Deeper // I'm Still Growing Deeper

challenge.

We're going to be in Luke, chapter 5, today, for the message and our mission here at FCC is pretty simple we want to help people know Jesus and make Jesus known.

Luke 5 · chapter mention

That's right.

Make Jesus known and really that's like our heartbeat as a church.

And this year going into 2025, we said we really want to have a focus and an emphasis on taking people deeper in their faith.

In fact, many of us have.

We just finished up a spiritual growth campaign called Growing Deeper.

Now some of you you're still working on the reading.

You're going to get there, you're going to finish it.

I believe in you and really the heart is that people just grow deeper.

And today we're going to go to a passage of scripture where Jesus literally told somebody to go deep, to go deeper.

But here's the thing.

Here's the thing it didn't make sense for Jesus to tell these people to do this.

Has anybody ever told you something that didn't make sense?

I have a family member that some of y'all were looking around when I asked that question.

You're like oh, the prayer's actually right.

I have a family member that they used to be like a massive, massive conspiracy theorist.

Anybody know a really, really big-time conspiracy theorist?

Any of you in the room Conspiracy?

Okay, sorry, let's talk about that JFK assassination, just kidding.

And so this person?

I mean, I understand there's probably some conspiracies out there, but for this person everything's a conspiracy.

It's like a natural disaster.

A bunch of people died.

That's the government.

I'm like no, it's called a hurricane.

That's a hurricane.

It's a hurricane, right.

And sometimes people tell us things that they just don't make sense sometimes.

And Jesus was about to tell these guys something that, from their perspective and from their experience, made zero sense at all.

But the reason why he was going to tell them this is not because Jesus had nothing better to do and he wanted to ask people to do weird things.

It wasn't because Jesus was like oh, I'm bored, I want to make your life difficult.

No, this is why Because Jesus wanted to do a miracle in somebody's life.

But this is what it was going to require.

It was going to require them to go deeper.

Now here's the thing you need to know is that there are miracles that are only experienced when we get out of the shallows of faith and go into the deep.

Now some of you say, okay, that sounds like really, really good church talk.

I would expect a pastor to say something like that.

You're like miracles.

Okay, maybe those things happen.

I saw a cool video.

I can't deny that's probably right.

But, pastor Nate, like, I'm not the miracle kind of person Like guys.

No, jesus wants to do miracles in your life, miracles in your life, but it only happens when we get out of the shallows and go into the deep.

But let's be honest, the deep is scary, the deep is uncomfortable, the deep is a place where sometimes it's like disorienting.

Like some of you guys, I'm so stoked that you guys just have been in the 40 days of growing deeper and you've kind of like started to take some steps and you're like man, this is like new man.

How do I do all these things?

I'm reading and I'm learning.

It's like this is crazy.

And this is what I want to say to you, if you're learning and you've been growing deeper, is that the growing deeper campaign is only the beginning of what God wants to do as you continue to intentionally grow deeper.

This is only the beginning.

Here's what I want you to see.

I want all of us to see today is what God can do through people that just say hey, I'm willing to take a step and I'm willing to grow deeper.

So we're going to pick up the story in Luke, chapter 5.

Luke 5 · chapter mention

If you're ready for it, would you say amen?

This is what it says in Luke 5, verse 1.

Luke 5:1

It says, as the crowd was pressing in on Jesus, you ever had people get a little too close to you?

You ever know anybody that like?

I met somebody.

Like they don't understand, like the personal space idea, bro, if I can smell your breath, you're a little too close.

The crowds were pressing in on Jesus.

Why?

They wanted to hear God's word.

They said we want to get close, we want to hear the teaching of God's word.

He this is Jesus.

He was standing by Lake Gennesaret.

This is also known as the Sea of Galilee.

So Jesus, verse 2, he saw two boats at the edge of the lake.

The fishermen had left them and they were washing their nets.

What fishermen did?

What fishermen do?

You're done fishing.

You go and wash your net.

So what did Jesus do?

Verse number three he got into one of the boats which belonged to Simon.

And I wonder if Jesus asked to get into one of the boats, I don't know got on one of the boats which belonged to Simon.

Now we know Simon is another name for a very famous apostle that starts with a P.

His name is Peter.

So this is Peter's boat and asked him, asked Peter to put out a little from the land.

Then Jesus sat down and was teaching the crowds from the boat.

Now, if you're around water, you would know this that waters can be a natural amplifier.

So everybody's like pressing in on Jesus.

Jesus is like, hey, I'm going to jump in this boat, I'm going to go back a little bit from the land where all the people are and I'm going to teach and my voice is going to amplify off the water and people can hear.

But then in verse number four, something happened that Peter did not expect.

Have you ever had something in your life that you did not expect?

Peter was not ready for this one when he had finished speaking.

That's Jesus.

He said to Simon put out into what's that word?

Put out into Deep water and let down your nets for a catch.

Verse five Peter says master, notice, notice, notice, notice.

Peter doesn't say teacher, he doesn't say healer, he says master.

Now I don't know if you're like me.

I'm one of those people I actually like to have like a hard copy of the Bible.

So I like to like hold it, like tactile all that.

If you're one of those people, this is what you got to do.

You got to underline and circle and star and highlight and whatever you do, the word master this is big says master.

We've worked hard all night long.

Now, have you ever you ever worked hard all day like a hard day work?

Have you ever?

Or maybe you had like a hard day of school?

What do you want to do after a hard day of work?

Sleep, rest?

Some of y'all are thinking I can't say in church what I would want to do on after work.

You have a hard day at work.

Peter says we worked hard all night long and caught nothing.

Now Peter understands like, hey, we've like already done this whole fishing thing.

You want us to go back out into the deep.

And on top of this, peter learned in the University of Fishing School on the Sea of Galilee that you don't go fishing during the daytime, you go fishing at night.

They had already gone fishing at night.

And Peter says hey, you tell us to go out into the deep.

Master, we've already worked hard all night long and caught nothing.

And I don't know if you can feel this, but there's some tension here, because what's happening is the command of Jesus is coming in conflict with the experience of Peter.

And, on top of this, jesus, at this point, was an itinerant preacher with some history in carpentry.

Peter's a fisherman that has experience.

This is what he does for work and Jesus is going to go tell Peter how to do his work.

How would you like if me, pastor Nate, went to your job that you've been doing for years and I'm like oh, let me tell you how to do that.

Let me tell you how to run that medical test, let me tell you how to fix that card.

No, bro, keep me far away from that.

Amen, keep me away from that.

I don't know what I'm doing.

And Peter has to decide.

He has to make this really hard decision Was Jesus truly his master or was Jesus just his personal advisor?

Was Jesus his master or is Jesus his personal advisor?

Now, the other day, this reminds me of something I was on ChatGPT.

How many of you have ever been on ChatGPT before?

Okay, how many of you are scared of ChatGPT?

Okay, some of you.

That's right.

845 service.

There was like more hands raised their hand for that question.

I'm scared.

Okay, chatgpt, it's like the Google on steroids, anyway.

So I was on chat GPT the other day and I was just like having fun asking random questions, so I put in a question what type of a meal plan should can you put together a meal plan for me?

And I put, like my age, my weight, like what I do for working out and stuff, and it had this whole meal plan.

Now here's what you got to know about me.

I love to snack.

Are there anybody else in the room like you guys like love to snack?

Yeah, okay, thank you.

Thank you, I see you're my people.

In fact, anyone want to tell me, like, what's your favorite snack?

Favorite snack?

Ben and Jerry's ice cream guy.

Do you have a favorite Ben and Jerry's ice cream or just all of it?

Okay, there you go, bro, love it.

Something else, what's this that's so good?

Let's go get some ice cream guys.

What's another snack?

You guys like Chips Chips, matt in the back.

Mixed nuts Okay, kind of healthy-ish, it's good.

I like it Unsalted.

Can't do salt.

Okay, jalapeno Cheetos.

Are there Cheetos lovers in the room?

Oh, my goodness.

Yeah, okay.

What's another snack?

Y'all like Popcorn, kettle corn or just regular popcorn?

Okay, doesn't matter, I'm a kettle corn guy.

Yeah, I love it.

I hear somebody back there Peanut butter filled pretzels.

Those are super good.

Those are super good.

Those are super these.

These are good snacks.

I agree with all you guys dark chocolate and cheese it's.

I need to try that.

That sounds really really good.

Well, now that we're all hungry, um so.

So I was looking at this meal plan and the thing about this meal plan me being a snacker.

There was something really weird about this meal plan that was very uncomfortable, that was very disorienting, that I did not like about this meal plan.

It said you can't have snacks.

Boo is right.

I'm like what in the world do people actually live a life without eating snacks?

I'm like you can either die happy and eat snacks or you can not eat snacks in your life and not die happy.

Those are your only two options.

I'm like I want to have snacks in my life.

Now this was two weeks ago.

Chatgpt gave me this advice, yes or no?

Do you think I took ChatGPT's advice?

No, I did not.

In fact, I actually you got to give me credit.

I thought about it for about five seconds.

I considered it real hard, but I was like I'm not taking their advice.

And here's the reality for some of us.

Some of us look at Jesus the exact same way.

We look at Jesus for advice, but he's not our master.

But here's what's going to happen.

Here's the reality that's going to happen in all of our lives is, at some point, the commands of Jesus are going to come in conflict with your perspective and your comfort or your understanding.

Conflict with your perspective and your comfort or your understanding.

Think about the story.

Peter's a professional fisherman.

He's already fished all night long.

We fish at night.

I'm tired, I've done all this, I have not caught anything.

That's what Peter's perspective is.

That's what his understanding is.

Here's the command of Jesus Go back out and go out into deeper water.

Can we say that's a conflict?

And here's the command of Jesus go back out and go out into deeper water.

Can we say that's a conflict?

And here's the question that you need to ask yourself.

It's actually a very revealing question.

I mean, if you're brave enough, if you're brave enough to ask this, do you obey Jesus, even if it comes in conflict with your perspective, comfort or understanding?

Now, the church answer is yes, pastor Nate, I always obey Jesus.

Come on, in those moments, what do we do when it's not practical, when it doesn't make sense, when it contradicts your experiences, when it's difficult.

But here's the thing If Peter would have said Jesus, you're just my advisor, and because this advice doesn't line up with my perspective, comfort or understanding, I'm not going to do it, this is what would have happened.

Peter would have missed out on a miracle.

It on a miracle Because look what happened.

In verse six it says when they did this, what did they do?

They went back out.

Peter said master, like I don't really want to do this, I'm tired, but we're going to go out because you said so.

Verse number five In verse six.

They went back out and they caught a what are those two words?

Great number.

Isn't this like a fisherman's dream?

Any fishermen in the room?

I mean, this is a fisherman's dream.

They caught a great number of fish and their nets began to tear.

Now, these ain't the $9.99 Walmart fishing nets we grab on the way out to the marina to go fishing.

These are professional fishermen, professional nets.

And look how full it was.

So they signaled verse 7, so they signaled to their other partners and the other boats come and help them.

They got so many fish.

They're like hey, bro like come help.

Now.

They came and and and filled both boats both boats with fish so full.

Can you imagine that they began to what's that word?

They began to Whoo Whoo.

What in the world just happened that?

So it began to sink.

Now you got to think about this, okay, when Peter the knight, in the night, when they went out to go fishing, they had a goal they wanted to catch fish.

They try to catch fish all night, yes or no?

Did they catch any fish?

Yes or no?

No, didn't catch any fish.

We've caught nothing.

Now Jesus says I want you to do this.

That was uncomfortable, disorienting, doesn't make sense.

And they did this.

And then they caught a huge number of fish, like the boat's about to sink, they're grabbing like the life vest, we're seeing it.

That's so many.

That's for some of us in our life.

Now, for some of us in our life, some of our deepest desires will only be met and will be met on the other side of our obedience to God.

Some of us in the room right now, we greatly desire peace and healing and sobriety and we want to break generational dysfunction in our family.

These are the desires that we have and God says if you'll trust me, if you'll obey me, what can happen is I will lead you to a place where you can experience those things, but it's not gonna happen in the shallows.

Peter, you wanna catch fish?

Do you really wanna catch fish?

Yes, you really want to?

Okay, then you gotta go out in the deep.

But here's the thing about the deep, the deep.

There's some storms out there In the deep, the waters are choppy In the deep.

It's very difficult In the deep.

It's very difficult In the deep.

It's a little disorienting.

And some of us are placed in our life where we're wanting miracles and Jesus says if you will obey me, on the other side of your obedience, you can experience the deepest desires in your life.

But this is what happens is the call of Jesus, the commands of Jesus, comes in conflict with our experiences and our desires and our understanding, and we choose Jesus.

Are you my advisor or are you truly my master?

And their obedience was the catalyst that allowed a miracle to happen.

You know, what's interesting about this text Is we don't see the other guy saying guy saying, yeah, jesus, we'll go.

You'll see one person doing it, peter, but then later on it shows that all the rest of the guys were with him and they were with him.

And here's what this shows us is that sometimes, if you will take the first step and you will grow deeper, there will be other people that will follow.

And in this story here, other people experienced the miracle because Peter took the first step.

Other people experienced the miracle if we can get the next slide up there because Peter took the first step and some of you in your life, like you, are the only one in your family, you are the only one in your friend group, you are the only one in your circle, and that's one of the things that's preventing you from taking steps.

Can I just say you can be the one that can make a difference.

Can I just say you can be the one, you can be the one that can break generational dysfunction.

You can be the one in your friend group that points other people to Jesus, even though they don't understand right now.

You can be that one.

Peter was that one, and the rest follow.

And then Peter, overwhelmed by all this, he saw this in verse eight.

This was his response.

He fell at Jesus' knees and said go away from me because I'm a sinful man, lord.

Now I kind of look at this and I'm like man.

Does that even really make sense?

Why would Peter say, jesus, go away from me because I'm a sinful man, when we're faced with the greatness and the majesty of Jesus, it creates this awe that shows us he's great and we're not, that he's powerful and that we're not.

And this is what it almost does.

It almost wrecks us.

I remember when I was in high school that I kind of got wrecked in kind of a unique way.

I was wrecked by this realization of my own sinfulness when I was in high school.

I'm like, hey, I'm a pretty good person.

I mean, you know, I don't kill people.

I've never killed somebody.

I'm nice to people we're not going to talk about my sister but I mean I'm nice to everybody else.

I thought I don't steal.

Well, this is the 2000s.

So we had the CD burning thing.

So I guess that you know, you guys remember that right, 2000, you know.

So I think you know I'm a pretty good person, like compared to, like most people out there.

You know the people that I watched on America's Most Wanted on Saturday nights.

Yeah, compared've heard of those people.

I saw a verse in James 2, verse 10, that kind of opened up my eyes to some self-awareness.

James 2:10

It said this.

It said whoever keeps the entire law, you can keep the rules, but you stumble in one point.

You're guilty of breaking it all.

Ouch, uh-oh, you mean that one thing, jesus, are you sure?

Yeah, this verse showed me that in God's eyes, I'm guilty.

So what do I do?

Well, I can try to act like I'm a really good person, but I'm still sinful.

Or I can realize that Jesus died for me.

It says in verse number eight of Romans five God proves his love for us and that while we were sinners, christ died for us.

I don't know if you realize this, but Jesus didn't just die on the cross for people in general.

Jesus died on the cross for you.

Jesus loves you so much that he died on the cross for you, and I say this respectfully.

But you're so sinful that Jesus had to die for you, on the cross, for you, and I say this respectfully.

But you're so sinful that Jesus had to die for you Because, in light of God's holiness, none of us meet the mark, like none of us are good people compared to the standard.

And if I realized that I am a sinner, I realized that Jesus died for me.

There was this realization that I found in Romans, chapter 10, which I'm going to show you.

Romans 10 · chapter mention

You can put the next verse in there that if I'll trust Christ, then I can be forgiven and I can be saved.

It says this if you confess with your mouth Jesus is Lord and you believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be.

What's that word?

You will be, you'll be forgiven, you'll be saved.

And it's like I was wrecked by this reality of my sinfulness.

But I was put back together by understanding that I can be saved, that I can be forgiven, that God's mercy is rich and God's mercy is unending and God's grace meets me even in my sin.

This is what God does.

And Peter was wrecked by his sinfulness.

And in verse nine we see the response and how it changed all these guys' lives.

For he and all those who were with him were amazed at the catch of fish they had taken, and so were James and John Zebedee's sons they were with him who were Simon's partners.

Don't be afraid, jesus told Simon From now on you will be catching people.

And then they brought the boats to land.

Everything changed because they decided to obey and to go into deep water.

They experienced a miracle.

But for them to do this consider this, guys, and we'll wrap up with this they had to have a plan to go deeper.

So let's think about this, peter they had fished all night.

They were done fishing, they were drying out their nets, cleaning their nets.

Jesus says go back out, go out into deep water.

So now they had to have a plan.

How are they going to do it?

Okay, so now we're all going to get back on the boat.

You're going to grab this oar.

You're going to grab that oar.

You're going to grab that oar.

Okay, let's all lift the nets together.

Let's all go Ready.

One, two, three.

Okay, let's put it on there.

Okay, I'm going to navigate.

We're going to go out this way.

Okay, we're row.

Where some of us fall short is that we have good desires, Like we want to grow deeper, we want to grow in our faith, and it's amazing, but we never get a plan to do it.

You say, pastor Nate, like how can I get a plan?

Like what's a plan to do this?

I'm so glad you asked In the seat back.

There is something in there called the Growing Deeper in 2025 card.

I'm still growing deeper in 2025.

This is what we want to do is we want to help you put together a personal plan where you can say I'm going to grow deeper this year.

I'm going to pick a service to attend.

I'm going to pick a Bible reading plan.

There's some different Bible reading plans on here.

Some of you are like reading the Bible in a year.

There's no way I could do that.

You can actually do it by reading 20 minutes a day.

For me, what I'm going to pick is, it says select one, a book of the Bible.

Maybe it's a book that you want to specifically study.

So what I'm going to be doing personally is I'm going to be selecting the book of John and I'm going to be studying the book of John for my personal Christian Christian life.

Next, it says circle of time.

So when are you planning on reading your Bible?

It says pick a place.

Where are you planning on doing that?

It says circle a partner, a spouse, child, somebody else.

Who can you be accountable to for your scripture time Next year?

It says take your scripture reading deeper.

What's a place?

What's a way that you can take your scripture reading deeper?

Maybe highlight and take notes and just some different things you can do to go deeper.

And, on the back, here's some other options.

What's your next step with FCC?

Some different things.

This is what we want you to do.

We just want you to take some time to say I'm going to go deeper.

And here's why Because there are miracles that are only experienced when we get out of the shallows and we go into the deep.

That's why, guys, there are miracles that are only experienced when we get out of the shallows and we go into the deep.

That's why, guys, there are miracles that are only experienced when we get out of the shallows and go into the deep.

So, as they put the next slide up there on the screen, here's what I want to do.

I want to give you an opportunity to kind of think through this, give you an opportunity to kind of pray through this and say Lord, what's my step?

What are some things that I need to do to get out of the shallows and go into deeper waters?

Let's all bow our heads and close our eyes.