Take The Boat Out Jesus

Three men were out fishing one day & caught a mermaid. The mermaid said she would grant them each a wish if they would let her go. So the 1st man said, “make me twice as smart as I already am." The mermaid said, your wish is granted & immediately the man started quoting Shakespeare & had this extreme insight. The 2nd man said, “make me 3 times smarter than I already am." The mermaid said, your wish is granted & immediately the man started quoting all these mathematical equations & explaining physics & chemistry. Finally, the 3rd man said, “make me 5 times smarter than I already am.” The mermaid said, I’m not sure you know what you’re asking me to do – are you sure you want me to do that? The man insisted, that’s what he wanted. So the mermaid said, your wish is granted – AND SHE TURNED HIM INTO A WOMAN! –okay. If you are a guy, you shouldn’t be laughing at that!

Rock and Gitzit

My first trip to Canada to fish was about 5 years ago. There were eight of us. All of them seasoned fishermen –except me. They all knew it and much leg-pulling ensued. And I was pretty gullible.

Earl Adkins from Danville, VA was the leader of our week fishing expedition and the fishing guru. He pulled fish out of the lake regularly and with great ease.

We had two way radios on the four boats we were in and talked regularly about what we were catching and if we found a particular hotspot, we would report it and all would gather around it.

Earl kept calling over the two-way about all of the big and small mouthed bass he was catching. My partner and I pulled up to his spot and I asked him how he was catching them. His answer: All you need is a rock and a gitzit. What did that mean? Was he spoofing me? Should I ask him? Anybody ever go snipe hunting?

Time of Decision

We will get back to that soon.

READ Luke 5: 1-5a

Peter was a seasoned fisherman. He had been fishing all day and caught nothing. This preacher, who he already allowed to use his boat as a platform to preach from, is trying to tell Peter how to catch fish. What to do. What to do.

Time of Decision

We will get back to that too.

Read Matthew 14:22-29a (come)

Again, Peter was a seasoned fisherman. A man familiar with the sea and the danger of storms. He knew this kind of storm and how better men than himself had drowned in them. Could he trust Jesus with his life?

Time of Decision

Yep, we’ll get back to it.

Read Luke 8: 22-23

Jesus’ disciples were fighting for their lives in this storm on their boat. Should they wake Jesus? Already, these men had seen the miracles that Jesjus performed but this wasn’t just healing the sick or changing water into wine –this storm would kill them all.

Time of Decision

Yep. One more time.

Read Luke 9: 10-14

The disciples realize that the 5,000 people are hungry and tell Jesus how to handle it. Send them home! But even though there are too many to feed, Jesus tells them they will feed the 5,000. Then he tells the disciples to sit them down in groups of 50. What was Jesus thinking? They barely had enough money to feed themselves. And they only had five loaves of bread and two fish. Do the math. Do they do as he says or tell him he’s crazy.

Time of Decision

FAITH

Sometimes God asks us to do things that don’t make sense. It doesn’t make sense because it’s beyond our comprehension. If we can’t figure it out ourselves, feel it, see it –we assume it can’t be done.

And yet, amazingly, there are a lot of things we don’t understand and yet do them.

Example of Faith

We have an illness we don’t understand. We go to a doctor whose name we can’t pronounce. He gives us a prescription we can’t read. We take it to a pharmacist we don’t know. He fills the prescription of meds we don’t have a clue work or what it is …And yet, we take it as we are told. All on blind faith!

Let’s tie this all up.

1. Rock and the Gitzit

Remember Earl catching all the bass? I say “okay. I’ll do it. Tell me what to do.

Faith in Earl!

Turns out a “gitzit” is a special lure that really attracts the bass. The rock? He told me to cast my lure wherever there are a lot of large rocks. They like to hang out there.

Outcome:

Byron catches a lot of bass during the fishing week and goes home a happy man. –and a better fisherman!