Why God Wants to Amaze You

Jesus makes it clear the reason he amazes you is so you can get on with his program, not keep on with yours. Dr. Tony Evans explains why we need to be willing to move beyond the comfortable.

You may have your dreams and your desires, but he may have something planned a lot bigger. And all he's going to bless you for is to get your attention. This is The Alternative with Dr. Tony Evans, author, speaker, senior pastor of Oak Cliff Bible Fellowship in Dallas, Texas, and president of The Urban Alternative. God loves to amaze his children, but Dr. Evans says we may sometimes prevent that from happening by either expecting too little or knowing too much.

Let's join him as he explains. Simon Peter is head of the Zebedee Fishing Corporation. He is partners with James and John, the sons of Zebedee. And they have a fishing business where this story is laid out for us in the first 11 verses of Luke 5. Jesus Christ, centering on Peter, as he often did, as the centerpiece of the lesson he wants us to learn, tells Peter to get in a boat and push out a few feet from shore so that he could talk to the people from the boat. The boat being his pulpit, he would speak to the people from the boat. After teaching the people, after giving them the Sunday sermon, if you will, the lesson for the day, verse 4 introduces what always happens after a sermon, an opportunity for application. But Jesus knew that information is never enough. So after he had finished speaking, verse 4 lets us know, he tells Simon, put out into the deep water and let down your nets for a catch. Simon Peter answered and said, Master, we worked hard all night.

Why? Because that's when fishermen fished. And we caught nothing. But, verse 5 says, at your bidding, because you made the request, because it's you, I will let down the nets. Now, at first read, you might think you're reading, Jesus, we've been doing this all night, have caught nothing, but I trust you.

Let me tell you what it's really saying, and I'll prove it to you in a moment. What it's really saying is this, Jesus, I've been doing this for a long time, and as recently as last night, there are no fish biting Jesus, however, to humor you. To let you see that when it comes to fishing, lead after me. When it come to preaching, I ain't gonna mess with your pulpit. When it come to fishing, you don't mess with my boat. So to let you know you are out of your league here, I'm gonna humor you and throw out our nets.

As you face the challenges of life day by day throughout this year, you are going to think I've been doing it this way all of my life. So Jesus, leave the finances to me, you just preach. Leave the relationships to me, you just preach.

Let me run this part of my life, because I know what I'm doing. Verse 6 says, and when they had done this, they enclosed a great quantity of fish. How many fish? Break your nets, number of fish.

Now, I don't know how many it is, but it's more than they've ever caught before. Do you know what it takes to break a fisherman's net? Fishermen don't have nets for one fish. They got nets to drag in whole groups of fish. There were so many fish in the daytime, in the deep, when you really only fish at night in the shallow, there were so many fish that their nets began to break. Not only did their nets begin to break, he had to call his partners, his homies, in another boat, verse 7 says, and say, help me.

They filled the boats full of fish and the boat begins to sink. Talk about seeing God move. Talk about God blowing your mind. Talk about a breakthrough. Talk about seeing more than you ever expected.

This is it. Peter did what God said, and he got more than he bargained for. You and I will face this fork in the road where you will have to make a decision, do I trust God enough that when it goes against what I feel, think, have experienced in the past, no matter how successful I've been, no matter how much it's worked for me, or whether it hasn't worked at all, even though I've tried it all night before, and I'll still throw down my nets, and it doesn't make sense. Some would say to do that is blind faith, to just throw down your nets because somebody tells you when your experience tells you that's not the way to go. That's blind faith. It's never blind faith when you know the person telling you can pull off anything he instructs you to do. You see, many of us suffer from the problem of knowing more than we really know.

You might have to act contrary to what you think you know. Simon Peter, verse 8, saw it, and when he saw what just happened, he fell down at Jesus' feet. Depart from me, for I am a sinful man, O Lord. Verse 9 says, for amazement had gripped him and all of his companions because of the catch that they had taken. What shocked him that Jesus knew what he was talking about?

Why was he shocked? Because he didn't believe that Jesus knew what he was talking about. When he understood, he's not just dealing with a carpenter, a religious figure, a great man. He saw his sin. Now, let me tell you what most of us would have done. This is why Peter, with all of his mistakes in the Bible, is a great man.

I can see you and me now on the Sea of Galilee. Mm-hmm. Yeah. Get the calculator. Let's count. 101, 102, let's see. We got 5,000 fish here.

They go for $2 each. That's $10,000. We're going to get a load of 1,000, take care of his tide. But that $9,000, we would be counting fish.

Come on, tell the truth, shame the devil. We would be counting fish. We would be totally absorbed with the blessing. We would be overwhelmed by the blessing.

We would say, will we be called for a girl, the Lord, then bless me. Let me tell you what the Lord has done for me. Not Peter. Peter said more than the blessing. What just happened at my boat tells me much more about the blesser. In fact, it tells me much more about me.

I thought I was ace fisherman par excellence. In the face of Jesus Christ, all I see is my sin. When God comes through, if you can ever get distracted from the blessing long enough to look at the blesser. See, everybody wants a blessing.

Everybody wants a breakthrough and there's nothing wrong with that. But Jesus wants to amaze you for a much deeper reason. He wants to bless you so that you come to understand who he is just a little bit better and a little bit more. He says, depart from me.

Somebody got to leave here because I am a sinful man. God is going to surprise a bunch of you. Not because you have great faith, but you even with tongue in cheek are going to still throw down your neck.

Some of you said, I don't think it's going to work, but just in case. Just in case now, I'm going to go out and praise him anyway. And God's going to let you catch something just because you obeyed even though you weren't convinced. But the danger will be that you focus so much on the blessing that you miss the reason why God amazes you. Dr. Evans will have more on the intention of God's blessings when he returns in just a moment. Stay with us. We pray you're encouraged every time you connect with the Urban Alternative whether it's online or on the air. And right now we're asking for your very best year-end gift to help keep that encouragement coming your way. Your financial support will help cover the rising cost of broadcasting production to ensure nothing needs to be cut back and that more people like you can continue to be encouraged by God's Word in the year ahead. Please visit tonyevans.org to give today. We're counting on you, so please help us continue bringing you Tony's teaching in the new year. Get in touch with us today, make your contribution, and let us send you a Christmastime thank you gift, The Best of Tony Evans 2020. It contains 20 of his most hard-hitting, life-changing lessons of the past year, including messages on experiencing the power of God, coping with crisis, and living a life that matters. And as a special bonus, we'll also send you a devotional book from Tony that can help you understand how your passion and purpose are linked and how your obedience to God can make your calling clear.

Call for a purpose and The Best of Tony Evans 2020. Yours with our thanks when you visit tonyevans.org and make your year-end donation. Again, that's tonyevans.org. Or call our resource center at 1-800-800-3222.

I'll repeat that contact information again after part two of today's lesson. Here's Tony. You ever see parents taking pictures of their toddlers when they first begin to walk? That's a sight. I mean, you would think somebody landed on the moon. Look, look, look, look, look, look at him! You know? Look at him!

Come on, come on, come on! But I tell you where you always find those parents. When they are amazed at the first steps, they're always on their knees with their hands out. When God amazes you, you ought to hit your knees with your hands out. Brothers and sisters, do you understand who you're dealing with? Do you understand?

It would be nice if the story ended right there. I mean, we've gotten a great lesson that God wants to amaze you, not merely so that you can enjoy the blessing. God wants to amaze you so that you look at him differently. But I got a curve ball to throw at you.

Wouldn't be me if I didn't have a curve ball in there, would it? Verses 10 and 11. And so James and John, sons of Zebedee, who were partners with Simon, and Jesus said to Simon, do not fear. From now on, you will be catching men.

And when they had brought their boats to land, they left everything and followed him. Obviously, I just read that too fast. I mean, obviously I'm reading too fast. Let me slow down. Let me read verse 11 word by word. And just think about and for a minute. When they had brought their boats to land, they left everything. I can hear some of us right now. God didn't give me this blessing to leave.

Hello. God hadn't been this good to me to leave. He didn't give me all this money to leave it. He didn't give me this brand new house to leave it. He didn't give me this brand new car to leave it. He didn't give me all this new stuff to leave it.

leave it. He didn't give me this promotion to leave it. God used the blessing watch it to take them somewhere else. He didn't use the blessing simply to embellish their careers or enhance their reputations.

He used the blessing because he wanted to change their whole career. Peter, James, John, if you stay here all you gonna do for the rest of your life is count dead fish. On your best day you counting dead fish. I didn't bless you to keep you here on this wharf. I showed you a blessing so that you could look at me differently because you and me are going somewhere else. The reason, gentlemen, I amazed you is I want you to follow me. Now here's what most of us would have done.

We would have said, Jesus, come here. I got a pen. You sign on the dotted line. You are now a member in good standing of the Zebedee fishing corporation.

You get automatically 25% of every take we take in. We can use you, Jesus. You are an important part of this company and a strategic part of this organization. We're gonna give you the biggest office. You got the biggest economy. You got a company car because you're the man, Jesus. You're the man.

Whatever perks or benefits you want, you can have. See, we would have said when we saw all the stuff, Jesus, follow me. We want to include you in our program. Jesus does not amaze you so he can follow you. He told Peter the reason I amaze you is so you can follow me so that you can bring your world into my world, not my world into your world. We gonna catch something that doesn't die. You and I gonna catch men.

Let dead folk catch dead fish. You gonna go out here and do something bigger. Jesus makes it clear that the reason he amazes you is so you can get on with his program, not keep on with yours. Many of us are saying, Lord, give me a breakthrough so I can be happy.

Give me a breakthrough so I can have more. It's nothing wrong with you being happy. It's nothing wrong with you being more. Just make sure you're not asking him to follow you because he may have something else planned. You may have your dreams and your desires, but he may have something planned a lot bigger and all he's gonna bless you for is to get your attention, but not on the stuff. That's the problem with coming to church all the time and looking for a blessing.

It's nothing wrong with looking for a blessing, but it's everything wrong when the blessing is so big that the blesser gets lost. God wants to amaze you so that you see him. Please notice they left everything and followed him. Please notice, brothers and sisters, in closing there are no details up front. He doesn't say we're gonna go A, B, C, D, and E so they could evaluate it.

No? We're gonna walk by faith on this one, gentlemen, but hopefully what I showed you with the fish will let you know I know what I'm doing, where I'm going, and how I'm gonna get there. This is gonna be for you this year and be a walk of faith. A blind girl one day was caught in a fire. She's blind engulfed by fire on the tenth floor of a building. She can make her way to the window, but she can see nothing.

She smells smoke and feels the height of the fire. The fireman says, jump! Jump! Says, I'm scared to jump!

I can't see! The fireman says, if you don't jump you're gonna die! Take the risk and jump! It's bad enough to jump ten stories high, that's fear enough, but to jump when you can't see where you're jumping, that's terror.

In the midst of the chaos and confusion she heard another voice. Darling, jump! I got you.

She smiled and said, okay daddy, cuz it's you. I'ma jump. Jesus Christ is inviting you today to jump. I know you're nervous just to jump. I know you're scared just to jump. I know just to go out there and say, okay God, whatever you want I'm gonna jump. But remember we're talking about your daddy. We're talking about somebody who you know what he can do, you've seen what he can do, who'll give you breakthroughs, and then he's gonna say, follow me, cuz I got something bigger than you ever dreamt.

Jump. I got you. If you've never taken that leap to follow Jesus, Dr. Evans will come back in a moment to explain what it means and how you can make it happen today. But first, I wanted to let you know that you can get a copy of today's message as a part of Tony's special year-end audio compilation, The Best of Tony Evans 2020. As I mentioned earlier, we're including all 20 lessons in this giant collection bundled along with Tony's popular devotional book, Called for a Purpose.

This resource package makes a perfect Christmas gift for someone you care about, and right now we'd like to make it a gift for you. Make your contribution online at tonyevans.org today, or call our resource center at 1-800-800-3222. Again, that's tonyevans.org, or call any time of the day or night at 1-800-800-3222. Prayer can be a pleasure, as we enjoy the closeness it gives us with God. Tomorrow, Dr. Evans will tell us how to take our prayers to the next level, a level that's much more effective, but much less comfortable.

Right now, though, Tony's back with his closing invitation for you. You're not a Christian because you're religious, or because you go to church, or even because you believe in God. You're a Christian because you've accepted Jesus Christ as your personal sin-bearer. Being religious, doing good works, that's nice, but it's not sufficient when God demands perfection. 2 Corinthians 5 21 says, He who knew no sin became sin for us, that we might become the righteousness of God in Him. So what God has said is, He placed your sin on the cross, on the Christ, and then judge Christ for your sin. If you will go to Christ, He will take Christ's righteousness, which is perfect, and He will credit it to your account. So you will stand before God as though you've never sinned, not because you're sinless, but because you've got a sinless credit on your account. If you will receive Jesus Christ right now, if you will invite Him into your life, believing that He died for you and rose for you personally, He will credit your account with perfection, because He's already credited your sin onto Jesus Christ. So go to Christ right now and get this free gift of salvation that He's offering to all who come to Him for it. The alternative with Dr. Tony Evans is brought to you by The Urban Alternative and is made possible by the generous contributions of listeners like you.