Lord get on my ship
1. So it was, as the multitude pressed about Him to hear the word of God, that He stood by the Lake of Gennersaret,
2. And saw two boats standing by the lake; but the fisherman had gone from them and were washing their nets.
3. Then He got into one of the boats, which was Simon’s and asked him to put out a little from the land. And He sat down and taught the multitudes from the boat.
4. When He had stopped speaking, He said to Simon, Launch out into the deep and let down your nets for a catch.
5. 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 net.”
6. And When they had done this, they caught a great number of fish, and their net was breaking.
7. So they signaled to their partners in the other boat to come and help them. And they came and filled both the boats, so that they began to sink.
Lord get on my ship
Luke 5:1-7
I'm sure that many of you will be a witness to me today that we indeed do have a shortage of usable men. There are plenty of men, but my question today is, are they men that God can use. There are men nearly every where you look, but just because he's standing and breathing don't mean that he's the man he needs to be.
Somebody said just because it park in the garage, don't make it a Cadillac. We need to know today that unless Jesus is on your ship you will never be all that you need to be.
This scripture says that the two ships were empty until Jesus stepped on board. That’s why each of us in here today need to invite Jesus to get on our ship. We need to realize that we are empty without Him.
Without Him, we will pray empty
Without Him we will sing empty.
Without Him, we will love empty.
without Him, we will forgive empty.
Without Him, we will give empty.
without Him, our understanding will be empty.
Somebody need to shout to your neighbor, let Jesus on your ship. You will never have a well balanced and complete life until Jesus step on board.
Your life will be full of empty praise, full of empty worship until Jesus come aboard. I come by here today Macedonia, and I can't really stay long, but I need to tell some man who's facing life giants to let Jesus on your ship. You can ask David, the little shepherd boy, the Lord is a giant killer.
I know the bill collectors are looking for you, let Him come in.
I know you've got trouble on every hand, let Jesus come in.
I know you are tossed by the restless seas of life, faced with stom after storm, but let Jesus come in.
I declare to you today, if you let Him come in He will make a change in your life. I can look around and see that many of you are dedicated today. But today, dedication is not what we need. Not long ago, I talked to my church about how we often enclose ourselves and we build a fence around our traditions, thus causing us not to get any better.
We often brag about not being what we use to be, but I’m here to say that if we are not what we need to be, then we are still in the same shape. It’s time to stop brag about our mediocrity and start getting better.
I come here today to talk to the men, I believe that if we as men will get better, I believe that those people around us will get better.
I believe if we would become better fathers, we can have better children.
I believe that if we would become better husbands, we can enjoy and have better wives.
I believe if we would become better pastors, we can have better members.
I believe if we would become better officers, we can have a better congregation.
Today we need to stop dealing with God in shallow water like we always have and we need to learn how to push out into the deep. WE need to learn how to give God the best of our service. Give God all that you’ve got and He will give you all that you need.
IN our text Jesus had been preaching in and around Galilee. Usually as He preached the crowd would just sit around and hear Him. Now they began to press upon Him, insomuch that He sought for a place to escape from the pressing crowd. He saw two empty boats nearby.
He entered one of the boats, this one belonging to Simon Peter. And He requested that Peter and His crew would push out a little bit from the land so that He could get away from the pressing crowd.
I need you to see today that Peter didn’t question Him, He didn’t ask why, He just offered the Lord all that he had. He allowed Jesus to come on to His ship and take control.
I believe as Jesus taught the crowd from the ship, Peter quit cleaning the net and began to listen to Jesus.
Peter offered Jesus His ship and Jesus felt compelled to give Peter something for the use of his ship. Now I said that to say this, men, when you give the Lord all that you’ve got, He will make sure that you’ve always got enough to give. That’s why momma then use to say, “You can’t beat God giving”.
Now, there is three things that we must learn to do when we let Jesus come aboard our ship.
Change our habits.
The first thing we must do is change our habits. Verse 4, “When He had stopped speaking, He said to Simon, Launch out into the deep and let down your nets for a catch”.
Now, this was morning time when Jesus commanded Peter to push out into the deep and let down his nets. It was an unusual time to fish during those days. See during this time, they normally fished at night, Peter will even go on to tell Jesus, “WE’ve been fishing all night and have not caught anything”.
The reason they fished at night was because the water temperature was cooler near the top and the fish would come up near the top of the water. They could fish in shallow water at night.
But now that it is morning and the sun was out, it had heated up the water and the fish was surely gone back down into the deep. So, they had a habit of fishing only at night. This was their ordinary way of doing things.
But Jesus is no ordinary person. When He comes on your ship, He will do extraordinary things. So we need to learn how to offer God our ship so that He can help us change our habits.
Some of us today got some lying habits, Let Jesus on your ship
Some got cheating habits, let Jesus on your ship
Some got backbiting habits, let Jesus on your ship
Some of us will just about do anything to get out of coming to church, let Jesus on your ship.
Today we have so many habits. Someone has even said that we are creatures of habit. We become comfortable at doing things one way when we need to learn how to be led by the Holy Spirit.
I’m sure today that one thing we as men and women lack is the leading of the Holy Spirit. If we want to truly be used by God, we must learn how to let Him take control of our ship.
Come into humility.
The next thing we must do is to come into humility. Verse 5, “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 net”.
Now watch this, Peter was an experienced fisherman. He had been fishing all of his life. Now Jesus, who was a carpenter, steps onto his ship and tell him to throw his net out at the wrong time of the day and in what Peter felt was the wrong place.
They had already fished all night long and caught nothing, but Jesus makes all the difference in the world. When He come aboard our ship we must learn how to listen to His radical instructions.
He told Moses, stretch out your rod.
He told Joshua, at Jericho, march around the city 1 times for 6 days, and 7 times on the seventh day.
He told Gideon, you’ve got too many men, send some of them home.
He told Elijah, go to Zeraphath, which was Jezebel’s home tome.
Even though Jesus had given him some radical instructions, look at the humility of Peter, “Master, we’ve toiled, (and the word “toiled” means that they have worked hard. All night, throwing out the nets and pulling them back in all night long, that had to take it’s toll on Peter and his crew. We really don’t have the strength to throw out the nets any more) but nevertheless, at thy word, I will throw out the net.
Master I’ve been putting up with wicked church folks, and I really don’t have the strength to fool with them any more, but nevertheless at thy Word, I will.
Master I’ve been worrying with men would don’t really want to prosper in life, and I really don’t have the strength to go on with them, but nevertheless at thy Word, I will.
Master I’m tried of living life the way that I’ve been living and I really don’t have the strength to go on the way that I’m going but, nevertheless at they Word, I will go on.
In order to push on, we got to let Jesus come in and take control of our ship. Philippians 2:5 says, “Let this mind be in you which was also in Christ Jesus”. If we are ever to be the men that we need to be, and be used by God in the way that He wants to use us, we must become humble.
To humble yourselves only means to become obedient. Just like we want our children and our wives to obey us, we must learn how to obey God in the same way.
We need to know that we are empty without Jesus. Let Him come aboard your ship.
Heed to His Commands
The last thing that we need to do is to heed to Jesus commands. Verse 6, “And when they had done this”. They push out into the deep, they let down their nets and they caught so many fish that their net began to break.
They done just what Jesus had commanded them to do, and they couldn’t handle all of the fish by themselves, so they signaled for their partner boat to come and help them. They came and they were able to fill both boats until both of them began to sink.
Watch this, Jesus used Peter’s boat, but when they launched out and began to catch fish, they called James and John to come and help them.
I said that to say this, you ought to get close to somebody that you know is in tough with Jesus, when you get close to them their blessings will overflow and fall into your lap.
When we began to do as Jesus has commanded us to do, He has promised us that great blessings will come our way.
And I’ve learned to let Jesus take control of my ship.
I’ve learned how to give the Lord all I’ve got.
John 3:16 says, “For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in Him shall not perish, but shall have eternal life”.
I’ve learned, that we got to get away from our habits,
We’ve got learn how to move into humility,
And we’ve got to learn how to hear the word of the Lord.
His word will,
Open blinded eyes
Feed you, when you get hungry
Make the lame to walk
And make the dumb to talk.
His word will be
A root out of dry ground
A wheel in the middle of a wheel
A bridge over troubled water
A lilly down in a valley
His word will
Give ease to a troubled mind,
Pick me up, when I fall down
Strengthen me, when I get weak
Hide me, when I get in trouble
His word.
Died for you and me.
Why should I feel discouraged,
Why should the shadow come,
Why should my heart feel lonely, and
Long for heaven and home,
When Jesus is my portion,
A constant friend is He,
His eye is on the little sparrow,
And I know, He watches me.