Stepping out of the Boat in Faith

Intro:

- I’ll start off tonight with a story I heard.

“ A man was walking along a narrow path, not paying much attention to where he was going. Suddenly he slipped over the edge of a cliff. As he fell, he grabbed a branch growing from the side of the cliff. Realizing that he couldn’t hand on for long, he called for help”

Man- Is anybody up there?

Voice- Yes, I’m here!

Man- Who’s that?

Voice- The Lord

Man- Lord, Help me!

Voice- Do you trust me?

Man- I trust you completely!

Voice- Good. Let go of the branch.

Man- What???

Voice- I Said, let go of the branch

Man- (After a Long Pause) Is there anybody else up there?

- That is a funny story that actually can describe many of our lives. There can be an understanding of our faith, there can be a proclaiming of our faith……. But so often it is when we are called to live out our faith that we can struggle.

- This is what we are going to look at tonight, exercising our faith….. by stepping out in faith.

Transition

- The passage that we will look at tonight is something that the Lord has been ministering to my own heart over the last couple of weeks.

- There are somethings in my own live that I am working through and praying about, and the Lord has been using these passages to speak to me. And it’s neat because this last Sunday I was leading worship for a Church.

- They are doing this summer series where they bring guest worship and guest teachers in the Month of July. So both the Pastor who was teaching and I were guests at this church.

- But as I finished leading worship and was sitting down, the Pastor started his message and halfway through it, he made his way to the very passages that the Lord had already been speaking to me on. It was the Lord confirming everything that He had been speaking to me. I was literally trying to hold it together as I sat listening because I still had to go up there and play one more song.

- So the message I bring tonight is one that the Lord has been ministering me on personally, but it is something that is very applicable in our lives. As I mentioned before, it can often be much easier to explain our faith or to proclaim our faith, than it is to live out our faith.

I’ve titled tonight’s message

- “Stepping out of the Boat By Faith”

Transition

- Read - Matt. 4:18-22

I. The Call from God (Matt.4:18-22)

- Here in this story we see Jesus early on in His ministry in the area of Galilee. We are told that Jesus was walking along the Sea of Galilee and He saw 2 brothers, Peter and Andrew.

- Peter and Andrew were fishermen by trade and they must have been in a boat in our story because we are told that they were casting their nets into the Sea when Jesus called them to follow Him.

- Then we see Jesus moving on from there and then He saw 2 other brothers, James and John who were also fishermen. Matter of fact, our story tells us that they were in the boat with their father Zebedee mending their nets.

- These men had probably finished a long day of fishing and were close to the shore mending or repairing their nets. This was a common practice for fishermen to repair their nets from previous use, and to prepare them for the next time out.

- It was here in our story that both sets of fishermen brothers, were going about their daily job….. that the Jesus calls from them to “follow Him”.

A. A Specific Calling (Matt. 4:19, 21)

- Now we have to understand that this was not their first encounter with Jesus. You can read this passage and get an impression that they just met Jesus and HE was calling them to salvation.

- From the end of the Jesus’ temptation in the wilderness in Matt. 4:11 to the start of Jesus’ ministry in Matt.4:12, there is a whole year time gap.

- The Gospel of John records this year period and the early ministry of Jesus prior to Him calling the disciples to follow Him.

- And in John we see that Jesus spent time with some of these disciples during this year period. Andrew and Peter spent some time with Jesus and believed in Him, matter of fact…. We are told that Andrew went and found his brother Peter and told him that they had found the Messiah and brought Peter to Jesus.

- So looking back to our story, this call of Jesus was not a call of salvation, for they had already believed, but it was a call to service.

Transition

- The call from a Rabbi in biblical days to “follow me”, was much more than to come here and listen to me or follow where I am going. It was a call to learn under that Rabbi. Let me read this description for you to better understand.

“In the New Testament a Rabbi would call a new disciple by saying, “Follow me”, it meant from that time forward their life would change drastically as they would be dead to their old life and alive to their new life. They would literally leave everything they knew and begin to follow their new teacher. “

“At the age of 14 or 15 years old, the young men would finish their schooling and the Rabbis would go to these schools and question these young men. They would then choose the best of the best to be their disciples and would call them to “follow me”. The new disciples would then leave his hometown and everything he knew, and would follow him everywhere, giving his life to be exactly like his rabbi. The student would follow the Rabbi and literally imitate him in every way, especially in his teaching and mannerisms.”

- This is what we are seeing in our passage. Jesus did not go into the Rabbinic schools and chose the youngest and the brightest, rather He went to the Sea and called the lowest of the lows, men seasoned and hardened by their work.

- A great reminder of God using people like you and me, He chooses the foolish things of this world, to put to shame the wise. 1 Cor. 1:27

What Jesus’ Call meant to these men

- Now I want us to think practically what Jesus was calling these men to do.

Jesus was calling these men to leave behind…..

a. Their current trade

- This is what these men had grown up doing, it was what their fathers had passed on to them A trade that they would be able to provide for their families.

b. Their financial security

- as I mentioned this is what they used to make money and provide for their family. Now I don’t know how profitable Peter was as a fishermen, as it seems every time you see him fishing in the bible, he is catching nothing.

- If you have ever seen the chosen series, there is a part where Peter is in debt and you see him doing everything he can to catch fish in order to pay his debt off, even fishing at night or when he wasn’t supposed to.

- But I appreciate that part in the show because it gives you a picture of what fishing meant to these men. It was a means of using their skill and hard work to provide for themselves. It allowed them to be self-sufficient.

c. Their family

- The call to follow Jesus would require them to travel with Him which meant they would have to leave their family for a season.

- James and John would have to leave their Father Zebedee, Luke 4 tells us that Peter was married, so he would have to leave his wife and mother in law.

d. Their identity

- this is who they were, they were fishermen. It is what they had always known.

What Jesus was Calling them to

- Jesus called them to leave behind their old lives in order to pursue a new life….

a. New Calling

b. New Purpose

c. New Focus

d. New teacher

B. A Specific Purpose

1. To Produce Spiritual Growth

- Here is what we need to understand, Jesus was longing to take these believers from their current place, specifically their current spiritual state….. in order to produce in them spiritual growth and maturity that would be useful to God’s kingdom.

- But in order to take them into a new spiritual place, He had to take them into a new physical place. Change would be required for further growth. See there is only so much spiritual growth that would come had these men stayed in that boat that day and continued to be fishermen.

- I started out in the electrical industry when I was 18 years old, straight out of high school. I didn’t go to college for my industry, but I had on the job training.

- I have worked at a few different companies in the last 20 + years. But when I started out with my first company, I was just an apprentice. That first company gave me the kick start to my career.

- I later worked in a different company for over 10 years which is where I learned the most in my industry. But eventually, I had tapped out all that I could learn in that company. There were no positions to move up, so I would be stuck at the level as I at.

- So I moved companies and took a higher position with new responsibilities and new things to learn. And I did that for a few companies until I got to the place where I had accomplished all I want to accomplish in my industry.

- each time I moved into a new company, was a change that came with new responsibilities, new things to learn, new titles, new challenges. etc…..

- for me, growth in my career came through change. Each change brought further progress in my career. I never took steps backwards, but always moved forward.

Transition

- The reality is that this is often how God works in our lives as well. God’s heart is to continue to develop us spiritually and He will lead us to places where we can grow and thrive.

- But just like in my career, at times we come to the place where we can no longer grow spiritually in our current state. For all intended purposes, we have tapped out the spiritual well if you will, and change is necessary if we want to continue to grow in our relationship with the Lord.

- The change can come in our lives….

- Change of jobs

- Change of friendships

- Change in churches

- Change in ministries we are serving in

- Change in your family dynamics

- Change in relationships

- Change in finances

- We can look at change as a bad thing when in reality, God is using the change in my life to develop further spiritual maturity in us that would not be possible had we stayed in the boat.

- For these 4 men as with us, God will call us to step out in faith out of the boat in order to grow into who He is longing for us to be.

- The boat represents safety, security, familiarity, comfort, ease,

- No one willfully steps out of those things to the unknown of change. Change is a difficult thing.

- No one likes change. Change often comes with a multitude of emotions, thoughts and feelings.

- It comes with ….

- Fear

- Anxiety

- Worry

- Doubt

- stress

prov. 17:3

Proverbs 17:3 NKJV

The refining pot is for silver and the furnace for gold, But the Lord tests the hearts.

the Lord uses the pressure of change to refine us as a silversmith would use the extreme heat of the fire.

2. To Produce Spiritual Dependance

- These changes are not only to produce spiritual growth in us, but they are also meant o produce a spiritual dependence on the Lord.

- Let me walk you through the progression of our spiritual lives. One minute we are walking in harmony with the Lord, everything is going well, we have the joy of the Lord and all is great.

- Then, we encounter something.

- We encounter, a change, a trial, a hardship, a difficulty, persecution, suffering, heartbreak, a new opportunity…..

- And these things will normally produce 1 of 2 responses from us. Either we will cry out to God in complete dependence or we will respond with fear.

a. Dependence

- Websters Dictionary “Dependence”- connection by which one thing is sustained by another in its place, reliance, confidence, resting on.

- God’s heart for me is to depend on Him. To trust and to rely on Him to sustain me in every part of my life. To understand that I can do nothing without God and to rely on Him for every aspect of my life.

- Now the problem is, specifically in our western society, is that we have so much in comparison to other nations that we can grow to depend on our own ability, on our own finances, our own skill, in our own ability to get ourselves out of a problem. etc.

- Our natural reaction to depend on ourselves causes us to fail to depend on God. You can see this in our prayers.

- It has been said…

“Prayer is the evidence of our dependence on God, and a lack of prayer reveals our lack of dependence on God”.

- And so God will often bring us to a place where change takes place. And this change disturbs our easy and comfortable life……. But what it is meant to do is to get you and I to cry out to God in complete dependence.

Transition

Turn with me to 2 Cor. 12:7-10

- Paul tells us that he had this thorn in the flesh. We are not completely sure what that thorn was but it was obviously something that affected him greatly. So much so that he cried out to God 3 different times that God would remove it from him. God did not take it away.

- God told Paul instead…. “my grace is sufficient for you”

- WHY?

- Because “My strength is made perfect in weakness”.

- In other words, God needed Paul to be brought down to a low place in humility and in total dependence on God. And the only way to do that was through this thorn in the flesh.

- God will often bring different things into our lives including change, steps of faith, hardships, trials….. to get us to the place where we don’t have all the answers, where we can’t fix the problem, where we have to look to HIM.

- God will bring us low in our weakness, for it is then that we cry out to God.

- And God will say as He did to Paul, “My grace is sufficient”. My grace will sustain you in the unknowns. In your weakness, I can now work in you and through you.

- God’s heart for us is to respond to Him and what HE is doing in our lives in complete dependence, but the reality is that too often, God will call us to step out of the boat of security and comfort by faith, in complete dependence on him, but instead; we chose to stay in the boat in fear.

- Fear keeps us from obeying God, fear keeps us from stepping out in faith, fear is what keeps us from further spiritual growth, fear is what the enemy will use to keep us exactly where we are.

II. The Response to God’s Call (v. 20, 22)

- Now in spite of all that we have talked about, we see how the disciples respond to this call to follow Jesus.

A. The Disciples Stepped out of the Boat

- not knowing how they would make money, or where they would go, or where they would sleep did not deter them from making the decision to step out of the boat of safety.

- they stepped out in faith and trusted in Jesus to provide for their needs and for Him to work out their situation.

B. The Disciples stepped out Immediately (v.20,22)

- not only did they decide to obey God but they did it immediately.

- There are times when we have plenty of time to pray through a matter and to get counsel, and this is how we should make decisions ….. but at times God calls us to do something immediately.

Hawaii story……

- We can often miss out on opportunities when we wait too long to obey God.

Turn with me to Luke 5

- I want us to see that often the reason we can’t get out of the boat is because it will have a cost associated with it.

III. The Cost Associated with God’s Call ( Luke 5:1-11)

- Here in this passage, we see that the call from Jesus had a cost associated with it. The first thing it cost them was their Lordship.

A. It will Cost me My Lordship (v. 5)

- see in this description of the events, Peter had been fishing all night. They were coming to the shore possibly after a long night of trying to catch fish.

- Jesus sees them and tells them to cast their nets down for a catch. And Peter goes on to tell Jesus that they have been fishing all night and have caught nothing.

- Peter has been a fisherman all his life, he understands well that the fish have left the shallow water to deeper water due to the heat which is why he was fishing at night.

- In other words, Peter is telling Jesus that this is not the time or the place to fish …….But he also says this.

- “Master”- in the original language has the meaning of “commander”, “leader”.

- Master at your word I will let down my net. Peter could have argued here that he knew more about the situation or the command that Jesus was giving him.

- Peter could have argued that his point and his understanding, what his experience has taught him…… but instead ….. he calls Jesus Master and submits to that authority by obeying what HE said. And as a result we see that they would catch a number of fish. Blessing was associated with submitting to the Lordship of Jesus.

- That same submission would be required in stepping out of the boat and following Jesus.

Transition

- I want you to think about that. What can often keep us from stepping out in faith is our inability to submit to God’s authority.

- I know what God is telling me to do, but it doesn’t make sense, I know more about this, I have gone through this before….i have experienced this before and I know how it should go or what to do.

- Part of the cost that has to be paid in our obedience to God….. is ourselves. We have to let go of our control over our lives and trust in the one who has created us.

B. It May Cost me Everything I know (v.11)

- Verse 11 tells us that these men “forsook” all and “followed” Jesus.

- As we mentioned before, the call was to let go of the life they knew. Who they were, what they identified as, how they made a living , their family…. Everything that they knew.

- Understand that God’s call to discipleship will cost us something.

- The unfortunate thing, is how many people are willing to stay in a place where they are no longer growing, stay in a place where they are not willing to step out in faith, a place where they are not willing to obey God…..because the cost is to high to pay.

- Dietrich Bonhoeffer

“Salvation is free, but discipleship will cost you your life”.

matt.8:20-22

Matthew 8:20–22 NKJV

And Jesus said to him, “Foxes have holes and birds of the air have nests, but the Son of Man has nowhere to lay His head.” Then another of His disciples said to Him, “Lord, let me first go and bury my father.” But Jesus said to him, “Follow Me, and let the dead bury their own dead.”

Conclusion

- So we have learned that…….

- God has a calling for our lives,

- that calling at times may require a step of faith.

- That step of faith is meant to produce – spiritual growth and a dependence on God.

- That step of faith will cost me something

- So that last thing that we have to look at in our story is “HOW CAN I LEARN TO STEP OUT IN FAITH?”.

IV. How Can I Step out of the Boat in Faith? ( Luke 5:5, Luke 4:31-41)

- Looking at our story here in Luke, we see how Peter was able to make these decisions. Despite his own understanding of fishing, despite his years of experience……. He says….

- “nevertheless, at your word, I will let down the net”.

A. By Having complete confidence in the Word of God.

- Peter had confidence in the very words of Jesus. See this is not an easy thing to understand if you skip the chapter before this.

- In chapter 4 we see Jesus early on in His ministry and you see Him casting our demons, and healing the sick.

- (2) different times in chapter you see Jesus “rebuking” demons . The people that saw this said.

Luke 4:36- “What a word this is! For with authority and power He commands the unclean spirits and they come out”.

- You also see Jesus heal Peter’s Mother n law. She was sick with fever and Jesus “rebuked” the fever and it left her.

- So Peter understood very well that the words Jesus spoke were no ordinary words, but His words had power. They had power to heal, power to transformer.

- The same words that spoke the earth into existence, the same words that spoke light to be, are the same words that Jesus spoke.

- John 1:1

- There was complete confidence in the words of Jesus. So when Jesus called for them to leave everything and to take a step of faith and follow Him, there was no hesitation.

Application

- reading the word of God and knowing the word of God will create a confidence in our lives to believe in the word and to put our trust in the word of God.

- Having that confidence in God’s words allows…..

- Me to trust in God

- Me to be dependent on God

- Me to believe in God’s promises

- Me to believe in God’s provision

- Me to believe in God’s protection

- Cast out fear

- ME to step out in faith.

Final Conclusion

- The reality is that we will often find ourselves in a boat of security at some point or another. And God will often want to shake us out of our comfort, for our good.

- I pray that you may have been encouraged and stirred up. That we may understand that God calls us to take steps of faith often, He brings change in our lives……. But His heart is always to produce something good in us through it.

- And if God is calling you to do something, be encourage that he will also be with you and will give you and I all the grace necessary to go through it.