Lend your boat to the Lord

Chapter 5 of Luke says: “It came to pass that while Jesus was by the lake of Gennesaret, the crowd pressed against him to hear the word of God. And the Lord saw two boats that were near the shore of the lake and the fishermen having descended from them were washing 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 let down your nets for a catch.” Responding Simon said to him, "Master, we have been working all night 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 broke. So 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 of the catch that they had made, fear had seized him and all those who were with him, and likewise Jacob and John, sons of Sebedee, 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.”

The Lord bless his word. Amen. Lend your boat to the Lord. God has chosen us to collaborate with him in the evangelization of the world. And it is up to us to say yes to that invitation through our lives. As Christ begged Simon Peter to lend him his boat to carry out his evangelistic task that was before him. He also asks us to give him our boat, our life, our resources so that he can express himself through us.

This passage begins by describing a need in the evangelistic teaching ministry of Jesus. Crowds followed him wherever he went and were desperate, they pressed on him. Because? Because the Lord gave them food, he met the needs of the people and that is why they persecuted him. Jesus was very different from the religious of his time, the Pharisees, the Sadducees, the established religion. He met needs, if the crowd was hungry he provided food, if they were demon-possessed he released them, if they were in need of a word of affirmation like Plunder or the woman with the issue of blood or healing, whatever, the Lord provided that need. If they needed physical healing, the Lord healed them physically, gave them hope.

And I believe that a church that wants to be evangelistically effective also has to fill needs. Now, not just the needs that people identify, if you tell people simply what they want, they're going to say we want food, we want money, we want fame, we want God to tell us that we're good, but they're not going to be there. necessarily willing to pay the price for those things. And the church also has to fill secret needs that they themselves do not know about.

We have to awaken those needs and that is also part of the preaching of the church. But it is important that these people flocked to Jesus, persecuted him, which did not happen with the Pharisees and Sadducees. A dead religiosity has nothing to teach or give to people. This culture must be offered an approach to the Gospel that meets the needs of this culture.

What are some of the needs of the people of this time? I recently went to eat with a pastor who invited me to New Hampshire, a pastor friend of mine, John Foster, and he took me to a very nice place, a very nice Italian restaurant in a very prosperous area of New Hampshire and we sat in a beautiful place. This man has two restaurants, one that is very close and this one is like a kind of grocery store, an Italian winery with exquisite meats, tanned foods of all kinds, all the vinegars that have been and are to be had, all the olives. It is a place like a museum almost, beautiful. And within that big place there is also a cafeteria, a small restaurant, a café where people can have their lattes and cappuccinos, a very nice place, very chosen.

And while we were there waiting to be served, I looked around and I saw all these middle and upper-middle class people, because that area of New Hampshire is like that, it's one of the most prosperous places in the entire nation. I would say to John, looking at these people sitting there so happy, so sophisticated, in that sophisticated environment, he would say wow, come to these people and say, you know what? Christ wants to get you out of your miserable life. He wants to calm your unhappiness, they would laugh at us. Because these people are very happy, they have money, they have luxurious houses, they have places like this to eat what they want, they read very sophisticated newspapers, they have access to all the culture of the world. Coming to tell them, the Lord wants to rescue you from your poor and sad life, does not make sense to them.

We have to offer them a Gospel that speaks to what they need. Because there are needs in them, and we then have to present the Gospel to them in a contextualized way, as Paul did, for example, in the Areopagus in Greece. He told them about their appetite for knowledge, for intellect, for culture and framed the Gospel in a way that they could understand, and they still rejected it like that, but there was some kind of harvest in the end.

But we have to be a church that fills needs as Christ filled certain needs. I would say some of the needs of the 21st century culture that is all around us, Boston, one of the great, great cities of the world, well people always need community. People despite all their money are lonely and need to come to an environment where they feel loved.

One of the things that I discover, even for example in the ministry in English that right now celebrates its service parallel to us, is that there are many people from Europe, from Asia, they want to come to where we Latinos are because there is a heat that we offer. They feel welcome. They feel that they are among people who have a certain degree of emotional health, because sometimes money and culture give you certain things but it also sterilizes you many times and these people need human warmth, they need a smile, they need to be with people who are healthy. emotional, that they laugh, that they do not have all the pretensions that sophisticated and well-studied people have.

And we can offer them that affection. When people come to church greet them. If you don't know the person, extend your hand to them, as they walk in the door, whoever they are, if you don't know them, introduce yourself, maybe they are a member of the church but you don't know them, nor does he or she know you. you. Introduce yourself, say hello, extend your hand, instead of leaving in a hurry, let's go home at once, or go to greet people we know, have that ministerial sense of reaching out to someone and looking for someone, tell them, my name is… you don't have to give him a speech, just, hey, how are you? My name is such and such, God bless you, it's good that we're here, right? And who knows if you can make a very nice friendship.

So people need community. All the money they have and life out there people are lonely. A person with a lot of money sometimes does not find sincerity, often does not find human warmth and you will be surprised at what a smile and a gesture of generosity can do.

People also need a sense of personal fulfillment, they feel insecure about themselves. Despite having a university or academic degree, despite having a position in the corporation, there are still areas in which they feel inferior, they feel that they have not arrived, they feel that they still lack something. And that's why they try to fill it with material things and with titles and achievements and positions, but that doesn't fill the need in their soul to feel like they're connected to something that's beyond them.

And a church has to be a place that connects people with God, connects them with a sense of greater purpose, that there is something more. And that is why when our people come to church and when people from outside come, they need an environment where the vitality of the Kingdom of God is manifest, where worship is felt, intense.

I urge you, brothers, to get into praise and worship, to create an environment, to create an environment of praise. Let's not come as passive people, to be manipulated like puppets, no, you come well prayed, well prepared to adore the Lord and to create an atmosphere of praise. You are part of the miracle of adoration, you are part of the miracle of making the presence of God live in the middle of the environment, so I know that especially for the 9 o'clock service, it is early in the morning and it's like morning it invites a stillness and a softness, and that is why we have to be doubly insistent in worshiping the Lord with vitality so that people come and feel that presence of God in the spirit.

We have to go further and sometimes we are surprised when we make a little effort, the engines heat up and we feel the presence of God more strongly. Because there is a part that we have to play in our life and that people come and feel that presence of God. People need practical teaching about human relationships, work, family, they have interrelational problems and the church has to be a place that provides advice, that provides teaching, that provides practical preaching, that helps them understand how to relate to others and how to also relate to your family, husbands and wives. That is why, for example, these marriage workshops are so important.

I asked the Lord months, many months ago, Lord, help us to be a church that ministers more to the family, to the youth, to married couples, wives and husbands, parents and children, and we have made efforts and we have seen Thank the Lord, there are things, but unfortunately many of us sometimes who need this teaching do not come.

Do you know who often comes to marriage workshops? Those who don't need to, because they have strong families and marriages. I say they don't need, we all do, but many times those who come to these workshops are people who already have marriages that are working very well. That's why they have good marriages, because they dedicate time to it.

Many times the couples that need to be strengthened do not come. And this is not a scolding, or yes, perhaps it is a scolding. But I encourage you to participate in these resources because the church wants to be a church that meets needs and that is one of the areas that the 21st century most needs, healthy families and marriages.

So there are many other things I would say. I don't want to get lost on that point alone, but it is important that we, the church of Christ, like Jesus provide for the needs of man, of humanity. And if a church, if a Christian, if a believer is an indication of God's presence in the world, it will be contagious and people will come to him, to her, or they will come to church because is supplying needs.

And at the moment the Lord finds that there is a crowd that is chasing him, he wants to listen to him, they stick against him and he is surrounded by people and he cannot speak, he cannot preach because distance is required between the preacher and the people to whom He is going to preach to you. So he looks around, uh, a lonely, empty boat. There are some fishermen near her who are cleaning their nets, washing the nets so that the salt does not eat away at them, and they are preparing them for the next fishing.

The Lord decides to solve his dilemma by asking the owner of the boat, Peter, and goes to him and says, "Look, do you want to lend me your boat because I need to preach to this crowd?" "Of course, I'm not using it, go ahead." And I imagine the Lord called a couple of people, they take the boat, remove it from the shore and put it more or less close to the shore but already in the water. The Lord gets on the boat and the crowd is a little further away and then the Lord, having a suitable platform, can preach the message to the crowd in more detail.

And it's interesting that Pedro, we'll see later, has been trying to fish all night and hasn't caught a single fish. Peter in a sense is now a picture of somewhat financial defeat. You have financial problems because if you don't fish you're going to have problems, but that's for later. There is also a parallel drama that is taking place there.

But now Peter can be useful by lending his boat to the Lord. And here I see a very interesting symbolism and it is that our lives, as I said at the beginning, our lives are like Peter's boat. The Lord needs his word proclaimed to a crowd in need that urges the word of the Lord and we, like Peter, like Peter's boat, are the answer to the Lord's need.

Now Jesus Christ could have found another solution to his dilemma, as God that he was and as a totally miraculous being. We see Jesus doing wildly creative miracles at another time, calming a storm, making coins appear out of a fish. It would have been no problem for him to magnify his voice. Do you think he couldn't do that? of course, magnify his voice and that all the people would listen to him. He would not have needed Peter's boat.

But God in his efforts for the redemption of the world God always works in partnership with man, always. God does not work unilaterally, he likes to work in community and he has chosen us to be part of the miracle of the evangelization of the world.

That is a mystery to me because God could take a powerful, strong archangel, he doesn't give the Lord problems, he doesn't need food, he doesn't have a wife to support, he doesn't have a home, children cause him problems, he doesn't have to sleep, he can to travel with very powerful wings from one country to another and preach the Gospel, it does not need maintenance, there is no danger of making mistakes. He could use angels but no, he wanted to use us, his creation. And we are part of the miracle of evangelization.

God's evangelistic plan is to use men and women like us to proclaim his Gospel. He has no other plan. Although it is a somewhat difficult plan, but it brings great satisfaction to the Lord and if we do not preach the Gospel, there is no one to preach it.

The word says, how will they hear the Gospel if there is no one to preach to them. What a great mystery that is. Then, the Lord says, "Peter, lend me your boat," and Peter agrees to Jesus' request and from that moment begins a process that will lead to a radical, dramatic change in his own life as well. Sometimes the small changes, the small decisions that we make are tremendously significant and change our destiny.

Peter says, I'm not using my boat, of course I am, Lord, go ahead, use it. That decision he made changes his life radically. And so with us too. Attend church, apart from Sunday, one day you decide, I'm going to stop coming to church only on Sunday, I'm going to go on a Wednesday night and maybe God will find you in a humble, simple prayer service, you see another dimension of God's plan for your life.

Signing up for a discipleship class can change your life. How many of our brothers have been greatly impacted by your study in discipleship classes. Invite someone to our house for a dinner to talk about the Gospel. Get closer to that neighbor that you see every day and who lowers his head. They both lower their heads so as not to look at each other when they leave for work in the morning. Drop by one day, introduce yourself and who knows what God can do through that little encounter.

Make a prayer list to pray for 5 people, put it there in your Bible and when you are on the bus or train take it out and pray for 5 minutes for each of those people so that they know the Lord, so that God changes their lives . Sign up to serve in a church ministry. Come to the couples workshop. They are simple things, but those are the things that lead to a spiritual vitality that then allows you to be useful to the Lord.

And when you start and are faithful in a little in a lot then God will put you. Amen. We have to get out of the routine, to be Sunday people, forgive me if that offends you a little, but the Christian life is much more than coming to church on Sundays. We have retained that Catholic tradition of going to Mass, but the Christian life is much more than that. Sunday is simply like the culmination of a week-long life lived in the presence of the Lord. And it is not a substitute for vitality, for dedication, the life of a true disciple, consecrated, serving the Lord militantly, giving everything he has, everything for the service of the Lord.

It is there where the encounters with the Lord take place. It is in those moments where God speaks to you and changes your life and also provides for your needs. Peter makes a small gesture, agrees to allow Christ to use his boat and that totally changes his life. And then the Lord can get on Peter's boat, fulfill his purpose by preaching to the crowd and here I believe the real drama of this text begins, from Luke 5 1 to 11.

Because I always love those moments of dramatic encounter between the drama of a man and Jesus Christ. And here is this case, because now Peter is invited by Jesus to take the boat and launch out into the deep. It says here that when he finished speaking, “he said to Simon, “Launch out into the deep and let down your nets for a catch.”

Wow, it looks like the Lord had another secret agenda and now that agenda is going to start to unfold. And here I see another very important symbolism. We first point to the boat in its symbolism of us, our lives that can be used as a platform for the proclamation of the Gospel. But here I see a rich symbolism that opened up a lot about this text to me, and that is that this text tells us about 3 different positions that the boat occupies through this narrative.

And so it can also be our lives, our levels of approach to the Lord. 3 different levels of approach to the Lord, and also 3 levels of usefulness and compenetration with the spirit of God. Because this boat, first when we see it pictured in Luke 5, is near the shore, verse 2 says, "he saw two boats standing near the shore of the lake."

The first position is near the shore. The second position of the boat is set off a little from land, verse 3, “he begged him to put her off a little from land.” This boat goes from being on the shore, to being off the land a little bit. And finally we see that the boat is taken out into the deep, “launched into the deep.”

This boat goes through different positional levels, but I believe that our life is also the same. And just as that boat serves in 3 different ways and has about 3 levels of utility, so too, to the extent that we go through the 3 positions, our life also acquires different levels of utility and spiritual richness.

Because it is about 3 positions with respect to the world. For me the shore is the world. You remember the story of the seed that falls in 3 or 4 different places. One says that it falls by the road and on the way people trample on it and it is fruitless. The road, the shore, is the place where the coming and going of life is, it is the market, it is the human desire, it is the place where the crowds are, where people come and go and traffic and all these things. And that boat is there near the shore when we see it.

And many Christians are like the boat of Peter that is near the shore. His mind is still on the things of the world. Yes, they have made a gesture of approaching the Lord but they are still on the shore, they are interested in spiritual things, it is true, they visit church from time to time, they avoid the grossest, most scandalous sins, but they have not given themselves up to the Lord. Lord completely, they are not disciples yet, they are not truly followers of Jesus Christ. They are religious people, more or less, and sometimes not even that. they are perhaps like Nicodemus. Nicodemus knew that Jesus was an important man, religiously speaking, and he comes to Jesus at night so they don't see him. How many of us are like that, right? We don't carry our Bible because we don't want to be identified as religious, evangelical. That doesn't mean anything, maybe your Bible is on an Ipod or an Iphone or whatever. But the truth is that many times we are even ashamed that in our neighborhood we are identified as one of those rajatablas Pentecostals who carry the Bible on their arms.

Many of these people have not yet had that encounter. Nicodemus was like that. He came at night, Lord, we know that you are a man of God because you do this and that. And the Lord stopped him and said, Nicodemus, don't come at me with those things. If you are not born again you cannot see the Kingdom of God. The Lord was direct, he identified which foot he was limping on. It's like the rich young ruler, what must I do to have eternal life? Well, deliver your goods to me, follow me. I can't, sir, I'm too attached to my money.

There are people who are close to the shore. In León de Judá I can say that there are a few, you would forgive me if I am so direct, but there are. You must ask yourself, where am I with respect to these spiritual positions? And God receives us there but he wants us to go deeper, to go deeper. God cannot use us. The boat is there empty, fruitless, simply inert. And when a Christian has not consecrated himself to the Lord, he has not given his life to the Lord, there has not been that breaking of the rod of the will under the dominion of Christ, that Christian sooner or later is going to be empty like the boat, he is going to to be useless like the boat, he will not experience the deepest revelations of the Gospel, he will not experience the joy of the Lord as God wants. It's going to have some degree of benefit because the Gospel has benefits.

When you put your finger on the Gospel, energy and life are transmitted, but how good it would be if you put your whole hand in so that it goes through your whole being, that experience would be much more powerful.

The second position of the boat is when it moves away from land a little. The Lord tells him, take my boat out a little so I can announce the word to the crowd. Many believers sometimes go from being casual followers, like the ones I just described, allowing themselves escapades to the flesh from time to time, a little vacation after all the holiness is so difficult that from time to time you have to take a day off. Keeping their time and their finances and their pleasures separate from their faith to some degree, avoiding as much as possible being radically committed Christians, they come to church, give their offering, worship, read the Bible once in a while, identify to some degree as evangelicals, but they have not yet had that radical commitment. They don't live that desperate position, crying out to the Lord, Lord, I want more of you. I want to meet you.

There is a position where many of us are called by God and we have already entered a certain level in the life of the church. And I want to encourage you to go beyond that position, maybe you do certain things, maybe you're a member of the usher group or help out at I wanna or other things. You have entered a certain position, but I believe that there is an even more powerful position in the Christian life and I am a bit of a mystic in that sense, in the good sense of the word, because God wants something more from us and until we reach the third position we are going to be halfway in the spiritual life. God wants something deeper than just coming to church every Sunday and even some Wednesdays.

I see many Christians who give the Lord what is external and give the Lord the biggest, ugliest and most notorious things in Christian life, but they do not give him their interiority. I see Christians that I have known for so many years and they are, to a certain extent their character has not changed much, they have the same personal flaws, sometimes you preach sermons and you say, wow, finally the arrow went into the heart, and the next day you see them doing exactly what they have been doing all the days of their life.

Because? Because they have closed certain parts of their being to the penetration of the word of the Lord. You know that for me the strongest frontier of the Gospel is when you give your interiority to the Lord, your character, your temperament, your defects, your human relationships, your way of speaking, your way of treating others, your pride. There are people that God has to convert their language, He has to convert their pockets, He has to convert their brains, He has to convert their past, their memories of the past. They have not allowed the Lord to enter those areas of their life and they come to church to do many things but they have not given their interiority to the Lord, that second stage of the boat, when there is a level of consecration that we separate from.

Rather, it is the second level in the sense of external. But the third level, I don't want to confuse the images. First, chance rather in the Gospel; second, a medium surrender and God does certain things through our lives. But the one that interests me the most of all is the third position. The Lord tells Peter, “Now you are out in the deep. Take the boat well out." It is when the boat is completely separated from the shore, to the point that you can hardly see the shore.

That is the position that I would call the position of the consecration of the self, the total surrender to God. It is there in that radical position where God can work in us and through us, and make us true, effective soul winners. It is there that God begins to answer our prayers dramatically, where we see God's miracles, where we begin to live a supernatural life, where we know him deeply and he knows us.

I was talking to a very successful man this week at meetings I had and was amazed at his spiritual depth. We were sitting having lunch in some meetings – you will think, the pastor spends his life having lunch all the time. We were at a board of directors and this gentleman, a very successful investor, surprised me with his spiritual depth. I have seen him, I have known him for several years because whenever we go to the same meetings we see each other there, but he had never had the opportunity to speak. And I discovered a very profound man, well known in the things of the Gospel, the mysteries of the Gospel, very consecrated to the Lord.

And he spoke to me about knowing Christ and being known by him. And he told me that he wants to be known by God. He says that when God knows us, and it is true, the Bible talks about being known by God and knowing God. Knowing is something active, not just something passive. The Bible says that Adam met Eve. In the Old Testament to know means to have physical intimacy.

And I think that's the idea of knowing God and being known by him. That is the oar offshore. Paul says, I want to meet you, talking about Jesus Christ. And I want to know him in his power and in his sufferings. Moses said to the Lord, show me your face. If you love me, if you really want to use me, I want to see you, I want to know you. That is the place where God truly wants us to arrive. It is there where we have encounters with God, where he opens up to us, teaches us who he truly is.

Out to sea Peter knows who Jesus is. The crowd heard only one dimension of Jesus but out in the deep Peter knew the deity of Jesus, so much so that he was filled with fear. When he saw that miraculous catch, all those fish, and he understood, this being with whom I am here in such intimacy and closeness on this boat has just sent hundreds and hundreds of fish to come from everywhere and get into our net. The worst of situations, during the day when the fish are scared and there is noise and they don't want to be close and go far away, Christ does this tremendous miracle. And Peter is filled with fear, as Isaiah was filled when he saw the divinity of God, as the prophets when they saw God very close, they felt that they were going to die because they saw the deity of God.

Peter is filled with fear and says, "Depart from me, Lord, for I am a sinful man." Deep in the Sea Christ reveals his divinity, reveals his true identity to Peter. It is out into the sea where you know the Lord, it is in prayer, seeking God, giving your life, crying out to him, desiring him desperately, that is where God wants to show you what he wants for your life.

Until we are very hungry God does not give us much food. The Bible says, seek first the Kingdom of God and his justice and other things will come in addition. Peter hands over his boat to Jesus and the Lord tells him, "Now I am going to show you something that you have never seen before."

When we serve God first and give him everything we have and are for his purposes then he gives us things we didn't even expect. One of the things that Christ gives Peter is that he supplies his physical, material needs. Peter is on the shore washing nets that have not caught a single fish and now the Lord tells him, "Launch out into the deep, cast your net to catch a fish."

You know, when you serve God and let God use your life first you know that the Lord takes care of all your other needs. I am not afraid to tell people, serve God, serve God radically in your life and the Lord will always bless you. This is not cheap prosperity. This is people who know. I can tell you that I speak because I have experienced God's generosity in life.

When you serve God, God blesses you, blesses your children, blesses your finances, blesses your marriage, blesses your family, blesses your emotions, but you have to love him desperately and give the best of him. Many of us give the Lord the wing to keep the breast for ourselves. It has to be the other way, give him the breast and he will give you the whole chicken.

That is the key to a blessed life. I tell you without fear of being wrong, let God use you first, give and give yourself to the Lord and you will see that your life..., God will watch over yours, God will defend your interests, God will multiply your loaves and your fish, but you have to start like this.

Peter gave Jesus his boat and the Lord said to him, "Now, Peter, I am going to show you something, come, let's go out into the deep." And Peter, who could not catch a single fish at night in optimal conditions, now catches a great multitude of fish, because he attended first to the needs of the Lord.

When you hear me here encouraging you, give to the Lord so that your church has what it needs for its missionary work, pastors should not have to beg people, inventing a new and creative way for them to give every Sunday, that should be the ethics of the believer, of the children of God, desire to give to the Lord. You don't need to be begged or convinced, give generously to the Lord and forget about everything else and you will see that God will take care of your needs. As simple as that.

Another thing that I see out at sea is that Peter's faith is tested. The Lord asks him to fish in less than advantageous conditions and this required faith on Peter's part. Today, the possibility of a miraculous catch of souls would seem impossible. The world is so indifferent to things of the spirit. I think of this journey that we are embarking on to evangelism and to bring lives to Christ and to make our church a church with a primarily evangelistic orientation, in this very closed, so sophisticated, 21st century city like Boston, and I think of so many people, not just Latinos. Latinos are to a certain extent easy to evangelize, although we also have our own complexities, but I am also thinking of other people, other nationalities, other groups. Because God has set the Lion of Judah to fish in many different waters.

But when you look at people today they seem very difficult to catch, and the Lord tells us, no, cast the net for a fish. Peter says, "But Lord, we have tried all night and we have not caught a single fish." Thank God he had the sagacity to say, "But at your word I will cast the net."

We have to cast the net the word of God. It is your responsibility, not ours. Cast your net on him in the name of Jesus, let us cast the nets on him in the name of Jesus. If we are in the will of God, he will be in charge of giving us the technology and giving us the strategy and means. I know that God is going to bless us with a great miraculous catch because we are going to do it in the supernatural power of God.

When the power of God is in our lives, no obstacle can slow us down or impoverish us. God will always provide his power to bring us out victorious. The important thing is to have him by our side and put him in the first place and obey him in everything. Obedience to the word of God always brings reward and victory.

I see many people changing the methodology and wanting to go to ways that do not scandalize people, overshadow the Gospel, take away its radical demands. They try to make the vanilla, basic Gospel type, they take out the name that can make people uneasy, they leave out all the things that can be unpleasant and scandalous, and they try to find a middle ground Gospel so that people… they open the door a little more so that people can enter.

But at the same time they impoverish the Gospel because the harvest of souls, the miraculous fishing is not given to us by improving the means of the Gospel, but by seeking the power of God. And as outrageous as it is, as counterintuitive as it is, if we are doing it in the spirit of God and in the word of God, we will have positive results in our lives. Let us fill ourselves with the power of God, let us seek lives more delivered to the Lord.

These times of prayer that we have had on Fridays… By the way, this Friday we are not going to have it for different reasons, but the other Friday we are going to have time for prayer, as we have had. God has greatly blessed those times, we have had wonderful attendance, some spectacular visitations of the power of God, very beautiful times of prayer.

Why are we doing that? because we want the power of God, we want a church that is very close to the Lord and his word, we want to be filled with the Holy Spirit, we want that vitality to spread in all areas of our congregational life, because if we are filled with the power of God, if we are mar within, if we have an understanding of Christ's deity and power, there is no obstacle we cannot overcome.

Why not launch out into the deep in your life, in my life. That is what Christ wants us to do, that we have a vision of him as Lord, as savior, as God. That is what we have to do in our spiritual life. God is calling you to an encounter with him.

And I want to call all of you and myself to seek a greater consecration in our lives. Take a moment in your spirit and ingest this message and receive this call from the Lord on your life. If there is someone who feels God seeks deeper, seeks deeper in that spiritual life, in that approach to the Lord, I invite you now to give yourself completely to the Lord, consecrate yourself to him. Embrace a more radical life for Christ. Ask the Lord to prompt you to dig deeper into the Christian life. Commit to reading more of the word, a deeper prayer life.

Ask the Lord that those areas of your life that prevent you from being all that God wants for you, be removed. Take times of fasting, sanctify yourself more, cry out more to the Lord. Santiago says that we bend our knees, that we cry before God, that we ask the Lord to fertilize us. Surrender your life to the Lord. Consecrate your resources to the Lord more and more each day. That is what God wants for your life.

If there is someone on this day who wants to give their life to the Lord Jesus Christ, we also open that space. You can raise your hand, come forward here. We want to pray for you too, it is a way that you can go, get off the shore and go deeper, get off the ground a little bit, start that journey with the Lord. If you haven't done it, I invite you to do it this morning, raise your hand, if you don't want to come forward, I can pray from where you are too, but don't remain passive. Be involved with God's purpose in your life as well.

And as a congregation I ask you, brothers, let's give ourselves more. God wants a congregation radically committed to the Kingdom of God. I invite all our brothers to search deeper for God's purpose in their lives. Father, in the name of Jesus we ask you, Lord, enter us deeper into the spiritual life. Enter us deeper, Lord, into the life of the spirit. We want more of you, Lord. We want your glory, Father, to fill this congregation. And we ask you, use us, take us out of the shore, Father, put us into the deep where we can have a vision of what you have for us, that we become true fishers of men, Father. We want more of you, Lord, we need you.

Thank you for this day. We deliver this service to you with thanksgiving in the name of Jesus. Amen.