Pictures of Evangelism - Fishing For Men

Introduction:

Presenting half of the programs of the teaching gospel ministry of Back to the Bible broadcast with Theodore Epp. And one month it’s Dr. Wiersbe and the next month it’s Dr. Epp and back and forth and that’s three hours a week through 1,000 stations. And what a marvelous medium God has given in this generation to spread the word while it is yet day before the night comes when no man can work. And this afternoon as you hear this voice speaking to you, we trust from the Lord through His Word. Pray for Dr. Wiersbe as that voice is amplified into the hearts and minds of millions of people in this generation. Dr. Wiersbe, may God bless you as you share with us.

Warren Wiersbe:

Thank you. I too appreciated that number. I really did. At first I thought you had an oboe. But an oboe is an ill wind that nobody blows any good. The television producer upstairs stopped me and said I should look at the camera occasionally and I said where is it? And he said it's there. So how do you do?

I appreciate the enthusiasm of our song leader as well. Where is he? Did he leave us? Oh, there you are. Good job. I'd love to see you lead "Silent Night" sometime. You'd probably have a heart attack, wouldn't you? Well, I appreciate enthusiasm in a song director because I have been with some in various meetings where they just didn't have any enthusiasm. And a dear unsaved friend sitting out there would not know that there was anything really going on. They'd stand there like they were turning doorknobs all the time. This is the way they go.

I suppose the most common phrase that is used with reference to evangelism is soul winning. And this of course comes from Proverbs 11:30, "He that winneth souls is wise." Or the Revised Version reads, "He that is wise wins souls." There is a difference. And the word win carries with it the idea of a hunter tracking down his game and capturing it. Now of course the analogy has to be carefully used, but there is a sense in which as those who are seeking to win souls, we spot our game and we track it and we stay with it and we seek to win that person to the Lord Jesus. He who hunts and wins souls is wise.

Next to that phrase, soul winning, my guess, I can't prove this, but my guess is that the image that is most used and most familiar is that of fishing where our Lord said, "Follow me and I will make you fishers of men" in Matthew 4:18. And walking by the Sea of Galilee, He, Jesus, saw two brothers, Simon who was called Peter and Andrew his brother, casting a net into the sea for they were fishermen. And He said to them, "Follow me and I will make you fishers of men." And they immediately left their nets and followed Him. They had no idea where they were walking. If you'd have told Peter he'd have walked right through Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John and ended up in Acts where he would catch his greatest catch of fish, he would never believe you.

And going on from there, He saw two other brothers, James the son of Zebedee and John his brother, in the boat with Zebedee their father, mending their nets, and He called them and they immediately left the boat and their father and followed Him. Wouldn't have been any problem leaving a boat behind, but it'd be a little difficult to say goodbye to your father in following Him.

Now ever since that gracious moment when God interrupted His rest and went to seek for Adam and Eve, God has been seeking for sinners. When He called Abraham, His call of Abraham involved Abraham's being a blessing to all the earth. By the way, when He calls anyone, God's goal is that that ministry and that life should have an influence to the ends of the earth. When the Lord Jesus Christ came, He said He came to seek and to save that which was lost. And when the Holy Spirit came, the Holy Spirit empowered the believers to seek, to witness to the lost.

And of all the pictures of evangelism that we find, this one of fishing for men is one that captures our imagination. I'm not a fisherman. When our children were younger, they wanted to go fishing and so we'd go on vacation up in Wisconsin and my boys in particular enjoyed fishing. So I'd go with them, that was a duty of a father. And I'd sit there and drown worms and Mr. Epp at Back to the Bible is a master fisherman. With him it is, he's a devotee of fishing. Marvelous. I'm not that interested in it. But you see, this was the work of Peter and Andrew and James and John. Fishing was not their vacation, fishing was their vocation. Fishing was a matter of life and death for them, paying their bills.

And when our Lord summoned them, He started where they were. God always does this. He said to Moses, "What is that in your hand?" God takes what we have and begins where we are and uses what we have and dedicates it to the service of the Lord. It’s interesting to note that this phrase "fishers of men" was not original with our Lord Jesus. This does not minimize its importance, but the Greek and Roman philosophers had used this phrase. To a Greek or Roman philosopher, fishing for men meant to use your teaching to capture the minds and the hearts and the will of people.

And so when a philosopher was standing in the marketplace in Athens or in Rome or somewhere else and he was teaching, he was seeking to persuade people to believe what he was saying. And he would say to you, "I am out fishing for men." Our Lord, when He used this phrase, as it were, baptized it, He canonized it, He gave it deeper meaning. He says to these men, "You've been catching live fish and when you catch them they'll die. I'm going to send you out to catch dead fish and when you catch them they're going to live. When you catch those fish, you move them into a new environment that kills them, but when you catch the fish I'm going to send you out to catch, you're going to move them into an environment that will give them life and that life will be more abundant."

Now let’s take this image of the evangelist, the soul winner, as a fisher of men and get from it whatever insights we can for this difficult but rewarding ministry of evangelism. I think the first insight that comes to me is simply this: our Lord is saying to these men, the opportunity is tremendous. You see, Peter and Andrew and James and John were fishermen at the Sea of Galilee. The Sea of Galilee is about 13 miles long, about 8 miles wide. 25 or 30 different species of fish in it. Bethsaida means fish town, house of fish, fishville, if you please. And fishing was a major industry at the Sea of Galilee. This is what many people were doing. Many boats were up and down the Sea of Galilee involved in the work of fishing. The fish were caught, they were sold, they were processed, they were taxed, they were shipped. And so our Lord is saying to these men, "Why are you here?" "Well, we’re here because this place is full of fish." "All right, there are other kinds of fish to catch. The opportunity is absolutely tremendous. Now I want you to follow me because all around us are the people represented here by fish, the people who need the message we’re going to give them."

I suppose nothing kills evangelism other than a cold heart like a blind eye. You get into some churches in ministry and people are going to say, "Now you know, there’s really not many people available around here." You remember the story, I’ve got to be careful about this because some folks are from the southland, but we’ll forgive them. I ministered in the southland for about 10 years and enjoyed it very much. I walked into a bookstore one day in Florida and I said to the book salesman, "I would like to have a book on the Civil War because my son is very interested in the Civil War." And she said, "Which side?" I’d never had that happen in Chicago. And in fact I almost said, "Were there two sides?" you know.

But you remember during the Civil War about the Yankee soldier who came back leading a couple of Confederate soldiers as prisoners and one of his buddies said, "Boy, where’d you get those?" He said, "Out there in the woods, the woods are full of them." You know, we like to say, well there just aren't any unsaved people around here. When my Lord said to those two men and then the other two men, "Follow me, I'll make you fishers of men," He was saying just as you are here because there are a multitude of fish, so I want you to know that wherever I send you, there are multitudes of people who need this gospel. The blind eye that says there’s nobody here who needs this message will lead to the cold heart and the lazy feet and the quiet lips. And so the first thing I think we have to do is to realize that they're all around us.

Now a fisherman goes where the fish are. Man’s a fool to fish in a birdbath. If he wants to waste time, he can do it. And then they can come in and say, "Boy, been working all day and haven't caught a thing." Peter fished all night and caught nothing, but that was, there was a different reason behind that. The fisherman goes where the people are. The soul winner, the evangelist, goes where the people are. And they're all over. I was chatting with a student the other day who said to me, "What do you know about outdoor preaching?" I said, "Well, I don’t do it anymore, but I used to, used to preach on street corners." And he said, "I think we need to get back to preaching the word of God in the open air." "Has anybody written on this?" I said, "Yes, Spurgeon has a lecture on this in his lectures to his students, even has a history of open-air preaching." I said, "Where are you going to go?" He said, "The train station, the bus station." I said, "Will they let you in?" "I’m going to try." He said, "I can always go to the park." And he said, "My real burden is to go down on these university campuses and not stand there like some lunatic, but seek to engage people in conversation as I preach the word of God." Now I admire that.

We used to go past Bug House Square in Chicago day in and day out. Bug House Square is exactly that. It's a weird place and there used to be a lot of orators there who would preach whatever they were preaching. I’ve been past Speakers’ Corner in Hyde Park in London. That's a weird place. You can walk past there and here’s a fellow advocating communism, here’s a fellow over here advocating throwing over the monarchy, here’s somebody over here who’s trying to tell you you're living on the inside of the earth, not the outside, the inside. And at night what you're seeing are holes, not stars. And he really believes this, you know, and there he is preaching. But at least they're going where the people are. So the first insight I gather from this is the opportunity that's all around us, all around us.

Secondly, I see in this call a certain number of requirements. There are certain requirements to this matter of evangelism and fishing. We know that four of the disciples were fishermen: Peter, Andrew, James, and John. Possibly seven were fishermen. When Peter said, "I go a fishing," there were seven people involved in that. And I don’t know about the other five, well of course Matthew was a scribe, a publican. Why would the majority of the disciples be fishermen? That's an interesting thought. Why would our Lord, as it were, stuff the ballot box, as it were, call together a group of men, most of whom were fishermen? It wasn't because there were more fishermen available than anybody else, He could have got some farmers, some shepherds, some kosher butchers. But He called fishermen. That's interesting.

And I think one reason He did was because He’s saying to us, what these men require to catch fish, you require to win souls. Which leads me to this discussion of the requirements that are involved. For example, if you're going to be a fisherman, you've got to have energy. You don’t catch fish sitting on the back porch rocking in your rocking chair. Now chances are you don’t want to be caught off of your rocker, but you won't catch any fish that way. If a fisherman is going to catch any fish, he simply has to have some energy, he can't be idle. These men were, two of them, casting nets, two of them, mending nets. Did you ever notice in the Bible God calls and uses people who are busy?

Now this is a school and I thank God for schools. I praise God for everything that God can do for us to make us smarter and keener and better. But it’s possible to die by degrees. Fellow said, "What's your son going to be when he graduates?" and the father said, "An old man." Now I’m not trying to criticize education, of course not. You get, learn all you can.

Years ago, more than I care to count, on these grounds at a Youth for Christ banquet, I was here as a teenager and Torrey Johnson came up to me and he said, "What are you going to do with your life?" I said, "I want to go into the ministry." And you remember, I don’t know if you remember how Torrey Johnson used to beat people on the head, he always used to pat them on the head. Remember that? And Torrey Johnson started, that's why I’m bald I think, he started pounding me in the head, he said, "Young man, you learn everything you can learn and put it under the blood and serve Jesus." Good advice. Learn everything you can and put it under the blood and serve Jesus. But you know, you're not going to win souls sitting around talking about it, reading about it. There has to be some energy involved. A fisherman is involved in hard work. They didn't have motorboat motors and diesel engines and radar. They had muscles and wind. It takes energy.

When I began preaching, someone said, "You ought to get some illustration books." I’ve learned since then that the worst illustrations are in illustration books. You can't trust half of them anyway. But I remember the first illustration book I bought, there was a story in there that was supposed to be true and somehow it stuck with me about a pastor's wives' meeting where the women got together and they would sew and just fellowship and they were talking about how the work was going. And one lady was saying, "Well, our church is not doing so well, it's going backward, people aren't coming, nobody’s being saved, there must be sin in the camp." Another lady was saying, "Oh man, we’re just having growth and God is blessing and it's marvelous and we’re just grateful for what God’s doing." And the first lady was repairing her husband's trousers on the seat. The second lady was repairing her husband's trousers on the knees. The power that we need, the energy that we need for service comes from prayer. Energy.

Secondly, courage. I don’t like the water. The only water I used to get into is a baptistry except for the shower. I'm not a water person. I like to be by the water, I like to look at the ocean, it's nice to see something there’s enough of, you know. But I’m not a boatsman, I do not like boats, I don’t know how to swim. Well not real well. Fellow says to the lifeguard, "What do you think of my stroke?" He said, "When did you have it?" you know. It takes courage to be a fisherman. You never know when there’s going to be a storm move down. You don’t know what's going to happen. And it would be very easy for me to make a lot of excuses. Well, we’re not going out today and catch any fish, it's a cloud up there, there’s a little wave down here. I would make all kinds of excuses and I’ve done this in the ministry. I’ve looked out the windows and said, "Thank you Lord, it's raining, I’m not going out visiting today. Who wants some preacher walking in all soaking wet?" Then I learned that's when you find people home. We all make our excuses. It takes courage to be a fisherman. It takes courage to win souls. It takes courage to get out there and catch fish. They'll slam the door in your face, they'll laugh at you.

Thirdly, it takes faith. I guess that's maybe the maybe the reason why I’m not a very good fisherman except I don’t like to eat fish that well. You can't see those fish. Now in the Sea of Galilee, they would fish at night close to the shore because then you could see those school of fish as they were coming by. But your fishing requires faith. You throw in your net, you don’t know what's down there. Cast in your line, you don’t know what's down there. But the only form of fishing in the Bible where you really see what's going on is when they threw the spear. That's a neat way to win people, watch them and get them. It's the way it ought to be. It takes faith. It takes faith to win souls.

Fourth, it takes patience and persistence. I think this maybe the reason why our Lord Jesus called so many fishermen. If you're going to be discouraged, you can't be a fisherman. You'll quit. Now if I’d fished all night like Peter and caught nothing, I would not be mending my nets, I’d be selling my nets. And you feel like quitting. And yet our Lord says, "Look, I’m calling you fishermen because you know how to keep going. You know how to be persistent. You are not cooled down by defeat. If you cast your nets all night and don’t catch anything, you're going to come in, wash them, mend them, go back out again." That's what it takes in ministry.

Something else is true, fishermen know how to work together. In Luke 5, which is one of my favorite portions of the word of God, when Peter caught that great catch of fish, one of the first things he did was call his partners over to share it with them. There’s no competition. Fishing involves partnership. Now you can fish alone, there were times when Peter did. Peter had to pay his taxes one day and so did Jesus, our Lord said go down to the sea, cast in a hook, first fish you catch. Now that's solo fishing. That's good. It's wonderful when students fan out across an area and do some solo fishing. It's marvelous when church members when they're on the job or wherever they may be do solo fishing. But you see we’re all working together. And if we’re going to cast out nets, one man can't do that. You've got to throw the nets out together. And if we’re going to pull in those nets we’ve got to have some help. Fishermen know how to cooperate. It's one of the problems in evangelism today. It looks like we’re competing and we shouldn't be because fishing involves cooperation. They called their partners to help them.

Something else is true, fishermen have to have skill. That's why I don’t enjoy fishing. I have no skill. My brother-in-law is an excellent fisherman, he knows the temperature of the water. That's important. He knows just what lure to use and whether the worm should be a blonde or a brunette and he knows exactly how to do that. He’s concerned about that. I’m not. I pick up these sports magazines, I’m a terrible athlete. But I leaf through these sports magazines, here’s page after page on just the right kind of timing and depth and equipment to catch a bullhead. I wouldn't go across the street to catch a bullhead. It takes skill. Now particularly if you're going to spear them. That takes skill. I notice in the Bible they used nets to catch fish. They had these small thrownets, one man could throw it down, it would sink, he’d bring it up. They had these large dragnets, Matthew 13 talks about that in the parable of the dragnet where they numbers of them used the net to draw in the catch. They had little gillnets that were like traps that the fish could swim in, but they couldn't get back out. So they used nets. There are times when the best way to catch the fish is many of us working together. You say, "Yeah but you're going to catch anything." That's right. In fact, in the parable of the dragnet our Lord says this, that we’re going to draw into the professing church all kind. I’m tempted to do at this point what Dr. McGinley used to do, he had a great sermon on that dragnet and he described every fish. Now some of you remember Dr. McGinley with his great Scottish accent and he said, "I’ve had these fish in my churches. I’ve had the bullheads." He would go on tell us about the bullheads in his church. "And I’ve had the goldfish" and he’d talk about those. That is spiritualizing I think although it does have a message to it, you're going to catch all kind. And someone says, "Well, you know, we want quality." Well that's right, but in order to get quality you've got to go after quantity. And many times the net brings in a weird collection and not all of them are saved. But many of them will be. Lady came to Billy Sunday once and she said, "I don’t approve of this revival business. It doesn't last." Billy Sunday says, "A bath doesn't last but it's good to have one every once in a while."

Now I’m saying that to say this and I want this to be clearly understood. I see today people saying, "We don’t believe in mass evangelism, we don’t believe in church evangelism, individual evangelism." And so they take their spear or their hook and that's fine. But the fisherman in the Bible also used nets and worked together to draw the net in and get as many as they could get. And so it speaks about skill, learning how to use the equipment that God has given to us and doing it well.

Now at this point I want to discuss something that has disturbed me for a long, long time. I hope I will disturb you when I discuss this. When a fisherman goes out to catch fish with a hook, he puts bait on that hook so you can't see the hook. Obviously, most fish will not bite on a naked hook. And he does everything he can to cover up the fact that he’s out to catch fish. Now if you pick that analogy up and move it over into the realm of the spiritual you've got a problem. Because if there’s one thing we must not do it is deceive. Which would you turn to 1 Thessalonians 2 please. This is the classic passage on this very subject. You see I’ve heard people say, "I don’t care what your method is, just as long as your message is right." I don’t believe that for one minute. There are some methods of presenting the gospel that are not worthy of the gospel. Someone says, "I don’t care what your method is as long as your message is right." You got to be careful. Look at 1 Thessalonians 2:1, "For you yourselves know, brethren, that our coming to you was not in vain. But after we had already suffered and been mistreated in Philippi, as you know, we had the boldness in our God to speak to you the gospel of God amid much opposition." If I had been treated like Paul was treated in Philippi, I don’t know if I would have gone to Thessalonica. I think I might have said, "Lord, did you really call me? I mean here I came to Philippi and this is the way I was treated, is it going to be this way every place I go?" But Paul had the boldness and the courage to keep on going. Now verse 3 is our key verse, "For our exhortation does not come from error or impurity or by way of deceit." Error, there he’s talking about the message. He said, "The message that I preached to you was a true message. I did not come with some false gospel or with some watered-down gospel. I did not come with error." That's the message. "Or impurity." That's the motive. Our motive has to be as pure as our message. I wonder sometimes at the motives of people who say, "This year we are going to baptize X number." I hope they baptize 10 times that amount, but what's their motive? When that Sunday school teacher walked into the back of that shoe store and led that teenage clerk to Christ, what was his motive? And little did he know that D.L. Moody would become the great evangelist that he became. What was his motive? To be able to go back and say to his Sunday school council, "Well, won one more." So our message is not in error, our motive is not impure, or by way of deceit. Now there’s the method. Paul said, "I did not use deceitful methods in presenting the gospel." Ladies and gentlemen, there is a difference between soul winning and witnessing and Christian salesmanship.

"But just as we have been approved by God to be entrusted with the gospel." There is a statement. The gospel is a treasure which God has entrusted with us. "So we speak, not as pleasing men, but God who examines our hearts." What's He looking for? The right motive. "For we never came with flattering speech, as you know, nor with a pretext for greed, God is witness. God is always witness. Nor did we seek glory from men either from you or from others even though as apostles of Christ we might have asserted our authority." Now this whole paragraph boils down into this statement: Paul's ministry had integrity. I know, I know, when you go out to throw that net you don’t put a neon sign up for the fish to read and they can read it because they've been in schools, you know, the fish to read to say, "Here is a net." No. And when you lower that line with the hook on it, you don’t have someone pointing saying, "Bait, bait, bait." You'd never catch anything. But we’ve got to be very, very careful when we witness to people and present the gospel that we don’t use trickery and deception. For example, "If you'll get saved all your problems will be solved." Ever heard that? I got saved and got a whole new set of problems. "If you get saved you'll be a great success in this world." Ever heard that? "If you get saved you'll be healed." No. We’ve got to be very, very careful not to use some deceptive method to try to get across the message. Now someone says, "Yeah but the end justifies the means." Oh no it doesn't. In fact, it's harder to win souls today I think. Now this is just a hasty Wiersbe-ism without any statistical computerized backing. I believe it's harder today to win people to Christ because of the way the gospel has been presented on television by people who ought to know better. Now on the other hand, there are some who know how to do it and they've made it easier. But I fear that for the most part we’re having problems because something is being baited. "If you'll do this, God’ll do that." Bait is being put there to get them hooked and Paul said, "I don’t do that. My method is as pure as my motive is as pure as my message."

Now there’s a seventh responsibility, a requirement. Alertness. Fishermen have to be alert. They've got to know when to cast the net and when to draw the net. If they're using a hook, they have to know where to drop the hook and when to pull it up. Alertness.

Now I want to close with this third consideration. There’s a third insight that we get from this concept and it is the encouragement that our Lord gives to us. I am not a fisherman. And by nature I am not a gifted soul winner. God did not give me the gift of evangelism. When I accepted this invitation to speak, I told them that. They said fine, come anyway. Not every pastor has the gift of evangelism, he’d better do the work of an evangelist. But this has encouraged me, Matthew 4:19, "Follow me, just follow me and I will make you fishers of men." And the greatest encouragement that this gives to me is this: if I follow the Lord Jesus Christ, He is going to put me in the right place at the right time to catch the right fish. And I suppose one difference between the spiritual fisherman and the physical fisherman is we who are spiritually trying to catch fish don’t always know when we’ve caught them. Our choir was presenting a beautiful Christmas concert at the Moody Church one Christmas season and we didn't know until weeks later that right in the middle of that concert, right in the middle of their singing some gorgeous song of praise, a lady sitting in the middle of the congregation just opened up her heart and got saved. The night I was saved, Billy Graham was the preacher. This was back before anybody even knew who Billy Graham was. In fact, I think he came to the meeting that night to substitute for Torrey Johnson. And he preached that night and preached the gospel and I got saved. Just standing at the back of the auditorium and I’d been confirmed in the church and been in Sunday school all my life, I’d never been saved. And I just got saved, gave my heart to the Lord Jesus. Never went forward, never signed a card, was never talked to by a personal worker. After that meeting, a group of preachers descended on young Billy Graham and tore him to shreds because he A had not preached baptismal regeneration, B, C, D. And he went away not only with his tail between his legs, but wondering was it worth it all? Now he never knew until 25 years later that night I got saved. I probably should have written him a letter and said, "Dear Mr. Graham, thank you for coming and preaching the gospel, I got saved." Sometimes in our fishing we don’t know we’ve caught fish. That's all right. God knows about it. That's why I have a difficult time keeping statistics. I have some friends who live in the book of Numbers. And they can tell you how many they won to Christ. I can't, I just don’t know. In fact, some I think I’ve won never were won. I’ve heard the story told of Graham and Moody and Sam Jones, I think it originally comes from Sam Jones. Drunken fellow came staggering down the street and fellow said, "Hey Sam, there’s one of your converts." Sam Jones said, "He must be one of my converts, he sure isn't one of the Lord’s converts." That's true. But when we follow the Lord Jesus Christ, as ignorant as I am and as hesitant as I am and as easy as it is for me to stay in my study and study and not get out there where the fish are, if I follow Him, He puts me in the right place at the right time to catch the fish He wants me to catch.

Now we’ve seen it happen over and over again. We used to have a visitors' reception at Moody Church because after the service you couldn't begin to meet all the visitors who were there. And so we used to serve them coffee and tea and so forth, that always draws a crowd. And many times I’d be standing at the door and people coming through and they’d say, "I’m so and so from so" and we’d greet them, glad to have you here. I remember one day for some reason I said to a fellow, "Are you born again?" He said, "No." I said, "Wouldn't you like to be?" He says, "I sure would." And our elders were always there, I said, "Mr. Stutcher, would you like to talk to..." took him over, led him to Christ. How do you explain that except that there is a God who knows what He’s doing?

And so when we follow Him, He makes us to become fishers of men. He taught Peter that on two occasions. Peter had been fishing all night and caught nothing and our Lord gets into the boat and says, "Now thrust out a little." And then he said, "Now launch out into the deep and we’re going to let down the nets and catch some fish." And Peter said, "Now wait a minute. Hold on. This is the Sea of Galilee. You're a carpenter, right? Yeah, I’m a fisherman. In the Sea of Galilee, you do not catch fish in the daytime in the deep water, you catch fish at night in the shallow water." And our Lord said, "Let’s do it anyway." So Peter said, "All right, nevertheless at thy word, I'll do it." You know what happened. He caught so many fish, had to call in the other men to help him with all that they had caught. And so Peter learned that when you follow the Lord and trust His word, He makes you to become fishers of men. This happened again after the resurrection. You know the story. It's a marvelous story. They're out, "I go a fishing" says Peter. "We’re going with you." And they fished all night and caught nothing. A stranger shows up on the shore. "You haven't caught anything, have you?" "No!" You get honest fishermen, you've got something. Now you laugh at that statement, but did you know that one of our leading Christian magazines had to stop having their annual Sunday school contest because of all the inflated statistics that came in? Good to have an honest fisherman. And our Lord says, "Cast the net on the right side of the ship." Remarkable. The difference between success and failure was the width of the ship. You know you never know how close you are to success. He didn't say, "Row three miles over there," just the other side of the ship. They cast in their nets and they caught the fish and they said, "Hey, it's the Lord." So if we trust Him, nevertheless at thy word, if we obey Him, we’ll do it, He makes us to become fishers of men.

Which raises the interesting question: how do we follow Him? How do we follow Him? Many years ago, Dr. Lewis Sperry Chafer published a book that created a storm. A storm. It was called "True Evangelism." Some of you remember the storm. A leading evangelist, a man greatly used of God, offered to buy all the copies to burn them. And all Lewis Sperry Chafer was saying in that book was: don’t depend on your methods, don’t depend on your talents and your experience. Souls are won through prayer. Not prayer without means. The same God who ordains the end ordains the means to the end. Many centuries ago the trustees of I think it was Cambridge University in England agreed to install gaslights in the buildings. Well the next step was they had to authorize the laying of pipes, they refused to do it. So God doesn't do it that way. The same God who ordains the end ordains the means to the end. And all that Lewis Sperry Chafer wanted to say to us in that book, and one need not agree with everything in that book was this: God is the great fisherman. He is the one who has the ministry for us. Catching the fish is not something we do for Him, it's something He does through us.

And so if each day we present ourselves to the Lord in His word, if our hearts are beating with His heart and our mind thinking with His mind, our will surrendered to His will, our whole being yielded to His Spirit. As we pray, "Lead me to some soul today. Oh teach me Lord just what to say." He answers that prayer. Now you may not be the one who will do the hooking of the fish, somebody else may do that. That's all right. God’s in charge. To change the image, He’s the Lord of the harvest. And my responsibility is to be available to Him and let Him make me something I am not by nature, a fisher of men. And the great encouragement is there if I follow Him.

And Peter followed Him and Andrew, James, John, they followed Him and before long they were catching the fish and we are here today because they followed. Then one day our Lord caught a big fish. Boy he was a fighter, Paul. Paul followed the Lord Jesus over to Europe and we’re here. I have to keep reminding myself Jesus wasn't born in Chicago. That's right. He didn't die in Halsted Street. Somebody had to bring that message over to us. And they were the people who followed when Jesus said "Follow me."

One little word we’re going to close. This is why God moves people. Did you get that? This is why God moves people. Philip is catching fish like mad, boy he’s using a big net, great revival in Samaria. And the Lord says, "There’s one fish down here in the desert, go after him." And the committee said, "Philip, we’ve got two more weeks to go! Man, there’s posters up all over town and we haven't even taken the love offering yet." Philip said, "He said follow me, I’m going to follow Him." Caught a fish. Our Lord was on His way and He said, "We’re going to go through Samaria." "Hey, You don’t mean that! I mean Jews don’t go through Samaria. Lord, the AAA’s got a new route to go around." He said, "We’re going through Samaria." "For what?" "There’s a woman there I want, she’s really been down to the depths, I’m going to catch her." "What good is it to catch one Samaritan woman?" "Well, I have a feeling if we catch that one woman we’ll get the whole town." He did. That's the exciting part of it. Follow me. I'll make you fishers of men.

Now Father, we confess oh to our shame, we have not always followed. Forgive us. We believe you have ruled and over-ruled even in our stupidity, but we have missed the blessing. I thank you Father that you can make us what we ought to be as we follow the Lord Jesus in the word, in prayer, in worship, in obedience. Thank you for the beautiful partnership there is among your fishermen. Thank you even for the storms that come that test our faith. Thank you Father for the work that you can do in us and through us. Now Lord, deliver us from shortcut, deceptive methods that cheapen the gospel, discredit the Savior, grieve the Spirit. May our motives always be pure and our message always be right and our methods always be biblical. Help us not to trick people into the kingdom, talk people into the family. Help us to minister with a clear conscience before men and before God. And help us to have the faith to believe that when we obey and cast in the hook or the net, you're going to answer. Oh do it and do it more and more for Jesus' sake. Amen. Amen