The text this morning is in verse 19, the Bible says,
and he saith unto them, follow me,
and I will make you fishers of men.
There are two different things that I'd like to see
for us to see this morning.
In this passage, we see a truth about following Christ.
Jesus said, follow me and I will make you fishers of men.
The truth is a person who is truly following Christ
will be a sole winner.
And Jesus said, he will make a sole winner
out of a person that's following him.
The second truth is I'm gonna be focusing is on
another thing about this passage,
the fact that Jesus liken soul winning into fishing.
And another passage in Luke five, Jesus said to Peter,
from henceforth, thou shall catch men.
Meaning that they were about to drop everything
and be the disciple of Christ
and they were gonna be sole winners for him, right?
So, and if we stop and think about it,
it is true that we really are fishing for men.
When we're out knocking doors, we wanna catch them,
meaning that we wanna get them saved, right?
Now in this passage, they were using nets
and we're not in a super receptive area like the Philippines
where we would need nets to catch them.
So since we're in the water where fishes aren't too common
and we don't get to preach the gospel to multitudes,
what we use is a good old fashioned fishing poles
and we preach the gospel house by house
and person by person.
And if we're using fishing poles,
what we need is a set of good hooks and baits, right?
So the title of the short message this morning
is hooks and baits.
It's about having great hooks and baits
when it comes to preaching the gospel and to soul winning.
So when I was in college,
I took a public speaking class
and this is one of the techniques that they taught us
to get people's attention,
to use hooks and baits to grab their attention.
So what is a hook?
It's basically, it's a literary term
that it basically means attention grabber.
It could be a sentence or a word or an idea
that grabs people's attention.
The technique to persuade them or to convince them
that what you have to say is worth their time.
It's part of the presentation that compels an audience
to stay and to pay attention.
In Luke 14, verse 23, the Bible says,
to go out into highways and hedges
and to compel them to come in that my house may be filled.
So the Bible says we ought to compel them to come in.
It's a way for us to give them a reason
to invest their time into hearing what we have to say.
It usually comes at the beginning of a point
where it can do the most good.
And when it comes to soul winning,
it's better to have multiple hooks and baits
to keep them engaged for the whole presentation.
So later on this message, I will give you four tips
on how to grab their attentions.
So why, why do we need to use it?
Well, have you ever tried fishing,
using a pole without a bait?
Or how about without a hook?
Yeah, it's probably not gonna work, right?
So the same goes when we have a content
without solid hooks and baits.
We have the greatest news any person will ever hear, right?
And if we don't have strong attention grabbers,
people won't be convinced that they should hear
or they should bother hearing any other thing that we say
other than the first sentence that we said.
So that's why it's important.
So how to use it.
These are the tips to keep a listener curious.
So tip number one, ask an engaging question.
Bible says in Titus three in verse nine,
avoid foolish questions and genealogies
and contentions and striving about the law
or they are unprofitable in vain.
The Bible says avoid foolish questions.
The tip number one is to ask an engaging question.
Why is this a great way to bait someone to listening to you?
Because if someone asks you a question,
it's rude to ignore it, right?
Most people at the door aren't rude and they might pass
but most will stop and think about the answer.
It peaks curiosity and it leaves them wondering.
So don't ask, also don't ask obvious questions like,
hey, do you wanna go to heaven?
Because everyone wants to go to heaven, right?
Ask them something that will give them a pause.
This is how we've usually open our presentation, right?
You ask the question, if you were to die today,
do you know for sure that you're on your way to heaven?
That's a great hook.
All right, people at the door pause and think
and usually they would laugh at that question because why?
Because it's abrupt and it's unexpected.
Some people want to get away from that question
because they wanna do something different
but that is a great hook.
So we use it and there's a reason why even today
we still use that question.
It worked for a lot of people
and it's a great way to reel people in.
So tip number one is ask an engaging question.
Tip number two is tell them what they're going to get.
Sometimes the best thing is to spoil it for them.
The best place to start is at the end
and this is what they're going to get.
The Bible says in 1 John 5, 13,
you all know this verse, right?
The Bible says, these things have I written unto you
that believe on the name of the Son of God
that you may know that you have eternal life
and you may believe in the name of the Son of God.
But what we're getting is eternal life
and we can know that we're getting eternal life.
The Bible says that we can know that we have eternal life.
And with that kind of statement, with that kind of promise,
why won't they wanna stick around
if they can know how to go to heaven, right?
So point number two is tell them what they're going to get.
And tip number three, make a relatable statement.
Make a relatable statement.
It's good to know that we're not alone in our troubles.
It's good to know that I'm not the only one
who has some troubles in some areas.
So state something that they can relate to
so they would know that what you have is relevant to them.
For example, I hear people at the door,
you know, when the person is Catholic or Lutheran,
a person, my partner would say, I used to be Catholic.
I used to be a Lutheran.
And this is what they believe.
But the Bible actually says
a little bit different than that, right?
Or when someone says they don't know how to go to heaven,
some people would reply with, that's okay.
You know, I didn't know how to go to heaven
until someone explained it to me.
You know, the Bible says in Romans 3, 23,
for all have sinned and come short of the glory of God.
You know, we're all sinners.
I'm not better than anyone.
You're not better than anyone.
In a sense, we're all equal because without Christ,
we fall short, we come short of the glory of God.
So it's good for them.
It's good to know that some things in our lives
are shared by others.
So being relatable will make them feel
that you're just like them.
So before I tell the last point,
I wanna review the points.
The first tip is ask an engaging question.
Point number two is tell them what they're going to get.
And point number three is make a relatable statement.
And last point is to call them out, call them out.
These are risky if used in a wrong way, so be tactful.
Call the person out for an assumption they have made.
Like I said, be tactful because it might do you
more bad than good.
It could repel them instead of reel them.
In the beginning of the conversation,
this is how I would do it.
I would ask them what they believe they have to do
in order for them to go to heaven.
And obviously, most people would say,
you have to go to church, you have to be baptized,
you have to follow commandments of God,
you have to read the Bible and all that.
Now, what I would say is, well,
there's definitely nothing wrong with what you're doing.
But the Bible says that will not get you to heaven.
There's only one thing that you need to do
in order for you to go to heaven.
So that way is not rude, right?
It's not rude to say that they're wrong.
It makes them curious, and also it makes them curious
what that one thing is.
So use their assumption to your advantage,
but be careful not to be rude.
So the Bible says in Jude, in verse 22,
the Bible says, you're all familiar with this verse,
the Bible says, some have compassion, making a difference,
and others save with fear, pulling them out of the fire,
hating even the garments spied by the flesh.
You know, why are we here, right?
Why are we here on a Saturday morning,
getting ready to get in our cars and going to these places?
It's to pull them out of the fire, right?
It pulled them out of the lake of fire,
which the vast majority of people are headed, right?
It's to go fishing for men.
But here's the thing, you won't catch any without hooks,
without baits, right?
So we have to learn how to grab
people's attention at the door.
So let's close in a word of prayer.
Dear Father Lord, thank you for, again,
for the opportunity to speak your words, Lord,
pray you bless it, Lord, pray,
actually pray that it actually helps people, Lord,
and just pray the rest of the day would go well.
In Jesus' name I pray, amen.