Dreaming Big!

Dreaming Big! Text: Luke 5: 1-4

Life is full of lessons; lessons come several ways. Object lessons seem to be very effective in my opinion. Jesus is teaching the multitudes probably a message on trust or faith, and then Jesus spots Peter and the other disciples, so He decides to give the on-lookers an object lesson on trust, faith and obedience. Jesus said, “ Launch out into the deep!” Will God’s people obey? Will we learn from this life lesson in God’s word to fish for something new? Are we willing to use a new lure? Are we willing to go into a new fishing hole?

Through out God’s word there seems to be one of many central messages- Dream big and Launch out! Psalm 33:9 For He spoke, and it was done; He commanded, and it stood fast. (Many times I think we forget whom we’re serving!)

A. Notice throughout Jesus’ 3 plus years of ministry He is always teaching by His actions, words and plus, through His new approach on old subjects! Matthew 9:16-17 No one puts a piece of unshrunk cloth on an old garment; for the patch pulls away from the garment, and the tear is made worse. 17 Nor do they put new wine into old wineskins, or else the wineskins break, the wine is spilled, and the wineskins are ruined. But they put new wine into new wineskins, and both are preserved.”

B. Jesus said in Luke 5: 4 Launch out into the deep. Remember, “These men had been fishing all night!” So why would Jesus say this? “Because when we are tired or even feel satisfied, Jesus’ love and call on our life will still speak “ Go! Risk! Lunch out!

C. Peter said in Luke 5:5 But Simon answered and said to Him, “Master, we have toiled all night and caught nothing; nevertheless at Your word I will let down the net.”

D. A visit to the World Trade Center will help get your priorities back in order. Many who survived the attacks changed careers immediately afterwards. When the world’s tallest buildings fell, some of the world’s best-paid workers realized how fleeting it all could be. So they went home, wept, hugged their families, re-evaluated their lives and realized they could have half as much, yet be 10 times better off in every other way. It’s sad that many times it takes tragedy to get our attention!

E. Contemporary English Version reads Ephesians 5:16-17 16These are evil times, so make every minute count. 17Don’t be stupid. Instead, find out what the Lord wants you to do.

F. Listen, once you are stretched by a God-given vision, you never snap back into your original shape again! Mediocrity is just the best of the worst, and the worst of the best. Helen Keller said, “ Security is the myth, the reason we don’t experience it is because it doesn’t exist. Avoiding danger or failure is no safer in the long run than out-right risk. Life is either a daring adventure or nothing at all.”

G. “Launching out” means: 1). Setting goals. Establishing a plan to reach them. 2). Staying tuned to God’s “leadings.” 3). Confronting old fears. 4). Devoting your life to something greater than yourself. 5). Having a “Thou art with me” attitude! 6). Looking into the mirror and respecting what you’re becoming.

H. Luke 5:6 And when they had done this, they caught a great number of fish, and their net was breaking.

I. Listen to the story of St. Patrick:

It was an act of defiance that changed the course of a nation. Patrick lit a fire in pagan 5th century Ireland, ushering Christianity into the country. Who was this man who became the patron saint of Ireland?

Ireland was a beautiful island shrouded in terrible darkness. Warlords and druids ruled the land. But across the sea in Britain, a teen-ager was poised to bring this nation to God.

"Patrick was born into a Christian family," says Philip Freeman, author of St. Patrick of Ireland. "His father was a deacon; his grandfather a priest. But Patrick says that from an early age, he didn’t have any serious interest in religion and that he was pratically an atheist when he was a teenager."

Around 400 A.D., Patrick was abducted from his village and thrown onto a slave ship headed for Ireland.

"He saw that as God chastising him, first of all," says Freeman. "That was the first view. He says we deserved what we got. We’re carried at 16 years of age over to this foreign land."

Patrick was sold to a chieftain. He spent six years tending his master’s flocks on the slopes of the Slemish Mountain. Patrick recounts his time as a slave in his memoir entitled The Confession.

"He says, ’I prayed a hundred times in the day and almost as many at night,’ " says Rev. Brady, quoting Patrick’s Confession. "Through that experience of prayer and trial, he came to know another God -- God the Father, who was his protector. He came to know Jesus Christ in those sufferings, and he came to be united with Christ and he came to identify with Christ, and then of course, also the Holy Spirit."