Dangerous Catch

Dangerous Catch

I. Introduction

I am excited today to share the Word with you. The passage of Scripture that I am going to share with you is not new. It has been preached and repreached! However, while I was away doing a camp I was sitting on the porch of the little dorm room I was staying in this passage flashed into my spirit and it was specifically about you! A new twist or thought about the passage came into my heart and I want to share it with you. I really do believe that this is what God is saying to us corporately and individually today. I believe it is a prophetic word for many of you! I know that many of you are struggling. Jobs are scarce. Paychecks seem to run out before the month does. Situations seem to snowball and the weight of the stress and pain of life is almost unbearable. Sickness seems to be sustained and healing is a distant and almost fictional concept!

One word of caution here . . . if you box up what I am saying into dealing with just finances/money you have missed it. I believe that what I am going to say to you today undoubtedly involves finances, but if we are not careful we allow the consumerism of our culture to limit our understanding and the scope of what blessing means.

With all of that in mind I want you to join me in

II. Text

Luke 5:1-7

Once when he was standing on the shore of Lake Gennesaret, the crowd was pushing in on him to better hear the Word of God. He noticed two boats tied up. The fishermen had just left them and were out scrubbing their nets. He climbed into the boat that was Simon's and asked him to put out a little from the shore. Sitting there, using the boat for a pulpit, he taught the crowd. When he finished teaching, he said to Simon, "Push out into deep water and let your nets out for a catch." Simon said, "Master, we've been fishing hard all night and haven't caught even a minnow. But if you say so, I'll let out the nets." It was no sooner said than done—a huge haul of fish, straining the nets past capacity. They waved to their partners in the other boat to come help them. They filled both boats, nearly swamping them with the catch.

Luke 5:7 And they beckoned unto their partners, which were in the other ship, that they should come and help them. And they came, and filled both the ships, so that they began to sink.

III. A Sinking Blessing

Jesus has crowds following Him. His preaching has caught the attention of the community. They are pressing Him to hear Him. Jesus walks into a fishing camp. He sees men washing their nets. They have worked all night long and failed miserably! Now Jesus commaderes their boat. These are not His disciples . . . yet! These are fishermen. These are guys that make their living from the fish that they catch. Their economy is based on their catch. Now Jesus shows up. A preacher at best. A carpenter by trade. After Jesus preaches His message He starts giving fishing lessons to men who have fished all their lives. On His apparent "mistimed" . . . it wasn't the right time to fish . . . instructions they recast what they had been putting up for the day and to their surprise and quickly changing to their dismay they are confronted with a blessing that is so great and so overwhelming that it, according to Scripture, almost kills them . . . it almost sinks their boat. They are so overtaken by fish . . . in their economy a great windfall . . . that they have to call their friends to get in another boat and come help them harvest the harvest!

That is the backdrop against which God started talking to me about you and about us!

a. I have seen you blessed. However, I am declaring that we are on the doorstep of the day when you will be so blessed that it is dangerous. A blessing so big, so deep, so filling that it threatens to sink you! You have been sunk in depression, sickness, brokenness, pain, fear, and destruction and now He is about to show up and bless you to such a degree that you are going to sink in His goodness. You will cry out in dismay . . . I am so blessed I can't take any more. I am so blessed that if He does one more thing for me I will be destroyed. When was the last time that you were so blessed it was dangerous? So blessed that it almost destroyed you? I am ready for us to experience a sinking blessing!