Unleashed From Past Failure Pt. 2: Moving Through Being Tired (Luke 5:1-11)

lord we've turned our backs on you far too many times the cost of sins too much to bear but still you paid the fine so i just don't wanna be another person in the crowd hear my prayer lord hear my battle cry and i'm so thankful for this intercession with you i feel like i've entered into heaven when i'm in your presence when i'm in your presence [Music] and lord please bless this body of your saints with your family [Music] i pray for love and abundant peace for all my enemies and i know that satan's in there somewhere sitting in the crowd so hear my proud hear my battle cry and i'm so thankful for this intercession with you i feel like i've been turned to heaven [Music] leave me there i'm so thankful for this intercession with you i feel like i've entered into heaven when [Music] [Music] our goal by your amazing grace i will call upon the lord [Music] i know the lord [Music] who is worthy [Music] and blessed be the rock and let the god of my salvation be exhausted i know the lord liveth and bless it be the rock and let the god of my salvation be exalted i will call upon the lord i will call upon the lord [Music] i know the lord liveth and blessed be the rock and let the god of my salvation be exalted i know the lord liveth and blessed be the rock and let the god of my salvation be exalted i will call upon the lord i will call upon the lord and blessed be the rock and let the god of my salvation be exhausted i know the lord believe it and bless it be the rock and let the god of my salvation be exalted i will call upon the lord i will call upon the [Music] i lord saved from my enemy yes i know the lord living and blessed be the rock and let the god of my salvation be exhausted [Music] and blessed be the rock and let the god of my salvation be exalted i know the lord will live it and bless it be the rock and let the god of my salvation be absorbed [Music] good morning renaissance live we're so glad that we've been blessed as we say so many times that god has blessed us to be in this place to worship him one more time we're so thankful for all of the viewers we thank you for the renaissance family as we continue to rally around the cross because god has been so good to us we want to continue to pray for this this work here at the renaissance church of christ there are many things still going on even in the midst of a pandemic we've got ministries we have people being baptized we continue to do the lord's work and we want to continue to thank every member that's working in behind the scenes to make things great for the cause of christ let us buy and pray commercial father in heaven we are truly thankful we're just thankful that we've been blessed to have yet another opportunity to come to worship you in spirit and in truth we thank you father for all that you've done all the blessings you've showered down upon us we continue to say thank you we continue to say thank you most of all for jesus your son who was willing to die that we may have life and have it more abundantly i pray father that you be with us in the midst of our worship this morning we pray everything that we say and do will be pleasing accepted in your sight and in the end when we've done all that you would have us do father we pray that we'll hear you say well done thy good and faithful servant for this prayer we do ask in christ his holy and righteous name amen well this world is not my home [Music] i'm just the passing drew my treasures are laid up somewhere somewhere yes beyond the blue where the angels [Music] feeling [Music] don't you know i have no friend i had no friend like you heaven's not my hope the lord of heaven is not my home then lord then lord what what what will [Music] open door [Music] [Music] [Music] he'll take me through [Music] oh lord in this world in this [Music] if heaven's not my home it's not now then lord lord what will i do lord what will i do lord [Music] i can feel [Music] i can this world this world and me more one more time and i can't i can't feel it in this world amen amen victory belongs to jesus who can stand against the lord no one can no one wins who can stand who will stand against the key no one can know [Music] victory belongs to jesus victory belongs to you [Music] [Music] no one will [Music] no one will [Music] victory belongs to [Music] victory [Music] you [Music] i find my victory [Music] i find my victory [Music] hallelujah [Music] [Applause] [Music] jesus [Music] [Music] victory belongs to him all the things that we go through all the lights up and downs and trials and tribulations in this world victory belongs to [Music] victory belongs to you one more time victory belongs victory belongs to him victory yes [Music] good morning to you all we will now proceed to our communion our scripture for communion will be matthew chapter 26 of verses 26-29 now as they were eating jesus took bread and after blessing it broke it and gave it to the disciples and said take eat this this is my body and he took a cup and when he had given thanks he gave it to them saying drink of it all of you for this is my blood of the covenant which is poured out for many for the forgiveness of sins i tell you i will not drink again of this fruit of the vine until that day when i drink it new with you in my father's kingdom please by your heads dear lord thank you for this day thankful life health and strength thank you love mercy and grace thank you for bringing us here safely i pray that you will just watch over us as you uh help us start out with the new week and you will help us uh keep strong through covid and whatever uh is going on through this world i pray that you just watch over the people in here that you just keep them safe on their way home and now you just watch over them in jesus name [Music] amen far away [Music] still [Music] shame [Music] here [Music] sinners [Music] a [Music] lay down i will believe [Music] [Applause] oh lord and exchange you know [Music] someday [Music] so despised [Music] oh for the lamb of god [Music] [Music] so i'll change [Music] lay down i [Music] [Applause] yes and exchange it [Music] someday [Music] now it is time for offering god has been good to us in so many ways this is your chance to show your thanks for how he has blessed us and give and how he is given the bible says in second corinthians chapter nine verse seven each of you should give what you have deciding your heart to give not reluctantly or under compulsion for god loves a cheerful giver so smile as you reach into your hearts into your pockets to give please by here for a word of prayer lord thank you for this day thank you for waking us up this morning we thank you for the ability and opportunity to give to you lord let this be shown as a token of appreciation for everything you do we ask that these funds be used for the betterment of your kingdom we also ask that you got us and teach us lord stay in our everyday lives jesus name and pray amen i love to praise him [Music] i love to praise him [Music] i [Music] i love to pray him i love to praise his name i love to praise him i love to praise him i love to pray [Music] he's [Music] never let me down [Music] i love to praise him i love to praise his name i love to praise him [Music] i love to praise him i love to pray [Music] [Music] he's just [Applause] [Music] we're singing hallelujah [Music] you know [Music] he's always [Music] oh [Applause] [Music] hallelujah we're singing hallelujah [Music] and shield is he your will he's always in the middle middle of your will do you believe that he'll never never let you down [Applause] [Music] i love to praise his name with singing hallelujah hallelujah i love to i love the praises we're singing hallelujah hallelujah [Music] now i love to praise [Music] amen and good morning to everybody oh my goodness if you are not smiling right now based on these wonderful songs and our young men who are part of this worship service i don't know what to say about you but we have some more worship service coming up and we look forward to you being a part of it if you are not smiling let me help you out before we get started first of all we are rejoicing with the angels and that we had a baptism this past lord's day my brother larry you'll meet him later but we had a brother to get into the water and come out and guess what he wasn't the same person when he came out so that ought to make you smile in addition i want to ask you this question do you hear what i hear and here's what i mean i was just sitting there listening to the songs as i was singing them and there are a couple of things that stuck out for me and it's funny how you'll hear a song a million times but this time when i heard oh that old rugged cross so despised by the world what a wondrous attraction for me then i heard the song i love to praise him and it just made me ask myself what am i attracted to i just thank god every lord's day we have an opportunity to become more and more acquainted with embraced with and attracted to the crops and i want you to put that up against your attractions from a worldly standpoint and let's make sure that that balance spiritually is something that we have and if we don't have it this is our time to obtain it so that when we look at the cross when we think about the cross when we pray about the cross when we reflect upon the cross we smile at the wondrous attraction to help you out with that attraction this morning we have another amazing word prepared for my dear brother orpheus hayward and we hope that you just take some time to look at that cross and get more attracted to it and watch what happens in your life and let's just give thanks for this opportunity to receive the word once again amen well hallelujah salvation and glory o honor and power unto the lord our god yes for the lord our god is mighty and yes the lord our god is omnipotent oh the lord our god he is wonderful hallelujah o salvation and glory glory honor and power unto the lord our our god is mighty and yes [Music] hallelujah sing hallelujah salvation and glory glory honor and power unto the lord our god yes for the lord our god is mighty and yes the lord our god is omnipotent oh the lord our god he [Music] more time is hallelujah salvation and glory oh honor and power unto the lord our yes for the lord our god is mighty and yes the lord our god is omnipotent oh the lord our god he is wonderful [Music] our god he is [Music] he is [Music] salvation and glory glory one more time [Music] say hallelujah yes salvation and [Music] yes for the lord our god is mighty and yes our god is omnipotent oh the lord our god he is one alto sing it oh praise [Music] he is [Music] he is [Music] [Applause] he [Music] [Music] he is [Music] praise the mighty name of jesus we're thankful to god on this morning for another gracious opportunity to worship god and to let him know just how much we adore him and we are grateful that the lord has blessed us to see a day that we've not seen before one of the greatest opportunities that we have as children of god as to engage in heartfelt intimate worship toward the lord so much so that it was jesus who said in john chapter 4 and verse number 24 god is spirit and they that worship him must worship him in spirit and truth we do so recognizing that god is in fact worthy to be praised not only on the basis of what he does but we praise god on the basis of who he is and on the basis of the character of god you can praise him there are a plethora of reasons to which we can engage in heartfelt praise toward the lord just on the basis of his character god is holy god is just god is merciful god is forgiving god is love just on the basis of his character there are reasons to which we can engage in heartfelt worship to our god who sits high and looks low that is god enough to be the sovereign of our lives but he is also savior enough to forgive us of our sins and for that we are eternally grateful we certainly have appreciated this past week of celebrating the birthday of martin luther king jr and the great contribution that he has made uh to the world and we're thankful that this has been a week of engaging in that and we hope and pray that you've been reflective of his life and his ministry and all that he has done in the context of uh fighting for social justice we know that he is proverbially referred to as the apostle of civil rights because he has planted an incredible seed that has caused many people to be awakened to the notion of fighting for equality and for that we are grateful to god for all that he does and for everything that he has accomplished in the life of of people but also we're grateful for what god has done with the person of dr martin luther king jr and so we are thankful for all that he has done we hope and pray that you'll take some time to reflect on his sermonic presentations i've been doing that throughout the last week and just trying to engage in the mind and heart of this great apostle for those who don't know dr martin luther king jr at the age of 15 uh was already admitted into college and was a person who received his divinity degree and also a phd from boston university and he has always been an unparalleled orator and so we just are grateful once again to the work of dr martin luther king jr we hope this past week has been a moment for you to appreciate that i would like you to meet me in luke chapter five beginning in verse number one luke the fifth chapter beginning in verse number one and i want to continue from where i left off last week we began down the road of talking about unleashed from past failure and we wanted to peruse down the corridors of that concept as we treat it from a biblical narrative and we started with the life of moses and we looked at the life of moses and began to see where moses had engaged in trying to be the deliverer for israel but in the early years of his attempt it was rejected by israel and it was met with a sense of resistance and moses had failed in his first attempt to truly uh move israel into a place preparing them for their deliverance and so we looked at that and we showed how moses in his first attempt it was rejected and it moved him to be in midian on the backside of the desert we indicated as we looked at the life of moses in his first attempt to move israel into position and prepare them for their deliverance we saw where he killed an egyptian and he tried to stop two of his brothers from fighting uh but we saw where moses moved outside of god's time and he also moved beyond god's wisdom and we saw where it was met with the degree of resistance and moses had experienced great failure moses of course ends up in midian and for 40 years god says absolutely nothing at 40 years old it enters into his mind that he would be a deliverer it's rejected and for 40 years god says nothing and it was not until moses was approximately 80 years old that we find that god actually called him a second time to move in delivering the people of israel according to god's timing depending on god's strength god had already indicated that israel would be in bondage for about 400 years and so when moses began to make moves to move them into a place in which they would be delivered he was moving beyond god's timing and outside of god's wisdom it came into his mind to visit his people he became aware that he would be their deliverer but when you move outside of god's timing and you move without god's wisdom it ultimately will cause failure but failure does not have to be something in which it stagnates you failure it should help you to fail forward and which we said last week we want to always understand that when god allows me to fail it is often a moment for me to be humble enough to depend on his strength and not my own it helps me to move from independency to dependency and failure will help to address the areas in your character where there is the existence of arrogance arrogance is the sin that got the devil removed from heaven and all of us need to be mindful that pride and arrogance can be a dangerous cancer that exists within the context of your character so god will often allow you he will permit you to fail he will permit you moments when you move in your own strength he will permit moments when you are allowed to miss the target or miss the shot there will be moments where god has to leave you to your own devices where he has to leave you to your own decisions and he has to allow you as a father to let you feel the consequence of a wrong decision is there anybody that can testify that you often have felt the moment where god allowed you to fail where he permitted you to miss the mark even though you knew the will of god you knew what god wanted you knew what god's desire was but have you ever been victimized by your own will to which you move outside of the paradigm of what god wanted have you ever knew the will of god and still move beyond god's timing and beyond god's wisdom i wish we had some people that can admit imperfection right now and say i have been victimized by my own will and my own way i have been victimized by the idea of trying to follow my own wisdom i know what it is to know what scripture says and do the opposite of what scripture says and there are times when god like a caring father has to allow you to experience failure but the notion is that god wants me to fail forward he wants me to move in a direction where i'm humble enough to recognize that he is my god and after god called moses the second time after moses was made aware that god he would be a deliverer and now after he had the experience of 40 years tending sheep god then says now moses go tell pharaoh let my people go and the response of moses was who am i have you ever been there where god humbled you enough where you recognize that you could not depend on you and failure will cause you to question yourself and god wanted moses to recognize that it's never been about who you are for god's response is i am that i am and he told moses i will be with you it's amazing when you read exodus chapter 3 moses said who am i and god never answered the question god said i will be with you in other words moses it ain't never been about you your strength or your capacity it has never been about the idea that you are enough the reality is god was saying i am enough and if i am enough that is what's going to be the key to your success as you move israel out of egyptian bondage and move them to mount sinai to ultimately have an experience in the land of canaan moses i'm gonna use you but be sure to know it has never been about you and it is not about your ability or your capacity it's about the fact that you have my presence and so we recognize that as we move through this shamanic series i hope to um challenge you and prepare you as we've come out of 2020 and we've entered into 2021 i'm trying to help you experience being unleashed unleashed from what i want you to be unleashed and loosed from anything antithetical to god but i also want you to be unleashed into the direction that god would have you to go i want you to have a 2021 where you fulfill your god-given destiny and not be that person that is stagnated and unmoved and trapped in your past some things need to become your then so you can fully embrace your now be unleashed into the direction and destiny that god would have for you that being the case i want to invite you to luke chapter five as we continue down the road of looking at the idea of being unleashed from past failure i'm gonna read this text and then i'm going to explicate from this context a principle that i think is going to be germane for your understanding i believe luke does a phenomenal job in giving us a historical narrative that he calls of course a narrative to which he helps theophilus understand the certainty of those things which are believed those who are students of the bible know that luke is one of the most incredible historians even those who are not of the christian faith that has studied the writings of luke have recognized that he is a meticulous historian that lays out a chronological historical narrative that argues for the validity of the christian faith he writes to a gentleman by the name of theophilus who holds the title most excellent most excellent theophilus is an indication that he was a roman official yet he writes this prologue in luke 1 1-4 where luke indicates the purpose of my writing and so that you will know the certainty of those things which are believed if you've never studied the gospel according to luke it accents thematically some of the most incredible themes that you need to study such as the inclusion of outcasts if luke does a phenomenal job of showing us where jesus ministry and the kingdom of god would be inclusive of gentiles and outcasts and tax collectors and even in the days of palestine where women were not as esteemed he shows the the the he shows the move of women in the ministry of jesus christ so those who would be considered outcasts and those who would be considered on the outside of the circle he includes the outcast he includes the gentile he includes those who were tax collectors he includes the publican and the sinners because luke's gospel shows the inclusiveness of the kingdom of god and he sows to the climactic ministry of jesus as he raises from the dead he shows that he would dispatch the holy spirit which leads him into volume two that is subsequent to the gospel of luke and that is the book of acts and in the book of acts he demonstrates to us that the ministry of jesus in dispatching the holy spirit gives birth to the new testament church what are you doing luke i am writing a historical narrative that is an apologetic discourse to show the validity of the christian faith now that being the case one of the interesting aspects of luke's writing is he gives us a picture of jesus call of his disciples in a way that is more detailed than what he does in the other gospels now i want to take my time and help you understand luke 5 a very interesting historical perspective of the call of the disciples with a focus on simon peter i want you to see something very quickly luke chapter five beginning in verse one here's what your text says it says now it happened that while the crowd was pressing around him and listening to the word of god he was standing by the lake of ganesura and he saw two boats lying at the edge of the lake but the fishermen had gotten out of them and were washing their nets please underline the phrase washing their nets watch this and he got into one of the boats which was simon's and asked him to put out a little way from the land and he sat down and began teaching the people from the boat when he had finished speaking he said to simon put out into the deep water and let down your nets for a catch watch this simon answered and said master we worked hard all night and caught nothing but i will do as you say and let down the nets when they had done this they enclosed a great quantity of fish and their nets began to break so they signaled to their partners in the other boat for them to come and help them and they came and filled both of the boats so that they began to sink but when simon peter saw that he fell down at jesus feet saying go away from me lord for i am a sinful man for amazement has seized him and all the companions because of the catch of fish which they had taken and so also were james and john sons of zebedee who were partners with simon and jesus said to simon do not fear from now on you will catch you will be catching men when they had brought their boats to land they left everything and followed him i want you if you're taking notes i want you to write down unleashed from past failure part two and as a subtitle i want you to do i want you to write down moving through being tired moving through being tired one of the interesting aspects of this narrative as we are looking at the call of discipleship if i was to first look at this from a theological perspective i would look at this as approaching the doctrine of discipleship i believe that as you read through the narrative it becomes clear that that luke writes what is primary requirements of discipleship in which he ends this pericope by saying they left everything and followed him in other words if you were a member of the early church and you were reading the gospel of luke you would be impacted by what it means to be a disciple i'm interested that um when we speak about the word discipleship is one of those words that we do not dominantly use in christianity we are quicker you to use the word christian than we ought to use the word disciple but here is what's interesting about that the word christian is only used three times in scripture but the word disciple is used a redundant amount of times throughout scripture and we find that if you did a word study on the word disciple in the book of acts and a word study on the word christian in the book of acts you would find that the word disciple far outweighs the appearance of the word christian that's not to suggest that something's wrong with the word christian but it is to suggest that acts 11 26 says and the disciples were called christians do you not see that before they were ever called christians they were first called disciples the idea of a disciple is one who becomes an imitator of his master it is a word that by its very definition invites you and i to look like and talk like and walk like and imitate the master in other words as you watch jesus the disciple is an apprentice that tries the best he can to model the example of the one that is called his master i am mindful that in my early years of studying the martial arts many of you know that my career far before i became a minister when i was seven years old i entered into martial arts training and trained in a system called coconut ninjutsu not that you would know what that is it almost sounds like i just spoke in tongues but in essence i studied a system in which my teacher or master in the martial arts his method of training was multifaceted one of his methods was that sometimes he would come into the classroom and when he would come into the classroom which we call in japanese terminology a dojo when we would come in and he would come in sometimes he would have what is called silent training now silent training was of such that it indicated that he is not going to verbally communicate with us but what we had to do was watch his movement and imitate what we saw so if he is master every movement within the context of a combative expression we have to imitate that without the benefit of him verbally telling us anything in other words he would say watch me and then everything he does we would imitate his movements i would have you to know that the primary and the sovereign master christ came to this earth not only to save me from sin but for me to mimic his character to mimic his movements do you not know i don't know anybody who is better to model than the person of christ jesus if you ever been stabbed in your back then i invite you to follow what the master did when judas kissed him on his cheek if you ever wanted to know how to forgive somebody that's hard to forgive i invite you to see the model of jesus christ if you want to know what it is to love your enemy and to give a person benevolence that is absolutely undeserving i invite you to see the model of jesus when you speak about discipleship we are speaking about the notion of invitation and apprentice that is mimicking the motions of a master and so i would have you to know that if we are going to be christians which in some etymology means a follower of christ the word discipleship is an indication of mimicking modeling the movements and the example of the master what if we had a church full of folk who mimicked the master what if we became the kind of people that when folk saw us they saw jesus i am mindful as i'm talking about my whole martial art career whenever i fought in a tournament and i won which was 99 of the time whenever i won the folk who watched would give credit and credence to my master because whatever i was doing was predicated on what he taught when folks see you you ought to be such a great apprentice that as you model the master folks see you but give god credit because as you mimic the master it's not the student that gets the glory but it's the master that taught him and so it is discipleship is a dominant doctrine that expresses practical christianity in which ultimately you can put under the umbrella of crystal centric ethics the practice of being a disciple all right now that being the case um what i would like to do is i would like to now look at luke 5 from the perspective of the call of the first disciples let me set the context for you when you look at luke chapter five beginning in verse number one we find that jesus is at the lake of genesis this is after uh jesus had engaged in his healing ministry he goes to the lake of genezaret which is also known as the sea of galilee or the sea of tiberias jesus at this particular scene will engage in the call of his first disciples the nazareth was an area that was around the pla there was a plane of ganesha right in which the sea was called after ganesha in as much as it is also called after galilee and is also called after tiberius there were cities that were strategically located around the sea of galilee in which much commercial activity happened in this particular area the sea of galilee also flows into the jordan river and you will find that the sea of gnezaret was about 13 miles long and about six or seven miles wide and it was about 200 feet deep and so when you went to the sea of galilee it was common in that day for men to engage in the dominant practice of fishing and so jesus comes to the lake of geneseo and while he's there he's pressed oh god the text says he was pressed by the people the magnetizing effect of his ministry the magnifizing effect of jesus was that when he spoke people gathered and they were pressed to hear him and the more they were pressed to hear him jesus practically says you know what i need to put space between me and the people and ensure that they all can hear me he enters into simon's ship he had simon listen i need to borrow your boat simon of course has no issue and he goes into simon's boat he presses out from the shore and he uses the lake of ganesuret as an acoustic environment that would magnify his voice and he would use that as a means of the boat being his contemporary pulpit and he spoke to the people and so as he spoke to the people at some point it ended the sayings ended but i want you to notice a detail in the text and sometimes what separates the men from the theological boys is what you can see in the text and so it is there is a detail in the text that i want to bring attention to many people kind of run over it and they run past it but it's interesting that the text says that when jesus was preaching the disciples that were associated with simon which would be simon and andrew and then the sons of zebedee and those who would work with them the text says they were washing their nets i know that seems like an insignificant detail but i would like to invite your attention to the idea that while the people were pressing to hear jesus these men were washing their necks all right wait a minute uh brother heywood it seems to me that this would probably be the first call of the disciples actually not simon peter and his brother andrew were called by jesus a year prior to this text in other words the events of this text a year before that john the baptist had already pointed out behold the lamb of god which taketh away the sins of the world and he invited his current disciples which would have included simon and andrew to follow jesus you would remember that in john chapter 1 about verse number 42 it explicates and it gives us a historical insight that these men were called a year prior to the events of luke chapter five and whether or not you agree with that chronology what we know is that jesus had a relationship with simon prior to luke 5 because by the time you see jesus get to the lake of genezeret he was able to ask simon let me borrow your boat they must be kind of cool so simon and jesus and andrew and the other disciples they have a relationship by the time you get to the lake of ganesha now the question becomes if christ is preaching and everybody's pressing to hear him why is it that simon and andrew and the others were washing their necks let me give you more context i want to go to john chapter 1 and verse number 42. i cited it but i want to read it so that before i set this up i need to make sure you get some details in your mind look john 1 i'm going to read this to you verse number 42 quentin don't kill me i didn't give you this verse um i'm going to start reading in about verse number 30 7. the two disciples heard him speak and they followed jesus and jesus turned and saw them following and said to them what do you seek they said to him rabbi which translates meaning teacher where are you staying he said to them come and you will see so they came in and saw where he was staying and they stayed with him that day for it was about the 10th hour one of the two who heard john speak and followed him was andrew and simon peter's brother so here we have john says of the two that heard him or heard john spake and followed him was andrew simon peter's brother watch this he found first his own brother simon said to him watch it now we found the messiah now this is approximately a year and if you don't agree with the chronology of a year this is sometime prior to the events when jesus was at the lake of genezera now watch this they are declaring or here it is interesting we found the messiah that's who he is he brought him to jesus jesus looked at him and said you are simon the son of john the son of john you shall be called cephas which is translated peter the next day he purposed to go into galilee and he found philip and said to said to him follow me now philip was from bethsaida that's also near the lake of geneseo and the city of andrew and peter phillip found nathaniel and said then we have found him of whom moses and the law and also the prophets wrote jesus of nazareth the son of joseph nathanael said to him can any good thing come out of nazareth philip said then come see jesus saw nathanael coming to him and said to him behold an israelite indeed in whom there is no deceit nathaniel said to him how do you know me jesus answered and said before philip called you when you were under the fig tree i saw you there's a good preaching in that boy i just don't have time nathaniel answered him rabbi you are the son of god you are the king of israel i read this to help you see that this is not andrew or simon peter's first experience with jesus yet at the lake again nazareth folk are coming everywhere to hear jesus preach the people press him and he asked simon for his vote but here's what we know while jesus is preaching these disciples are really at this point casual disciples who are satisfied with knowing jesus but they have not yet bought into who jesus is and they are at this place where while jesus is preaching they're washing their necks what does it mean that they're washing their nets they had spent all night fishing and caught nothing frustrated all night toiling and they got nothing at a point of tiredness hours of labor putting forth every effort as expert fishermen and these fishermen who fished at a time when there should have been a catch they know when to fish they know where to fish and they toiled all that and god nothing and so what do they do they go back to shore and they start washing their nets when a fisherman is washing his neck it means he's finished his work it means he's come to the closure of his toil it means i'm finished with what i was doing and me washing my neck is an indication that i'm not going back out right now i am done when you see these men washing their nets it is after a moment of complete failure it's after a moment of long toil is after a moment of frustration it's after a moment of tiredness and rather than hear jesus even though he's over there preaching these men are washing their meds have you ever lived a moment in your life after a long effort ain't nothing changed have you ever lived a moment in your life where you've spent significant time trying to make progress you out there trying to catch fish only to spend a lot of time and ain't nothing happen have you ever been at a point in your life when you decided to wash your neck oh god have you ever been frustrated with effort in time and investment that you put into something and although you tried as hard as you could for as long as you could have you ever gotten to the space where you gave up and you thought in your mind i think i'd rather just wash my neck because i'm finished trying i'm finished putting forth this effort i've tried and tried and tried and there's been no product there's been no progress and i've decided i don't even have time to hear jesus i just want to wash my neck have you ever been in church washing your neck have you ever been in church in worship and while your body is there your mind is somewhere else because you're tired you're frustrated and life is happening to you and nothing seems to move forward and you have decided i don't have time to hear the word i don't have time for prayer i don't even want your encouragement what i'd rather do is wash my neck oh god have you ever been there where you've been looking for a job for a year and ain't nothing seem to be happening and your finances are not getting any better and you find yourself in a space of frustration and you get to a space where i'd rather wash my neck oh i have tried this marriage thing and this marriage thing doesn't seem to be working the way i thought it would work effort in time i put into this but i'd rather at this point after complete frustration i've decided to wash my neck have you been there where you've tried the best that you could with every effort that you put in and folk don't even realize you've decided to wash your neck i wish i had two or three honest people to um to state and be honest to say i've been at places where i didn't want to hear the word where where a sermon is not what i want i'm i'm as i have nothing against the preacher i have nothing against uh the word of god it's just i'm at a place of give up i'm i'm at a place and when you're at a place of give up some people don't understand you know when you get to that space it's a hard space to come out of when you get to a moment in your life where you feel like you've done what you needed to do or you put forth every effort that you possibly could and you've tried to put as much in as you could and you tried and tried and tried and after why you said you know what i'm done i'm not even at a space where i want somebody to call me and give me encouragement don't call me with no scripture don't tell me you read romans 8 28 all things work together for good to them that love god and to call the court that's a good verse but do you know there's sometimes when you don't even want to hear that you're going through the heart of your frustration somebody says do you know god can make all that work together if you don't get off my phone right now i i really i i won't hear that praise god you're not living in my shoes you're not in my place quote that when you going through it how about that praise god sometimes you get to that frustration place where it's hard because do you not know when you try and you try and you try do you know simultaneously sometimes failure builds hard skin where i get to a place where don't nothing phase me i'm so tired i've gotten to my i don't care place you ever been there at the i don't care place the i don't care place is a dangerous place it's a place where you don't feel nothing you don't care to feel nothing you don't care you're not at this space where you're trying to be considerate of nothing else look i'm done i'm tired i'm frustrated and you get to this place where you just say let me wash my neck i'm trying to talk to somebody right now i'm talking to that person who went to college you went in school and you logged in and you tried and you took courses and praised god and no matter how much effort you put into it it just didn't seem to be working for you and you decided i'm washing my neck have you ever tried to live up to somebody else's standard and you try to do it their way and you try to do it the way they wanted you to do it and it just didn't work out the way you went and you washed your neck have you ever failed after long effort i'm not talking about a moment of failure i'm talking about failure after time of trying and do you not know that can happen to you even as a christian do you know all hell can be breaking out in your life and you come to bible class you go to worship you give as you prosper you work on ministry you own five different ministries you're on youth ministry kitchen ministry marriage ministry youth ministry you're on all the minute you just in your mind you just figure i ought to have some credibility with god where i'm not going to go through this mess it just seemed to me i would have skipped mess that ought to get me around mess why am i going through mess and i'm doing christianity the way i'm supposed to do christianity i read my bible i pray i do everything i'm supposed to do i do it how i'm supposed to do it when somebody calls me to work on ministry i make myself available i pray as much as i can i read my bible i don't read genesis or revelation more times than anybody else i got i got the bible on audio i got the bible on my phone i got the bible in my hard copy bible i got every i read scripture every i hang scriptures up on my refrigerator i try to quote it and put it to memory and still all hell's breaking loose you know what seems easier right now i'd rather wash [Music] my neck you know it's hard for anybody to really you know it's hard to shout on this is if you on the chat and on the chat right now and you're on facebook live it's hard to shout on this because right now i'm probably right on your street and you're in the pro the reality is sometimes i know how to look christian and i know how to look spiritual and i know how to do all of that but inside i'm washing my neck as a matter of fact i thank god for the pandemic because i'm tired of faking it coming to church i'm tired of smiling in folks faces when i really don't feel like smiling so i've gotten to a great place with this pandemic i can just be on virtual and not even be engaged i'll just let you see my name i'll type in amen to everybody but i'm really not plugged in there what y'all don't know is the pandemic has given me permission and license to wash my neck and i don't have to care about what nobody thinks cause don't nobody see me right now but the way we forget is that god can see when you've decided to wash your neck i ain't got to deal with him or her no more i'm washing my neck you talking about i gotta be loving and be patient with folks i ain't got to be patient with you if i don't see you praise the mighty name of jesus you can preach all that patience and love you won't i ain't seeing nobody ain't gotta practice that i can say amen online and don't really care about none of that because i am blessed by the covering of a pandemic and i'm watching my neck now watch jesus oh god jesus from the context of being sovereign i would have to admit that he already knew they were tired he already knew where they were in their mind he already knew that they were at a spirit of give up i mean they toiled all night watch this at a time that they thought they should catch fish they're expert fishermen who of course they know what time to fish they know what baits to use they would have used a long net that you drop into the water and as the boat moves it creates a cone-shaped kind of imagery and as the boat moves it's supposed to catch a school of fish but ain't no fish in it it ain't we done did this all night every time we pull up the net ain't nothing in it have you ever dropped your neck pulled it up ain't ain't nothing in it and i'm tired i'm talking to somebody that's ready to give up i'm talking to somebody who's at give up and after you did 2020 you said you know what you're going to do in 2021 i'm awash i'm trying to get you unleashed from that mindset and get you to a place where you will go and try again watch this jesus said all right simon i'm done preaching fellas do me a favor jump back in this boat let's launch the other boat and i need you to launch out into the deep and i want you to drop your net for a dropped now jesus language is interesting to me because when jesus says drop your net for a draw he is telling them if you drop that net you're gonna catch he's telling them if you do what i tell you and you drop your neck you are going to catch so let's go into the let's go fellas into the boat let's launch out into the deep simon says listen jesus i know you just finished preaching and you're probably a little excited and you you know the folk responded well and you gave him a good word but listen jesus we ain't going back out there man not that this ain't the time we first of all jesus we we talked all night jesus come on come on get in the boat get in the boat we're going out and here's what i want to do i want us to launch out into the deep we going back where fish are located i want you to go back into a space where there is opportunity we can't hang out in this shallow water now i preached from here and i have you to move the boat back a little bit into shallow water so that we can we i could preach to the people but we done with shallow water because if we stay here in shallow water you ain't gonna catch nothing let's go back into the deep you know there has to come a point in your life when you realize when you're in a shallow place and sometimes people get comfortable in shallow water and want to spend time in shallow water do you not know you got to be careful about being around shallow people shallow thinkers and shallow opportunity some people like shallow places and i i've come to encourage somebody that if you are going to get back into the game and if you really want to catch and you really want to try again and you want to come out of your your your feeling i need you to know that there is a time when you've got to say i got to get out of a shallow place and go back to where there's opportunity i need somebody to say i'm tired of shallow thinkers i'm tired of shallow people i'm tired of folk that have knee deep spirituality and i need to learn how to get away from folk that's just pulling me in a direction that i ought not go jesus said let's launch out into the deep praise god and his simon simon says master listen jesus all right we in this boat with you now we launching out into the deep okay but do you not know jesus this is the wrong time to fish if you're going to fish jesus you you fish in the night in the early morning before sunrise that's when you fish this ain't the time not only is it not the time jesus master we've toiled all night i did this already i've been here done that i've already put forth the effort that i thought i needed to do in order for us to catch fish now you telling me to go back out into the water into the deep don't you know i'm an expert i'm the fisherman jesus you ain't no fisherman last time we checked i thought she was a carpenter this ain't your occupation have you ever had an insane moment when you thought god didn't understand let me tell you what why that's not something you can admit i know that's hard to admit it's that moment when theoretically you know god is all-knowing but there is this moment at times when we're like look i know god is god but he gonna have to try to understand i ain't going that way you know they just ain't in me i'm i'm a human being and and and i ain't there yet i ain't there yet i ain't there yet and i i don't know if god can understand this sometimes we believe in our unconscious and maybe not verbally express that god doesn't get it that god doesn't understand peter peter's telling jesus this ain't you this is not what you do this is not what you understand this is not where you've been we are fishermen we know what it is master we've toiled all night now here's where interpretively i'm careful with this there is a part in the text that says peter's going to say nevertheless at your word we're going to drop this and that now jesus said when you drop it you're going to catch because that sometimes the difference between your success and failure is my presence now when you went out last time i wasn't there when you went out last time it was based on your effort when you went out last time it was based on your strength but the difference right now is peter i am present and if you do what i tell you and you drop your net do it act my word and peter said master uh that's your word we're gonna drop this net and praise the mighty name of jesus first of all let me just suggest that one of the hardest psychological transitions you will ever have to make is the ability to say nevertheless one of the hardest psychological transitions you will ever have to make as a disciple is the ability to tell god nevertheless oh and it's hard to make that psychological transition it was even hard for jesus to do it when he was in the garden of gethsemane and he says father let this cup pass from me but he made his way to nevertheless oh god do you know how hard it is to get to the space where you can tell god and tell jesus nevertheless i am not in align with what you're telling me to do i am not in agreement with what you're telling me to do but because of my respect for your authority nevertheless and sometimes you got to say nevertheless when you don't even think there's going to be a result oh jesus help me sometimes you got to have enough faith to say even though i don't see it god sees it even though i don't know what's going to take place i got to trust that god can see it and even though i don't necessarily see how this is going to work i'm going to actually do what god says like god says it because if he allows me to drop my neck if he's telling me to drop this neck i gotta trust that jesus can see what i can't master at your word and so they dropped the net and the bible says they caught so much fish that the net started to break they caught so much fish that they had to call the other boat over and they had to help and put fish on that boat they caught so much fish that the bible says that the boats almost started to sink because sometimes and when you least expect it my god will reward your obedience and bless you far beyond what you thought you could be blessed and i need to tell somebody you need to get to the at your word you need to get to a nevertheless you have to get to a place where you say i i don't feel it but i'ma do it i don't know how it's gonna work out but i'm gonna do it i don't know how college is gonna work out but i'm gonna try it i don't know what's gonna happen in this situation but i'm gonna try it if god told me to drop my net i know last time it didn't work but now that i got his presence and i'm aware of what i need to do i'm going to do what god says like god says jesus said drop your neck and they got blessed beyond measure because when you do what god says like god says and you trust and do what even you can't see you'll be surprised how god can reward your obedience in such a way where he is i'm communicating to peter look at what i'm able to do when you are in a spirit and disposition of obedience i know you were washing your necks i know you had the place of giving up however i would like you to embrace another mindset peter i want you to go from washing your neck to nevertheless i need some nevertheless people up in here i wish i had more folk up in here that could run around the church building with me and tell the devil you thought you had me down by the lake of genesis and you thought you had me at the place of give up and yeah i was at a place where i was ready to throw in the towel but oh god i've made my transition into my nevertheless do i have one or two folk that's on facebook live and youtube right now that can type into the box nevertheless just when you thought you had me devil i was ready to end my life i was ready to commit suicide i'm so frustrated with life but i'm glad that i served jesus gotta get in the boat with me take me back out into the deep and tell me at your word i will bless you jesus said if you do what i tell you you will catch a drop and peter said nevertheless you need to tell the devil right now devil the less nevertheless nevertheless nevertheless i don't feel i don't feel it but nevertheless i'm tired but nevertheless i'm ready to give up but nevertheless i'm ready to take my life but nevertheless i'm in a spirit of depression but nevertheless i'ma get back into into the deep i'm gonna get in the boat with jesus i'm gonna do what jesus said i've toiled all night i've already tried but at your word jesus i'm gonna do exactly what you said i don't see it jesus i think i have my own way of thinking but i'm going to be obedient to your will and to your way do i have anybody that's ever been that giver but made your way to nevertheless you need to testify to somebody i already know what it is to be at the place where i'm giving up i've been in that space where i was ready to throw in the towel i've washed my neck more than once but i'm glad christ told me to launch back out into the deep and dropped my neck and ever since then i've been blessed i've been blessed and now where there were no fish i'm walking around with a full net oh god i wish somebody could tell tell folk that that boat i'm in now is full of fish praise god i i know what it is to try again in the boat get get full of fish i know what it is to have nothing and now god has blessed me to have something i i know what it is to give up on education but now i got three degrees right i had a nevertheless moment there was a time i didn't have a job and i got my own business i i meant to have my nevertheless moment because when i take christ with me christ can bless me now watch this i can't leave this harmonic presentation without giving you the theological implications of it this ain't really about peter's business it ain't even really about the secular while it can apply there now watch this jesus is going to bless peter in his secular as an example of what he'll do with him in the spiritual oh jesus i can't leave this sermon and not show you that oh god because you might run out of here just thinking about is about a business and it's just about god prospering you know it ain't about that i wouldn't about that it's about being obedient to the master for the spiritual will that he puts in your possession for the pericope ends with i'm gonna make you fishes of men the same success i just gave you in your business that's the success i want to give you in the spiritual doing my will and oh jesus i wish i had time when that when peter sees how much fish he caught the bible says he dropped down to his knees and said i'm a sinful man jesus come away from me now now for those of us who are theologically and academically inclined this shows me where peter's mind was when he did that because the only person you would tell to get away from you based on your sinfulness is god so now he says jesus go i'm a sinful man he's now starting to come into an awareness of who is jesus and he gets to this place of frustration or excuse me this place of sadness and despair he says go away from me i'm a sinful man he drops down humbled by what just took place realizing that he now this is what that means at the time peter told jesus master we talked all night and he said nevertheless that's your word peter didn't really necessarily know or believe what was about to happen now i applaud his obedience i applaud that but what's also revealed in the text is he was not sure something was actually gonna happen in other words peter has some doubt so we applaud his obedience and you gotta learn how to be obedient even when there is moments and spaces of doubt even when there's moments and spaces of doubt you still got to have a nevertheless but peter recognizing that christ can be trusted drops down and says i'm a sinful man jesus said oh don't fear let me tell you why i did all of that i didn't do it to bless your business i did it as a revelation of the destiny i'm about to give you as it relates to the kingdom of god what i did in your secular i want to do that in your spiritual i want to make you effective in the kingdom and i can bless your kingdom work the way i bless your business if you can trust me to do this then you wait to see what i'm about to do with your spiritual destiny you you don't even know what i'm fit to do with you i'm about to use you in a way that you won't imagine and so it is that simon peter doubting peter peter who was frustrated with the rest of his disciples peter who was oppressor that betrayed christ and turned his back on christ before the crow before denied him three times before the crowd what this peter on the day of pentecost will be that preacher that'll drop his neck and preach the gospel of jesus christ and when peter gets finished preaching about 3 000 fish get caught in the gospel net god was trying to show peter what i did with you at the lake of genezeret is what i'm trying to do with you in your ministry and that same peter in acts chapter 10 dropped that net again and caught some gentiles that peter was responsible for the preaching of the gospel of jesus christ i've come today to tell somebody could it be that god is waiting for you to come into the realization that what he can do for you in the secular is only a small portion of what he's trying to do with you in the spiritual and some of us want to reduce god to only our secular progress but don't realize what god is really waiting for is to show you what he wants to do in your spiritual destiny how he wants to use you for kingdom work and so dr haywood what do you want us to see here i need you to be unleashed not just from past failure but i want you to be unleashed from the entire i want you to get to a space where you can say nevertheless i want you to get to a place where you're not at give up i want you to get to a place where you're no longer trapped at a spirit of frustration and do you not know all of us will have failure and all of us respond to our failures differently and that's why all of us have to be willing to give everyone grace and mercy because we all have moments when we tried to fish and caught nothing man and that'll drive you to a place it'll drive you to a place has anybody right now been driven to a dark space where you just want to wash your net i'm inviting you now to launch out into the and drop your net again i want you to drop your net again and do it at the word of god trust that god's word if obeyed will result in a trough of fish it will result in a maximum catch and god knows how to bless you where your boat can't even hold it and i want you to trust that i want you to trust that and i want you to do it and i want you to do it right now if you're here and you are not a child of god that is if you are listening right now do you not know god wants you to become his disciple let come into the dojo and watch the master model how to do spiritual combat come into the dojo and watch the master and his movements and mimic him as a good apprentice and god will bless you and he'll bless you real good it's time for your 2021 to be that moment when you say i'm coming out of my tiredness i'm not washing my neck no more i'm ready to go back out and i promise you god it's gonna bless you why don't you come be baptized for the remission of your sin look at the screen right now that phone number that's coming up call us let us know it's your day to become a disciple matthew 28 says go and make disciples of all nations baptizing them in the name of the father son and the holy spirit we're ready to baptize you for the remission of your sins so you can become part of the kingdom of god and then let god launch you into destiny launch out into the deep and let him make you a fisher of men let him bring you into your spiritual destiny let him use you for his kingdom think about this now what if peter never went back out what if those disciples didn't trust jesus enough to go back into the deep peter would have never been the pentecost preacher peter would have never had the ministry that he had sometimes your blessing is on the other side of your tiredness sometimes your blessing is on the other side of your frustration and sometimes whether or not you are going to be all right and whether or not you're going to make progress is whether or not you can move through frustration and sometimes if you give up now you don't know what the devil is trying to block you from you've got to get to a space where you fight through frustration i'm tired but nevertheless may the lord bless you may he bless you real good and let him bless you right now why don't you come and say yes to jesus as we now sing the song of invitation oh to jesus [Music] it's time to stop washing your neck now [Music] it's time for you to get past your frustration because your blessing is on the other side of your tiredness your blessing is on the other side of you pushing through frustration god is waiting on you because he wants to launch you into destiny would you mind saying nevertheless that god at your word i'm ready to trust your word and drop my neck [Music] oh thank you you've got to learn how to trust it nevertheless nevertheless nevertheless nevertheless i'm going back out into the deep [Music] all my nevertheless i give it all [Music] amen i wrote it down could it be that god is waiting for you to come to the realization that what he can do for you in the secular is only a small portion of what he wants to do for you in the spiritual what an amazing word we thank brother haber once again for giving us what we need as we unleash ourselves in 2021 and beyond speaking of unleash we want to unleash ourselves in the form of ministry we have several announcements that we want to present to you at this time in hopes that you can find the opportunity to get engaged in what's happening with the renaissance church of christ so we'll start with our first announcement on behalf of the seasoned saints we are so excited about movie night every second monday from four o'clock to seven o'clock there is a zoom opportunity for you to get together in regards to an inspirational movie every single month on that second monday so let's look forward to that coming up speaking of up you got to thank renaissance for keeping our married couples booed up february 13th a celebration of love celebrating the institution of marriage it's a great time to fellowship with other booed up married couples you see the time we look forward to seeing all of you during this time frame we're eagerly looking forward to the guard your heart mentor program for males ages 12 to 18 there is an event coming up we do not want you left out so if you have not done so please go to renaissance clc.com forward slash guard heart and register yourself of your that young man or register your young man so that we can continue to love on them as the world tries to fight us january 30th we've said it several times so hopefully you you received one of these slots for virtual mental health first aid training my sister lisa jameson we look forward to that that is rapidly approaching as a matter of fact that is uh this week coming up so we look forward to a great engagement along that line again we want to encourage everyone who is in need of this ministry beginning january the 31st we have our griefshare ministry looking to love on and and allow individuals to lean on the love that is available through christ uh through the experts the spiritual experts in this light and uh you can go to renaissance clc.com forward slash griefshare in order to become a part of that we are so excited about this whole series unleashed loosed for the master's use this is just a reminder i want to encourage you to go back in and reflect and meditate on these particular scriptures that has been part of the focus of what we've been blessed to receive so we look forward to next sunday bible classes they will continue as we already have them going we've had a wonderful time in the lord on our sunday mornings and our wednesday evenings if you have not done so there's so much room and the zoom for you to be a part so thank you in advance for being thoroughly engaged uh one final announcement i need all of our men well before that we have our seniors fitness classes uh that continue so for first and third wednesday if that is your time 11 15 to 12 o'clock sister greta beasley is ready to receive you and on second and fourth friday sister tonya iverson is ready to receive our seniors as well and keep you all healthy and limber and uh feeling good about yourself physically and mentally and spiritually lastly before we close uh to all of our men i want you to look up the book point man we are on the heels of starting an amazing book study as we get ourselves unleashed in 2021 and we'll give you more information about ordering that book point man and we want all of you to join us in this book study we also have our bible shop at the barbershop the bible shop coming up as we just have some real spiritual talk in a safe space as men and again unleashing ourselves to our fullest potential that god has planned for us look for more information to come very soon thank you once again for joining us in this worship service and we'll now ask our elder brother robert wilson to come forward to give us a closing prayer god bless you and we love you once again orpheus has just demonstrated the power and the magnitude of one taking time and truly studying the word of god to reveal it to us in such a way that that we go away encouraged by what god is doing to us for us through us and it's just amazing that when you start to study god's word in the manner which our preacher has taken the time to unfold it we can't do anything but grow we want to again thank orpheus for a fine message we want to continue to pray for him as well as his family as we always say continue to pray for the leadership of this church as well as members of the congregation of renaissance to all our visitors once again we want to say thank you for the thousands of you that tune in sunday and sunday out we greatly do appreciate it let us pray commerce from father in heaven we are truly thankful again that we've been blessed to hear another word preach from your manservant doctor orpheus j we thank you so much for his ability we thank you for again the cause of christ that he he's on the battlefield to proclaim the truth and we pray father that we will take the message that we heard this morning that we make it a part of our being that we might be better servants in the future than we've been in times past father be with us as we go out into this week we we pray father that we will demonstrate our love for you by the way we interact with one another that we might pray for those who who stand in need of prayer and we want to pray for those who are sick and stand in need of prayer we pray father for this country which we find ourselves in we pray for it that peace might abide and we pray father when it's all said and done when we've done everything that you would happen to do our prayer is we'll hear you say well done thy good and faithful servant for this we ask in christ his holy and righteous name amen lord we've turned our backs on you far too many times the cost of sins too much too bad but still you paid the fine so i just don't wanna be another person in the crowd hear my prayer lord hear my battle cry and i'm so thankful for this intercession with you i feel like i've entered into heaven when i'm in your presence when i'm in your presence and lord please bless this body of your saints with your family i pray for love and abundant peace for all my enemies and i know that satan's in there somewhere sitting in the crowd so hear my prayer lord hear my battle cry [Applause] and [Music] [Music] oh i'm so thankful for this intercession with you i feel like i've been turned into heaven when i'm in your presence

Channel: Official Renaissance Church of Christ

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Length: 110min 43sec (6643 seconds)

Published: Sun Jan 24 2021