Refocusing our Passion

This morning we are going to start a series of sermons, that God has been preparing my heart for, He is burdening my heart with, on Refocusing.

This is something that God has been speaking to me about a lot and as it comes together I have begin to realize He has been speaking to me about how we as a church, the body of believers here at Red Level, we have been needing to refocus for months.

We need to refocus our attention, our passion, our position in this life. We have all heard the statement, that in order to be successful in today's society, we have to climb the corporate ladder, we have to get to the top, and it is got to be all about ourselves, and it does not matter who we step on to get to the top.

To many times we bring that same mentality into the church life, into the body of Christ, and we are willing to sacrifice the will of God, our obedience to God, and building the kingdom of God, to become what we believe is successful in this life.

When what we really need to do is stop and focus on Jesus and His teachings. Jeremiah 29:13

Jeremiah 29:13 CSB

13 You will seek me and find me when you search for me with all your heart.

It is not about climbing a corporate ladder, it is about seeking God with all of our heart, it is not about seeking our dreams, and our goals, and our wishes, but about seeking God’s will, God’s purposes, God’s plan for our lives and then pursuing that in our lives, and that does not require us to climb over top of people to get there.

It is time, that we refocus our attention not just in our personal lives, but as we do in our personal lives, it will over flow into the life of the church.

Insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results."

We have been doing a lot of the same ole things, and yea some of those things worked great back in the 60’s, 70’s, 80’s, 90’s, but times have changed, the way we have to approach ministry also has to change.

I am not saying we change to message at all, the Word of God stays the same, but we have to realize that even Jesus changed the way he presented the message, depending on where He was at, and to who he was talking too.

There are at least six different ways Jesus used to teach the people in order to get His points a crossed.

One was story telling or the use of parables, these were things Jesus took from the every day life of the people to get the point a cross.

Second, He used hyperbole, or he shocked the crowd with outrages examples, even to the point of exaggerations or shocking statements to get the point a cross to the crowd, like he did not literally mean pluck your eye out or cut your arm off if it caused you to sin.

Third, was memorable sayings or play on words, this was a way to help people remember what He was teaching them, like judge not lest ye be judge, everyone remembers that statement - weather in context or not.

Fourth, Jesus would ask questions, and he would ask a lot of questions, and He would not give the answer right away, but he would build up hype by asking these questions getting the people interested in what he was teaching.

Fifth, Jesus used objective lessons like the foot washing like we seen this past Sunday to teach the lesson of servant leadership.

Sixth and final, Jesus used repetition, he would repeat things that he would want the people, especially the disciples to remember. He would teach on things multiple times, like the teaching of His death and resurrection, He taught on multiple times.

Therefore, as we see that Jesus used different ways to present the gospel message, the Word of God, we must also understand that we have to adapt to the changing culture around us, in order to continue to reach the lost and dying world with the gospel message and spread the Word of God.

I heard a pastor make the statement a while back if we are not fishing we are not following, he was not talking about fishing for fish either, but fishing for men as we are called to do by God.

It is time that we refocus our passion, our attention, our eyes on Jesus Christ.

Our text is going to be a familiar story this morning, We are going to be looking at Luke 5:1-11 this morning and I actually heard this passage preached a few weeks ago at a revival service at the Church of God, and the Pastor preaching that night, God really spoke some really good points through him.

And they have really stuck with me, and as I was praying and seeking God on what to preach this week, God directed me to the notes I had taken that night, and reminded me of some of those points.

I am not going to preach that message word for word, for one I do not remember it word for word, but God has laid on my heart some of the points he spoke through that pastor, but has also spoke to me through these verses.

First, we are going to look at the text and then we are going to see what God has to say about refocusing our passion.

If you are able will you stand with me in honor of the reading of God’s Word’s

Luke 5:1–11 CSB

1 As the crowd was pressing in on Jesus to hear God’s word, he was standing by Lake Gennesaret. 2 He saw two boats at the edge of the lake; the fishermen had left them and were washing their nets. 3 He got into one of the boats, which belonged to Simon, and asked him to put out a little from the land. Then he sat down and was teaching the crowds from the boat. 4 When he had finished speaking, he said to Simon, “Put out into deep water and let down your nets for a catch.” 5 “Master,” Simon replied, “we’ve worked hard all night long and caught nothing. But if you say so, I’ll let down the nets.” 6 When they did this, they caught a great number of fish, and their nets began to tear. 7 So they signaled to their partners in the other boat to come and help them; they came and filled both boats so full that they began to sink. 8 When Simon Peter saw this, he fell at Jesus’s knees and said, “Go away from me, because I’m a sinful man, Lord!” 9 For he and all those with him were amazed at the catch of fish they had taken, 10 and so were James and John, Zebedee’s sons, who were Simon’s partners. “Don’t be afraid,” Jesus told Simon. “From now on you will be catching people.” 11 Then they brought the boats to land, left everything, and followed him.

Pray

Here we see Jesus is teaching next to the Lake Gennesaret, which is also called the Sea of Galilee or Sea of Tiberias which is a large fresh water lake that is over 690 ft. below sea level, that serves as the main source of water and commerce for the Galilee region.

The crowd is continually growing and everyone wants to get close to Jesus so that they can hear him better, and have a chance to speak to him, be healed by him, whatever the reason, but they are steady pushing closer.

Jesus notices that there are two boats pulled up at the edge of the water, but the fisherman are not in the boats, but are out washing their nets from being out all night fishing.

These men were over washing their nets, they were not out celebrating, they were not at home eating breakfast, because we cannot celebrate a harvest when we have not reaped a harvest.

Jesus trying to put some room between himself and the crowd, gets into one of the boats which happens to be Simon’s (who we better know as Peter) and asks him to push out a little ways, that way he can continue to teach but the crowd will not bother him.

As Peter pushed out a little ways, Jesus takes a seat and begins to teach the crowd from the boat, this has allowed him to not be overcrowded by the people and to have space.

I. Restore Your Passion

In verse four, Jesus tells Peter to put out into the deep water and let down his nets for a catch, now these fishermen, would fish at night, because at night the fish came up into the shallower waters, where they were easier to catch, the water was shallower and did not take as much net and therefore did not have to let them down as far.

Therefore, in the day time, the fish due to the heat of the sun, the fish would go out into the deeper waters, making them harder to catch, and also making it less likely to catch a good amount of fish at one time.

Peter tells Jesus, Master we worked hard all night and caught nothing, Peter is like, I have been doing this my entire life, and we just fished all night long, up and down these coast, and you do not fish during the day time, nor in deep waters, but if you say so I will let my net down.

We must understand here that Peter is not a disciple of Jesus yet, Jesus has not called Peter to follow him yet, Peter may have heard of Jesus and some of what Jesus had done, but Peter had not started following him yet.

Peter was also a fisherman, and knows this is not how fishing works, but Peter also has a family to provide for and this is his business, this is his career.

Peter let’s down his nets and when he goes to collect that net, he goes to pull that net back in thinking, well we fished all night and not a thing, what will change, it is now day light, but Peter starts to pull this net in and it is so full that verse six says that the net begins to tear, and he signals for his partners, and they come and verse seven says, both boats are filled to the point that they begin to sink.

When we refocus our passion, when we restore our passion, and turn our eyes back on Jesus, the harvest is so bountiful that we cannot handle it all.

You say well how do we do that?

Well look at what Peter did, first, he listened and was obedient to Jesus. He pushed out into the deep, and then he lowered his net. Now he could have said, Jesus this does not make sense, we do not fish in the day time for a reason, and we do not fish in the deep for a reason.

But Peter’s passion was fishing, so he was obedient to Jesus and it payed off.

We have to start doing what God ignites us to do for Him, Jesus seen Peter washing nets, told him to go deeper, and lower his nets.

What is God telling you to do, well first off, we got to realize that we do not retire, but we need to refire, we need to reignite that fire for God in our life.

We need to put Jesus back where He belongs, see when we are loosing with God we are loosing with everything else.

Jesus told Peter go out into the deep waters and drop your nets, Peter said, master we have worked hard all night, but I will, We need to realize that God can do more with our resources than we can.

Reposition Yourself

Jesus told Peter to go out into the deep water, Peter knew this was not the regular area that they fished, he knew that they fished the shallow areas, but Peter was obedient.

If we truly want to see God do something in our lives, in our church, in our community, than we need to see that we have to go deeper.

Peter could have stayed in the shallow water and let down his net, but he would have gotten the same results he had gotten all night long, but he went deeper and he got different results, then he did all night long.

If we want to see different results than we have been seeing, we have to be willing to go deeper, we have to be willing to be obedient, we cannot expect to experience God in a fresh new way, in a powerful way, and yet stay in the shallows.

We have to be willing to go out deeper, if we want to truly experience God deeper, than we must go deeper with God.

I do not know about you but I am ready to experience God deeper, I need to experience God deeper.

Dr. Henry Blackaby, famous for the Bible Study - Experiencing God - said, “If you are going to join God, you must change. You cannot stay the same and work with God at the same time.”

Tom Cheney a leader in the Southern Baptist Convention who studies and helps churches in the area of revitalization, refocusing and restarting stated that churches that have fallen under an average attendance of 50 adult active members is known as critical mass. I would say that we are on life support right now.

In one of Tom Cheney’s books that I started reading, it says, that sometimes our memories of how things use to be hinder us from seeing what we could become.

See Peter could have looked at what Jesus was saying to do, and thought that just does not make sense, we have always fished in the shallower waters, we have never went out into the deeper waters like that and especially in the day time like this, it just does not make sense.

But see some times we just have not asked God for the right things and we are not ready for what God is preparing to do through us and He is waiting for us to get ready, He is waiting on us to put our will, our self aside, and focus on Him, and stop focusing on ourselves, stop focusing on the past.

We are just six weeks away from celebrating 128 years of ministry of the Red Level Baptist Church, and 3,500 churches close their doors every year in America, and out of those 3,500, there are 700 to 900 of those churches are Southern Baptist Churches, and we surely do not want to be one of those that have to close the doors, because we are not willing to be obedient to God and follow His direction.

III. Rebuke the Spirit of Failure

When Jesus came on scene Peter and his friends were washing their nets from a long night of fishing, and when Jesus told Peter to cast off into the deeper water and let down his nets for a catch, Peter responded with Master, we have worked hard all night long and have caught nothing.

These men had been at it all night, they have put in some long hours, only to have nothing to show for it, and now Jesus is like push out into the deep water, and let down your nets.

Again we must remember, this is out into waters where they are not use to fishing and they did not fish during the day, so Jesus is telling Peter to go against everything he knows, and he already feels like a failure, because he just worked all night long without anything to show for it, and now he is going to let his nets down where he des not believe he will catch anything once again.

Peter could have allowed a spirit of failure to keep him down, to keep him from the great catch of fish that nearly sank his and his friends boats, but he did not quite, he did not let failure over take him.

We also cannot allow a spirit of failure to push us down, Churches on life support can be revived, can be brought back to health when the congregation is willing to take the hard steps and make the necessary commitment.

And we can have the greatest leaders in the world, the greatest preacher in the world, but the message has only the power to the extent that the people of God are willing to live it and practice it.

We have to raise our level of expectations not of others but of ourselves, we have to expect ourselves to want to go deeper with God, to want to experience more with God, to want to see a move of God, to want to see this body of believers fully and completely utilized by God and to hold ourselves accountable to being obedient to God.

It is time that we refocus on Jesus, and realize it is about him and not about us.