You're Gonna Need A Bigger Boat

2 Corinthians 9:8 (NASB 2020)

And God is able to make all grace overflow to you, so that, always having all sufficiency in everything, you may have an abundance for every good deed;

God’s grace and blessings can overflow beyond our imagination.

If we live according to His word and strive to live righteously, God will bless us abundantly.

PRAY

The fishermen, a picture of the church toiling on the restless seas of life, found it was Christ who brings the increase and that apart from him they could do nothing.

R. Kent Hughes

Luke 5:1–11 (NASB 2020)

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.” 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. 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. 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.

Simon Peter and Andrew spent all night fishing and had nothing to show for it. They were done and cleaning their nets. They were tired, defeated, and hungry. Enter Jesus.

Jesus used their boat to continue preaching to the crowd that was there. Meanwhile, the brothers kept cleaning.

Jesus then told them to throw their nets one last time. This means they will have to clean their nets again after this. It probably sounded crazy, they they did it because Jesus told them to.

They caught so many fish this last time that both boats were full and sinking! They had average size boats, but they needed bigger boats to carry the fish they caught!

Jesus let them catch this fish to bring up a point…they will not catch an abundance of people just as they did with fish.

Proverbs 3:5–6 (NASB 2020)

Trust in the Lord with all your heart

And do not lean on your own understanding.

In all your ways acknowledge Him,

And He will make your paths straight.

Sight tells us what to expect in each circumstance. Sight will cause us to limit things. We will prepare just enough to get by.

Faith on the other hand, teaches us to rely on God alone rather than ourselves. Faith will tell us to prepare for much more than we expect. God will bless!

Isaiah 43:19 (NASB 2020)

“Behold, I am going to do something new,

Now it will spring up;

Will you not be aware of it?

I will even make a roadway in the wilderness,

Rivers in the desert.

God says that He will do something NEW in our lives. This means that as we tend to prepare for the same ole same ole (the normal), God is preparing for something out of the norm. Something NEW. More than we expect.

While we prepare to fight, and work hard to get where we want to be, God clears the road and obstacles in our way!

Exodus 4:10–11 (NASB 2020)

Then Moses said to the Lord, “Please, Lord, I have never been eloquent, neither recently nor in time past, nor since You have spoken to Your servant; for I am slow of speech and slow of tongue.” But the Lord said to him, “Who has made the human mouth? Or who makes anyone unable to speak or deaf, or able to see or blind? Is it not I, the Lord?

We are full of excuses when it comes to God calling us to do something He wants us to do.

Moses couldn’t speak well, so he set a limit on himself and told God that he wasn’t the man for the job.

God, on the other hand, said, “I got you”!

We uses excuses to limit us, but God has much more planned for our lives! We just need to trust Him.

The third reason for giving is that God is lavishly generous and abundantly supplies us with everything necessary to have enough for our own needs and to be generous with others.

David E. Garland

Ephesians 3:20–21 (NASB 2020)

Now to Him who is able to do far more abundantly beyond all that we ask or think, according to the power that works within us, to Him be the glory in the church and in Christ Jesus to all generations forever and ever. Amen.

Don’t forget to thank God for all the blessings He provides. Even when we are going through hard times, look at the blessings. If you begin to count them, they will be way more than you though and deserve. Don’t limit God like we limit ourselves. God is limitless when it comes to grace, love, and strength.

Trust in the God who CAN and get yourself a bigger boat! You will need it.

INVITATION