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.
Ezekiel 47:3-5, Before we get into this powerful picture of the river in Ezekiel 47, we need to understand who this vision was originally for. Ezekiel was a priest and prophet living in exile in Babylon—far from Jerusalem, far from the temple, and surrounded by people who had lost everything. These were people who had seen their city burned, their homes destroyed, and the temple—the place where they believed God's presence dwelled—left in ruins. They were discouraged, disoriented, and wondering if God had abandoned them. And it’s into that despair that God gives Ezekiel a vision.
Not just of a rebuilt temple—but of something greater. A river flowing from God’s presence, getting deeper and deeper, bringing life to dead places. This was more than a promise of physical restoration—it was a spiritual declaration: God is not done. His presence will return. And when it does, it will overflow and bring healing, revival, and hope to everything it touches.
Ezekiel is in this vision, and this angelic figure is leading him away from the temple toward the east, where this trickle of water is flowing. Now the guide is holding a measuring line—a symbol of divine order and precision. He begins to measure the distance the water travels from the temple in segments of 1,000 cubits (roughly half a kilometre each time).
With each 1,000 cubits, Ezekiel is told to walk through the water—and each time, it gets deeper. First: It’s ankle-deep. Just a little bit—something you can easily step in and out of. Then: Knee-deep. Still manageable. You can walk through it, but you start feeling the current a little more. Next: Waist-deep. This is getting serious—you can’t move as freely, and you’re more aware of the power of the flow. Finally: It becomes a river so deep that Ezekiel can’t cross it. The only option now is to swim—or surrender to the current. Now it’s not just about water—this is a prophetic vision of God’s Spirit, His presence, and our journey with Him.
At first, it’s all safe and shallow—like many people’s relationship with God. They’re in it… but just a little. But the further you go with Him, the more He invites you into deeper trust, deeper surrender, and less control. Until finally—you reach a place where you can’t stand anymore. You must be carried by the current. That’s where real transformation happens. That’s the place where your strength ends and his begins. Ezekiel keeps walking until the water is so deep, it carries him.
That’s where many of us stop. We settle for ankle-deep faith because it’s. But manageable faith can’t carry you through the storm. Take a moment and evaluate your walk with God. Are you playing it safe, are you in the shallow waters Checking boxes to be at church, to be at circle, to be part of the volunteer team and no it is not incorrect that is great to do, —but avoiding surrender in your life? Are you growing in your faith, are you making notes in the sermons, are you looking if the verses are correct? Are you studying the bible? Is it coming alive for you? Cause you need to know this and this is my 2nd point.
God wants Depth, not performance. Matthew 15:8 says this: This people honor me with their lips, but their heart is far from me. 9 They worship me in vain, teaching as doctrines human commands.
This wasn’t just directed at the Pharisees; it speaks to us today. It's a warning that we can say all the right things, lift our hands in worship, and appear spiritual, while our hearts are distant from God.
God isn’t impressed by how religious we sound — He desires a heart that is close, surrendered, and authentic. Let me use this example on how easy it becomes to become religious and forget our hearts.
Just like a husband who tells his wife “I love you” but never listens to her, our words mean little if they’re not backed by love and action. Jesus is calling us to examine whether our worship is real or just routine. Are we truly walking with Him, or have we settled for a version of faith that’s all talk but no intimacy?
It’s time for a heart check. Let’s not just speak about Jesus — let’s stay close to Him. Let our worship come from a place of love, not just habit, and ask God to draw us back to a real relationship, not just religious performance. There Psalms 139:14 Search me, God, and know my heart; test me and know my concerns. 24 See if there is any offensive way in me; lead me in the everlasting way. In Psalm 139:23–24,
David prays one of the boldest and most vulnerable prayers in Scripture. He says, “Search me, God, and know my heart; test me and know my anxious thoughts. See if there is any offensive way in me and lead me in the way everlasting.” David isn’t just acknowledging that God knows everything — he’s inviting that deep inspection.
He’s asking God to investigate his heart, not just to expose sin, but to reveal fears, worries, and hidden motives. This isn’t a prayer of fear, but one of surrender. David knows that left to himself, he might miss the areas where he’s drifting.
So, he asks God to show him anything that offends Him and to lead him in the way that brings life and eternity. It’s a reminder that real transformation begins with letting God search us fully — not to shame us, but to shape us. When we pray like this, we invite God to lead us out of hidden struggles and into the freedom of walking closely with Him.
Think about it in social media ways. We normally post the highlight reels, but not the behind the scenes, we called it even reels, they will even take a video and highlight the best parts not the whole video. But you see God is not looking for the highlight reel version of you, He is looking for the real you.
So how does deep look, how do we go deeper, well the good news is Jesus walks with you, but it takes grit.
Brings me to my third point. Depth is formed in pressure. Yip, you heard right in pressure. These famous verses in James 1:2-4 says this, and I am just reminding you because most of you should know this verse: Consider it a great joy, my brothers and sisters, whenever you experience various trials, 3 because you know that the testing of your faith produces endurance. 4 And let endurance have its full effect, so that you may be mature and complete, lacking nothing.
Now let me connect it link back to Psalm 42: all your waves and breakers have swept over me. It shows what Pressure, pain, and trial. You might think God is abandoning you, but God uses even trials that is not from Him, to form you, to grow you so that you can become mature and complete lacking nothing.
When James says that trials help us become “mature and complete, lacking nothing,” he’s showing us that God uses difficult seasons to grow us spiritually. Maturity here doesn’t mean age, but depth — a faith that has been tested and proven. It’s about becoming someone who doesn’t just know Scripture but lives it out, even when it’s hard. Being “complete” means being whole — not divided, fake, or half-formed, but solid and integrated in our character.
And “lacking nothing” doesn’t mean you’ll have every physical thing you want, but that you’ll be spiritually equipped with everything you need: wisdom, strength, peace, and endurance. James is teaching that when we persevere through trials with faith, God isn’t just helping us survive — He’s shaping us into people who are spiritually grounded, resilient, and fully ready for every good work.
It brings me to my last point this morning. That in the deep is where you will encounter God. It means that when you give over to God, when you allow to be deep and to trust Him, you will encounter him. You know if you did not know this by now, but Peter is one of my favourite people in the bible. I think I like him so much because he was stubborn and even though trough everything, God still used him in a mighty way, but we see in a few places where Jesus called Peter to go deep. We read in Luke 5:4 When he had finished speaking, he said to Simon, “Put out into deep water and let down your nets for a catch Jesus did not tell Peter to stay in the shallow waters, he called him to go deep. The miracle was in the deep. When Jesus asked him to climb out of the boat, it was not on shallow water, it was in the deep, he had to trust God completely and not rely even on his own understanding. He met God in the deep, He met God in the storm, He met God when he did not look at gravity and only what is humanly possible, no he walked on water in the deep because his eyes were focused completely on Jesus. Same with us, for us to venture out in the deep, we need to do the same, we need to go deeper, go more where we trust Jesus without borders, without terms and conditions.
The supernatural didn’t happen while he was sitting. It happened when he stepped. “You’ll never experience the deep things of God from the comfort of the boat.”
Whatever storm you’re facing—don’t waste it. Ask: “God, what are You building in me through this?” Let the pressure push you into deeper trust, not away from it.
So, what do we do, how do we venture out in the deep, how do we do it practically. Started fasting and seeking Jesus. Join a circle, man Louis I am not a people person well you cannot be in the boat, you need to move out. For some of you, you been in the faith in the church for many years, but you never shared your faith, you never prayed for someone, you never invited people to church. So maybe it is time for you now, to share your faith, to pray to invite.
Deep calls to deep.” Not just poetic. Not just theological. It’s personal. It’s God calling you today—not to perform, but to go deeper. “He wants more than your habits—He wants your heart.” “He wants more than your attendance—He wants your surrender.”
So, I’ll ask you plainly: What is the "deep" God is calling you into? What area of your life are you keeping ankle-deep when God is asking you to dive?
Lead this prayer: “God, take me deeper. Even when it’s uncomfortable. Even when it costs me control. I don’t want shallow faith anymore. I want to know You deeply. Search me. Break me. Lead me. Into the deep.
