Throw a net prepare for a catch

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.