Launch Out Into The Deep!

Luke 5:1-7; Proverbs 16:25; Isaiah 55:8; Luke 8:24-26, Matthew 4:4;  Luke 21:32-34; Job 8:7; Psalm 119:140-142

We are walking in today:  Launch Out Into The Deep!

Luke 5:1-7  1) And it came to pass, that, as the people pressed upon him to hear the word of God, he stood by the lake of Gennesaret, 2) And saw two ships standing by the lake: but the fishermen were gone out of them, and were washing their nets. 3) And he entered into one of the ships, which was Simon's, and prayed him that he would thrust out a little from the land. And he sat down, and taught the people out of the ship. 4) Now when he had left speaking, he said unto Simon, Launch out into the deep, and let down your nets for a draught. 5) And Simon answering said unto him, Master, we have toiled all the night, and have taken nothing: nevertheless at thy word I will let down the net. 6) And when they had this done, they inclosed a great multitude of fishes: and their net brake. 7) And they beckoned unto their partners, which were in the other ship, that they should come and help them. And they came, and filled both the ships, so that they began to sink.  We must learn to adapt to the winter, and this morning—we must learn to launch out into the deep.  It is going to take blind faith in this season--God seems to have a habit of doing His best work when we are at out lowest.  When we are at our wits end then and only then, God comes and provides the real miracle that we desperately need.  There are many that have worked for a very long time and have nothing thing to show for it.  I know of some people that, have worked all of their lives and have nothing to show for it.  They have lost their houses or live in a smaller home, while everyone else lives in nicer homes.  What do you do when your boat is empty?  Do what Jesus told them--to launch out again, to try it again. Go into the deep water and launch out further than you have ever gone been before.  Your miracle might not happen if you don't go out there where the big miracle happen.  They don't happen in shallow water.  Just don't throw in the towel, don't turn your back on Jesus--keep trying.  Finally they get there nets clean and ready for the next trip and Jesus says cast your clean nets into that dirty, filthy place again, the fish-less place.  They throw in again.  Everybody knows that you can't catch fish in the daytime with a net, they are going to see it.  Fish can easily swim away and they would.  Peter knew Jesus' idea was not good or rather it didn't make sense to a skilled fisherman.  Proverbs 16:25 There is a way that seemeth right unto a man, but the end thereof are the ways of death. Isaiah 55:8 For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, saith the LORD.  What Peter's problem was that he wasn't listening.  This is amazing, Jesus could see the entire lake.  Peter could only see as far as the bottom of the boat.  In your life you can't see what Jesus can see.  So don't doubt Jesus, when He leads you to do something, do it and do it now!  Peter may have thought, 'I'm the fisherman here.  My father and grandfather were fishermen.  My whole family are fishermen! I know all that there is to know about fishing.  What does this carpenter turned preacher know about fishing, anyway?  With my vast experience that tells me that the heart of the day is a bad time for fishing.  The only thing that it will accomplish is getting my nets all dirty again.'  So Peter at this point was like so many of us, throwing out excuse after excuse of why we can't.  'Lord, I can't do what You want me to do.  I can't move now Lord, houses are not selling it won't work.  Lord my marriage is over and I tried and tried.'  Then the Lord says launch out into the deep and do it again.  'My kids are gone over a fool's hill, Lord.  It is too late now my property won't sell, I give up.  I am just gonna turn it in and go bankrupt.  My enemies are horrible, Lord--I can't forgive them!  My taxes are too high, I am not going to report the money.  I can't do that God.'  But the Lord says, you launch out into the deep.  Go for it!  God wants to take us from a shallow faith to a deep faith.  He wants to strengthen our faith.  Think about how the waves appear in the shallow water, they really seem to move and trouble the water.  As you go deeper out into the water the movement of the water seems a lot less.  Due to all of that space between the surface of the water and the ground way below, you are really out there in the deep.  Where things are so different than on land,  There is nothing to grab on to--like the illustration that Pastor Taffe used last night, from Matthew 14 with Peter walking on water.  When he became distracted he began to sink.  He was too far way from the boat to reach out for that.  He instead made the best choice of all to cry out to the Lord, reaching for Jesus.  Could that be why God would want us in the deep where we can only depend on Him?  Not on other things that seem and give the appearance or safety or salvation but are doomed to crumble and fail?  That we could be out there where no man could take the credit for the mighty move of God in your life?  As you look around out there in the deep where you are not able to touch the ground and still keep your head above water, but that you are surrounded by water.  Water, water everywhere!  That the giver of living water would come to see about us, that He cares for us!  That He is watchful over us!  Luke 8:24-26 24) And they came to him, and awoke him, saying, Master, master, we perish. Then he arose, and rebuked the wind and the raging of the water: and they ceased, and there was a calm. 25) And he said unto them, Where is your faith? And they being afraid wondered, saying one to another, What manner of man is this! for he commandeth even the winds and water, and they obey him. 26) And they arrived at the country of the Gadarenes, which is over against Galilee.  That while we are out there in the deep, unknown, on a sea with storms, that all that we contain in our natural intellect, is made obsolete, that we have to take on His thoughts and ways.  Look at the text above Jesus was asleep in the boat during this storm.  The fear and worry was all on the disciple’s part.  Would a fearful, nervous or worried person be asleep during a storm that has everyone on the boat concerned?!  That is like when you are on a airplane ride and hit some turbulence and get that little feeling of fear in your gut.  But as you look around at the flight attendants are just going about their day like nothing unusual has happened.   Due to their many years in that profession they are not swayed by small or even bigger bumps.  There calmness helps to keep you calm--surely if it was more they would take precautions.  So it could be said that Jesus rebuked the storm to give the others on the boat peace.  He was not moved by the storm, remember He was asleep.  Can we come to trust, lean on and rely in God so much that we relax and rest in Him in the midst of the storm, or winds or rains all around us?  God is showing us repeatedly in His word that if, and we do have Him, there is nothing else that you need!  There is nothing too hard for Him.  He is in control and the creator of all things!  All of which was created by the word of God!  Which goes back to what Jesus gave in reply to the devil--Matthew 4:4 But he answered and said, It is written, Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God.  As this one speaker said one time:    That she would just sit in awe looking up at the sky that the moon was up there hanging in the sky, sitting on nothing--but the word of God!  That this planet is rotating and not colliding into anything else controlled and held by His word.  That everything that was, is and will be all, by what God has uttered from His very own lips.  We have to look at this with spiritual eyes!  This focus on the limited and natural is hindering our faith--could that be why the devil keeps throwing it in our face?  We have to unlearn the old ways and look to God and walk this out by faith!  He knows all and sees all!  He knows the end from the very beginning. There is nothing that escapes His notice or has not already been planned for!  Hold on to what if real and true!  The everlasting word of Almighty God!  Luke 21:32-34 (AMP) 32) Truly I tell you, this generation (those living at that definite period of time) will not perish and pass away until all has taken place. 33) The  sky and the earth ( the universe, the world) will pass away, but My words will not pass away. 34) But take heed to yourselves and be on your guard, lest your hearts be overburdened and depressed (weighed down) with the  giddiness and headache and  nausea of self-indulgence, drunkenness, and worldly worries and cares pertaining to [the  business of] this life, and [lest] that day come upon you suddenly like a trap or a noose.  Fiveamprayer while we are launching out into the deep will we find less distractions?  Less of this world to weight on us, God tells us that we are to cast our cares on Him for He cares for us.  While those cares wash away as we go out deeper and deeper in obedience to God?  That we are no longer looking for man's answer but God's truth and knowledge!  That will carry and keep us, answering questions before we even finish asking!  That with God we will end up with more that what we stared with, in the natural you may not have enough to even begin but God tells us in,  Job 8:7 Though thy beginning was small, yet thy latter end should greatly increase. Psalm 119:140-142 140) Thy word is very pure: therefore thy servant loveth it. 141) I am small and despised: yet do not I forget thy precepts. 142) Thy righteousness is an everlasting righteousness, and thy law is the truth.  When God wants to take us out into the deep we have our proper response in Luke 5:5 in the King James it says nevertheless, in the NIV it says  but because You say so, I will let the nets down.  And off Peter heads out into the deep. 
I admire Peter, you know that the Sea of Galilee is about 700 feet deep and at sea level another 150 feet deep.  It is a deep lake.  Well I don't like deep water.  I am not comfortable in the deep, I looked at the boat asking myself, do I really want to get into this boat?  Then you think about yourself.  But God often wants us to move out of our comfort zone because it is in deep water where the big and deep miracles happen.  We are like Peter--we have to walk this out by faith!  Take that step in and on faith!  Are you wading in the shallow water--waiting on God for a miracle?  You need to launch out into the deep water!  Out there in the deep where you can not touch the ground and still have your head above water.  This is the place where all you have is your trust in God.  That is where God wants you to be.  He may even move you out into the deep.  Let down your nets, meaning plural, all.  After cleaning them, you let them down again--all because God said so!  You need a miracle?  Do all that God tells you to do.  Jesus communicates with all things.  He speaks to the fish and orchestrates them all to be in position to be caught up in the net.  That the fish are ready and awaiting to be caught all at His command.  We are to walk by faith, not by sight!  Launch out into the deep.  He is bidding you to cast down your nets.  We have to trust Him, walk this out with blind faith.  Doing all that God has said.  I'll do it!  He will make away out of no way!  It is already done, it is already finished!  Look to God He will make a way of escape for you!  Launch out into the deep.  Trust God--in your finances, you marriage and with your children.  He will do all that He has promised us!  Launch out into the deep.  Hold on to His word!  All that He has said, shall come to pass!  We are to speak those things that be not as though they already are!  Launch out into the deep.  We are to be the head and not the tail, above only and never beneath!  Victory is ours!  Do all things through Christ which strengthens us!  You have gotta give Him praise and glory!  We have to launch out into the deep to have a deeper relationship with God!  Do you believe and trust in Him?  All the way out there in the deep?  No distractions just you and Him!  Fiveamprayer, He is calling us out into the deep.  For a one on one with Him!  We have to learn to trust God in all things!  No matter how it looks--launch out into the deep again in your marriage, your business and your ministry.  Trust Him with blind faith!  Do it again!  He will fill you to the overflow!  They are dropping down their nets out in the deep for a draught.  At God's word and their obedience they were so blessed that they had to call others over to receive the goodness from the Lord!    Don't be stuck in what happened last time.  We have got to launch out into the deep.  The devil doesn't want you to be in alignment with what God has planned for you!  Peter's response, that he had been out all night and caught nothing--go out and do it again.  You are going in the word of the Lord and His word will accomplish all that He sends it out to do!  That is the difference from the last time or even those other times.   This time you have God's word on it.  He is sending you out, He is ordering your steps, He is positioning all things to line up according to His way and His will!  Never forget that we serve the God that can do all things and He does new things.  So that unheard of thing, that He is telling you to do, that is a new thing.  There may not be anyone else that has the same assignment.  God made us all in His image and yet we are so very different.  We have to set down how we think it should be.  If we had our way we would stay in the shallow water, very likely stuck since our boat would not have enough water to float in.  The blessing is in obedience to God.  We know that obedience is better than sacrifice!  If God told you, than you better do it!  Launch out into the deep!  Trust ME, says the Lord.  Take your eyes off of the situation, circumstance and your finances.  Do it again, launch out into the deep!  Write the vision and make it plain.  Do it again, go back to the old landmark!  It is not over until God says that it is over!  Go out into the deep, cast your nets again!  Your blessing is in that place--you don't want to go  back into all of that shallow water!  Out in the deep, you are no longer trusting in what you can produce, but you are standing on the word of God!  That you would say:  not my will, but Thy will be done!  Halleluiah God!  This is a faith walk!  God will tell you what to do, and you will do it eventually.  You may have to do something different, He did not give us the spirit of fear.  Do what God says that you can do.  Fiveamprayer we are launching out into the deep!  Trust God He knows the number of hairs on our head.  That we are known by Him before we were born from our mother's womb.  Why not go about this God's way?  You say that it is too hard, that it doesn't look right?  Hold on to His word.  Persecution will come as well as long suffering.  Launch out into the deep.  We are coming up against adversity and pressing our way through!  We lift up fiveamprayer, we are launching out into the deep!  While we are out in the deep, we will cast our cares on You, for You care for us!  That we have finished cleaning our nets and have set forth to cast down our nets again at the word of God.  We are to pray without ceasing--that we are to pray and not faint!  Do it again, in that same place--cast out into the deep!  We trust You God!  We lift up prayer requests, this morning there was someone who was looking for an answer--launch out into the deep! Thank You God.  We come today to lay out on our faces and repent for wanting to do it our own way.  We lay down our will.  You have been waiting for us to submit and turn it all over to You.  Use us Lord!  We give ourselves away!  We are Your earthen vessels--use us in our marriages, with our children, and on our jobs.  Have us to line up with You and to launch out into the deep.  That we are also transformed by the renewing of our minds!  That we run to the throne instead of the phone.  That we are seeking Your counsel and not the advise of men.  That we would stand still saying, Lord I trust You!  We know that God works all things together for the good of them that Him and are called according to His purpose.  Fiveamprayer, all things are working of us!  We will launch out into the deep!  I am going to get my blessing and miracle.  God wants us to be doers of His word, not those who listen only.    What are you doing, get in motion and get in position for your blessing! Do something for God!  Launch out into the deep!  Do it this time!  We have got to get to the other side of your faith!  The word says, faith without works is dead!  While you are waiting on God, He is waiting on you to get into position.  Thank You Lord for forgiving us for not launching out into the deep.  We must crucify our flesh daily and only operate in the spirit!  What did God say?  That is all that we have ears to hear! 


We seal this prayer in His precious blood, by His Spirit:  Launch out into the deep, do it again!