Sermon Tone Analysis

Introduction

Junior Church Dismissed

Happy New Year

We are 5 days into the new year now and I hope all of your goals or resolutions are in full swing.

Today I’m looking forward to bringing this first message of a series called Launch out.

We are going to be examining different areas of scripture as it relates to launching out into our community.

It’s my prayer that our church is known for Loving God, Serving Others, and Making an Impact.

The only way for that to happen is for us to get outside our walls and bring Jesus to those who need Him.

We have to Launch out.

We have to launch out in obedience, we have to launch out in Love, we have to launch out with purpose, and we must launch out of our world...

Today, the first message of this new year, I want us to see what can happen when we launch out in obedience to the commands of Christ.

We pick up the biblical narrative in the life of Christ today in on the Sea of Galillie, specifically at a place called Gennesaret.

The first 4 chapters of Luke Jesus has expereinced birth, being left at a a temple by his parents, 40 days of fasting in the desert and the temptation of Satan, Preaching in a Synagogue, and healing Simon Peter’s, one of the soon to be Apostle’s, Mother in law.

Now we find Jesus being pressed by crowd who wants to hear what He has to say.

Follow along with me as I read

PRAY

Have you ever walked down a street and seen signs for missing animals?

I heard a story one time of a man who went for a walk and saw a missing animals poster on every lightpole.

In his neighborhood, on almost every light pole, there are signs for lost dogs or cats.

When he first noticed these signs, he felt a tinge of sympathy.

… But nothing seemed to happen.

The seasons changed.

The pictures grew faded because of the weather.

And yet, many of the signs are still up today.

He couldn’t help but wonder: is anyone actually looking for these animals?

Do they expect me to do all the work?

Did the owners just put up signs and assume the pets would read them, realize they’re missing, and saunter on home?

This is not the way God seeks.

The shepherd doesn’t just put up a sign that says, ‘Hey, I lost a sheep.’

He leaves the 99 behind and goes after the one who is missing”

As believers, we need to be reminded that we were once the one who was lost, and God came in pursuit of us to save us by his grace.

When we remember our own desperate need for grace, we will be more likely to extend it to others.

We will also be more likely to launch out of our comfortable “holy huddle” at church, surrounded by people who already know Jesus, and will want to cooperate with the Father in pursuing the lost and sharing God’s love with them.

As believers, we need to be reminded that we were once the one who was lost, and God came in pursuit of us to save us by his grace.

When we remember our own desperate need for grace, we will be more likely to extend it to others.

We will also be more likely to break out of our comfortable “holy huddle” at church, surrounded by people who already know Jesus, and will want to cooperate with the Father in pursuing the lost and sharing God’s love with them.

That only comes from faithful obedience to the Lord.

Notice that it all starts with the Lord’s Simple Requests

I.

The Lord’s Simple Requests

You know it’s falsely claimed sometimes that the Lord would not require of us more than we can handle.

I vehemently disagree with that statement.

God will ask you to give and do more than you believe you can handle, because it’s in those moments you have to live by faith and trust him to do it.

However, there are times when the requests of the Lord are simple in our lives.

For instance, notice the question here.

A. Can I use your boat?

Here is Jesus on the shore of the Sea of Galilee with many people coming out to here him.

He walks by these fishermen and sees them cleaning their nets.

He knows they have had a long and fruitless night.

They are not in the best of moods.

They are ready to close up shop.

However Jesus is in need of something they have.

He is seeking to preach the gospel to a group of people that need to hear it but doesn’t have a great way for the people to be able to see and hear him.

So he turned to Simon Peter, whose mother in law He had just healed days prior and says “Can I use your boat?”

Now Peter would have an idea of how Jesus is at this moment.

He had entered his house to perform that miracle healing.

However based upon his response to the miracle we are about to see I’d be willing to guess Peter wasn’t completely sold on what Jesus was saying and doing just yet.

Imagine Peter’s response for a moment.

He’s cleaning his nets and tired, upset over a wasted night.

Then here is this guy who wants to use his boat...

I wander if Peter had thoughts about his boat like “this little thing?”

I wander if in that moment he didn’t look at his boat through the lens of his previous nights failure.

He saw the boat as useless, He saw the boat as a trifle object that needed to be replaced because it was good for nothing.

Then Jesus comes in and says “Hey, that boat right there…yea the small one with the patches on it, the one that you have been using…Can I use your boat?”

Peter says “sure” and allows him to use it.

At that moment that boat went from being an object of failure to an object of great success.

Why?

Did Jesus need the boat?

We know that He can walk on water and calm the seas.

Did He need Peter’s boat?

No.

But He asked it of him.

Why?

The same reason Jesus asks you to give of what you have.

Your finances, your talents, your time, you know all these things you may seem as insignificant or useless.

When you turn it over to the Master of the Universe, He will use it for great things.

What was the great thing it was used for here in our passage?

Healing of the blind?

Lepors healed?

Lame made to walk?

Was it some visually remarkable sight that the boat was used for?

No.

But it was used for something as equally as important…the preaching of the gospel.

I believe that if Jesus came to you and said “Hey can I use your house to begin my crusade of healing througout the nation...” we all would be on board.

But what about when Jesus comes and says “Hey, I’d like to use your money, I’d like to use your mouth, I’d like to use your time on Saturday or on an evening throghout the week…just to preach the gospel.

Just to be my hands and feet so others may know me...” What would we say then?

It’s a simple requests our Lord puts to Peter…Can I use your boat?

Then when he is done, when Peter has been obedient in this area the Lord blesses Him greatly but that blessing begins with another simple request.

B. Will you use your boat?

Jesus finishes speaking and turns to Peter now.

Peter having heard what was just proclaimed to the masses.

Peter having just finished up washing his last net from his failed night looks to Jesus as he is getting out of the boat and Jesus says to him “Hey, Peter, launch out into the deep, and let down your net for another catch.”

Hey Peter, will you use your boat?

Will you take this boat and do something with it that seems unreasonable?

Will you take this boat and go out to catch fish again?

Imagine how this sounded to Peter…a professional fisherman…how many of you guys want that as your job title?

Hey I know you already did this but do it again…in your boat…with those nets you just cleaned....

You see we may be willing to let Jesus take what we have and use it but are we willing to use what we have for Him? Are we willing to do something we might not be comfortable with?

Are we willing to do something that might go against our grain?

Are we willing to obediently give to the Lord and be used of the Lord even when it’s something that seems crazy to us?