Newburg Christian Church

10-26-2008 Sermon

Take the Prayer Plunge

Luke 5:1-10

The Spirit of God is moving in our church. Some of you have told me stories of the Spirit working as you talk about going through the prayer exercises and reading the book “Unbinding Your Heart.” If you are visiting today, you have come to a church that is on an adventure with God. We just started a 40 day E-vent. We’re spending six weeks inviting God to change us in any way God wants to.

In the last two weeks we have acknowledged that mainline Christians are rapidly declining in number and influence in 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. Are you ready?

We church people work hard. We are the masters of hard work in and around the church. We cook meals and keep up the property. We operate a food distribution center and work with community ministries like MUSCL to help people in our neighborhoods. We hold yard sales, family festivals, concerts, and of course church business meetings. We worship together, we serve together, and we enjoy life together. Then we drag ourselves home, exhausted. We know we’re determined, committed, and are hard workers for the Lord. Churches sure aren’t shrinking because they’re lazy.

Not that you’d know any of this from many sermons you’ve heard over the years. And as I say these words I realize my own guilt here. But you’ve had commitment preached hundreds of times, you’ve heard about rising to the challenge, and trying harder for Jesus. I’m sorry. I’m sorry because many of you are already working as hard and as fast as you can for the kingdom of God. All I do when I preach those sermons is to load up your backpack with more heavy rocks. I’d like to be able to promise never to do it again, but I’m sure it will happen. Please forgive me when I don’t appreciate all that you do and demand more.

I wonder if Simon Peter and the other disciples felt like you do sometimes after Jesus would give one of his “work harder for the kingdom” sermons. In our scripture today Jesus said, “Put out into deep water and let out your nets (again).” You can hear Simon groan, “We’ve already been fishing. We didn’t catch anything! But if you say so…” So they shove off and head back to deep water in order to follow Jesus’ instructions.

That’s the phrase we need to hear this morning, into deep waters…into deep waters with Jesus. A friend of mine at the radio station many years ago took scuba diving lessons. He said everything was fine when he was being trained in a swimming pool, but things changed when he was told to dive in deep water. He said it was scary, every muscle was tense, he fought the water to keep moving, and he had to work hard to breathe. Then it hit him. Relax. Relax and breathe. Relax and swim. Relax and stop working so hard. Relax and trust the water to buoy you up.

Trusting the water to hold us 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 trying too hard? How’s your 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 it was for a church that was working very hard to pass the gospel to the next generation. Maybe, in just a few decades after Jesus’ resurrection, the church started to get tired with all the work they were doing. Maybe their efforts weren’t producing like they did at Pentecost. Luke gives them this story to remind them and us that hard work alone doesn’t cut it. Only going to the deep waters with Jesus will be effective. Only trusting Jesus’ guidance will produce real results for the church. Only the guidance of Jesus through prayer will allow our hard work to produce results for the kingdom of God.

Prayer is one way to go into deep waters with Jesus. Prayer is the most effective way I know to hear and heed his guidance. Now, it’s not that we don’t pray as a church, we do. But I suspect we work a lot more than we pray. We pray before church meetings, but how many times do we meet just to pray? What could God do through us if we spent half our meeting times in prayer? What wouldn’t get done if we prayed more? What could God get done through us if we prayed more?

In verse 6 of our scripture Luke writes, “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.

Some of you already have prayer as a part of your daily life. Some of you do not. But we can all grow in prayer…and so can this church. For the next month let’s pray as a church like we’ve never prayed before. Will you pray for a month? You can use your 40-day guide or other guides or anything else that helps. We pray each Thursday at 10am; you can join us then if you want. Or, we can meet to pray at other times.

We’re going to pray right here, so we can get started. We are going to take time to pray. Each of you should have a Post-It note in your bulletin or were given one this morning as you came into the church. Pull it out and hold it in your hand while we pray. First, ask God whom to pray for. This important since many of us have our own agendas…this time ask God for whom you should pray. As soon as God gives you a person or situation, imagine them fitting into your hands on the Post-It note. Hold whomever God puts into your hands and pray for them. I’ll say “Amen” at the end.

Okay, begin by taking a gentle deep breath… (two minutes for prayer)

Thanks for your willingness to pray. Now write the initials of the person you prayed for on the Post-It note. Then after worship this morning bring the note and place it on our prayer wall here at the front of the sanctuary. During our 40-days maybe you’ll want to add other names or circumstances to the prayer wall, so please feel free to do so. There are more Post-It notes there.

We’re going to make prayer our priority for four more weeks. Then we’ll see what God has done with and through us. I believe God will start doing some amazing things with us during this time. I don’t know what it will be…maybe new visitors, maybe a new unity, maybe some old wounds will be healed. Most likely it will be something we could never imagine.

Get in the boat and head into the deep waters with Jesus. Don’t let your fears stop you. Jesus told Simon Peter, “Fear not. From now on you will be catching people for God.” Then those hard working fishermen left their boats, their catch, and their nets right there on the shore. They left their work and followed Jesus. Won’t you do the same? Let’s get into some deep water with Jesus.

(adapted from Dawn Darwin Weaks)

Email us
newburgcc