Dan Willis walks through Luke 5:1-11, where Jesus tells Simon Peter to cast his nets and lands a miraculous catch of fish. Willis argues that obedience to Christ's specific instruction brings abundance, while relying on skill alone leaves you empty-handed. The episode ends with prayer requests from listeners.
As iron sharpens iron, so one man sharpens another. Welcome back to the Iron Saints Podcast with your host, Dan Willis.
Welcome back, guys. It's a new day. Thank you so much for your patience not being here the past couple of days. We were celebrating my eldest daughter's 18th birthday, so pretty happy with that. Looking forward to getting back down to Luke today, though, guys. Heading right back into it. We are going to continue on Christ's Gospel. For those of you just joining us, we are going to go through the Book of Luke in its entirety, little by little, piecing it through. Quick segments, and then we are going to go into Acts as Luke Part 2. So that'll be a lot of fun, looking forward to doing that. A huge thank you to all of you guys who have been listening and sharing out the podcast. It has been absolutely amazing to see the response that we've had so far, so I'm very thrilled with that. And without further ado, let's get down to it. Okay, so when last we were reading, we were reading about Jesus performing some miracles, doing some healing, preaching in some of the synagogues. Now we're going to move forward, uh, with his calling. So as always, guys, I will be reading from the ESV. You're welcome to listen along. I will the entirety of Scripture, but I am always reading from the ESV. Feel free to follow along in whatever translation you prefer. We are starting at Luke chapter 5, verse 1. Here we go. On one occasion, while the crowd was pressing in on him to hear the word of God, he was standing by the Lake of Gennesaret, and he saw 2 boats by the lake, but the fishermen had gone out of them and were washing their nets. Getting into one of the boats, which was Simon's, he asked him to put a little— put out a little from the land, and he sat down and taught the people from the boat. When he had finished speaking, he said to Simon, put out into the deep and let down your nets for a catch. Simon answered, Master, we toiled all night and took nothing, but at your word I will let down the nets. And when they had done this, they enclosed a large number of fish, and their nets were breaking. They signaled to their partners in the other boat to come and help them, and they came and filled both boats so that they began to sink. But when Simon Peter saw it, he fell down at Jesus' knees, saying, depart from me, for I am a sinful man, O Lord. For he and all who were with him were astonished at the catch of the fish that they had taken. And so also were James and John, the sons of Zebedee, who were partners with Simon. And Jesus said to Simon, do not be afraid. From now on you will be catching men. And when they had brought their boats to land, they left everything and followed him. So one of the themes that we've been seeing as we're going through Luke is this idea of God's intentions, God's plan, God's purpose. And it's really coming out in big, big ways here as we break it down and flesh it out more and more with each new day with each new event. And what's kind of cool to see here is we see men that are skilled in a trade, men that are fishermen by trade. They've done this probably since they were young men. Every day of their lives, they go out and they fish. That's what they do. They're out all night, these 3 men that are pros, not able to catch a darn thing. Not a thing. They've got empty nets. And meanwhile, here comes Jesus, who is a carpenter by trade. He's not a— he's not a fisherman. And he gets on the boat and he goes, okay, do the same thing you did. And he goes, okay, well, We'll do it, but only because you said so. And then out of that abundance flows. And it really makes me think about, okay, the actions in our own lives. How often can we just go through the motions, go through the cycles, go through just the habits that we've got built, but we're doing it not at God's instruction? We're not doing it with Christ by our side saying, do this thing, go and do this thing, fulfill your purpose, do the thing that you're doing. And when we're— when we don't have Christ with us, we're casting those nets and coming back empty and getting frustrated, going, God, where are you? Why aren't you here? We have to listen more clearly for God to say, okay, now is the time for that task. Or maybe it's now— now isn't the time to do that task. But whatever it may be, it's realizing that there is great abundance available to us when we are doing the thing that God has called us to do when he's called us to do it, instead of trying to labor on our own skills, our own abilities, our own trades. Now, of course, God gives us those abilities and those passions, but at the same time, it's when and how to use them that is equally as important as having the skill, right? Doesn't do a lot of good for somebody who's a pro golfer to be on a hockey rink. You know what I mean? Or to be golfing in the middle of February. It's just going to be a different thing. You're going to lose that golf ball in the snow for sure, 9 times out of 10. So just consider that today, guys. Are you seeing blessing in your life? Are you seeing God's abundance showing up and providing for you? I'm not talking monetarily. I'm talking about in your relationship with Christ. Are you growing? Are you seeing abundance? If not, stop for a moment today, meditate, pray, wrestle with the scriptures, and find out if maybe Christ is calling you to drop your net somewhere else. Have an amazing day. Let's pray real quick here and then I'll send you guys out. Lord, thank you so much for all of the men that have been listening as we travel through Luke. I pray that you continue to do work on our hearts, Lord. Continue to show us where you want us to be doing the things that you want us to do. I pray that that's something that we can continue to focus on and see being fleshed out in Luke in a big way. Lord, I lift up Kevin, his daughter to you. His eldest daughter is in the ER. Please, please, please be with her. She's struggling through an awful lot of hardship right now, and it's it's it's wearing for a father to watch his children suffer. Lord, I know that you've got a heart for that. I know that you've got a passion for that. Lord, thank you so much for Brody. His brother Alan, who's a one of your preachers, one of your pastors, Lord, is just so thankful to see his brother recovering from addiction and coming to know you deeper and deeper. Lord, thank you so much for that. I pray for John, Lord. I just pray that John continues to face healing as the doctors find more and more wrong with his body physically. I just pray that you would be with him spiritually. Pray that you would be. a healing hand upon him. In your name we pray. All right, guys, that's it for today. Have an amazing day out there. As always, if you guys have prayer requests that you want me to pray for on this podcast, don't hesitate to reach out on social media or via email. All of those links are in the description of this podcast wherever you may be listening. I will catch you guys tomorrow with another episode. Until then, take it easy.
Thank you for listening to the Iron Saints Podcast. If you are looking to share your prayer requests, check the description for social media or email to contact the show. Blessings on you all until next time.
