Classic Sermon 6047: Meeting on the High Seas

We are going to look, in the Gospel according to Saint Luke, chapter 5, we are going to take verses from 1 to 11. “It happened that while Jesus was next to the lake of Gennesaret, the crowd crowded 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 away from land a little; and sitting down, he taught the crowd from the boat.

When he had finished speaking, he said to Simon: Launch out into the deep, and cast down your nets for a catch. Responding Simon, he said to him: Master, all night we have been working, and we have caught nothing; but at your word I will cast the net. And having done so, they caught a large number of fish, and their net was torn. Then they signaled to their companions who were in the other boat to come and help them; and they came, and filled both boats, in such a way that they sank. And when Simon Peter saw this, he fell on his knees before Jesus, saying: Get away from me, Lord, for I am a sinful man. Because of the catch they had made, fear had seized him, and all who were with him, and also James and John, sons of Zebedee, who were Simon's companions. But Jesus said to Simon: Do not be afraid; from now on you will be a fisher of men. And when they brought the boats to land, leaving everything behind, they followed him.

Bless the Lord His Word.

Brothers, as you know we have been sharing three sermons already, from a series that we have titled "Encounters with Jesus" and what we have wanted to do through this series is, as I said, polish the image of Jesus Christ and reconsider ourselves even though We have always been hovering around the person of Jesus, what was the Ministry of Christ and how his way of entering into dialogue with individuals through his ministry can also be a blessing for our lives.

We want to look at the intimate Jesus, not the Jesus of the crowds who multiplied the loaves and fishes and fed 5,000 people, not the Jesus that Zacchaeus had to climb a tree to see because he was surrounded by the crowd, not to Jesus who was many times conversing and confronting the Pharisees who came like packs of wolves to want to make him stumble and look bad. But rather the individual Jesus, the intimate Jesus, the personal Jesus who on many occasions took his divinity and his ability to attract the masses and made it very thin and concentrated it in a saving dialogue with men and women who approached him with different types of of necessity.

The teacher Jesus who with divine wisdom and a very pedagogical method led, for example, the Samaritan woman, as we have seen, or Nicodemus through a dialogue of increasing knowledge of him as the Messiah, as the Son of God. And that she confronted the Samaritan woman, for example with her need to meet with him and to give her life to Him or to Nicodemus, he removed the religious masks and told her, 'Nicodemus, you have to be born again and be born again. water, of the Spirit, because ultimately that is what counts in this new kingdom that I am opening.

And here we have another of those transformative encounters, as you can see a tremendously dramatic encounter as Jesus confronts Simon Peter with what he is. And this encounter in this passage, many of you in your Bibles will see that it has the heading - in most Bibles perhaps - the miraculous catch. This is how this passage is known, pictures have been painted, stories have been made, poems have been written around the miraculous catch. And, certainly, it has been one of the most beautiful symbols of the Christ who reigns over nature, the Christ of Power, the Christ who can do things that no man can do.

But I am interested in this passage, approaching it from the perspective of that dialogue between Jesus and Simon. This teaching process, this pedagogical process through which, Christ takes Simon until, like Superman, he takes off his Clark Kent suit and shows him the Son of God, the Son of Man who reigns over nature. To such an extent that Simon is shaken and throws himself at his feet because he realizes that he is before the deity, and says, 'Lord, get away from me because I am a sinner.' Because the Jewish doctrine said that whoever saw God perished , it was dangerous to have an encounter in sin with God.

I remember Moses on the mount, who came back from that encounter with God and his face was shining and the Jews heard the thunder and the lightning, and they were afraid and said, 'tell God to get away from us because we cannot suffer such glory. '

And you will see again that over and over again we see this theme come up again, in the case of Nicodemus, in the case of the Samaritan woman, and here too, how the Lord Jesus Christ is leading these individuals through a process of growing confrontation, of growing clarity with what He is, with his power, as we also brothers, and hopefully that theme remains engraved in our hearts, over and over again. There are different levels of relationship with Christ.

A lot of us settle for, okay, I've already struck out the card, I've already come forward. I already converted, between quotes, and we went to sleep and we continued being the same as we were, many times before we met the Lord. And we believe that by simply going to church, and by going on Sunday and doing a little thing here and there and a symbolic gesture that we are already there. But, brothers, the Christian life is a process of increasing confrontation with Christ. With the claims of Christ. It requires an increasing surrender of our being.

Every day the Lord wants to show us something new of who He is. Every day the Lord wants to speak to your life and mine in a different way. Every day He wants to perfect his power in you. Every day He wants you to have a new experience that shows you that He is closer to you than He was yesterday, and that He wants to have more and more of you and He wants you to have more and more of Him.

And I see this, and that is why for me the miraculous catch is almost something secondary in this passage. The moment of fishing, when they collect all these fish, is almost like a result that emerges from everything else. But, it seems to me that the Lord Jesus Christ was interested in other things a little deeper than simply giving these men a quantity of fish to fill them up. He wanted to give a proof of what He is, and that is why I believe that the Evangelists Luke has focused this passage in that way, to show the superabundant power that is in Jesus Christ and the need to have a personal encounter with He.

Let's go back now, we're going to start an analysis of the passage. I do this simply for your benefit, because it helps us sometimes to separate the story into its component parts, and so we can understand a little more of what the Lord wants to tell us. I see in this passage three points or three central phases, three stages, three process points.

The first is what is in verses 1 to 3. I see here Jesus ministering to the crowd with the help of Peter, that is very important because we are going to see how that applies to our lives too, that. Jesus ministers to the crowd with the help of Peter, and you can go reading these passages while I am narrating the summary of what these verses incorporate.

So from verses 4 to 7 we see a personal encounter with Jesus and his power, Peter and his companions are confronted with the powerful work of Jesus and his person. There Jesus gives them a manifestation of what he is and what he can do. The crowd has been left behind and now there is a personal encounter between Peter, specifically, and Jesus and the power that is in Jesus.

And thirdly, from verses 8 to 11, we have an interpretation of what has happened. Pedro and his companions realize what they have testified to, what they have seen. What they have witnessed, they are confronted with and have the understanding to discern what has happened and to discern what are the implications of what has happened. And because of that, Peter falls to his knees and John and James are also afraid, because they understand, they have had an exhibition of Jesus. I call this the calling of Jesus Christ.

Jesus tells them, 'Now come, from today, from this moment you are going to be something, you will be fishers of men.' Call, but thank the Lord that the Lord extends a call but there is also a commitment on the part of these three men who they leave everything, says the Scripture, and go after Jesus Christ.

So, there is a call from Jesus. And there is commitment on the part of Simon, James and John. And there we have the skeleton or the basic structure of this passage. And we are going to see here what I see as the central message of this passage.

I say here that if we obey Jesus' call, He does three things in this passage, at least we see. Number one, he reveals his glory to us. We could say, it reveals its power to us, it reveals its ability to transform everything that surrounds our lives. We have a revelation of the glory of Jesus in our lives. Jesus provides for our needs, the Lord once said, 'seek first the kingdom of God and his justice, and that all these things that the Gentiles worry about, those who do not know God, those who are always anxious and squeezing , and… agonizing… All these things will be added to you.” The Father knows what things you need, but seek first the things of God.

So if we obey Jesus' call number one, he gives us a revelation of his glory, what he is. Number two, He promises to provide for our affective, physical, material needs and ultimately gives meaning and purpose to our lives. It redeems our life from its merely horizontal dimension and adds meaning to life. The man of the 20th century, brothers, needs meaning. The prevailing philosophy of our century, do you know what it is? It's called: existentialism.

Existentialism is a philosophy that was born in northern Europe at the beginning of the twentieth century and is a reaction to all the tragedies that man has seen in the twentieth century, the first world war in 1914 to 18. The second world war in '39 to '45, where more people died - more millions of people than I think in all the other wars combined. Those two wars showed man that his idea of progress was totally fictitious. The man had not really progressed, his heart still had a savage capacity to kill and destroy.

And after all the other wars that came out of it, and all the tragedies of the 20th century and the reaction of modern man to that tragedy of his century, it has been this existentialist philosophy that what you see is a universe without meaning, a universe without purpose like it was created by a madman, or at least someone who started making it and left it half finished and left. So, the only answer that modern man finds today is, it's me.

There are no absolute answers unless there is a life of struggle and search, but we believe, brothers, that when Christ enters our life, he gives meaning to our life, that Christ gives it purpose. That Christ gives us a manual with which we can then interpret and transform the tragedies of our lives into triumph, into victory. And that is the great difference between the one who has God and the one who does not have God.

So, if you, brother, obey the call of Jesus, Christ will give you his glory and his power, Christ will provide for all your needs and Christ will give meaning and purpose to our lives.

Now, we are going to see how all that is embodied in this passage. Look at the first verse, it says that Jesus is next to a lake, Lake Gennesaret, and as it happened many times, the fame of Jesus Christ had already spread throughout Palestine. Wherever he went, many people followed him. Jesus healed the sick, Jesus preached with an authority that the Pharisees and scribes could never imitate, because His word was genuine, it came directly from the Father.

Jesus spoke to the poor and the insignificant while the Jewish religion rejected and set them aside. Jesus freed people from their self-righteous burdens and told them, all God wants is for us to worship him in spirit and in truth. That made Jesus so popular that wherever he went—we see it over and over again throughout the pages of the Gospel—people thronged to listen. These people were in need, there was a great crisis in Israel at that time. And when the people heard the genuine message coming from Jesus they said, this is for us.

The first thing I see here then is a great need in the town. And, brothers, today again we say that man also has a great need to have an encounter with Jesus Christ. The world needs us to preach the news of salvation. Last Sunday I said that the woman with the issue of blood went to Jesus, why? Because he had heard of Jesus. She needed that information so she could go to Him and get healing from Jesus. And I believe brothers that the world needs, our relatives, our friends, our colleagues at work, our friends, housewives or whatever, at school, at the university, need to hear about Jesus. And as the Apostle Paul says, how will they believe if there is no one to go and announce it to them? How can they react with faith if no one puts the message of salvation in front of them?

Brethren, we have a great challenge before us. You, each one of us, I - have the challenge of not only being nominal Christians, who are content to come to church and get fat and fat, spiritually fat. Rather, we have a commitment to God to announce the Gospel wherever we go. We are disciples, preachers of the Gospel, we are servants, I would like this idea to be engraved in all our hearts, brothers, none of us has been called to vegetate on a bench. We have been called to serve the Lord and not waste a single opportunity to preach the gospel.

I don't believe there's such a thing as a Christian who doesn't give light, who doesn't throw light around him. It is a contradiction, ask yourself as I continually ask, what am I doing for my Lord? What am I doing for the kingdom of God? How am I fulfilling that task that the Lord Jesus Christ has left me to go and preach the Gospel to every creature? Because as a Christian, I believe that it is validated when I act, as the Apostle Santiago says, faith is confirmed by works. We are not saved by works but, certainly, our faith has to work, it has to do something and the way in which we can grow in the gospel and be effective is by freely giving what we have received by grace. It is investing our talents, I see that scene so full of meaning, you see Jesus here, it says that the crowd is pressing on Him to hear the Word of God.

And here we have one of the mysteries of the incarnation, we see Jesus as we also saw him with the Samaritan woman, that passage says that Jesus, tired, sat by the side of the road and ordered his disciples to send food and Jesus also asks the Samaritan woman water. So, we see here a Jesus who gets tired, a Jesus who feels hungry and a Jesus who feels thirsty. Because remember that Jesus was perfect God, but he was also a man, full.

He was both, and the Lord bounded himself to the limitations of a body, although at times we see him disrobe and enter into his fullness, as he did on the mount of transfiguration, but while Jesus walked on Earth, he chose to walk in the garb. of a man and experienced all the things a man experiences. He decided it that way, he was in the desert for 40 days and the devil felt that there was a point of weakness here and he wanted to tempt him with food, because he was a man who was suffering from hunger pangs from 40 days of not eating.

And it is one of the mysteries of the incarnation.

Here we see Jesus limited in his ability to manage the crowd. He could have, if he wanted to, speak with a more powerful voice than allows me to speak into this microphone. He could have done it, He was God Himself and He did other, much greater miracles.

But here we see another Jesus, the limited –self-limited– seeing this great crowd that is around Him unexpectedly, asking himself, how am I going to manage these managed people? They are desperate, they require a word of healing and encouragement from me, how am I going to administer to them?

What does the Lord Jesus Christ do? He looks around him and his divine wisdom teaches him that there is a boat there, that this man is there, Simon Peter, whom Jesus already knew. Because if you read chapter 4, verse 38, you see that Jesus had already healed Peter's mother-in-law prior to that. But, Peter's relationship with Jesus was an imperfect relationship, like so many Christians who have had a half-encounter with Jesus, but have not yet fully surrendered their lives to Him.

So, the Lord Jesus Christ looks at this man who owns that boat and perhaps at his companions who are around him, and in his mind the Lord says, 'I know what I have to do.' I'm going to ask the owner of the boat, Simon, to let me use his boat, get away from the crowd, from the shore; and then from this boat I'll be able to preach to the whole crowd, instead of them crowding around me and my voice drowning in the din and the running-run of the crowd.

I imagine that the Lord then asked them to sit down and He ministered to them with his healing word. But I see here in that little drama, brothers, a tight symbol of what the mystery of the great commission is. The Lord Jesus Christ, before leaving, gave authority to his church and entrusted them to take care of what He had started in three years of ministry. Now I am going to my Father, I am going to provide the energy, I am going to provide the power, I am going to delegate authority over you, but you are going to be in charge of preaching the Gospel. The angels will not be. The Holy Spirit is not going to do it; the Holy Spirit will do his part to confirm and he will do his part to touch hearts but you 'go and preach the Gospel.'

Then, the Lord Jesus Christ entrusted the Church to do its work and established a partnership between God the Father, God the Son, God the Holy Spirit, and redeemed men and women who would continue to preach the Gospel. Because? I believe that because the Lord wanted his creature to be a co-partner with Him.

God does not want parasites. I always see God working in partnership with man. God is pleased to work with us.

Brothers, if we understood how much God esteems us and how much God needs us, I believe we would be less indolent in the work of the Gospel. If you and I don't do the work, no one is going to do it. God is not going to do it because He has already delegated His authority to us and the work of restoring the world is on the church and the church is you, and you, and me. And we are expected to work in partnership with Jesus Christ.

Now, where do I start for that affirmation of the text. That the Lord Jesus, being able to if He had wanted to do all the work alone and preach to the crowd, chose to work in partnership with Peter. And he approached Peter, says the Scripture, and it says that he asked him – he begged Peter – to allow him to use his boat to preach the word. Brothers, I see in Peter's boat a symbol of our life. The Lord needs a boat to get on and preach the Gospel.

The Lord needs a boat in which to incarnate, to enter it, to enter into partnership with it. May that boat allow you to land on it and, then, from there minister to a world to a multitude in need. That boat is you and me.

And as in this case, Pedro could very well have told him, 'Lord, I'm very sorry, I'm very busy fixing my nets. I'm too frustrated because I haven't caught anything, so please find yourself another boat and don't bother me for now.'

But, thank the Lord that it was not like that, instead Peter heard the teacher's voice and instinctively understood what this meant and allowed the teacher to use his boat. Brothers, I believe that the Lord Jesus Christ is speaking to us every day, he is speaking to you and me, and he is saying let me use your boat, let me ride in your life, let me take control of your life, let me take the control of your personality, your thoughts, your plans, your dreams, your projects, your talents. Let me get on your boat and minister to this world in need.

The Lord could have said to Peter, 'Peter, move away, the wood that this boat is made of, I made it. The tree from which that wood was cut, I believe so." However, the Lord Jesus, like a gentleman, pleads with Peter, "Peter, let me use your boat.' the Lord will come again and again insisting, let me use you, let me work with you. Give me your life and if you and I do that, then the Lord promises to work through you and me, as he did in this case.

But that was the first thing. Look on the other hand, let's focus now not so much on the need for Jesus, and the drama of Jesus who wanted to minister to the crowd, but let's focus on Peter for a moment.

Peter is, the Scripture says, washing his nets and later we learn that he had been fishing all night and had not caught a single fish. So the image we have of Pedro at this moment is a defeated Pedro. A fisherman whose modus vivendi, his way of living is completely sterile. He has spent the whole night in optimal conditions trying to get fish and he has not been able to and now he is there dying while washing the nets, because those nets are in one direction, the only thing they have is salt water. That's why he washes them, so they don't get corrupted by the salt water. But in reality those nets have not touched a single fish. Those networks are completely empty.

And I see in Peter an image of the man, the woman, who is trying to live her life without God. Trying to succeed and fish in the waters of life without the help of the power of the Holy Spirit - without the power of Jesus Christ. Peter is an experienced fisherman, he knows the best ways to fish, and yet the Lord prevents him by his Spirit that night from fishing to make it clearer to him what his Power is when he has the moment to meet Him out at sea.

Brothers, we without Christ are like Peter, the fisherman, at that moment. We cannot do anything without the Lord Jesus Christ. I think, again, that's a perfect image for the condition of modern man in our time. Young people who have tried to get their lives together and make a career, or make a marriage, or raise obedient and healthy children, or be successful at their job, or whatever… have influential friends. And they have tried to achieve these things on their own account and by their own intelligence and resources, and have found in the long run that they have failed.

Modern man, with all his resources and with all the things he has been able to do with his mind and brain, is the same. Man today has a lot of knowledge, he sends men into space with a normality that almost no one bothers anymore. And he has done great things in medicine and has made great discoveries about the human mind, about the brain, about human biology, about the chemistry of the world in which he moves, about physics. But, brothers, when one looks at man's condition, as we said before, what we see is himself, modern man, washing his nets after a night of trying to fish without having caught anything.

Because, what is the panorama of our time? We see wars everywhere. In the United States what do we have but mental illness everywhere, divided families, crime, gang influence, drug proliferation, AIDS everywhere, premarital pregnancies everywhere, suicides from the youth…

Brothers, the world we are in is a world like that, like Peter washing his nets. It's a world that has fished all night, done so much, tried in every way, but what? That in the long run he always ends up unsuccessful, unsuccessful because he is trying to do things for himself. Now he needs the power of God, he needs Christ to get on his boat and turn his failure into victory. And that's what happens, thank the Lord. The Lord Jesus Christ asks him, 'Peter, let me get into your boat.' then I'll get on with my work.'

But here is the wonderful thing, and it is that Jesus Christ had a purpose with Peter, inclusive. And Jesus Christ knew Peter's need and that Jesus Christ wanted to minister to Peter's needs, just as Christ wants to minister to your need, too. My brothers, here I see a great lesson. And it is that we want success in our life. I want to be happy, and many of you want to be wise and successful parents and happy husbands or wives. Many of you want to know Jesus Christ in his power and in his glory. Many of us want to have power and have victory in Christ Jesus. And we have different needs, we want healing, we want a solution to the problems in our lives.

Now, how is that effective life going to be given? How is that victorious life that Christ promises every believer going to be given? Because the Lord has said, 'I have come that you may have life and have it to the full.' Why, brothers, is it that there are so many defeated Christians? I don't say Christians with problems, because we all have problems. But there are so many Christians with problems, but in addition to having problems, they are... they feel defeated. They feel hopeless, they feel depressed, they feel that there is no way out of their lives. Because? Why does Christ fail in his promise? No, my brothers. I believe that it is because we have not followed the pattern that Christ has established for a successful Christian life, that is the problem.

And I believe that this passage shows us what is the sequence that we have to follow in order to have victorious lives in Christ Jesus. To get a vision of the glory and power of Christ in our lives. And what is that method, that secret? Brothers, it is the life of service and dedication to the Lord. Many of us first want God to fill us with power and fill us with glory and make our muscles really big, and then say, 'Okay, Lord, now that I have it all and I'm fine, then, now I'm going to serve." "Now that the bank accounts are paid and now that I no longer have my wife or my children, and now that all my illnesses have been healed, and now that I can praise you with joy and freedom, Now I am going to serve you.'

But, brothers, we are putting, as they say, the cart before the horse. Because the Lord has established a pattern and it is that the Christian Life is by faith. It is not because of feelings, it is not because of what you feel in your heart but because of the Word that comes out of the mouth of God. And if we first place our lives at the service of the Lord and commit ourselves to the Lord, and we give the Lord our boat, our resources, our talents, our body, our time and then we begin to serve the Lord by faith, even though everything our being screams, 'you're being an idiot, you're giving what you don't have.' Then, we begin to act and work for the glory of God and by committing our lives, then, the power of God begins to flow in our lives and then we can have an encounter with the glory of Jesus Christ.

But first, brothers, we have to give to the Lord in order to receive. He already gave his body on Calvary's Cross, and he provided a perfect plan of salvation that guarantees success. He already declared his Spirit over every believer, and he left us his Word to guide us through it. Now what is missing? May we add the central ingredient that is our faith to ignite the flame of the Lord in our lives.

And I have learned that, brothers, that the way to believe in being in the Gospel, and to acquire power to win in the Christian life is by doing, by working in the name of the Lord. It is throwing ourselves in the name of Christ, even though we do not know where we are going to arrive, but simply in the name of the Lord throwing ourselves forward. And then the wonderful thing happens because the Lord is there every step of the way to comfort and strengthen us and lead us to certain victory.

The perfect image for me of that process will always be, when Joshua and the Jewish people were in front of the Jordan River and ready to cross into the promised land, they had been in the desert for 40 years, and Moses had already died. Now, command had been handed over to Joshua and he says, 'now you are in front of the Jordan River, the promised land, Joshua tell the priests to face the people and the people behind them. And that they begin to march forward and the question was, 'well, Lord, how are we going to get through the middle of that river that is there in the middle? How are we going to get past that huge obstacle that is there, we don't have enough boats to move a million people across that river?''

And so we are all, God has called us to a land of blessing. That's why the chorus says: God didn't bring us here to go back. He brought us here to conquer the land that He has given us, to receive it and take possession of it. But, brothers, we all, sooner or later, find ourselves before a Jordan River, in our search for the power of God in our lives, for the land of promise. All of us have things in our life that are like that Jordan River that prevent us from entering into the fullness of God's blessing in our lives.

And what are we going to do? We are going to stay in front of the river, we are going to cry like Moses did when he was in front of the Red Sea… What the Lord said to Joshua was, 'tell the priests to start walking with the ark between them.' And the Bible says that when the foot of the Priest steps on the water, the river will open. Then the priests moved, and when the foot of the priests stepped on the water, the river parted and all the people passed dry.

But, brothers, why didn't God open the river before the priests started walking? Because the just shall live by faith, says the Word of God. And God is glorified when his people walk and work, even though not all things are clear before him. Like Abraham we have to throw ourselves into a land that God has not even told us where it is. But, we believe that God will provide, as Abraham said with the sacrifice of Isaac. We believe that God will find us along the way and that those who trust in Him will not be ashamed, because we are moving in the Word of God.

And I believe every day with more and more certainty that this is the key, brothers, for all the problems and difficulties of our life. We have to, even if all the pieces of the puzzle are not in place, we have to start putting it together in the name of the Lord, and the Lord will take care that while we are on the road He will provide us with more and more and more. But, the Christian life has to be such a life of achieving by faith, of launching ourselves in the name of the Lord.

Perhaps you have some project in your life, some need, some obstacle, some burden, some problem. Whether it is something emotional that is tying you down, whether it is a family problem, whatever it is, my advice is, brother, sister, get to work in the name of the Lord, launch yourself to conquer in the name of the Lord. In an almost sense, forget about your problem and start working believing that all other things, 'will be added to you' as the word says.

Now, seek the glory of the Lord in your life, give more and more of the Lord to you, and let the Lord take care of the problem and God will do the work. Because what happened was that when Christ finished ministering through Peter's boat, the resources that Peter provided him, and there, brother, you put whatever you want, your money, your time, your work, all those things Christ needs them. The church of Jesus Christ needs all those things to see the work. Now, when Peter gave those things then the Lord, the Bible says that when he finished speaking he said to the Lord, 'Simon, now launch out into the deep and now cast your nets for a catch.'

Evidently the Lord knew what Peter's drama was. The Lord, with divine wisdom, understood that Peter was a defeated man at that moment and Peter was a man in need of finances and resources, he was a man who was worrying about his future just as the Lord knows your need.

Brothers, there are times when I wonder if God... if God knows what I need and what I'm going through. There are times when the water reaches our necks and we wonder, but when is the salvation of Jehovah coming? Could it be that God forgot about me or is he in another part of the universe busy with other problems?

But, brethren, time and time again we see a God who knows our needs. As the psalmist says, 'he remembers that we are dust, he remembers that we are made of something perishable and that He needs to reach out and help us.' Another situation happened to Peter himself that you will remember. Peter jumped into the water when he saw Christ walking on the water, Peter said to him, 'Lord, if it's you, command me to walk on the water.' And the Lord Jesus Christ said, 'well, walk, jump in.' he threw on the waters and what happened? That on the road when he began to look around and saw those big waves and heard the whistling of the wind and surely water touched his face and saw that rough sea, that moment he looks at his feet walking on a material that is supposed to absorb and he is walking on her, his mind betrayed him.

He took out of sight the Jesus who told him, come to me and he set his sights on the problems and he began to sink... he began to fail and thank God that Peter had the wisdom to say to him, 'Lord, I am sinking!' he extended his hand. Because there is the other thing, brothers, sometimes we launch ourselves by faith. I could tell you about my own life, moments like that when one jumps out of faith and says, Lord, I'm going to jump into this water, there are no maps that will take me where I want to go, but I feel that you are there. you are sending me

And when we are involved in the matter, the problems begin and the fight begins and we ask ourselves, Lord, how are you going to get me out of this predicament?

There is a book that is titled, in fact, like this: How will you get me out of this predicament, Lord? Like a halfway mechanic who starts and disassembles an engine, and after he sees all the parts lying there on the floor, he says, now how am I going to put this thing back together? And many times we undertake things by faith in our lives, and when we are already involved in the matter we realize how daring we have been and we are filled with panic.

But the wonderful thing is, brothers, that even when our faith fails in the Lord, like when we had the initial faith to launch ourselves in the name of the Lord, we have resources and we say, 'Lord, have mercy on me, grab me.' Lord also comes and strengthens us and lifts us up. And it puts us on a safe path because, brothers, it is a promise that is bulletproof. My motto is as I have said it other times here in front of the pulpit, "those who trust in him will not be put to shame."

You will not undertake anything in the name of the Lord in prayer and with prudence and having sought advice in the word of God and if you launched yourself by faith in the name of the Lord you will not be ashamed. Maybe God will change your plan along the way, it's true, maybe the final result will be different from what you had planned when you started the race but in the long run you won't feel ashamed, you won't say 'wow, I trusted in the Lord and look how I feel. failed!' In my life I have not yet known that moment and I have not known it in those who have truly trusted in the Lord.

Let's jump in by faith. But let's throw ourselves giving to the Lord, brothers. I tell you, as a Pastor I sometimes worry a little because, I say this at the risk of being negative, many times I wonder if our entire congregation is living that life of true surrender to the Lord, if we are really experiencing what glory is of the Lord in our life. Many times I fear that some of us, and I assure you that I don't have anyone in mind at this moment, but I say it pastorally, that we are living a fiction, living a religious ritual, but we have not entered that depth in which God wants. We have not seen the glory of God, we have not started to live the life of service, the life of surrender, the life of the cross that as the Lord Jesus Christ says, whoever wants to follow me take up his cross every day and follow me.

We have not thrown ourselves into training like a soldier in need as Paul tells Timothy, so that our bodies and our spirits may be strengthened. We are always on the shore putting our feet in to see if the water is warm enough to launch and we never do. And we never know the Christ that Peter knew at that time.

But the fact is that Peter took a risk, Peter gave up his boat and the Lord told him, 'now, Peter, I am going to show you that at all times, even when I asked you and you thought I did not understand your need, but you were faithful and let me use your boat, now I am going to teach you that I reward those who honor me. Get into the sea and let's see what happens now with me in your boat.'

And when Peter reaches that point out into the sea, the Lord now tells him, 'Cast your nets to catch fish' and again comes the fear of the carnal man, of the rational man, he says, 'Lord, but we have been all the time. night fishing and I am an experienced fisherman and I can tell you that at night is when we fish because there is no noise, the light makes the fish sleepy and then we can cast our nets and fish but now it is daytime and the fish are scared and the conditions are not conducive to fishing.' But Peter did not stop in that doubt if he did not say, 'but, Lord, since you say so in Your Word I will cast the net.'

Brother, just as we have to put forth our efforts in the name of the Lord, the things that we undertake we have to undertake in the name of the Lord. Put the name of what you want, what do you want in your life the most? Some of us want, as I was saying, to be successful parents. And what does successful parents mean? Raising healthy children, raising God-fearing children, we want to be husbands and wives who feel fulfilled in our marriage and I point these things out because in our time I believe it is one of our greatest needs.

Families are divided, they are stabbed by the devil everywhere, and there is a lot of anxiety, a lot of desire to have healthy families, others simply want a life as the proverb says, 'Lord, don't give me too much to forget you and too little to curse you, give me enough bread'. In fact we just want to live comfortable lives and that's legitimate, brothers, we want to have our three hot meals on the table and a roof over our head, you know. And a little suit to wear once in a while so we can go to Chinese food once a month, or McDonald's or whatever. We are not asking for great things and we simply want provision for our lives and that is legitimate.

And how are we going to receive those things? How am I going, a young man who wants to pursue a career… find the resources to study and become a professional? Or whatever. It is casting the net in the name of the Lord, it is putting Christ as the base, as the point of support, like the pitcher who puts his foot on the mound of the hill in the center and throws the ball. We have to put our foot on Jesus Christ first before directing the ball accurately in our lives.

We have to do all things in the name of the Lord. But we have to serve the Lord first, because there are so many easy ways to say, 'oh, in the name of the Lord!' For me, doing things in the name of the Lord means putting my life in the Lord's hands, putting my resources in the hands of the Lord, surrender my whole life in the hands of the Lord and say, 'Lord, wherever you take me, I will go.' in his hands all the rights of your life, you say, 'now, Lord, I am going to launch myself, I am going to trust that You are going to open the way for me, that wherever I go I am going to go safely, I am going to win in Your name.'

And what you are going to see is as Psalm 127 says. It says, “it is useless that you get up early and go late to rest, and that you eat bread of sorrows because God will give his beloved sleep.” Well, sometimes we will be fishing in situations that are not conducive to fishing and people will say, but, 'and this person is not a Hispanic who just arrived from his country recently and does not even speak English, and I speak English, I I was born in the United States, I come from a middle-class family, I have the resources to go to university and this person is trying to become a professional and look at that other undocumented, anonymous, in this country so cold and so big and Does he intend to find his way in this country?'

And others see the mother who comes from a divorced family and who has perhaps lived in a home for alcoholics, this young woman who is starting her marriage and they will say, 'but, don't you know that psychology says that if you come from a broken home will probably repeat the same story? You are fishing in inappropriate waters.’ But, brothers, the difference is that we are casting the net in the name of the Lord. We are fishing in the word of the Lord who has promised, once again, that those who trust in Him will not be put to shame. That we can do everything in Christ, in Christ who strengthens us.

Brothers, that is the great difference, but first there must be integrity towards the Lord. Because many times pulpits make promises that are very easy but they are not being made with the integrity that is required. I say that first you have to put your life in God's hands. I repeat that, because that is the central message, you have to put your resources and your gifts and your entire being at the disposal of Jesus Christ, you have to throw yourself in the name of the Lord, and say as Esther said, if I perish I perish. You have to bet all your chips on the Lord, put them on the table and say, 'Lord, here is all my money, here is all I have, if I fail in the effort it is my problem. But I am going to believe that you are going to honor me, that you are going to lift me up.’

And then, when you do it, what happened here happens, Peter cast the net and what the Gospel says, it says that he caught a large number of fish, so large that the boat sank. The nets were breaking. When God gives, God gives abundantly. The multiplicative miracles that I see in Scripture are miracles that are superfluous, and as I say, it is not because God gave the miracle too much of a handle, it happened. It is because He wanted to leave an image of abundance that when He gives, He gives until it overflows. “My cup runs over,” says the psalmist. Anoint my head with oil, my cup overflows. The psalmist also says, it is like Aaron's beard, he says that the oil runs from his beard onto his garments.

When God blesses, God blesses abundantly. When God brings light into our lives, God gives light until we say, 'Lord, I am already blinded by so much light that you have given to my life.' life in the name of the Lord, with integrity, the Lord is committed, step by step is with us and lead us to victory.

And the wonderful thing is not that we don't have enough for ourselves, because what did Peter and James and John do… they called their partners, “then they signaled to the partners in the other boat to come help them; and both boats came up, in such a way that both boats were sinking.”

Brother, when God gives to you, God will give you enough to give to others as well. God never gives so that only you light up. That's the beauty of this parable of the virgins. I think there were 10 virgins, I think there were 5 prudent and 5 imprudent. The prudent ones had their lamps filled with oil and when the bridegroom comes, the imprudent ones who were not waiting, were not getting ready, approach the prudent ones, they say, 'help us, give us your oil so that we can light up too and go to receive to the husband.' The poor wise virgins said, 'ladies, we are very sorry because if we give you of our oil, then neither you nor we are going to have enough.'

But, brothers, in the gospel things are different. God gives you enough oil so that you light up yourself and light up others too. When they come to you, you will also have resources in your life to give good advice, to give a word of encouragement. To give a word of appeal to seek Christ as savior, to give a word of encouragement and hope. Because you will have enough personal and emotional resources in yourself that you can share freely.

God will give you resources to forgive and to give to others and to be generous instead of how men who live like usurers grab the little coins they have and hold them on their chests because they don't want anyone to take them. Because they think that if they take them they don't have any more. But in the Kingdom of God, brothers, the more you give, the more you receive. Because greater is the flow of God's grace in your life, that is the secret of the Christian life, in the Christian life subtracting is adding. When you give, apparently what the world sees is that you are losing, but the Lord is adding you. There is a small tube that goes from you to others but there is a huge tube that goes from God to you, and God fills you up the more you give, the more you receive, the more God multiplies your talents.

That is the secret of the talent that was given to the servant. What he did was put it in the ground and did nothing with it, others invested, took action and when the teacher came they had a lot to show him.

Brothers, how did we live our life? We are living our lives like this by simply coming to church, sitting there, listening to a sermon, dropping a coin on the plate, and that's it? We are living a life of investing, of giving up our boat and putting it to the Lord's use and seeing how God multiplies his blessings on us and in us. I would like all of us on this day to leave here with that challenge, with that clear vision that, 'Lord, I am going to put my life in your hands today, right now. I will reinforce my commitment to you. I am going to make my pact with you again like a husband who says to his wife, today I want to renew my pact of love with you.'

Tell the Lord, today, in your heart, 'Lord, right now I restore my covenant with you. I want to marry you again. I want to put the seal back, the seal of delivery on my relationship with you.'