Matthew
4:18-22 Jesus calls Peter, Andrew, James and John to follow
Him.
mend-to free from faults or defects
· to improve in manners or
morals:reform
· to set right:correct
· to put into good shape or working
order again: patch up:repair
· to improve or strengthen
· to restore to health:cure
· to make amends or atonement for
1.
We
can't have maximum impact on the world with ripped nets.
1.
When
Jesus called James and John, they were in their father's boat mending their
nets.
1.
This
was their way of life, their income, their career, and they took it very
serious.
2.
The
knots had to be tied and retied.
3.
There
is fraying rope that has to be replaced.
4.
After
each catch of fish, the nets had to be inspected, cleaned, mended, and
reinforced.
1.
Nets
left idle would dry out in the sun and be too weak for fishing.
2.
Nets
are built for fishing.
1.
Nets
are designed to catch.
5.
Ministry
has to be done and redone, there is no resting, and we cannot leave the nets
untended.
1.
Throw
a net prepare for a catch.
Luke 5:5-7
NLT [5] "Master," Simon replied, "we worked hard all last night
and didn't catch a thing. But if you say so, I'll let the nets down
again." [6] And this time their nets were so full of fish they began to
tear! [7] A shout for help brought their partners in the other boat, and soon
both boats were filled with fish and on the verge of sinking."
• The net was filled with fish.
• Other vessels beckoned from the
shore to help haul in the miraculous.
• It was at this time that the
disciples abandoned their former occupation and spent the next three years
traveling throughout Israel with Jesus.
• For three years, they listened and
recorded His words.
• They watched Him pray, observed
His attitude toward people, events, places, and circumstances.
• They lived with Jesus, witnessed
His power, His healings and they ministered under His directives.
• At the end of this three-year
period, Jesus made a covenant with them.
• Then, He was crucified before
their eyes.
• Three days later, the risen Christ
appeared to them and continued to instruct them, telling them to go to Galilee
and wait for Him there.
• The disciples went to Galilee.
• But after a time, they became impatient and bored,
frustrated, and they returned to their idle nets.
• If you forget the whole reason for
being rescued and simply return to what you used to do or what you used to be
you've missed Christ's entire mission for your life.
• Idle people are more open to the
temptations of Satan than to the calls of God.
• They launched out into the
Galilee, fished all night long, casting the net into the sea and pulling it up
again and again, only to find the nets empty.
• For some this has to be déjà vu.
•
As
the early violet rays of the sun began to brighten the dark sky over the
Galilee, a familiar voice called out from the shore, John 21:5 NLT [5]
"He called out, "Friends, have you caught any fish?"
•
Echoing
across the morning sea came the disciples' discouraged response: "No."
They replied."
•
The
voice called back, John 21:6 NLT [6] Then He said, "Throw out your net
on the right-hand side of the boat, and you'll get plenty of fish!" So
they did, and they couldn't haul in the net because there were so many fish in
it."
• The disciples complied and the
scripture records their nets were filled with 153 large fish, vs. 11.
• That has a very special
significance for the apostles.
• First, in that time, there were
only 153 known species of fish.
• Jesus had already called the
disciples 'fishers of men' (Mark 1:17) but they focused initially and
exclusively on Israel.
• Second, the number 153 also
represented every possible, known people group in the world at that time, in
other words, the whole world.
• The nets had never been stretched
to this capacity.
• The fish were not only greater in
size than what the nets usually took up, but there was a vast quantity, more
fish than these nets had ever held.
• Still, the nets held the catch
firmly and without strain.
•
Before
the crucifixion, Jesus had told the disciples that He had many more things to
teach them, but as yet they "could not bear them." Jesus then
promised, John 16:13 NLT "[13] When the Spirit of truth comes, He will
guide you into all truth. He will not speak on His own but will tell you what
He has heard. He will tell you about the future."
• If God showed you your future and
everything in it you would either give up discouraged or celebrate prematurely.
• In the beginning, the disciples
were not ready for the great haul of fish.
• It was too soon.
• He wants to use you greatly but is
it too soon?
• Now after three years of simply being
with Jesus, cognizant of their own inadequacies and having learned to wait upon
Him, they were ready.
• Soon the Holy Spirit would come
and fill their ready nets to the fullest capacity.
• Someone here this worship
experience, this day, this moment in time desperately needing a overloading of
the Spirit.
• He is here to give you, to get you
exactly what you need.
• His presence is necessary to
strengthen the nets.
• Throw a net prepare for a catch.
2.
When
the nets get mended it will overload our catch.
1.
When
the nets get mended it will overload our reach.
1.
When
the nets get mended, people get rescued.
1.
When
the nets get mended God is honored, the Holy Spirit is overworked, and the
Gospel of Jesus Christ is propelled through the nations.
2.
When
the nets get mended it'll sink us and only He will remain.
1.
Mend
the nets of frustration.
2.
Mend
the nets of failure.
3.
Mend
the nets of disappointment, fear, insecurity, and lack.
4.
Mend
the nets of religious bias.
5.
Mend
the nets of hate, racism, judgment, and control.
1.
Practical
net mending means closing down the lack of faith, lack of resource, and lack of
purpose.
1.
Shut
down the lack of connections with connecting.
2.
Shut
down the lack of communication with communicating.
6.
Mend
the pride with humility.
7.
Mend
the lack of love with compassion and grace.
8.
Mend
the lack of restraint with a vision of God.
9.
Mend
hurting with serving.
1.
Practical
things, systems that must be fixed.
1.
Here
the draught was symbolic of the success of their future ministry.
1.
Nothing without Him, overwhelmingly everything with Him.
3.
Why
is it so hard to mend nets, cause it involves people.
1.
People
who have their own will, people who choose their own plan, people who choose
their own strategy.
2.
People
who feel they have all the answers and the people who feel they have none of
them.
3.
People
who are busy, frustrated, angry at the church rather than inspired by it.
1.
Nets
get ripped by rocks.
2.
Nets
get ripped by the pressure of the water.
3.
Nets
get ripped by stress, criticism.
4.
Nets
get ripped by sticks, trees, trash that has accumulated under the oceans
surface.
5.
Nets
torn by fish, nets torn by time, nets torn by storms.
6.
Nets
get torn through great use.
7.
Nets
get torn through years of service.
4.
How
do we reach our home, our state, our nation let alone the utter most parts of
the world with torn, ripped, shredded nets?
1.
I
believe our attitude, our spirit represents our net, and it reflects our catch.
2.
If
you have a bad attitude, a bad spirit, you got impure motives, you're draggin
nothin in, prepare yourself for a catch.
5.
God
uses the simple things, the elementary things, and the childish things of this
world to confound the wise.
1.
Jesus
ministered to the crowds, but invested His life into the disciples.
1.
The
closer you are to Jesus the more powerful of a disciple you are.
2.
The
result was a global explosion.
1.
Throw
a net prepare for a catch.
6.
Mend
the nets means I'm preparing for tomorrow.
1.
I'm
thankful for yesterday, I'm grateful for today but I'm preparing for a catch
tomorrow from God.
7.
Mending
their nets: from scripture means to properly put in order, or to make ready,
and so includes cleansing, mending and folding the nets in preparation for the
next evening's fishing.
1.
A
derivative of this same word is used in Ephesians 4:12 where Paul
describes the work of equipping the saints.
1.
As the Greek definition relates, to equip therefore
means to complete thoroughly, to repair or adjust, to fit, frame, mend,
to make perfect, to perfectly join together, to prepare, or restore.
2.
My
trust is in His perfect ability to save again, rescue again, restore again, and
revive again.
1.
God
is unceasing, His love is constant, His grace is relentless, and His mercy is
from everlasting to everlasting.
8.
It's
so funny to me that when nets work people can't wait to cut them open.
Illustrate
here: cut a
seining net-scissors.
· Cut them open with insecurity.
· Cut them open with criticism.
· Cut them open with defeat.
· Cut them open with words of
discouragement.
· Cut them open with the past and
how we used to do it or in the present to this is how we need to do it.
1.
Well
we didn't do it that way last year, well neither does the NASA space program,
because they've learned how to do it better!
1.
May
I remind the church this day we are to be "Perfectly joined together......"
9.
What
have you caught and are holding onto?
Illustrate
here: a box
in the net-heavy
1.
I
know some people who have caught something that God never intended for them to
catch and hold on to but they are desperate to drag it in as it destroys their
strength, their opportunity, and their life.
1.
Pastor
Mike I just can't let go.....!
4.
Mend
the nets, do the work of God.
1.
Mend
the nets prepare to grow.
2.
Mend
the nets multiplication occurs.
3.
Mend
the nets the miraculous takes place.
4.
Mend
the nets, and many will be rescued.
1.
Net
mending requires sacrifice.
2.
Net
mending requires cooperation.
5.
I'm
not trying to catch a trophy I'm trying to rescue people.
1.
Nets
are for catching.
1.
There
are broken people who need the net mended in their life.
2.
Nets
catch things.
2.
If
we're not gonna catch people why throw nets?
1.
For
the sake of throwing?
2.
For
the sake of feeling better about ourselves?
1.
Throw
a net prepare for a catch.
Illustrate
here: Jesus
is the net. We are the net. Catch, no release. Catch, no release.
**Use people
to make a net across the stage.**
• In Christianity we make up the net,
do your part!
• Hold on with fierce love, fierce
tenacity, and fierce advancement.
• Hold the line.
• Do my part.
• Perform my mission.
• I am to win the lost and disciple
the found.
Illustrate here: Do you remember red rover?
• Look for the weak point and travel
through.
• That's exactly what the Devil does
in our individual lives.
• You need to be shouting out to the
world, the flesh, and the Devil that you will not break through.
• I have made up my mind.
• I need to walk in the power, the
right, the enforcement and the authority of Christ.
• Be unbreakable.
Matthew
13:47-48 NLT "[47] "Again, the Kingdom of Heaven is like a fishing
net that was thrown into the water and caught fish of every kind.”
• Signifying all.
• The noble and the common.
• The rich and the poor.
• The hypocrite and the sincere.
• Every class, every color, every
creed are being drawn out of unbelief unto salvation.
• This Gospel net "caught
fish of every kind," meaning every variety of character.
• There is a mission, there is an
assignment, there is an overall goal and it has nothing to do with our talent,
gifting, status, or ego it only has to do with the Christ.
• It's about the life saving, life
altering, eternity changing, addiction breaking, joy giving power of Jesus
Christ.
• Well, I'm holding the net; I'm
doing my part.
• Just because we’re holding the net
doesn't give us the right to throw out those that need to be caught and rescued.
• I catch, He cleans.
• I catch, God will deal with their
hearts, their actions, their past, their present, their future, and they must
choose to allow Him to do so.
• Force it, destroy it.
• If you force the Gospel you'll
potentially destroy an opportunity to share it.
• Taking care of others is hard
work, rescuing others is hard work.
• Mending the net is tedious,
detailed, grueling work.
• Two things you have to do:
1. You have to throw the net.
• You have to throw the net, you
have to build the relationships, you have to put yourself out there man, you gotta
share who you are, what you are and what Christ has done in your life.
2. You have to prepare for the catch.
• The catch is the discipleship, the
catch is the training, the catch is the encouragement, the catch is the hard
work, the catch is the loving, the catch is “I'm gonna pour my passion for
Jesus Christ and His Church into this persons life and spirit.”
Join us next month for a series entitled "Sit with me." We're very excited about our nexts steps.