Launch Out

I'd like to read a few verses from Luke chapter 5. The first four verses. While the people pressed upon him to hear the word of God, he was standing by the lake of Gennesaret. And he saw two boats by the lake, but the fishermen had gone out of them and were washing their nets.

Getting into one of the boats, which was Simon's, he asked him to put out a little from the land. And he sat down and taught the people from the boat. And when he had ceased speaking, he said to Simon, put out into the deep and let down your nets for a catch.

You know, it's amazing how quick we are to go launching out into all kinds of ridiculous things. You know, at the drop of a hat, you know, that purport to be religious or purport to be spiritual or purport to carry with them all kinds of mighty power. But when God, the pure, clear voice of God, calls us to launch out into the deep, we get scared.

Every so often in our lives, we come to a moment which we know to be critical. When we either launch out into the deep in search of that kingdom and that treasure for which we were made, or we remain back in the shallows in our little rut and play it safe and rot. Now, when God calls us into the deep, he has a reason for doing this.

You know, we get suspicious right away. We think, oh, you know, I want to go out there, but, you know, I'm afraid, or I've had bad experiences in the past, or I'm so tired. Every time I stick my neck out, I get in trouble.

But God isn't calling us out there in order to see how much trouble and how much hassle he can make for us. On the contrary, he has for us such good things, things that will make such a difference in our lives, but we can only have these things when we leave the shallow waters of our own self-life and move out into the deep where God is. There were these two brothers who lived by the ocean, and many times as they were growing up, they would talk about how when they became men, they were going to build two ships and sail out across the seas.

They arrived at their manhood, and lo and behold, they began to build their ships. The oldest brother formed a magnificent hull, and it took him years to finish this craft. It was absolutely beautiful.

The younger brother made a smaller, rougher, far less graceful model. The day came when the ships were finished, and it was time to launch out and begin to sail the oceans. And so they each gathered a crew, and they stocked their vessels with all the necessary things.

And then at the very last moment, the older brother changed his mind, paid off his crew, and kept his ship tied to the pier. Because he was afraid of what might happen out there in those storms and with those pirates, to his beautiful ship, the younger brother went forth alone. And after many years came back with a beautiful wife, untold treasure, and stories of high adventure.

His little craft was beaten and battered and ridden up quite hard, but the captain of the ship had become a man of great wisdom. The older brother continued in every spare moment he had to paint and polish his ship. But to his dying day, he never took that ship out of the harbor.

After his death, this magnificent craft was sold to a museum, where the attendants continued down to this moment to polish it and prepare it for the voyage. It will never take. While most of the history of the human race has been really made by men and women who dared to launch out into the deep and to discover new oceans and break new trails and find new lands, the most taxing launching out and the most rewarding of all is not into some ocean or even into outer space or into some new political or economic or scientific innovation, but into a completely different realm, the realm of God.

And most of us have at moments known that there is a region far beyond where we now are. We want to go there. We want to launch out beyond ourselves into the deep places of God to find that reality for which we know we were made.

And we talk about it and we come to church and we say prayers and we've made some changes in our lives and we have had some taste of the reality of God's grace. And yet for many of us, if not all of us, there are specific major steps that are to be taken and they may look quite minor, but there are specific steps to be taken that we still haven't made. What we need to do is understand that every gift that comes to us through the death and resurrection of our good, merciful God's beloved Son, every gift becomes ours only as we launch out to take it.

We don't launch out beyond ourselves. We don't take any risks. If we don't at least go to the door of our smug little lives, unlock it and open it wide, nothing happens.

God is not going to come to the door of our life and kick it down and come in with all the blessings. Santa Claus may come down the chimney while we sleep, but not God. The mystery of the kingdom of God is open, unfolded and made real to us only if we are willing to launch out beyond the shallow water where we are into three areas where it's quite deep.

First of all, we need to launch out into the Word of God to find the Christ. Every time we hear a word which we know to be from God, doesn't matter who speaks it or who wrote it, we just know that came to God from me. Behind it, the source is the Incarnate Son, Jesus Himself.

See, but if we're going to find Jesus in that Word, we have to pursue. We have to aggressively move out into that Word and find Him there. And when He had ceased speaking, He said to Simon, Put out into the deep and let down your nets for a catch.

And Simon answered, Master, we toiled all night and took nothing, but at your word I will let down the nets. And when they had done this, they enclosed a great shoal of fish. And as their nets were breaking, they beckoned to their partners in the other boat to come and help them.

And they came and filled both boats so that they began to sink. But when Simon Peter saw it, he fell down at Jesus' knees saying, Depart from me, for I am a sinful man. Now this episode, which brings Peter to really face-to-face with God the Son, happens as the climax of a series of launching outs, launchings out, in Peter's life and the life of those around him.

First of all, sometime before that, Peter, Andrew, James, and John had heard about the Word of God coming forth from a man named John down by the Jordan River. And they launched out. They put their boats aside and went all the way down from the northern edge of the Sea of Galilee, down the Jordan, down toward the Dead Sea.

And there they listened to John the Baptist. And that took some doing to put everything aside to really pursue that Word. They're just getting accustomed to what John the Baptist is saying and getting used to what this is all about when John the Baptist says, Behold the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world.

And now they have to launch out again and leave John and follow Jesus. And they start spending time around Jesus of Nazareth. And that brings us then to this episode when Jesus talks to them after they've been out fishing all night.

And Peter has no desire to go out and let down the nets. He doesn't expect anything. He doesn't hope for anything.

He doesn't feel like it. He's discouraged. And yet he says, At thy word, if you say so, I will do it.

When that net comes up loaded with fish, immediately Peter's eyes are open. And although his heart sees it, his mind still doesn't grasp it, but that doesn't matter. His heart has now begun to understand that this is God the Son.

Standing in this boat with him, he begins to see the Christ. And that's exactly how it happens in our lives. We only begin to truly see the Christ when we launch out into God's Word.

It's the only way we ever find it. And this comes down to some specific deed, some specific act of obedience that the Word of God calls for in each of our lives. And it may be different in each one.

Some act of repentance, some form of restitution, some word of forgiveness, you know, some step toward recovery, something that we are called to do. And it doesn't take a lot of racking of our brains to find what that thing is in each of our lives. For many of us, we've been sitting on it for a long time, doing nothing about it.

But we won't find the Christ until we act. For instance, God may be telling one of us or two of us, or who knows, get rid of the methadone. And another may say, break that habit.

And to another it may be, come down off your high horse. And to another it may be, you know, somebody who maybe for years knows that they have to somehow humble themselves. I don't think it's a standard procedure for everybody to receive Jesus or enter the kingdom of God by kneeling at this rail.

But I believe that there are probably people among us, you know, who will never do it any other way until you swallow your pride and do that kind of thing, something like that. It ain't gonna happen. And you know it.

And you're afraid. And you hear God calling you. Whatever it is that God calls for in each of our lives, it's only as we move out and do it that we begin to experience the reality of Jesus.

As we do that thing, whatever it is in each life, our eyes open and there he is. So if you've been sitting on it, if you've been panning and hawing about it, may God give you grace to do it today. May he give me grace to do it today.

Secondly, we need to launch out after we have met Jesus. We have to launch out with Jesus into the realm of faith to truly find the kingdom. And in the fourth watch of the night he came to them walking on the sea.

But when the disciples saw him walking on the sea, they were terrified, saying, it is a ghost. And they cried out for fear. But immediately he spoke to them, saying, take heart, it is I. Have no fear.

And Peter answered him, Lord, if it is you, bid me to come to you on the water. He said, come. So Peter got out of the boat and walked on the water and came to Jesus.

But when he saw the wind, he was afraid. And beginning to sink, he cried out, Lord, save me. Jesus immediately reached out his hand and caught him and saying to him, O man of little faith, why did you doubt? When they got into the boat, the wind ceased.

And those in the boat worshipped him, saying, truly you are the Son of God. After we meet Jesus, the first lesson he teaches us and relentlessly teaches us is that we can trust our Heavenly Father. He's going to hold us up.

We're not going to sink. Now we say that we believe that. See, but that doesn't become anything in our lives until we do it.

And this again involves some act of faith that each of us is called to make. Some specific thing. For instance, dare to open your mouth and tell somebody about Jesus.

Dare to open your heart and share what you have with this person that you know needs what you have. Or dare to really let that person who comes to you with his or her problem into your life and take hold of that problem and don't try to drive them away or pass them on to somebody else. Take hold of the problem believing that somehow you won't sink.

God will hold you up. When we begin to do that, walk by faith, and it will require faith on our part to take hold of whatever it is, we discover a whole new set of laws in operation. We find ourselves actually walking on the water with Jesus.

That we are supported. We are sustained. The Kingdom of God is a meaningless term until we begin actually to do that.

As we walk by faith, you know, in that situation where we find ourselves right now, you don't have to go to China to do this. You do it where you are, your eyes open and you see in the midst of all the anguish and pain and suffering, God is at work healing the sick, setting people free, forgiving the sinner, giving people a new start, and He uses you and me to do this kind of thing. God help us to move out and start walking on the water.

Thirdly, we need to, after we have come to know Jesus, launch out with Jesus into that sea of humanity and find receptive hearts. But when Simon Peter saw it, he fell down at Jesus' knees saying, Depart from me, for I am a sinful man, O Lord. For he was astonished in all that were with him at the catch of fish which they had taken.

And so also were James and John, sons of Zebedee, who were partners with Simon. And Jesus said to Simon, Do not be afraid. Henceforth, you will be catching men.

And when they had brought their boats to land, they left everything. And that's exactly what they did. Very soon, these men were moving out with Jesus across a sea of broken human souls.

And to their amazement, they found a response from people that they never dreamed would come. And they spent the rest of their lives literally hauling broken lives out of their health and out of their problems into the kingdom of God. Now, if we are not at that place where in fact we are hauling broken lives out of their health into the kingdom of God, it is simply because we haven't launched out.

The situation I believe with us is that we're on the shore. Extending out beyond us is this sea of troubled humanity. But we're afraid to go out there too far.

In this area, we're just scared. We're just afraid to do it. And yet every time we do, every time we dare to go out there in the name of the Lord and tell people about the mercy of God and His Son, things happen.

We're just overjoyed. I'll never forget watching two of the brothers from this flock launching out across 163rd Street in the South Bronx last May into this gang called the Savage Nomads. And some of the people from the local flock were scared to death.

They went over to just see what would happen and run and call the police if it was necessary. And the response was jeers, jokes, laughter, threats, and then blasphemy. But after about a half an hour of this, these guys began to soften.

That night they came to the meeting. And the next night some of them were at the meeting. I was talking to Pastor Luger a few weeks ago and this one fellow called the Fonz is still going.

And there are probably some others. But it involved going out and we find that in every one of our lives if we look back, every time we had the guts to go out among men with the good news of Jesus Christ, we were amazed to find a response. God help us to see that that's why we're here.

Otherwise, he could have come down, put us in a bag, and taken us to heaven now. God help us. Give us the help to go out with Jesus into this troubled city knowing that men and women will be caught for heaven.

Absolutely will be. No question about it. This will happen with an abundance we haven't dared to expect.

Now if we were to sit down right now and begin to write a list of all the blessings that have come to us from God down to this moment, we'd be writing for the rest of our lives and we still wouldn't cover it. How good God has been. How merciful.

How many hells he's taken us out of. How many fires he's snatched us from before we almost burned to a crisp. You know, how rich has been his mercy and his kindness and his favor to us.

And still is. And all this is so that we, having tasted God's mercy and love ourselves, can now begin to launch out from where we are into a deep region beyond anything we have ever seen, any of us, where we receive a vision of the Christ clearer than we have ever beheld, where we begin to truly walk on the water with Jesus, manifesting a life of faith that makes the kingdom of God real, not only to us but to many others, and letting down our nets into the deep and bringing up a catch of human souls that will stagger our minds. And Jesus said to Simon, Do not be afraid.

Henceforth, you will be catching men. And when they had brought their boats to land, they left everything and followed him. God help us to do what they did.

Are we willing to make a new beginning at what they did and what we're called to do right now? Lord God, we confess that one of the reasons we're timid is because we've so often launched out in directions that were never your call. And we got burned. And so sometimes we're afraid to even launch out at all.

Help us to right now hear the clear voice of our shepherd and understand exactly what he's calling for from us today and deliver us from our fear of you, of anything that you might do. And we pray that you would give to us the nerve, the courage, whatever it is we need, Lord, to lay our lives down at the foot of the cross right now, afresh, and to abandon ourselves as we are, messed that we are, to your mercy. Oh God, help us to settle this issue and if there are any among us who have never even begun to do that, that you'd give them strong encouragement right now to walk through the door and enter your kingdom, enter the arms of Jesus.

And we pray that you'd help us, Lord, to begin to walk by faith and see the kingdom of God as we've never seen it before, as we do. And that you'd give us the aid we need, Lord God, by your Spirit, to go out into the Jerusalem that surrounds us with the good news of the gospel that will heal and transform the lives of many. We ask these things in Jesus' name.

Amen.