January 22, 2025 • 39 mins
Imagine standing on the edge of a cliff, heart pounding as you face a fear that has haunted you for years. That's precisely what one contestant experienced on "The Amazing Race," and it serves as a powerful metaphor for the personal challenges we all face on our spiritual journeys. We dive into this thrilling moment to explore how overcoming fear can parallel the spiritual growth we strive for, especially during Cornerstone Church's 21 days of prayer and fasting. Prepare to be inspired to reflect on the choices you make in your spiritual life, as we set our sights on a transformative 2025.
Throughout our discussion, we shine a light on the varying levels of commitment people have in their faith, comparing it to a day at the beach. Just as many dip their toes in the water without diving in, so too do some approach their relationship with Jesus. Drawing from the story of Simon Peter, we witness how distractions and the busyness of life can hinder our spiritual depth. The quote, "If the enemy cannot get you to sin, he will just keep you busy," serves as a poignant reminder of the importance of intentionality, encouraging us to say no to diversions that pull us away from our spiritual path.
As we reflect on Simon Peter's journey from doubt to deep faith, the call to go "all in" becomes clear. By stepping beyond our comfort zones, we open ourselves to the abundance and blessings that faith promises. This episode is an invitation to embrace a deeper connection with God, moving from mere ankle-deep experiences to fully immersing ourselves in the spiritual richness He offers. Concluding with a heartfelt blessing and prayer, we hope you'll feel empowered to live out love in your community, experiencing a week filled with grace and peace.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
So there's a show that my family likes to watch.
We've watched it for many years.
It's called the Amazing Race.
I don't know if any of you haveseen it before, but we love it
because people get to travel allover the world, and so we're
big cheerleaders for seeingthings around the world.
So part of this show is thatyou get to choose a partner and
I mean you're choosing it.
The show doesn't put ittogether for you, but you choose
(00:22):
a partner and you send in avideo and you hope you're
selected.
So many of the partners thatare chosen are usually a husband
and wife, a boyfriend,girlfriend, maybe a roommate,
maybe you chose somebody in yourfamily, but you want to choose
very wisely, and what happens isthere's kind of a timer on you
(00:46):
and you're going to travelliterally from country to
country, and when you get tothat country, part of what you
do is you will do some type ofactivity or something that is
timed, and the faster you go youbecome in first place.
And so there was a situation onone of the episodes where a
couple had to choose who wasgoing to do the event.
You don't know what the eventis.
Maybe when you open the clue.
There's one word on there,maybe.
It says windy.
And you're like hmm, which oneof us wants to do windy?
(01:09):
And so, all of a sudden, thegirl was like I'll do it.
And so he's like all right,here we go.
And then, as soon as you decidewho's doing it, you get another
clue that says you must now goto the top of this cliff,
harness in, and you're gonnabungee, jump off the cliff and
(01:30):
there's a river flowing throughthe bottom.
This poor girl was about to die.
She was so afraid of heights.
And the whole time we're on theother side of the TV going you
can do it, you can do it, comeon, girl.
And she was in first.
Their team was in first place,but she was so scared and so she
goes to the edge and she'sabout to climb up the stairs to
get to the top and the wholetime she's just shaking.
And you can see other teams arenow arriving at the location
(01:51):
and they're starting to just goup as fast as they can.
She's trying to get harnessedinto the gear and the whole time
she's like deep breaths, deepbreaths, deep breaths.
And we're on the other sidegoing come on, girl, just get in
there, just get in there and doit.
And she's like, oh my gosh.
And she gets to the edge of thecliff.
She's like I need a moment, Ineed a moment, I need a moment.
Anybody been there, and we.
(02:12):
It is so easy to be on theother side of the TV and act
like you know what you would do.
And here you've got my familyof five and we're like, oh my
gosh, come on girl, just get inthere.
And, needless to say, man, herfear just started taking over
and you would just see teamafter team after team go and her
poor partner is down at thebottom.
(02:33):
Just, he's about to give up,he's about to surrender because
he's just waiting so patientlyfor her just to take the dive.
I have a question for you thismorning, and my question for you
is how deep with God will yougo?
If you are a guest with us,welcome.
It is an honor to have you thismorning here at Cornerstone.
(02:55):
My name is Celeste.
My husband and I, jay, alongwith an amazing team, get the
honor of leading this churchcloser to Jesus every week, and
we love being on the journeywith you, and so it's an honor
to have you here with us.
We strive to be more like Jesus, and how many of you have been
fasting this last seven days?
And you know that being morelike Jesus takes every bit of
(03:20):
effort you can give.
When you are hangry, you arenot nice, and so I'm telling you
, I have to just keep saying belike Jesus, be like Jesus, be
like Jesus.
Well, we are started a 21 daydays of prayer and fasting, and
so we are in week one.
We've just finished.
We're about to start week twotoday, and so if you haven't
(03:42):
joined us yet, you still havetime to jump on, but we are so
expectant of what God is goingto do in these 21 days.
You'll see a QR code behind me.
You can just plug that intoyour phone, on your camera, and
it'll open up to a prayer guide,and we want you to join with us
.
We want you to read thescriptures with us each day and
pray with us, and we are goingto believe for a move of God in
(04:05):
2025.
Here, how many of you are withthat?
Amen?
We are in a series called Deep.
So, if you have your Bible withme, we are on week two.
We are going to open up to Luke, chapter five.
If you don't have it.
If you have the Bible app onyour phone, I encourage you to
open that, and if you have a wayof taking notes I am a big
(04:26):
advocate of note-taking If youdon't have a paper and pen with
you, I encourage you to open upyour phone and open up the notes
page.
But, man, there are times whenGod is speaking to you and you
will write it down in theservice and you will look back
at it one day and go oh my gosh,I forgot that God was speaking
that to me, and you'll justbegin to reflect on some things
that are stirring up in yourspirit.
So I encourage you to writedown some notes.
(04:48):
We're going to start in Luke,chapter five, verse one.
I'm going to read it for you.
Here we go.
On one occasion, while the crowdwas pressing in on him to hear
the word of God, he was standingby the lake of Genesaret and he
saw two boats by the lake, butthe fishermen had gone out of
them and were washing their nets.
(05:08):
Getting into one of the boats,which was Simon's, he asked him
to put out a little from theland and he sat down and taught
the people from the boat.
And when he had finishedspeaking, he said to Simon put
out into the deep and let downyour nets for a catch.
Put out into the deep and letdown your nets for a catch.
And Simon answered Master, wetoiled all night and took
(05:29):
nothing, but at your word, atyour word, I will lay down the
nets.
And when they had done this,they enclosed a large number of
fish and their nets werebreaking.
They signaled to their partnersin the other boat to come and
help them and they came andfilled both the boats so that
(05:56):
they began to sink Deep.
My question is how deep with God, will you go?
I've read Luke 5 many times andover the past week, as I've
been studying for today, I haveseen some things come out of
here that I have not noticedbefore, and I want to share with
you this morning some of thethings that Luke 5 shows us on
how deep we can go with God.
(06:17):
And so, number one, we're goingto talk about being ankle deep.
How many of you love the beach?
I mean, you live in the wrongstate for it, but how many of
you love it?
There's something I know you'rehesitant to tell me you like it
because you don't know what I'mabout to say about the beach.
How many of you, honestly, youjust love the beach.
It's okay, I'm not going toremember after this.
(06:39):
The beach is amazing.
I will tell you that.
But there's something about thebeach, and when you go to the
beach, you're going because youneed to relax, right?
You're going to get away fromit all.
You're leaving work, you'retaking time off, you're taking
your kids and just hoping theyfill their time by themselves
without you needing to look atthem.
(06:59):
Where's the lifeguards?
Yes, and so that's what we doat the beach.
The beach is a place where wejust go and hang out.
People set up a chair, maybethey set up a blanket.
They get to that place.
I know some people who willjust sit there all day and read
a book.
They're like it's my one timeto set aside, go away from
everything and just fully getinto a book, and so they'll just
(07:20):
be reading the whole day.
Other people maybe they'llbring games.
Other people are there allabout the food.
They're all about the food.
They got their tacos, they gotall their stuff, they're ready
to eat.
It's going to be an all-dayevent, but whatever it is, you
go to the beach to get away andto relax.
And so there's somethingspecial about the beach.
(07:41):
We read in verse 2.
It says and he saw two boats bythe lake.
It's talking about Jesus.
He saw two boats by the lakebut the fishermen had gone out
of them and were washing theirnets.
So it's referring here in verse2 that Simon was on the beach.
There's something interestingwhen I read this and I find out
(08:02):
that Simon isn't in the boat.
Something interesting when Iread this and I find out that
Simon isn't in the boat.
If you know anything about Simon, simon Peter Simon was a
fisherman by trade, so he wasactually a professional
fisherman.
He would go out all nights andhe would fish, and then he would
take those fish and he wouldsell them at the market.
He would also have food forhimself and his family.
And so it says in verse 2 thathe was not in the boat at this
(08:27):
moment because he had beentoiling all night and caught
nothing.
So he was out of the boat andhe was on the beach ankle deep
washing the nets.
I see two perfectly good boatssitting on the beach with nobody
in them.
If anybody can appreciate that,it is my father-in-law who's a
(08:47):
fisherman.
That is a waste of two boats,simon.
Since he didn't catch anything,he just decided to go back to
the beach.
There's nothing else to do.
I'm just gonna go hang out overthere.
He chose not to work anymore,not to have any more
responsibilities, but he's justgoing to go back and figure out
what to do next.
(09:07):
Instead of trying harder, hejust got out and stayed on shore
.
I want to talk to you about whatit's like to follow Jesus at an
ankle-deep level.
There's something about justletting the water only get to a
certain point in your walk withJesus.
This is what it's like to be atankle deep level.
(09:29):
You know him Well.
Guess what?
I know a lot of people in theworld that know God.
They will tell you, everywhereyou go I know God, I know God, I
believe in God.
I believe one day, when I die,I will either go to heaven or
hell.
I'm hoping it's heaven.
I believe in God.
A lot of people will tell youthat.
They'll even tell you thatthey're a Christian, but I have
(09:53):
seen no fruit from them at all.
So sometimes, when they tell mea Christian, I am literally
shocked, like wow, I had no ideathat you were a Christian?
No idea, you just blindsided mewith that comment.
People that are ankle deep intheir walk with Jesus, they
(10:15):
don't want to go too far fromhere.
This is safe.
This is comfortable.
This is where I go to relax.
This is where I don't want todo too much, I just want to hang
out.
I don't want to get too wet, Ijust want to keep busy with
other things, just like Simonwashing the nets outside of the
(10:36):
boat.
There's something about busynessin today's world that has
filled and consumed our lives.
We're busy all the time.
One of the most common things Ihear when I ask somebody how
(10:57):
are they doing?
I'm busy and it makes me sad.
We can all be busy.
All of us can.
I can fill my life with manythings, but sometimes, when we
become too busy, we preoccupyourselves too much and we take
our eyes off of Jesus.
Let me tell you some thingsthat interrupt us all the time
(11:22):
Family drama.
All of a sudden, you get a phonecall it's always on a Sunday
morning, right when you'regetting ready to come to church,
because your family has noother drama any of the other six
days of the week except Sundaymorning and you'll get that
phone call.
Oh my gosh, I need your help.
Drama.
There's also this other word wethrow around a lot, which is an
(11:46):
emergency.
We have emergencies all thetime, but if I was to look at
that emergency, I could tell youright away that I knew that
emergency was coming.
It actually happened daysbefore, but it just became
something you wanted to dealwith at that moment and so it
became an emergency in everybodyelse's life.
Right, it's getting very quietand I just want to warn you this
(12:09):
morning that I love you and Iam here because I want to speak
God's word to you this morning.
So I do pray that you willstill talk to me after this.
There's also other situationsthat arise, but I want to tell
you this the best thing thatI've learned and it took a long
(12:30):
time to learn it is that it'sokay to say no to something.
It's okay.
I have learned as a child ofGod, but I've also learned as
the oldest of all my siblingsand being raised in a divorce
home that I can't fix everything.
In fact, I can't fix mostthings and I can't be everywhere
(12:55):
at once.
So I had to learn very fastthat it's okay to say no, that
it's okay to say no.
And sometimes people are tryingto follow Jesus and they're
staying at that ankle deep levelbecause they let all the things
of this world distract them andtake them away from moving
(13:17):
deeper with God.
There's a quote I heardrecently.
It says this if the enemycannot get you to sin, he will
just keep you busy.
I want you to think about that.
If you're a strong person andyou're like I don't give into
(13:38):
this or this sin or this singreat, but are you giving into
the busyness of life that you'restaying at an ankle-deep level?
It's whatever it takes, so thatyou don't go any further than
ankle deep.
You know why?
Because something so powerfulhappens when you leave that
ankle deep level.
(13:58):
There is something so amazingthat takes place in your life
when you just begin to go deeper.
How deep with God will you go?
Number two waist deep.
Verse three says this gettinginto one of the boats.
This is Jesus getting into oneof the boats, which was Simon's.
He asked him to put out alittle from the land and he sat
(14:22):
down and he taught the peoplefrom the boat.
You have Simon, a professionalfisherman, on the sideline
cleaning his net, and we read inthis story that Jesus appears
with a crowd of people at thesame area that Simon is just
(14:43):
ankle deep, area that Simon isjust ankle deep.
Jesus is there with the crowd,and he needed to be able to
speak to all of them, and so hisidea was I'm going to choose
one of these useful boats thatare sitting on the sideline, I'm
going to get into one of themand I wisely choose Simon's, and
I'm going to ask Simon, who'snot busy doing anything, he's
(15:04):
just sitting there playing topush the boat out a little bit
off the water so that I canteach the people.
And so that's what he did.
He asked Simon hey, can youhelp me?
Can you push the boat just alittle bit off the water?
Now, if you know anything aboutSimon, he's in a bad mood, I
guarantee you right now.
(15:25):
And let me paint that picturefor you.
First of all, simon is a man.
Simon is a professionalfisherman.
Simon's been fishing all nightlong and Simon caught nothing.
Bad mood, bad mood.
He is there, he is done, hedoesn't want to do anything else
(15:49):
, he's calling it a day.
And then Jesus appears and hepicks his boat and he said
listen, simon, you're no good,just sitting there on the
sideline, just sitting therewashing your net.
I have something for you, Ihave a plan for you, so why
don't you come and help me?
(16:10):
Jesus is calling you, the sameas he is calling Simon.
He's saying to you I have somuch more for you than for you
to just be sitting there on thesideline ankle deep.
I have so much that I want todo with you, but I need you to
(16:31):
get back in the boat and come alittle bit further out with me.
Maybe you're too busy and youjust haven't taken the steps to
go waist deep yet, because tofollow Jesus deeper means that
you're gonna have to trust him.
Did you know that, man?
Trust is a scary word.
It is very hard for people whohave been hurt and offended to
(16:54):
trust.
But you're gonna have to trustJesus if you're gonna go deeper.
You're also gonna not look backat what everybody else is doing
at the ankle deep level.
I want you to hear this theBible is very clear that sin is
fun for a season and then itends, and so if you are going to
(17:16):
choose to go from this locationwaist deep, you are going to
have to teach yourself thatyou're not going to look back
anymore at what anybody else isdoing at the ankle deep level.
You know why?
Because as soon as you turnyour eyes that way and you start
looking oh, they're so lucky,they don't have to do anything,
they're just relaxing.
I've volunteered to do this andI have to be here every week.
(17:39):
I told you you're not going tolike me, have to be here every
week.
I told you you're not going tolike me, but I'm going to speak
to you that I want you to godeeper, god wants you to go
deeper, and when you start tomove, the first thing the enemy
will do is go oh, look whateverybody else is doing.
Look what everybody else isdoing.
(18:00):
And in my 20s I had to learnthat so quickly Quit looking
back, quit looking back, quitlooking back.
There's nothing there for you,nothing there for you.
You have to keep your eyes onJesus and you have to keep
listening as he speaks.
There's something about beingwaist deep.
As soon as you begin to gowaist deep, things around you
(18:26):
begin to change, distractionsstart to get removed.
There's this quote that I'veknown pretty much my whole walk
with Jesus and it's this thecloser that you get to the cross
, the thinner the crowd getsaround you, and I want you to
understand this that there's alot of people hanging out at the
beach level a lot but if youare going to make the decision
(18:50):
to follow Jesus deeper anddeeper, you're going to have to
leave that crowd and startwalking with just him, and there
are times that you're going tofeel lonely.
There are times when you'regoing to be like this is not
fair, but he has something sogreat in store for you that the
(19:12):
more you follow him, the thinnerthat crowd gets.
The deeper you go, the freer youwill become.
Answers that you've beenlooking for will be on their way
.
You'll begin to not have toreach out to people and say what
should I do, a or B?
You'll just wake up and be likeI know exactly what I'm going
(19:34):
to do.
I don't even need to askanybody because I heard directly
from the Lord what I'm supposedto do.
Your direction will be visible.
There will be a peace thatrests upon you that you have
never experienced before in yourlife, and some of you, in the
start of 2025, need that peacemore than anything else.
(19:54):
You're 20 days in and you wishthat you could start all over
already.
And God is saying just come alittle deeper, come a little
deeper.
It will just be you and me.
How deep with God will you go?
Number three there's ankle deep, there's waist deep, and then
(20:17):
there's all in Verse four saysand when he had finished
speaking he said to simon putout into the deep and let down
your nets for a catch.
We have no idea what jesus wasteaching on that boat.
We have no idea what he wassaying, but I do know that there
(20:42):
was a man on there named Simonwho was tired.
He had been out all night.
He came back with nothing.
It's like working all day andnot getting paid.
It's miserable.
And then he's asked by somestranger to help him push the
boat out so he can talk to acrowd.
And then from there Jesus isdone teaching the crowd and he
(21:08):
looks to Simon.
He says you know what?
Actually, I want you to godeeper, I want you to take that
net and I want you to throw itover the boat.
Waist deep isn't enough.
I'm wondering if Simon and theother fishermen who were
(21:29):
standing by him wanted to saythe following things to Jesus.
Excuse me, do you know that healready worked all night.
I'm sorry.
What's your name again, jesus?
Do you know that he alreadycleaned his net?
Oh, I'm sorry, jesus, do youknow that?
He's not in a good mood,obviously, and you made him go
back in the boat and push itback a little bit so you could
(21:50):
talk to everybody.
Come on.
And now you're asking him to gofishing again.
Oh, you're really making himmad.
And Jesus is looking at Simon.
Are you going to go all in?
What about you?
Maybe you haven't been ankledeep, but maybe you've been
(22:15):
waist deep for a long time.
Maybe you and your walk withJesus are still trying to
control some things and youdon't want to hand them over yet
.
You keep trying to fix them orchange them, only to get the
same results.
You have to go deeper and lethim help you.
(22:38):
Maybe he's been asking you todo something and you keep saying
no, not right now, it's not agood time, I'm really busy.
Maybe you're thinking all in istoo much for you.
Maybe you're afraid ofcommitment.
You're afraid of being let down.
You're afraid of yourexpectations will be too high
(22:58):
and God won't meet them.
Newsflash he is God and you arenot, and we don't understand
his ways.
We never will.
But let me tell you this hewill do what he says he will do.
You will never experience truejoy and wholeness until you
(23:20):
allow the one who created you into help you.
I never noticed this.
In verse four, it says thatJesus told Simon what would
happen as soon as he obeyed.
He said Simon, as soon as youput out into the deep, as soon
(23:49):
as you put out into the deep, assoon as you make that conscious
choice to not just be waistdeep, but as soon as you decide
to go deep all in, you're goingto let down your nets for a
catch.
He already told them what wouldhappen if he went all in.
It wasn't a hesitation, itwasn't a well, maybe, since it's
(24:10):
a different time of the day,you might find some fish if you
let down your nets deeper.
He said no, listen, if you godeep and you throw that net out,
you are going to catchsomething.
He would find what he'd beenlooking for all night long.
(24:31):
Some of you already know whatwill happen if you go deep, if
you go all in.
Yet you still hesitate.
How deep with God will you goall in?
Yet you still hesitate.
How deep with God will you go?
After Jesus tells Simon to casthis net into the deep, simon
(24:54):
responds, probably the way mostof us would.
It starts in verse 7 and itsays this and Simon answered
Master, we toiled all night longand took nothing.
But at your word, remember?
We don't know what happened inthat boat when Jesus was
(25:17):
teaching, but something changedin Simon's heart and he said all
of a sudden at your word,because it's you and because I
know something's different aboutyou, at your word, I will let
down the net.
And when they had done this,they enclosed a large number of
(25:41):
fish, fish and their nets werebreaking.
They signaled to their partnersin the other boat to come and
help and they came and filledboth boats so that they began to
sink.
You have a professionalfisherman who has been in that
water many, many times.
(26:01):
That's not the first time.
He's been in that body of water.
When he goes out, he knows whatto take.
If you're a fisherman and yougo to a body of water and you've
been there a lot of times youknow the bait to take, you know
the boat you need, you know whatyou need to catch the fish.
Peter or Simon knew, simonPeter knew.
(26:22):
And all of a sudden, this man,jesus, says listen, I just want
you to go deeper with me,because what you're doing right
now isn't working for you.
You're ankle deep with nothingto show.
So I'm going to ask you notjust to get in the boat and go
waist deep, but now I'm going toask you to go all in, go to the
(26:44):
deep, take that net, throw itin for a catch.
So here's Simon.
He takes that net that he usesall the time in the same body of
water and he throws it out.
And scripture very clearly saysthat all of a sudden there was
this probably tugging on theboat.
(27:04):
That's a lot of fish.
Simon probably had no idea whatwas happening.
Did I get a whale?
What did I get in this bodyright now?
And he starts to pull.
And there are just so many fishthat the net that he uses all
the time doesn't work.
(27:27):
And he asked to yell for theother fishermen who were
obviously on shore, becausetheir boat was left unattended
as well.
And he said I need your help.
All the blessings that arecoming in from this man, jesus,
my net won't hold them, so Ineed other people to come to get
the blessing.
There's so much coming in, helpme.
(27:49):
And all these men start comingand they bring their nets and it
says they brought all the catchup.
And as soon as it landed on theboats, the boats began to sink.
Boats, the boats begin to sink.
God has something so beautifulin store for you.
If you just go deep, you willbegin to see the promises that
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he has promised you come to pass.
There's ankle deep, there'swaist deep and then there's all
in.
I'm going to invite the worshipteam to come and back.
When Simon was on the beach andhe was there, just probably so
(28:37):
discouraged, he had wasted many,many hours there trying to fish
for the night and he came upempty-handed.
At that moment he was not afollower of Jesus.
He believed in God.
He was culturally a follower ofGod, but he had not met Jesus
(28:59):
yet.
You'll see, in verse 11, in thesame chapter, after this
scenario took place, it says inverse 11, that when they brought
their boats to the land andthey brought all of the blessing
that God had given them, theyleft everything and they
followed him.
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Something changed in Simon.
Simon was all in.
He went from a place of ankledeep to frustrated, sitting on a
boat, waist deep, to all in,and he left everything and he
followed Jesus.
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Right now, we are in a season offasting, and what that means is
is that when you started thisfast, if you started at the
ankle deep level, you're notgoing to be at the ankle deep
level within that 21 days.
You're going to move deeper.
If you've been sitting here atthe waist deep level just
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listening God's saying all right, now it's time to go all in.
God's saying all right now,it's time to go all in.
And that fast is going to helpyou to get rid of things.
They could be good things, butyou're getting rid of them for
the better things and for 21days, you're emptying yourself
of where you've been and puttingyourself where you should be,
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but you should not remain whereyou are right now.
The only thing that happens whenyou stay where you are is you
grow stagnant.
Stagnant means you show noactivity and you are dull.
If you have a friend and everytime you ask your friend what
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they want to do, they're like Idon't know.
Whatever.
You're going to find a newfriend.
That friend is stagnant.
They're not going anywhere.
They're content where they are,and I don't want you, as a
follower of Jesus, to remainstagnant, but I want you to keep
moving deeper.
(31:10):
When you stay stagnant, youkeep experiencing the same
things over and over and overagain until they don't mean
anything anymore.
That's why we often see peoplewho are following Jesus that
only stay at that ankle deeplevel.
They often just quit walkingwith Jesus altogether.
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They're bored.
There's nothing new.
They've seen it before and theychose not to go any deeper with
the Lord.
Eventually, your heart afterGod will grow cold.
If you remain, what once was ahappy place becomes cold and
lonely.
1 Timothy 4.15 says thisPractice these things, immerse
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yourself in them, go all in sothat all may see your progress.
That show that my family and Iwatched the Amazing Race.
What I love about this scenarioof the girl who was bungee
jumping is they have camerasthat follow her around and so
(32:20):
they're filming everything andshe finally did jump.
She was scared and when she gotdone, she was just beaming with
joy and I remember her partnerwas hugging her and he was so
proud of her.
He's like you did it.
And she said you know what?
I'm so glad that I did it, itwas worth it.
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It was worth it and just likethat, show our family on the
other side of the TV cheeringthem on.
Come on, you can do it.
You're all in.
You have a church family who ischeering you on in your walk
with Jesus.
We don't want to see you overhere.
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This is for a season and thatseason's done.
We want to see you going deeperand deeper and we're cheering
you on saying, yes, do it, it'sworth it.
Go all in, go all in Everythinghe has for you.
Go, get it.
How deep with God will you go?
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I'm going to ask you to standwith me this morning.
Maybe you're here and somebodyinvited you.
Maybe it's your first timeYou're a guest with us.
It's an honor to have you.
Maybe you came in searching foran answer this morning.
Maybe you're watching onlineand you just tuned in and you're
just searching and somethingcaught your attention.
God's trying to get yourattention.
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He has a plan for you.
You were created on purpose andfor purpose.
God loves you so much.
He knew that all of us are borninto sin and the best way that
he could save mankind was tosend his one and only son, jesus
.
And Jesus came.
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He left the glory of heaven tocome to earth as a man, and he
sacrificed his life for you.
That sacrifice on the crossgives you a second chance at
eternity, gives you theopportunity to be clean, to have
the weight of the world, theweight of your sin, lifted off
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of you, to make a decision tosay yes to Jesus and no to the
things that this world offersyou.
This morning, if you're here,I'm going to ask everyone to
close their eyes, and you'rehere, and you have to make that
decision for yourself.
If you're going to follow afterthe Lord, you're here and you
have to make that decision foryourself.
If you're going to follow afterthe Lord, I'm going to ask you
this morning.
I'm going to read the scriptureto you first.
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It's in Romans, chapter 10.
It says because if you confesswith your mouth that Jesus is
Lord and believe in your heartthat God raised him from the
dead, you will be saved.
For with the heart the heartone believes in is justified,
(35:14):
and with the mouth, oneconfesses and is saved With your
eyes closed.
There's not a specific prayerthat we pray, other than we just
admit that we are a sinner andthat we're grateful for the Lord
for coming and for paying theprice on our behalf.
And if you're here this morningand you want to make a decision
to follow after Jesus, I'm justgoing to ask you just to slip
your hand up.
I'm the only one looking around, but I just want to pray amen,
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yes, I see that.
Yes, amen, amen, yeah.
I'm going to ask everybodythat's in the room to repeat
this prayer after me.
God, thank you for loving me,thank you for sending Jesus.
I believe Jesus died on thecross for my sins.
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I believe he rose again.
Forgive me of my sins.
I surrender my life to you InChrist's name.
Amen, amen.
Hey, we celebrate with you ifyou made that decision.
(36:22):
It is the first step to achanged life.
The next step is you got tofind a church.
You can't do it by yourself,and so if you don't live near
this area, I encourage you tofind a Bible-believing church.
I also have a packet that wewant to give you before you
leave.
You can come identify yourself.
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You can come find me afterwards, or we'll have some men at the
back.
They'll have some packets intheir hand, but we want to get
you in the word of God.
That's how you're going to growdeeper.
So for all of you that are heretoday.
2025 is a new year and we're 20days in.
I don't know what your 20 dayshave looked like Only you do but
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2024 was not enough for me.
I'm ready to go deeper.
I'm ready to be completelysubmerged in whatever the Lord
has.
That means it's going to takeme out of my comfort zone.
That means it's going tochallenge me in some areas, but
I need to, because I don't wantto be content and grow stagnant.
And so we're going to open upthis altar this morning, and if
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you feel in any way that you areready to go deeper, we want to
pray with you.
We have some prayer warriors inthe house and we also have our
staff.
We want to agree with you, butwe want to open it up.
We don't want to see you growdull in your walk with Jesus.
So, father, this morning, Iknow that you're speaking to
hearts right now, and I knowthat you are beginning to
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challenge people.
Father, do what only you can do.
I pray you take away fear.
I pray that you would take awaythose speed bumps, those road
bumps that cause people tohesitate to go deeper.
And right now, holy Spirit, Ipray for just a gentle move of
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your spirit that you would beginjust to lead people to be fully
submerged in your presence.
This altar is open for you.
We just want to let you knowthat next Sunday we are doing a
water baptism, and so if you'reready to go all in, we're going
to be cheering you on, and ifyou're interested, you can go on
the app and sign up, or you cancall the office for more
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details.
Speaker 2 (38:34):
Would you bless by the word today.
I know I was such a powerfulchallenge.
Thank you so much.
Encouragement to you to embracethat, go after the deep things
of God Before we go.
I want to pray this blessingover us today Lord, bless you
and keep you.
Lord, make his face to shineupon you and be gracious to you.
(38:58):
Lord, lift up his countenanceupon you and give you peace.
Lord, I pray a blessing uponyour church, your people.
Lord, you empower us by yourspirit to live your love out to
those around us.
We pray all this in thepowerful name that is Jesus
Christ.
Amen, Amen.
Know this.
We love you very much here atCornerstone.
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God bless you and have a greatweek.
So there's a show that my family likes to watch.
We've watched it for many years.
It's called the Amazing Race.
I don't know if any of you haveseen it before, but we love it
because people get to travel allover the world, and so we're
big cheerleaders for seeingthings around the world.
So part of this show is thatyou get to choose a partner and
I mean you're choosing it.
The show doesn't put ittogether for you, but you choose
(00:22):
a partner and you send in avideo and you hope you're
selected.
So many of the partners thatare chosen are usually a husband
and wife, a boyfriend,girlfriend, maybe a roommate,
maybe you chose somebody in yourfamily, but you want to choose
very wisely, and what happens isthere's kind of a timer on you
(00:46):
and you're going to travelliterally from country to
country, and when you get tothat country, part of what you
do is you will do some type ofactivity or something that is
timed, and the faster you go youbecome in first place.
And so there was a situation onone of the episodes where a
couple had to choose who wasgoing to do the event.
You don't know what the eventis.
Maybe when you open the clue.
There's one word on there,maybe.
It says windy.
And you're like hmm, which oneof us wants to do windy?
(01:09):
And so, all of a sudden, thegirl was like I'll do it.
And so he's like all right,here we go.
And then, as soon as you decidewho's doing it, you get another
clue that says you must now goto the top of this cliff,
harness in, and you're gonnabungee, jump off the cliff and
(01:30):
there's a river flowing throughthe bottom.
This poor girl was about to die.
She was so afraid of heights.
And the whole time we're on theother side of the TV going you
can do it, you can do it, comeon, girl.
And she was in first.
Their team was in first place,but she was so scared and so she
goes to the edge and she'sabout to climb up the stairs to
get to the top and the wholetime she's just shaking.
And you can see other teams arenow arriving at the location
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and they're starting to just goup as fast as they can.
She's trying to get harnessedinto the gear and the whole time
she's like deep breaths, deepbreaths, deep breaths.
And we're on the other sidegoing come on, girl, just get in
there, just get in there and doit.
And she's like, oh my gosh.
And she gets to the edge of thecliff.
She's like I need a moment, Ineed a moment, I need a moment.
Anybody been there, and we.
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It is so easy to be on theother side of the TV and act
like you know what you would do.
And here you've got my familyof five and we're like, oh my
gosh, come on girl, just get inthere.
And, needless to say, man, herfear just started taking over
and you would just see teamafter team after team go and her
poor partner is down at thebottom.
(02:33):
Just, he's about to give up,he's about to surrender because
he's just waiting so patientlyfor her just to take the dive.
I have a question for you thismorning, and my question for you
is how deep with God will yougo?
If you are a guest with us,welcome.
It is an honor to have you thismorning here at Cornerstone.
(02:55):
My name is Celeste.
My husband and I, jay, alongwith an amazing team, get the
honor of leading this churchcloser to Jesus every week, and
we love being on the journeywith you, and so it's an honor
to have you here with us.
We strive to be more like Jesus, and how many of you have been
fasting this last seven days?
And you know that being morelike Jesus takes every bit of
(03:20):
effort you can give.
When you are hangry, you arenot nice, and so I'm telling you
, I have to just keep saying belike Jesus, be like Jesus, be
like Jesus.
Well, we are started a 21 daydays of prayer and fasting, and
so we are in week one.
We've just finished.
We're about to start week twotoday, and so if you haven't
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joined us yet, you still havetime to jump on, but we are so
expectant of what God is goingto do in these 21 days.
You'll see a QR code behind me.
You can just plug that intoyour phone, on your camera, and
it'll open up to a prayer guide,and we want you to join with us
.
We want you to read thescriptures with us each day and
pray with us, and we are goingto believe for a move of God in
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2025.
Here, how many of you are withthat?
Amen?
We are in a series called Deep.
So, if you have your Bible withme, we are on week two.
We are going to open up to Luke, chapter five.
If you don't have it.
If you have the Bible app onyour phone, I encourage you to
open that, and if you have a wayof taking notes I am a big
(04:26):
advocate of note-taking If youdon't have a paper and pen with
you, I encourage you to open upyour phone and open up the notes
page.
But, man, there are times whenGod is speaking to you and you
will write it down in theservice and you will look back
at it one day and go oh my gosh,I forgot that God was speaking
that to me, and you'll justbegin to reflect on some things
that are stirring up in yourspirit.
So I encourage you to writedown some notes.
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We're going to start in Luke,chapter five, verse one.
I'm going to read it for you.
Here we go.
On one occasion, while the crowdwas pressing in on him to hear
the word of God, he was standingby the lake of Genesaret and he
saw two boats by the lake, butthe fishermen had gone out of
them and were washing their nets.
(05:08):
Getting into one of the boats,which was Simon's, he asked him
to put out a little from theland and he sat down and taught
the people from the boat.
And when he had finishedspeaking, he said to Simon put
out into the deep and let downyour nets for a catch.
Put out into the deep and letdown your nets for a catch.
And Simon answered Master, wetoiled all night and took
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nothing, but at your word, atyour word, I will lay down the
nets.
And when they had done this,they enclosed a large number of
fish and their nets werebreaking.
They signaled to their partnersin the other boat to come and
help them and they came andfilled both the boats so that
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they began to sink Deep.
My question is how deep with God, will you go?
I've read Luke 5 many times andover the past week, as I've
been studying for today, I haveseen some things come out of
here that I have not noticedbefore, and I want to share with
you this morning some of thethings that Luke 5 shows us on
how deep we can go with God.
(06:17):
And so, number one, we're goingto talk about being ankle deep.
How many of you love the beach?
I mean, you live in the wrongstate for it, but how many of
you love it?
There's something I know you'rehesitant to tell me you like it
because you don't know what I'mabout to say about the beach.
How many of you, honestly, youjust love the beach.
It's okay, I'm not going toremember after this.
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The beach is amazing.
I will tell you that.
But there's something about thebeach, and when you go to the
beach, you're going because youneed to relax, right?
You're going to get away fromit all.
You're leaving work, you'retaking time off, you're taking
your kids and just hoping theyfill their time by themselves
without you needing to look atthem.
(06:59):
Where's the lifeguards?
Yes, and so that's what we doat the beach.
The beach is a place where wejust go and hang out.
People set up a chair, maybethey set up a blanket.
They get to that place.
I know some people who willjust sit there all day and read
a book.
They're like it's my one timeto set aside, go away from
everything and just fully getinto a book, and so they'll just
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be reading the whole day.
Other people maybe they'llbring games.
Other people are there allabout the food.
They're all about the food.
They got their tacos, they gotall their stuff, they're ready
to eat.
It's going to be an all-dayevent, but whatever it is, you
go to the beach to get away andto relax.
And so there's somethingspecial about the beach.
(07:41):
We read in verse 2.
It says and he saw two boats bythe lake.
It's talking about Jesus.
He saw two boats by the lakebut the fishermen had gone out
of them and were washing theirnets.
So it's referring here in verse2 that Simon was on the beach.
There's something interestingwhen I read this and I find out
(08:02):
that Simon isn't in the boat.
Something interesting when Iread this and I find out that
Simon isn't in the boat.
If you know anything about Simon, simon Peter Simon was a
fisherman by trade, so he wasactually a professional
fisherman.
He would go out all nights andhe would fish, and then he would
take those fish and he wouldsell them at the market.
He would also have food forhimself and his family.
And so it says in verse 2 thathe was not in the boat at this
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moment because he had beentoiling all night and caught
nothing.
So he was out of the boat andhe was on the beach ankle deep
washing the nets.
I see two perfectly good boatssitting on the beach with nobody
in them.
If anybody can appreciate that,it is my father-in-law who's a
(08:47):
fisherman.
That is a waste of two boats,simon.
Since he didn't catch anything,he just decided to go back to
the beach.
There's nothing else to do.
I'm just gonna go hang out overthere.
He chose not to work anymore,not to have any more
responsibilities, but he's justgoing to go back and figure out
what to do next.
(09:07):
Instead of trying harder, hejust got out and stayed on shore
.
I want to talk to you about whatit's like to follow Jesus at an
ankle-deep level.
There's something about justletting the water only get to a
certain point in your walk withJesus.
This is what it's like to be atankle deep level.
(09:29):
You know him Well.
Guess what?
I know a lot of people in theworld that know God.
They will tell you, everywhereyou go I know God, I know God, I
believe in God.
I believe one day, when I die,I will either go to heaven or
hell.
I'm hoping it's heaven.
I believe in God.
A lot of people will tell youthat.
They'll even tell you thatthey're a Christian, but I have
(09:53):
seen no fruit from them at all.
So sometimes, when they tell mea Christian, I am literally
shocked, like wow, I had no ideathat you were a Christian?
No idea, you just blindsided mewith that comment.
People that are ankle deep intheir walk with Jesus, they
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don't want to go too far fromhere.
This is safe.
This is comfortable.
This is where I go to relax.
This is where I don't want todo too much, I just want to hang
out.
I don't want to get too wet, Ijust want to keep busy with
other things, just like Simonwashing the nets outside of the
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boat.
There's something about busynessin today's world that has
filled and consumed our lives.
We're busy all the time.
One of the most common things Ihear when I ask somebody how
(10:57):
are they doing?
I'm busy and it makes me sad.
We can all be busy.
All of us can.
I can fill my life with manythings, but sometimes, when we
become too busy, we preoccupyourselves too much and we take
our eyes off of Jesus.
Let me tell you some thingsthat interrupt us all the time
(11:22):
Family drama.
All of a sudden, you get a phonecall it's always on a Sunday
morning, right when you'regetting ready to come to church,
because your family has noother drama any of the other six
days of the week except Sundaymorning and you'll get that
phone call.
Oh my gosh, I need your help.
Drama.
There's also this other word wethrow around a lot, which is an
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emergency.
We have emergencies all thetime, but if I was to look at
that emergency, I could tell youright away that I knew that
emergency was coming.
It actually happened daysbefore, but it just became
something you wanted to dealwith at that moment and so it
became an emergency in everybodyelse's life.
Right, it's getting very quietand I just want to warn you this
(12:09):
morning that I love you and Iam here because I want to speak
God's word to you this morning.
So I do pray that you willstill talk to me after this.
There's also other situationsthat arise, but I want to tell
you this the best thing thatI've learned and it took a long
(12:30):
time to learn it is that it'sokay to say no to something.
It's okay.
I have learned as a child ofGod, but I've also learned as
the oldest of all my siblingsand being raised in a divorce
home that I can't fix everything.
In fact, I can't fix mostthings and I can't be everywhere
(12:55):
at once.
So I had to learn very fastthat it's okay to say no, that
it's okay to say no.
And sometimes people are tryingto follow Jesus and they're
staying at that ankle deep levelbecause they let all the things
of this world distract them andtake them away from moving
(13:17):
deeper with God.
There's a quote I heardrecently.
It says this if the enemycannot get you to sin, he will
just keep you busy.
I want you to think about that.
If you're a strong person andyou're like I don't give into
(13:38):
this or this sin or this singreat, but are you giving into
the busyness of life that you'restaying at an ankle-deep level?
It's whatever it takes, so thatyou don't go any further than
ankle deep.
You know why?
Because something so powerfulhappens when you leave that
ankle deep level.
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There is something so amazingthat takes place in your life
when you just begin to go deeper.
How deep with God will you go?
Number two waist deep.
Verse three says this gettinginto one of the boats.
This is Jesus getting into oneof the boats, which was Simon's.
He asked him to put out alittle from the land and he sat
(14:22):
down and he taught the peoplefrom the boat.
You have Simon, a professionalfisherman, on the sideline
cleaning his net, and we read inthis story that Jesus appears
with a crowd of people at thesame area that Simon is just
(14:43):
ankle deep, area that Simon isjust ankle deep.
Jesus is there with the crowd,and he needed to be able to
speak to all of them, and so hisidea was I'm going to choose
one of these useful boats thatare sitting on the sideline, I'm
going to get into one of themand I wisely choose Simon's, and
I'm going to ask Simon, who'snot busy doing anything, he's
(15:04):
just sitting there playing topush the boat out a little bit
off the water so that I canteach the people.
And so that's what he did.
He asked Simon hey, can youhelp me?
Can you push the boat just alittle bit off the water?
Now, if you know anything aboutSimon, he's in a bad mood, I
guarantee you right now.
(15:25):
And let me paint that picturefor you.
First of all, simon is a man.
Simon is a professionalfisherman.
Simon's been fishing all nightlong and Simon caught nothing.
Bad mood, bad mood.
He is there, he is done, hedoesn't want to do anything else
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, he's calling it a day.
And then Jesus appears and hepicks his boat and he said
listen, simon, you're no good,just sitting there on the
sideline, just sitting therewashing your net.
I have something for you, Ihave a plan for you, so why
don't you come and help me?
(16:10):
Jesus is calling you, the sameas he is calling Simon.
He's saying to you I have somuch more for you than for you
to just be sitting there on thesideline ankle deep.
I have so much that I want todo with you, but I need you to
(16:31):
get back in the boat and come alittle bit further out with me.
Maybe you're too busy and youjust haven't taken the steps to
go waist deep yet, because tofollow Jesus deeper means that
you're gonna have to trust him.
Did you know that, man?
Trust is a scary word.
It is very hard for people whohave been hurt and offended to
(16:54):
trust.
But you're gonna have to trustJesus if you're gonna go deeper.
You're also gonna not look backat what everybody else is doing
at the ankle deep level.
I want you to hear this theBible is very clear that sin is
fun for a season and then itends, and so if you are going to
(17:16):
choose to go from this locationwaist deep, you are going to
have to teach yourself thatyou're not going to look back
anymore at what anybody else isdoing at the ankle deep level.
You know why?
Because as soon as you turnyour eyes that way and you start
looking oh, they're so lucky,they don't have to do anything,
they're just relaxing.
I've volunteered to do this andI have to be here every week.
(17:39):
I told you you're not going tolike me, have to be here every
week.
I told you you're not going tolike me, but I'm going to speak
to you that I want you to godeeper, god wants you to go
deeper, and when you start tomove, the first thing the enemy
will do is go oh, look whateverybody else is doing.
Look what everybody else isdoing.
(18:00):
And in my 20s I had to learnthat so quickly Quit looking
back, quit looking back, quitlooking back.
There's nothing there for you,nothing there for you.
You have to keep your eyes onJesus and you have to keep
listening as he speaks.
There's something about beingwaist deep.
As soon as you begin to gowaist deep, things around you
(18:26):
begin to change, distractionsstart to get removed.
There's this quote that I'veknown pretty much my whole walk
with Jesus and it's this thecloser that you get to the cross
, the thinner the crowd getsaround you, and I want you to
understand this that there's alot of people hanging out at the
beach level a lot but if youare going to make the decision
(18:50):
to follow Jesus deeper anddeeper, you're going to have to
leave that crowd and startwalking with just him, and there
are times that you're going tofeel lonely.
There are times when you'regoing to be like this is not
fair, but he has something sogreat in store for you that the
(19:12):
more you follow him, the thinnerthat crowd gets.
The deeper you go, the freer youwill become.
Answers that you've beenlooking for will be on their way
.
You'll begin to not have toreach out to people and say what
should I do, a or B?
You'll just wake up and be likeI know exactly what I'm going
(19:34):
to do.
I don't even need to askanybody because I heard directly
from the Lord what I'm supposedto do.
Your direction will be visible.
There will be a peace thatrests upon you that you have
never experienced before in yourlife, and some of you, in the
start of 2025, need that peacemore than anything else.
(19:54):
You're 20 days in and you wishthat you could start all over
already.
And God is saying just come alittle deeper, come a little
deeper.
It will just be you and me.
How deep with God will you go?
Number three there's ankle deep, there's waist deep, and then
(20:17):
there's all in Verse four saysand when he had finished
speaking he said to simon putout into the deep and let down
your nets for a catch.
We have no idea what jesus wasteaching on that boat.
We have no idea what he wassaying, but I do know that there
(20:42):
was a man on there named Simonwho was tired.
He had been out all night.
He came back with nothing.
It's like working all day andnot getting paid.
It's miserable.
And then he's asked by somestranger to help him push the
boat out so he can talk to acrowd.
And then from there Jesus isdone teaching the crowd and he
(21:08):
looks to Simon.
He says you know what?
Actually, I want you to godeeper, I want you to take that
net and I want you to throw itover the boat.
Waist deep isn't enough.
I'm wondering if Simon and theother fishermen who were
(21:29):
standing by him wanted to saythe following things to Jesus.
Excuse me, do you know that healready worked all night.
I'm sorry.
What's your name again, jesus?
Do you know that he alreadycleaned his net?
Oh, I'm sorry, jesus, do youknow that?
He's not in a good mood,obviously, and you made him go
back in the boat and push itback a little bit so you could
(21:50):
talk to everybody.
Come on.
And now you're asking him to gofishing again.
Oh, you're really making himmad.
And Jesus is looking at Simon.
Are you going to go all in?
What about you?
Maybe you haven't been ankledeep, but maybe you've been
(22:15):
waist deep for a long time.
Maybe you and your walk withJesus are still trying to
control some things and youdon't want to hand them over yet
.
You keep trying to fix them orchange them, only to get the
same results.
You have to go deeper and lethim help you.
(22:38):
Maybe he's been asking you todo something and you keep saying
no, not right now, it's not agood time, I'm really busy.
Maybe you're thinking all in istoo much for you.
Maybe you're afraid ofcommitment.
You're afraid of being let down.
You're afraid of yourexpectations will be too high
(22:58):
and God won't meet them.
Newsflash he is God and you arenot, and we don't understand
his ways.
We never will.
But let me tell you this hewill do what he says he will do.
You will never experience truejoy and wholeness until you
(23:20):
allow the one who created you into help you.
I never noticed this.
In verse four, it says thatJesus told Simon what would
happen as soon as he obeyed.
He said Simon, as soon as youput out into the deep, as soon
(23:49):
as you put out into the deep, assoon as you make that conscious
choice to not just be waistdeep, but as soon as you decide
to go deep all in, you're goingto let down your nets for a
catch.
He already told them what wouldhappen if he went all in.
It wasn't a hesitation, itwasn't a well, maybe, since it's
(24:10):
a different time of the day,you might find some fish if you
let down your nets deeper.
He said no, listen, if you godeep and you throw that net out,
you are going to catchsomething.
He would find what he'd beenlooking for all night long.
(24:31):
Some of you already know whatwill happen if you go deep, if
you go all in.
Yet you still hesitate.
How deep with God will you goall in?
Yet you still hesitate.
How deep with God will you go?
After Jesus tells Simon to casthis net into the deep, simon
(24:54):
responds, probably the way mostof us would.
It starts in verse 7 and itsays this and Simon answered
Master, we toiled all night longand took nothing.
But at your word, remember?
We don't know what happened inthat boat when Jesus was
(25:17):
teaching, but something changedin Simon's heart and he said all
of a sudden at your word,because it's you and because I
know something's different aboutyou, at your word, I will let
down the net.
And when they had done this,they enclosed a large number of
(25:41):
fish, fish and their nets werebreaking.
They signaled to their partnersin the other boat to come and
help and they came and filledboth boats so that they began to
sink.
You have a professionalfisherman who has been in that
water many, many times.
(26:01):
That's not the first time.
He's been in that body of water.
When he goes out, he knows whatto take.
If you're a fisherman and yougo to a body of water and you've
been there a lot of times youknow the bait to take, you know
the boat you need, you know whatyou need to catch the fish.
Peter or Simon knew, simonPeter knew.
(26:22):
And all of a sudden, this man,jesus, says listen, I just want
you to go deeper with me,because what you're doing right
now isn't working for you.
You're ankle deep with nothingto show.
So I'm going to ask you notjust to get in the boat and go
waist deep, but now I'm going toask you to go all in, go to the
(26:44):
deep, take that net, throw itin for a catch.
So here's Simon.
He takes that net that he usesall the time in the same body of
water and he throws it out.
And scripture very clearly saysthat all of a sudden there was
this probably tugging on theboat.
(27:04):
That's a lot of fish.
Simon probably had no idea whatwas happening.
Did I get a whale?
What did I get in this bodyright now?
And he starts to pull.
And there are just so many fishthat the net that he uses all
the time doesn't work.
(27:27):
And he asked to yell for theother fishermen who were
obviously on shore, becausetheir boat was left unattended
as well.
And he said I need your help.
All the blessings that arecoming in from this man, jesus,
my net won't hold them, so Ineed other people to come to get
the blessing.
There's so much coming in, helpme.
(27:49):
And all these men start comingand they bring their nets and it
says they brought all the catchup.
And as soon as it landed on theboats, the boats began to sink.
Boats, the boats begin to sink.
God has something so beautifulin store for you.
If you just go deep, you willbegin to see the promises that
(28:10):
he has promised you come to pass.
There's ankle deep, there'swaist deep and then there's all
in.
I'm going to invite the worshipteam to come and back.
When Simon was on the beach andhe was there, just probably so
(28:37):
discouraged, he had wasted many,many hours there trying to fish
for the night and he came upempty-handed.
At that moment he was not afollower of Jesus.
He believed in God.
He was culturally a follower ofGod, but he had not met Jesus
(28:59):
yet.
You'll see, in verse 11, in thesame chapter, after this
scenario took place, it says inverse 11, that when they brought
their boats to the land andthey brought all of the blessing
that God had given them, theyleft everything and they
followed him.
(29:19):
Something changed in Simon.
Simon was all in.
He went from a place of ankledeep to frustrated, sitting on a
boat, waist deep, to all in,and he left everything and he
followed Jesus.
(29:42):
Right now, we are in a season offasting, and what that means is
is that when you started thisfast, if you started at the
ankle deep level, you're notgoing to be at the ankle deep
level within that 21 days.
You're going to move deeper.
If you've been sitting here atthe waist deep level just
(30:03):
listening God's saying all right, now it's time to go all in.
God's saying all right now,it's time to go all in.
And that fast is going to helpyou to get rid of things.
They could be good things, butyou're getting rid of them for
the better things and for 21days, you're emptying yourself
of where you've been and puttingyourself where you should be,
(30:29):
but you should not remain whereyou are right now.
The only thing that happens whenyou stay where you are is you
grow stagnant.
Stagnant means you show noactivity and you are dull.
If you have a friend and everytime you ask your friend what
(30:50):
they want to do, they're like Idon't know.
Whatever.
You're going to find a newfriend.
That friend is stagnant.
They're not going anywhere.
They're content where they are,and I don't want you, as a
follower of Jesus, to remainstagnant, but I want you to keep
moving deeper.
(31:10):
When you stay stagnant, youkeep experiencing the same
things over and over and overagain until they don't mean
anything anymore.
That's why we often see peoplewho are following Jesus that
only stay at that ankle deeplevel.
They often just quit walkingwith Jesus altogether.
(31:33):
They're bored.
There's nothing new.
They've seen it before and theychose not to go any deeper with
the Lord.
Eventually, your heart afterGod will grow cold.
If you remain, what once was ahappy place becomes cold and
lonely.
1 Timothy 4.15 says thisPractice these things, immerse
(32:00):
yourself in them, go all in sothat all may see your progress.
That show that my family and Iwatched the Amazing Race.
What I love about this scenarioof the girl who was bungee
jumping is they have camerasthat follow her around and so
(32:20):
they're filming everything andshe finally did jump.
She was scared and when she gotdone, she was just beaming with
joy and I remember her partnerwas hugging her and he was so
proud of her.
He's like you did it.
And she said you know what?
I'm so glad that I did it, itwas worth it.
(32:44):
It was worth it and just likethat, show our family on the
other side of the TV cheeringthem on.
Come on, you can do it.
You're all in.
You have a church family who ischeering you on in your walk
with Jesus.
We don't want to see you overhere.
(33:06):
This is for a season and thatseason's done.
We want to see you going deeperand deeper and we're cheering
you on saying, yes, do it, it'sworth it.
Go all in, go all in Everythinghe has for you.
Go, get it.
How deep with God will you go?
(33:29):
I'm going to ask you to standwith me this morning.
Maybe you're here and somebodyinvited you.
Maybe it's your first timeYou're a guest with us.
It's an honor to have you.
Maybe you came in searching foran answer this morning.
Maybe you're watching onlineand you just tuned in and you're
just searching and somethingcaught your attention.
God's trying to get yourattention.
(33:51):
He has a plan for you.
You were created on purpose andfor purpose.
God loves you so much.
He knew that all of us are borninto sin and the best way that
he could save mankind was tosend his one and only son, jesus
.
And Jesus came.
(34:11):
He left the glory of heaven tocome to earth as a man, and he
sacrificed his life for you.
That sacrifice on the crossgives you a second chance at
eternity, gives you theopportunity to be clean, to have
the weight of the world, theweight of your sin, lifted off
(34:32):
of you, to make a decision tosay yes to Jesus and no to the
things that this world offersyou.
This morning, if you're here,I'm going to ask everyone to
close their eyes, and you'rehere, and you have to make that
decision for yourself.
If you're going to follow afterthe Lord, you're here and you
have to make that decision foryourself.
If you're going to follow afterthe Lord, I'm going to ask you
this morning.
I'm going to read the scriptureto you first.
(34:54):
It's in Romans, chapter 10.
It says because if you confesswith your mouth that Jesus is
Lord and believe in your heartthat God raised him from the
dead, you will be saved.
For with the heart the heartone believes in is justified,
(35:14):
and with the mouth, oneconfesses and is saved With your
eyes closed.
There's not a specific prayerthat we pray, other than we just
admit that we are a sinner andthat we're grateful for the Lord
for coming and for paying theprice on our behalf.
And if you're here this morningand you want to make a decision
to follow after Jesus, I'm justgoing to ask you just to slip
your hand up.
I'm the only one looking around, but I just want to pray amen,
(35:36):
yes, I see that.
Yes, amen, amen, yeah.
I'm going to ask everybodythat's in the room to repeat
this prayer after me.
God, thank you for loving me,thank you for sending Jesus.
I believe Jesus died on thecross for my sins.
(35:56):
I believe he rose again.
Forgive me of my sins.
I surrender my life to you InChrist's name.
Amen, amen.
Hey, we celebrate with you ifyou made that decision.
(36:22):
It is the first step to achanged life.
The next step is you got tofind a church.
You can't do it by yourself,and so if you don't live near
this area, I encourage you tofind a Bible-believing church.
I also have a packet that wewant to give you before you
leave.
You can come identify yourself.
(36:42):
You can come find me afterwards, or we'll have some men at the
back.
They'll have some packets intheir hand, but we want to get
you in the word of God.
That's how you're going to growdeeper.
So for all of you that are heretoday.
2025 is a new year and we're 20days in.
I don't know what your 20 dayshave looked like Only you do but
(37:03):
2024 was not enough for me.
I'm ready to go deeper.
I'm ready to be completelysubmerged in whatever the Lord
has.
That means it's going to takeme out of my comfort zone.
That means it's going tochallenge me in some areas, but
I need to, because I don't wantto be content and grow stagnant.
And so we're going to open upthis altar this morning, and if
(37:25):
you feel in any way that you areready to go deeper, we want to
pray with you.
We have some prayer warriors inthe house and we also have our
staff.
We want to agree with you, butwe want to open it up.
We don't want to see you growdull in your walk with Jesus.
So, father, this morning, Iknow that you're speaking to
hearts right now, and I knowthat you are beginning to
(37:49):
challenge people.
Father, do what only you can do.
I pray you take away fear.
I pray that you would take awaythose speed bumps, those road
bumps that cause people tohesitate to go deeper.
And right now, holy Spirit, Ipray for just a gentle move of
(38:11):
your spirit that you would beginjust to lead people to be fully
submerged in your presence.
This altar is open for you.
We just want to let you knowthat next Sunday we are doing a
water baptism, and so if you'reready to go all in, we're going
to be cheering you on, and ifyou're interested, you can go on
the app and sign up, or you cancall the office for more
(38:33):
details.
Speaker 2 (38:34):
Would you bless by the word today.
I know I was such a powerfulchallenge.
Thank you so much.
Encouragement to you to embracethat, go after the deep things
of God Before we go.
I want to pray this blessingover us today Lord, bless you
and keep you.
Lord, make his face to shineupon you and be gracious to you.
(38:58):
Lord, lift up his countenanceupon you and give you peace.
Lord, I pray a blessing uponyour church, your people.
Lord, you empower us by yourspirit to live your love out to
those around us.
We pray all this in thepowerful name that is Jesus
Christ.
Amen, Amen.
Know this.
We love you very much here atCornerstone.
(39:18):
God bless you and have a greatweek.
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