Sermon Outline

Key Verse: Luke 5:5

Main Points:

This spirit of profitless hard work is clearly described in the Scriptures, and has the following strategies:

  1. Debt
  2. Wrong investment
  3. Failure at the edge of
  4. Always struggling in job.
  5. No decent job
  6. Witchcraft
  7. Wrong businesspartners
  8. Tithe evasion
  9. Pocket with holes
  10. Abortion
  11. Sleep and slumber
  12. Bribery
  13. Laziness

 

Some will fish and catch nothing. Here are a few strategies we can glean from Peter and his fishing:

  1. Fishing in the timing of God
  2. Fishing in the purpose of God
  3. Spiritual blindness
  4. Curse of non-achievement
  5. Anti harvest forces

 

How do we overcome all this?

  1. Surrender your life to Jesus
  2. Accept that your human efforts and plans are limited
  3. Trust the word of God even if it does not make sense
  4. Be willing to take holy risks
  5. Wage a war against the spirit of profitless hard work

Additional References:

  1. Ecclesiastes 2:10
  2. Ecclesiastes 5:18
  3. Genesis 5: 29
  4. Luke 12:27
  5. Haggai 1:6
  6. Psalms 127:2
  7. Isaiah 3:11
  8. 2 Corinthians 6:2
  9. Ecclesiastes 6:11
  10. Ephesians 3:20

 

Sermon

“And Simon answering said unto him, Master, we have toiled all the night, and have taken nothing: nevertheless at thy word I will let down the net” (Luke 5:5).

This verse is an example of fruitless labour. God designed every work to be fruitful. ‘Work’ becomes has meaning and purpose if it is done in line with the calling of God over our lives. When God made our first parents, He made Adam work in the Garden of Eden. First God cultivated the garden and then asked Adam to be a steward over that place.

Work should bring joy and be fruitful. It must be rooted in contentment and not be oppressive. It is meaningful because it is God ordained. It is not excessive but is dignified. It is refreshing and builds your capacity. It is honouring God and is a calling in itself. Work should produce pleasure “for my heart rejoiced in all my labour: and this was my portion of all my labour” (Ecclesiastes 2:10). Doesn’t the Bible also say, “Behold that which I have seen: it is good and comely for one to eat and to drink, and to enjoy the good of all his labour that he taketh under the sun all the days of his life, which God giveth him: for it is his portion” (Ecclesiastes 5:18). But after Adam and Eve sinned work became ‘toil’ because of the curse. God said to Adam, “Because you have listened to your wife’s voice, and have eaten of the tree, of which I commanded you, saying, ‘You shall not eat of it,’ cursed is the ground for your sake. In toil you will eat of it all the days of your life” (Genesis 3:17). From there labour with pain and fatigue started. Labour that oppresses the body and mind. Like Lamech named his son Noah, saying, “This same will comfort us in our work and in the toil of our hands, because of the ground which Yahweh has cursed” (Genesis 5: 29). That is why without the help of Jesus you cannot achieve much on this earth. Like Jesus taught, “Consider the lilies, how they grow. They don’t toil, neither do they spin; yet I tell you, even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these” (Luke 12:27). So when you believe in God, He will reverse things for you.

Profitless labour is always excessive and rooted in disbelief in God. Let us the story of Peter. He was a fisherman by profession. He went out to sea everyday by night to get his catch. Most fishing is done at night otherwise the fish will see the nets and so swim around it. Moreover in those days they didn’t have nylon nets but nets were made of flax or linen. Fish go deep in the daytime shade and come to the surface at night. It so happened that on one such day, Peter and his men caught nothing. It was a bad day. They laboured hard but it was fruitless labour. A lot of people work very hard from dawn to dusk, yet they bring home nothing. Many have spiritual holes in their hands and pockets. They receive blessings but one way or the other, the blessings fall off. Most of the people only dream they are rich, but in reality they are not. In fact many make progress in poverty levels.

I remember the case of one of my teachers when I was small. The Principal, wanted to see him, but couldn’t find him, and so I asked an old student for the teacher’s whereabouts. He told me, “It is very easy to find. If you find his ancient scooter there, you will know he has come to school. Or then if you find someone wearing a blue shirt, that is him.” He had only one shirt – dark blue in colour and an old scooter. When I met him, he had on a blue shirt. It was the first time I saw him so he asked, “How did you know me?” I said one person said you always wear one blue shirt. He felt so embarrassed. I didn’t know much of what he felt in those times, but today I understand.

After Peter gave his boat for Jesus to preach, Jesus told him, “Let’s go out into the deep to have a catch. Just drop the nets.” Peter said, “We have toiled the whole night but at your word I will do it again.” When he did that, he caught so much fish that the nets were tearing and the boat was sinking. What is this? This is against the nature. Before Jesus it was profitless labour, but now there was no labour but more profit. There is a principle we need to learn. If you live for God and his kingdom, then your needs will be supplied supernaturally. What I want to say is this: there are people who are not lazy still their hard work gives them no profits. When people live on their own they live in worry and that leads to excessive work or toil. God does not want us to worry or toil. It is unfruitful and a waste. Toil is excessive work with disproportionately low returns. ‘Ye have sown much, and bring in little … of a godless life.’ (Haggai 1:6). It is a life of fruitless labour, makes you weary and you will give up because it is unfruitful. Toil without trusting God has no purpose under the sun. It is a costly affair. It has health risks and adverse consequences. “It is vain for you to rise up early and to sit up late, and to still eat the bread of sorrows, for so he giveth his beloved sleep; he gives his beloved in his sleep.”(Psalms 127:2).

This spirit of profitless hard work is clearly described in the Scriptures, and has the following strategies:

  1. Debt: It puts people in perpetual debt.
  2. Wrong investment:It causes people to invest in the wrong avenues.
  3. Failure at the edge of
  4. Always struggling in job.
  5. No decent job: They are like Israel in Egypt, they are labouring for Pharaoh and Pharaoh is getting famous and rich. I pray that you have a reverse in your destiny in Jesus name.
  6. Witchcraft bondage – Such are the ones, who get their salary, but as soon as it reaches home, it’s all gone. Like when I was small, having lost Daddy, Mummy’s pension money would last only till the 15thof each month. Rest of the days we would sell household things. Let any power that is hanging on your tree of prosperity lose its hold in Jesus’ name.
  7. Wrong businesspartners: If your partner is an enemy of God, you have blocked the blessing of God, for God cannot bless whom He has cursed. The Bible says, “Say ye to the wicked, it shall be ill with him” (Isaiah 3:11). If God is telling your business partner every day that it shall be ill with him, then that business is in trouble.
  8. Tithe evasion: If you don’t pay your tithe, the demon called Mammon will telephone the second heaven to release devourers against you, because you have broken the law.
  9. Pocket with holes: The victim makes money but a satanic spirit takes it.
  10. Abortion: When you abort or support abortion, the blood of that child will cry against your blessing.
  11. Sleep and slumber: If you are still a slave to sleep and slumber, you cannot make spiritual or physical progress.
  12. Bribery:If you are taking bribes or giving bribes you are creating holes in your property.
  13. If you are lazy poverty will enter your home.

I have spoken on all these things so you will know how and what to pray. We are all like fishermen in the ocean of life. Some will fish and catch nothing. Here are a few strategies we can glean from Peter and his fishing:

  1. Fishing in the timing of God: When was Peter fishing? He was fishing by night. Yes that is the natural  Yet he couldn’t get what he wanted. If you can enter the timing of God, God will give you fish, even when the natural time is not ripe – just because the spiritual time is ripe. But you might ask, “When is the spiritual time ripe Pastor?” – When you live with a purpose. Anytime is not the time of God. When you do something for God and live for God, then the time for blessings become ripe. After Jesus used Peter’s boat, preached from his boat, the supernatural time of God came to pass and that was the time he got the fish. That fish was not there all the time. It didn’t happen the next day or the whole week after that. No, only that time because that time was devoted for the kingdom of God. What is the principle we learn? When you dedicate your time, your memory, your money for God’s kingdom, you are quickening the timing of God and are ushering the supernatural timing of God. Then you will see that time is a favourable towards you. “Now is the time of favor. Now is the time of salvation” (2 Corinthians 6:2).

 

  1. Fishing in the purpose of God: You need to know that when Peter threw in the net the first time, he didn’t catch a single fish. Why? – his was a life without a purpose. “Race is not the swift, nor battle to the strong but time and chance happens to all” (Ecclesiastes 6:11). Then why is it that later Peter got so much fish, his boat was sinking? Life without a purpose yields no supernatural results. If you don’t know why and what you are here for, then you will not know what to pursue or you will pursue the wrong things and you use your life as an experiment to try this and that. But life is too short for you to experiment with. Find out what the Lord wants you to do and start doing it at once. This is what Peter did. Jesus told Peter, “Give me your boat for preaching the good news”. He did that and stood next to Jesus. He was in the purpose of God and what happened? He got a rich haul. Seek first the kingdomof heaven and its righteousness and all these things will be added to you supernaturally. There are many zealous people in the world but zeal without knowledge is fruitless labour. When you are zealous or very strong, but don’t know what you are doing, your labour will be fruitless. I want to show to you what will not yield you blessings. Like planting the wrong seed. When you plant the wrong seed you get the wrong fruit. If you are expecting apples but plant weeds you will not get apples. For everything in the world, the foundation of what you do is very important. In everything we do – whether it is ministry, business, marriage, learning, etc. – the original seed you plant is very important. If the foundation is deceit or lies, you cannot move forward. You cannot build any lasting thing on these. A person may use a fakecertificate to come up in life, but soon that wrong will be found out, because he is building on a wrong foundation. If you are asking, “Why is my wife punching me every day on my nose?” Ask yourself where you meet her before you got married. Did she have a foundation? Or what kind of foundation did she have? Conversely, if you are saying, “I don’t know why my husband is using me as a punching bag? Ask yourself where you meet him before he married you. The foundation of everything is very important. When you plant the wrong seed, it means that the foundation is bad. Then even if you now start to work hard, it is like trying to build a skyscraper on a bad foundation. You will work hard but you won’t get anywhere, because the foundation is already wrong.

 

  1. Spiritual blindness: When you are blind spiritually, and don’t know where you are going, you may end up working hard in the wrong direction. I read the story of three drunkards who after getting drunk at night decided to go home. They needed to use a boat to across a river so they entered the boat and began to row. They rowed the boat all night but found that they were at the same spot till dawn. They kept rowing until somebody said, “Excuse me, do you want to move this boat?” They said, “Yes, we have been rowing all night.” He said, “Didn’t you see that a rope is tying it down? Why didn’t you untie the rope so that it can move?” Because they were drunk, they did not see that the boat was tied down. They were rowing, working hard, but the boat did not leave that spot. It is like a dog chasing its own tail but not catching it.

 

  1. Curse of non-achievement: In many families, a tree of non achievement has already been planted. It has to be uprooted and you can uproot it today in the name of Jesus. Yes, you see some families are living under curses. No matter what they do, they never are successful. You need to break the curse over such a family in Jesus’ name.

 

  1. Anti harvest forces: These forces allow the victim to work hard and to gather things, and then they will pour it away. I have seen it happen many times in people’s lives. They work very hard and gather everything but in a twinkle of an eye everything fizzles out. I have also seen a millionaire who had to suddenly auction all his things. Everything he gathered went away just like that.

 

Finally we come to the important question: how do we overcome all this?

  1. Surrender your life to Jesus: He is the only One who can show you the way. Surrender completely.
  2. Accept that your human efforts and plans are limited: You may say that you are smart, but there are certain forces that will make your smartness look foolish. Accept the limitation of human efforts and plans.
  3. Trust the word of God even if it does not make sense: When Jesus told Peter to throw the net into the water, it did not make sense, but he did it all the same and got good result.
  4. Be willing to take holy risks: It is said faith jumps but fear looks. Remember that God can give you more than what you even ask or can imagine (Ephesians 3:20).
  5. Wage a war against the spirit of profitless hard work.

Put your hands on one another and pray on them, believing in the Lord that from today any good thing you lay your hands on will begin to prosper. Also at the end of this message there are prayer points to pray that I want you to pray sincerely. The Lord wants to use these prayer points to solve so many problems. You know that you are not lazy. You know that you work hard but in spite of that you find that you have very little or nothing to show for it. The areas where you have expended your energy, nobody appreciates. It is high time you cried unto the Lord. There must be a change.

 

Prayer points:

  1. Every evil chain on my hands, break, in Jesus’ name.
  2. My hands, refuse to cleave to vanity, in the name of Jesus.
  3. Every strange fire prepared against my hands, backfire in the name of Jesus.
  4. My hands, catapult me to breakthroughs, in the name of Jesus.
  5. My hands, cooperate with the hands of the Almighty, in the name of Jesus.
  6. The anointing to prosper fall upon my hands in the name of Jesus. (Prophesy good things on your hands.)
  7. May the anger of the Almighty pursue my pursuers in the name of Jesus!
  8. The heavenly doors of my prosperity be opened by fire in the name Jesus.
  9. Every good door that the enemy has closed, I command you to open in the name of Jesus.

 

Abstract

“And Simon answering said unto him, Master, we have toiled all the night, and have taken nothing: nevertheless at thy word I will let down the net” (Luke 5:5).

This verse is an example of fruitless labour. God designed every work to be fruitful. ‘Work’ becomes has meaning and purpose if it is done in line with the calling of God over our lives. If you live for God and his kingdom, then your needs will be supplied supernaturally. What I want to say is this: there are people who are not lazy still their hard work gives them no profits. When people live on their own they live in worry and that leads to excessive work or toil. God does not want us to worry or toil. It is unfruitful and a waste.

This spirit of profitless hard work is clearly described in the Scriptures, and has the following strategies:  debt, wrong investment, failure at the edge of breakthroughs, always struggling in job, no decent job, witchcraft, wrong business partners, tithe evasion, pocket with holes, abortion, sleep and slumber, bribery and laziness.

Some will fish and catch nothing. Here are a few strategies we can glean from Peter and his fishing:

  1. Fishing in the timing of God
  2. Fishing in the purpose of God
  3. Spiritual blindness
  4. Curse of non-achievement
  5. Anti harvest forces

 

How do we overcome all this?

  1. Surrender your life to Jesus
  2. Accept that your human efforts and plans are limited
  3. Trust the word of God even if it does not make sense
  4. Be willing to take holy risks
  5. Wage a war against the spirit of profitless hard work

Prayer points:

  1. Every evil chain on my hands, break, in Jesus’ name.
  2. My hands, refuse to cleave to vanity, in the name of Jesus.
  3. Every strange fire prepared against my hands, backfire in the name of Jesus.
  4. My hands, catapult me to breakthroughs, in the name of Jesus.
  5. My hands, cooperate with the hands of the Almighty, in the name of Jesus.
  6. The anointing to prosper fall upon my hands in the name of Jesus. (Prophesy good things on your hands.)
  7. May the anger of the Almighty pursue my pursuers in the name of Jesus!
  8. The heavenly doors of my prosperity be opened by fire in the name Jesus.
  9. Every good door that the enemy has closed, I command you to open in the name of Jesus.