Steven Furtick - There's A Catch (03/26/2018)
In week two of the Waymaker series, Pastor Steven preaches from Luke 5:1-11 on the miraculous catch of fish, showing how Peter's greatest frustration—at the edge of empty nets—became the place of breakthrough through obedience. Jesus uses Peter's boat to preach, then commands a deeper cast despite exhaustion, leading to overflowing nets and a call to fish for people. The message highlights conditional miracles in low places, creative collaboration with God, and connected blessings that flow when we surrender our "boat" fully to Him.
Week Two of Waymaker: Excited for More
Excited about week two of Waymaker? Make some noise. Thank you, worship team. I thought we'd study in Luke chapter 5 today. This is one of my favorite action passages. It gives us a real picture of three different elements of faith that I want to bring out today.
And one of my friends who is really astute actually happens to be my barber as well. What's up, Fly Tye? Fly Tye ran a marathon yesterday. He said, Pray for me, Pastor. I have a marathon. I have not trained. I said, Do you never listen to anything I preach? You can't skip training and then blame it on prayer when you throw up on mile six. But he finished.
He was telling me the other day… He said, You tricked us. I thought this was a giving series at the end of the year. In a way it is because we're giving an offering, like was given to build Elevation Blakeney, like was given to build the campus you sit in today. We're doing that at the end of the series. Six-week series, I believe. Six weeks.
And that will be very special and very important because we use that offering to build the church. But God uses the offering to build your faith. He said, I thought it was a giving series. It's really a faith series, isn't it? I said, Absolutely. You got it. That's what Waymaker is.
Faith is the way God blesses you. Grace is the means. Faith is the way. Write it down. Grace is the means. So we are saved by grace through faith. That's Ephesians chapter 2. The way that God blesses you, the way that God delivers peace to your nervous system, is through your faith.
If we can build your faith ending this year and going into the next year, you will see God do what Ephesians 3:20 calls immeasurably more than you could ask or imagine.
A Familiar Miracle in Luke 5
Today, my passage may be familiar to you if you have some Sunday school vacation Bible school experience. This will probably not be strange waters for you in Luke chapter 5 verses 1 through 11, but I really like it, so I was excited when God led me to preach it.
One day, as Jesus was standing by the lake of Gennesaret, the people were crowding around him and listening to the Word of God. He saw at the water's edge two boats left there by the fishermen, who were washing their nets. He got into one of the boats, the one belonging to Simon. Later, his name was Peter. Same guy.
But Jesus so changed his identity that what people called him changed. God can do such a deep work in your life that people don't even recognize you as the same person anymore. People who used to call you a failure will have to step back and rethink how they assessed you and labeled you when God gets a hold of your life.
So he got into one of the boats. There's two boats. He gets into the one belonging to Simon and asked him to put out a little from shore. Then he sat down and taught the people from the boat.
When he had finished speaking, he said to Simon, put out into deep water and let down the nets for a catch. Simon answered with an attitude, Master, we've worked hard all night and haven't caught anything. Your little talk was really good, but we are professionals. You're a preacher. You do the preaching, we'll do the fishing, but you have to give him credit, because even with a bad attitude, he obeyed.
God can bless obedience even if you do it with a bad attitude. You don't really have to feel the mood for a workout for your muscles to receive the benefit. You don't have to feel like coming to church for God to get a word through to you.
How many of you didn't feel like coming to church today? You're going to get the biggest blessing of everybody, because that's called the sacrifice of praise. It's when you don't consult your feelings, because the foundation of your decisions is your faith.
Would you all calm down and let me read my scripture? Master, we've worked hard all night and haven't caught anything, but because you say so, I will let down the nets.
When they had done so, they caught such a large number of fish that their nets began to break. That's probably enough for us to work from for now.
On the Edge of a Blessing
Verse 2 says, he saw at the water's edge two boats. Verse 6 says, when they had done so, they caught such a large number of fish that their nets began to break. So look at your neighbor and give him my subject for today. Say neighbor. Say favorite neighbor. Tell him you're on the edge of a blessing.
Now look at him. Look at him real serious now and tell him my title. Say, but there's a catch. There's a catch. Because, central premise, the edge of my next blessing will often be the place of my greatest frustration.
And certainly the scene in Luke chapter 5 seems to be that Peter has decided to try it again tomorrow. And just at that moment when he has all the nets cleaned and ready to be stored away, just at the moment where he has the boats positioned to be dry docked, just at that moment.
Here comes this radical rabbi with the big crowd. Standing room only everywhere Jesus Christ went to preach. People who don't like big churches wouldn't like heaven. Just a side note. Everywhere he shows up, the crowd comes.
The first element I want to mention in this sermon, I want to talk about conditional miracles. Three of these points. I'd like you to write them down. That way you can preach them back to your wife when she's acting crazy this week. Or your husband. Or your mother-in-law.
By conditional miracles, I mean that there are certain conditions in which God is most likely to perform miracles. There are certain conditions in which you are most likely to see the power of God.
Now, God can do what he wants to, but it seems to be a pattern in Scripture that, over and over again, God reserves his greatest glory for our lowest points. It seems to be over and over again that it is after we have fished all night, caught nothing, that he now, after all this frustration, will give us the blessing that we could not achieve in our own strength.
I think it's so we'll know who blessed us when he does. That's the best thing that I can figure.
The Lowest Place for Greatest Glory
I was at this location a few weeks ago. I actually was there at the Sea of Galilee. The NIV calls it the Lake of Gennesaret. It's more accurate to call it a lake when you call it the Sea of Galilee. It sounds major, but it isn't necessarily a major body of water. It's the largest in Israel for fresh water, but it is also the lowest.
This place would become the base of Jesus' earthly ministry. Eighteen of 33 miracles that the Son of God performed on the earth would happen around the Sea of Galilee. This is the region where he revealed his glory.
And so, is there any significance, I believe there is, to the fact that Jesus Christ picked the lowest point? This is the lowest lake, freshwater lake, in all of the earth. Did he choose the lowest lake to do his ministry because it was the closest? Or does it say something about a God who often chooses our lowest moments and our weakest places to do his greatest work?
Now, that's not for everybody. Some people are doing just fine without God, and you've got money, and you've got women, and you've got stuff, and you've got a full schedule, and you don't have time for this God thing. But just in case there is anybody in here who has been in a little bit of a low place. The conditions are right for a miracle.
It's conditions for a miracle because not only is Peter frustrated having fished all night and caught nothing, but the people are frustrated because they can't get in to hear Jesus. The Bible uses a phrase. You see it over and over again in reference to Jesus. You even see it a little later in Luke 5.
We don't have time to tell you about one time Jesus was preaching in a house, and the bouncers wouldn't let this poor man in, but his friends wouldn't take no for an answer. So they go to ripping off the roof. Do not try this in overflow. I promise you we've got armed guards that will do something about it if you try.
But they ripped that roof off and got that man down, because the Bible says there was such a crowd to hear Jesus that they couldn't get in. So then you have excuse-makers who would turn around and go home, and then you have way-makers who decide, I'll do what I have to do and leave what I have to leave in order to experience a touch from God.
So it's crowded, and Peter is fishing, so we have a full crowd and empty nets. In this condition, God performs a miracle.
They were listening to the Word of God. What were they doing? They were listening to the Word of God. Not like you're listening to the Word of God today. What you are doing today is listening to someone attempt to preach the Word of God.
That's not the case here, because you have to understand John chapter 1. In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was with God in the beginning. Through him all things were made. Without him nothing has been made that has been made.
In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. Who is. They were listening to the Word of God. Heaven had a committee meeting. They needed to find a way to get the Word into the earth. How shall we do it? How shall we get the Word into the earth?
Perhaps we could find a Palestinian teenager, a virgin womb. Perhaps he could be born into a crowded stall. Perhaps he could be born into a place that no one would have imagined, nor would they have sought him there. God likes unlikely conditions to perform great miracles.
I'm just pointing out a pattern. I'm just pointing out a pattern that it is often at the place of your greatest frustration that God will reveal his greatest glory.
Creative Collaboration: The Word Needs a Way
I've seen this so many ways in my ministry, even in creativity. Sometimes it's when you're just about to give up on an idea. How many creative people do we have? Just when you're about to throw it away, you'll see what it was meant to be all along.
We write songs for our church all the time, and some of them are better than others. Some of them you never hear, and you ought to thank God that you never hear them. We don't want to inflict that kind of pain on you. Some of them are just private songs.
Sometimes you work and work on a song. I remember back in 2014, and I sent this screenshot to Holly on Thursday, because I wanted her to see something, just a contrast of how something starts and how something finishes.
I sent her a voice memo, because I walk around mumbling all the time, little voice memos, little melodies. I have been known to slip away from the table at a restaurant, go in the bathroom stall, and sing a song idea. And so if we ever share a restroom's face, men, and you hear some weirdo, that might be me. That might be me.
And I sent her a memo of this old song that I tried to write, a weird little idea called My Life Be an Altar. And it was a really bad idea. It was a very complicated thought that I had for the song. So I gave it to Wade, and I was like, do something with this. This is 2014.
And he went over to try to write something with it. We were on a songwriting retreat. He came back into the room five hours later. I said, you got something? You got something? Did you do something with it? It's a good idea, right? He said, yeah, well, you know, we fished all night, and we caught nothing, basically, is what he said.
He said, we tried. We just can't find anything going on. I said, yeah, it's kind of a dumb idea. He said, no, it's not dumb. We just can't… You know, I just don't think… I don't know. And this little thing had been sitting around Alex for six months.
I should come over to School of Worship and play it for him. I'm not going to play it for the whole church. It's way too humiliating. But it sat around for six months, and Wade said he couldn't make anything out of it. And Chris said that he didn't ever really get it either. And they all said it real politely, but they were basically saying the same thing.
And I said, well, we should probably just throw it away. Unless… Hang on. What if it wasn't my life being an altar? What if it was just like 6-8 time and it was like… Not that moody vibe that I had down there, but just like… What if it was just… Oh, come to the altar. Am I exaggerating this story, Chris? The Father's arms are open wide.
What if it was just that? And Chris goes, oh, if you're going to do that… I got this thing that I've been mumbling into my phone that I thought was stupid too, and he plays it, and it says, Are you hurting and broken within? I said, Chris, did you just say, Are you hurting and broken within? He said, No, are you hurting and broken within? I said, No, it's are you hurting and broken within? It's a question. It's going to open the whole song. It's going to be an invitation.
Four hours later, we had the song. Three and a half years later, this week, it was the number one song on all Christian streaming songs. But I was telling you that because you have some things in your life that you're just about to throw away. I mean, I was just about to quit.
Just when I thought it was nothing, God said, give me that back. Just when I was putting up the boats on the shore, just when you were walking away from the marriage, just when you were about to quit praying for your kid, God says, it's not over.
High five three people and say, not yet, not yet. The devil thought he had him on Saturday, but there's a catch. It's a setup. Sunday's coming. It's not over. Touch your neighbor and say, there's a catch.
Because it's conditional. What's it conditional upon? Your obedience, your perseverance, your willingness to do something you don't understand.
Now, watch this. This is funny. Possibly illegal, what Jesus does next. I think so. Because Jesus, who is the Word of God, who spoke the world into existence, Colossians 1:16, needs a way to get out into the world that he made, the message that he is.
He needs a way. This is crazy, because the Maker… In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was with God in the beginning. Through him all things were made that were made, and without him nothing has been made made, that has been made.
That one, the Maker, needs a way to get the Word. The Word needs a way. The Maker needs a way to get the Word into the world that he so loved that he came wrapped in flesh. He needs a way.
It says that he saw two boats at the shore, and one of them was belonging to Simon. Watch what he does in verse 3. He got into one of the boats. Okay, you're looking like that's normal. No conversation. No lease agreement.
If you don't think this is weird, try it when you leave church today. No, I'm serious. If you don't think this is weird, just find the nicest car you like in the parking lot. Just the nicest one. Don't do a Camry. There's nothing wrong with Camrys, but if you're going to steal a car, pick the nicest one in the parking lot, and just do what Jesus did.
Just get in it. Come up to the window and ask you, What are you doing in my car? Say, I noticed your elevation sticker. I figured you're a Christian. I need to use it. Can I have your keys? Because it's essentially what Jesus does.
He sits down in the boat, the one belonging to Simon, Peter. Okay, why did Jesus pick Peter? Have you ever thought about that? I have. Because I can think of a lot of reasons why he wouldn't pick Peter. A lot of reasons why he wouldn't pick Peter.
Peter was impulsive. Peter was a know-it-all. Peter was violent. You don't cut off people's ears if you had a normal upbringing. That's not something that…. Peter had a filthy mouth? I heard one preacher who said, Because Peter was bold. That's why Jesus liked him. He was bold. I don't think so.
Remember, the Bible was written pre-Uber. Jesus had a lot to accomplish in three years. The Word had to get out. Touched somebody and said, We have to get the Word out. How are we going to get it out? No Facebook. No YouTube. No Instagram.
You know why? I have come to believe that the reason Jesus picked Peter is because he had a boat. How else? Okay, let me preach point number two. I want to talk about creative collaboration.
Because now here is the Creator partnering with his creation. Here is the Word of God who has the ability to walk on water. Don't forget that. If Jesus had wanted to just get away from the crowd and preach and create a little distance, we know from Matthew chapter 14 that if a storm comes up and the boat is not available and Jesus needs to get somewhere, he will just suspend the laws of buoyancy that he himself created in the beginning was the Word and the Word was with God.
If Jesus can't find a boat to ride on, he'll speak a word and walk on the Word he is to the place he is. And I don't want to do it like that. And I would have done it like that. Because this is early in his ministry.
And if you moonwalk back on the water and then preach to the crowd, they'll pay more attention. Don't you think? He said, no, I want a boat. I want a boat. I want his boat. I want her boat. I want to use their life. I want to use their weakness. I want to build a church.
I want to call people together from all different nations around the world who will be a part of the Ephem. I want to call people from different backgrounds. I want to call people of different kinds, different types. I want some people who own their own businesses. I want some people who are unemployed. I want some people who suffered great abuse in their childhood.
I want to bring them together. I want to use your boat. It's the hardest thing for us to understand sometimes why would the one who can walk on water have any use for our boat? I think the Devil uses it to give us excuses why we don't offer God what we have, because my boat is not as big as his. My boat is dirty. I fished all night. I caught nothing. What would you want with me, Jesus?
So I went from thinking that Jesus needed Peter's boat to realizing that Jesus didn't need Peter's boat. Peter needed Jesus' blessing on his boat. That same thing happened to me in the area of giving when we give the offering.
I thought that giving was the way we supported the church, to keep the lights on, to keep the salaries paid. I said, forgive me for being so naive. I thought God needed my boat. I thought he needed my gift. A little bit of life rolled by, and I realized that God was God before I ever showed up.
I'll put this out to you. There were two boats on the shore, so I believe if Peter had said no, Jesus would have gotten the other one. Amen. It means he doesn't have to use us. He chooses to use us.
So we get up here this time of year, and I have to say I'm pretty impressed, because usually in a church when you go to a series where you challenge people to give, like we're challenging every person in the church, young and old, to give a gift to God at this year end, to begin to tithe if you're not doing that, to begin to give the first 10% of your increase to God, to set it up online so you're not praying about something God has already clearly commanded, and then to give above and beyond that.
When we challenge you to do that, we are not speaking the language of obligation. We're speaking the language of opportunity. You know the difference. It's in verse 3. It says that he got into the boat belonging to Simon. I love the phrase. It says, and he asked him.
You want to do this? I mean, you don't have to. I can totally do this without you, but I like your boat, bro. I like your boldness. I like your brokenness. Can I borrow your boat? Can God borrow your boat, the gifts that he gave you? Can he use them for his glory?
Or did you get so confused about who made the trees? That you lost sight of the fact that everything that God gave you is on loan? You can't take it with you. Giving releases me to remember that it was his boat to begin with.
In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was with God in the beginning. Through him all things were made. Peter had a boat, but the boat had to be made of something. Peter had a boat, but the boat had to come from somewhere.
Now the one who spoke the cedars and who spoke the cypress into existence, the one who spoke the ocean and the chemical balance of the ocean that would create and sustain the life of the fish, the one who put the gills on the fish that Peter was looking for at the bottom of the ocean unsuccessfully said, Can I get on your boat?
Because it's a cool thing when God becomes your partner. He knows the best spots to fish. It's a great thing to have the Son of God on your boat. It's a great thing when you don't have to fish alone. It's a great thing when you say, God, all I have is yours. It's a freedom to it.
I can't explain it if you've never experienced it, but it's a freedom to it. When you come to the end of yourself, and your boats are pulled up on the shore, and Jesus says, Now that you've done all you can do, will you give me a push? And all Peter had to do... Watch this. No ten-year plan.
All he had to do was obey and give Jesus a push. Now, when he pushed that boat out into the water, he thought he was loaning Jesus the boat for an hour. He did not know, because God will trick you into stuff. Touch somebody and say, There's a catch. There's always a catch.
He did not know that he would spend the next three years taking this crazy miracle working. He didn't know that the deaf ears would be opened after they got off this boat. He didn't know that blind eyes would see, because Jesus got a ride on his boat.
You never know what God will do until you let him on your boat. You don't know. You can't know. And that's what faith is. It's pushing out into the deep when you don't know the result. And it's letting down the nets for a catch.
Touch somebody and say, There's a catch. There's a catch. There's a catch. Well, Jesus said, I know you can't see it, but I can see it because I stocked these waters you're fishing in. There is a catch.
I think Tom Lehman was telling me this. He said, Fishing is like the Holy Spirit. You can't see the fish, but they're there. The more you learn about it, the more you will know how to fish in the right places. The more you follow him, the more you hear him, the more you get acquainted with his voice and say, I don't see it. I don't feel it. But, God, if you speak it, I'll do it.
Not because I feel it. Not because I see it. Not because I understand it. And not because it makes sense. But if you say so, I will. If you say, do it, I'll do it. I want the obedience of God to be the guarantee of my inheritance.
Connected Blessings: From Fish to Favor
This brings me to my final point. You can't believe it's over already, can you? I don't think I'll be able to preach it this way again. This is a special moment. God is doing something in this moment. I want to talk to you about connected blessings.
From Empty Nets to Breaking Nets
The biggest problem Peter and his boys had before Jesus occupied their boat was no fish. One word from Jesus. And their biggest problem was breaking nets. That's the way I really see the church that God is building here. And he's building it. But we get to let him use our boat.
You see the volunteers out there? That's people who brought their boat to church. Oh, in every church, there's two different groups. There's the crowd, and they get the message. They come, they get the message. If they feel like coming, they come. If they don't, Facebook.
But then, within every crowd, there's a crew. And when Jesus spoke to Peter, he said, I see you out there in the crowd. Would you be interested in stepping out of the crowd and be a part of the crew? Can I use your boat?
Now, the crowd is not bad. It's a great place to start. The crowd gets the message. The crowd gets the message, but the crew gets the miracle.
Overflow That Blesses Others
When they had done so, they took in such a large number of fish that the next thing they had to do was call their partners. I believe this is verse 7. So they signaled their partners in the other boat.
See, here's what God will do. He will bless you so much that other people will get blessed just because they were next to you. Touch somebody and say, You ought to be glad you're sitting next to me today, because I am so blessed with the presence of God. Everything next to me is going to get blessed too.
Good measure. Press down. Shake it together. Come on, Blake. It's seven years. You ought to shout. That's why I come to church. I want to be connected to the head so I can get the blessing of the oil that floats down through the pier.
The Real Blessing: Favor Over Fish
I sat the boys down. I sat the boys down. Touch somebody and say, There's a catch. Okay. Don't say I didn't warn you. There is a catch to this message.
I sat my boys down yesterday to write my check for this offering. I always hate these series until I write my offering, because it's a process of going through, inventorying my nets and my boats and seeing how much of it I still think is mine, and asking God, Do you want to use anything that you gave me?
When people do it, they do different amounts. Some people, their amount may look big to somebody, but it might be a million dollars. People have done that, but for them, it was something they could do alongside somebody who could do fifty dollars.
Then you get to see everybody do something together. The rich man's gift, the widow's might, now blended in these walls. So we get to do something bigger together. When we partner together, when we connect together, we can do something that none of us could do alone, because we have to get the word out.
The crowd just takes the word in, but the crew gets the word out. Every blessing God has given me in my life has been connected to my obedience to his word. Every blessing God has given me in my life, I can prove to you… If I had time, from the first campaign we did in the church in 2007, make some noise if you are really, really Elevation Old School.
You were here for the Dominate campaign. When I stood up and I said, we're taking an offering, but we're not going to do it today. In fact, we're not taking an offering today at all. We're giving the offering away, and I told everybody to look under their chairs.
True story. Look under your chairs, and there is money under your chairs. Reach under your chairs. Half the people didn't move because they thought I was pulling something on them, but there was really money under every chair at the church. Don't go feeling right now. I don't do that anymore. The church is too big. That was a one-time thing.
But it was something the Lord spoke to us, and I had them pull out the money. Different amounts. Some were a dollar. Most were a dollar. There were some five dollars, ten dollars, a hundred dollars, even a thousand dollars in one thousand dollars.
But I said, that money is yours. We're not taking an offering. We're giving away the offering this week. The amount that would normally be the offering, it's under your chairs. We divided it up. It's under your chairs. But there's a catch. There's a catch.
Don't spend it. Use it to bless somebody. Put it online what you did. We'll see what God can do through us. And everybody, I think everybody did it. I prayed that everybody who spent the money would get diarrhea. But here's the point.
I said, it's a blessing under your seat. You're sitting on a blessing, but there's a catch. You don't get to sit on it. You don't get to spend it. Use it. And the next week, they came back, and we had high attendance the next week.
And I said, hey, did y'all enjoy that last week? We're going to do it again. And everybody looked at me like, you're kidding, right? And I said, yeah, we're going to do it again. I said, but this time we call it the Blessback Project.
God has blessed you. He gave you your boat to be a blessing. I said, so here's the deal. We're going to do it again. But this week, the money is not under your chair. It's in your bank account. There's a catch. There's a catch.
It's a mentality. What happens next in the passage proves that the greatest blessing that God gave Peter was never the fish in his boat. Because when they saw what Jesus was able to do only after they had obeyed….
Can I say that again? They only got the blessing after they obeyed. The way we would have liked for Jesus to do it if we had been loaning him our boat is to fill the boat with fish, and then you can use it to preach. Right? God, you bless me, and then I'll bless others.
But the Scripture says something very interesting. Give, and it will be given to you. Whatever it is. Encouragement, finances, time. Give, and it will be given to you. So it is only after… Study the construct. Check me out. See if I'm right.
It is only after, not before, only after obedience that evidence is manifest. Only after… Yes, I'll do it. Only after… Okay. God has you right now on the edge of a blessing, but there's a catch. There's a catch.
The blessing will follow obedience. It will not precede it. It wouldn't take faith. God's greatest goal for your life is not fish. It's faith.
So God wants to know, do you have the faith to fish in the midst of your frustration? Do you have the faith to push the Word of God out and to trust me to fill your boat?
When he does, Simon let down the nets. The boats are full. Hey, get over here. Hey, come on over, boys. Come on over. Come on over, James. Come on over. Help me out. And the boats come over, and it's amazing. And the boats, look at verse 7, got so full that they began to sink.
Both boats got full, Peter's boat and his boys. Everything connected to Jesus got blessed. I want my life connected to the one who is the creator. I want to stay connected to my source and not dependent on my stuff.
Peter's Response: Falling at Jesus' Knees
And when Simon Peter saw this, verse 8, he said, boys, get the scales ready. We're about to be millionaires. When Simon Peter saw this, that wasn't the real Scripture. He fell at Jesus' knees and said, I don't deserve this. That's a good posture. I know I don't deserve it.
I told the boys the other day, when I sat them down, I sat them down. I know I brought it up here. Yeah. This checkbook. I had to teach them what a check was. I've done this before. I said, we're getting ready for the offering.
I took them back to 2007 when the people gave toward a building that we hadn't even identified yet. We didn't even know what we were raising money for, just raising it by faith. And they did it. They did it.
And over and over again, you can see it now. 17 campuses, all the millions of dollars of outreach all around the world, the online community, getting the word out, just getting the word out, getting the word out, Thousands of people getting the word out, getting the word out,
And so I explained the story behind this offering to them. This is one of those that I did not ask Holly's permission before I wrote the number, because it's significant to me because it's the amount of money of something that was a dream of mine that came true this year.
And I don't have one stream of income. I have different streams of income, and this is the stream of income that I've been praying for. Not the income. But the influence that created the income, and I've been praying for it for many years now.
In fact, without going into great detail about it, I prayed about this before I prayed about starting the church. And it happened for me at a new level this year. Without boring you on the details of that, I went and looked up the exact amount of the increase that came from that dream that came true in my life.
And I made the check to the exact amount, to the penny of that. And here's why. Here's why I did it, because I was studying about this passage. And I noticed how Peter, the moment of this great miracle, in verse 11, well, we should probably read verse 10, when Jesus looked at him and said, Don't be afraid. From now on, you will fish for people.
And then I read what Peter did next. It said that Peter pulled his boat up on the shore. And not just Peter, but they. Because the people connected to you will follow your example. Fathers, mothers.
Leaving Everything for Greater Favor
So they pulled their boats up on the shore. Left everything. They left what they had just been blessed with. For a greater blessing. That was ahead.
So I heard an impression in my heart. God speaks to all of us in different ways. He said, Do you want the fish or the favor? Do you want to keep the fish or do you want to flow in the favor that told the fish where to swim to begin with?
Ain't it? It's expensive, too. But I imagine on the day of Pentecost, and this is what I told the boys, I said, Look around at all this that God has given us. And I don't just mean the house. The house is nice. The house is nice. I don't just mean your switch. Is that what it's called? I don't just mean your clothes.
I mean this. The ability to touch people's lives. I mean this. Just us being together. I said, Everything we have is a result of God's favor following our obedience. And I don't want it to ever stop.
So you can have the fish. I want the favor. You can have the fish. I want to walk in the favor of God. And surely goodness and mercy will follow me all the days of my life. If I follow Jesus, favor follows me.
You can have my bow. You can have my heart. You can have it all. Stand up. God is moving in this place. You'll never miss the fish that you leave behind to follow God in faith.
You think Peter stood up on the day of Pentecost and preached and 3,000 people got saved and revival was unleashed in Jerusalem that led to revival in Judea, that led to revival in Samaria, that led to revival to the ends of the earth.
You think Peter was standing up there in the pulpit on the day of Pentecost thinking, Man, I miss those fish. Because long after, the fish stink. The favor of God will still be. Long after the stuff is out of style. Only what's done for Christ will last.
Only one life. It soon shall pass. Only what's done for Christ will last. Can I get a push? The word of God needed a way into the earth. Can I get a push?
That's what God is asking his church today as so many times before. You want to go deeper? You want to go farther? You want to flow? You want to flow in the favor of God? Let me use your boat.
If you don't want to, it's fine because there's another boat. There's always another boat. But I sure would like to get in yours because I made you and I gifted you and I graced you and I blessed you and I kept you and I put you where I put you.
Can I use your boat? We pray now the prayer of surrender. Not my will but yours be done because you say so. I'll let down the nets. No negotiation. No justification. We don't need an explanation. We just need a word.
Speak, Holy Spirit.