There are times that it is difficult to walk with God. You cannot set your pace by the pace other men. You must set your timing by the pace of God Himself. You are walking with the infinte as opposed to the finite. His thoughts are higher than our ways, and his thoughts are above our thoughts. It doesn’t take long until you feel like a little boy with short legs trying to keep up with his daddy. He will challenge our religiosity and our tendency to cleave to normalcy & mediocrity. He will do something that doesn’t fit into your reasoning of what God ought to do.
The disciples were walking with a God they didn’t understand. They were working for, sacrificing for, washing in the creek with a God they didn’t understand. They had given up their jobs & livelihood to follow a King that John the Baptist pointed to after saying "Repent for the Kingdom of God is at hand." They had pledged their allegiance to this young ruler who was going to straighten out Caesar. At the height of his ministrial career, He died on a cross. The one who walked on the waters went to the cross. It blew their mind. What should the disciple do when the master is dead. And in 3 days, He rose up. When He rose it perplexed them because it called them preach a gospel that caused them to be criticized. We don’t mind preaching a message from a respected school of thought, but we’re unconfortable declaring a school of thought that makes us sound like heretics.
Jesus had gotten up from the dead. He had walked through a door without touching the doorknob. Spirit enough to walk through the door, flesh enough to eat fish.
Peter did something that every religious leader needs to do, fishing. I GO A FISHING. I am not going to solve anything complicated or complex today, I’m going fishing. I’m out of here. See you, wouldn’t want to be you. I need a moment of introspection, away from all my responsibilities, titles, expectations. I need a moment I can walk down the road and hum a song to myself and let a tear roll down my face without anybody wandering what its for. It doesn’t sound deep or spiritual, I don’t know what it is in the Greek or the Hebrew, but it was anointed.
I can understand why Peter wanted to go fishing, because he was by trade a fisherman. He was familiar with fishing. When life gets complicated, we revert back to what we are comfortable with. I want to go back to a normal, calm place in life. After all he was fishing when he met Jesus. Sometimes when life gets tough, you want to go back to the place where you first received. You don’t want to be reverend so & so or the president of the willing-to-do committees. You want to break down to where you were when you first staggered to the altar and said Lord I believe. I’m going back to simplicity & normalcy. I’m tired of business meetings and church politics, I want to see Jesus like I saw you before I was hurt.
I can understand why Peter wanted to go fishing. But what was odd, here come all these other chumps. What is Matthew the tax collector doing with a fishing rod. What is Luke the physician doing with a net. It is indicative of the time we live in which people want to imitate leaders, whatever they are doing. Don’t be a cheap copy of a great original.
They all went into the Sea of Tiberias, and all night they tried to accomplish something. They should have caught something because they had a master fisherman. They should have had some level of success, if nothing else, based on experience and expertise. But sometimes, God has to show you it is not by might, nor by power. . . You’re not going to be able to work it out on your own. Your street smarts, your budgeting will not get you out. All night long, and nothing.
Somebody here has been through a long, dark, frustrating night. Prolonged depression. Stress and Peril. Not being able to do what you used to do. But in the morning there was Jesus on the bank. In the morning light, when the darkness was moved back, I could see that He was closer than I thought He was. It makes me think, He was there all the time. Through all the frustration of carnal pursuits, He was on the bank. Weeping may endure for the night, but JOY COMETH IN THE MORNING. It is morning. Forget those things which are behind, it is morning. A new day has dawned for you.
There He was standing on the sandy shore. Wind blowing through His hair. Standing on the tempestuous banks of a sea that had yielded no fruit to the disciples, who had attempted to conquer what could not be done without His presence or power. Standing outside the mess but speaking to it. Not having to get in it, though He could -- remember He walks on water, to deliver you out of it. He doesn’t have to get in it, to deliver you from it. I don’t have to jerk or shake, just SPEAK.
JESUS, looking different than they had seen Him before. They did not recognize Him, because He came in a different form. Standing outside of it, speaking to it. He spoke a word, "CHILDREN HAVE YOU ANY MEAT?" Now I am suspicious. If I understand anything about God, He is omnipotent, omnipresent, omniscient. Why would an all-knowing God, ask a simple man a question? Whenever you hear a Master ask a question, before you arrogantly assume you can instruct the Teacher, you have to understand they are teaching you again. When He asks you a question, it is not that He might learn from you, but so that you might direct your mind through the maze of confusion to the Truth you seek.
"Adam where art thou"
"Is anything to hard for the Lord"
"Can these bones live"
He already knows, but you need to find out where are you, what is going on. Children have you any meat? For all of your depression, sweating, frustration, budgets, stinginess, working overtime, round-the-clock, can’t afford to tithe, give or trust God, Children have you any meat? Is what your doing working? We don’t want to talk about this. We want to talk about how hard we’re working, but not ask if it is working.
Well I got a nice boat & I got some important people in the boat. But there was no meat. I’m tired of being impressive, I’d rather be powerful. We’ve been so busy in the process of trying to get it, that we didn’t notice we don’t have it. Have you any meat? Well, now that you bring that up, NO. We have no meat. We are so competitive that we dare not confess that it is not working. What would people think? MIRACLES begin with confession.
Then He says something awesome. CAST YOUR NETS ON THE OTHER SIDE. You have got to get back in touch with God because He is the only one who knows where the fish are. Hang up the telephone, turn off the tv, to get this next miracle you are going to have to hear from God, where are the fish. He already knows what you are trying to figure out from everybody else.
You are closer than you think you are. Just when you are about to give up. Just when you are out of tricks & techniques. When you are about to turn the boat around. Don’t run or back up, having done all to stand, STAND therefore.
The fish were up under the boat all the time. That’s why the devil is trying to get you to move, because blessing is right up under you. Stay where you are.
In the toiling of the night, in the frustrations of the night season, the fish should have swam away. But I’m so glad that when God has something for you, He’ll put it on hold until you’re ready for it. He held it up under the boat for such a time as this. What they couldn’t do all night, God turned it around in the morning. The very place of your frustration, God is going to bless you right there. Don’t run from the problem, stay there God is going to turn it around from a place of frustration to a place of blessing.
The thing that is odd, all this happened without their being sure that it was Jesus. The disciples knew not that it was Jesus. Now that might have given them a hint, when He spoke a word and they could then do what they were not able to do before. He enables you to do by His word, what you could not do before.
While they were rocking on the boat, the one whom Jesus loved. It didn’t give his name, but his relationship took precedence over his identity. You know John, the one who was at the table with his head on Jesus bosom. The one who outran Peter to the empty tomb. You need a John on the boat, in the choir, on the board -- known by his relationship. Don’t despise John. There’s something about John, when nobody else can tell if it is the Lord or not, John knows. You need somebody around you who is not trying to impress you, they know the presence of Jesus when it is near. John said, "It is the Lord." Don’t hang around doubters, gossipers, but fellowship with somebody who’s best friend is Jesus.
You need somebody, sometime to tell you when it is Jesus. Because when you’ve been through a lot, you don’t know whether to accept it or rebuke it. To put up with it or send it away. But when you get with a John, they’ll say, it’s been a long night, but there’s Jesus. We are all tired, but there’s Jesus. We’re disoriented & confused, but there’s Jesus. We’ve cried and felt like quitting, but there’s Jesus.
I thought that the real challenge of life was not having what you need. The long night, midnight, poverty, desperation. But that’s not the real test. Anybody will seek God when they don’t have what they need. An atheist will cry out to God when he’s hurting bad enough.
The real test came when they took in the fish. The whole got filled with fish. Fish everywhere. I’ll pour you out a bless you want have room to receive. I’ll bless you until you have enough to bless somebody else, pressed down, shaken together and running over.
That’s when the real test comes. When you think you have arrived. You get what you have been waiting on. You have accomplished your objective. What he had was good, until John said, It is Jesus. Then Peter was in a dilemma, should he stay with the fish? He had been waiting all night long, and he finally got it. I got the job, the wife, the house, the car. I have arrived but the Lord’s blessing is there and I am here.
Here is the dilemma of success. Do I stay with what He gave me? I want to be a good steward. Or do I leap off the boat and go for the One who gave it to me? Paul said I was a Pharisee of Pharisees, but I counted it all but dung that I might win Christ. If I hadn’t seen Him, I would have been satisfied with the blessings. But the blessings don’t mean anything when you see the Blesser.
IF YOU CAN GIVE IT UP, YOU CAN HAVE IT ALL. Peter said, you all can stay here if you want, but I’m going after Jesus. If you are going to get Jesus, you got to leap off the boat, leave people behind and go after Jesus. Don’t look for me on the boat, I’m leaping. I’m not satisfied waiting for the boat to get to shore, I’m leaping and swimming. He left the folks and the fish behind.
I’m hungry, I’ve been working all night, I’m swimming, I left the fish behind but I’d rather have Jesus. If I never have the house of the hill, I’d rather have Jesus.
When he got on the bank to Jesus, Peter smelled fish that Jesus was cooking. He thought that if he gave up Jesus, he wouldn’t get the fish. But there is something about choosing Jesus. If you make Jesus #1 in your life, if you put Him above everything and everybody, if you keep on swimming. Forgetting those things which are behind and look to those things which are before. When you get to Jesus, I heard him say, "I’ll restore to you the years the cankerworm and locust has eaten." Whatever you thought you lost, whatever you left behind, if you can give it up, You can have it all.
Master, I thought I would have to do without the fish. No you don’t have to do without it, I had what you needed all the time. When you put Jesus first, not only will he give you a blessing, He’ll give you a prepared blessing. Peter had a raw blessing, but Jesus gave him a prepared blessing. God has got a prepared blessing for you. He’s going to take the toil out of it. You’ll have a job you didn’t have to work for. He’ll prepare a table for you in the presence of your enemies. You’ll eat from vineyards you did not plant, and houses you did not build. He said I go to prepare a place for you.
When they ask you how did you get that blessing, you tell them "I was trying to get Jesus, and when I reached for Jesus, He brought all this into my life." If you can give it up, that ungodly career, that fleshly desire, that temporal blessing, you can have it all.
