Dreaming Big! Text: Luke 5: 1-4
Life is full of lessons; lessons come several ways. Object lessons seem to be very effective in my opinion. Jesus is teaching the multitudes probably a message on trust or faith, and then Jesus spots Peter and the other disciples, so He decides to give the on-lookers an object lesson on trust, faith and obedience. Jesus said, “ Launch out into the deep!” Will God’s people obey? Will we learn from this life lesson in God’s word to fish for something new? Are we willing to use a new lure? Are we willing to go into a new fishing hole?
Through out God’s word there seems to be one of many central messages- Dream big and Launch out! Psalm 33:9 For He spoke, and it was done; He commanded, and it stood fast. (Many times I think we forget whom we’re serving!)
A. Notice throughout Jesus’ 3 plus years of ministry He is always teaching by His actions, words and plus, through His new approach on old subjects! Matthew 9:16-17 No one puts a piece of unshrunk cloth on an old garment; for the patch pulls away from the garment, and the tear is made worse. 17 Nor do they put new wine into old wineskins, or else the wineskins break, the wine is spilled, and the wineskins are ruined. But they put new wine into new wineskins, and both are preserved.”
B. Jesus said in Luke 5: 4 Launch out into the deep. Remember, “These men had been fishing all night!” So why would Jesus say this? “Because when we are tired or even feel satisfied, Jesus’ love and call on our life will still speak “ Go! Risk! Lunch out!
C. Peter said in Luke 5:5 But Simon answered and said to Him, “Master, we have toiled all night and caught nothing; nevertheless at Your word I will let down the net.”
D. A visit to the World Trade Center will help get your priorities back in order. Many who survived the attacks changed careers immediately afterwards. When the world’s tallest buildings fell, some of the world’s best-paid workers realized how fleeting it all could be. So they went home, wept, hugged their families, re-evaluated their lives and realized they could have half as much, yet be 10 times better off in every other way. It’s sad that many times it takes tragedy to get our attention!
E. Contemporary English Version reads Ephesians 5:16-17 16These are evil times, so make every minute count. 17Don’t be stupid. Instead, find out what the Lord wants you to do.
F. Listen, once you are stretched by a God-given vision, you never snap back into your original shape again! Mediocrity is just the best of the worst, and the worst of the best. Helen Keller said, “ Security is the myth, the reason we don’t experience it is because it doesn’t exist. Avoiding danger or failure is no safer in the long run than out-right risk. Life is either a daring adventure or nothing at all.”
G. “Launching out” means: 1). Setting goals. Establishing a plan to reach them. 2). Staying tuned to God’s “leadings.” 3). Confronting old fears. 4). Devoting your life to something greater than yourself. 5). Having a “Thou art with me” attitude! 6). Looking into the mirror and respecting what you’re becoming.
H. Luke 5:6 And when they had done this, they caught a great number of fish, and their net was breaking.
I. Listen to the story of St. Patrick:
It was an act of defiance that changed the course of a nation. Patrick lit a fire in pagan 5th century Ireland, ushering Christianity into the country. Who was this man who became the patron saint of Ireland?
Ireland was a beautiful island shrouded in terrible darkness. Warlords and druids ruled the land. But across the sea in Britain, a teen-ager was poised to bring this nation to God.
"Patrick was born into a Christian family," says Philip Freeman, author of St. Patrick of Ireland. "His father was a deacon; his grandfather a priest. But Patrick says that from an early age, he didn’t have any serious interest in religion and that he was pratically an atheist when he was a teenager."
Around 400 A.D., Patrick was abducted from his village and thrown onto a slave ship headed for Ireland.
"He saw that as God chastising him, first of all," says Freeman. "That was the first view. He says we deserved what we got. We’re carried at 16 years of age over to this foreign land."
Patrick was sold to a chieftain. He spent six years tending his master’s flocks on the slopes of the Slemish Mountain. Patrick recounts his time as a slave in his memoir entitled The Confession.
"He says, ’I prayed a hundred times in the day and almost as many at night,’ " says Rev. Brady, quoting Patrick’s Confession. "Through that experience of prayer and trial, he came to know another God -- God the Father, who was his protector. He came to know Jesus Christ in those sufferings, and he came to be united with Christ and he came to identify with Christ, and then of course, also the Holy Spirit."
One night during a time of prayer and fasting, Patrick wrote: "I heard in my sleep a voice saying to me: ’It is well that you fast. Soon you will go to your own country.’ And again, after a short while, I heard a voice saying to me: ’See, your ship is ready.’ "
Patrick escaped and traveled 200 miles cross country to the west coast. He found a ship ready to sail, but was refused passage. After a desperate prayer, he was allowed aboard.
Patrick eventually returned to his home and family. His experience of God’s grace and provision solidified his faith. He began to study for the ministry.
Freeman says, "One night, he had a dream. There was a man who came from Ireland with a whole bunch of letters. And he opened up one of the letters and it said ’The Voice of the Irish.’ And then he heard a voice coming out of this letter that said, ’Holy boy, please return to us. We need you.’"
Patrick struggled in his soul. Could he return to Ireland and minister to the same people who had enslaved him? Once again, he turned to God in prayer. He received the answer in a dream.
"He talks about how he, in this dream, is trying to pray and yet he can’t," says Freeman. "So he hears a voice coming from inside of him which he realizes is the voice of God praying for him."
Patrick knew he had to go and convince his church that he was called to be a missionary to Ireland. He set sail in a small ship.
Patrick landed at the mouth of the Slaney River. When Patrick set foot on this shore, a new era dawned on this island.
"The Ireland of his day really wasn’t much different from the Ireland of a few years ago here where we are sitting here at this moment," notes Most Reverend Dr. Robert Eames, Church of England Archbishop of Armagh and Primate of all Ireland. "It was an Ireland of tribalism, an Ireland of war, an Ireland of suspicion, an Ireland of violence and death. Here he came as a virtual stranger to this country of warring factions."
"They worshipped multiple gods of the sky and the earth and the water," says Freeman. "And so that was his first challenge: to convince the Irish that there was only one God and that his God really did love them."
Patrick came face to face with the chieftains and their druid priests. The showdown came on the morning of his first Easter in Ireland.
Monsignor Raymond Murray, parish priest of Cookstown in Northern Ireland explains further: "Part of the pagan worship of fall to spring, from the beginning of the summer, was that a fire was lit, and first of all, the fire on the hill of Tara and no other lights at all in Ireland."
This monastery on the hill of Slane is where Patrick -- in direct defiance of the high king of Tara -- lit a forbidden fire.
Notes Rev. Brady, "He was summoned before the king, and he explained that he wasn’t a threat, because he was bringing the new light, the light of Christ, the Savior of the world, the Light of the world."
"The first light of Easter day was dawning. Patrick brought the hope of Easter day to Ireland," says Rev. Eames.
The weather can be absolutely brutal here in Ireland. But just imagine how it must’ve been for Patrick in the 5th century as he trekked across the countryside bringing the Gospel to the pagan Celts.
"People sometimes made fun of him because he said that God often gave him a message there was danger ahead," says Freeman. "But, he said, ’Laugh at me if you will. This is something that has protected me in Ireland.’"
Listen to Patrick’s poem of faith and trust in God, "The Breastplate":
"Christ be within me, Christ behind me, Christ before me, Christ beside me, Christ to win me, Christ to comfort and restore me, Christ beneath me, Christ above me, Christ inquired, Christ in danger, Christ in hearts of all that love me, Christ in mouth of friend and stranger."
J. Patrick taught his people of the trinity through the 3 leaf clover! ( And many people are still looking for that lucky 4 while the 3 is all around them!) Lunch out into Christ; Go deeper!
