Launch Out Into the Deep

OPENING

As I have been praying and studying, the Lord has been dealing with me about faith.

Faith is vital for our Christian experience.

We come to God through faith.

We are saved through faith.

Our prayers are answered through faith.

We walk by faith.

Faith moves mountains.

And as I began to study about faith, the Holy Spirit laid on my heart this topic: Kinetic Faith.

The word kinetic means, “relating to or resulting from motion.”

We typically talk about kinetic in relation to energy.

Kinetic energy is the “energy an object has because of its motion.”

Potential energy is energy that is stored, but is not doing anything.

Kinetic energy is energy that is doing something and producing some type of result.

We call that result work.

So Kinetic faith is all about faith in motion.

Faith in action.

And when faith gets put into motion, it produces works.

James 2:26 NKJV

26 For as the body without the spirit is dead, so faith without works is dead also.

Kinetic faith produces Spirit-filled, Spirit-led actions.

And Spirit-filled, Spirit-led actions result in good works.

It is about putting your faith to work so that it can accomplish God’s will.

This morning I want to encourage you to have Kinetic Faith; to put your faith into action.

Turn with me in your Bibles to Luke 5:1-8.

SCRIPTURE

Luke 5:1–8 NKJV

1 So it was, as the multitude pressed about Him to hear the word of God, that He stood by the Lake of Gennesaret, 2 and saw two boats standing by the lake; but the fishermen had gone from them and were washing their nets. 3 Then He got into one of the boats, which was Simon’s, and asked him to put out a little from the land. And He sat down and taught the multitudes from the boat. 4 When He had stopped speaking, He said to Simon, “Launch out into the deep and let down your nets for a catch.” 5 But Simon answered and said to Him, “Master, we have toiled all night and caught nothing; nevertheless at Your word I will let down the net.” 6 And when they had done this, they caught a great number of fish, and their net was breaking. 7 So they signaled to their partners in the other boat to come and help them. And they came and filled both the boats, so that they began to sink. 8 When Simon Peter saw it, he fell down at Jesus’ knees, saying, “Depart from me, for I am a sinful man, O Lord!”

MESSAGE

Look at what Jesus says to Peter in Verse 4, “LAUNCH OUT INTO THE DEEP.”

What a powerful encounter between Jesus and these men who would become His disciples!

Jesus is teaching a crowd of people who have gathered around Him near the shore of the Sea of Galilee.

There are two boats that have come in from a night of fishing and the fishermen are washing their nets.

Jesus decided to board one of the boats so that He could be better seen and heard by the crowd.

It happened to be the boat owned by Simon Peter and his brother Andrew.

And Jesus asked Peter to push out just a little ways from the shore.

Once Jesus was finished teaching, He asked Peter to put his faith into action.

Jesus said, “Launch out into the deep and let down your nets for a catch.”

Peter started giving all the excuses:

“Jesus, we’ve been fishing all night and we haven’t caught anything.”

It is not too much of a stretch to think that Peter was probably thinking of some other things he didn’t say out loud.

“We’re tired.

We just washed the nets and got them stowed away.

The fish on the Sea of Galilee are easier to catch at night.

We are professional fishermen.

This is what we do for a living.”

But something made Peter stop short of continuing on with the excuses and he simply said, “Nevertheless at Your word I will let down the net.”

If you want to experience the blessings of God, you’ve got to eliminate the excuses!

Excuses are the antithesis of faith.

Excuses will keep you tied up on the shore.

You’ve heard all the excuses:

“We’ve tried that before and it didn’t work.

I don’t know if I’m ready for that.

I don’t have what it takes.

I’m just wasting my time.

That plan is just going to fail.

I’m tired.

I don’t feel like it.

What does it matter anyway?”

Excuses are the devil’s playbook.

He’ll use them to take you completely out of the game.

He’ll use them to keep you from your blessing.

He’ll use them to keep you from moving forward.

Just go ahead and make up in your mind right now to get those excuses out of your vocabulary.

Turn those excuses into faith:

“I can do all things through Christ who gives me strength.

But my God shall supply all my need according to His riches in glory by Christ Jesus.

Lord, You are my strength and the lifter of my head.

I won’t grow weary in well doing for in due season I will reap a harvest if I faint not.

Greater is He that is on the inside of me than he that is in the world.

If God’s in it, it will work.”

Cut loose from the anchors of excuses and LAUNCH OUT INTO THE DEEP!

Jesus asked Peter to put his faith into action.

Was Peter just going to have potential faith, or was he going to demonstrate Kinetic Faith?

Peter showed Kinetic Faith.

He obeyed Jesus and launched the boat out into deeper water.

The blessing was not in the shallow water.

The blessing was in the deeper water.

If you want to receive the full depths of God’s blessings, you’ve got to move out of the shallow water!

Imagine how disappointed Peter and the other fishermen were that day.

They were professional fishermen.

This was their job.

This was how they supported themselves and their families.

And here they were working and toiling all night and nothing.

No fish.

No income.

No blessing.

No increase.

And Jesus gave Peter a simple command: “Launch out into the deep and let down your nets for a catch.”

But that’s what we’ve been doing all night.

Launch out and drop the nets.

But we’ve tried that method before.

Launch out and drop the nets.

But were tired and its daytime and the nets are already washed and stowed.

Launch out and drop the nets.

Peter had a choice.

Stay in the shallow water and refuse to cast the nets, or obey the Word of Jesus.

Peter knew there was something different about having Jesus on the boat.

How many know there is something different about having Jesus in your life?

There is something different about having Jesus directing your plans?

Even if it is the same method, the same thing, the same way you’ve already tried it, there is just something different about having Jesus directing the operations?

Jesus had a greater calling of Peter’s life and Andrew, James, and John who were there that day.

He was calling them out into deeper waters.

He wanted them to have Kinetic Faith.

Jesus knew it was going to take Kinetic Faith to get them through some of the things they would face during and after Jesus’ earthly ministry.

Jesus is calling us out today into deeper waters.

He’s calling some of us out to deeper devotion.

Deeper worship.

Deeper praise.

Deeper hunger for God’s Word.

Deeper thirst for the Holy Spirit.

Deeper levels of evangelism.

Deeper callings and ministries.

As the old song says, it’s time to “Step into the water and wade out a little bit deeper.”

Stop hanging around in the shallows.

Stop splashing around in the kiddie pool of promises.

LAUNCH OUT INTO THE DEEP and let God take you to deeper depths in Him.

The final command from Jesus was “let down your nets for a catch.”

Who knows exactly what Peter was thinking at this moment.

Was he just going along with what Jesus was asking because it was Jesus asking?

Did he really expect to catch fish?

We almost have to say no based on how Simon Peter responds at the end of this passage.

He seems surprised.

But something made Peter obey the word of Jesus.

It was his faith.

It was Kinetic Faith.

Kinetic Faith moves us to obey the word of the Lord.

If you want to reap a harvest, you’ve got to let down your net.

What is a net?

For a fisherman it is a tool for catching fish.

What is the analogy Jesus makes concerning catching fish after He calls them to be His disciples and follow Him?

Jesus says, “you will no longer catch fish, but I am going to make you fishers of men.”

So what is our net?

It is our evangelism and our evangelistic tools that we use to catch souls for the Kingdom of God.

Jesus was making a point.

Just like God could miraculously provide a catch of fish for Peter and his fellow fishermen, God would also use these men to gather in a great catch of people for the Kingdom of God.

A similar calling is on our lives today as well.

There is a harvest, a catch, that is ready to be harvested and caught.

But in order to reap the blessing.

In order to reap the increase.

In order to see the multiplication take place,

we’ve got to let down our nets.

We’ve got to cast our nets.

We can’t wash them and put them away.

It is time to fish!

That’s Kinetic Faith.

And that’s also the progression of faith we see in the story of Peter.

Peter had to let Jesus in the boat.

Peter had to push off a little from the land.

Then Peter had to launch out into deeper water.

Then Peter had to let down his nets.

We can’t stop trying to reach lost souls.

We can’t give up.

We have to keep trusting and believing that we will reap a harvest, if we faint not.

We’ve got to keep casting the nets.

We’ve got to keep setting the lines.

We’ve got to keep preaching the gospel.

We’ve got to keep reaching out to the poor and needy.

We’ve got to keep sharing our testimonies.

We’ve got to keep inviting people to church.

We’ve got to keep on keeping on for the Kingdom of God.

It is time to LAUNCH OUT INTO THE DEEP and let down our nets for a catch!

CLOSING

I want to point out one small detail in this story.

Look back at verse 4.

Jesus told Peter to “let down his nets.”

But look at verse 5. Peter responded, “we will let down the net.”

Jesus said, “throw all the nets in the water.”

Peter responded, “ok Lord, I’ll throw in one net and see what happens.”

God has more fish than you have net.

God has more supply than you have need.

I believe that if they would have thrown all their nets into the water, they would have all been filled.

But in this case only one net was filled, because only one net was thrown in the water.

It is like Elisha and the woman with the cruise of oil.

The oil didn’t run out until there were no more empty vessels.

If we’ll keep casting our nets into the water, God will fill the nets and send the increase.

Stowed nets don’t catch fish.

When God sends them our way, our nets better be in the water or we might miss the harvest!

We need the power of the Holy Spirit.

“The church can no longer expect dramatic Pentecostal results in evangelism while it is fishing in the shallow waters of spiritual complacency, lack of sacrificial commitments, and Laodicean lukewarmness.”

This last days revival is going to be Prayer Bred, Word Fed, and Spirit Led.

ALTAR CALL