the people pressed upon him to hear the word of
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God, he stood by the lake of Gennesaret and saw two ships standing by the lake.
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But the fishermen were gone out of them and were washing their nets.
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And he entered into one of the ships, which was Simon's, and prayed him that
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he would thrust out a little from the land.
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And he sat down and taught the people out of the ship.
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Now when he had left speaking, he said unto Simon, Launch out into the deep
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and let down your nets for a drought.
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And Simon answering said unto him, Master, we have toiled all the night and have taken nothing.
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Nevertheless, at thy word, I will let down the net.
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When they had this done, they enclosed a great multitude of fishes, and their net break.
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And they beckoned unto their partners, which were in the other ship,
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that they should come and help them.
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And they came and filled both the ships so that they began to sink.
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When Simon Peter saw it, he fell down at Jesus' knees, saying,
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Depart from me, for I am a sinful man, O Lord.
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For he was astonished, and all that were with him at the drought of the fishes which they had taken.
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So also was James and John, the sons of Zebedee, which were partners with Simon.
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And Jesus said unto Simon, Fear not, from henceforth thou shalt catch men.
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And when they had brought their ships to land, they forsook all and followed him.
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At thy word, Peter launched his nets.
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At Christ's word, Peter launched out into the deep.
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These fishermen had worked all night long and had caught nothing.
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They were tired and discouraged.
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They were there washing their empty nets. They were getting ready to go home.
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They were done for the day.
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Yet Jesus enters Simon Peter's boat, and he gives him a command that challenges
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every single thing that Simon Peter knew. He said, launch out into the deep.
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Now, my friend, can you imagine what Peter must have been thinking?
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In his mind, somehow, he must have thought, I know what I'm doing.
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I've made a living at this. The fish aren't biting. The fish aren't around. The fish aren't there.
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This is not what we need to do.
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And for many of us, I think that's how we would have responded.
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And before you say no, I think that's how we respond today.
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I think God prompts us in our hearts, and instead of getting out of the boat,
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and doing what he says, instead of having the courage to throw our nets on the
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other side, what we simply do is we neglect to do the command.
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But Peter's miracle began with three words, at thy word.
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Peter does exactly what Jesus commands him to do because Jesus asked him to do it.
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He didn't need anything else. It didn't need to make sense for Peter to do it.
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God prompted Peter, spoke to Peter, commanded Peter, and Peter simply obeyed and did what God asked.
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Where would we be today if we had that kind of obedience?
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We'd have a lot more sleep in our lives, a lot more blessings showering us in an abundance of peace.
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But unlike Peter, when God speaks, we shut down the miracle.
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At thy word began Peter's miracle.
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In Luke verses 5, 1 through 3, we see that Jesus enters into the ship.
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And he tells them to get a little bit away from the land.
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He needed to move out so the people he was getting ready to teach and speak
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to and change forever could see him and hear him.
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And nowhere does it say that Peter asked, what are you going to give me to do it?
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Why are we moving out? Or go get it into another boat.
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All we know is he asked Peter, He got in Peter's boat. He met Peter where Peter was.
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Peter wasn't in a synagogue. Peter wasn't in a temple.
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He was at work. And so was Jesus.
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Jesus was right where Peter was, and Jesus was at work.
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He was not only going to teach these people that were gathered to listen to
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him, but he was also going to teach Peter and transform Peter and the sons of Zebedee.
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James and John. See, what happens in our life often impacts the people around us.
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And so this disobedience that you think you're hiding in your own heart,
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this disobedience that you won't label disobedience, but you're well aware you're
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not doing what God's asking you to do, isn't just affecting you.
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And oh, it is affecting you. It's locking up blessings God has for you.
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It's locking up potential God has created in you.
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But it's also negatively impacting the people around you.
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See, Jesus is in Peter's boat waiting for Peter to come back.
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You get that? He's waiting on him, just like he waited on the woman at the well in John chapter 4.
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He's waiting on Peter because Peter's out washing his net.
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So he's in the boat. And he looks at Peter and he says, launch out into the deep.
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Peter is doing everything he normally does.
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There's nothing extraordinarily different about what Peter is doing.
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And Jesus is right there.
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Since Jesus is no respecter of persons, you can be sure that Jesus is meeting
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you right where you are right now. Right in the center of your need.
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Right in the middle of your storm.
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Right where your ordinary day takes place.
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And he asked peter jesus asked peter to use his boat,
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and peter gives jesus all that he has there's no rebuttal as i said earlier
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there's no pushback he just turns everything he has over to jesus when's the last time,
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that you yielded completely to the lord as we see peter do in these first three
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verses of Luke chapter 5.
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Peter had a boat.
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God commanded him to do, move away from the shore so that he could teach from the boat.
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And this ordinary boat that hadn't done anything good all night long now became
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an instrument for reaching others with the message of Jesus.
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See, I think sometimes we get so spun up about being in the right place,
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doing the right thing, having the right agenda, having the right lights,
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making sure we have the right music, making sure the microphones are this.
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None of that stuff is bad, but it's not the main thing.
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God will use whatever you give him, and when he's calling on you,
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he wants you to give him everything you have right then and there, and you let him take it.
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You may say, well, I'm not good enough. I'm not smart enough.
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I don't look the right way. I don't sound the right way.
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I don't have what it takes. God's not asking for any of that.
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He got in Peter's boat, and he said, push off the shore.
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What happens with that boat is 100% completely dependent upon Jesus,
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not upon the boat, not upon Peter who owned the boat.
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All Peter has in it is the willingness to be used, the generosity and the determination
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to give God everything he has to be fully and completely submitted and yielded to the Lord.
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That's what Peter has in this.
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And so, though the boat was ordinary, Christ is using it for extraordinary things.
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See, we are ordinary people who God calls,
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and whom God calls, he equips and he anoints to do extraordinary things when
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we give ourselves to jesus peter's a perfect example of that in luke chapter
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5 in these first 11 verses,
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see before god greatly used peter,
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he asked peter to yield himself completely to him and to give him everything.
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I believe, my friend, that right here, in these first three verses of Luke chapter 5,
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we are reading the absolute recipe for getting countless bountiful showers of blessings.
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I think we're reading God's instructions for how to be in the center of His will.
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I think we're reading God's instructions for how to demonstrate our love for Him.
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You just say, here am I. You turn over your bank accounts.
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You give generously to those that God tells you to give.
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You are the distributor of the goods that he has given you, and you just give
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them and you use them and you let him utilize them for his will,
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his purpose, his good, and his glory.
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That's what he did.
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And before Jesus filled the nets and blessed Peter, he took Peter's boat that Peter freely gave him,
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and he used it for his service.
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God takes what we will give him and uses it to build his kingdom.
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The extraordinary voice that God has given you he wants you to use it for his work.
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Your gift of memory, he wants you to use, filling it with the word of God,
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that you would hide it in your heart, that you would not sin against him,
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that it'd be a light into your path and a lamp into your feet.
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That skill set he's given you that enables you to make a good living.
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He wants you to use that skill set to help others.
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And he wants you to use the living wages he's given you in the manner that he
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is telling you to distribute them. It's not your money.
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And you say, but I earned it. But you earned it with the gifts he gave you.
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It's not yours to keep. It's yours to offer up and to distribute as God tells you.
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Before Jesus filled Peter's net, He had to give him all he had.
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Where are we at in our life? Are we holding on to stuff that we think is vitally
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important and it's costing us what God really has for us?
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If we're clenching so tight to what God is currently giving us,
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we can't open our hands to grasp the new blessings.
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He can't trust us with our current measure of blessings. He can't give us more.
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Before Peter's nets became full, Peter emptied himself of himself.
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Don't let that peace go away. Before God greatly uses us, he first asks us to
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yield ourselves and what we possess to him.
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He has to be Lord of all, King of kings, and Lord of your life.
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And until He is, you're living below your privileges, and you're stealing God from God.
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Yes, you're stealing from God, because He has created you for a purpose that
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you're impeding, because you won't allow Him to have full reign in your life.
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The Lord can use our everyday work, our resources, and our circumstances for
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His purpose, but we must make them available to Him for Him to use.
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It's not about what you have. It's about what you will give.
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It's not about the abundance that you possess. It's about what you will allow Him to possess in you.
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And Peter shows us that what we place in Christ's hands is abundantly blessed,
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anointed, and equips us to use for the service of the King.
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Jesus met Peter where Peter was. And then Peter shows us what obedience really is.
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Obedience trusts Jesus's word above anything we know or have experienced.
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Peter was a professional fisherman, and when Jesus spoke to him about how to
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do the fishing, launch out in the deep and throw your net on the other side, he did not rebuttal.
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He did not tell him some soliloquy of all that he had known.
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He did not do anything. He said, Lord, we did that, but at thy word,
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because you said it, because you're asking, because you are who you are,
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and you're asking me to do this, I'm going to do it.
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Tired, worn out, defeated. So when Christ asked him, let's read verses 4 through 5 of Luke chapter 5.
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When Christ asked him, now when he had left speaking, he said unto Simon,
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launch out into the deep and let down your nets for a drought.
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And Simon answering said unto him, Master, we've toiled all the night and have taken nothing.
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Nevertheless, at thy word, I will let down the nets.
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Nevertheless because you said it and because of who you are,
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i'm gonna do it their empty nets wasn't because they were lazy it wasn't because they had not
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done what they were supposed to do they had toiled all night they had used every
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ounce of their expertise they had used their professional knowledge they knew
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how to use the boat they knew how to use the equipment
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they were professional professional fishermen they knew where you were supposed
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to fish they know how to use the nets.
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They knew the proper time to fish. They knew all there was to know in a man-made,
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logical fashion, and they knew they had done it.
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But here stands Jesus asking them to launch out into the deep,
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throw these nets on the other side, and Peter says, okay, at your word.
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They had worked hard, and the experience could not get what they needed.
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In John 14 verses 4 through 5, we read these precious words.
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Abide in me, and I in you, as the branch cannot bear fruit of itself,
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except it abide in the vine.
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No more can ye, except ye abide in me. I am the vine, ye are the branches.
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He that abideth in me, and I in him, the same bringeth forth much fruit,
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for without me you can do nothing.
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This is what Jesus, in no uncertain terms, is explaining to these fishermen.
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See, faith doesn't require us to understand everything before we obey.
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We are called to trust the one who speaks.
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Peter did not understand why God was telling him to go deeper into the water
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than where they were just standing. He had fished there.
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He didn't know why Jesus was looking at him, worn out, tired,
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frustrated, beaten down, and asking him to go out and do the same useless activity
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he had done all night long.
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See, we can labor faithfully and still experience disappointment.
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They were doing it all right. Empty nets do not mean that Christ has abandoned us.
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It means that God is not supplying the abundance at that moment,
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but he is supplying the need.
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He's still got his eye on you, and he's still working things through you.
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Faith doesn't mean you understand everything you're going to do.
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Faith means you do it because you believe in the one true living God who is speaking to you to do it.
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As we get deeper into this passage of Scripture in Luke 5, looking again more
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closely at verses 4 through 5, where he says, launch out into the deep and let
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down your nets for a drought.
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And then a little bit later, he says, nevertheless, at thy word, I will let down the net.
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We are watching the test of faith, the test of obedience.
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We're watching Peter be put right on the spot as to where is his faith and how
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much will his faith endure.
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Jesus commanded them to go deeper.
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Were there, God could have filled those nets anywhere, right where they were.
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He could have filled those nets. You know it and I know it.
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So why did he tell him to go on? Because it's not about the works of righteousness, which we have done.
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It's about the finished work on Calvary. So it wasn't about him doing any work to get God's blessing.
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So why did he ask him to go, to launch out into the deep?
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Because sometimes God calls us beyond our comfort beyond our routine,
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beyond our familiar, and beyond our human ability,
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so that we are fully and completely trusting only in him.
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Peter had all kinds of reasons to resist him.
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He was tired, he was disappointed, he was experienced in fishing,
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yet he didn't get anything.
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But unlike us, Peter did not resist.
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Peter obeyed despite his experience, despite what he had seen just a few minutes before.
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The word nevertheless here represents faith that obeys God in spite of the circumstances.
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I think what Peter's saying to us in very plain terms is, all right,
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Jesus, I don't think any of this thing is going to work.
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We've done all of this. This makes zero sense to me.
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But you've said it. I believe in you. And I'm going to follow you.
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So therefore, Peter launched out into the deep.
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And he led his nets down on the other side.
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He had come to meet Peter where he was and to bless him.
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But Peter was going to have to receive him, obey him, follow him.
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Then he was going to know blessings. Faith isn't just agreeing with Christ,
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agreeing with the Word of God, kind of a head knowledge.
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Faith is action.
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It acts upon the Word of God. Trust in the Lord with all thine heart and lean
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not unto thine own understanding.
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Pray without ceasing be careful for nothing but in everything by prayer and
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supplication let your requests be made known unto god,
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call unto me and i will answer thee and show thee great and mighty things which
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thou knowest not cast your care upon me,
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believe in the name of the only begotten Son of God.
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Faith is action. And Peter said, Nevertheless, at thy word.
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That's the kind of faith I want. I want to be able to just, God said it, and that settles it.
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God said it, so I'm doing it.
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And the kind of faith that Peter had, it paid off in abundance.
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In verses 6 through 7, We see how Christ provides more than Peter would have ever gotten on his own.
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We also see how it provides more than we think could ever be possible.
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And it provides blessings too big and too great to comprehend.
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And when they had this done, they enclosed a great multitude of fishes, because.
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Net break. So many fishes that these professional nets could not hold them.
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The catch came when they let down the nets according to Christ's command.
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When they did what God said, the abundance just flowed to them.
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They were no longer in disobedience, impeding what God is waiting to give them.
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They were no longer just trying to figure it out on their own.
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They were no longer living on their experience or their knowledge or what seemed right to them.
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Logic didn't matter. God said it, and they were going to do it.
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And when they did, Christ rewarded, flooding them with a blessing they could not have ever imagined.
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Because Peter teaches us that Christ, he blesses obedience and a little disobedience
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is just disobedience if you're not following fully you are disobedient,
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but christ blesses obedience they did not catch a few fish they caught a great
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multitude their nets broke and they called their partners for help see just
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like when we're disobedient.
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More than just us. The blessings we get from God affects more than just us.
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God blesses obedience, and in the catch that they made, it reveals that it couldn't
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have come from their skill alone.
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He works in you so that he is glorified and high and lifted up.
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God often blesses us in abundance just for his glory.
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We are the recipient of his blessings in obedience, and he is exalted and high and lifted up.
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You can't out give God. Your sacrifice of obedience is minimal compared to the
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reward of being in the center of God's will.
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And as your life becomes blessed, he blesses others with you.
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He beckoned their partners. Hey, come help me. Help me.
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See, sometimes the blessings that you have aren't just for you at all.
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Sometimes they were never meant for you. You're just distributing.
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They were given to you because God wants you to bless others.
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What Peter shows us in these first few verses of Luke chapter 5,
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is that when Christ is in control, when you've yielded and submitted to him
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and he's directing the work, he can accomplish far more than you could ever
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do with your own strength or your wisdom or your experience.
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He's bigger than you.
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So don't limit what the Lord can do through you because you're weighing it against
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your experience or your knowledge.
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His power isn't confined by our limitations or even our past failures.
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The only thing that limits what God can do in your life is,
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you will give him to do it with how much of you will you submit to him.
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In ephesians chapter 3 and verse 20 we see that now unto him that can do exceeding
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abundantly above all that we ask or think according to the power that works in us how are we living,
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our lives are we pure and holy that the holy god can just flow through us like a fountain,
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or are we clogged up with sin self-pride, doubt, fear.
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Perfect love casts out all fear, and God loves us perfectly.
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So if you're afraid to do what he's calling you to do, there's something wrong
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with your trust in who he is.
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If you're afraid of failing, it's because you're worried about man's approval
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more than being obedient to the King of kings and the Lord of lords.
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See, the truth of the matter is, Peter followed God's command And...
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At thy word. Nevertheless, at thy word, it doesn't make any sense.
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These circumstances doesn't sound like this is going to work,
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but at thy word, I'm going to do exactly what you told me to do.
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Because one word from Christ can change an empty net into abundance.
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One act of obedience can open all of heaven's blessings and anointing and equipment,
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for you to do for him what you always wanted to do, but are holding back because
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you're not in full obedience.
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It's not what he's asking of us. Peter shows something else.
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And as I've read this passage of scripture over and over preparing for this
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message, he's revealed many things to me, things in my life that I wish I had not seen so clearly.
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But when Christ reveals himself in our life, when he shows up right where we are.
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When he gets in the boat with us and he shows us who he is as we begin to reflect
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on our lives, he shows us our need.
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When Simon Peter saw it, he fell down at Jesus's knees saying,
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depart from me for I'm a sinful man, O Lord.
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He knew in that moment that everything about him was not.
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Legit to stand in front of the king of kings and the lord of lords,
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he recognized the presence and the power of the lord jesus the miracle of the
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fish that was a miracle but it was just the beginning of what peter was getting ready to see jesus,
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was on the scene and let me let me show you.
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When Peter begins to speak, disparaging words about himself,
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Jesus answered his fear with reassurance, and Jesus said, fear not.
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Peter saw himself clearly, he was broken and repenting.
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The light of Christ in Peter's situation, right where Peter was,
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right in his normal everyday activity, it revealed Peter's sinfulness and unworthiness.
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Christ often reveals the things that need to be brought to us.
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When we are alone with God and we're talking to God and we're asking God to
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cleanse me, O Lord, as the psalmist David did in Psalm 139.
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Peter was right there with Jesus, and the light of Jesus was shining on him,
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and the love and the compassion and the grace and the mercy was overflowing
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on Peter, and the blessings were flying, and
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Peter's heart was convicted.
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See, Peter didn't respond to this miraculous abundance of fish with arrogance and self-pride.
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Because it was clear what God had done. It was more than human strength or human abilities could do.
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But that miracle led Peter to recognize both Christ's authority and his own unworthiness.
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Right where Peter was at, Jesus in Peter's boat, working on Peter as Peter's
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submitting everything he has, and he reveals as God is working with him one-on-one,
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who he is.
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And that encounter, it didn't make him prideful.
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He wasn't flipping his nose up at people about, look at, Jesus is here with me.
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No, he was repenting.
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Reverencing the presence of God. Because in a genuine encounter with Christ,
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face to face, one-on-one, it reveals your inadequacy.
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But God's compassion is always on the scene.
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Because God's compassion was what said, fear not.
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The closer we come to Christ, the more clearly we see him, and the more clearly
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we see our need for his love and his grace and his mercy and his compassion.
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When you really do business with God and you have a true one-on-one,
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the Lord humbles you, but his grace doesn't leave us in despair.
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In 1 John 1.9, he says, if we confess our sins, he's faithful and just to forgive
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us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.
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Christ reveals our sin and then calls us not to fear, because he's the answer.
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He's the answer.
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Here is John and James and Peter, unsuccessfully fishing, but they have no idea
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that they're getting ready to be called to be fishers of men.
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When Jesus and Peter have their encounter,
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peter's transformed much like we see in romans 12 1 and 2 where that new creature
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we're told about in second corinthians 5 17 is transformed by the renewing of our mind,
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and peter doesn't think he's doing anything magnificent he's simply doing his reasonable service,
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by submitting and yielding all he has and all he is to christ I'll be right back.
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Here comes the grace in Luke 5.10. Fear not, from henceforth thou shalt catch men.
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He let him succeed in his own profession in such a way that Peter knew that every fish in that net,
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had been placed there by Jesus himself.
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Jesus' authority over Peter's life, over the circumstances in this world,
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over all of nature, all of that abundant plan that he has for us,
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that we're told in John 10, 10, that he came, that we might have life and have it more abundantly.
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And in Jeremiah 29, 11, where he says that he knows the plans that he has for
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us to prosper us, to give us a hope and an expected end.
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Peter's seeing all of that while Jesus is in his boat.
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See, we are told in James, I think it's 4.8, that if we draw near to the Lord, he'll draw near to us.
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Peter is in the boat that Jesus is standing there in.
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Met Peter where he was. Jesus meets you where you are. Jesus is meeting you
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right now, wherever you are.
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And whatever's coming to your mind that you think, could this be what I'm holding back?
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Do I need to yield this? Lord, have I yielded everything to you?
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It is time right now in this moment that you have a conversation one-on-one,
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an encounter with the King of Kings and the Lord of lords and you ask him lord search me,
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because you want to be like peter and john and james who he calls and his grace
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feels and he changes them completely peter said hey i'm not good jesus said fear not i'm great,
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it's not what he said but that's who he is whatever shortcoming you have, I got it covered.
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That's the fear not in this.
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Peter's explaining I'm unworthy, and he's explaining I'll make you worthy.
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You talk about an association that is positive and beneficial for you.
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It's your association with Jesus.
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Thought that he clearly was not material to be called and work for Jesus.
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But that fear not wasn't just words.
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It says, I don't fear who I am now that you see how much authority I have.
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It's fear not. Whatever you need, I'm going to feel. You needed fish in those
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nets, and look what I just did for you.
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When you need money in your bank, I'll do that for you.
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The fish in the net is the money in your bank. The fish in the net is the healing in your life.
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The fish in the net is the relationships that you need. The fish in your net
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is the comfort you long for.
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The fish in your net is the love that will sustain you.
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The fish in the net is simply saying, I am the I am.
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But you got to receive me. And to receive me, you got to empty yourself of yourself.
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You got to empty yourself of your flesh.
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You've got to empty yourself of your sinful, wicked ways. And he's saying,
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fear not. I'm here to help you.
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Fear not. Whatever you think you lack, I'm going to feel it.
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Fear not. You've got it all when you've got me.
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Peter, who felt that he should be rejected, found himself transformed because
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Jesus just transformed Peter's purpose.
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Peter had been catching fish, and now he's going to help people come to Christ.
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Peter had been on a boat in the water, working on his own strength,
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but now he's going to build the kingdom through the power and the might of Jesus Christ.
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Isolated and alone in his own strength, and now he can do all things through
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Christ which strengthens him.
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The Lord doesn't call perfect people.
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He calls surrendered people, and he changes them, and he anoints them,
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and he equips them, and whatever they are lacking, he fills that gap.
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Your past failures and your present weaknesses do not prevent Christ from using
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you when you yield to him.
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The only thing that disqualifies you from being used of the service of the Lord
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is that you just refuse to give yourself to him.
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But there's a cost to following Christ. In Luke chapter 5, in the last verse,
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it says that when they had brought their ships to land, they forsook all and followed him.
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This is what's caused many a people to go astray, the rich man,
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when he has the conversation with Jesus, just could not give up his riches.
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But these boys, James and John and Peter, they had received a miraculous catch,
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yet they didn't allow any of their material blessings to become their master.
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Nothing about what was going on in their world, their material possessions, their boat, nothing.
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Nothing was their master. They didn't have two and three jobs to pay for their
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hobbies and their things.
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They placed Christ above their possessions. They were willing to surrender their
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boats, their nets, their businesses, and their plans.
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They yielded themselves to him.
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They forsook all.
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Everything paled in comparison to Jesus to them, and they followed him. They followed him.
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Was not the conclusion of their story. These fish in the net,
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it was used to reveal some things to them. It was the beginning of their discipleship.
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Christ called them to follow him. The fishermen brought their ships to the land.
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They forsook all and they followed him. And the response was more than amazement in a miracle.
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They committed themselves to Christ's service.
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Some of us have a little adoration of Jesus, but we don't have a deep commitment for him.
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Some of us love him in some superficial way, but we have not incorporated him
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in our heart and our mind enough to give him our life and let him choose our purpose.
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Following Christ requires more than admiration. It requires surrender.
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Following Jesus may require leaving behind what once defined who you were.
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His call on your life deserves our trust and our obedience.
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And Peter shows us that, as does James and John.
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The greatest response to Christ's power and love is to follow him.
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As we begin to close our message from Luke 5, verses 1 through 11,
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At thy word, launch out into the deep.
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We see that in Luke 5, 1 through 11, it moves from empty nets to abundant catch,
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from fear to the reassurance, fear not, and from fishing for fish to following Jesus.
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And it wasn't a complicated process. It wasn't a seminary degree.
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It wasn't finishing Genesis, the Revelations. It wasn't being eloquent with speech.
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Feet like honey with your words when you pray. No, Peter's turning point was
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his willingness to say, Nevertheless, at thy word.
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Peter's experience moved through four stages. The empty nets was the human effort without results.
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Where are you at in your life? How hard are you toiling? Maybe even for the Lord.
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But your nets are empty because it's human results. It's human-led. it's human determined.
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Maybe you're afraid of what his call is on your life.
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The second phase or stage was the surrendered boat.
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Peter gave everything he had without a thought. What are you holding back from Christ?
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Giving Christ everything we have is crucial to receiving the abundant blessings.
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A miraculous catch was that stage when obedience to Christ's word,
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when he did what Christ said.
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What has Christ told you?
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That seems too big because you forget he's the great I am. That seems scary
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and you forget that he said fear not.
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But perhaps the fourth stage is the most important stage and I think it happens quickly.
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The surrendered life.
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You got to get through empty nets, a surrendered boat, a miraculous catch,
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and then you find yourself in a surrendered life, forsaking all to follow Jesus.
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My friend, Luke 5, 1 through 11.
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Fishing expedition teaches us that we must make room for Christ in our ordinary life.
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We don't just make room on Sunday morning or an occasional Wednesday or inside
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the church, but Jesus is in your home.
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He sees what you watch. He sees what you read. He sees what you do.
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Make room for him seven days a week, 52 weeks a year, 365 days a year, 24 hours a day.
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We're all on call for Jesus if we're in the center of his will.
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We are to be instant in season and out of season.
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Trust God's word when experience says otherwise. Don't lean under your own understanding.
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In all thy ways acknowledge him, and he shall direct thy paths.
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Be not wise in thine own eyes, fear the Lord, and depart from evil. Proverbs 3, 5, 6, and 7.
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Recognize his power and confess your need. 1 John 1.9 says, if we confess our
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sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.
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And my friend, hear his call.
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And when you hear it, obey it and follow him where's christ asking you to obey
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him at thy word the question is not what can i accomplish.
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But will i obey christ at his word when he asks me to launch into the deep remember
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you are loved jesus loves you.
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For joining us for today's podcast. You can find quotes and scripture references
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from this episode in the show notes.
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