{"id":6835,"date":"2020-10-24T08:14:13","date_gmt":"2020-10-23T22:14:13","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.stmark.com.au\/Blogs\/?p=6835"},"modified":"2020-10-24T08:14:15","modified_gmt":"2020-10-23T22:14:15","slug":"hope-for-the-hopeless","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.stmark.com.au\/Blogs\/hope-for-the-hopeless\/","title":{"rendered":"Hope for the Hopeless"},"content":{"rendered":"
<\/div>\n

Hope for the Hopeless<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Adapted from a sermon by Fr Yacoub Magdy<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n\n\n\n

A very handy message comes for the disheartened when we read about the miracles of the catch of fish in Luke 5:1-11<\/a>. When our hopes are dashed and we feel that nothing is going right. When every door has been shut in our face. When I need the ultimate revival \u2013 this is where our hope lies.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This is a message that calls the consecration of the heart.\nSt Peter knew Jesus, and this event happened after He heals his mother in law.\nJesus had been to St Peter\u2019s house and it was likely that He had slept there\novernight. This was not the call for consecration, this came later with the\nmiracles that ensues. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

St Peter was a fisherman and he toiled with some other\nfishermen over two large ships. A day in the life of a fisherman began at about\nmidnight. Six to eight people were employed to pull on the ropes. They went to\nthe lake to make a full circle with the nets. This process takes about 30\nminutes to throw the net. The net stood vertical so it would reach the floor of\nthe waters. This process takes about two hours. Altogether, it takes about four\nhours to pull the rope until the big circle that is made with the nets becomes\nnarrow enough to only hold the catch of fish. The fishermen don\u2019t know if they\nhave caught any fish or not until the process is complete. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

They then go and sell the fish in the morning, and they can\npay the workers their wages from selling the fish. Until now, fishermen attribute\nsuccess and failure to luck. All over history this mentality remained. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

On this particular night, they had spent the whole night at\nsea but caught nothing. Added on top of this was the payment of the workers\u2019\nwages. They spent all night in hope, but came to morning and their hope was\nshattered. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

This would have been distressing to St Peter, especially\nsince Jesus had been at his home for the past few days. Jesus, that did so many\nmiracles before him, even healing his mother-in-law, yet when it came to fish,\nhe caught nothing. Did Jesus bring him bad luck?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Nevertheless, they had to mend the net so that no big fish\ncould eat the little fish that were caught. This was also a time consuming\nprocess. While they were doing this was when Jesus passed by. He had a large\ncrowd following Him to hear the Word of God. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

People are always to hear the Word of God. Wherever the Word\nof God is, people will follow. If we want our service to flourish, we must\nalways use the Word of God, because people do not come for your wisdom or understanding, but the Word. The crowd\nfollowed to listen to His words. For Jesus to address them from the shore, He\nhad to pull out a little way so He could see them all. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Jesus must have had a strong voice, for He would preach\nbefore thousands and they would hear Him. He asked St Peter to move the ship\nout to the water a little way so He can see them all on the shore. He started\nteaching, the exact time He was teaching, we do not know but we can presume it\nwas a long time. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

St Peter may have been still mending his net but was still\nlistening. The process of elevating us from our sadness begins with hearing the\nWord of God. We do not know what Jesus said, but surely it was a message of\nhope. As St Peter listened, we can presume that his heart was moved. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

When Jesus finished speaking he told Peter to throw his net\ninto the sea once more. It was well known that as the sun starts rising, it is\nvery difficult to catch fish. The fish can see in the light and escape. They catch\nfish in the dark because they cannot see in front of them  and are easily caught.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

They rely on darkness to deceive the fish, so it was not the time to go catching fish. St Peter was still obedient, and trusted Jesus, who was a Carpenter, despite spending his life fishing. He was polite saying, \u201cMaster, we have toiled all night and caught nothing; nevertheless at Your word I will let down the net<\/em>\u201d (Luke 5:5).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This is the pre-consecration of the heart \u2013 When I am down,\nwhen I have no hope, when I have no where left to turn, when I laboured in vain\n\u2013 but at the Word of the Lord, I will try again. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The joy that comes to the heart cannot be fathomed. The word\nused in the Greek language translates to, \u2018ecstasy.\u2019 The combination of\ntremendous joy and not knowing where it came from. It was no longer about the\nfish but the possibility that the Lord could perform such miracles.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Where did the fish come from? How did this happen? It was at\nthis point that St Peter surrendered completely to the Lord \u2013 \u201cWhen Simon Peter\nsaw it, he fell down at Jesus\u2019 knees, saying, \u201cDepart from me, for I am a\nsinful man, O Lord!\u201d\u201d (Luke 5:8). Having no hope and no help but then the Word\nof the Lord changes the hopeless to hopeful and fills them with ecstatic joy.<\/p>\n\n\n\n


\nThe Lord is true, and He in my life. I follow the Lord, it is not about what He\ncan give me, but who He is. The evidence of this is in St Peter\u2019s broken\nheartedness when he fell at the knees of the Lord. If you want to know if you are\non the verge of the consecration of the heart, you must first fall at the feet\nof Jesus saying, \u201cDepart from me, for I am a sinful man!\u201d I am not worthy of\nthe grace He bestows upon me. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Jesus appeases his fears saying, \u201cDo not be afraid. From now on you will catch men.<\/em>\u201d St Peter was called to bring men to the Kingdom of God. If I come to stages of hopelessness where I feel I have nowhere to turn, I begin to listen to the Word of God and this begins to revive my hope. Until I see the Hand of God clearly and it could be nothing other than divine intervention that uplifts me, it is at this point that I fall to my knees before the Lord. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

We become for the Lord and nothing in this life satisfies\nus, just like the ships that were left flooded with fish for hope in the Lord. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Full sermon<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Hope for the Hopeless Adapted from a sermon by Fr Yacoub Magdy A very handy message comes for the disheartened when we read about the miracles of the catch of fish in Luke 5:1-11. When our hopes are dashed and we feel that nothing is going right. When every door has been shut in our … Continue reading “Hope for the Hopeless”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":6836,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[93],"class_list":["post-6835","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-blog","tag-hope"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.stmark.com.au\/Blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6835","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.stmark.com.au\/Blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.stmark.com.au\/Blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.stmark.com.au\/Blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.stmark.com.au\/Blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6835"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/www.stmark.com.au\/Blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6835\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6837,"href":"http:\/\/www.stmark.com.au\/Blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6835\/revisions\/6837"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.stmark.com.au\/Blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/6836"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.stmark.com.au\/Blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6835"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.stmark.com.au\/Blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6835"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.stmark.com.au\/Blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6835"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}