Hope Church LV Sermons
Hope for the World :: Harold Peasley
Well, good morning, everyone. It's a delight and joy to be with you here this morning and especially together with my wife and to net, to be at your missions conference and sensing something of the tremendous vision and burden that you have for missions. And as you seek to reach out to regions beyond surely, the blessing of God will be upon any congregation that seeks to fulfill the great commission in all of its various dimensions as you seek to do here from Las Vegas. And we've been associated with you with some years and with Brother Vance and the family. And so thank you very much for the interest you've taken in the work in South Africa, especially our REAP conference. Some of you have been out there to minister. You will never know what it means to many of the pastors and leaders from all over Africa who gather at that conference and are inspired and encouraged in the word of God. And we cannot thank you enough for your investment and ask you even now to pray for the forthcoming REAP conference revival, evangelism and prayer. And as it takes place beginning of December and your teen that will be coming out and those that are preparing to come already. And if there are any others who would like to still join us, providing you can speak good English, of course. And I'm yet to help you in that direction, Brother Vance. I like that one. Anyway, thank you. Our privilege and may God bless you for your investment in our part of the world and elsewhere. Now this morning, if you have your Bibles, what is to turn to the gospel according to Saint Luke and chapter 5? Luke's gospel, chapter 5, over in South Africa, it's in nine hours ahead of us here. That's right, Brother Vance, which means when the Lord comes, we gain first, nine hours later, you're coming on. Is that right? And I'll use the verse. I'll go to prepare a place for you. Okay? No, it won't work that way, I'm afraid. All right, let's honor God's word in the stand and stand as we hear the reading of the word. Luke chapter 5, reading from verse 1. So it was, as the multitude pressed about him, that's the Lord Jesus, to hear the word of God that he stood by the lake of Ganesalot and saw two boats standing by the lake. But the fishermen had gone from them and were washing their nets. Then Jesus got into one of the boats, which were simons and asked him to push out a little from the land. And he sat down and taught the multitudes from the boat. When it stopped speaking, he said to Simon, "Launch out into the deep and let down your nets for a catch." But Simon answered and said to him, "Master, we have toiled all night and caught nothing. Nevertheless, at your word, I will let down the nets." And when they had done this, they caught a great number of fish and their net was breaking. So they signaled to their partners and the other boat to come and help them. And they came and filled both the boats so that they began to sink. When Simon Peter saw it, he fell down at Jesus' knees saying, "Depart from me, for I am a sinful man, O Lord, for he and all who were with him were astonished at the catch of the fish which they had taken." And so also were James and John, the sons of Zebedee, who were partners with Simon. And Jesus said to Simon, "Do not be afraid. From now on, you will catch men." So when they brought their boats to the land, they forsook all and followed him. Amen. Thank you. And you may be seated. Some of the most amazing miracles that the Lord Jesus performed took place around the lake of the Galilee. And in that beautiful setting, the Lord Jesus used the miracles to be a challenge and a message to his disciples and of course to the crowds that gathered to hear him speak. In the passage that we've just read, we have another delightful and intriguing picture of the Lord Jesus in action. The people had gathered to hear him speak. He launched out in or got into one of the boats of Peter and just moved away onto the lake so that the people could hear him as the water helped to transmit his message loud and clear for all to hear and to understand. And it was here where the Lord Jesus, after he had spoken to the crowds, maybe they dispersed that the Lord Jesus turned to the apostle Peter and spoke to him and said to him these memorable words launch out into the deep. And I want to speak on that for a little while this morning and just so that we can understand the message clearly, I want to hang the message on three main simple points. First of all, I want you to see the request that the Lord Jesus made. And then secondly, of course, there was the reasoning of the disciples. And then thirdly, we have the results that obviously came. Number one, the request that the Lord Jesus made. He turned to Simon Peter and he said, "You've listened to me enough now. Now I want to teach you a lesson in faith. I want you to launch out into the deep." Now that was a reasonable question, but there were a number of objections. The objections were pretty sound as far as a professional fisherman was concerned. First of all, it was against the odds. The time to catch fish was at night, not 9 or 10 o'clock in the morning. So this was not the right time as far as the fisherman were concerned to launch out into the deep. Secondly, it was against the opinions of the disciples or the fisherman. You see, they'd been out all night. And as far as they were concerned, their efforts were now finished. They'd worked hard and it would be better to rather postpone the event for another time. And so the opinions of those who gathered was that now was not a good time to go out fishing. For after all, they were professionals. Then you all about the ins and outs of fishing in the Galilee. And Jesus, after all, was a carpenter. So what would he know? And then thirdly, of course, it was against the opinions. They were cold. They'd been out all night. They were tired. They were longing to go home and have sleep and have a cup of coffee or tea, depending if they were Americans or South Africans. It would just depend. And so they would far rather go home. And so as far as the opinions were concerned, it was better to go home. But the Lord Jesus was testing their faith. You know, sometimes when we have a missions conference of this nature or when we hear a challenge concerning missions and God speaks to us, there are always some of these objections that come up in our minds. It's against the odds. Now's not the time. It's against the opinions. It's against our own options. And we would far rather be busy with other things. But sometimes the Lord comes to us. And what he wants to do is to stretch our faith and to cause us to move out from comfort zones and to be available for the opportunities that he gives us, even if we cannot fathom it all out. And it doesn't necessarily agree with our plans for the day or the year that we live in. The Lord comes and cuts across all that. And he looks at you in your situation wherever you are and he says, "Listen, I want to teach you lessons. I want you to launch out into the deep." That means taking some step of faith which is beyond human reasoning and understandings. And if it had to go to a majority vote, it would be voted out because of the opinions of the majority, which, by the way, are not always correct. The request that he makes. You see, it's going the extra mile. It's giving to God not by what is convenient but giving to God by revelation. When he challenges us as we've been challenged already concerning the extra gift, launch out, take a step, go beyond the norm and see what God can do. In some cases, it's facing some storm. The economic situation does not suggest that we take at least that we launch out into the deep. It would be contrary to human wisdom and man's advice and his suggestions. But that's sometimes where the Lord Jesus comes and takes our hand and he says, "I want to teach you who you must trust and how you must operate if you'll just take the step of launching out into the deep." The second thing I want us to notice here in this passage is, of course, the reasoning. There are a number of reasoning factors that came in, right? The number one, of course, there was what we call the human factor. The human factor says he has the voice of experience speaking. These were seasoned fishermen, the voice of experience. There was the voice of the majority, as I've said. It's not the thing to do. You can't expect us to be stretched anymore. You can't expect us to give our lives and our time and our energy and our money to missions when we've got so many other commitments. There's the voice of the human factor that constantly goes contrary to the call and the challenge that God gives us in exciting and challenging days in which we live. And then secondly, there is what is called the security factor. Security factor simply says, you know, it would be easier and nicer to fish in the shallows. We can stand there safely. We don't have to worry to go all the trouble of launching the ship and go the boat and going out. And so the security factor causes one to be hesitant in launching out into the deep. I want to tell you, there's an evil one who will come up with plenty suggestions why we should not be involved in some remote area of the world. Perhaps untouched. It would be dangerous and that's not for me. Some other crazy individual might want to do that, but certainly not me. It's safer. It's more secure. And you know, just a small cat, perhaps that'll satisfy us. Let's not get too extravagant in our thinking and in our planning. You know, the Christian life. Somebody said is not for sissies. Amen? Not for sissies. It sometimes takes, if I can use the word guts, to take your stand and launch out into whatever deep water he wants you to go. Let me tell you a little story in Zimbabwe. Many of the pastors from Zimbabwe come to our conferences, brother Vance Nosen and brother Teddy and those who come out and know and meet them. And there are a number of them that we train in evangelism and outreach. About three years ago, they were in a certain town called Kadoma. They were praying for the situation in the country, in the government. The police arrested them for instigating the riots, as they said. It was a Friday afternoon and they put them into prison. They put them into prison, into cells in the prison there, which contained six people. They crammed fatty into every cell. And they stood. There was no place to lie down. There were no bathroom facilities till Monday afternoon from Friday to Monday. I said to them, what did they do? They said, "We sang to the glory of God." There was one evangelist. He was blind. On the Saturday morning, he called the governor of the prison and said, "Would you put me please in another cell?" He said, "Why should I put you in another cell?" He said, "I'm an evangelist. I've lead everybody to Christ in myself. Give me another cell so I can witness." Amen. Praise God. On the Monday afternoon, they were released. He asked if he could stay on till Wednesday to full finish the work. I have an idea, ladies and gentlemen. He launched out into the deep. He took a step. It would have been far more convenient to slip out than Monday afternoon to a clock. Anybody would have done that. I think I would have done that you and I probably would have done that. But this brother, not this brother, there was a burning compassion within his heart to see the gospel go out to needy other people in those prison cells because he could not leave them. That's trusting God in the midst of every suggestion that it's time to rather be fishing in the shallows, the security factor. But, of course, there is the faith factor. And the faith factor says, "You know, we've done our best." But those five says, "Never the less at thy word." You know what's happening there? He has Peter putting a dilemma. From a human point of view, from a security point of view, from every other point of view, it would have been unwise, it would have been ridiculous to go out and to go fishing. But there was a man called Jesus standing there. There was a man who said, "I want you to launch out." There was something magnetic about that man that challenged him. And he says, "I don't understand it. It's foreign to my thinking. It goes contrary to what I have as far as my skills are concerned and my experience in my background and my way with all. But nevertheless, at your word, that's what faith is all about my friends. Faith cometh by hearing and hearing from the Word of God." Do you know what God is wanting more than our experience and our skills and our abilities? He's wanting us to simply say, "Lord, I don't understand it, but Lord, at your word, I will respond, and I will give myself to you. My life is not my own. We'll launch out into the deep and lay down the nets." Hallelujah. That's faith. And that's what God wants today. Now lastly, the result, well, we know the result. They went out and they lay down the nets and what a catch. There are four things that came out of that experience. Number one, it was a miracle. It was a miracle. Only the Lord God made that happen. The nets broke. I can almost imagine the Lord standing on the side and saying, "Oh, you of little faith. Why didn't you just trust me?" You know, it's pretty obvious because in verse 6 there, he says, or leads verse 4, "Let down the nets, plural." And Peter says, "Nevertheless, at thy word," and he said, "We'll let down the nets." Peter was going to let down one net when Jesus said, "Let down the whole lot, men." Not just one. You see, there's a little bit of lack of faith. Yeah, we'll go, providing, "I've got all the money paid for." I'll be available, providing, "I've got some sense of security." And we'll let down one net. When the Lord says, "Man, let down the whole bank," you'd leave them all down, man. Just trust me. Stop trusting in human abilities and human resources and human ingenuity. Trust me. Reckless, dynamic faith that trusts God and his word and see what he can do. And God does the miracle. And I'm sure there are many here today and say, "You know, I had to take a step. I had to lay down some net. I didn't have the means. I didn't know how it was going to work out, but I've seen him answer. I've seen him do miracles, and those who are missionaries here will give you the same testimony right back in our own work. We've seen it man when every other human resource is no longer available, but God has stepped in and God has proved himself to be sufficient. Stop letting down one net, lay down them all and see what God can do. Amen. Number two, there was a ministry. They lay down the nets. The nets were broken. They began to break. There were so many fish. You talk about evangelism, and they got involved, and the Baptists called the Methodists to help them, and the Presbyterians, they got the partners to get involved. It didn't matter who they were. Let's get involved as far as the kingdom is concerned and see it being extended, and partners joining and everybody benefit from the catch. Wasn't that a great experience? There was a ministry there, right there. And thirdly, there was a manifestation when all Peter saw it all. He realized the mistakes in his life. He said, "Lord, depart from me. I'm a sinful man." You see, there have been some of the guys around today. They would have taken the glory to themselves. They would have started their own Peter Evangelistic Organization. They would have started their type of the month, right there. A book on how to catch fish, how to launch out. He could have drawn all the attention to himself. Peter breaks before the living God and realizes he's nothing more than just a sinner, saved by grace, deserving judgment, knowing nothing to brag about or to boast. It's all dependent upon him. Listen, when God begins to bless, that's when I must get fearful lest I draw glory to myself. It all belongs to him, and give it back to him and test him, and he'll never let you down. And lastly, there was a motivation. And the motivation was the Lord says, "Peter, you've just seen a miracle as far as fishes go. There's coming a day when you're going to see it amongst people." And not very long after that on that mighty day of Pentecost, when the disciples had gathered in the upper room and multitudes had flocked into Jerusalem, and Peter stood up boldly and began to preach Jesus, the Spirit of God came down, and 3,000 people responded, and the nets broke everywhere, as people came to faith in the Lord Jesus. There was a tremendous, tremendous move of God's Spirit. Listen, it all starts to really down the nets. It all starts when we stop trusting ourselves, but trusting in a living God that can do far more abundantly than we could ever imagine possible. One of my favorites and heroes of the faith, Hudson Taylor, started the China Inland Mission China years ago. When he applied to go out as a missionary, they said, "You're not the type we need. You're not fit to be a missionary." And the committee turned him down, but he believed God. He said, "I'm going to lay down the nets. I'm going to trust him." And he made his own way to China. He went out on a ship, took six months to go to China to launch the burden of his heart. And when they got close to the far east, and to some of the islands surrounding China, the sailing ship that they were on was experiencing difficulties because in spite of the fact that they'd done their best, there was no wind and they were being taken by a current. They needed wind to move them away from being dashed on the rocks or been left at the mercy of islanders who would destroy them when they arrived. And someone said to the captain, "Ask this man. Hudson Taylor to pray." He said, "So would you pray for us that God would send some wind?" He said, "You want me to pray that God will send wind so that we can get away from drifting to the islands?" He said, "Yes." He said, "I'll tell you what, you set the sails." And our Lord's God to send the wind. The sailors said, "That'll be ridiculous." He said, "Well, that's what I'm asking you to do." He went down, they set the sails against their wishes and against the odds and suggestions because they were professionals, you know, and they set the sails. And as they set the sails, Hudson Taylor began to pray. Within a half an hour, there was a gale. They rushed down and said, "Hey, just cool it, men. Just don't pray so much. Just let us like an orphan." He said, "Set the sails. Set the sails." And I'll provide the wind. That's God speaking. I want to say to you, ladies and gentlemen, this morning, it's time to set the sails, to take that step of faith, whatever that means in your life, and allow God to send the wind. And it'll take you to places you never dreamed of. He'll lift you onto heights you've never, never, ever climbed to. And you'll know the blessing of God in your life. Somebody's got to launch out. Somebody's got to take a step. Somebody's got to come into what we call abandoned faith and say, "Oh God, here is my life. Whether you call me to go across the sea or across the street, it doesn't matter. I am available. I'm launching out for the living God. Amen." And only God knows what will happen in a congregation of this nature and of people of this caliber, what could be done for the sake of the kingdom. Amen. [BLANK_AUDIO]