Kerry Shook - God Provides
This weekend, we're concluding the series "Five Things God Wants All His Kids to Remember," and the one we're talking about today has one of the most important things that you can ever learn. It's been one of the most important things Chris and I have learned about God over the years. But I have to admit, I so quickly forget it and I need to be reminded all the time, that, where God guides, God provides. Whenever I forget this truth, I'm instantly overcome by worry, or I get so paralyzed by fear that I don't go where God is trying to guide me. One of the most life-changing things that you need to know about our God, is, where he guides, he provides; whatever he asks you to do, he will give you the strength to do.
Now, I said, "Where God guides, he provides". I didn't say, "God provides, and then he guides". No, that wouldn't require faith, we would never know we have a God we can trust with everything in our lives. When God is getting ready to do something amazing in your life, he starts by giving you a problem, and when God is getting ready to do something really-really amazing in your life, he starts by giving you an impossibility. And first, God guides, then he provides; at first, you take a step of faith, and then he opens the door; you have to go through the test before you're blessed. And you can't really learn this truth until you take the test first, you have to experience it to really learn it. And God doesn't want you to just learn about him, he wants you to experience him.
So I want to look at a miracle that Jesus did in the New Testament, where he showed the disciples that he provides, and where he guides, he always provides. And did he provide, Jesus provided more than they could even receive, and the same God wants to provide you with more than you can even receive. So, would you stand in honor of God's Word?
And we're going to look at Luke chapter 5, beginning with verse 4. It says, "When he," Jesus, "Had finished speaking, he said to Simon, 'Put out into deep water, and let down the nets for a catch.' Simon answered, 'Master, we've worked hard all night and haven't caught anything. But because you say so, I'll let down the nets.' When they had done so, they caught such a large number of fish that their nets began to break. So they signaled their partners in the other boat to come and help them, and they came and filled both boats so full that they began to sink. When Simon Peter saw this, he fell at Jesus's knees and said, 'Go away from me, Lord; I am a sinful man!' For he and all his companions were astonished at the catch of fish they had taken, and so were James and John, the sons of Zebedee, Simon's partners. Then Jesus said to Simon, 'Don't be afraid; from now on you will fish for people.' So they pulled their boats up on shore, left everything and followed him".
You can be seated. Right before the passage that we just read, it says that Simon Peter and his business partners had pulled their boats up on shore and they were washing their nets. Now, this was something that professional fishermen on the Sea of Galilee had to do; after they had finished fishing all night in the Sea of Galilee, you had to wash your nets. The nets were huge, they were really strong, and they had to be washed, they had to wash the nets every day, because their livelihood depended on it. They would wash the nets, oil the nets, hang the nets up to dry and get them ready for the next night of fishing, because everything depended upon those nets.
But think about it, they had to work just as hard preparing the nets and cleaning up their boats whether they caught a lot of fish or no fish, they had to work just as hard either way. And this particular night, they had worked hard all night long and hadn't caught anything. And so their business took a nose dive during the night, they didn't catch any fish, they couldn't provide for their families. And I'm sure that as they were doing all this hard work cleaning the nets, they had to do it whether they caught a lot of fish or no fish; I'm sure they must have felt so discouraged, working so hard and not being effective at all. They had to have been filled with worry, they had to have been flooded with anxiety just thinking about how were they going to pay the bills, how were they going to feed their family?
Now, the great news is, the source of provision walked into their lives at just that moment. While they're washing their nets and hanging up their nets after a long night of not catching a thing, Jesus, the provider, walks into the picture. And I love that Christ walks right into the point of their need. And that's what Jesus does for us, he's right there when we need him most, he's right there when you feel the most anxious, he's right there when you're more discouraged than you've ever been, he's right there when you feel more overwhelmed than you can ever remember. He meets us right where we are so he can meet the deepest need in our lives. But the disciples didn't realize it at the time. They knew Jesus walked onto the scene and they knew they were desperate but they didn't connect the two, that Jesus wanted to meet them in their desperation.
You see, he was there to provide exactly what they needed but they didn't realize that he was the provider. So what is it that you need today, what is it you need most today? Maybe it's a financial need, maybe it's a financial need because your business is a little shaky right now or uncertain about the future. Maybe it's a need in your family, maybe it's a need in your job, maybe it's a need in your life that's just so painful you can barely speak about it right now. But we all carry burdens, we all have pain, we all have hidden hurts and problems. And I want you to realize, today, that Jesus shows up in the most desperate places in your life, and he wants to show you that he's real and that he loves you.
Jesus the provider wants to meet your need right where you're at. Look what Simon Peter says, in Luke 5, verse 5. "Master, we've worked hard all night and haven't caught anything". He's saying, "Our nets are empty," but I think he was also saying, "Our lives feel a whole lot like our nets look, empty; we're empty on the inside". Simon Peter had been fishing all night and had nothing to show for it, just empty nets, but I believe the emptiness went much deeper. Their lives felt empty, even though they had met the Messiah, they already had met Christ, they hadn't known him for long, but they had met Christ, they knew who he was before he entered the scene there in their fishing debacle.
They had met Christ, they were connected to Christ, but they were still looking for fulfillment in what they could achieve and what they could accumulate, they were still looking for significance through their successes. And that's a dangerous game to play because if you have one failure hit your life, you lose your significance. When you think your net worth equals your self-worth, that's poison, because when you have a failure, you lose your self-worth. They had really tied up their self-worth with their net worth, and their business took a nose dive. When their business took a dip, their lives felt completely empty. And your life can be filled with the finest things money can buy, but you can be completely empty on the inside; your schedule can be filled with important meetings with powerful people, but you can be completely empty on the inside.
One of the saddest things I see in our society today is so many people with so much to live on, but nothing to live for; no purpose, empty on the inside. Until you learn to go where God guides, and step out in faith, you'll always feel empty, you'll never discover the purpose for which God placed you on this planet. You got to step out where God guides, and you step out in faith, and then God provides. Now, Simon Peters nets were empty, his bank account was empty, I'm sure he felt empty on the inside, and he didn't realize the Great Provider was right there to provide. But he did something really smart, he invited Jesus onto his boat.
You see, Jesus would get into a boat, and go out into the water, and use the boat as sort of a platform to speak. And the crowd would sit on the hillside, all the way up the hillside like an amphitheater. And of course, the acoustics were great because his voice would carry over the water then up to the hillside, and so they could hear him at the top of the hill very clearly. I've been to the Sea of Galilee many times, and there's so many hills that are just made for an amphitheater for 10,000, 20,000. It's amazing. Of course, God knew that his Son would go right to that place and teach, so he built an amphitheater when he created the world. He built several around there that Jesus used. And he would go out on the water and he would teach so the crowd wouldn't press in on him and everyone could hear him.
So, on this day, Simon Peter invited Jesus to come on his boat to preach to the crowd. The miracle of provision would have never happened if Peter hadn't let Jesus onto his boat. And if you want Jesus to meet your need, you have to invite him onto your boat, you have to invite him into the important areas of your life. If you want God to meet your needs, invite Christ onto your boat, and Simon Peter did that. Now, look at this next verse, in Luke chapter 5, verse 4. "When he had finished speaking, he said to Simon, 'Put out into deep water, and let down the nets for a catch.'" So Jesus tells Peter to cast his nets into deep water.
Now, Peter and all professional fishermen who fished in the Sea of Galilee knew, if you wanted to catch fish in the Sea of Galilee then you've got a fish in the cool of the night in the shallows. Now, sometimes, you'd have to go across the lake and risk your life in one of those storms that would just come up unexpectedly, but you had to do that to get to the place where the fish were biting, there in the shallows in the cool of the night. And by the way, the topography is such, and the weather patterns on the Sea of Galilee, that storms come up so unexpectedly, just in an instant. And I've been on the Sea of Galilee when a storm just came up.
But they knew, all professional fishermen knew, sure, sometimes you had to risk your life to get on the other side of the lake, but you always fished in the cool of the night in the shallows in the Sea of Galilee. And it was a great place to fish, it provided a great livelihood if you knew what you were doing, if you were a professional fisherman, and Simon Peter was. But, now, Jesus is telling Peter, "I want you to fish in the heat of the day in the deep water," and it made no sense to Peter, it went against everything that he had experienced. But that's important for us to understand, because we really only experience the miracle of provision when we take a step of faith and obey God even when we don't understand it completely.
Usually we want God to explain everything to us. And Jesus said, "Simon Peter, I want you to go fish in the heat of the day and the deep water, and you're going to be amazed". And Simon Peter's thinking, "That's not going to work". But if it would have been me, I would have said, "Now, Jesus, tell me what you're thinking here, because I've never done this before, people don't really do that if they know what they're doing. And so, can you explain this to me a little bit more? I mean, do you know something I don't know? Is there a big cold front coming through and it's gonna change everything in the fishing pattern? Or have the fish kind of just gone nuts? because they've never-never taken the bait out in the deep water in the heat of the day. And so, what gives here, what's going on here? You got to really explain to me why I should do this, because this makes no sense".
That's what we usually do; we want Jesus to keep explaining to us why he's asking us to do something in his Word that we don't understand completely or that makes us feel uncomfortable. But Jesus doesn't give Peter any explanation, he just expects him to obey whether he understands it or not.
Philippians 4:19 is one of my favorite promises in Scripture, it says, "And my God will meet all your needs according to the riches of his glory in Christ Jesus". And focus in on that word all, "My God will meet all your needs". What does all mean, what does all include? All, does that mean your mortgage payment? Yes. Does that mean your kids, when they get braces? Yes. Does that mean that God cares about every little thing in your life? Yes. Does he care about that relationship? Yes. Does he care about your family? Yes. Does he care about your business? Yes, he cares about all your needs, and he wants to meet all those needs. But with this promise, there's also a premise. Like most of God's promises, most promises come with a premise.
God says, "I'm going to do this amazing thing for you if you do this and take a step of faith". And this promise has a premise, a condition, and that condition is, I have to go where God guides, because that's where he provides, I have to take steps of obedience to follow him, I need to obey him with my finances, and put him first. It's a trust issue: Do you trust God with your finances? Do you trust that God will do what He says? If you obey, he'll provide and give you everything that you need. Now, Simon Peter was fine when Jesus was preaching from his boat, that was all good; but when Jesus starts telling Simon Peter how to fish, it's another story altogether.
When Jesus stopped preaching and started telling Peter how to do his business that didn't go over very well. Jesus starts telling him how to fish, and Simon Peter, you can just tell, bristles at this. When Jesus asked Peter to do this, look what Peter says. "Master, we've worked hard all night and haven't caught anything".
Now, focus on that word Master, because the Greek word there for master is a word that means respected teacher, brilliant teacher, gifted teacher. So it sounds like he's complimenting Jesus, but he's not, he's giving him a back-handed compliment, he's giving him a passive aggressive compliment. He's afraid to show his disgust, so he says, "Hey, you're a master teacher, you're a brilliant teacher, you're a gifted preacher, but we're the professional fishermen. You're awesome in all the spiritual stuff, Jesus, why don't you just stick to the spiritual stuff? Let us handle the fishing, because you don't know what you're doing. This is my business, stay out of my business".
And a lot of us treat God that way. It's like, "God, I'll give you the spiritual side of my life," whatever that is. You know, "I'm coming to church and all that. You're good at all the spiritual stuff, but you don't understand my business, you don't understand how that works". Or, "God, I can't really trust you with this relationship because you might mess it up, I'm not sure you know how to do these things". "God, I can't really trust you with my finances. I mean, this is real stuff, Lord. I mean, this is important stuff". But Jesus cares and he's the expert at everything. But give Simon Peter credit, at least he obeys anyway. I mean, he didn't think Jesus knew what he was talking about, but he did it anyway, and you gotta give him credit for that.
Look at Luke chapter 5, verse 5, "But because you say so, I will let down the nets". I think Peter was obeying on the outside, but on the inside he was still rebelling, he was saying, "Okay, I'm going to do this, Jesus, but it's a complete waste of time because you don't know what you're doing here, you don't know what you're talking about". But he obeys, and he drops the nets into deep water in the heat of the day, and boom, the miracle happens, Jesus fills up his net and it starts to break. He gives him a boatload of fish, he gives him two boatloads of fish. I love God's sense of humor. I mean, Jesus is saying, "Okay, I know you don't think I know what I'm talking about, so I'm gonna bless you so much it's gonna almost drown you, I'm gonna pretty much sink your boat".
I love that. The nets are tearing, they're panicking, they're shocked. Jesus filled Simon Peter's nets, but he couldn't fill his life until his pride had been emptied, and this miracle emptied him of his pride. In Luke 5:8, it says, "When Simon Peter saw this, he fell at Jesus's knees and said, 'Go away from me, Lord; I'm a sinful man!'" Peter fell on his knees and said, "Lord, forgive me". See, he knew that Jesus knew what he had been thinking, and so he fell to his knees and repented. He said, "'I am a sinful man!' 'Go away from me, Lord;' I don't deserve to be around you, I didn't believe you".
Now, that word Lord in the Greek is the word kurios, and it means controller of everything. So, notice the progression here. At first, Peter says, "You're the Master teacher. Yeah, I mean, you're good at all the spiritual stuff, but you don't know anything about fishing;" and now he's saying, "You're the controller of everything". He's saying that, "You are the Master of everything. I've been trying to control everything, even my business, but you're the expert". And you need to realize the greatest business guru of all time is Jesus Christ; invite him into your business. You need to realize that the greatest marriage counselor of all time is Jesus Christ; invite him into your marriage.
You need to realize that the wisest financial advisor of all time is Jesus Christ; invite him into your finances. You need to realize that the greatest time management expert of all time is Jesus Christ; invite him into your schedule. It's so important for us to give him all the areas of our lives that are important to us, because he knows what's best. And the good news is, he wants the best for us even more than we want the best for ourselves. You have to give Simon Peter credit here, he obeyed, and obedience activates the miracle of provision. Even though he had just a little bit of imperfect faith, he placed it all out there by casting his net. He obeyed, even though he didn't feel like obeying, even though he didn't even think anything was going to happen. Obedience brings blessing and it activates the miracle of provision.
Look at Luke 5, verse 11. It says, "So they pulled their boats up on shore, left everything and followed him". Focus on those two words, "Left everything". They surrendered their profession, their possessions, their little plan for their lives; they surrendered their family, they gave it all to Jesus. Now, there's evidence to show in Scripture that they didn't sell off their fishing business, that they kept their fishing boat. They kept their nets, and I'm sure they kept their fishing business and kept doing some fishing, but they surrendered that business over to God.
They said, "God, help us use this business in the way you want us to. We give it to you, you're the expert fisherman, you're the expert in this business, you can fill our nets any time you want". And they gave their little plans of trying to control everything over to God, they surrendered their whole life to Christ. Why? because when you realize how much Jesus loves you, then you know you can trust him with everything you have: You surrender your finances to God because he wants to meet your needs even more than you want your needs met; you surrender your relationships to God because he cares more about your relationships than you do; you surrender your family to God because he cares about every little detail of your family even more than you do.
You see, he knows what's best for you and he cares about you, he wants the best for you more than you want the best for yourself. And we see here that Christ's divine provision gives a bigger vision. And that's what God wants to do in some of your lives, he wants to give you a bigger vision for why he put you on the planet.
In Luke 5:6-7, it says, "When they had done so, they caught such a large number of fish that their nets began to break. So they signaled their partners in the other boat to come and help them, and they came and filled both boats so full that they began to sink". You see, it opened their eyes to the big things God wanted to do in their lives. And when you discovered the principle, where God guides, God provides, you get a bigger vision for what he wants you to do and what he wants to do in you. You also get a stronger faith. Look at Luke 5:9. "For he and all his companions were astonished at the catch of fish they had taken".
Underline, well, you can't underline it, but you can focus in on it, that word astonished. God loves to astonish his kids, he wants to astonish you with the things that he's going to provide in your life as he comes through just in time. He wants to do in your life things that you could never imagine. He loves to astonish his kids, to build your faith. You see, so many times, as I've taken a step of faith, I'm going, "God, I don't know if you're going to come through. You commanded me to do this, you're asking me to do this, but are you really going to come through? This doesn't make any sense to me," and I take a step of faith and God comes through, it astonishes me. Unfortunately, it seems like I'm always surprised.
And Simon Peter shouldn't have been surprised, because that's God in his boat, but he's, "Wow, how did you do...? Oh, you're God, that's right". He was surprised, he was astonished. And that describes me every time I take a step of faith and obey God. And he says, "I promise I'm going to meet your needs beyond measure," and I take a step of faith, and God comes through, "Wow, I'm surprised". What does that say about my faith? But I'm always surprised, like, "Wow God, you did what you said". But it builds my faith and I'm not as surprised the next time, because I'm expecting it; because he did it before, he'll do it again. But then I want you to see, thirdly, when you put God first, you see a higher purpose, it takes you to a whole new level of fulfillment.
In Luke 5:10, it says, "Then Jesus said to Simon, 'Don't be afraid; from now on you will fish for people.'" And so he's saying, "Simon, you gave me your business; okay, that's great. From now on, I'm gonna elevate your business, you're not going to fish for fish just to be fishing for fish, you're gonna fish for people's souls, you're gonna be the rock upon which I built my church and you're gonna change the world. I'm calling you to a higher purpose. Sure, you've given me your fishing business. I'm gonna elevate that fishing business so you can bless others, but I'm also gonna elevate your purpose, I'm gonna use you to change the world". And you see, whenever you give your business to God, it changes that business into a ministry.