["Pomp and Circumstance"]
and all of you everyone's really usually pretty good about communicating and figuring out who's
going to bring what but we will take care of the desserts and then of course the refreshments that
we being the church we'll take care of that and then again it'll be just three to six pm so
please do try to be here at three so that we can all enjoy we don't all get filled up on stuffing
and then the turkey shows up an hour later whatever it is you know so we can all enjoy the
same food together and then we'll just have a quick service probably around 5 30. the plan is
to kind of probably rent tables and just do two long rows here and then maybe kind of a buffet
style down the center and then i'll probably just get up for about 20 30 minutes and just preach a
simple thanksgiving day sermon so we'll still have that going on and then you don't have to leave at
six if people want to stick around of course and continue to graze they're welcome to do that but
we are going to do that this year and see how that goes and feel free to invite people if there's
folks families friends people you know from co-workers whatever that you would like to
have come out to church and enjoy that day with us feel free to do that and then also below that
we have the portraits coming up for the 2023 yearbook the last sunday of this month so that'll
be right after the morning service the missions conference of course is beginning this week on
wednesday there will be no midweek service so i won't be here i'll be going up wednesday and
staying there until saturday evening coming back and of course i'll be back here on sunday morning
and evening but there's a lot of great things planned here if you have any questions about any
of this just let me know i'll be more than happy to shed a little more light on any questions you
might have that's going to do it for announcements we'll just quickly count up our soul winning this
week we're going to start by going back to friday if anyone has anything from friday to report
and anything from saturday was anything for the group that went out saturday
no and then what about today two all right we'll keep up the great work slowly we'll
go ahead and sing one more song before we get into the preaching tonight
so
all hail the power of jesus name
angels
you
him
every
day
we may
join
as the author pages pass around please turn your bibles to matthew chapter four
four
matthew chapter four
verse one the bible reads
then when jesus led up to the spirits of wilderness to be tempted of the devil
and he had fasted 40 days and 40 nights he was afterward hungry
and when temper changed and said obviously god man be stolen you made bread the answer
was said it was written man trying to live by bread alone but by every word that preceded
out of the mouth of god then the devil take them up to the holy city said them on a pinnacle in
the temple and say it unto him that thou be the son of god cast thyself down for it is written
they shall give his angels charge concerning in their hands and shall bear thee up lest at any
time while dashed by foot against the stone jesus sent up to him is written again that shall not
tempt the lord that god again the devil takes them up to the exceeding high mountain and show
out them all the kingdom of the world the glory of them and say it unto me all these things will
i give that will fall down and worship then say if jesus until yet the hand safe for it is written
thou shall worship the lord that god and him only shall now serve then the devil leaveth and behold
angels came and ministered unto him now when jesus had heard john was cast into prison he
departed into galley and was leaving azure he came upon capramia which was upon the sea coast
and the borders of zebedan and nethar and that it might be fulfilled which was spoken by asias the
prophet saying the land of zebedan and the land of netharim by the way you see beyond jordan
galley of the gentiles the people sat in darkness saw green light and the then which sat in the
region the shadow of death light sprung up in that time jesus began to preach say repent
the kingdom of heaven is at hand and jesus walking by the sea of galley saw two brothers
simon called peter and adrian's brother casting their nets in the sea for they were fishers and
he saith unto them follow me and i'll make you fish in the net and they straight away left their
nets and followed them and going on from thence we saw other two brothers james son zebedan and
john his brother and the ship was heavy their father mending their nets and he called them
and he immediately left the ship and their father followed him and jesus went about all galley
teaching in their synagogues and preaching the gospel of the kingdom and healing all manner of
sickness and all manner of disease among the people and the stain went throughout all syria
and they brought to them all sick people that were taken with diverse diseases and tortoises
and those who possess the devils and those with the lunatic and those that have the palsy and
healed them and have followed them great multitudes of people from galley from the
kopolis and from jerusalem and from judea and from beyond jordan brother always pray for us
god thank you so much for this sunday evening service we ask you to please bless the seeking
service bless everyone who's here tonight please bless deacon with the holy spirit
amen so if you want to keep something there in matthew chapter four we'll come back
but i will be continuing on again uh this evening with mark chapter number one uh getting a lot of
positive feedback thus far uh on this new approach going through mark i've never really gone this
slowly through a chapter but it seems like we're getting a lot out of it a lot of different things
and uh several so i'm just going to keep going in this vein until enough people tell me to stop
please do something else but even then i might just dig in my heels and keep going anyway i
know i've been enjoying it and it's really nice to just go through and really dig into some of these
passages and try to make application as we go but we're looking there in mark chapter one and
everyone here i'm sure is pretty well caught up and where we've been uh we looked at the baptism
of christ and the temptation and of course this morning we dealt with the topic of repentance
where he says in verse 15 repent and believe the gospel so we'll pick it up there in verse 16 it
says now as he walked by the sea of galilee he saw simon and andrew his brother casting a net
into the sea for they were fishers and jesus said unto them come ye after me and i will make you
to become fishers of men and straightway they forsook their nets and followed him and when
he had gone a little further thence he saw james the son of zebedee and john his brother
who also were in the ship bending their nets and straightway he called them and let they left their
father zebedee in the ship with the hired servants and went after him so we see the calling of the
four disciples here uh andrew simon peter james and john the four fishermen and what's interesting
here is that he's calling fishermen right and what does he say to them he says if you follow me
i will make you fishers of men okay so he's taking them and making fishermen to be fishers of men
but i think there's a few things that we can learn from the fact that jesus called these particular
men into the ministry okay first of all is that they were fishermen right that's one thing that
says there at the end for they were fishers that's what they're doing casting a net into the sea so
these are blue-collar guys these your average working joes these aren't people from high society
this isn't people from some you know intellectual realm that he's drawing upon and certainly there
were those people available you know he could have gone down to the temple and found people that
maybe would have had more of a uh you know refined background whatever you want to call it that would
have been coming for a much more educated place but when god went out to preach the gospel when
jesus was here and he set out to do that great ministry that he was about to accomplish
the first thing he does he goes and he finds four fishermen four guys who are just blue-collar men
working class middle class guys to help him with that work now there's probably a couple reasons
for this one as i kind of alluded to here a moment ago is that james and john and simon peter and
andrew probably weren't guys that received a lot of education okay obviously they were
probably not not to glorify ignorance or anything like that or to say that being
uneducated is somehow a virtue but in one sense it kind of is because they are unbiased by their
education what was the problem with the Pharisees and the Sadducees they knew the scripture you know
apparently you know although you kind of wonder as many times as jesus said have you not read
to them we would rebuke them but they were people that were coming from a background where there
was a lot of learning there was a lot of interpreting of scriptures and there was also
a lot of debate you see we've been seeing that as we've gone through the book of acts in the last
few weeks that they couldn't even agree upon between the Pharisees and Sadducees those two
groups couldn't even agree upon as something as simple as the resurrection the afterlife spirits
so there's a lot of people kind of in that crowd that are just navel gazing you know just
contemplating hypothesizing and just you know debating the minutia of scripture and coming up
with many vain traditions okay and we see jesus rebuking that for all these things so that's kind
of the product of that society at that time or that group of people at that time okay now again
i'm not trying to say that everybody that has any kind of a background who has achieved higher
learning is somehow unfit for the ministry okay but there i believe there is some reasons why
jesus chose the men that he did the fishermen being that you know these guys have spent their
life you know working hard for example we it was very hard work we know that when jesus tells peter
to let down the nets he says we've toiled all night and taking nothing so he's working very
long hours working very hard you know we think oh being a fisherman that must be such a nice thing
you know it's it's it's kind of humorous the things that we do today as leisurely activities
that were normally just would have been considered very difficult occupations right people that had
to hunt for a living you know would probably laugh at us when they see us spending all this money and
all this time to go out in the woods and shoot an animal and they're saying wait a minute you have
these giant stores where there's just vast quantities of meat ready to be made why don't
you just go home and and sit you know and eat the food there right so we might have to we have to be
reminded that these men being fishermen these are very hard-working men these guys are working very
very hard you know there was no combustion engine you know so they're either sending up sails or
rowing out you know they're dragging there's no electricity so they don't have these motors
drawing in the nets for them they're doing all this by hand mending them making them by hand
dragging them up by hand very hard-working blue-collar men and one of the reasons why
jesus called them is because of the fact that you know perhaps they were not didn't have the time or
the means to do anything else but work okay they had families to provide for they had lives to live
they couldn't spend their life just in the ivory towers of higher education okay now if you would
keep something there we're going to come back and forth out of mark here and just go verse by verse
through these four verses but go over to acts chapter number four acts chapter number four
see these guys one thing one reason perhaps why he chose at least these four is that
they weren't biased by an education they weren't going to come to what the teachings of christ
with a preconceived notion okay they weren't going to bring their own opinions into the matter they
were going to simply believe by faith what it is that jesus taught them okay and that's the
attitude that we have to have as disciples of christ often you know we'll run into things in
the scripture that maybe are counterintuitive or things that would go against our you know
our our you know presuppose our presuppositions like we might come to the scripture with
you know a bias of some sort okay well we have to be ready to part with that and say hey you know
what this is what the bible says that's it that's our final authority okay and not argue with it or
try to explain it away if you look there in acts chapter 4 verse 13 now when they may being the
pharisees saw the boldness of peter and john the same men that we're reading about here in
max excuse me mark chapter number one and perceived that they were what unlearned and
ignorant men okay and that's the narrator of scripture talking there describing what it is
that they perceived right the narrator is saying that the pharisees perceived this about james and
john doesn't say that they thought they were they were uh unlearned men they said they saw this
because that is what they are they are unlearned and ignorant men and it doesn't mean that they're
ignoramuses or they're buffoons or they're stupid or they're men of low degree it simply means that
they have not had the same learning that the pharisees have had they haven't spent the time
listening to the same teachers and being in the same books they're ignorant of those things right
and they're beholding this and they're marveling and they're marveling saying how can these guys
preach so well how can these guys have such powerful influence when they're ignorant and
unlearned and you know this is something i can kind of uh relate to a little bit you know uh
is that sometimes people will care more about your pedigree or they'll care more about your
bible college degree or lack thereof than what's actually coming out of your mouth
you could preach something right you could preach something that's biblical you could you could
dispel some false understanding you could tear down and dismantle some doctrine using the bible
and they'll just say yeah but you know that guy doesn't have a college college education
you know what bible college do you go to you know who taught you all these things well you know what
the holy spirit and that that's the bible college i've been going to is is the school of of the holy
spirit the school you know the bible college of bible reading the bible college of bible
memorization the bible college of bible preaching and that's why it's so important that the local
church be a place of teaching and instruction you know if you come to a church service and say oh
this is going to be more of a dry doctrinal you know just kind of meat and potatoes sermon where
i'm going to actually have to put on my thinking cap and dig into the word of god a little bit
you know you should be grateful for that that's what the body that's what church is there to be
you know we're there to teach and instruct the doctrines of the word of god yes of course we
want to motivate and we want to comfort and we want to do all these other things we want to exhort
but we also want to edify the saints we want to build up the body of christ
the goal of the of preaching is to make you be able to be able to stand on your own two feet
and to be able to refute sound you know false doctrine yourself to be able to act you know
articulate and teach bible doctrine yourself and of course that's not something that happens
overnight that's why it's important to be in church for the preaching the word of god
you know and you know that should be enough shouldn't it you should be able to say well
you know i've been in church under sound biblical preaching for you know many years now i've read
the bible for myself i've memorized scripture i've studied these things for myself why do i
need to go somewhere and be taught you know potentially just a bunch of lies by some you
know pay thousands of dollars for some other guy to teach me his take on the scriptures
just so i can have a piece of paper you know and then somehow that's going to lend credence
to what i teach that's going to validate you know what i say then okay look the only the
only validation i need is does it line up with scripture okay so these guys are holding peter
and john and they perceive that they're unlearned meaning they you know they weren't coming out of
the school the pharisees they're ignorant of these things and they are marveling at them
why what is it what what does it cause it them as it says there to it says and they took knowledge
of them meaning they noted them what is it that that's that made these guys be able to preach and
to teach as well as they had well as it says there at the end that they had been with jesus
they had been with jesus they didn't need a bible college degree they didn't need
the accommodations of men they didn't need the titles they didn't need to have you know a bunch
of you know uh professors and you know they didn't need to have a bunch of letters behind
their name and and all of these things all they needed to do was get with jesus
and so we should never let perhaps our you know our our background you know if we're coming from
a place where maybe we didn't receive the education that others had we didn't receive
the upbringing that others have had you know as we should perceive that and and take that as
something that is necessarily a knock against us or a strike against us because i don't care how
educated and how smart you are if you're not with jesus it doesn't matter you're gonna probably end
up preaching and teaching things that are wrong i mean think about you know the the intellectuals
quote-unquote today within christendom you know the reformed you know the uh the calvinists and
others of this world who like to get up and use a lot of big theological terms i mean they sound
smart they it's like they're speaking a language that only an elite group of people would understand
right like a lawyer or a doctor right and the reason why they do that is so that they can feel
smart you know we need to speak to the common man we need to make things plain you know we need to
speak so so they can be understood by the average what blue-collar middle-class guy you know and
even the simple the ignorant unlearned ought to be able to understand what it is that we're teaching
the bible you know doesn't need to be made into this complex confusing uh you know a book of just
you know terms that aren't even in there okay so that's one reason why perhaps jesus chose
these simple blue-collar men okay these guys that are just you know going about their lives and
working another reason i believe and if you would go over to second timothy chapter number four
second timothy chapter number four is that these guys are conditioned for hard work you know in
in a very literal sense if you're out there fishing you're out there in the elements
you're out there working hard every day physically you know they're going to they're
prepared physically for the journey that was ahead of them because you know jesus in his ministry what
he didn't have a tour bus you know or tour carriage i guess or whatever a tour chariot
you know the the greyhound didn't pull up and throw on the air brakes and throw the door open
so they could all climb aboard you know and wave goodbye to everybody they follow jesus on foot
everywhere they're going they're following him you know jesus said that you know
that the birds have nests and the fox of the earth have dens but the son of man hath not
where to lay his head i mean he doesn't even know where he's staying from evening to evening he
might be sleeping out under the stars next to a campfire he doesn't even know where his next meal
is coming from he's just relying on the charity and goodwill of others that can be a very hard
life they're basically going to spend the next three years just being transients you know just
wandering around you know israel judia with with jesus and that's very hard work just walking is
really hard work you know if you haven't done a lot of walking and you set out you get all
ambitious i don't know who who is like this you know i don't i don't know who'd be so crazy
but they would think hey you know i'm gonna start exercising i'm just gonna start walking
you know if you haven't done any walking you set out to start walking let's just say two miles a day
you're gonna feel that you really will how do you how do i know because i've been in that position
more than once i said you know i need to start moving more okay and i said hey i'm gonna start
walking a mile two miles and man you feel it the next day obviously you know you can get conditioned
but these guys are already conditioned for the physical hard work that is going to be coming in
this obviously very specific ministry of following christ but that's not to say that you know we
don't share to some degree in that same ministry and have to have that same uh you know preparedness
physically okay you know we have to go out there into the highways and byways we may not spend
three years walking around jesus from day to day right and not to mention all the other things that
they're doing i mean they're getting into ships and they're feeding people and they're doing all
kinds of other things but you know we have to go out there and and literally go out in the heat
walk you know miles at a time perhaps going up and down stairs these apartment complexes
you know we're we should be prepared to do that you know that's part of the ministry
okay the ministry can be even physically challenging at times and no doubt about it
it is certainly spiritually and mentally taxing as well you know preaching is a very taxing thing
if you've ever tried it if you've ever done it you know that if you've done any ever done any
kind of public speaking you know it's difficult you know it's hard to get up and have coherent
you know thoughts that make sense you know three times a week it's hard to do that usually you know
people i it's funny when i hear people who say they're afraid of public speaking you know they
have to give one talk and at work like once a year and i'm just going get over it you wimp right you
know but i understand that you know that's if you've never done it obviously it's it's
difficult we're driving over today and i just quickly did the math in my head and i told my
wife i said i think i've preached over 700 times now right and people say you know sometimes other
guys who's starting out preaching come to me and they'll say you know how do you what do you do
about getting nervous i said we'll just do it a few hundred more times you know that's because
that's obviously a very big concern for someone who's starting out preaching they'll say you know
i'm just so nervous when i get up there and i just give them the same advice that i was given
you know just do it a few hundred more times and i'm being a little more gentler with it i think
pastor told me well just do it about a thousand times right and then you'll get used to it right
and what i found is you just get used to being nervous you get used to you know the adrenaline
you get used to the butterflies in your stomach until you don't even notice it anymore but
obviously that's a huge drain to get up and it's very mentally taxing right even preaching the
gospel right i'm not trying to turn this into a pity party what was me i'm the poor little
preacher up here but even those of you that go out and preach the gospel especially if you get
into a receptive area where you know you're you're preaching to god you know we get so eager to be
able to preach the gospel to someone and then we preach the gospel back to back to back for several
hours that is exhausting you get a taste of it what it's like to speak for great lengths of time
right and to have that you know that continual flow of thought being able to just work through
the gospel okay the bible says in second timothy i don't know if i had to go to first but i meant
second timothy chapter four it says watch thou in all things endure afflictions endure afflictions
do the work of an evangelist you know evangelizing going out preaching the gospel is work okay that's
why so many people don't do it that's why so many christians pass on it because he didn't say do the
fun of an evangelist you know do the the leisurely activity do the hobby of an evangelist you know
hobbies are things that we would enjoy things that we would have interest in you know evangelism
preaching the gospel a lot of times can just be plain old work to go out there and do the hard
work make full proof of thy ministry take full advantage of the opportunity that's been given
you you know timothy is going to have to do a lot of work as an evangelist meaning getting out there
talking to people preaching sermons and dealing with people okay that is you might not understand
that you might not even believe me but that is a physically taxing thing too okay it's training
so maybe that's another reason why he chose four fishermen okay and i'm not saying these are the
reasons why jesus chose them okay but he did you know i'm just saying perhaps you know for just
for the sake of application okay let's just say these are the reasons okay that these are guys
that are unbiased they're not going to bring some you know false doctrine from their higher education
into Jesus's ministry and argue and and disagree and preach lies and heresy they're ready for the
physical hard work of the ministry that's what i've noticed about a lot of these other intellectual
types okay is that they want to sit around with their nose in a book all day but they don't want
to go out and do the work of an evangelist they'd rather just preach to their small little group of
you know uh you know intellectuals so-called and let the rest of the world go to hell okay
and we need to be both you know i'm not against learning i'm not against
getting wisdom the bible puts a premium it puts an emphasis on us gaining knowledge and wisdom
and understanding both of god's word of the world around us we should have those things i'm not
saying i'm not trying to glorify ignorance this evening i don't think it's anything worth
glorifying i think we should try to become smarter and more intelligent people but not
at the expense of putting off the work of the ministry okay another reason why perhaps Jesus
chose these guys is because they were already busy right these guys are busy i know when i live down
in the tropics sometimes i'd be going to a job with my dad and we'd go by the beaches down there
and even at at dawn as the sun is coming up you would see fishermen lining up they would be down
there at the docks getting their boats ready getting ready to cast off and then you'd be
coming home and you'd see them coming and they're spending all day out in the ocean
working hard they're busy people right those are the people at least these four guys that
Jesus chose he said i want guys that are already busy okay now part of the reason that of that is
is perhaps because busy people get things done okay now that sounds like a paradox right why
would you choose ask somebody to do something if they're already busy right but this is something
i've heard and it's something i've seen is that if you want to get something done find the busiest
people you can and give them the job and they'll get it done because busy people just find a way
to get things done they've learned how to manage their time they have the ambition they have the
drive they know how to work efficiently they know how not to you know overthink things or
you know uh or or dilly dally or waste time they're good at getting stuff done you know if
your livelihood is is catching fish you're going to get really good at that you're going to learn
out when to go out what times of year is the best where the fish are at certain times day and seasons
you're going to be really good at that right because you've done it a lot you've become
proficient to stay busy right busy people get things done i think that's maybe why jesus chose
blue-collar middle-class hard-working men to join his ministry you know he could have gone and found
the guys that are just laying around who didn't have anything else going on anyway right because
we're going to see here in a minute these guys had to forsake everything they had to leave that
business they had to leave family behind and leave that work in the hands of somebody else
you might say well wouldn't have been more convenient to go and find some guy who's just
standing around with nothing to do some guy who's just idle and doesn't have it isn't doesn't have
such a busy schedule wouldn't have that been easier well it might have been you know less
of a sacrifice obviously but the problem is is that people who lay around and don't want to do
anything don't want to do anything they want to lay around and not do anything you want to get
something done find someone who's already busy and give them the job to do and they'll get it done
and that's the type of people that we want to be you know the type of people that you know that we
want to be are the type of people that wonder hey we're told to do something it's as good as done
you know that's something i strive hard to do you know when when i'm told hey this needs to get done
i let's get it done then let's make it happen so that when somebody tells me hey i'm tasking you
with this they can walk away rest assured and have peace in their mind that it's it's already
finished because i know when i tell brother corbin i need this done it's as if it's already happened
i can just say it once and it's finished right the bible says in proverbs 15 verse 19 the way
of the slothful man is as a hedge of thorns the way of the slothful man is as a hedge of thorns
you know his life is just overgrown there's just it's unkept it's just a hedge of thorns
you ever try to get through a hedge of thorns it's not easy right it's gonna be it's gonna
entangle you it's gonna be difficult to get through why is it a hedge of thorns because
he's slothful he's gonna have a hard time making any progress in life because it's all overgrown
it's just the way is filled with thorns okay it's not filled with pavers it's not filled with us you
know nice flat concrete path it's filled with thorns it's become overgrown why because he's
slothful he's gonna have a hard time getting anything done the bible goes on and says
the way of the righteous is made plain it's simple it's easy to see it's easy to traverse
right the righteous the busy man you know his way is already cleared out he can already get things
done okay if you would go to mark go back to mark chapter one we'll move on to our next point here
so in mark 1 16 we've seen that jesus calls these guys he calls uh simon peter and andrew
his brother they're casting nets into the scene because they're fishers
and of course we know the same is true of james and john
but notice in verse 17 it says mark 1 chapter 17 and jesus said unto them them being
andrew and uh simon he said unto them come ye after me and i will make you to become fishers
of men he's saying i see your fisher men but i'm going to make you fishers of men
and what we learn from this is that if you follow jesus you're going to be a fisher of men
right if you isn't that what he said if you come after me if you follow me if you would go to
matthew four where we were where it's it's it's worded a little differently he says i will make
you to become fishers of men following leads to fishing following leads to fishing and not
the literal fishing right the fishing of men if we follow jesus we're not going to find ourselves
on a lake we're not going to find ourselves in the pontoon we're not going to find ourselves
on the bass boat and i know this is arizona that the temptation for that is is very low
you know but but you know that's that's something i used to do i mean i'm from
northern michigan and i used to do a lot of fishing you know but when i got more
involved with ministry when i got more busy with the things of god you know that's gone by the
wayside and even more so now that i'm living here you know now it's it's just nearly impossible
you know i see people own boats here and i just shake my head and say why
why do you even own a boat right i'm not going to go off on it all right i know my
my michigander wants to come out right now and let you arizonans have it but it's not your fault
okay it's not your fault
but look following leads to fishing if we're going to follow jesus you know we're going to get
involved in the work of christ we're going to get in the work of the ministry we're going to do the
work of an evangelist we're going to become fishers of men he said there matthew 4 19 where you are
he saith unto them follow me and i will make you fishers of men so following jesus the natural
byproduct of following jesus is that you become a soul winner which means if you're not winning
souls you're not following jesus if you're not fishing for men you're not following jesus now
you might be fishing and not you know you're not bringing in a big harvest well that just might
be because you got you know because that well's been spoiled or just the fish aren't in that lake
i get that okay but you're at least out there fishing all right if we're at least out there
casting you know the gospel line if we're out there putting out the you know the the bait of
the word of god and trying to get people to come in to the boat you know then we're fishing for
men aren't we that's one thing i learned about fishing so you don't always catch fish you know
sometimes you got thrown back or sometimes you don't get any nibbles you don't get a bite okay
well it's the same way as soul winning but the point is let's go out there and do it anyway
i mean we know for a fact that i don't think it's a reflection on peter's skill or anything
like that but he told jesus we toiled all night and caught nothing i mean there's times when
they're going out as fishermen and catching nothing now what if they had quit the first time
the first time he drew up an empty net well this is pointless you know i should be a potter i mean
i'd be a baker maybe go dig maybe go do something else right no he kept at it he kept fishing right
they have a persistence you know and that's an attribute you need to be the a fisher of men as
well you can't just get discouraged every time you come back from soul winning and maybe nobody
wanted to get saved maybe nobody wanted to hear it you know maybe it was an unreceptive area well you
know let's go out cast the net again let's go out there and cast out that line again okay because
eventually you're going to land one all right eventually you're going to reel one in and i'd
like to use more of a fishing analogy at this point but i just feel like it wouldn't work at
this crowd i just feel like you guys would look at me like what is he even talking about
do you even know what it's like to land a fish who here has never caught a fish out of a boat
my goodness and you're from michigan that's that's a shame you've never been fishing
it's because you have to bait the hook right yeah that's the exam
i know my wife i dwell with the recording the knowledge right
you know that feeling when you land a fish man it's it's you know fish on you know it's it's fun
i used to go fishing for bluegill which aren't that big they're just you know little
pan fish they're only get about as big as your hand right sometimes a little bit bigger but i
used to go with a guy and we do we do double hooks so we'd have two hooks on one line with
little wax worms on them which aren't that bad okay not earthworms little white wax worms and
man you get a light rod with a light test and you get a couple of little what just just bluegill
on there you feel like like like moby dick like you've you know harpooned a whale of course you
didn't you get them up there and man they make for good eating i mean that guy richard hannah
that guy could fillet 50 bluegill in like a half hour see this is why i shouldn't even bother
because you guys are like unimpressed by that you don't even know what that's like to fillet
bluegill it's hard you know because it's they're very thin fish anyway i don't know where i'm going
with any of that right but it's an exciting feeling isn't it when you land that fish
if you don't know trust me it is all right it's a it's an exciting feeling to be out there
it's quiet it's calm you're hoping you and you get that little that just that little nibble
right and then boom one's on and it's you're bringing it in okay it's exciting you know if
we keep going out there and keep fishing and being persistent eventually someone's going to say
yeah show me and they're going to listen and they're going to nibble and then they're going
to get hooked and then you're going to reel them in but don't flay them okay
it's exciting we come back hey i want to do it again right so if you don't know what i'm
talking about if you're sitting there scratching your head saying i have no idea what that's like
i don't i don't what is this soul winning thing well are you following jesus then right can we
really say we're following jesus when he said if you follow me and i will make you fishers of men
when he said go ye and preach the gospel to every creature
go and teach all nations whatsoever things i have commanded you
if we're not doing that are we obeying are we following christ
the answer is no and i don't care how much people want to sit there and convince themselves that
they're following and they're jesus that they're right with god if they have no burden for the
lost if they don't want to preach the gospel they're not following jesus period okay and i
don't care what they do to try to convince themselves otherwise that's a fact it's unavoidable
i mean what do you think compelled me to pick up my family and move here and give up all that good
fishing the soul winning say people ask me well why did you move to phoenix those all those years
ago i'll tell you one reason soul winning that was it we need we want you know there were other
things we were looking for a good church anyway things that happened in our church we were done
there we had to move on and we considered maybe we go to this church out in gaylord yes there's
a town called gaylord maybe we could go down to lansing you know maybe we go to this so-and-so's
church maybe we could just move downstate but we knew that if we went there we wouldn't be doing
the soul winning like they're doing out there in tempe that was the main reason why we moved
was just to become fishers of men that's all we want to do we said well maybe we could stay here
we could watch the demonstration videos and figure out how to do it ourselves
but you know the fact is if you're not in a good soul winning church it's hard to stay motivated
if you aren't you know that's why it's so important to surround yourself with people that
are into it you know to encourage one another you need that encouragement
because it's hard to go out there and come back empty-handed and do that without some preacher
breathing down your neck saying hey follow jesus be a fisher of men okay that's why i bring it up
so often that's why i talk about all the time because i know people be constantly all of us
need to be constantly motivated to keep doing it because it's the work of the ministry it's the
work of an evangelist that's why he called these blue-collar men that's why he gave it to busy
people because following jesus leads to work the work of fishing this involves discipleship right
if we're going to follow jesus we're going to be considered his disciple that's what it means to
be a disciple to be someone who is under the tutelage or the teaching the discipleship of
another right they have someone that they're following in a sense if you would uh well just
go back to mark i'll i'll just i got to move along here but you know jesus said why call you
me lord lord and do not the things which i say you know there's a lot of christians today they
want to say oh i follow jesus i'm a i'm a disciple of christ or they use that new trendy term that i
can't stand i'm a christ follower you know once you hear that you just mark it down there's some
ecumenical community garbage church fun center right and those people aren't trying to reach
the loss they're not trying to preach the gospel they might not even have the right gospel
right what's wrong with just saying i'm a disciple you know i got to be a christ follower
i'm a disciple okay
we can but we can sit there and say oh i'm a disciple but if we don't do the things which he
says it doesn't matter how much we call him lord lord as in you know master as in teacher as in
one and to whom i am submitted to to whom i am subservient to right if you're going to call
someone lord you're saying they're your boss that's basically what that means boss boss
and you call someone boss because there's somebody in your life that can tell you what to do
and you have to obey or suffer the consequences whatever they might be
right and jesus saying you know you could sit there and you can call me lord you can call me
boss and you can call me master you can call me master and lord he said in john 13 and say and
ye say well for so i am call me master call me lord that is who i am and he's saying you know
but you got to do what i tell you to do why call me lord lord if you do not the things which i say
it doesn't make any sense and people can try to convince themselves that they're following jesus
but when they're forsaking soul winning when they're letting the things that when they prefer
the things of this world when they're more concerned with the cares of this life than
they are the souls of lost men and women they're not following jesus okay discipleship you know
requires that we forsake some things look at mark chapter 1 verse 18 and straightway they
forsook their nets and followed him so what preceded the following the forsaking
following requires that we forsake some things right it did in this instance now obviously
jesus ministry is a very particular ministry and it was a very short ministry and honest you know
that's why there's probably a more radical change that was needed where everything just had to be
forsaken okay and just left behind we've got three years here with the son of god
you know i'm sorry but if jesus showed up today i'd be like honey you're on your own figure it
out i don't know you probably wouldn't call me i don't know but you could see why someone might
do that they say hey forsake the next for forsake everything i mean in john and james case at least
they had the hired servants to stay with dad we don't know everything about you know uh andrew
and and peter's situation you know did they have young children do they had were they older we're
not really sure but for some reason you know whatever it was they were able to just forsake
everything everything that they had labored at everything that they'd endeavored to do in their
life they just said let's just forget it all and follow jesus okay now i'm not saying that's going
to be asked of any of us that we're going to have to forsake everything and leave it all behind
because obviously we're not going to follow christ and his physical presence here on earth okay but
you know it might cost us something to have to follow jesus in this world it might cost us
something to have to become a fisher of men it might cost us something in order to be faithful
to church to be faithful to the lord to serve god and to make christ a priority in our lives it
might cost us something and we you know we need to be careful when we start putting letting other
things you know take the place of church letting other things take the place of following christ
these guys and i love how it says straight way meaning immediately at that very moment the moment
jesus said it follow me and i'll make you fishers of men done no hesitation and they followed him
the bible says i know i know we know we know a lot of these verses so i'll just read them to you
he says in luke 16 verse 13 no servant can serve two masters no servant can serve two masters
no servant can serve two masters for he will either hate the one and love the other or else
he will hold to the one and despise the other he cannot serve god and mammon now look there's
nothing wrong obviously the responsibilities we have to work we have to earn money we have bills
to pay but if we make our lives all about just wealth if we just make our lives all about just
you know accumulating things and just making our lives about the pleasures that come with
making money and just make our lives about having fun and just doing all these things just all these
things that have no spiritual value you know we're we're going to start looking at the work of the
ministry with disdain we'll look at as inconvenient you know that's why there's so many christians
that are sitting at home on a sunday watching a ball game you know that's why when i went to get
you know that's why when i went to get the donuts this morning over at the supermarket
you know there was a lot of people a lot of people filling up their carts on a sunday morning
you know with bedhead and pajamas and you know what they probably went home that that that
morning and had a nice breakfast and they probably spent the afternoon doing whatever they wanted to
do and you know what they just thought about how they're you know tomorrow they got to go back to
the grind and they just you know had no thought for church and you think that maybe some of those
people were saved you think it's possible there was christians 100 absolutely there was people
that were saved and knew it was the lord's day that tip you know that there's church going on
they saw me coming through dressed like this what do you think they thought of me that guy's on his
way to church a guy walks through dressed like me looking like me on a sunday morning getting
three dozen donuts now i understand me looking like me you might think you know that guy getting
three dozen donuts it's probably pretty typical for him half dozen okay let's be real okay get the
short box but they see a guy in a suit you know coming out a bunch of donuts oh he's baptist
he's a preacher that's what they think when they see me in line at popeyes or whatever
right that's some good chicken
right but i'm looking at the rest of them going you heathen a bunch of sinners get in church
you know there's more people more god's people that don't want to forsake anything
they don't want to forsake you know some stupid hobby they don't want to forsake you know you
know an extra you know a little bit more income they don't need it they could survive on a lot
less but they got to have it because they don't want to forsake it well don't sit there and tell
me you want to follow jesus then well i don't want a soul winning i don't want to i don't want
to be a soul winner you don't want to follow jesus well you know i don't want to be in a good church
well you must not want to forsake anything so you must not want to follow jesus because to follow
jesus you're gonna have to forsake some things now obviously we we today don't have to forsake
a whole lot you know god god lets us do a lot of things don't we we still get to enjoy a lot of
things we we live in a very prosperous country like oh i gotta work 40 hours now the uaw is
striking to work a 38 hour week and get paid 80 grand a year what in the world
you know the people that started those unions and started those factories you know we're working a
lot more than that and we're glad to do it right but and people today look at a 40-hour work week
like it's like it's slavery like they're just being worked to the bone it's like what are you
talking about and the level of prosperity that we have i mean we can follow jesus today we can
go out and be fishers of men and and still have to forsake very little in our current situation
i don't think it's a lot to ask people to come to church i don't think it's a lot to ask people to
go soul winning you know for an hour a week to read their bibles for 15 minutes a day
that's such a light duty that's like bare minimum anyway but you know maybe we will
have to forsake more things maybe it will cost us more than we anticipated right
maybe it might even be that we have to give up certain relationships that's that happens people
have to they take stands they they find out what the bible says they start living a certain way
and you might not even set out and say you know what i'm just gonna dismantle this relationship
i'm gonna break cut these people off and just break off this relationship and end it i'm not
gonna hang out with these people anymore i'm not gonna go to those places you might not even have
you might not even have to do that you might just start living godly in christ
jesus and other people might just say you've changed i don't want anything to do with you
and look at verse 20 in mark one and says and straight away he called them this is of course
after verse 19 when he'd gone a little further he saw james and john the sons of zebedee
and excuse me james the son of zebedee and john his brother who were also in the ship mending
their nets and straight why he called them and they left their father zebedee in the ship with
the hired servants and went after him they said bye dad see you later now i don't think it was
because obviously zebedee is a bad guy we know he's not but you know that they had to leave
that relationship behind for a season maybe they were able to come back to it you know you start
living for jesus you say start saying hey i don't drink anymore i don't party anymore i don't want
to be around this stuff anymore it might cost you a relationship
but you know what if that's what it costs us that's what it costs us
if that's what it takes to follow jesus we have to be willing to pay that price
if we say you know i don't go there anymore i don't do those things you know i'm trying to
live a life that's pleasing to god and if that breaks and severs relationships or puts strains
on relationships so be it okay because that's what we're called to we might have to forsake
some things you know maybe we have to forsake some of our time maybe we have to forsake some
of our extracurricular stuff that we do maybe we have to give up on some conveniences or maybe we
even have to forsake you know family to some degree now look hopefully not you know praise
god i mean you kids praise god that you have believing parents praise god that you're you know
you have a family unit like a literal family with you here in church you know i'm trying not to feel
too sorry for myself but i can't help it you know every time around when the holiday season comes
around i get a little sad because i remember all the family you know i'm not going to be spending
thanksgiving with any family i'm not going to be spending you know i'm not going to family
christmas and not just because of the geographical distance because i don't want to be around a bunch
of people that are getting drunk i don't want to be around a bunch of people where the name jesus
is just a four-letter word for them to express their disgust for something in the world
i don't want to sit around listen to people blaspheme my lord's name and i sure don't want
to sit and hang around a bunch of people who raise sodomites and i sure don't want to be around
a sodomite you know and let me just say it you know if thanksgiving's coming around and you're
you're going to some part family meeting and you know that some sodomites going to be there you
know the fag nephew or the fag uncle or whatever don't go you do whatever you want you want my
opinion what you should do because sometimes people there's gonna be sodomite there here's
my advice don't go don't be around that filth don't be around those people they're the ones
that i'd be ashamed they're the ones out of feel at like outcasts a bunch of perverts
there i go what was i talking about
right that's why you know i'm not hanging out with family that's why i had to sever some
relationships and just say well i had to forsake this why because i'm gonna follow jesus because
i don't want to have any fellowship with the unfruitful works of darkness i'd rather reprove
them as the bible says you know that's always boggled my mind with when it comes to alcohol
especially how people you know they can be even the children of of alcoholics they could see all
the just the havoc alcohol has wreaked on their life just just all of the heartache and the health
issues and just all the devastation that the alcohol brings in their life and then they'll
continue it they'll just keep right on doing it just generationally it always it's always mind
boggling you know maybe we'll have to break some familial bonds you know and that can be disheartening
that can be difficult to do to part with people that you grew up with aunts uncles siblings
cousins you know relationships you know a lot i mean i i have fond memories too you know of
christmases with with extended family but you know it's just not something i'm going to do anymore
but you know here's the thing
what we see in this passage is that simon peter and andrew they immediately forsake and they
follow jesus right so they're leaving some things behind maybe they're they're leaving some
relationships behind maybe there's gonna maybe it's even good relationships where there'd be
nothing wrong maybe they have to just obviously they had to go follow jesus and they couldn't
take the whole crew with them you know they're gonna have to leave the wife and kids and everybody
but look at verse 19 it says that when they had gone when he had gone remember at this point
simon peter and andrew were with him and we had gone a little further just a little further they
forsook everything simon and simon peter and enter they forsook those things and follow jesus
in verse 18 and then in verse 19 it says and when they had gone a little further with jesus
things and follow Jesus in verse 18 and then in verse 19 it says and when they
had gone a little further with Jesus when they decided I'm gonna forsake
these things I'm gonna follow him and they had just had to go a little bit
further he saw James and John the son of Zebedee and John his brother now these
guys probably knew each other they're in the same occupation they're obviously
there's some very close physical proximity here they didn't have to go
that far but the application is this is that you know if you're willing to
forsake these things if you're willing to go a little farther with Jesus who
knows what kind of relationships you can make I have to imagine these two sets of
brothers Simon and Andrew and James and John probably at the end of Jesus
ministry had a very close bond one with another you know Simon Penberg probably
looked over at John and says you're as close to me as my brother Andrew you
were there at the Mount of Transfiguration you were there at the
Last Supper you were there right alongside me as we both had forsaken
everything and follow Jesus and the point I'm trying to make is this is
that you know you might have to give up some things maybe some relationships in
this life but if you'll just go a little farther you'll make other ones you'll
make other relationships you'll meet other people who have done the same
thing and there will be a bond there that is stronger than any maybe perhaps
even familial bond that you have how many people can you say that you're
gonna know for all of eternity I mean a lot of my answer I wish I could say that
about my extended family but unfortunately I can't you know there's
people in this room I can say that about there's people in this room I could say
I've known for four years now and whether they like it or not they're
gonna know me forever right it's kind of when you buy a house right you kind of
check out the neighbors you're gonna look at that man just say where's Deacon
at enough of that guy for one lifetime right I'm gonna be on the back side
right Lord just put him somewhere else all right and of course I'm joking but
you know we have a spiritual family in Christ I mean that's why it's we're told
to love the Brotherhood you're all brethren you're all one in Christ you
know we might forsake some things but we also might gain some things as well
and I'm telling you the things that we gain for Christ far outweigh anything
that we would give up so I'm just trying to look at these three verses tonight
and see you know why why did Jesus call these men well because they were ready
for the work they weren't biased they were busy they were ready to get
something done they saw the value in following Jesus they they knew who this
was they've seen the baptism they're ready to follow Jesus they want to do
the work and they're ready to forsake whatever it takes to do what God has
them to do and you know that obviously that's a very extreme change that's a
radical change that they had to make but they had some radical results didn't they
they got to see some things they got to see the Son of God do amazing miracles
things that we'll never see in this life and not only that but they got to have
a fellowship one with another they got to make some other brethren they got to
make some other relationships and you know even outside the 12 disciples the
people that they ministered to the people they met along the way they're
probably people that they knew for many years and had thought very fondly of but
that's only came because they were willing to forsake these things and
follow Jesus you know we could all just stay on the shore and with our nets and
maybe have a comfortable little existence with the same people that
we've always known but you know what if we think well at least I'm not giving
anything these nice things up well we what we don't realize is that we're
missing out you're missing out imagine being these guys and Peter seeing James
and said John said follow me and they said no thanks no gospel of John no
first second third John no revelation at least not it now he's not in it and
somebody else would have written it some other guy people would be naming their
children you know some other guy's name right they wouldn't have naming can
their children John they wouldn't be naming them Peter but they did forsake
these things and as a result they received tenfold in this life and in the
next let's go ahead closing the word prayer dear Lord again thank you for the
great opportunity we have to serve you Lord and Lord to have the fellowship of
the Spirit Lord with you every single day every moment of our lives and for
the fellowship that we're able to have one with another Lord as brethren as a
spiritual family and Lord I pray you'd help us to love one another and to
forgive one another and Lord help us to be willing to forsake the things that
you ask us to forsake Lord if there's something that you put your finger on in
our lives and say this has to go Lord we should be able to meet should say
without hesitation it's gone help us to to see Lord that the things that you ask
us to leave are for our own benefit Lord and help us to understand the great
gain that we have in Christ we ask these things in his name amen all right we'll
go ahead and sing one more song before we go
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