Skip to content Why God Wants to Bless You Aug 27 · 43 min ...more
August 27, 2020 · 43 min · Messages of Hope
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666K followers
Dr. Tony Evans is the founder and senior pastor of Oak Cliff Bible Fellowship in Dallas, founder and president of The Urban Alternative and author of over 100 books, booklets and Bible studies.
666K followers
0:00 An employer 1 day sent out a memo to his employees to let them know that there was a united fund drive, and he wanted all of his employees to participate in the fund drive.0:13 He wanted 100 percent participation. 1 of the employees let his supervisor know he was not going to participate. He did not want to participate0:24 in this fund drive. He was not going to participate. The word got back to the owner of the company that there was this 1 employee who was not gonna participate in this fund drive that0:36 the employer wanted 100 percent participation in. So he called the employee to his office. He said, I hear there's a problem. He said, yeah, I don't wanna participate in this0:48 united fund giving drive. I know it's for a good charitable purpose, but I don't wanna participate. The employer said, well, then we have a little dilemma, don't we? Because you don't want to participate, and I need 1001:00 percent participation. So, it seems like there are 2 options here. Option number 1 is you can participate. Option number 2 is I can relieve you of your responsibilities so that I have 1001:12 percent participation. He said, which would you like to do? Employee said, I'll participate. Employer said, well, why are you now participating?1:24 He said, because nobody ever quite explained it to me like that. How you hear things and how you understand them1:36 often affect what you do. When it's explained a little different, sometimes we catch it a lot better. Today, I wanna explain as1:48 best I can why God wants to bless you. Why God wants to bless you. Now we know everybody wants to be blessed.2:00 Everybody wants to be blessed. It it is the in Christian word. I want my blessing. How you doing today? I'm blessed. It's it's the end2:12 thing to say. I'm looking for my blessing. And they could mean a multitude, a plethora of things by that statement, I want to be blessed.2:24 They may want a financial blessing or relational blessing, career blessing, blessing of a new house, new car, new clothes. It could be a whole assembly of2:36 things, but everybody wants to be blessed. And that's not bad. That's not wrong. The Bible talks about the blessings that God gives. But what we often2:48 don't hear is God's side of the blessing. You know, now we know our side. The word bless means to dispense favor2:59 or goodness. So to be blessed is to receive from God his favor and good things at his hand.3:11 That's what we want. We want we want the favor of God, and we want good things coming our way from the hand of God. That's our side, because that's what3:23 we want. But but I wanna look at it just a little differently, and I wanna try to answer the question why God would wanna do it.3:35 Now we know why we want it, because it makes life better, it makes life easier, it makes us happier, it gives us joy. There is the3:47 human benefit of having been blessed. But I wanna answer the question, why God wants to do it in the first place? Because3:58 if we can ever connect the what with the why, perhaps we will understand this concept of blessing a little bit better. Jesus has come to the Sea of4:10 Galilee, also called the lake of Gennesaret. He sees 2 boats, verse 2, lying on the edge of the lake. The fishermen had gotten out of them and were washing4:22 their nets. Jesus gets into the boat, which was Simon's, Peter, Simon Peter, and asked him to pull out a little away from the land, he sat down and began to teach the people from the boat. So we4:34 basically have a Bible study. Jesus calls for a Bible study, and he pushes the boat out from the shore where it4:46 had been docked, the fishermen had come in from their work, to create a distance so that he could speak, teach, preach, sermonize, so that he could give spiritual truth to the4:58 people from the boat. So he's preaching his sermon, and the people are listening to the greatest preacher and the greatest teacher who has5:10 ever existed, Jesus Christ, the son of the living God. Now the sermon is over. The service has ended.5:21 It is time for the benediction to be given. And Jesus, when he had finished speaking, verse 4, said to5:33 Simon Peter, 'Put out into the deep, and let down your nets for a catch.' Push out into the deep,5:45 let down your nets for a catch. Now, follow me here. We have started with a generic sermon to the multitudes from the boat.5:57 We have now gone from a sermon to everybody to an instruction to somebody. We've gone from a message to the masses6:10 to a message to the individual. We've gone from something everybody hears to something only 1 person hears, Peter.6:24 It's 1 thing to come to church and hear a generic message for everybody. Whatever you're hearing right now, your neighbor6:36 is hearing right now, and their neighbor is hearing right now, because there's only 1 sermon being preached to however many people have gathered here this morning. It's a whole another ballgame6:49 for the sermon to be over for everybody, and you get a message with your name on it. It's the difference between7:01 hearing the word of God preached to all and a word from God spoken to you. Now, it takes me7:12 12 to 15 hours to prepare a sermon for everybody. I am under no delusion that after this 12 to 15 hour preparation and 457:24 minute message, that by Tuesday of this week, 95 percent of it will have been forgotten. I am not in fact, I can't think about it too long,7:36 because it's frustrating because that's what happens week after week, and that's after 15 hours. But let me tell you what sermons you won't forget,7:48 and that's the 1 that has your name on it. Now you may forget the general 1 that had y'all's name on it, but he says, Peter, I've talked to everybody,8:00 but I have a specific thing for you. I want you, Peter, Simon, to push out from the bank, and I want you to go into the deep,8:12 and I want you to make a great catch. Now let me tell you about this specific message, this applied sermon. He tells him where to go,8:24 enter the deep, what to do, cast out your net, and what to expect, a great catch. He gives him a very specific8:36 message. I don't know what his general sermon was, but his specific message had Peter's name on it. He was called by name. It's like the difference between a person8:48 after a service saying, good service pastor, and the person who comes and says, you were talking to me. Same message, but 1 heard their name, didn't just hear the message. See,9:00 when you come to church, don't just come for the word of God. Come for a word from God, so that he calls you by name through what's being9:12 said, and you know he was talking to you, not just to us. Now, he tells Peter, push out from the bank, go to the9:23 deep, cast down the net, expect a blessing, a great catch. Peter has a response to this instruction. Peter's response is,9:35 Master, we worked hard all night and caught nothing. Master, let me 'splain9:46 something. We have been out here all night long, and we have caught nothing. Simon9:58 Peter is part of a business, the Zebedee Fishing Corporation. Now you laugh, but that's what verse 10 tells us. Verse10:10 10 says, and also were James and John, sons of Zebedee, who were partners with Simon. This is a company business.10:23 They fish for a living. This is a business venture that has partners that makes a profit, and they know fishing.10:36 Jesus is a carpenter. He makes furniture. He grew up making furniture with his father. He makes tables and chairs, and10:48 he makes he makes bedposts and anything having to do with carving and shaving wood. That's what Jesus had done for a living up until he was 30 years old. So we've got a carpenter11:02 trying to tell a professional fisherman how, when, and where to catch fish. So Peter wants to set him straight. He11:14 wants to explain something. Jesus. I don't go into your woodshop trying to tell you how to11:26 carpenter. Let me explain how we fish on the Sea of Galilee. You see, on the Sea of Galilee, fishermen with net fish at11:38 night, not in the day. That's why he says, we've been out all night. Because that's when you fish with nets on the Sea of Galilee. You do not fish in the daytime with a11:50 net. Now if you take a line out there, that's something, because you're trying to catch 1 fish. But if you're trying to get a whole school of fish, because you're trying to catch them in a net, you have to do that at11:59 night. And let me tell you something else, you have to do it near the shore where they gather, because way out into the deep, they don't gather that way high enough to the surface for you to put12:11 out a net to catch a great catch, because it's daytime, and they are too deep way out in the deep. You gotta get them at night when they've come closer to shore, when they've gathered12:23 together in schools, in order to get a great catch. So, what Jesus asked Peter to do goes against the rhyme and reason of Peter's reality.12:35 Peter has been doing this for years. His company has been in business for years, and you don't run a successful business if you're not catching fish. So he12:47 goes about to explain to Jesus Christ how you fish in the Sea of Galilee, and Jesus, how we fish, and what you said don't match.13:00 What you're talking about and our reality is not the same. Please let me explain something as I try to answer this question why God13:12 wants to bless you. In fact, I'm gonna give you even a bigger hint. I'm gonna tell you when you can know a big blessing is on the horizon.13:26 The 2 ways you can know when there's something special on the horizon. Now I'm not talking about regular stuff. The regular stuff we appreciate, but it's regular, so we get used to it.13:39 You know, we thank God for the air we breathe, we thank Him, you know, He woke us up and sent us on our way, we thank Him, you know, our bed wasn't our cooling board, and you know, we thank Him for the regular, and the13:50 regular is very good. I mean, in fact, we only tend to thank Him for the regular when something goes wrong with the regular, when we can't breathe, when we are sick. When the14:02 regular has been interfered with, then God becomes important. But for the regular stuff he does, we recognize it, and we pay homage to it, but it doesn't really doesn't really zing. It's not14:13 it's not what we call a zinger. How do you know when God is ready to do something unique, out of the ordinary, not regular?14:26 That that a sense of special favor or goodness. Number 1, he allows all your efforts to be unsuccessful.14:40 We have worked all night and have caught nothing. You have done everything you're supposed to do, everything you know to do, and you have14:52 gone overtime doing it. We have worked all night. Other nights have not been a problem. Last night was a big problem, because we worked all night15:03 when you're supposed to work, where you're supposed to work, and nothing is panning out. Now it feels bad when you've exerted yourself, and it's not working out.15:15 It feels bad when you've done everything you can, and all you've got to show for it is 0. It feels bad when you've gone job15:27 hunting and everybody has turned you down. It feels bad when you've worked the numbers and none of them are working out. It feels bad when all night long you have15:39 gone over and over, you've tried and you've tried, and it's not working. Wow, it may feel bad, but I'd like to suggest to you it's not a bad spot to be15:51 in. Now let me tell you the second way you know you're in the vicinity of something special. 1 is God is not allowing anything16:02 you do to work, yet what he asks you to do doesn't make sense. Go out into the deep for a great catch.16:14 You don't go out in the daytime to the deep water to catch a great catch with a net. Here it is. What Jesus asked Peter to16:26 do contradicted his experience, contradicted his knowledge, contradicted his history, contradicted his background. Let me16:38 use another word. Contradicted his instincts. What Peter knew, and he really knew it. He knew when to fish. What Peter knew16:49 contradicted what God said. What God said and what Peter knew were not on the same page. So he goes about to instruct Jesus17:00 on why his word won't work, because we've been out all night when you're supposed to be, and they're not biting. Have you ever done that?17:13 Now I know you do it real spiritual, even like Peter, he said, Master. I'm a respect you and all, but you don't know fishing. Go back to carpentry. You don't know17:25 fishing, master. I'm a respect you and all, but you don't know this area. We say it all the time when God says something, we put up the word but.17:38 See, we throw in the word but. We're saying, yeah, but but my reality, my situation, my circumstance, but. Let me say a word about your instincts and17:50 mine. All of our instincts are flawed. They're flawed. You and I are distorted. You know,18:02 like you're going to a 3 d movie, you need those glasses, because without the glasses, you don't see clearly. You need something to clear up the distortion. The fact that you were18:14 raised this way, this was your background, history, experience, personality, all those things, all those things are real. I'm not denouncing any of them, I'm saying all of them are distorted.18:26 They've been distorted by sin, your sin or the sin of somebody else's. They've been distorted because of lack of information. How many times did we think something was 1 way, we got a little bit more18:38 information, we said, oh. So we operated on what we had, but it was distorted because what we had didn't bring everything else into account.18:50 So you have to understand that because you and I have distortion in our lives, our minds, our souls, our souls are distorted, which is your emotions, your mind, and your will,19:02 those things have all been affected negatively, so they can never be fully trusted. Now, you do not ignore them, don't misunderstand me, but you can never fully19:14 rest in them in and of themselves. You need a pair of glasses, because distortion has occurred. In Peter's mind, his history,19:25 background, and knowledge had given him enough to be able to tell the Son of the living God he was misinformed with instructions. Jesus, you19:37 don't know this field. I know this field. You stick to preacher, let me take care of fish. He gives him this instruction, but out of respect, Peter19:48 says, but, because you asked me to, I'm gonna go ahead and do it. I'm gonna show you I know what I'm talking about. I'm gonna give you some20:00 respect, master. But my point was, we're gonna get to that in a moment, my point was, 1 of the ways you know God wants to do something special is He doesn't let what you're doing work through the natural process that20:12 you're used to, and the second way is He asks you to do something that does not make sense to your background, history, instincts, emotions. It doesn't There's not rhyme or reason. Remember Martha and Mary, when Lazarus20:24 was dead, Jesus comes and he tells Martha, Remove the stone. Says, Remove the stone. You know what Martha said? He'd been dead 4 days and he stinks. He'd been20:36 dead 4 days. He didn't ask her for a discussion in mortuary science. He says, he's been dead 4 days and he stinks. In other words, what you just asked to do, remove the tomb off of the stone, doesn't make sense,20:48 Jesus. Guess what Jesus said to her, and didn't I say to you? Didn't I say to you, until you believe, you won't see.21:00 See, Martha was from Missouri. Martha said, if I see, I'll believe. Jesus said, but didn't I tell you? You won't see till you believe. And21:12 you don't know you believe till you move the stone. You don't believe because you're getting in the believing mode right now. Your belief must be moving the stone, that ridiculous thing I just asked you to do that did21:23 not make logical sense to your history, background, emotions, thoughts, instincts. So he pushes out into the deep.21:35 Now, what I'm tell talking to you about is why God wants to bless you. Stay with me here. When they had done this, notice that. When they had done this, not when they had a meeting21:47 to discuss it. When they had done this, they enclosed a great quantity of fish, and their nets began to break.22:01 Do you know how many fish it takes to break a fisherman's net? Do you understand? They use these nets. They've caught as many fish as the nets can hold. So can you imagine not only the22:13 amount of fish, but the size of these babies? Because the fish are gonna break net because of their weight. You got so much fish that what they naturally22:25 had to handle them couldn't hold them. It says their nets began to break. Verse 7, so they signaled to22:36 their partners in the other boat. So this is a big company. They got Peter, James, and John, and then they got other partners. So they signaled to their partners in the other boat for them to come and help them, and22:48 they came and filled both the boats so that the boats began to sink. I think if Paul were here, Paul would say exceedingly,23:00 abundantly above what you asked or ever thought was gonna happen. Or in the words of Delphonics, did not blow your mind this time.23:13 Didn't I not do something beyond what you were expecting. But they only got to see God blow their minds when they were23:25 doing something that, based on their instincts, seemed ridiculous. It says, nets are breaking23:37 and ships are sinking. Now, I'd call that a blessing. The first reason why God wants to bless you23:50 is to let you know he knows more than you. We either think God doesn't know, or he only knows a little bit more than we24:01 know. The way I know we think that is we always will counteract what he says by what we think. So Jesus asked24:13 them to do something that goes beyond their instincts, and then shows them I know where the fish are. I know how to get to them, and where they are, and how you get to them, you would24:25 have never thought of. You would have never thought of this, because your experience says, at night, in the shallow. My knowledge says, them babies are sitting out there waiting on you to do what I said.24:37 And you won't get the catch until you do it. Meeting on and having a meeting about it won't give you the catch.24:50 Praying about it won't give you the catch. Prayer is important, but it can't replace following through. God wants you to know something about him, and he wants you to25:02 know that he knows. And in order to let you know he knows, he puts you in a situation where your knowledge is not working, fished all night, and where he asks you to do25:14 something that doesn't seem consistent with what you think you know. He contradicts your natural reasoning, Because now when you25:26 discover he knows what he knows, and I don't know as much as I thought I knew, he has made himself more trustworthy to you. So you can trust him for something25:38 else because of what he just showed you that he really knows, that you didn't think he knew, because you were the expert in the field. It was your field, fishing.25:51 He wants to show you that he knows, so that you can trust him more. It's like the man who fell over the ravine, and he caught a branch before he fell to his death, and he screamed, help, somebody up there, help,26:03 help, help. And a voice came out of heaven. You called. Help, save me, save me. The voice said, well, do you believe that I can save you?26:15 He said, yes, yes. Do you believe that I wanna save you? Absolutely. Save me. Save you. Do you believe I will save you? Yes. The voice said, let go. The man26:26 said, is there anybody else up there? Because26:38 sometimes, when God seems like he's requesting the ridiculous, because it goes against our natural bent, our personality,26:50 history, background, education, training, instincts. No, you know what he's doing? He's setting you up for something supernatural, and that's why he's not letting you27:01 catch anything. Nothing's working that you're trying. Verse 8, When Simon Peter saw, what happened? Fish27:13 breaking nets and sinking boats. He fell down at Jesus' feet, saying, go away from me, Lord, for I am a sinful27:25 man. Now what made him tell God, Jesus, go away from me? What made him say how sinful he was? Verse 9, for amazement had27:36 seized him. So what amazed him? The blessing. The blessing so blew his mind and the minds of his companions at the catch of the27:48 fish which had been taken, he was so overwhelmed with the blessing that he says, depart from me, I am a sinful man. Let me explain why God wants to bless28:00 you. He wants to bless you so you can discover that he knows what he knows, and he wants to bless you so that you can come to the realization that in28:12 his presence, you are a sinful man. He wants you to understand his righteousness, his holiness, his purity matched against your sin by your28:24 blessing. See, most people look at their blessing as a confirmation of how good they are. I must have been real good to be blessed like this.28:36 That's not what Peter said. Peter said, I must be real sinful to be blessed like this. I must be real sinful. Now, what was his sin? I don't I don't28:48 see where he did any great sin. Uh-oh, he did. He said, Jesus, you don't know what you're talking about. We fished all night.29:00 That's a sin. When you tell God he doesn't know what he's talking about, that's not like a compliment. That's a sin. You don't know what you're talking about.29:13 But we're gonna placate you. We're gonna give you a little religious stuff. We're gonna just we'll roll out there. It says he was amazed. Why was he amazed? He was amazed because he29:25 didn't think nothing was gonna happen. He didn't think at least nothing like that. Not not just breaking nets and sinking boats. You know, God really does want us to know29:37 how different he is than us. Listen. Whenever in the Bible, people really came face to face with God who had a heart for God, they saw their sinfulness.29:49 They saw their sinfulness. Isaiah said, woe is me. I am undone. See, when God manifests his goodness to you30:01 we're about a blessing there. We're about a great catch of fish. It's not to show you how great you are. It's to show you how different you are than he30:12 is. That the sin of even questioning his word because it didn't fit our30:24 intuition and our instincts. History, background, no experience. It says Peter was seized. He was enraptured. He was30:35 caught. He said, Depart from me. I am not worthy to be in the same vicinity as you, because now I know who I'm dealing with.30:48 I'm not dealing with just a polite God. See see, there may be some folk in here who came to church today to meet a polite God, just to just somebody a nice deity. And you don't30:59 understand that we're not even in the same ballgame. My ways are not your ways, my thoughts are not your thoughts, as high as the heavens are above the earth. That's how different I am.31:11 And I will even show you that by blessing you. By blessing you. So 1 reason God blesses you is to let you see how much he really knows. He really does know what31:23 he's doing, even when it doesn't make sense. Second reason he blesses you is so that you can see that he and you are different. He's different than us.31:37 And his purity reigns, which reveals our impurity. I am a sinful man. Depart from me. Now31:49 watch this. This is sweet. Verse 10. And so also were James and John, sons of Zebedee, who were partners with Simon. And Jesus said to Simon,32:01 do not fear. From now on you will be catching men. When they had brought their boats to land, they left everything and followed him. Okay, watch this now. This is this is sweet.32:16 It said, do not fear, because they up there trembling. They they they said, who is who is this? They did this another time when he calmed the seed. They said, what manner of man is this that even the winds32:27 and the sea obey it? Who who are we dealing with here? Do do you do you understand who you're dealing with? With Jesus Christ, we're not just talking about a great32:39 man. In fact, to call Jesus a great man is to insult him. That's an insult. Jesus, you're great. People people do all these respectful things to Jesus Christ and think he feels good about32:51 it. You just devalued him. He is the son of the living eternal God. He's not just a a great man and a nice example. He is that, but but to put a period there, you've33:03 insulted him. What manner of man is this? Depart I don't even deserve to be in the same space. Depart from me. He said, but then he33:15 calmed them down, because they shaking. They ain't never seen a catch like this in their life. He calms them down and says, it's okay, because from now on, you're gonna be fishing some men. The third reason God blessed33:25 them, and the third reason he blesses you. He blesses so number 1, you get to know that he really does know. Number 2, you get to33:37 see who you are in the faith of who he is. But number 3, the reason that God blesses you is so you can be a blessing to somebody else. I'm gonna33:49 make you a spiritual blessing to others. I'm gonna make you fishers of men. Remember the definition of a blessing? We gave it a numbers of times. Here it is. A blessing is34:00 enjoying, experiencing, and transferring the goodness of God in your life. If there is no transference, you prostituted the blessing. And that's the34:12 problem with this emphasis on blessing today. The problem is not that there's an emphasis on blessing, it's they define it only in terms of what I get. God bless me with a new house, bless me with a new34:24 car, bless me with more money, bless me, bless me, bless me, bless me. Nothing wrong with God blessing you with that, but God's blessings are always designed to have a transfer element. And if there34:36 is no transfer element, then what you have done is prostituted the term. God told Abraham, I'm gonna bless you so that through you, all the nations of34:48 the earth will be blessed. That's why 1 of the greatest prayers you need to pray when you ask God to bless you, which is a legitimate prayer, to ask God to bring his favor and goodness upon you, is to let35:00 him know how you're gonna use it also as a mechanism of transfer. How you gonna be a blessing while you're receiving 1. He says, I'm gonna make you fishers of men. Now now now watch this now.35:13 Jesus knows more about Peter's occupation than Peter who's been working the occupation all of his life. Jesus has never been a fisherman, yet he knows more about where fish are hanging out than Peter does.35:26 And now he says, I'm gonna use your occupation, because you know how to catch stuff, and I'm gonna let you do what you did with fish with people. He uses his natural vocation35:37 as an opportunity for ministry. I'm gonna make you a minister, because you're gonna be catching men like you caught fish. Now watch this35:49 now. It says, in verse 11, if it wasn't so serious, it'd be funny. He says in verse 11, And they left everything36:01 and followed him. Now, can I be just raw honest with you? I'm not36:13 sure that would have been my I'm not sure I would have rolled like that. I I I know in my carnality, in my36:24 flesh, I I I think I think if I had necks of fish that were breaking the net, boats that were sinking, because Jesus36:36 knows where the fish are, I would have offered him a percentage of the company. I would have told Jesus, Jesus.36:48 Jesus, you can have what percent of the company you want? How much of the Zebedee Fishing Corporation do you wanna have? And you don't have to work that hard that hard. You don't have to37:00 work hard. When we come to work in the morning, just tell us where the fish are. That's all you got to do. Just tell us where the fish are.37:12 I would've made that a monster presentation to Jesus. I wouldn't look, Jesus would say, follow me. I would say, Jesus, you follow me. Because37:24 we can build something here. We we got I can use you. I can use you to build my company. I can use you to37:36 build my wardrobe. I can use you to build my transportation. I can use you to build my future. I can use you to build my retirement, and that's what's going on under the name of blessing today.37:48 People wanna go and use Jesus to keep the nets full, the nets breaking, and the ship sinking. But Jesus flips the script.38:00 Jesus said, I blessed you so much so you would follow me, not so I would follow you. The reason why Jesus blesses you is so that38:12 you can succumb to his lordship, so that you will follow him to the next step he has for you. You know what I would have been doing in my38:23 flesh and in my carnality? I would have been discussing my condo on the Galilee. It's time for me to build a second home on the Galilee. All this fish, biggest38:35 catch of my life, I would have been discussing 401s and 403s, and I would have been discussing investments and CDs and mutual funds, and I would have been discussing all38:47 of the new opportunities that had come to me personally, because I had the biggest catch of my life. But verse 11 says, they were so impressed not with the catch, not with the38:59 blessing, but they were impressed with the blesser. They were so blown away with Jesus Christ that Jesus said, follow me, and they said, let's go.39:11 And they left everything. My question, has God's blessing caused you to follow39:22 him? Or are you spending so much time counting fish? How many fish did God give me today? God sure been good to me today.39:34 Are you spending so much time counting fish that you've forgotten the 1 who knew where they were located?39:45 Now, I do have a I do have a question. I I can I ask can I ask a question? I got a question. I got a question in closing. I because this bothers me. This this 1 bothers me.Show more
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The Prison of the Past Tony Evans
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