hello i’m Gary Shotton i’m here as a part of inspiring better business we’re going to talk about today about casting nets and it refers to a bible lesson a reality it’s not a parable of Jesus when he was teaching on the side of a lake and it seems that uh he was there teaching and the people there were uh gathered uh for various reasons you could imagine a fairly large crowd but it appears that they were not all that interested they were receptive to what Jesus had to say but then something happened uh the the uh fisherman that was part of the disciples were fishermen and they had been fishing all day i’m sorry all night because they normally fish in the nighttime so that apparently the fish do not see the net they’re not fishing with a rod and reel they’re fishing with nets they cast the net out and it seems that in the nighttime fish do have good eyes and they would shy away from being caught in the net so they had come in uh in the morning and and they had no uh real catch they had worked all night and then Jesus told them to go back in to and cast their net and they came back with an amazing an abundance i think that’s in Luke chapter five verse one through nine is this story you can go read it and so the point here is in casting the net and seeing the miracle that god has performed it really solidified a lot of god’s authority you see god’s a spirit man but when Jesus was here on the earth he was in the physical and so in many ways he was just the the son of Mary he was just a carpenter we see that in the new testament he was not they were not overly impressed with him as an individual although i’m sure they were impressed with him but he was just one of the one of the family they didn’t see him with the authority he had but when he started performing miracles another great one i’m going to teach on a separate one is the very first miracle when uh in in john chapter two uh where uh there was a wedding and the bride’s bride the wedding reception was running short on wine and Jesus was instructed instructed the disciples or the workers there to fill some pots full of water and the water was turned to wine that’s a great story and there again it says very clearly at one of those verses there and the disciples even themselves started to believe so let’s not shy away from miracles let’s don’t seek miracles but let’s be willing and ready and able to be trusted with the miracle and there’s certain things i’ll be teaching on on other lessons about this but this is related to this story of casting the nets and it says there uh in in uh chapter 5 Luke chapter 5 verse 9 for he and all who are with him that would be Jesus and all who were with him were astonished at the catch of the fish which they had taken that wouldn’t have been Jesus that would have been one of the disciples was astonished because Jesus wasn’t being astonished he would have been uh the one performing the miracle and so they were astonished and up until then they were not all that impressed i don’t think with Jesus’s teaching as he continued to perform miracles and now there’s certain things we’ve got to be careful if we’re going to get into this realm of really believing uh for what we call the supernatural now these are not always so spectacular that that everyone’s going to read about them in the newspaper about something unbelievable uh that can happen but in my life it was things that were in the course of my business uh processes that i had something supernatural happen and i’m going to document a bunch of those going forward here but here’s some points that i might recommend when something happens like that don’t brag and elevate yourself in pride you are just an instrument the the miracle was for other peoples to be drawn and maybe for you to believe that god is with you he will provide he will help you he will he will be there if we’ll be willing and able to receive that and be responsible for what he does number two don’t try to don’t try to become the source of money for others but use the miracle to teach others how to trust god so you know there’s a risk when a financial happening or even a sale on some land or some business you’ll find some what we call fair weather friends start coming your way you hadn’t heard from them but now that they hear you have some money they’re coming your way well let’s let’s not be anybody’s source we can use our money wisely and that’s one of the conditions of being a responsible with money i believe that god looks at and it says god wants you to be blessed financially don’t be so humbly and almost on the edge of stupid to say well god wants me poor where did you find that in the bible where did you find that Jesus was poor where did you find that anybody in the old testament was poor Abraham was poor where did you find that god always wants his family his people blessed their the the there’s just no question that it’s hard to find even one time that being poor is is elevated and sometimes churches though uh make a people maybe not churches but people make a point to say i’m so humble because i’m believing god and i don’t have anything well you might want to change your beliefs god is not number four interested in your money it’s not about money you’re the one that’s dealing with that it is just a tool and it’s a strong indicator of your faith of your heart though now i’m not saying that the person with the most money is the most godly that would be unrealistic because there’s ways to get money without god involved and money can destroy because the love of money is the root of all evil but if you’re pressing into god and you’re you’re seeing god work in your life and you’re you’re handling what you’ve been entrusted with already your family your wife your spouse your your your your relationships with other if you’re handling those in a godly fashion god is looking for you and he wants to bless you financially and he wants your personal needs to be met and then he wants to have an abundance so that you can be used wisely to help others i happen to have a two phone calls this morning just happens to be here in the third weekend in august i talked with two people one in in nairobi kenya an amazing man of god is just expanding with 50 or 60 workers and then my other friend hamisi in in barara uganda i’ve been to both of these places i’ve been with these men and i talked to them via phone on a regular basis maybe twice a month and god just continues to bless them and i say here’s the example we want we don’t want to have the the blessing be that a bunch of americans spent and sent a ton of money to build the church we want people in those countries to be blessed the business people to be blessed the congregation to be blessed and and we can use money but please don’t don’t get me wrong but there is a whole concept of when helping hurts be careful with the the influence you could have with money that could take away from godliness and so these two men are just arming just knocking it down god’s blessed them i said you know you’re a shining light because people know that you did it with the work of your hands you took action and you’re taking god’s word and making it work well i hope you understand that this is something that is important to me and i hope you learn something from these lessons thanks for being a part of inspiring better business you