TD Jakes - Unlock Your Limitations
When Jesus was preaching in Gennesaret and he comes down to Simon, Simon is not yet called Peter, he's not even a disciple, he doesn't even know that much about who Jesus is or what's goin' on. Simon is just a fishermen. When Jesus encounters Simon, the Bible said that Simon was washing his nets. His belief system said, it's over. They had toiled all night and caught nothing, and his belief system had taught him that if you can't catch at night, you can't catch at all. His limited belief system has left him in a place of giving up on what he needed to make his business work. And when Jesus came along... that's right, he gave up. When Jesus came along, Jesus is confronting fishermen who are washing their nets, which is a sign I have given up.
And I want to know, is there anybody in here who's washing your nets? Who has decided it's too late, I'm too old, I'm too fat, I'm too this, I'm too that, I'm too thin, I'm too short, I'm too... whatever it is that made you wash your nets, I want to challenge you today. Because Jesus is about bringing Simon into the awareness that his belief system is wrong. Washing your nets means you have given up hope that you can go any further, and you have settled to be on the sidelines of life rather than to be in the game. Made yourself comfortable with an empty boat, no fish, which means no business, and you have decided this is as far as you can go. And some of you even justified by sayin', "If the Lord would have meant for me to catch fish, he would've blessed me to catch fish. So it must not be God's will for me to catch any fish".
Well, here comes God walking in, Jesus down to the seashore, and Simon is washing his nets. Washing your nets means deciding that nobody will ever love you. Washing your nets means deciding that you can't go any higher or any further than where you've gone. Washing your nets is giving up on your dream and deciding that all of your effort was for not. Because it didn't work like he thought it was going to work, he quit. He's alive, but he quit. He's breathing, but he quit. He's functioning, but he quit. You'd be surprised at the people in here that are breathing and dead. They breathing, but they quit. They got their makeup on, but they quit. They got their dress on, but they quit. They got their suit on, but they quit. They came to church, but they quit. They quit long time ago.
Let me tell you something: divorces don't happen when the papers come. People can quit and still be fixing breakfast, do you hear what I'm saying to you? People can quit and still be given roses. Quitting isn't just a removal of the body from the situation, it's the removal of the spirit from the situation, and Peter's spirit has been broken, and he's washing his nets. And Jesus comes down there and disrupts everything that Peter believes. Whenever Jesus comes, let me warn you, he will disrupt everything. I know you want a nice, neat, little Jesus that fits comfortable inside your belief system, that won't shake up anything, that won't get you out of your comfort zone, that won't make you have to go for yourself, that won't make you have to stand for yourself.
I know you want a nice, little, neat, little Jesus that you could fit into a package of what you've been taught about Jesus, but Jesus with a rabble rouser. Jesus was radical. Jesus was a yoke breaker. Wherever Jesus went, he terrorized the city. He turned it upside down. If Jesus got in a city, all bets were off on how things were going to go, and everything was going according to plan until Jesus come. Nudge somebody and tell them, Jesus is coming. Jesus is coming. Jesus is coming. He's coming into your house, he's comin' into your finances, he's coming into your business, he's coming into your life, he's coming into your plans, he's comin' into your future, and everything you thought you were through with, God is getting ready to do a new thing. God is getting ready to do something radical. God is ready to start an uprising.
When Jesus walks over, he don't even know whose boat it is. He just gets on the boat, and then says to Simon, "Thrust out a little from land". Listen to this, and all of a sudden, you see Simon have to put down his nets and get back on the boat. That alone is revival. Just stop feeling sorry for yourself and talkin' about what didn't work and how you worked so hard and how you put so much into it and how you toiled all night, and nothin' came through. You ain't got time to rehearse all that stuff. That's over, that's over, that's over. You can't do nothin' about that, that's over. You can't fix it, that's over. You can't change that, that's over. That's over, that's over, that's over, that's over. You are spending up your today rehearsing your yesterday. Don't let your yesterday steal your today. That's over, that's over, that's over, that's over, that's over, that's over.
Maybe there's a higher purpose for the boat than what you know. Jesus says, "Thrust out a little from land," and Jesus turns Peter's business into a platform. This is the only time in scripture that I know of where Jesus turns a boat into a podium. And Jesus gets on the boat and sits down, and the crowd is all on the beach. And he thrust out from the land and turned the boat into a pulpit, and he sits in the pulpit, and he teaches. I do not know what he taught, but it must have been mesmerizing enough that he could sit on a boat without a mic that was thrust out from the land and not lose the crowd. Good God, can't nobody preach like Jesus. If Jesus gets into a place, he'll turn it upside down.
Do you not know that Jesus never had a PA system, never had a microphone, never had a camera, never had a flyer, never had a business card, and yet he preached to thousands of people, 5.000 men, not to mention women and children, and people would rather faint than miss hearing him preach. He didn't even have to jump, he didn't have to hoot, he didn't holler. Jesus sat down, and the crowd didn't leave. Jesus sat when he preached. He sat on the Mount of olives and preach the beatitudes. Sit on me, Jesus. Sit on me, Jesus. Sit on me, Jesus. What I'm doing ain't working, sit on me, Jesus. Jesus sat down on the boat, and he began to minister, and as he began to minister, the Bible said when he had finished preaching, now notice this, this is interesting. It never tells us what he preached. It tells us that he preached, it brings us all the way up to the boat, the boat thrust out from land, Jesus sits down and starts to preach, they never tell us what he preached. They just say, "When he had finished".
C'mon, keep up with me. They say, "When he had finished". There are some things that God has kept a mystery because the real power here isn't just in what he said, but what he did. And when he began to speak these words and had ended speaking, he now says to Simon... and wait a minute, maybe this is not about the sermon. Maybe this is about Simon. Maybe the sermon is just the vehicle that Jesus traveled to capture Simon's attention. Maybe it's Simon that Jesus has happened, maybe it's Simon that Jesus wants to get to and make him understand what's goin' on. And he says to Simon, he says to Simon what he told me to tell you. "Launch out into the deep".
Launch out. They don't hear me, Lord. I wish I had a group or a choir, somebody, is anybody ready for this? Launch out into the deep. Get out of the shallow water. Go out into the deep. Launch out into the deep. God's got something for you, but it's in the deep. Look at somebody, say, you ain't deep enough. The reason it's not happening for you, the reason you're not getting it, the reason you don't get a breakthrough, the reason it's not materializing in your life is that you haven't gone deep enough. And then Peter says, Simon says, "I can't go, Lord. I've been toiling all night, and I haven't been", I didn't ask you about last night. Somebody say, I'm goin' out there. I'm goin' all the way out there.
I am tired of living within limitations. I'm tired or coloring inside of the lines. I'm tired of being a good little boy and eating my apple and going to bed. I'm getting ready to launch out into the deep. I'm getting ready to get radical. I'm gettin' ready to go to the next level. Somebody's watching me online, you don't realize that the only reason God gave you a business is so that it could be his platform, and God has maneuvered you into a position so that he could get the glory out of your life. And you're frustrated tryin' to work out the problems in the business, the problem isn't in the business, the problem is in you. When God gets your attention, everything in your business is going to change, everything in your life is gonna change, everything on the boat is going to change, launch out into the deep.
Who am I preaching to? Look at your neighbor and tell 'em, I'm getting ready to launch. If you can't launch, you can't go. If you can't launch, you can't go. If you ain't with me, you can't go. I am no longer willing to stay on the shoreline to keep you company. I'm going to launch out into the deep if I got to launch by myself, if my mama don't go, if my daddy don't go, if my sister and my brother don't go, I'm going to launch out into the deep because I have permission. And once I have permission, I can do it. I know it's not supposed to work in the daytime. The fish are normally biting at night. But if Jesus says it, it's going to happen at any time. Just when the devil thought it wasn't gonna happen, just when you thought you missed your season, just when you thought it was over, God said, "Launch out into the deep".
And suddenly I realized something. Simon owns the boat, but Jesus owns the sea. I said Simon owns the boat, but Jesus owns the sea. And what you want ain't in the boat, it's in the sea. And Jesus knows where your fish are. Slap somebody and tell 'em, he knows where the fish are. Oh, he knows, he knows, he knows, he knows, he knows, he knows, he knows where the fish are. Wait a minute, wait a minute, wait a minute, wait a minute. It's the wrong time. Ain't nobody fishing. All the boats are docked. Everybody's quiet. Everybody being passive. Everybody's laid back. Peter the only fool out there in the middle of the water in the middle of the day at a time when no fishermen would be out in the water, because when the sun goes up, the fish go down. They eat at night or early in the morning, and at a time there's not supposed to be fish, Jesus says, "Launch into the deep".
Whoever I'm preaching to, it's not even supposed to work like it's gonna work. You're getting ready to break a rule. You getting ready to go into another dimension. You getting ready to do somethin' out of season. It don't even make sense, but God's gonna do it. You thought it was too late, but God's going to do it. Launch out into the deep. Shake yourself like this. I break every limitation that's been on you. I break every limitation that held you back. I break every limitation that stood between you and what God said he's going to do. This is about unlocking your limitations. This is about kicking the brakes off. Have you ever tried to drive with the emergency brake on? You can do it, but it's ugh, ugh, ugh. God's getting ready to kick the brakes off. He's getting ready to unlock your limitation.
That drag that's been in your life, that undertow that's been in your life, the Lord sent me here this morning to tell you he's gonna unlock your limitation. You've been frustrated, you've been tied down, you even gave up and started washing your nets, but stop washing your nets. It's time to launch your boat. You own the boat, but he owns the sea. And when they launched out into the deep, they dropped their net, watch this, this is important. I'm almost finished. They drop their net, net, N-E-T. N-E-T, they didn't bring enough. They didn't bring enough. They thinking too small. They're thinking too limited. They only had one net with 'em. When I met them, they were washing nets, but they only put one net on the boat. Anytime you see Jesus on the boat, you better bring everything you got, because whatever God is talking to you about is bigger than anything you ever did in your life. I came to tell you it's bigger. Are you hearing me? It's bigger than your think it is. Are you hearing me online? It's bigger than you think it is.
That little net you got ain't gonna be enough, 'cause God's gonna do exceedingly, abundantly above all ye may ask or think. You didn't bring enough for what God is about to drop in your lap, pressed down, shaken together, running over, God's gonna take you into overflow. Help! Somebody holler help. You're about to get in good trouble. You're about to get in good trouble. This ain't bad trouble, this is good trouble. This is the kind of help you need when you have underestimated what God is about to do in your life and you realize that what you brought is not enough for where he's taking you. It's all about the nets, it's all about the nets. It's all about the nets. When we started out with washing nets, and when we get to the boat, we're breaking net, a net, a net.
Why didn't you throw everything you had at it? Peter, why didn't you throw more at it? If Jesus says drop your nets, you should've dropped everything you had, but because of your belief system, your reluctance to even go in the first place, you only threw a net in it. Jesus ain't no fishermen, no way. He a carpenter's son. What does he know about fish? I'm just going to placate him and throw a net. One net, and so many fish that had been waiting on obedience. God is waiting on obedience. As soon as you stop playing pitty pat with God and break down to obedience and do what he said do, God's got the fish on reserve. They're waiting on you. The money is not gonna be a problem. The buildings are not gonna be a problem. The employees are not gonna be a problem.
God's got everything you need waiting on you, but because you keep throwing a little bitty net at it, God said, you're going to break your net. 'Cause you just talkin' about enough, and you're with El Shaddai who is more than enough. So here's Peter out there, Simon, and he's thrown out his net, and so many fish are in the net, that the net that he was washing is now breaking, and he has to, "Help! Help"! They waved back on the shoreline, "Help"! And here they come, gettin' on their boats, and they're comin' out to tug it in. In order for you to get what God is about to give you, you're going to need partnerships.
Whoever is taking this message seriously, let me drop this on you. You're going to need strategic alignments. You're gonna have to have backup in place to receive on the level that you're going through right now. You cannot do this like you normally do it. You have got to have a network, because you're coming against a system. You're coming against a system, and anytime you're coming against the system, it takes a system to overcome a system. And so, when he hollers for help, he gets backup coming from every direction. And even when his boys come in and they start dropping in their nets, they still were about to break. How many fish had Peter missed? All of these fish were in the Gennesaret Lake he just left. God didn't create the fish, they were there. Look at how much he missed.
My father ran a janitorial services, used to make me madder than fire. We'd be cleaning up offices, sweeping the office, he come in behind me and sweep the office I just swept, and say, "Boy, look at what you missed. Where was you sweeping? What's goin' on here? Look at, look at this, look at this, look at, look at what you missed". And I couldn't say nothing, 'cause I knew he didn't throw the dirt down. Do you have any idea what you missed while you washing your nets and you think you through? There's so many fish waiting on you to obey God that when you obey God, your net and neither the net of your partners will be enough. But together they pulled it in. It's gonna stretch you. It's gonna stretch you. It's gonna take you out of your comfort zone. It's going to challenge your belief systems. It's going to come against all the things that have been inbred in your head that define you, but it's yours.