Deep Cries Out To Deep Series

So, I want to you to think back. I want to ask can you remember the first time you ever went into the ocean, you know when you get onto the sand and you see the waves, I want you think back on that day. The smell of the breeze, some of you are like man I rather want to be at the coast now. Right. “I remember the first time I went into the ocean—not just wading in the shallow end, but really out there, where your feet don’t touch the bottom anymore.”

At first, it was exciting waves lapping at my ankles, the sun on my back. But the further I walked, the more I realized: I was losing control. The ground disappeared beneath me… and I had a choice to make. I could panic. Or… I could trust the water to hold me up. There’s something terrifying and freeing about that moment—when you’re not in control anymore. Where you either learn to float… or get pulled under. And isn’t that what faith often feels like?

Now what do you mean Louis; well, our faith walk is like this. You know we love the shallows—where it’s safe where we do not have to trust as much, where we can know the basics and stick to that., manageable, predictable. But God doesn’t call us to ankle-deep faith. He calls us to the deep. You see the reason why I want to talk about faith, and deep faith, is that we just came from an amazing series about the armour of God. We had a phenomenal easter weekend, but I wonder even for myself, what do we do after the Sunday, how do we live out our faith in the week?

So, I want you think and ask yourself the question? How am I living my faith, am I making a change for the Kingdom in my household, at my workplace, in my finances. Or am I happy to be safe, you see work is work and church is church, we pray and read the word at church, but during the week we not so much, life is just too busy and hectic. Our relationships, our lives we just want to manage and we get into this autopilot state, so today I want you to journey with me from the shallows into the waves, you know we actually sing it: you all know the song oceans: You call me out upon the waters The great unknown where feet may fail And there I find You in the mystery In oceans deep My faith will stand. It goes on saying this: Spirit leads me where my trust is without borders, let me walk upon the waters, Wherever You would call me, take me deeper than my feet could ever wander, and my faith will be made stronger, In the presence of my Saviour

We sing this but I do not think we knows what it means and today I want to be a guide for the Holy Spirit into what God calls us to be a Christ follower and that is that Deep calls out to deep. I want to look at a passage in the bible that really speaks into this, and we see this in Psalms 42, now you need to know that the psalmist is honest about his pain — he’s been weeping day and night, mocked by others who question where God is. He remembers the good times of joyful worship but now feels distant and discouraged. Still, he doesn’t give up. And there was a verse that liked jumped out of the pages, and it jumped out at me, and it says this Psalms 42:7 7 Deep calls to deep in the roar of your waterfalls; all your breakers and your billows have swept over me.

Deep calls to deep, now this are not a rebuke, it was an invitation, this means that God is calling you out of shallow faith, and he is inviting you into the depth. This is a personal call for us and for all of us, that shallow faith is not going to cut it, not to do more but to go deeper.

It brings me to my first point. That surface faith is not enough anymore. We were never called to stay in the shallows. We are called to grow mature and develop fruit. We see this powerful verse in Ezekiel 47:3-5

Then he brought me back to the entrance of the temple and there was water flowing from under the threshold of the temple toward the east, for the temple faced east. The water was coming down from under the south side of the temple, south of the altar. 2 Next, he took me out by way of the north gate and led me around the outside to the outer gate that faced east; there the water was trickling from the south side. 3 As the man went out east with a measuring line in his hand, he measured off a third of a mile and led me through the water. It came up to my ankles. 4 Then he measured off a third of a mile and led me through the water. It came up to my knees. He measured off another third of a mile and led me through the water. It came up to my waist. 5 Again he measured off a third of a mile, and it was a river that I could not cross on foot. For the water had risen, it was deep enough to swim in, a river that could not be crossed on foot.