EVENTS CALENDAR
Sermons
The Prayer Plunge
Listen to the audio (to save a file simply right click the link and select 'Save Target As...' or 'Save Link As...')
Luke 5:1-10 (New International Version)
The Calling of the First Disciples
1 One day as Jesus was standing by the Lake of Gennesaret,[a]with the people crowding around him and listening to the word of God, 2he saw at the water's edge two boats, left there by the fishermen, who were washing their nets. 3He got into one of the boats, the one belonging to Simon, and asked him to put out a little from shore. Then he sat down and taught the people from the boat. 4 When he had finished speaking, he said to Simon, "Put out into deep water, and let down[b] the nets for a catch." 5 Simon answered, "Master, we've worked hard all night and haven't caught anything. But because you say so, I will let down the nets." 6 When they had done so, they caught such a large number of fish that their nets began to break. 7So they signaled their partners in the other boat to come and help them, and they came and filled both boats so full that they began to sink. 8 When Simon Peter saw this, he fell at Jesus' knees and said, "Go away from me, Lord; I am a sinful man!" 9For he and all his companions were astonished at the catch of fish they had taken, 10and so were James and John, the sons of Zebedee, Simon's partners.
The Prayer Plunge
The last two weeks we've acknowledged that mainline Christians are rapidly declining in number and influence in North America. We've admitted our own reluctance to bring new people into Christian faith. We've explored why it makes a difference in our lives that we are Christians. We considered what our motivations might be for sharing the Christian faith with people who don't have a faith.
This week, we're going to look at what makes faith sharing effective.
We church people work hard. We’re masters at hard work! Out of The Cold exists because of church people. Habitat for Humanity began because someone had a vision to build better lives for people because God loves them. Our Connections women’s group packed Christmas boxes for our homebound members as well as boxes of toiletries and treats for single moms served by the food bank at Calvary Baptist. Churches sure aren’t shrinking because we’re lazy!
Fishermen on the Sea of Galilee were also hard workers. It wasn’t because they were lazy that there was no catch. Jesus said, “Put out into the deep water and let out your nets (again!)” And Simon groaned, “We’ve already been fishing. We didn’t catch anything! But if you say so…” So they pulled up the anchor and headed back out to the deep water, this time with Jesus as a fishing partner.
Into the deep waters…into the deep waters with Jesus. That’s scary if we don’t know how. I have never scuba dived but I hear it’s a frightening thing to do. You have to jump off the boat and into really deep water. You waste a lot of energy as you learn. What you need to discover is this—all you have to do is relax, breathe, and trust the water to buoy you up. All the frantic kicking and thrashing around, all the trying so hard, all the conscientious striving doesn’t get you as far as relaxing, as trusting.
Trusting the water to hold you up is a little like learning to fish with Jesus. We are working hard at doing a lot of good things. But are we doing the God-things? Are we experiencing the peace and trust God intends for us, or are we just tensing up and kicking too hard? How’s our fishing going so far?
Jesus wants these men to join him in his work for God. He’ll soon invite them to become “fishers of people.” But before he signs them up for employment with God, it seems that he wants to be sure they “get” something. He wants them to know that if they’re going to be effective in this new work, they will have to follow his guidance. They will have to have him along. When Luke wrote this story down, it was for a church that was working very hard to pass the gospel on to the next generation. Maybe, in just a few decades after Jesus’ physical presence, the church had started getting tired with all the work they were doing. Maybe their efforts weren’t producing like they once did. Luke gives them, and us, this story to remind us hard work alone doesn’t cut it. Only going to the deep waters with Jesus will be effective. Only trusting Christ’s guidance will produce real results for the church.
Prayer is one way to go into the deep waters with Jesus. Prayer is the most effective way I know to hear and heed Christ’s guidance. Now, it’s not that we don’t pray as a church. But I suspect we work a lot more than we pray. We pray before our church meetings. But how many times do we meet to pray? What could God do through us if we spent half of our meeting times in prayer? But…what wouldn’t get done if we prayed more? What could God get done through us if we prayed more?
Pastor, consultant and author Martha Grace Reese tells about a church that tried prayer as the meetings rather than just before meetings. Three high-energy, go-getter women were the new evangelism committee for Benton Street Church. They were fired up to do great things for God that year. They brought in Reese as a consultant to get some direction about what they could do first. A calling campaign? A bring-a-friend Sunday? Maybe direct mail marketing? No, the consultant said. Not that. Not yet. She told them to pray for three months before they did a thing.
The evangelism committee at Benton Street was looking for activity, for hard work, for something to do. But instead, Reese told them to stand still and pray. Stand still for three months. Prayer is a different kind of hard work, of course. Most of us don't know how to do it, at least not for very long. But this evangelism committee learned. They prayed together for one hour every week. At meetings when it was their turn to report, they would say, “We're still praying. She’s making us do it. We’re just praying.” Some people began to chuckle at these reports. Then board members started giving them prayer requests. After three months of “doing nothing but praying,” interest in evangelism had skyrocketed. By the end of the year, 65 people were helping with evangelism. New visitors came in droves. Twice as many people were baptized as the year before, twice as many babies were dedicated.
Sounds like what our Scripture text says. Look at the fifth chapter of Luke, verse 6: When they had done what Jesus commanded, they caught so many fish that their nets were beginning to break. Apparently, going back into the deep waters with Jesus makes a difference. Prayer expresses our willingness to do what Jesus wants us to do. Prayer prepares us to be effective in whatever work we do for Jesus. Prayer helps make room for the Holy Spirit in our lives. The Spirit, instead of our flustered kicking, provides the power.
So let's try it. Some of you already have prayer as a part of your daily life. Many of us do not. But we can all grow in prayer. And so can our church.
For the next month, let's pray as a church like we’ve never prayed before. Will you pray with us for this next month? The prayer guide is included with your worship folder this morning.
We're also going to pray right now, as a congregation. Yes, right here in the middle of a sermon. Let’s put our money where our mouths are. Let’s pray, not just talk about thinking about maybe drifting towards praying…sometime pretty soon.
First, fish the Post-It™ note out of your folder. Got it? I want you to hold it while you pray. I’m going to explain this first, then we’ll all pray together. Okay? Hold your Post-It™ note. First we’ll sit quietly and breathe slowly. First, ask God for whom to pray. This is important because many of us have our own agendas when we pray. This time, ask God for whom to pray. As soon as God gives you a person or a situation, imagine them shrunk down so they’ll fit into your hands, right in the middle of your Post-It™ note. Hold whomever God puts into your hands and pray for them. I’ll say Amen at the end.
Okay, gently breathe and let's start.
Amen.
Thank you for your willingness to try something out of the ordinary like that. Now write the initials of the person you were led to pray for on this Post-It™ note. Right outside the sanctuary is a prayer wall. Maybe you’ll want to add some other notes, or update this one, next week, and the week after. What’s most important is this—that whomever or whatever God has asked you to pray for—that you keep praying!
Let’s be less responsible to the world and more responsive to God. Let’s agree among ourselves. We are going to make prayer our priority for four more weeks. Then we’ll see what God has done with us…and through us.
I believe God will start doing some amazing things with us during this time. Who knows what it will be. Perhaps we’ll see more guests on Sunday mornings than we’ve seen in the recent past. Even in the middle of winter. Most likely it will be something we never imagined. I believe making room for prayer always brings new blessing.
But here’s the catch: If we're anything like those totally human disciples of the New Testament, we may not be ready for big blessings. Like them, our response to whatever great thing God does will be, “We're not worthy!” After Simon sees what success Jesus has given him, he falls to his knees. He says to Jesus, “Go away, Lord! I don't deserve this.” If we go deep with Jesus, we might find ourselves in deep water. We may have the same reaction. We might feel ourselves resisting the blessings God wants to bring us. We might want to bury our heads and ask God to go away.
Maybe we're not sure God should do something in our lives. We don't feel worthy for God to use us.
Maybe we’re afraid of the change in our lives if God did do something in us. How’s your future mapped out? Peter went from fisherman to traveling preacher.
Maybe some of us don’t really believe God can do anything new.
Let’s face it. Staying on the familiar treadmill is a lot less scary than going deep with Jesus.
But Jesus says to Simon, “Do not be afraid; from now on you will be catching people.” Then these hard working fishermen parked their boats and their fish and their nets right there on the shore. They left their work and followed him.
In this next month, let’s pray like we’ve never prayed before. Let’s go back into the deep waters with Jesus.
B
