I want you to follow along with me with your Bibles as I bring you this message from God. We are discussing the urgent need to get aboard Christ and have faith in Him. Having faith in Christ is having faith in God. Remember, Jesus said, "I and my Father are one" [Jn. 10:29]. Since everything comes through Jesus Christ, and we have access to God only through Jesus, so it is only natural that faith in God must also be through Jesus. "Makes sense to me." But first let me bring you up to date as to where we are before continuing on with Luke 5:1. Look with me at Luke 4th chapter, begining with the the 13th and 14th verse. It reads, "And when the devil had ended all the temptation, he departed from him for a season. And Jesus returned in the power of the Spirit into Galilee: and there went out a fame of him through all the region round about."
Jesus had received the Holy Spirit from God the Father and immediately went out into the wilderness. He was in the wilderness for forty days and forty nights. It was after the 40 days and nights that Satan came to tempt Jesus. Notice that Satan waited until Jesus was at his lowest moment. He was tired and hungry and like most of us was weak in body and spirit. Satan waited and watch Jesus as He went through his ordeal. He watched Him get weaker and weaker before he decided to confront Him {see Luke 4:1]. That's what Satan will do for us too. He'll wait until our weakest moments before attacking us. When bills are pressing, marriage problems, problems with our childrens, problems on the job, being tempted by friends to do something we know is against God. Satan waits for those low points in a Christian life to attack him, because he is afraid of you when the Spirit in you is calm and active. At this time you are aware of your surrounding and in control of yourself through and by the spirit. At this time you will resist him [James 4:7- "Resist the devil, and he will flee from you."]. Satan waits for times when you are frustrated and angry, upset, worried, sick and along to manifest himself in you. He'll use this to make you curse and swear, submit to your wordly friends, submit to old habits, and of course, turn on God. He want you to lose faith in God because of what is happening to you. He want you to curse God for what you're going through. Don't do it!! Don't ever give in to Satan, but fight, fight, fight! The sad part is so many will do just that, - Give in! But friends, let me tell you something that's a fact. I will vouch for God's faithfulness. Many times He came to my rescue by healing sicknesses in my body, taken away the worry of pressing bills and saving an unsaved wife. Yes, God did it. To receive his help took patience on my part. I had to resist Satan's anger against me by getting aboard God's ship and riding it all the way home. Here's something else we should keep in our memory. That is, knowing the goodness of God and knowing that God, not Satan, is my(our) creator, and that He want the best for me(us), both here on this earth and in the next life to come is enough to cause me(us) to resist Satan. We can only do it with the word of God living in us. As you see in Luke, Jesus resisted Satan by quoting the living word. He resisted him and Satan left him. Jesus has faith in God's word. If we are to resist Satan we must have faith through belief and remembrance of scriptures.
Next, we see that Satan left Jesus, but only for a season. As you read more bible you'll see how the Jews treated Jesus. You'll see clearly that Satan returned again, again, and again. Remember, we are in a battle against Satan [ Ephesians 6:11-18 "put on the armor of God" ]. We will lose some scrimmages, but never the war. It has already been won by Jesus on the cross, His death, burial and resurrection was Satan's defeat. Again notice in these two verses that after the victory Jesus left in power and began preaching the word. He went into the wilderness (trouble) and battled, but came out victorious. IfWhen we go into the wilderness we shouldn't doubt, but stand firm, have faith and we will overcome Satan too. You know I feel great when I win a battle. I feel like telling somebody about Jesus, and what He's done for me. Here's a good one! "What He has done for me, He'll do for you," what he has done for others, He'll do for you too." Lets move on to Dr. Luke 5th chapter. I'll bring you up to date as to what has occured. You can read it all latter in Matthew 4th chapter and Mark 1:12. I'll highlight a bit for you.
After this, Jesus preached in the synagogue. He preached through out Galilee, from Capernaum, to Decapolis, from Jerusalem, Judaea, and beyond Jordon. This is what God want us to do once we receive His Spirit. He don't want us to sit still, do nothing but come to Church. God in us make us want to do his will like Jesus did. Jesus in His power healed the sick, lambed and deseased. He casts out demons, but most of all He preached the word. The word is the only thing that can set us free [ "Ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free." Jn. 8:32 ]. Learn the word and turn it into a leathal weapon of prayer. You can only have a relationship with God through his living word. prayer is our silent time with God. It is a one on one conversation between us. Don't let anyone fool you, prayer do work. It still heals, solve problems, and send demons screaming. Some say prayer is not for us. Don't believe it? Prayer do works. Just get right with God, trust, believe and have faith in Him. Then, when you pray, something has got to happen. It is a promise from God.
Let me go back a bit. When I talked about getting right with God, I mean getting right! Not half steping like so many are doing today [ See, am I a sinner ].
LET'S CONTINUE... Anyway, Jesus preached the word in such a way after coming out of the wilderness (tested, sorrow, trouble, pain, etc) that the Jews and others literally mobbed him, wanting to hear more of what He had to say. Wouldn't it be great today if people actually wanted to hear what God is saying, and actually obeyed his word from hearing. Wow! If ministers would just preach the truth from the bible, not caring who it hurt. And just supposed if people who head it would obey it. Man, what a place this would be! "It will be like that one day, when Jesus return to take us home." Amen!
Let's look at Luke 5.1,2,3. The people crowded him in such a way that he needed space from them. Not to get away, but to find a place to really tell of His Father. He enjoyed speaking of His Father like we, as children of God should enjoy talking to each other and others about the goodness of God. If we say we are servant then we need to start acting like servants.
JUST A LITTLE FAITH
Jesus boarded the ship and began to preach. After preaching He notice that the fishermen aboard the ship were sitting in shallow water, because they had caught no fish from a previous trip out on the sea. He saw them cleaning their nets and packing up to leave. So many of us are quick to give up too. We do not give God time enough to work for us. We want everything right now. And if "right now" doesn't take place, we lose faith, just like the fishermen lost faith in the sea, to give fish to them. There's an old cliche that says, " if at first you don't suceed, try and try again." Just because God didn't answer our prayer today doesn't mean we stop praying. We keep praying until we get an answer.
Next, Jesus told Simon to launch out into the deep once again. Simon, said, "Jesus, we have have already been out there. We fished all night and caught nothing, but I will do as you say.
Simon does something here inwhich we should follow his example. What is it? It's what he said and done. He said" but I will do as you say. It's obedience! We don't know all the answers, but God does. So, when he speaks we should be silent and obedience. His word is best for us.
Look what happened through faith and obedience. They followed Jesus's advice, threw their nets over the side of the ship and walla! Their nets became full of fishes. So much so that their nets started to tear.Their ship sanked low in the water because of the tremendous load of fishes. I guess you might say, their "cup runneth over." You see, my God always give more than what you and I ask for. Malachi 3:10 say, "Prove me now herewith, saith the Lord of host, if I will not open you the windows of heaven, and pour you out a blessing, that there shall not be room enough to receive it." And guess what? Your blessing will overflow to someone else. You'll begin to give and help others. Simon and his co-workers immediately called out to the other ships and said , "come," I have Jesus for you! Don't that sound great! Simon wanted to apologize to Jesus for not trusting him. So did the rest of them, because they saw something done which was never done before. Jesus said, forget it! This is nothing! Brothers you aint seen nothing yet. If you think catching fish is exciting. If you think bringing those fishes home was a great thing. Well, I'm going to have you do something greater than this. I'm going to have you fishing for men to bring them into the kingdom of God. You'll be my deciple going out into the deep harvest, telling people that when they get aboard and stay aboard me, my father will provide for them and take care of them, and bring them home too.
If you have not received Jesus as your personal Savior, here is your chance. Click quickly the Sinner's Prayer. If you are confused about whether you're saved or not, click Am I a Sinner.If you want to know more about being saved click How to be saved. For more on Jesus clickBible Topics. Return Home.
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