Cast Your Hook Into the Sea: The Coin in the Fish and Your Debt

Sermon outline

Peter's tax was paid by a miracle because he simply believed and acted on Jesus' instruction, and God will meet your debt the same way when you obey, name your seed and ask for a specific harvest.

1. Cast your hook into the sea

   Jesus gave Peter an instruction. If Peter had ignored it he would not have had the result, but he believed in his heart and did what he was told. The key to financial breakthrough is timing: knowing God's timing and neither running ahead of him nor falling behind.

   Illustration: Peter sent to the lake with a line to find a four-drachma coin in the mouth of the first fish.

   “You have to cast your hook into the sea to receive your miracle of debt cancellation.”

   • Matthew 17:24-27

2. Fight for your harvest

   You have an adversary, a thief who wants to steal everything God has given you. When the harvest is delayed, go after it with the weapons God provides: the Word of God, your words and your faith. Every harvest requires a battle and will not fall into your lap.

   “God responds to a fighter. Satan fears a fighter.”

   • Psalm 144:1

3. God moves in cycles, and this is a cycle of prosperity

   There is a time to plant, a time to grow and a time to harvest and enjoy. A cycle has a beginning and an end, and we are living in God's end-time harvest cycle, in which he releases a financial anointing to break the bondage of debt. He tells listeners that a debt cancellation anointing is on the programme, and that they must hear the word, believe it and act on it now.

   “God moves in cycles.”

   • Ecclesiastes 3:2

4. True prosperity is more than material wealth

   Having an abundance of the world's wealth is not a sign of spirituality. True prosperity is the abundance of all God's blessings: health, protection, spiritual riches and provision, a total well-being of spirit, soul and body. There is nothing wrong with possessions, but they must never become your treasure or your security, because where your treasure is your heart will be. Keep a proper balance and store up treasure in heaven.

   Illustration: A beautiful house, expensive furniture, expensive cars and an abundance of clothes. He recalls Kenneth Hagin saying we must stay in the centre so that we have a balanced life.

   “Your future security, brothers and sisters in Christ, is in God, not in things.”

   • Luke 12:15
   • Proverbs 11:1
   • Matthew 6:19-21

5. Name your seed

   Take an inventory of what you have, because everyone has something to sow: a smile, a word of encouragement, time, shared information and money. Prosperity is holistic and covers relationships, love, mercy, kindness, respect and honour, and what you sow in these comes back to you. Giving begins with the attitude of the heart, and every gift to God and to people is an eternal investment.

   Illustration: Kindness costs you nothing: a smile, a thank you, some appreciation. People are made in the image of God, so we must respect the divinity in humanity.

   “Your seed is anything that you have that will benefit another person.”

   • 1 Peter 4:10

6. Ask for a specific harvest and expect the hundredfold

   Your seed is what you give to God and your harvest is what he gives back. Name the particular miracle you want and do not pray ambiguous prayers, because God is an intelligent being who wants to hear exactly what you want. Jesus always promised a reward for obedience, so sow with expectation and do not treat the hundredfold promise lightly.

   Illustration: God is the great accountant who keeps the books. You may think you lost on a deal or someone took advantage of you, but God has seen it and will give it back with interest.

   “You can never be a loser in the economy of God.”

   • Philippians 4:6
   • Psalm 37:4
   • Mark 10:29-30

7. Peter simply believed and acted

   The rich young ruler lost out with God because he loved his possessions. Jesus, as the Son, was not obliged to pay the temple tax, and he could have paid it from the treasury. He chose to draw on heaven's resources and paid it by a miracle of debt cancellation. Peter did not rationalise the instruction or try to pump up his faith. He went to the sea expecting to receive what Christ had promised.

   Illustration: Fish do not normally swim around with money in their mouths, yet God prepared one fish with the exact amount needed.

   “Peter simply believed and Peter acted on the word of God.”

   • Mark 10:17-27
   • Matthew 17:24-27