Quest 9 - Throw Out Your Net
There were several moments in my life where I felt the call of God to go and do something for His kingdom. Each of them were unique in their own ways, each one had a different emotion attached to them, each one had a fear attached to them, each one made me feel alive.
There was 7th grade when I was at CIY Believe, the song playing was Fire Fall Down by Hillsong United (still a banger), and for the first time I felt like ministry could be one of the most exciting things I could do.
There was my junior year of high school when I preached my first sermon. I was supposed to preach for 20 minutes, but I ran out of content at 8 minutes in, stalled for the next 3 and finished in 11 minutes. Yet, I was alive.
There was the summer after I graduated from High School when I was living in Florida. I felt the call to stay and help plant a church. I pushed back the feeling though and went off to college.
There was my freshman year of college football and there was a small group of football players that I led and realized I loved coaching others up and helping them through their spiritual walk.
I could name several other points in my life where I felt the calling of God to use my gifts and abilities to glorify him, but you get the point by now.
The reason I am writing this is because you are just like me. Am I a full-time staff member for The Rock? Yes I am. If you are reading this, statistically, you probably aren’t. Here’s the thing that most people don’t realize though, you are just as called to ministry as I am.
I know that doesn’t seem right because the conventional thinking that the only people called to ministry is those working in the walls of the church, but that couldn't be further from the truth. If you look at the people that Jesus called to follow Him and be His disciples, they were people from all sorts of different backgrounds and careers.
The story that we read this week in Luke 5 is a perfect example of this. Jesus calls a group of fishermen to do ministry and fish for people. These fishermen were not the people you would naturally select for these positions, but they were the right people for the position.
Why is that?
They knew how to fish, they knew how to work hard, and they were willing to do what Jesus said.
Jesus called them and all he asked them to do was to throw out their nets and see what would happen.
I want you to think about your life… What skills, abilities, opportunities, and passions has God given you? If you add all those things together, you will find your sweet spot of where God is calling you.
More importantly than that though, you have to answer the call. In Luke 5, Simon and his boys had to throw out their nets. In 1 Samuel 3, Samuel had to tell the Lord that he was listening. In both scenarios, because of their obedience, they were able to see God move.
That’s available for you as well.
God is calling you. God sees something in you. God has given you gifts. God is speaking to you. God is desiring for you to make a difference for the kingdom. In order to do that, you have to be willing to throw your net out.
That’s not easy to do. Contextually, it was the wrong time of day to fish, they had already cleaned their nets, they caught nothing all night. There were a million reasons for them to not give Jesus a chance here, but they chose to anyway.
I know you could give a million reasons as to why you “can’t” do ministry. We all have them… Oh I don’t have enough time. Oh I messed up in my past. Oh I don’t know enough. Oh I don’t have that skill. There’s a lot of reasons that you can come up with.
There is one reason that we should do what we are called to do though… Because Jesus is the one calling.
In my life, I have decided that when Jesus asks me to throw out my nets, I’m going to do it. The outcome is always worth it.
Luke 5:5-7, ““Master,” Simon replied, “we worked hard all last night and didn’t catch a thing. But if you say so, I’ll let the nets down again.” 6 And this time their nets were so full of fish they began to tear! 7 A shout for help brought their partners in the other boat, and soon both boats were filled with fish and on the verge of sinking.”
I don’t know what the equivalent of all of those fish are in your life and neither do you. The only way we will find out is if we are willing to throw our nets out.