luke 5

Let's go to Luke Chapter 5, the famous passage of miraculous fishing: "It happened that while Jesus was next to the lake of Gennesaret, the crowd pressed around him to hear the word of God and he saw two boats that were near the shore of the lake, and the fishermen, having descended from them, washed their nets. And getting into one of those boats, which belonged to Simon, he begged him to put it out a little from land, and sitting down he taught the crowd from the boat. When he finished speaking, he said to Simon: "Put out into the deep and cast your nets to catch a fish."

Responding, Simon said to him: “Master, we have been working all night and we have caught nothing. But at your word, at your word I will cast the net." And having done so, they caught a large number of fish and their net broke. Then they signaled to their companions who were in the other boat to come help them and they came and filled both boats so that they were sinking. Seeing this, Simon Peter fell on his knees before Jesus saying: "Depart from me, Lord, for I am a sinful man," because fear had seized him and all those who were with him because of the fishing they had done. And also of James and John, sons of Zebedee who were Simon's companions, but Jesus said to Simon: Fear not, from now on you will be a fisher of men. And when they brought the boats to land, leaving everything behind, they followed him. May the Lord bless his holy word.

Father, we commend this wonderful word to you and our lives, our voice, our teachings. Speak to us through your word and build us up. Nurture us in our faith Lord and give us the vision to see your generous way of working for us. In the name of Jesus. Amen.

We've been talking about the generous life, a life of giving. We have talked about, using for example the life of the prophet Elijah, the need to give in the zone of discomfort, beyond the familiar, beyond the comfortable. The widow of Sarepta had to give the prophet Elijah something that was very precious to her. She had to give in that dimension to be able to extract the blessing that God wanted to give to her life.

We have also talked about how God is the owner of all the gold, silver, everything we have, everything we are belongs to Him. The Lord is the owner of everything. Santas is the owner of the atoms that make up matter, reality, our thoughts, the electrochemical processes that govern our brain, everything is ultimately the fruit and product of Him. When we give to Him, we give Him what is his, not what is ours, we have nothing by ourselves.

We have also said that when we live in that way, in a generous, giving way, brothers, the blessing flows in our lives. That is the mathematics of God. The mathematics of man and reason says: the more I retain, the more I have. God's mathematics says: the more I give, the more I receive. do you see? In God's mathematics, less is more when done in faith, according to the Lord's blessing. In God's mathematics, dying is a prelude to living. In God's mathematics, lowering is the prelude to rising.

Let's look at Philippians 2 from 5 to 11: "... the Lord emptied himself, emptied himself of his glory, for which reason God raised him up and gave him a name that is above all names." In the mathematics of God the contradiction, the paradox is predominant. In reason, everything always has to be logical.

And we see this here in the life of the Apostle Peter. So far we have mostly preached based on the Old Testament and I wanted to show that these principles are the same in the New Testament as well.

We see here that the passage begins with a situation of need. The need is on Jesus' part. The Lord is here feeling the need, what is the need? The crowd has followed him, as they always followed him because only he had the word of eternal life. The crowd presses on him and he can't speak freely, they're all tucking him in and in his human nature, he can't talk to them the way he wants to talk to them. So you don't have a platform, you don't have a microphone. He could have if he wanted to speak with a supernatural voice, but the Lord stuck to his human form in this case. He is experiencing a need: how do I speak to the crowd? How do I solve this dilemma? How can I communicate and give life to these people through my word?

Let's look at that dilemma for a moment before we continue. The Lord could, as we say, speak supernaturally but he prefers to limit himself to his human voice. And so it happens, brothers with the Kingdom of God here in this current administration, in which God has chosen to limit himself in his ability to speak to humanity and he speaks through who? Through the church, the Lord has not chosen angels to travel through the different countries of the world preaching the Gospel. Who have you chosen? He has chosen us, he could have if he wanted to, but God has invented a system called the church, the faithful, the children of God to preach his word to a multitude, to a world in need.

Then he says that the Lord looks around and says that he saw two boats on which were some fishermen washing their nets after a night of fishing, which we later found out was a totally fruitless night, they didn't catch a single fish. And there they are, like good fishermen, washing their boats from the salt or their nets from the salt, so they don't get corrupted. But the Lord sees that they have something that He can use: a boat. And his mind tells him that if he can get on that boat, get a little distance from the shore, and be away from people, he can better project his voice and give his message of life.

And here we also see a parallel, because I have always thought that our lives are like that boat that the Lord asks Peter to allow him to use. Our lives are like this, we are that boat, we are Peter's boat. The Lord is telling us: I need your life. I need your property. I need your resources to get on top of them and project my message of life to the crowd that needs it. Say amen even if it's to please me a little, to know that they haven't left or haven't fallen asleep. The Lord needs our lives. Because? Because He has decided so.

The Lord who is the creator, the owner of everything, says: I need what you have. Because you know something, brothers, that boat did not belong to Peter, it belonged to the Lord because the Lord made the tree from which that boat was made. The Lord says: do you allow me to use you? Can you let me use you? Do you allow me to ride inside you and take control of your life, your resources, your money, your time, your talents? Listen to me. The Lord is always asking that. The Lord is always looking for people to say to him: Lord, use me.

Once the Lord looked and saw a crowd and his heart broke because he says he saw them as sheep without a shepherd. And the Lord said: the fields are white, white for the harvest and there are no laborers to work that harvest. And he said: pray to the Lord of the harvest to send workers to his harvest, there is a need.

Brothers, this time is a time of great opportunity for the world. The church of Jesus Christ has more work than ever and needs more resources than ever to be able to project the message of salvation. The Lord says: where are the workers? Where are the people who give up and who give up to carry out the work of the Lord? I think about the future of our church and I see great possibilities that the Lord can use this congregation more and more each day. But, brothers, I also understand that a church will need to invest, to invest so that these things become possible. We want a church of excellence. And brothers, that costs. It requires, brothers, a generous congregation, listen to me. A generous congregation. Generous men and women. Understands? That we do not have to be begging or manipulating, but that you say because that is your joy and privilege. Amen.

And that is what we have understood from the life of Elias as well, that when we give we must give from a position of sufficiency in the Lord, not being afraid, where will this little bread that I am giving now come from and I am going to miss it? ? You understand? That is the mentality of scarcity, of poverty in the world. The mentality of the child of God is a mentality of sufficiency, of blessing, of provision. The Lord is my shepherd, I will lack nothing, says the word of the Lord.

Brothers, I believe that the believer has to practice generosity as a discipline. We have to practice carefree generosity. And we have to sometimes, brothers, be a little messy, I'll say that. By giving like this, deliberately and being a little daring, and sometimes being a little messy, look, the Lord blesses and there we discover the blessing of the Lord. Here in our church I try to get us to practice that.

And I ask the Lord: Father, do not make us so prudent and so administrative in our mentality that we become stingy in what we give to the Lord. We will be free to give to the right and to the left. We are going to be a generous congregation with our physical plant, our financial resources and we are going to give to other ministries, we are going to give to other churches, we are going to give to other ministers, we are going to develop more for the Kingdom of God because we give, God is going to bless us more and more each day.

The word of the Lord says in Ecclesiastes: “...cast your bread into the waters because after many days it will return to you. He says, deal 7 and 8 because you don't know the evil that will come." That is why I encourage you, in this time of this vision of building our temple, that you do not miss this opportunity to start practicing a life of generosity towards God. Dare in the name of the Lord. That is the word, dare in the name of the Lord. Get out of your comfort zone and dare to do something noble, heroic, generous. The Lord says: I have a need, help me. Help me says the Lord.

Look how outrageous that is. Some theologians would kick me out of the pulpit if they heard me say that. But the Lord says: help me. To you mad, insignificant, the Lord says: help me. He says: I want to build a temple so that my Latino community can hear the message. Help me. And if you dare, God will bless you.

I'm done with this. Look what happened here, and this is a beautiful message. Peter had the sensitivity to give the Lord his boat. Then the Lord turns to Peter, after he preaches the message, after he has satisfied the crowd, after Peter has given his property to the Lord to use, and now he says to Peter: Peter, now you and I go out to sea I have something to show you. And there, when they have gone out into the deep, the Lord tells Peter: Peter, now cast your net to fish. I assure you that the Lord told him with a little bit of malice because He knew what had happened to Peter the night before. He knew that Pedro had been trying to fish all night and had not caught a single fish with his natural strength and his own cunning and his own resources. Peter did not know that He knew but the Lord knew that He knew. And now he tells Pedro: come, let's do an experiment, you and me.

The Lord has been crafting an entire objective teaching throughout this entire process. And the Lord told him: launch out into the deep, Peter, because I want to teach you something that will serve you throughout your life and throughout your ministry, and that is that when you give to me, I will be very aware of your need and I am going to bless you and I am going to provide you with more than what you will receive with your own strength.

Then the Lord says to Peter: cast your net to catch a fish. And reason tells Pedro, but if I was fishing at night in optimal conditions, at night when fishing because there is no noise, there is no light that scares the fish, I could not catch anything, and now this man who He doesn't know anything about fishing, he tells me to cast the net now. The Lord says: but, do not use your reason, use my power. My power can more than reason.

But Pedro had the good sense to be obedient. Peter had the sense to put aside his reason and entered into a mode of faith and obedience. Say all: obedience. That is the key. There are many things that are not going to make sense to you. The tithe may not be meaningful to you, but do it in obedience, as I had to do 25 years ago in obedience, and I have not lacked and God has blessed me. I didn't necessarily believe it but I said, well, there are so many spiritual people through the centuries who have practiced this, and the word of the Lord is quite clear, so I'm going to be obedient. I'm going to put aside my doubts, my fears and I'm going to do it. And you know what? That same year God blessed me much more than I would have imagined.

Sometimes we have to do things out of simple obedience. Grit your teeth and do it because the Lord says so and forget about your questions, your fears, your reservations, your doubts and the circumstances or what you have seen of others. Do it because the Lord says so.

Peter said: Lord, all night I have tried to fish, I have not caught anything, but in your word, by your promise, by your fidelity, by your personality, because you are faithful, I am going to do it. And what happened? The Bible says that he caught a multitude of fish. Those fish came from all over that lake, they came from the north, the south, the east, and the west. They heard a voice there in the depths of the waters that said: go to where that net is falling because I have given the word that that net is not left empty. Go? But it all starts with an act back there. Peter, will you lend me your boat, give me your property, dare to seek first the Kingdom of God and his justice and trust that all other things will be added to you?

Here's an opportunity. The Lord is saying: do you dare to bless my church? And don't worry, I'm going to bless you. Look, the last thing when you give to the Lord, God blesses you materially, we have already seen it in the case of Peter, because he reaped much more, collected much more than he ever would have thought. The second thing however is that when you give to the Lord God it lifts you to a new spiritual level. When we give to the Lord we can see the glory of God. We know in a more intimate way. We grow in faith. We have more intimacy with the Lord. We leave the zone of rhetoric and enter the zone of reality. And we talk, and we talk, and we talk, but when the moment of truth arrives, many of us give up, as the Mexicans say, we run away. But when you begin to give to the Lord sacrificially you are entering the level of reality, of truth, of consistency, of integrity, and there is no escape.

So we can start, when you give to the Lord, the Lord shows himself faithful and then you begin to grow in faith, you begin to see God in a way that most Christians who live only in theory and in word of mouth rhetoric, they never experiment. Because when you give to the Lord, He then begins to show himself faithful to your life.

Peter left there blessed, because the Lord told him: you know what, Peter? From now on you will no longer smell like fish, you will no longer be a mere fisherman of aquatic animals, you will be a fisherman of men. Hallelujah! You dared to risk it. You dared to do something crazy in my name. You have dared to give me and that is why I am going to lift you up and I am going to give you another name, you are not going to be a simple man anymore but you are going to be a stone on which I am going to found my church. When you give to the Lord you are blessed materially but you are also elevated spiritually. Don't miss this opportunity to be more than a mere mortal and see the glory of God.

Let's put our heads down. Lord, we adore you, we bless you. Thank you Lord that these principles have been operating through all the ages and are still operating in my life and in the lives of my brothers. Lord we want to be like Peter. We want to give you our boat. We want to live lives of sacrifice and service, Lord. We want to give you the most. We believe, help our unbelief, Lord. Help our disbelief. Break the moorings of disbelief, reason, pettiness and smallness and timidity and the past.

Let us see your glory. Let us look ahead, towards that zone of sufficiency and privilege to which you call us. Father, give us victory in this stage of the life of our church. Give us that faith, Lord, to know that when small, humble, anonymous people dare to give to you, you bless them and prosper them. May this community of the Lion of Judah be a voice, an example to the entire city of Boston, of how you bless those who dare to bless you first, Lord, and to enter into zones of faith. Increase our faith, increase our faith.

Look how you are with your head down, if you have listened well to the word of the Lord this morning and you know that God is calling you to a new zone of faith and belief, raise your hand. Just raise your hand. If you believe that God is calling you to a new zone of faith and belief, there are at least three or four who understand what I am saying. Don't play with the Lord. Don't be more shy than necessary. If you believe the Lord is calling you to a new area of faith, raise your hand this morning. Oh Lord I trust, I trust, I trust in your provision God. Help me to enter, Lord, in that zone of faith and belief in you, oh God. Thank my Lord. Thank you Jesus.