Leap of Faith Week 1

We're going to jump into a new series, a new collection of messages this week. Next few weeks, we'll be looking at a leap of faith. And today was scheduled to be the day that we would reveal. You know, we've been showing this trailer of me in a plane and whether or not I jumped. And today was going to be the day that we revealed that and show you the decision that I made. We've decided to postpone that yet one more week. And now I'm just kidding. We're not-- we're going to show you. We're going to tell you. But before we show it to you, you can go to Luke chapter 5, I'm going to read from there in just a moment, Luke chapter 5. But I did plan on going skydiving. This is about two or three weeks ago now. And one of the things that they told me, which made the decision tough, what to do, but they told me the hardest part of skydiving. You know the hardest part of skydiving is? The ground. The ground is the hardest part. And so check this out. Here's what happened whenever I went up and contemplated whether or not I wanted to take the leap. Check this out. So of course I did it. I'm so disappointed in some of you that thought I wasn't going to do it.

No, but the other thing that kind of made me kind of go for it and take that leap was they said that you don't even need a parachute to go skydiving. You just need a parachute to go skydiving more than once. And so I went ahead and suited up in the parachute. And we took the leap. And the thing that I think caught me off guard with it, it was the lack of training that took place. There was no warm-up jumps. There was no like, here, let's jump from four feet into a bunch of pillows and practice the jump. There was no lace. When you get to 18,000 feet, stick your head out of the plane for a while so that you can get used to that air blowing against your face. There was no practice of anything. It was just, matter of fact, the training was so brief. I don't even remember what he said. He goes, when you get up, lean back, do this, put your hand. When I tap you, put your hands out, like, it was just so fast, I felt like I wouldn't be like, can we do a longer training course or something? But it was just kind of like, either you're going to jump or you're not, either you're going to go all in or you're not. And it did remind me, obviously, we're doing it with these messages in mind, but it was so-- the parallel was so obvious that with God, there is no sort of jump. And if you want to truly experience a living Savior, if you want to truly experience Christ,

there is no like, hey, just go 25% in and you'll get 25% of the benefit of what it looks like to have God in your life. If you truly want to experience the God of the universe, there is no, well, just add him to the normal pursuits of your life and day and just bring him along. No, that's not the call of God. That's not how it works to experience God. And so in a lot of ways, it does take a true leap of faith. And let's read Luke chapter five. I want to look over these next couple of weeks, Lord willing, at some of Peter's leaps of faith in his life. And for him, the three of the leaps that we're going to look at is all leaps out of a boat. For me, it was a plane, for Peter, it was a boat. I choose his over mine, but Luke chapter five verse one. And it says this, that one day as Jesus was standing by the lake of Jenny Sorett, the people were crowding around him, listening to the word of God. And he saw at the water's edge two boats left there by the fishermen who are washing their nets. So he got into one of the boats, the one belonging to Simon Peter. And he asked him to pull out a little ways from shore. And then he sat down and he taught people from Peter's boat. When he had finished speaking, he said to Simon Peter, put out into the deep water and let down your nets for a catch. And Simon answered, Master, we've been hard at work all night

and we haven't caught anything. But because you say so, I will let down the nets. And when they had done so, they caught such a large number of fish that their nets began to break. So they signaled to their partners and the other boats to come and help them. And while they came and they filled both boats, so full that the boats began to sink. And when Simon Peter saw this, that's when he fell at Jesus' knees. And he said, go away from me, Lord, I'm a sinful man. For he and all his companions were astonished at this catch of fish that had taken place. And so were James and John, the sons of Zebedee, Simon's partners. And then Jesus said to Simon Peter, don't be afraid from now on, you will fish for people. So they pulled their boats up on the shore. They left everything and followed him. on this word, speak to your church, we pray, Jesus name. Like this phrase, leap of faith, it has this origins in a Danish philosopher, in the 19th century, Danish philosopher Kiergard, he's kind of known as the father of existentialism, and he would talk about this, he would talk about taking the leap, that's the phrase, he would use taking the leap and he would say by faith. And what he was talking about is that when it comes time for us to really experience God,

there comes a point that we have to take a leap from our rational and our physical understanding and we have to leap into a supernatural understanding, we have to leap into a different realm of belief and faith in God and it was, so he would encourage people to take the leap and then he was talking about the leap of faith and then through the decades and the centuries that phrase began to take shape and that got translated into a Latin phrase called saltus fadii and that is the phrase that we get leap of faith, that's what that means leap of faith and so there is a, I mean, they're probably in our walks with God, there are probably several leap moments that happen and I want us to test our leap, I want us to test our faith today, kind of where we are and how hard we're going after God and how much we're, how high we're leaping after God. It's like, I want to test it in a way that like, and sometimes in sports combines, they'll test an athlete's vertical leap, a vertical jump and so they put a pole and it's got these little flags up there and so you take one step and you jump up and you test your vertical jump, your vertical leap and I was gonna actually do it here in front of everybody, just I didn't want to make anybody jealous with my crazy vert though so I didn't do it 'cause you'd have been so impressed with how high I jumped, my vertical at this one is at least two and a half inches, I can get off the ground so, but that's what they do and instead of testing our physical vertical leap,

I want us to test our spiritual leap today and let's compare it to kind of what Peter is doing in his, in this leap of faith as he really encounters Jesus, I mean, he had had some probably interactions with Jesus before, we do see that in other gospels, but this was the moment that really he takes the leap and so I think it comes with maybe four questions on this test that we're gonna take together, obedience would be one of them, offering would be one of them, acknowledgement would be one of them and abandonment would be one of them. Let's start with offering, like let's test our willingness to offer to God. Now, if we started offering, I know what somebody's thinking, somebody's thinking, pastor, didn't we just take the offering? Is that what you're talking about? Like, that we should give our money to Jesus? Are you gonna preach on the offering today? Talking about money? No, that's not what I'm talking about, but yes, that is what I'm talking about, but offering is so much more than your money and so sometimes there might be somebody that might regularly tithe and make that offering and think, okay, I've offered Jesus what he wants. Oh, trust me, Jesus wants way more, Jesus is calling for way more, you'll experience God in a greater way

if you'll give him more than just your money. It's a matter of fact, if I give God, if I truly offer God what I have, then the money is the last, I mean, that's the easiest part of it, honestly, if I'm already surrendered everything to God. So there's this moment of offering and so let's look at what that looked like for Peter in verse three, it says, Jesus gets into one of the boats and it was the one belonging to Simon Peter and it doesn't even say that Jesus necessarily asked him if he could borrow it, he just kind of gets into it and I just kind of like that and so we see implied here, Peter was over washing his nets and he sees Jesus rustling around with this boat and he sees Jesus get into his boat and so we're left to assume that Peter runs back over there to be like, hey, that's my boat, what's going on here? And Jesus gets in the boat and he says, hey, push out a little from shore and then look what happens next, Jesus sits down and teaches the people from Peter's boat. How awesome is that as Peter offers what he has to move the ministry of Jesus forward? And maybe you've heard this phrase before, people say this all the time, people say, God doesn't call the equipped, he equips the called, I see some heads nodding yet, God doesn't call the equipped, he equips the called

and while I believe that that is true, where we miss on that statement is this, God has been equipping you before you ever knew you were calling. Let me show it to you. Let's go back to when Peter went boat shopping for this boat that Jesus ends up using. a new boat, and so he caught some fish, and he sold the fish, and now he's got some money to buy a new boat, and so he goes boat shopping, and maybe he sees one that's super expensive and super nice, and I can't afford that one. And he sees one that's got more holes in it, but the one he has now, it's worse than the one he has now, so I'm not going to buy that one, and then he finally finds just the right boat. It's right in the middle, and he can afford it, and it's a little bit bigger than the last one he had, and it's going to float better, and so he buys that boat, and when Peter bought that boat, could he ever, in his wildest dreams, could he ever have imagined that the God of the universe was going to step inside that boat and use it as a platform to preach the gospel? Never in his wildest dreams, so what was going on? God was equipping him for the call of God on his life before. Peter even realized that there was a call of God on his life. There are things that God has put in you, passions that God put in you before you, even surrendered your life to Christ, and sometimes we think, "Well, if I offer God everything, that means he takes everything from me." No, he does not take everything from you. Some things, he's the one that put them in you, and he just redeems them, and he uses them. Some of the passions that you have, some of you have passion for the business world or passion for finance or passion for the arts or passion for music, and God's not going to take that away from you necessarily, some, yes, maybe he'll ask you to give something up.

But for many of you, it's going to be a matter of no, I'm the one that put that in you, and now that you're in a line with my calling, I'm going to use that for my glory, amen. So Peter offers what he has, and I love that Peter's transition, Peter's transformation happens at his workplace. His leap of faith doesn't happen in a synagogue or in a church, no, it happens in his workplace. And so Jesus invades Simon's vocational space in order to reveal himself. And I guess I just have to ask this question, when's the last time you invited Jesus into your other spaces? We get so good at compartmentalizing at church, and Sundays is Jesus' day, and church time is Jesus' time. But Monday when I get to work, I got to leave Jesus at home, because of how things happen at work. You don't understand the environment that I work in, Pastor, well, what if you brought Jesus up in that environment? I wonder what lives might be changed if you would invite Jesus into your workplace. Well, Pastor, you don't understand when I get there, I've got to hustle, man. I got to cheat a little bit, and I got to deceive a little bit, and I got to treat people a certain way if I'm going to get out of them when I need to get out of them. You know, I think it's time that we invite Jesus into the areas of our life, let him into your job, let him into your boat, let him into your vocation, let him into your boat, let him into your workplace, let him into your hobbies, let him into your boat, let him into your social life, oh, how about some single people, let me tell you this, let him into your dating life. The day would be different if we invited Jesus up on the date with us. When I was in youth ministry a bunch of years ago, I would talk about bringing Jesus on dates, and I would say, if you don't want to bring Jesus, then bring me on your date. Bring Pastor Johnny on the date, I'll go with you on your date, and you should have seen the eyes of the students with the thoughts of bringing Pastor Johnny on the date with them, how things would change if we would invite Jesus into our lives, and truly into our whole lives, into our friendships, into our relationships, into our homes, into our

families, into our marriages, invite Jesus, and offer him those spaces, offering us so much more than money. There was an offering, we got to test our level of obedience. Let's test our level of obedience. So Jesus finishes talking, look what he says to Simon, now he says, "Put out into the deep. Put out into the deep water now." Let's go out into the deep water. Now I'm going to confess something, I was tempted to just read this one verse and preach on this the whole service. Just push out into the deep, because I feel real strong that there are way too many of us that have been doing life in the shallow end of Jesus. Our spiritual lives are shallow and we're just stuck there, we're just caught there. Can you imagine if I rolled up in some kiddie pool somewhere, maybe the kiddie pool in your apartment complex, or the kiddie pool in the neighborhood pool, or the kiddie pool on the cruise ship, or the kiddie pool at the resort, you know how they always have that little kiddie area, right? Can you imagine if I pulled up into the kiddie pool, and I'm just in there splashing around for hours, and just, I mean, having the time of my life, they're in the eight inch deep "Hey, which one of these little ones belong to you?" And I'm going to be like, "None of them, this is just my, these are my people. This is just my, this is my environment. This is where I feel the most comfortable. How many know at some point someone's going to be calling the police on Pastor John and he said, "Hey, we need to get this guy, I don't know what's going on, we need to get him out of here." Because it just does not make logical sense for me to be hanging out in the kiddie pool. And can I tell you, some of you have been living for Jesus

too long to still be in the spiritual kiddie pool. All right, God would say to you today, it's time to come out into the deep. It's time to get out of this barely making it from day to day, barely dragging yourself in on a Sunday. Haven't thought about Jesus in the seven days since you came to church last time, barely holding on, getting enough charge to barely make it to the next seven days to make the next time I have my spiritual moment at church. You know what God's saying is, come out deep. How about emphasize some spiritual things in your life. Come deep, Pastor, I don't know how to pray. Learn how to pray. Come on, get good at prayer. Learn, be deep, deeper in your worship, deeper in your devotion. Oh, God's calling you some to be deeper in your study of God's word. Oh, we spend so much time getting deep in all these other things, some of you are deep in conspiracies and deep in this thing and deep in that show and deep in that movie and deep in that series. Come on, it's time to get deep in the things of God. So Jesus has pushed out into the deep water and look what he says next. And then I want you to let down your nets for a catch. And I love Peter's like master. So we've been working here all night. And we haven't caught anything. You know what, let me tell you what Peter is really thinking.

I think Peter was really thinking this. So I'm a professional fisherman. Jesus, you're a carpenter. I think that's great. But I'm a professional fisherman. And you're going to get in my boat and tell me how to fish. It's daytime, Jesus. And during the day, fish can see these nets. So we're going to drop these nets. They're going to run. That's why we fish at night here, OK? Because then we can drop the nets and the fish don't see it. And we fished all night and we didn't catch anything. You know what that tells us, Jesus? There ain't no fish here. So that's what Peter's thinking. And then a lot of Peter's now, he says, but because you say so, I will. And I love that Peter's basically doing here saying this. This is not going to work. And so when it doesn't work, Jesus is going to be on you. Listen, I don't even hate that mentality. I would rather somebody act like that than just say no to Jesus because it didn't work before. Because that's what we do. Oh, no, some of us, we just say no to Jesus. Because when Jesus calls us to do something, that maybe we tried one time and didn't work out so well. So what do we say to Jesus? We say, Jesus, I tried that and it didn't work.

Oh, when he says calling it to deepen the prayer, say, well, I tried to pray for like three days one time. And it didn't work. So I don't know, Jesus, I tried to pray. I tried to go to small group one time. But when I went that night, the small group was canceled. So that was just, I tried, it just didn't work. Oh, I tried to fast. One time I fasted for three and a half hours, Jesus. And I did nothing happened. And so sometimes, I'm gonna just tell you this right now, Jesus is not afraid to call you to something that has failed in the past. And I like that instead of Peter saying, no, this won't work. Peter says, no, because you say so, I'll do it. And it's this initial small leap of faith. The dropping of the nets was the first little leap of faith that Peter makes 'cause he doesn't think it's gonna work. And yet he does instead what Jesus asks him to do and then look at what happened on the other side of even reluctant obedience. Nets breaking, boats sinking so many fish. A miracle happens on the other side of just even, even obedience that you're not sure about, but because he asks, I'm gonna say yes. And here's what we do. We want to understand it all. We want to believe it all. And then we figured that's when I'll walk in obedience.

And I want you to look at least in this story. And I think for a lot of us, it's obedience first. And then we see and we have faith and we have belief because the obedience helps us in that. That's what Dietrich Bonhoeffer, he said, "Unless he obeys, a man cannot believe." So obedience is gonna be a part of this belief process. And we sometimes get the order mixed up. We want to believe first and then we want to learn how to obey. Sometimes obeying unlocks this incredible provision and unlocks this incredible mirror. And so Peter sees this incredible miracle happen. He sees nets breaking boats, plural boats, sinking with all these fish. And then he has a moment of acknowledgment. And it's another way I want to test our acknowledgment. Look what he says. He says, "When Simon saw this, he sees all these fish." Look what he does. He falls at Jesus' knees and he says, "Go away from me, Lord. Get out of here. I'm a sinful man." They were all astonished by this catch. I thought you said that he was acknowledging Jesus. You might want to read that again because he didn't acknowledge Jesus. He was projecting Jesus. He was avoiding Jesus. He was getting Jesus out of there. He says, "Jesus, get away from me." But I want you to understand a process called conviction.

It's important that we understand what conviction is. Because sometimes when a holy God comes in, when we encounter a holy God, it will cause us to feel this sensation called conviction. And conviction is two feelings at the exact same time. Here are the two feelings you feel sometimes when you encounter Jesus. The first feeling you feel is a, "I need to get out of here." Part of conviction that you feel is like an avoidance. It creates this desire to shrink back. It's this shame. It's that I'm not worthy. And so I got to avoid. So that's part of conviction. But at the exact same time, you'll also be feeling this feeling of, "I cannot let go of this. I need this. I need God." And these two things are happening simultaneously. And sometimes people listen to the first one, and they bold. Because they know they'll have to deal with some stuff in order to be available to God. So instead of dealing with some things so that they can be available to God, they just avoid him. They're feeling that avoidance in conviction, but they're also feeling that desire to be available to him. So I'm saying when you feel conviction, don't run away from God. You know, when you feel conviction, run towards God. Understanding that God is the one that can clean your mess up. God is the one that can make the crooked way straight in your life. God is the one who has the answer to the problems that you're facing. Luke, in Luke chapter 5, Peter in verse 5, Peter refers to Jesus by a Greek term that means master or teacher.

But now, in verse 8, he changes the title, and it's a Greek word now that means Lord. It's like he's acknowledging, and in this moment, yes, he's saying with his mouth, get away, but with his body, he's holding on to his knees. And he says, Lord, what does he mean by that? He's the recognition of Jesus' divine authority, his supernatural identity. And this is what I love about this acknowledgement moment of God. You really are. You really are God. I love this about blind faith. Sometimes blind faith, we take the leap, but blind faith doesn't always stay blind. Because, look, Peter drops the net in faith, leap of faith. Doesn't think anything's going to happen. When all those fish come up, not only did Peter see it, everybody saw it. Like, there becomes proof that faith actually works. Can I tell you that blind faith does not stay blind? If you put your faith in Jesus to heal your family, when God does heal your family, people see that and go, I don't know what happened to you all, but something happened in your life. When you put your faith in God to heal your body and then God comes through and heals your body and that he's the only explanation for the healing that comes, look, it's not blind anymore. Now I can see what God has done in my life. It's got to be in a moment of acknowledgement. And then finally, it's got to be a moment of abandonment. And I love, verse 10, Jesus says to Simon, don't be afraid. From now on, you'll fish for people. So they pulled the boats up on shore and look at this. Let me kind of emphasize this phrase here. They left everything and followed him. They left everything.

Now, I believe that the modern day church, maybe the American church, we've lost the art of left everything. We don't know what that means anymore. It was so tangible for Peter. We don't know what that means anymore. Left everything to follow him. If it was written about our life, I think the phrase would not be that. I think it was written about our life, it would say, and they took everything and tried to follow him. I think that's what a picture of a lot of our Christianity looks like. We're just taking this and we're taking our picture. It's not very rewarding. It's not very fulfilling. It doesn't work very good because we've lost the art of left everything and I would like to point out that Peter's everything had just changed dramatically Peter's everything had just become very valuable very lucrative Kate look at this Nets breaking boats sinking full of fish. What does that mean to a professional fisherman? Chaching dude, we can scale I can buy more boats and hire more people and make more money See if I was Jesus, I would have done the calling before the catch I've been like now Peter before you drop those nets. Will you follow me? You got a promise? You got a sign right here Okay, now drop the nets and then he would have been you are you signed up? You have to do it No, Peter does Jesus does the the calling after the catch I'm like, why did Jesus do it after the catch? When he had so much maybe Peter would have been tempted to do it some you would have been tempted to do And Jesus said hey leave everything and follow me some of you would have been like Jesus. I have a different idea What if I what if you come to work for me? Okay? What if you're during the days you can be the daytime Just come out on the boat for an hour each day tell us where to drop the nets and we'll do that just you come on to my life That's not what Jesus invites though. That's not what Jesus asks for Jesus not asking to be a part of your life. Jesus is asking to be your life Abandon abandoned everything we don't know how to do that anymore. So why did Jesus? Make the call before the catch. I think it was because

Maybe he wanted us to know That no matter what you give up No matter what you sacrifice No matter what you have to let go of to pursue him. It is always Worth it always every time Oh, you can make You can make your list of the reasons why you haven't gone all in for Jesus And some of those things might be valuable in the worlds of eyes and some of those behaviors and some of those things You that's gonna be so difficult for me to do something different and I'm just telling you that no matter what it is it will be worth it And so he left everything followed Jesus One time read about Ancient ancient villages centuries ago an ancient village in India This little village that nobody even hardly came through much, but they got message that the Prince Was coming to their village and that was massive news and they were so excited that the thought of the Prince would come to their Little village and everybody was so excited about the Prince's possible visit Nobody was more excited than the town beggar There's one town beggar and he would go out where the people were every day and he would sit there with a little tin cup And he would say almost for the poor and almost for the poor. He might get a few copper coins He actually had two tin cups. He would take that one and whatever a little bit of money came in He would go buy a few grains of rice and he had that in one tin cup and the grains of rice and he had his few coins in this one Well, he was really excited about the Prince's potential visit every day They would they would get up in that morning and clean the sweep out the storefronts and sweep out the little the road and Stand in their positions and wait to see if today was the day Prince was gonna come They would send a look out up the hill to and he would be watching there all day every day And at the end of the day he'd come down. It was not today's not the day for the Prince's vision They didn't know when but they just knew he was coming Finally one of the days the the lookout was up there in the afternoon He comes racing down the hill and he's like today's the day. I see the Prince's entourage. They're coming

So man, everybody's putting last finishing touches on everything and they're all getting in their place and The beggar is in his place and here comes the Prince with his entourage so regal so royal so amazing and Everybody is just I mean all struck And when that Prince is as close to the beggar as he's going to be The beggar takes a deep breath and he goes alms for the poor And the Prince looks over and kind of gives a look that kind of terrifies the beggar He might be in trouble for this. He maybe shouldn't have even done that But the Prince makes his way over and stands in front of the beggar and kind of just takes a look at the whole situation and Then the Prince said something that no one expected him to say The Prince looks at this beggar and he says give me your cup of rice [MUSIC PLAYING] He's sitting there thinking, "Give me your cup of rice." Like you have, you're the prince. You have everything. What do you mean, give me your cup of rice? And he started to say no. But instead of saying no, the beggar reaches into his cup of rice and he pulls out just three grains of rice. And he holds it out for the prince. The prince holds his hand out, looks at that rice, turns around to one of his servants in motions and says, "Get me the gold bag." So they untie off this camel, this burlap bag of gold coins.

And when it hits the ground, you can hear the clank of those coins together. And the prince reaches into that bag and he pulls out three gold coins. And he walks back over to that beggar and he drops those three gold coins into his cup. And it's the most money he's ever gotten begging in a long, long time. And the prince ties up the bag and the entourage goes and on they go to the next village. And everybody's so happy about the prince's visit. And the beggar should be happy 'cause he got more money than he ever would have dreamed he was gonna get that day. And yet for some reason, he couldn't find peace. He laid down that night and just one question just kept rolling over in his mind, over and over again. The next night tries to sleep in the pit of his stomach, the same question over and over and over again for days. And for weeks, the same question just tortured him. And here was the question, what if I had given him what he asked for? Where would I be right now? Who would I be right now? What would I be doing right now if I had given him everything? And I don't want any of us to get towards the end of our life and look back and have a question that begins to torture us. What if I had given Jesus everything?

What if I had truly given him control? Where would I be? Who would I've become? If I had truly offered him my life? What would he have used in my life if I had truly been obedient to him? What would I have become if I were to have acknowledged him as the only one who deserves to call the shots in my life? I wanna pray for you that you can find a place today. All of us, all of us can find a place today of taking a leap of faith of, I mean, the kind of leap that's of no return. Like we're all in for God and whatever that means for you.