Sermon Central
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When Fishermen Don't Fish
Contributed by Darren Rogers on Sep 6, 2007 (message contributor)
Summary: See what can happen when we fail to do what God has commisioned us to do - what will happen if we don’t fish for men?
When Fishermen Don’t Fish.
We all have a call. Jesus will make us Fishers of men.
What would you have done if the incident we have just read about happened to you? If a stranger came into your place of work one day and said, “Stop what you’re doing, drop everything. Follow me and I will make you fishers of men.” What would you do? Ignore him and hope he would go away? Would you call the police? Ask him to leave? WHAT WOULD YOU DO IF JESUS CALLED YOU TO FOLLOW HIM?
Peter and Andrew straightaway left their nets, and followed Him. Maybe you do not know it but if you are saved, then Jesus did call you to follow Him. Not only that but when you accepted Him as your Saviour you signified that you would follow Him. If you are not saved then right now Jesus is saying to your heart, “Follow me and I will make you fishers of men.”
Why did Christ come to this earth?
Luke 19:10 For the Son of man is come to seek and to save that which was lost.
What does that have to do with me?
1Co 11:1 Be ye followers of me, even as I also [am] of Christ.
Christ is our example, if He came to seek the lost then that is what we should be doing. We are called to be “Fishers of men.” This is the main purpose of our existence. The call involves evangelism, discipleship, love, care, and concern.
How do we become fishers of men? If we follow Christ He will carve us into His type of people.
A wood carver one day was carving a piece of wood, having many beautiful pieces already finished around him. What beautiful work he could do. Someone asked him how he did such wonderful work. The woodcarver replied, “I just cut away everything that isn’t part of what I want it to be.”
But what if we are not concerned with fishing?
Have you ever seen a devoted fisherman?
They fish no matter what the weather is like.
They fish no matter if they’ve caught anything in the past hour, day or week. They continue fishing.
They fish no matter what people say to them or about them.
They fish regardless of what time of day it is.
They fish…..
We need to just trust God and fish. God’s word never returns void. Sometimes it seams that a sermon has not gone as well as you would have liked……..
From preacher’s mouth to hearers ear, God changed the bait….
What happens if we don’t fish? What if the Church is not concerned with fishing for men? What happens when fishermen don’t fish?
I. They Fight.
Mat 20:20 - 24
Disciples not concerned with fishing for men / winning the lost, here they are concerned with power, control, territory, and prestige.
Are Christians today fishing or fighting? We are called to seek the lost, to bring them to a saving knowledge of the Risen Saviour and what Christ has done. The church today seems to spend so much time fussing, fighting, bickering while a lost and dying world slips into hell before our very eyes.
Outside world sees how we act.
When fishermen don’t fish they not only fight but they flee.
II. Flee
(Mat 26:69-75) here we see Peter deny Jesus 3 times. Peter ran when the times got hard, when there was persecution. Peter lost sight of his main purpose and he ran. How easy it is for us to stand here and criticise Peter, but we do exactly the same thing today. When we lose sight of our call – to fish for men – we seem to run from every little problem. We can’t stand adversity because we’ve lost sight of our purpose.
BUT….if we remember our purpose – to be fishers of men – and we concentrate on it, we look at life’s challenges a little differently.
The Wyoming government had a problem with timber wolves. They offered $5,000 bounty on each wolf captured alive. That turned two men, Sam and Jed, into bounty hunters! Day and night they scoured the mountains looking for wolves. Exhausted one night they fell asleep dreaming about the fortune they would make capturing wolves. Suddenly Sam woke up to find that they were surrounded by 50 wolves with flaming eyes and bared teeth. Sam screamed, “JED, WAKE UP WE’RE RICH!!!!!!”
If we concentrate on fishing, we’ll handle problems differently and we won’t flee when times get hard. God will turn those problems around. He will make them opportunities. Opportunities to:
• Strengthen your faith
• Straighten your walk
• Study the word
• Improve your witnessing
• Improve your prayer life
• Improve your casting?
