Living Life Supernaturally

Call to worship

Welcome everyone!

It is the first day of a brand new year

Rev 19:1-8 “After these things I heard something like a loud voice of a great multitude in heaven, saying, “Hallelujah! Salvation, glory, and power belong to our God, Because His Judgments are true and righteous; for He has judged the great prostitute who was corrupting the earth with her sexual immorality, and He has avenged the blood of His bond-servants on her.” And a second time they said, “Hallelujah! Her smoke rises forever and ever.” And the twenty-four elders and the four living creatures fell down and worshiped God who sits on the throne, saying, “Amen. Hallelujah!” And a voice came from the throne, saying, “Give praise to our God, all you His bond-servants, you who fear Him, the small and the great.” Then I heard something like the voice of a great multitude and like the sound of many waters, and like the sound of mighty peals of thunder, saying, “Hallelujah! For the Lord our God, the Almighty, reigns. Let’s rejoice and be glad and give the glory to Him, because the marriage of the Lamb …”

LET US STAND AND WORSHIP!

“Worthy is the Lamb”

Words and Music by Hillsong

PRAYER OF PRAISE FOR WHO GOD IS

Father, we thank you that are worthy. We thank You that You are all we ned. That you fulfill us to the inner most being of who we are. We thank You that You have given us another year to serve and worship You. So we invite You to this place today, and ask that You we be aware of Your presence here. In Jesus name, Amen.

“Because he Lives”

Words and Music by Matt Maher

“Great are You Lord”

Words and Music by All Sons and Daughters

PRAYER OF ILLUMINATION TO OPEN OUR HEARTS

Our Heavenly Father, we pray today, in the name of Jesus, for an anointing as I teach your Word. And we pray that the Holy Spirit will impart truth to hungry hearts and warnings to sinful hearts. In the name of Jesus we pray, Amen.

SERMON

Introduction

INTRODUCTION

Today is the first day of a brand new year. And it is a very special New Years Day because we get to spend it with our church family worshiping the Lord Jesus.

I was planning to start back in the Gospel of Matthew today, but I want to share a message that the Lord showed me a few days ago that I think is very fitting for our New years Day Service.

New Year’s Day is often about what kind of good habits we are going to set in place. Some people make New Years resolutions to get rid of bad habits and others make plans to develop new and healthy habits.

Dave Ramsey said this: “we should set goals in each of these 7 areas of our lives to WIN in 2023!”

1. Spiritual goals

2. Financial goals

3. Career goals

4. Intellectual goals

5. Fitness goals

6. Family goals

7. Social goals

I’m not disagreeing with Dave that we shouldn’t set goals, but the truth is many of us do not do very well when it comes to keeping the goals we set.

So I want to mention just focus on one thing for us to consider moving into 2023 and why it is vital for our walk with Christ and the future of this church.

We will be in Luke 5 today, and most of us have heard this story and remember it well. Jesus is teaching a crowd of people at the Sea of Galilee and sees Peter washing His nets. He gets in the boat with Peter who has been out fishing all night, and tells him to put out into the deep and let down his nets. And Peter a little reluctantly does what Jesus tells him, and catches so many fish that two boats are filled and begin to sink.

All miracles are pictures that teach us something about Jesus.

When Jesus calms the storm, it represents His ability to calm the chaos in our lives.

When Jesus makes the lepers clean it represents Jesus’ ability to cleanse us from our sin.

When Jesus gives the blind man sight, it teaches us His ability to give us spiritual vision.

When Jesus raised Lazarus from the dead, it teaches us that He is the giver of life.

And in this story, when Jesus produces a miraculous catch of fish, it teaches us that only when the church learns to depend full upon Jesus can we be successful at winning people to Jesus Christ.

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In Luke chapter 5 beginning in verse 1, the Bible 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 Gennesaret; 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. And He got into one of the boats, which was Simon’s, and asked him to put out a little distance from the land. And He sat down and continued teaching the crowds from the boat. Now when He had finished speaking, He said to Simon, “Put out into the deep water and let down your nets for a catch. Simon responded and said, “Master, we worked hard all night and caught nothing, but I will do as You say and let down the nets.”

There are two things I want to point out: v1 “the Word of God” and v5 “but I will do as You say”

What is the “The Word of God”?

This is not referring to the Bible. Jesus was not standing in front of this crowd reading from an OT scroll. There are places where Jesus did this such as in Luke chapter 4 where He read from the scroll of Isaiah.

What this is referring to is the very words that Jesus was speaking.

Why does Luke refer to this as, “the Word of God?”

To stress the authority of what Jesus was saying. This was not just another man speaking, but the what was being said was from the mouth of God!

The Words of Jesus carry ALL authority and our lives as followers of Christ should reflect that

God has authority over nature

Matthew 8:27 “The men were amazed, and said, “What kind of a man is this, that even the winds and the sea obey Him?”

God has authority over humanity

John 17:1-2 “Jesus spoke these things; and raising His eyes to heaven, He said, “Father, the hour has come; glorify Your Son, so that the Son may glorify You, just as You gave Him authority over all mankind.”

God has authority over the rulers and kings of the earth

John 19:11 “Jesus answered him, “You would have no authority over Me at all, if it had not been given to you from above”

God has authority over the spiritual realm

Col 1:16 “for by Him all things were created, both in the heavens and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones, or dominions, or rulers, or authorities—all things have been created through Him and for Him.”

God has absolute authority over ALL THINGS

That is why the supreme authority in this church is the Bible. It is the very words of God.

We do not trump the Bible with Robert’s Rules of Order or what people think about God, or people’s ideas about church.

We follow the Word of God because He is the LORD ands what He says has greater authority than anything else.

Notice what Jesus says to Peter: “Put out into the deep water and let down your nets for a catch.” Now I really like how the ESV translates this: “Master, we toiled all night and took nothing! But at your word I will let down the nets.”

Peter is not just getting advice from anyone but from the very mouth of God. It was the Word of God who was speaking to Peter! It was the all knowing Christ who knows the future, who changes the laws of nature, who knows EVERYTHING about EVERYTHING! Nothing is impossible for God!

But Peter hesitates, because he has been out fishing all night. And in these days, night time was the time to go fishing because that is when the fish were biting.

And Peter is not a weekend fisherman, this is what he does for a living.

This is how he feeds his family, this is how he pays his taxes, this is how he puts sandals on his feet, and this is what he has been doing for years!

He is an experienced fisherman!

And Here is Jesus. Who was not a fisherman but a carpenter by trade. If Jesus fished at all, he most likely knew much less than a professional like Peter.

And He certainly wouldn’t know the Sea of Galilee as well as Peter, or when the best time to fish, or what depth of water to fish in!

APPLICATION

All of us who follow the Lord come to these crossroads. We will be placed in situations where we know what God is wanting us to do, either from the principles in His Word or through His Spirit impressing it upon our hearts, and we are faced with this same choice!

Will I go against my own understanding and knowledge and trust what God is telling me to do?

Will I trust in the authoritative Word of God and do what He says, or do what I think?

Will I follow the teachings of the Bible and place my faith in what God has said?

And here is the biggest one for me, “Will go against what makes the most sense to me?”

To do what I think God is telling me to do is totally against any kind of rational thinking!

And that is exactly what Peter is saying here. Jesus, I have been out here all night! If the fish did not bite last night, they surely will not be biting in the day! I am tired and exhausted! I do not want to get out all my nets dirty again just to come up empty handed! How does this Jesus know where the fish are, he’s never even been fishing on this side of the water.

What will you do when you come to these crossroad and God forces you into a situation where you must choose to believe His words or choose your own way?

What will you do when God says, go and place yourself in an uncomfortable situation for My glory

What will you do when God says give this up this much time for Me every week?

What will you do when God says get that habitual sin out of your life, those worldly friends out of your life, that destructive habit out of your life, and come follow Me?

Will we listen??

Or will we continue to live a very natural life that is absent from the supernatural power of God.

Look what happened when Peter took the advice Jesus gave him

Luke 5:6-7 “And when they had done this, they caught a great quantity of fish, and their nets began to tear; so they signaled to their partners in the other boat to come and help them. And they came and filled both of the boats, to the point that they were sinking.”

A miracle took place

What was the nature of the miracle?

It was at the least a miracle of Jesus’ ability to know the exact timing and placement of a huger school of fish.

But I think it was also a miracle of Jesus gathering, bringing all those fish together at that point in time to be caught in those nets.

God has all knowledge

Ps 147:5 “Great is our Lord and abundant in strength; His understanding is infinite.”

1 John 3:20 “that if our heart condemns us, that God is greater than our heart, and He knows all things.”

Ps 139:4 “Even before there is a word on my tongue, Behold, Lord, You know it all.”

God also has the ability to change things supernaturally in our lives and in the church

God has the ability to avenge our enemies

2 kings 19:35 “Then it happened that night that the angel of the Lord went out and struck 185,000 in the camp of the Assyrians; and when the rest got up early in the morning, behold, all of the 185,000 were dead.”

God has the ability to make a donkey speak

Numbers 22:28 “Then the Lord opened the mouth of the donkey, and she said to Balaam, “What have I done to you, that you have struck me these three times?””

God can feed over 5,000 with just a few loaves of bread

Mark 6:41 “And He took the five loaves and the two fish, and looking up toward heaven, He blessed the food and broke the loaves and He gave them to the disciples again and again to set before them; and He divided the two fish among them all.”

God has the ability to hold the stop the earth from spinning

Joshua 10:12-13 “Then Joshua spoke to the Lord on the day when the Lord turned the Amorites over to the sons of Israel, and he said in the sight of Israel, “Sun, stand still at Gibeon, And moon, at the Valley of Aijalon!” So the sun stood still, and the moon stopped, Until the nation avenged themselves of their enemies.”

There is nothing that God cannot do!

AND He knows everything about what will happen and what He will do!

AND WE DO NOT!

And too often in the church and in our personal lives we live like we know it all And God has no business telling us how to live!

And over and over we are missing out on the supernatural life God wants for us because we keep living in the flesh!

APPLICATION

And in this church, we are going to make it a priority to not do what we think, but what the Lord says!

And if we will put all of our effort into that, we will see great things.

Notice the contrast between the disciples failure by themselves, and the promise of success when they obey His word.

What Peter spent all night toiling and laboring with and end up fruitless, Jesus showed him how, when, and where to bring in a massive catch.

And to specially apply this verse to this church, if we want to catch people, then we must learn to do what Jesus says.

We must make it a habit of going the Lord, and seeking Him for direction

If we want to have successful ministries in this church, they must be ministries that God has told us to do

If we want to have successful events, then we must do the events that God tells us to do!

Anything else is a waste of time and effort, because without without the supernatural power of God, we are hopeless

And to us personally, our lives would truly change if we apply these truths

We would be freedom from things we can not free ourselves from

We would overcome obstacles

And God would become much more real to us

Look what happened to Peter

PETER’S RESPONSE TO THE MIRACLE

Luke 5:8-10 “But when Simon Peter saw this, he fell down at Jesus’ knees, saying, “Go away from me, Lord, for I am a sinful man!” For amazement had seized him and all his companions because of the catch of fish which they had taken; and likewise also were James and John, sons of Zebedee, who were partners with Simon.

Jesus became very real to them

As is in the gospel accounts, Peter is a representative of the disciples. And when he sees the great catch of fish, he knows he is in the presence of God.

Notice Peter calls Jesus Master in verse 5 and LORD in verse 8

Peter’s experience has changed him permanently.

He has had an experience with the living God

And that is exactly what God wants for this church

God wants us to experience Himself

God wants us to have an encounter with Him that will change us forever

And that can only happen when we begin to trust Him at a deeper lever in this place

Our calling as followers of Christ is to catch men

Luke 5:10-11 And Jesus said to Simon, “Do not fear; from now on you will be catching people.” When they had brought their boats to land, they left everything and followed Him

Peter was a fisherman

This was the priority in his life up to this point

And Jesus changed that priority and said, “now you will be catching men”

But Peter didn’t stop fishing, just like you and I don’t stop our vocational jobs when we come to Christ

But we must understand that we have an additional calling now, and it is significantly more important than making money!

It is an eternal spiritual work in which all followers of Christ are called.

Jesus said, “From now on you will be catching men” (alive)

The word “catch” is the Greek word ζωγρέω (zōgreō) means “to catch alive”. There is significance in this word. The fisherman that once caught fish to be killed and eaten by men, will now be catching men from the sea of death to bring them into eternal life.

And we must know this is the paradigm for the entire church. This is the mission for all Christians. It is our responsibility to be catching men. To bring men from the waves of death and carry them into the light of Christ.

This is the mission that Christ gave the church in Matthew 28:18-20 “And Jesus came up and spoke to them, saying, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to Me. Go, therefore, and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, teaching them to follow all that I commanded you; and behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age.””

This is the mission Jesus gave us in Acts 1:8 “but you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you; and you shall be My witnesses both in Jerusalem and in all Judea, and Samaria, and as far as the remotest part of the earth.”

This is our calling church! We come here to worship the Lord first and foremost but what flows from that worship is the desire to bring others into the family of God and deliver them from grips of death!

The church that does not put forth effort in seeking to bring men into the kingdom of God will die! The Christian who does not put forth effort to bring people into the kingdom of God will become frail and weak! They will lose their zeal for life! They will lose the joy that comes from Christ! To be in Christ is to serve with Christ! And Jesus said He came to seek and save that which was lost! Jesus said, he came to call sinners to repentance! Jesus said, “I came to give life, and give it abundantly!” There is no life outside of Jesus! If you have that life in you, then you calling is to win others to Christ!

So let us make this a priority in 2023! Let us seek God for wisdom and guidance to teach us how to catch men and bring them to Christ!

Conclusion

Will you consider seeking God’s direction in your life in 2023?

It will take effort on your part

It will take discipline

It will take desire

But you will never be the same

Will you join me in seeking God’s direction for this ministry?

Will you commit to praying for God’s will?

Will you pray for God to teach us how to catch men?

~PRAYER~

RESPONSE

PUBLIC INVITATION

“Thank You Jesus for the Blood”

Words and Music by Charity Gale

OFFERING

We will now worship the Lord through our tithes and offering.

BENEDICTION

Matthew 28:18–20 NASB 2020

And Jesus came up and spoke to them, saying, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to Me. Go, therefore, and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, teaching them to follow all that I commanded you; and behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age.”