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!
It isn't that we diminish the one fish blessing here or there. One fish can meet my need (ask the disciples they experienced that too). However, I believe that what God has said to me is that it is time to move beyond a one fish blessing to a boat sinking blessing! I don't know that I have even experienced what I am talking to you about. But I know this I am ready and willing!
b. I have seen many of you blessed to the degree that it has touched you.
Your house is better. Your family is better. Your body is better. But I believe that what He is saying to us is that the day is coming where you will be so blessed that you will have to get others involved in handling your blessing. It will impact you but move beyond you until the favor and the goodness of God moves off of you on to those around you.
In other words, I believe God is ready to usher us back to Joseph's level of blessing. Joseph was assigned to Potiphar as nothing more than a slave . . . you don't have to be on the Who's Who List, a member of the Fortune 500 List, dressed for success or large and in charge for this blessing to come on you. Some of you don't think you have the position or giftedness to qualify. He was a slave but he was so favored and so blessed the Bible says the blessing began to bleed over onto his heathen master's home. Remember I read it to you . . . Genesis 39 - His master recognized that God was with him, saw that God was working for good in everything he did. He became very fond of Joseph and made him his personal aide. He put him in charge of all his personal affairs, turning everything over to him. From that moment on, God blessed the home of the Egyptian—all because of Joseph. The blessing of God spread over everything he owned, at home and in the fields.
I am telling you that you have had enough catch to fill your boat, your home, your needs but the day is coming when you will see a blessing come into your life that causes heathens around you to not only recognize the source of your blessings but they will also enjoy the fruits of that blessing because it will spill over into their lives as well.
I need you to change how you pray for a blessing for you. No more “I am just asking for enough for me. God I don't need a lot if You could just give me enough and I will be satisfied.” Instead, start praying for a breakthrough, a healing, a level of provision that will force you to get other people involved in handling the haul! I believe He is about ready to bless you to such a degree that you have to call someone else in the church and say, "Hey get over here and get some of this! I have so much I can't possibly use all of this. I am so healed I need you to get over here and get your healing too. I am so set free that you need to get over here and get your chains shattered too.” We have got to move past this just give me enough to get by!
c. Too many of us are washing and putting up what God is getting ready to use to bless us.
The disciples are putting up what God wants to use. They are shelving the instrument of their blessing. Some of you are washing and putting up the very thing God wanted to use to usher blessing into your life. The praise you are putting up . . . I tried it and it didn't work (worked for them not for me) . . . putting up your giving . . . tried it and it didn't work . . . faithfulness . . . I was there every Sunday . . . showed up week after week and nothing changed. If we are not careful we will shelf what Jesus wants to use to sink our boat! You think you are done with something that He was just getting ready to utilize. You don't understand it has been a long night. I have worked this thing for months. I have toed the line. I have lived holy for 3 months and nothing is different. I believe for healing for 5 months now and nothing has changed. I have read my Bible for a year now and it has been a long night. I am ready to wash my hands of this and move on and we check out right before a boat sinking miracle comes along. Get that thing back out and let Him use that faithfulness, that tithe, that belief, that Scripture to load your life with a blessing that you cannot possibly contain!
Quit shaking your head in sorrow. Quit washing your hands of what He wants to use. Quit quitting. Get ready to fish again! Throw the net one more time at His command. Give one more time. Sing one more time. Shout one more time. Believe one more time!
IV. Close
If you want this type of blessing I want you to respond. Now be careful what you ask for. It is great to be blessed but so blessed that your entire life is changed. So blessed that it demands you change careers (Jesus called them into ministry after they landed this haul . . . left their greatest level of success to follow into no place to lay His head lifestyle). So blessed that your comfort zone, mentality, and excuses have to be relinquished forever!
