Why are my nets still empty?

Insanity

There is a very popular all be it very over used quote out there about Insanity. Does anyone know what it is?

Good now does anyone know who said it.

Well some say it was Einstein, some say Ben Franklin, others say Mark Twain. The truth is the earliest found quote of this in print was from an old Narcotics Anonymous book from 1981, from where it most likely originated or at least as far back as we can accurately trace it and thus they get the credit.

Sorry one of my favourite pass times is correcting miss quoted or miss used information. Anyway back to the quote. Is it even accurate? Well that really depends on what you are talking about doesn’t it.

Let me explain. When it comes to addiction this make perfect sense. If your actions are contributing to your addiction it would be foolish to think you could overcome that addiction without changing your actions. Is that fair?

But what about opening a jar? There are not a lot of ways to open a jar. Righty tighty lefty loosey right? So what happens to pickle jars that have sat in the basement for a while? The onse that have been sealed well?

They can be very stubborn so we came up with some techniques like running it under hot water to melt the wax around the lid. You know that’s why that works right? Or thumping the bottom to cause the pressure to pop the seal.

But let me ask you what do you do if after doing all the right things it still doesn’t open, because some of them are really stubborn, not unlike some Christians I’ve known.

Well you do it all again, repeating the same steps, twisting as hard as you can, thumping the bottom as hard as you can with out braking it, hopefully, and running it under water. Still no results repeat until low and behold you do the same thing but get a different result, the jar opens. Then you realize you just opened pickles and you throw them out because pickles are nasty.

See in some cases repeating your actions expecting different results is not insanity it is persistence, and in things like opening jars or I don’t know say inviting someone to church requires a little persistence.

The reason I tell you all this is because sometimes as a Christian it can feel like we are doing all the right things but the results don’t seem to line up with our efforts. And so if we buy in to the NA definition of insanity, which as previously stated in there context is absolutely true, but in our context, can be extremely discouraging can’t it? Because if what I am doing isn’t working now, why should I keep on doing it?

Now can I be honest with you? Sometimes we as a church do need to change how we do things. There are 2 major lies that tends to infiltrate our churches and those lies are...

1. Give up and stop trying.

Like we should have done with those pickles.

1. Change is always good

2. Keep changing strategies like most people change underwear.

2. Change is always bad

Now Changing strategies isn’t always a bad thing. In fact we should always be looking for better and more efficient ways to do things. I mean who is glad they din’t have to hook up the team and hitch them to a wagon and ride in the blustery cold to get here tonight? That is a result of ingenuitive people who kept looking for better more efficient ways of travel. However when you try something new and it doesn’t work right away so you give up and look to the next fade, what ends up happening is you never give any one strategy enough time to succeed. New ideas often need to preserver.

The truth is some change is good and some change is bad and we need the help of the Holy Spirit to know what and when to change.

Unfortunately and they will use the NA quote as justification some people try something once, if it didn’t work, because new things take time for people to get use to, the say well that didn’t work and I am not insane so I won’t do that again.

But tonight what I am talking about is when you know you are doing everything right but it doesn’t seem to be working. And nothing better illustrates this than the act of fishing.

We have seen churches, especially small churches fall into this trap constantly seeking the next new thing hoping this will be the thing that will work, when in reality they are running themselves ragged reinventing the wheel and employing big church principles that do not scale down to small church realities, which in turn frustrates people.

I want you to think about fishing. If you have ever gone fishing how many times do you cast out your line or net only to have it return empty. Now in all fairness you may change your lure or location but the reality is fishing is one of those things that you can do everything right and still not see the results, and thus fishing can be a pretty discouraging pass time.

So we get discouraged and give up hope of revival or whatever it it is we are hoping for. I won’t get into unrealistic expectations tonight but this can also be a big problem, and I am not talking about dreaming big or trusting God for big things but this Church will probably not run 500,000 people on an average Sunday morning. That would be an unrealistic expectation and chasing that unrealistic expectation would only frustrate and discourage as we constantly failed to reach it.

With every nibble-less cast it is easy to begin thinking I suck at fishing. I should break up my poles, give away my tackle and take up knitting. At least that is how I feel when I have an unsuccessful fishing trip.

Now I have said a lot and we haven’t even got started yet so let me just sum up what I want you to know for tonight’s message.

So when I read about career fishermen who spend an entire night out on a lake with nothing to show for it, I have to think I wonder if they were discouraged?

John 21:1–11 NLT

Later, Jesus appeared again to the disciples beside the Sea of Galilee. This is how it happened. Several of the disciples were there—Simon Peter, Thomas (nicknamed the Twin), Nathanael from Cana in Galilee, the sons of Zebedee, and two other disciples. Simon Peter said, “I’m going fishing.” “We’ll come, too,” they all said. So they went out in the boat, but they caught nothing all night. At dawn Jesus was standing on the beach, but the disciples couldn’t see who he was. He called out, “Fellows, have you caught any fish?” “No,” they replied. Then he said, “Throw out your net on the right-hand side of the boat, and you’ll get some!” So they did, and they couldn’t haul in the net because there were so many fish in it. Then the disciple Jesus loved said to Peter, “It’s the Lord!” When Simon Peter heard that it was the Lord, he put on his tunic (for he had stripped for work), jumped into the water, and headed to shore. The others stayed with the boat and pulled the loaded net to the shore, for they were only about a hundred yards from shore. When they got there, they found breakfast waiting for them—fish cooking over a charcoal fire, and some bread. “Bring some of the fish you’ve just caught,” Jesus said. So Simon Peter went aboard and dragged the net to the shore. There were 153 large fish, and yet the net hadn’t torn.

Change is good and often necessary, but sometimes what is needed in the church is to keep plugging away and working hard doing the basic bread and butter things knowing that just because we haven’t seen the results yet doesn’t mean we will not see them someday.

This is a story of experienced fishermen who were doing everything right, but still didn’t see the results that is until Jesus showed up.

The question I want to ask tonight is...

How can we overcome discouragement?

By focusing on the potential result!

Me: Fishing the Scott road

We: in order to keep inviting people and and sharing the gospel we need to not focus on the “unsuccessful” attempt and instead focus on God who says I want you to be fishers of men and by getting excited for the possibility of each new cast.

God: The disciples had been fishing all night unsuccessfully, but when a voice from the shore said hey cast one more time and you will catch fish, they didn’t even hesitate. Not this time anyway. The last time a voice from the shore guaranteed fish by casting on the right it almost swamped their boat and they needed help from other boats to get the fish to shore. So when they heard this familiar request the possibility of what might happen and who might have just made the request was too much to let the opportunity go and sure enough it was Jesus who said fish and sure enough the net was filled.

You: So how can you keep from getting discouraged and quit inviting people to church or sharing the gospel? It is by remembering the potential results of each time you invite or share the truth.

We: Now sometimes we feel like we’ve told them 100 times. How many times had the disciples cast their nets in that same spot, but obedience to Jesus and one more cast filled the nets.

Next step:

Cast out your nets again

Invite someone you never know this might be the time they say yes

Share the gospel again who knows this might be the time the say yes to Jesus.