Many of you will not have had an
opportunity to hear the other four.
We just encourage you to talk to our
sound people afterwards and they can provide you
very quickly, in a few days, with all
five messages in this series.
Part of a weekend that we just had
with a college and career group, some 65
or so young people who were with us,
and we had an awesome time.
The theme of the weekend was Letting It
Go.
And on Friday night we challenged the young
people that they needed to let go of
control of their lives as we spoke about
the rich young ruler.
And how the Lord Jesus cut through all
of his confusion and cut to the quick
of the issues of his life and said,
oh, it's all very well, basically, that you
do the law or you think you do
the law, but here's what I want you
to do.
Sell your possessions.
And it's not that Jesus comes to all
of us and says, sell everything you have
and live on the streets.
That was not the point.
The point was give up the things that
put you in control.
Give up your control, in fact, and put
yourself into my hands.
What a challenge.
The greatest challenge we have as Christians, perhaps,
is the challenge to let go of control.
And, of course, control that we have is
simply an illusion, but it's one we like
to live with.
We love to have that illusion of control,
and it's just an illusion.
It's not real.
Far better that our lives be in the
hands of the one who has real control.
In the second session we talked about Zacchaeus,
a beautiful little story about a rather not
-so-beautiful little man whom Jesus coaxed out
of a tree into his heart.
And we encourage the young people to let
go of their hearts so that Christ could
sell them.
For Zacchaeus was a man who was only
seeing Jesus at a distance, and it's amazing
even how many Christians are looking at Jesus
from a distance.
But he wants to own our lives.
He wants to fill our hearts.
He wants to thrill us with his mercy.
And then on Saturday evening we challenged the
young people to get out of the boat.
We looked at Matthew 14, Jesus walking on
the water, and to let go of their
security.
To let go of their security.
To get into a place in their lives,
to make the choices that are necessary, to
find ourselves in a place where only God
can be our strength.
Life can be so, so comfortable for us,
mostly because we want it that way.
We make easy choices that bring us into
comfortable places, and we don't need God because
we can do it without him.
And Jesus called Peter and all the others
out onto the water, and the only one
who went first was Peter.
Now, to give the others a break, they
went later, because they went out into lives
in which they give away their security every
day, and most of those disciples give their
lives completely for the Lord Jesus.
Stepping again and again into places where they
were not secure, where God was the one
who protected them.
Where God held them up, doing things that
were impossible.
And that's what God calls us to.
He doesn't call us to an easy life.
He calls us to do impossible things.
And resting in him does not mean inactivity.
It means we rest in his ability to
lead us out onto the waves, and to
hold us up when we get there.
What an exciting prospect.
Life is not supposed to be boring.
It's not supposed to be easy.
But it's not supposed to be lived in
our own strength.
That's just crippling.
We must walk on water with Jesus.
That's what he calls us to.
It's the call of the church.
Then this morning we challenged all who were
here to let go of self.
Jesus showed his disciples that walking with him
in the kingdom meant that they had to
deny themselves.
That self had to take much further back
than the back seat.
That self had to go.
And that Jesus had to have absolute priority.
That God does not want us to think
worse about ourselves, nor better about ourselves.
That God's desire is that we not think
about ourselves at all.
And that Jesus set the agendas.
That we take up our cross, which is
his instrument, his gift to us every day,
that will keep us weak so that he
can be strong, and that we follow him.
What a challenge.
God touched hearts today.
And it was such an awesome thing to
watch him do it.
Give people hope today.
That at the end of all of their
strength, they could find that Jesus was sufficient
for them.
And tonight I want to take you to
one more thing that we need to let
go of.
And it's really the culmination of all the
things that we have mentioned so far.
And it's so thrilling because the implications of
it are powerful.
And in doing so, take you to Luke
chapter 5, where there the Lord Jesus, it
says, was standing by the lake of Gennesaret,
which of course is the Sea of Galilee.
And in verse 1 it says, the people
were crowding around him and listening to the
word that was from God, the word of
God.
And it says that he saw, this is
Luke chapter 5 and verse 2, at the
water's edge two boats left there by the
fishermen who were washing their nets.
Now that means it was the morning.
Because these fishermen traditionally fished at night, fished
all night.
They would come in, unload their catch, send
it off to market to prepare it for
sale.
And then they would fix any tear in
their nets and then wash them and prepare
them for the next night fishing.
Then they'd go home and sleep.
So this was the morning.
The teaching took place in the morning.
And Jesus was standing by the lake.
The sun would have been beating down.
It would have been a beautiful sight, much
like the Straits were today with the sun
shining down in the evening time as the
sun came down and the sparklings on the
water.
Just a beautiful thing, but no good to
fish.
And as the Lord Jesus taught, and as
he finished teaching, and he was by this
time in a boat a little further out
from the shore because the people were pressing.
And so he got into the boat and
pushed it out a little.
And when he'd finished speaking, it says in
verse 4 that he said to Simon, of
course we know who Simon was.
Who is it?
It's Simon Peter, yes.
Put out into the deep water and let
down the nets for a catch.
Now think about for a moment about Simon
Peter's reaction.
The one that any, any expert fisherman would
have.
I've been driving every day past the fishermen
who are fishing.
What are they fishing?
Oysters, is it?
Phillip, you're one of those guys.
Fishing oysters on the river.
Now it would be a strange thing if
I called up Phillip tonight after church and
said, I Phil, I've got a fresh new
idea about fishing oysters.
And I'd like you to take me in
your boat tomorrow and just leave it to
me.
I know exactly the spot, and I know
exactly what to do, and we'll fill your
boat.
Now I Phil is a gracious, gracious young
man.
And I'm sure with a twinkle in his
eye he'd take me out tomorrow and just
let me dip down once with them huge
scissor things, and then he'd pat me on
the back and say, Steve, just sit down
and enjoy the rest of the day, I'll
do this.
Because by then I'd be exhausted.
With three oysters lying in the bottom of
the boat.
If we were lucky.
I mean, I don't know anything about fishing.
I'm not even sure what an oyster looks
like.
I know I don't like the taste of
them.
But the only time I've really seen one
is in a can.
And I'm sure they don't come in cans
in the bottom of the river.
It would be so foolish for me to
say to these experts, I don't know what
I'm doing.
And that reaction from the experts would have
been, you know, normal.
Just typical.
And I'm sure that Simon shook his head,
and I mean he was now acquainted with
the Lord Jesus somewhat, and he was already
growing in his friendship with him.
But he knew Jesus was a carpenter.
And he said to the Lord Jesus, Master,
and this is a greeting, and it's a
word that was used as a compliment.
And you can just read Peter's thoughts.
I'd better compliment him here, because I'm basically
going to tell him he doesn't know what
he's talking about.
It's always good to coat your truth with
a little bit of sugar.
So he said, Master, you basically don't know
what you're talking about.
However, Lord, we've worked hard all night.
The hint is there, isn't it?
Do we think we know what we're doing?
And we caught nothing.
But, because you say so, and here's Jesus
in front of hundreds and hundreds of people
who have just finished listening to his great
wisdom.
They're sitting there starry-eyed, and Peter's thinking,
I'd better not embarrass them.
We'll get them out of the water, and
we'll have a good time, and we'll come
in a little later when the crowd has
dispersed, and he'll get over it.
So, okay, let's do it.
So out they go.
And he says, so I'll let down your
nets.
So they went out into the deep water,
because that's where Jesus is asked to go,
and they let down their nets.
Completely wrong time of the day.
These fishermen would fish at night, and when
they would, they'd carry torches.
And they would, in the night, they would
reach out their torches over the water to
attract the fish, who would then come up
from the deep, and then they'd throw these
nets, which were only really useful at a
certain depth, not very deep at all, and
they would catch the fish, as they came
up fascinated by the light.
That's how they fished.
And that meant that they had to keep
the torches there, and they had to watch
for the fish coming.
You had to be able to see it.
Now, when the sun is sparkling in the
water, you can't see anything.
Fish may well be attracted to the light,
but you can't see them.
Throw your net out over nothing.
But they did it, but yes, well, they
didn't want to embarrass them.
They didn't know what he was talking about,
but they loved him.
They humored him, just as poor Phil would
have to humor me.
But listen to what happened next.
When they had done so, they caught such
a large number of fish that their nets
began to break.
Somewhere out of the deep blue, hundreds of
fish came to make their sacrifice to the
Lord Jesus.
Like the deep into which Jonah fell, and
out of which came a great fish to
swallow him, came part of his creation to
commit suicide in the nets for the sake
of the Savior.
It sounds silly, but I believe that's what
happened.
He called the fish and the Kim.
Creation is far more willing to obey him
than we are.
And the nets began to break, and the
fishermen were overwhelmed.
And so they signaled their partners, and it
was probably James and John, and they were
all stunned as they worked to get the
catch aboard.
And as they began to fill the boats
with the fish that were in the nets,
the boats began to sink.
Imagine this picture.
The embarrassment, the sheer shock of it all,
as they kept pulling these overloaded nets into
the boat, and as they did, filling both
boats, and the boats began to feel the
weight so much, they began to sink.
These guys were thigh-deep in fish.
When Simon Peter saw this, it says in
verse 8, he fell at Jesus' knees.
Now he was chest-deep in fish.
And he said, Go away from me.
I'm a sinful man.
Suddenly, what happened?
Humility for sure.
You're right.
His evaluation rapidly changed.
I mean, whether he fully understood at this
point that Jesus was the Son of God
and could call all creation to his attention,
who knows.
I doubt if that was where he was
at.
But suddenly, his evaluation changed.
You see, the problem with Peter, and the
problem also with us, is that we limit
God.
Now you say, No, I don't limit God.
I believe God can do anything.
Yes, we can all say that, and we
all do our religious duty, and we sing
that, and we pray that.
But we really don't believe that God will
do.
That God is doing.
And there are circumstances, and situations, and problems,
and issues, and sometimes it's just life itself,
and we look at it, and we think,
Well, yes, God could do this.
But it doesn't seem that today He wants
to do this.
We take the religious cop out and say,
Well, I suppose it's not God's will today
to do this.
It amazes me how unwilling God seems to
be in so many of our lives.
The problem really is not God's willingness.
Certainly, the problem is not His ability.
The problem is, we limit Him.
So here's what we need to let go
of.
We need to let go of our attitudes
that limit God, and what He can do.
If we let go of the control of
our lives, He's going to step in, and
meet us there, and control our lives, and
be there for us.
If we let go of our hearts, He's
going to fill our hearts with His love.
Day after day after day after day, total
acceptance.
If we step out of the boat, and
let go of our security, He's going to
hold us up.
If we let go of self, He's going
to shine like the morning sun out of
our lives.
And if we let go of our attitudes
that limit Him, anything.
Anything.
Now this is not as easy as you
might think.
You can't just decide, okay, today I'm going
to stop limiting God.
Right?
Got that?
Now we can leave.
Because the first thing tomorrow morning, something will
be in your face that traditionally has left
you limiting God.
Some circumstance, some personal issue, some problem, some
situation, that again and again has left you
impotent, spiritually speaking, and absolutely despairing that it
seems that God cannot deal with us.
And of course, all around us, our enemy
would like to lie to us about our
whole culture and about the call that the
Lord Jesus has given us to walk on
water and to reach the world with Him
there.
Oh, that doesn't happen anymore.
Great numbers of people don't get saved any
longer in this country.
Don't you know that?
Don't you think we tried?
I mean, we fished all night.
We didn't catch anything.
We limit Him.
We limit Him in so many ways in
our thinking, so many of our attitudes express
the truth that we just don't think God
can do it.
He can't turn our culture around.
He can't turn our governments around.
He can't turn our world around.
So He'll come along to us and He'll
say, we've been trying this for 30 years.
You know, we can't go on the streets
anymore because the government won't let us.
Last time we did an open air, the
police came along and chased us.
We can't give out tracts.
It's illegal.
We can't pray in the schools.
They won't let us any longer.
It's just not possible.
We just need to come so we can
all get home.
Because it just can't be done.
It can't be done.
How many times has that been our attitude?
How many times have we said it?
How often have we believed our own words?
And how often, consequently, have we limited God
in the process?
How many times has God told you to
say something or to do something or to
go in a certain direction?
Putting your trust in Him and your whole
attitude has been, that's weird.
That couldn't be from you, Lord, because it
just couldn't happen.
It just couldn't be possible.
She would not listen to me if I
said something right now.
No, no, that couldn't be you.
He would...
There's no way He's interested.
Do that?
Go to that place?
Try to get involved with this group of
people?
Oh, that couldn't be you, Lord.
That must be my own imagination.
Thank God.
He doesn't permit that for long.
But as He draws us to let go
of so much that we've talked about this
weekend, He'll also draw us to deeper and
deeper trust in God.
Remember what He said to His disciples as
a young ruler walked away?
With this man, and truly with any man,
salvation is impossible, but nothing is impossible.
Remember what the angel said to Mary?
Nothing is impossible with God.
Remember what Jesus said to the man whose
son was so, so distraught and so abused
by a demon?
Nothing.
So let go of the attitudes that limit
God.
How do you do that?
You've got to let go of control.
So when you're in control, your whole attitude
will be one of limitation because your whole
life will be about what you can do,
not what He can.
You've got to let go of your heart
so that He can sell it.
You've got to let go of your security.
Take some risks.
You've got to let go of yourself so
that you're not even thinking about the ways
in which you doubt Him.
You've got to let go of the limits.
Go through your nets.
Where He tells you to.
When He tells you to.
Trust Him, let the fish.
My friends, what a challenge this is.
Yet, one of the sweetest things about this
passage is that as He did this, two
things happened.
First, Peter got on his knees.
If you will let go of the attitudes
that limit what you think God can do,
you will understand.
If He comes to you, and this is
how it will happen, He'll tell you to
do something that traditionally you've not been able
to do, not believed that He can do,
not been able to take any action on,
and as you have let go of these
other things over the weekend and then step
out to do that very impossible thing, you'll
discover that God is with you.
And the second neat thing that happened when
Jesus did this was that He made His
disciples have great problems.
He said, don't be afraid.
This was a fearful thing.
To see such a response because of obedience.
What a fearful thing.
To see such a response because of obedience.
That's scary.
That means if He tells you to do
something, if He clearly impresses you, how do
you know the voice of God?
Do you know the voice of your own
mother?
Of course you do.
You know the voice of God when He
speaks to you.
Make no mistake.
He can make you hear.
And when you hear His voice, and when
you obey, you'll be shocked to find that
He is with you.
You'll worship and discover the reality of His
grace and His power in your life.
Incomparably great power for us who believe, but
there's more.
He'll make you a promise.
So don't be afraid.
From now on, I'm sure Jesus did it
with a grin all over His face.
Peter, do you think this is good?
Peter, do you think this is awesome?
Do you see the load of fish that
lie in the bottom of this boat?
They represent what I'm going to do in
the world.
If Peter could only have seen ahead a
few thousand years, if only we could, and
we can, through the glimpse we get in
the book of Revelation, and see around the
throne of grace thousands upon thousands upon thousands
upon thousands representatives from every tribe, the Bible
says, every family, and every nation, we would
know there is a great load of fish
to catch.
God would have us let go of our
understandings and our attitudes that limit Him.
And even as we let go of all
the things that we have spoken about, and
step out in trust, and allow Him to
teach us what it means to walk on
the water with Him, carrying our nets with
us, as it were, and as we obey
His voice, which we hear so often, but
simply don't respond to because we don't believe
it can happen, but if we will, we'll
first of all discover that God is with
us.
We'll start catching more men.
Two things always go together.
Why are our churches emptying?
And I don't just mean our Baptist churches,
I mean churches in general.
Because if people have reached a place where
they are in control, where their hearts are
closed and even cold, not knowing His love
as they need to, where they're no longer
willing to take risks and walk on the
water with Him, where self is in domination
and is destroying the church from within, and
where hearts limit what Jesus Christ can do
if we would just answer.
But I am so encouraged, encouraged by some
of the young people I've met this weekend.
Some fine leaders, some of them who realized
and prayed and I listened to them pray
and talked through the night about, yeah, it's
so true, I need to let go of
the control of my life.
It's such a horrible thing.
I really need Jesus to love me because
I've struggled to know that He loves me
at all.
And I will take risks and I will
let go of self.
And it's so neat to watch the Lord
bring hope.
I sat with an individual who wasn't even
part of our group tonight, a visitor.
And as she poured out her brokenness, she
came to the Lord.
Five or six of us, we sat around
her and prayed, watched hope dawn.
Hallelujah.
And our circumstances haven't changed.
She's let go of the attitude that limits
what God can do.
On its own, it's got to be the
hardest thing.
But together with all the things that God
has challenged us about this weekend, it begins
to be an answer.
Why are churches empty?
Because we're not obeying His call to go
into the deep, throw out our nets, because
we just don't think.
So consequently, we're not sure if He's present.
That needs to change.
That must change.
And it will change one person at a
time.
The challenge is with God, we pray.
As we consider all the things we've heard
this weekend, to reach the place where we
can listen to your voice, obey it, and
discover that you're with us.
The ways we didn't expect, indeed, in ways
that we didn't even believe.
When we reach that place by your grace,
it's only by your grace that we'll get
there.
We'll start to catch men.
Look forward to that.
Look forward to that new confidence in the
lives of some of these young leaders that
we've had with us this weekend.
Ask for a similar new confidence that we
might worship.
We understand who you are.
Step out.
Grant that we pray in Jesus' name.
Thank you for loving me.
Thank you for loving...