Fishing for People - Darren Rowse

[SPEAKER_01]: Well, as Tim mentioned about our next series on questioning Christianity, we wanted to have these two weeks in the lead into this series to really talk to us as a faith community to go, why would we want to tell others about our faith?

[SPEAKER_01]: Why?

[SPEAKER_01]: would we want to be telling other people about the difference that God has made in our lives?

[SPEAKER_01]: And we did this last week and we're going to do it this week again.

[SPEAKER_01]: Invite a couple of people from our church community who are already doing that in their everyday lives.

[SPEAKER_01]: So I'm going to invite Leah Coney and Stella also an artist to come up.

[SPEAKER_01]: Let's give them a big round of applause.

[SPEAKER_01]: So I Lee and her family are part of our tentacle congregation and still

[SPEAKER_01]: is a part of our five-thirty congregation.

[SPEAKER_01]: Would you like to introduce yourself to, there's lots of people here who may not know you, tell us a little bit about yourself.

[SPEAKER_00]: Sure, so that is my hunky husband over there, Jonathan, and two of my three children, Zoe and Eli and Hunter's out in Creech.

[SPEAKER_00]: If he was here, he'd be like jumping on the drums or something like that, so it's good, he's not here.

[SPEAKER_00]: I work for CYC Adenak.

[SPEAKER_00]: I'm the site manager out there.

[SPEAKER_00]: Background is lots of not-for-profit Christian organizations and in a previous life was a nurse.

[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, fabulous.

[SPEAKER_00]: Excellent.

[SPEAKER_01]: Still tell us a little bit about yourself for those who may not know who you are.

[SPEAKER_03]: Good morning, church.

[SPEAKER_03]: My name is Stelios.

[SPEAKER_03]: I am an intern here at one, actually, and I'm also a youth leader in coming to one for a few years now.

[SPEAKER_03]: I've got baptized a couple of weeks ago, which is great.

[SPEAKER_03]: God is so good.

[SPEAKER_03]: Day to day, I work for the Starlight Children's Foundation, so I work at the Monash Children's Hospital.

[SPEAKER_03]: They're full-time working with kids in that space, trying to distract them.

[SPEAKER_03]: And we have a room called the Starlight Express Room.

[SPEAKER_03]: It's an incredible gift.

[SPEAKER_03]: It's a medical free space in a hospital where there's games and there's arts and crafts.

[SPEAKER_03]: So that's a space that we help facilitate and come and deal.

[SPEAKER_03]: And so I'm very blessed to work there.

[SPEAKER_01]: Should we refer to you as Captain Stelios?

[SPEAKER_01]: That's part of your role at the Salite Foundation, is it not?

[SPEAKER_03]: Well, it's Captain Stelios, but I'll accept it.

[SPEAKER_01]: We're a very personal basis here.

[SPEAKER_01]: Excellent.

[SPEAKER_01]: Well, Leon, so we're talking about telling other people about our faith, which is basically how do we live out our faith?

[SPEAKER_01]: Outside a Sunday morning or a Sunday evening service.

[SPEAKER_01]: So both of you do that in very different ways with the in your lives.

[SPEAKER_01]: Leah, could you share a story with us about how you have expressed your faith outside the church building?

[SPEAKER_00]: sure.

[SPEAKER_00]: So we've lived in Donville for a year but prior to that we lived in Ringwood for nearly a decade.

[SPEAKER_00]: We were renting there and there was another rental property right next door to us.

[SPEAKER_00]: When we first moved in there was a Mormon family who brought us the most amazing chocolate chip cookies the first day we arrived.

[SPEAKER_00]: And for us, it sent a new preset and we're like, oh man, after they moved out, we're like, we should do that for the next neighbors that move in.

[SPEAKER_00]: And so we did, it started a new tradition for us.

[SPEAKER_00]: And a few different renters came through, but the last group, our family that was there, we did the traditional chocolate chip, salted cookies on the first day, and struck up a conversation.

[SPEAKER_00]: It was a young family, they had a little baby and an older boy who had a stroke in utero.

[SPEAKER_00]: And he was, you know, had a lot of stuff going on and then required a lot of help.

[SPEAKER_00]: So, you know, fast forward a few months, you know, we were having chats with these guys out on the lawn, we're more coming and going from school and we started letting our kids play together.

[SPEAKER_00]: Zoe in particular loves babies so she would often go over there and play with their little daughter who they later found out was also on the spectrum and had quite a few issues with epilepsy and stuff like that.

[SPEAKER_00]: So the mum was a full-time carer and was often home by herself.

[SPEAKER_00]: After a while our houses were like really close when we laid him bed at night and had our

[SPEAKER_00]: on sweet open, we could hear what was happening in the house next door.

[SPEAKER_00]: And quite often we could hear the arguments that were happening in that house and it became pretty clear that there was family violence going on.

[SPEAKER_00]: So that was tricky.

[SPEAKER_00]: That was a moment of like, what do we do in this space to support this family?

[SPEAKER_00]: And so we increased proximity.

[SPEAKER_00]: We spent more time particularly with mum.

[SPEAKER_00]: and invited her kids to come to our house more often, so that they had a safe place to hang out, which was a little tricky for the older son, because he wasn't particularly verbal, and would often just be standing at the front of our house sometimes, he was too scared to knock on the door.

[SPEAKER_00]: But by the way, they became more comfortable.

[SPEAKER_00]: There were times after she got an IVO against her partner, where we would go over to the house and there was just no food.

[SPEAKER_00]: at all.

[SPEAKER_00]: And so, you know, that was our joy then to have groceries delivered and to start meeting some physical needs for this family.

[SPEAKER_00]: And those were the things that sparked conversations like, why are you buying a spoon?

[SPEAKER_00]: Why do you have our kids over at your house?

[SPEAKER_00]: And those were great conversations to talk about our values, where we got our values from.

[SPEAKER_00]: why we care about our neighbors and she was really open to those conversations and sometimes if they got a little too deep she would back off a little bit but it didn't harm for the relationship one night

[SPEAKER_00]: after about a year or so.

[SPEAKER_00]: There was a really loud knocking on the door at about, I don't know, ten o'clock at night.

[SPEAKER_00]: And I don't know if you've ever experienced that before, but someone banging on your door at ten o'clock is actually quite terrifying.

[SPEAKER_00]: And we open the door and she thrusts her then two-year-old kid into my arms with blood just pouring out of her head.

[SPEAKER_00]: She's like, quick, take her, take her, and I'm just, oh my gosh, what's going on?

[SPEAKER_00]: And then I'm like, I'm kidding you not, there's blood everywhere.

[SPEAKER_00]: It's like spurshing out of her head.

[SPEAKER_00]: And we later found out that she had been unsupervised.

[SPEAKER_00]: This is Tentaclok and I had smashed her head.

[SPEAKER_00]: on the corner of a dining table.

[SPEAKER_00]: And it had caved in the front of her forehead.

[SPEAKER_00]: But that was a really practical moment where we could be there for her.

[SPEAKER_00]: I think the old nurse, training kicked in and it was like, quick, pressure.

[SPEAKER_00]: Let's get an ambulance out here.

[SPEAKER_00]: But there were lots of moments like that where we were around and helping.

[SPEAKER_00]: One time she came over after Hunter had vomited all over me and I was standing there in my bra in the hallway and after I took off my gross clothes and she was drunk.

[SPEAKER_00]: and had rocked up at the house and didn't listen to John when he said, now's not a good time.

[SPEAKER_00]: And walked in, drunk and was like, well, give him in his big sloppy hug and that then prompted discussions that we had to have around boundaries.

[SPEAKER_00]: Perhaps our home wasn't just a coming any time you wanted.

[SPEAKER_00]: And we had to have that hard discussion with her around

[SPEAKER_00]: Hey, we love you, but there are sometimes where it's not good to just open the door and come in.

[SPEAKER_00]: And if we say, now's one good time, we need to respect that boundary for us, which we took a little bit of a relational hip from that moment.

[SPEAKER_00]: And the other boundary we had to put in was one time one of our kids had gone to play at their house.

[SPEAKER_00]: and she had left them home alone unsupervised.

[SPEAKER_00]: So we were like, hey, our kids aren't coming to your house anymore.

[SPEAKER_00]: But you're welcome to send your kids to ours.

[SPEAKER_00]: But really, it was just those consistent moments over three years of meeting physical needs and having those conversations that often erupted from that of, well, this is who we are, this is what we value.

[SPEAKER_00]: And it's because of Jesus in our lives that we do value you.

[SPEAKER_00]: and we love you.

[SPEAKER_00]: And probably the pinnacle moment was when she was really trying to get out of that abusive relationship, we were able to give her money.

[SPEAKER_00]: And we don't normally do that, but I just felt a really strong prompting from the Lord to give her a very specific amount.

[SPEAKER_00]: And when we did, we didn't say it was from us.

[SPEAKER_00]: We said it was from God.

[SPEAKER_00]: Well, that look, we wouldn't normally do this, but I really feel like God wants you to have this money.

[SPEAKER_00]: And so, know that it's from Him, not from us.

[SPEAKER_01]: I love that balance of being so open and generous, like incredibly generous, like no other neighbor would normally be that generous.

[SPEAKER_01]: But then understanding the needs of your family as well, it's always a balance.

[SPEAKER_01]: Was that an easy obvious boundary to put in place as you put those things or was it

[SPEAKER_01]: was there a bit of a wrestle, and even working with a partner as well, who may have very different boundaries to what, surely not your relationship.

[SPEAKER_01]: You guys are so in sync, I'm shocked, but you know, like dealing with a spouse that has different ideas, how did you go juggling those boundaries?

[SPEAKER_00]: You know, John's, you know, we've been married fifteen years.

[SPEAKER_00]: Let's say he's gotten used to it.

[SPEAKER_00]: Certain level, but you know, John's always so good.

[SPEAKER_00]: I'm always going to err on the side of too much, probably, and he's often the one that's like, hang on a minute.

[SPEAKER_00]: This is probably not healthy.

[SPEAKER_00]: There was definitely some gut-wrenching moments when we were

[SPEAKER_00]: about to have that conversation about boundaries as in her not just coming in whenever she wanted.

[SPEAKER_00]: I was certain that that meant the end of the relationship.

[SPEAKER_00]: And so we had to decide which one was more important looking after our family or having an open home.

[SPEAKER_00]: And so we said no actually family takes priority.

[SPEAKER_00]: But that's just us, you know, maybe no everyone would do that.

[SPEAKER_01]: amazing.

[SPEAKER_01]: Let's give it a huge round of applause.

[SPEAKER_01]: Thank you for being so open and honest with something that had great meaning for you.

[SPEAKER_01]: So you've got a situation different because you're in a different stage of life as well of how you've shared a little bit about your faith.

[SPEAKER_03]: Yeah, I have two short stories I'd love to share.

[SPEAKER_03]: The first one actually happened only a few months after I had become a Christian, so I was no theologian, but I used to work at Bunnings.

[SPEAKER_03]: I've still there technically, I'm on the books, but I think Captain Starlats a bit more fun.

[SPEAKER_03]: So I just had my

[SPEAKER_03]: My incredible testimony and encounter with God a few months ago and I was just beaming and I wanted to tell everyone and there's yeah Bunnings is just so big and there's so many people that I had a map before I hadn't really spoken to

[SPEAKER_03]: And there was this one guy who was quite a bit older than me, who we hadn't really spoken much or conversed with.

[SPEAKER_03]: And we found ourselves working in the same aisle.

[SPEAKER_03]: And I just small talk.

[SPEAKER_03]: I was like, you know, how was your weekend?

[SPEAKER_03]: What'd you do?

[SPEAKER_03]: And he said, yep, did this, did that?

[SPEAKER_03]: What about you, Stanley Austin?

[SPEAKER_03]: I said, yeah, it was good.

[SPEAKER_03]: This happened.

[SPEAKER_03]: This happened.

[SPEAKER_03]: I went to church.

[SPEAKER_03]: And then he stopped me and he said, church.

[SPEAKER_03]: You're a Christian.

[SPEAKER_03]: And I said, I certainly hope so.

[SPEAKER_03]: Yeah.

[SPEAKER_03]: And he said, tell me about it.

[SPEAKER_03]: And I did.

[SPEAKER_03]: And I ran him through very, very basic theology.

[SPEAKER_03]: I was no Tim Keller.

[SPEAKER_03]: But I was kind of walking him through it.

[SPEAKER_03]: And he was asking me all the hard questions about suffering and the problem of evil and all that stuff that I feel much more comfortable talking about today.

[SPEAKER_03]: But I was doing my best.

[SPEAKER_03]: And I really felt a prompting from the law to just say, like, tell him what I did for you.

[SPEAKER_03]: I taught him my testimony and I taught him how I felt the power of God and counter me in my life and how that changed me.

[SPEAKER_03]: And he was really, really listening because it wasn't from a standpoint of, I'm going to disagree in question and it's like you're almost talking to a brick wall.

[SPEAKER_03]: He was actually genuinely curious and was asking me questions.

[SPEAKER_03]: I think that difference is also something that you kind of have to learn how to do because it's very different and I think you have to understand those different perspectives.

[SPEAKER_03]: But I told him my testimony and then I ended up going on leave so I didn't see him for about a month and so I walk into my next shift and I feel like Stalio Stalio, so I turn around and he's him and he's like smiling and he's beaming and I'm like who's this guy?

[SPEAKER_03]: And he's like, guess what?

[SPEAKER_03]: Guess what?

[SPEAKER_03]: And I said, what man you're scaring me?

[SPEAKER_03]: And he said, I went to church.

[SPEAKER_03]: And I said, I think I started jumping up and down.

[SPEAKER_03]: I was like, are you serious?

[SPEAKER_03]: He went to church.

[SPEAKER_03]: He was like, yes, what again?

[SPEAKER_03]: I was like, what again?

[SPEAKER_03]: He's like, I took my mom and my sister with me and we've been going every week since.

[SPEAKER_03]: Yeah, so it's just God is so good.

[SPEAKER_03]: And yeah, I think something that I really learned in that moment was that even if you don't know everything, you really have to rely on the Spirit to guide you and help you.

[SPEAKER_03]: And it was something as simple as me, not knowing everything theologically, you know, the history of Christ and you know, manuscript evidence and all that stuff.

[SPEAKER_03]: I just say, hey, this is how God has affected me.

[SPEAKER_03]: This is how I've seen Jesus.

[SPEAKER_03]: And this is who I was before him.

[SPEAKER_03]: This is who I am after him.

[SPEAKER_03]: and the spirit's always working and it was shown in his fruits and went to church and I'm going to catch up with him really soon actually hope that's all going well.

[SPEAKER_03]: That's the first story.

[SPEAKER_03]: The second story is actually a bit more recent.

[SPEAKER_03]: This is at the start of the year.

[SPEAKER_03]: I was invited onto a podcast that talks about theater in Melbourne because I've been involved in a few plays that had happened.

[SPEAKER_03]: So I've got invited to co-host and guests on this podcast.

[SPEAKER_03]: That's really popular within this community like there are hundreds of thousands of people who listen to this podcast.

[SPEAKER_03]: And I got invited on and I very quickly realized why I specifically got invited on because the host who I'd known I had worked with started talking about some of the plays that he had seen that week and one of them involved around a cult.

[SPEAKER_03]: And he said, Stelios, I know that you are Christian, so what's your relationship with a cult?

[SPEAKER_03]: No, no.

[SPEAKER_03]: It is just a small question.

[SPEAKER_03]: So, I quickly disbanded that myth, not that they, that doesn't exist, but that's a whole nother can of worms.

[SPEAKER_03]: I don't want to get into that.

[SPEAKER_03]: You'll have to stop me, Linda.

[SPEAKER_03]: So, I disbanded that myth, spoke about it, and it's a two-hour episode, and I reckon maybe an hour and twenty minutes is me talking about Jesus on this podcast.

[SPEAKER_03]: It was actually on the way, just the preface.

[SPEAKER_03]: It was on the way to this podcast.

[SPEAKER_03]: I was worshipping in the car and I was praying to God and I was thinking, with my eyes open, I was praying.

[SPEAKER_03]: Don't worry.

[SPEAKER_03]: And I was thinking, I was like, Lord, I was like, you know, a lot of people are going to listen to this.

[SPEAKER_03]: This is a really good chance to talk about US.

[SPEAKER_03]: I said, just give me an opportunity to

[SPEAKER_03]: to talk about you.

[SPEAKER_03]: And that's a prayer that I find always works.

[SPEAKER_03]: I always ask, when I ask the Lord, hey, let me talk about you today.

[SPEAKER_03]: Man, he always comes up with some reason, like, I asked for this.

[SPEAKER_01]: Got to be careful what you're praying, right?

[SPEAKER_03]: Got to be careful what you're praying for.

[SPEAKER_03]: So, yeah, spoke about Jesus.

[SPEAKER_03]: I recently really listened to one of his more recent episodes of this podcast, and he was talking about a few things and he said, and he brought me up and he said, which reminds me of a conversation, if you guys remember that I had with Stanley Osp, which is a really great conversation that I think about often, and I would encourage all you guys to listen to.

[SPEAKER_03]: And so the people who listen to this podcast, I don't think many of them are Christian, because yeah, like the Melbourne theater space, the sort of acting space is very secular.

[SPEAKER_03]: It's not really just anti-Jesus or anti-Christianity, it's anti-religion, anti-authority.

[SPEAKER_03]: And so that was just a really great opportunity that I had and I kind of like, I'm going to take this opportunity to speak about how the Lord's worked in my life.

[SPEAKER_03]: And the bulk of it was my testimony.

[SPEAKER_01]: Amazing.

[SPEAKER_01]: Let's give Stell a huge round of applause.

[SPEAKER_01]: I love that in both these situations that these two haven't gone out of their way, they haven't even left their neighborhoods, but the opportunity has come exactly where God had placed you at work in your homes, in an opportunity that opened up and you took that and you honoured that and you honoured God through that and your relationship with Him.

[SPEAKER_01]: Let me just quickly pray to finish off.

[SPEAKER_01]: Look, God, you are a life changer.

[SPEAKER_01]: When you come into our lives, you change our values, you change our character.

[SPEAKER_01]: And as we explore you, we just want to be more and more like you.

[SPEAKER_01]: As we go through that life long journey of change, well, we don't always have all the answers.

[SPEAKER_01]: God, we ask that you will bring opportunity into our lives, just as you have for Leah and Stelius.

[SPEAKER_01]: Opportunities to show your love, your generosity, opportunities to share with others the story of how you've impacted our lives and how you desire to change those around us as well.

[SPEAKER_01]: God, as we plant the seeds,

[SPEAKER_01]: as we share stories, as we give, as we love, as we offer grace, as we show a different way that people can live.

[SPEAKER_01]: may you water those seeds and grow them so that people will see of your might and your power and your love and your acceptance and that more people will want to come and be part of your loving gracious family.

[SPEAKER_01]: We pray this in your mighty name.

[SPEAKER_01]: Amen.

[SPEAKER_01]: Let's give Leah and Celia one last round of applause.

[SPEAKER_02]: Well, thanks so much, Stel and Leah for that.

[SPEAKER_02]: And last week for John O'er and Ethan, I had so many good things about the story's last week.

[SPEAKER_02]: I think, yeah, it's so encouraging to hear those things.

[SPEAKER_02]: We want to open God's word for a moment or two just before we finish up, we're going to take communion in a few moments.

[SPEAKER_02]: But we are talking about telling others last week, Linda, talk to us about Jesus in the Samaritan woman.

[SPEAKER_02]: And I love the fact

[SPEAKER_02]: that she told this story because this story actually has two conversion moments in it.

[SPEAKER_02]: We firstly see that Jesus reveals himself to this woman, the Samaritan woman.

[SPEAKER_02]: She's the first person to have it revealed to her that Jesus is the Messiah.

[SPEAKER_02]: And then she becomes the first evangelist and she actually goes and tells her story as simple and short as it is to her village, to her town.

[SPEAKER_02]: And the result is that a whole group of people come to faith.

[SPEAKER_02]: And we actually see here a beautiful illustration about how different people come to faith.

[SPEAKER_02]: Some of you probably came to faith because you had a one-on-one encounter with Jesus.

[SPEAKER_02]: I know a number of people in this community, there was no one else involved.

[SPEAKER_02]: You just felt compelled to open up the Bible or to listen to a podcast and somehow in the midst of all that you came to Jesus.

[SPEAKER_02]: For others of you, you came to faith because someone shared their story with you like the Samaritan woman.

[SPEAKER_02]: Someone else got involved.

[SPEAKER_02]: And some of you that was a one-on-one encounter and for others of you it was a one-to-many encounter like in the story of the woman and her village.

[SPEAKER_02]: Sometimes people come to faith in groups and we heard stories this morning of people sharing their faith with groups of people with families.

[SPEAKER_02]: and with theater communities.

[SPEAKER_02]: And so I love the story that we had last week.

[SPEAKER_02]: We're gonna actually open up God's Word and talk about another story.

[SPEAKER_02]: And this story actually appears in Matthew Mark and Luke.

[SPEAKER_02]: And in Matthew and Mark it's almost identical.

[SPEAKER_02]: Mark we think was written before Matthew and Matthew obviously had Mark's version of it because it actually is almost word for word.

[SPEAKER_02]: And then Luke tells an expanded version of it.

[SPEAKER_02]: Mark is generally pretty succinct.

[SPEAKER_02]: He's really interested in moving through the story and he uses a lot of words like at once or immediately and you see it twice in this particular version of it.

[SPEAKER_02]: I'm reading from the NIV.

[SPEAKER_02]: As Jesus walked beside the sea of Galilee, he saw Simon and his brother Andrew casting a net into the lake.

[SPEAKER_02]: For they were fishermen.

[SPEAKER_02]: Come follow me, Jesus said, and I will send you out to fish for people.

[SPEAKER_02]: At once, they left their nets and followed him.

[SPEAKER_02]: And when he got on a little farther, he saw James, some of his ability, and his brother, John, in a boat, preparing their nets.

[SPEAKER_02]: and without delay he called them and they left their father's ability on the boat with the hired men and followed him.

[SPEAKER_02]: So here we see in this story Jesus having one on two and then a one on four in cancer with brothers.

[SPEAKER_02]: two sets of brothers.

[SPEAKER_02]: We find out in the Luke's version that the two sets of brothers were connected.

[SPEAKER_02]: They were actually in business together.

[SPEAKER_02]: And so here we see relationships involved in the way that people come to faith.

[SPEAKER_02]: I love the way that Mark tells the story because it's really short and sharp.

[SPEAKER_02]: Jesus said, come follow me.

[SPEAKER_02]: and they come and follow him.

[SPEAKER_02]: Obviously, they probably had some idea of who Jesus was, maybe they'd heard him preach because he'd been preaching in the area, but they immediately at once without delay, leave their notes and follow Jesus.

[SPEAKER_02]: In the Luke version there's a little bit more detail to it and I want to read the Luke version to you as well because it actually has a beautiful miracle in the middle of the story.

[SPEAKER_02]: So one day Jesus was standing by the lake of Janessa Rat which is another name for the Sea of Galilee and the people were crowding around him.

[SPEAKER_02]: and listening to the word of God in the chapter before we say that he'd been preaching and he'd been doing all these miracles, he'd been doing deliverance ministries and healings.

[SPEAKER_02]: And so crowds of people had been coming and he now began to preach.

[SPEAKER_02]: and they were crowding around him and he saw at the water's edge two boats left there by the fishermen who were washing their nets and he got into one of the boats the one belonging to Simon and asked him to put out a little further from shore and then he sat down and taught the people from the boat and when he'd finished speaking he said to Simon put into deeper water and let down the nets for a catch

[SPEAKER_02]: So I'm an answered kind of reluctantly, I think, master.

[SPEAKER_02]: We've worked hard all night and haven't caught anything.

[SPEAKER_02]: But because you say so, I will let down the nets.

[SPEAKER_02]: And when they had done so, they caught such a large number of fish that their nets began to break.

[SPEAKER_02]: So they signal their partners in the other boat to come and help them and they came and filled both boats so full that they began to sink.

[SPEAKER_02]: And when Simon Peter saw this, he fell at Jesus' knees and said, go away from me, Lord, I am a sinful man.

[SPEAKER_02]: For he and his companions were astonished at the catch of fish they had taken.

[SPEAKER_02]: And so were James and John, the sons of Zebedy, Simon's partners.

[SPEAKER_02]: And then Jesus says to Simon, don't be afraid.

[SPEAKER_02]: From now on, you will fish for people.

[SPEAKER_02]: And so they pulled their boats up on the shore, left everything and followed him.

[SPEAKER_02]: What an amazing story.

[SPEAKER_02]: Again, we see two sets of brothers, business partners coming to faith in Jesus.

[SPEAKER_02]: And not just are they being called to follow him, they're actually told what was going to happen if they do.

[SPEAKER_02]: He said, I will help you to become, I will teach you to become fishes of men.

[SPEAKER_02]: A beautiful image, which must have confused them when they heard it.

[SPEAKER_02]: You're going to do what?

[SPEAKER_02]: You're going to help us to fish for people.

[SPEAKER_02]: They mustn't have really known what was going to happen.

[SPEAKER_02]: but being fishing and they'll probably curious about what that meant and so they decided to follow Jesus.

[SPEAKER_02]: I love this story for all kinds of reasons, one of which is because I love fishing.

[SPEAKER_02]: Well, I'm fascinated by fishing.

[SPEAKER_02]: I've only been fishing maybe twice in my life to be honest, but I watch a lot of fishing videos for some reason.

[SPEAKER_02]: I don't know why they keep coming up in my feed and I love the anticipation of what's going to be on the end of the line.

[SPEAKER_02]: The first time I went fishing was this day.

[SPEAKER_02]: I think I was probably about eight or nine.

[SPEAKER_02]: Excuse the poor photo was taken on a little instrumentic photo camera.

[SPEAKER_02]: And that is me with my first fish that I just called.

[SPEAKER_02]: We were at Down It Lakes entrance.

[SPEAKER_02]: I'd got a fishing line for Christmas that year and so Mum and Dad took us down and

[SPEAKER_02]: We went out onto the pier on this day and we had no idea what we were doing.

[SPEAKER_02]: My dad's not a fisherman.

[SPEAKER_02]: I'd never been fishing before.

[SPEAKER_02]: Somehow we managed to put bait on the end of the line and tie it all together and we cast out the first line.

[SPEAKER_02]: There were fishermen all down the pier.

[SPEAKER_02]: And I'm casted out expecting that fish was going to jump straight on the line and pulled it in.

[SPEAKER_02]: There was something on the end of the line that was seaweed.

[SPEAKER_02]: And so we pulled it up and we got the seaweed off and we threw it again.

[SPEAKER_02]: And for the next half an hour we caught a lot of seaweed.

[SPEAKER_02]: And the fishermen around us, I'm just chuckled away and they thought it was quite funny.

[SPEAKER_02]: Eventually a fisherman came out to us and said,

[SPEAKER_02]: You need to move further down the pier.

[SPEAKER_02]: You may have noticed there's a lot of seaweed in front of you and so we moved further down the pier and for the next hour we caught nothing but we got a few bites, we lost a bit of bait and you know I was only little at the time I kind of was over it about an hour in but we went for an hour and a half.

[SPEAKER_02]: And we said to each other, we'll just do one more.

[SPEAKER_02]: And cast it out.

[SPEAKER_02]: And this time something was different.

[SPEAKER_02]: Not only was there a bite, there was a weight on the end line.

[SPEAKER_02]: And the dotted around in the water, I saw color.

[SPEAKER_02]: That's the technical term when the fish comes close to the surface, I've learned.

[SPEAKER_02]: And the fishermen around us actually started to give us a voice.

[SPEAKER_02]: You know, this kid has been trying hard and the fish sort of came to the surface and as it broke the surface, cheers erupted from the pier.

[SPEAKER_02]: I was so proud of myself and as the fish came out of the water, the cheers turned into laughter.

[SPEAKER_02]: And I didn't know why they were laughing.

[SPEAKER_02]: I was so proud, I pulled up the fish, she can see it.

[SPEAKER_02]: There wasn't big, but it was a fish.

[SPEAKER_02]: But as it came up in front of me, I realized why they were laughing.

[SPEAKER_02]: This fish was upside down.

[SPEAKER_02]: Its mouth had not gone around the bait.

[SPEAKER_02]: It had swam past my hook and hooked itself on the bait.

[SPEAKER_02]: This was the most unlucky fish ever.

[SPEAKER_02]: It was actually a lucky fish because we didn't know what to do with the fish after we caught it, so we threw it back.

[SPEAKER_02]: This is how I experience fishing for the first time.

[SPEAKER_02]: A fishing rug align a hook.

[SPEAKER_02]: This is not how Jesus saw these men fishing.

[SPEAKER_02]: They were fishing with nets and fishing with nets are really different.

[SPEAKER_02]: Now I think fishing with nets can actually teach us something about what Jesus was on about when it comes to evangelism, with sharing our faith.

[SPEAKER_02]: So I think we think about

[SPEAKER_02]: Evangelism, or at least I've grown up with thinking about evangelism, is being very much out one-on-one type thing.

[SPEAKER_02]: I am trying to hook a fish.

[SPEAKER_02]: I put out a hook, a liver life that might stimulate some questions from my friends, and that friend might ask me a question, and I might lead them to Jesus.

[SPEAKER_02]: But that's not what Jesus was talking about here.

[SPEAKER_02]: He was talking to fishermen who fished with nets.

[SPEAKER_02]: What do we learn about the nets?

[SPEAKER_02]: The first thing about nets is that they're not designed to catch one fish.

[SPEAKER_02]: Fish are social animals.

[SPEAKER_02]: They swim in schools.

[SPEAKER_02]: They hunt for food in schools.

[SPEAKER_02]: They swim and they dart around in the water together.

[SPEAKER_02]: Nets are designed to catch schools of fish.

[SPEAKER_02]: I loved the two stories we had this morning because in both cases we actually see people sharing their faith with groups of people.

[SPEAKER_02]: We see Stella are sharing his faith with a whole community of people.

[SPEAKER_02]: How amazing, what an incredible opportunity.

[SPEAKER_02]: It's all here sharing a faith with a family of people.

[SPEAKER_02]: We see in this story Jesus calling a group of four men who had a existing relationship.

[SPEAKER_02]: So often this happens when people come to faith and I know some of you in the room came to faith because someone else in your family came to faith.

[SPEAKER_02]: I've heard stories of kids coming to our youth group and their parents going, there's such a change in my child.

[SPEAKER_02]: I need to know what's going on and they come to church and they come to faith too.

[SPEAKER_02]: Sometimes it happens the other way around.

[SPEAKER_02]: Sometimes it happens in a friendship group.

[SPEAKER_02]: Sometimes it happens in a family.

[SPEAKER_02]: There's all kinds of groups.

[SPEAKER_02]: So the first thing I think we can learn from is that Nets are designed to catch more than one fish at a time.

[SPEAKER_02]: Maybe instead of asking God to put on your heart a name of a person, maybe God wants to put on your heart a family.

[SPEAKER_02]: Maybe God wants to put on your heart a sporting team or a classroom or a workplace or a community like a theatre community.

[SPEAKER_02]: Open yourself to that.

[SPEAKER_02]: God actually might be willing wanting to put someone that's part of a group.

[SPEAKER_02]: Second thing that we actually say about Nets and we see in this story is that Nets are designed to be used by groups of people.

[SPEAKER_02]: We actually see in this story that there were four people at least involved in this fishing expedition.

[SPEAKER_02]: archaeologists have found boats that were used at this time.

[SPEAKER_02]: They were eight to ten meters long.

[SPEAKER_02]: They were crewed by at least four people rowing together out into the water.

[SPEAKER_02]: And we see that they use multiple nets.

[SPEAKER_02]: And when the catch was big enough, multiple boats were brought in to fish and cooperation together.

[SPEAKER_02]: I think we could do a lot better evangelism, a lot better disciple making if we took this into account as well.

[SPEAKER_02]: It's not just my responsibility to fish, it's our responsibility.

[SPEAKER_02]: We actually see this in all of the interactions that Jesus has with his disciples when he talks about evangelism.

[SPEAKER_02]: The first time he sends out his twelve disciples, and I think it's Luke nine, he sends them out two by two.

[SPEAKER_02]: to preach.

[SPEAKER_02]: The very next chapter, there's suddenly seventy two of them.

[SPEAKER_02]: It's multiplying and he sends them out again two by two.

[SPEAKER_02]: The great commission that he gives his disciples in Acts, we see him say, but you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem and in Judea and Samarion to the ends of the earth.

[SPEAKER_02]: Who is he speaking to here?

[SPEAKER_02]: It's a group of at least eleven people and it uses Greek here that's the plural for you of highlighted two use that are that are actually you.

[SPEAKER_02]: We in Australia would say use or in America you all but you all will receive power you all will be my witnesses use

[SPEAKER_02]: It's not me, it's not Linda, it's us.

[SPEAKER_02]: We're called to be witnesses together collectively.

[SPEAKER_02]: Same thing in Matthew, we see him using that UL type language again.

[SPEAKER_02]: He says, you will make disciples to the ends of the earth.

[SPEAKER_02]: UL will do that.

[SPEAKER_02]: This is our call.

[SPEAKER_02]: We're to do this together.

[SPEAKER_02]: We see beautiful picture of it in Acts in Acts two.

[SPEAKER_02]: We see the picture of this early church that come together and we see what they're devoted to.

[SPEAKER_02]: They're devoted to the apostles teaching, to fellowship, to building relationships with each other.

[SPEAKER_02]: They're devoted to breaking of the bread, sharing this meal that Jesus gave them.

[SPEAKER_02]: They had devoted to prayer.

[SPEAKER_02]: Everyone was filled with awe at the signs of wonders performed by the apostles in their community.

[SPEAKER_02]: They sold what they had and gave to those in need into their community.

[SPEAKER_02]: And what happened?

[SPEAKER_02]: The Lord added to their number daily those who were being saved.

[SPEAKER_02]: This community that worked on being together and forming relationships were added to.

[SPEAKER_02]: And I think it was because their community was so different to what was going on around them.

[SPEAKER_02]: God calls us to love each other, to love our neighbor, but I think those two things are connected together.

[SPEAKER_02]: I want to give you one last little illustration of this.

[SPEAKER_02]: This is how I kind of used to see evangelism.

[SPEAKER_02]: I'm in a relationship with Jesus.

[SPEAKER_02]: I have a friend, his name's Bill.

[SPEAKER_02]: I don't actually know Bill, but I'll call him Bill.

[SPEAKER_02]: And I'm got, is there a Bill here?

[SPEAKER_02]: I'm going to lead Bill to Jesus.

[SPEAKER_02]: This is fishing with a rod.

[SPEAKER_02]: And it works.

[SPEAKER_02]: It happens.

[SPEAKER_02]: It's biblical, Philip and the Ethiopians in the example of that in Acts.

[SPEAKER_02]: But you see, my relationship with Jesus isn't just me in Jesus.

[SPEAKER_02]: I'm actually in relationship with you as well.

[SPEAKER_02]: I don't know if Scott's here today but Scott here.

[SPEAKER_02]: Scott's in my small group.

[SPEAKER_02]: And I've known Scott for a few years.

[SPEAKER_02]: We meet together.

[SPEAKER_02]: Every second week, sometimes every third week, as a small group we pray, we share our lives together.

[SPEAKER_02]: I've been vulnerable with Scott.

[SPEAKER_02]: Even this week, he's been very practical in the way he's helped to me and my family.

[SPEAKER_02]: I'm also in a relationship with Peter in my small group.

[SPEAKER_02]: Peter and I have been in small groups for five or six years now.

[SPEAKER_02]: We know a lot of each other's life.

[SPEAKER_02]: We've shared life together.

[SPEAKER_02]: I know his family, he knows our family.

[SPEAKER_02]: Simons in our small group as well.

[SPEAKER_02]: I've only met Simon in the last couple of years, but we're now praying together.

[SPEAKER_02]: We're getting to know each other as well.

[SPEAKER_02]: We've got Nathan and we've got David and we've got Christopher.

[SPEAKER_02]: This is my small group.

[SPEAKER_02]: It kind of looks like a net, doesn't it?

[SPEAKER_02]: Our relationships are a net.

[SPEAKER_02]: Now what would happen if instead of keeping bill off to the side, we like to keep our world separate?

[SPEAKER_02]: Or what if I actually entered into an uncomfortable zone and let my world's collide a little?

[SPEAKER_02]: What if our small group said, well, instead of meeting together every week, we're going to have once a month where we have a barbecue, and we invite our friends and their families, and we let them get to know each other.

[SPEAKER_02]: I actually think build would become part of the net.

[SPEAKER_02]: He'd actually get to know Scott and David and Nathan.

[SPEAKER_02]: If my small group was intentional about loving him and caring for him, in times of need sharing with him, I actually think that he would become a part of it.

[SPEAKER_02]: He'd begin to belong to our net.

[SPEAKER_02]: And as he did that, he would actually begin to discover Jesus.

[SPEAKER_02]: He'd see the difference that we have in our group.

[SPEAKER_02]: And he'd have questions.

[SPEAKER_02]: and it be impacted by it.

[SPEAKER_02]: And my hope is that he'd actually ask questions that would lead him into relationships.

[SPEAKER_02]: You see, in my group there, I won't name them, but I think we've got an evangelist in my group.

[SPEAKER_02]: I don't see I'm gifted as an evangelist.

[SPEAKER_02]: I've tried to do it, but I see in my group there's at least one.

[SPEAKER_02]: And I know that if Bill met him, he would have a conversation with him.

[SPEAKER_02]: And I think he would come to Jesus.

[SPEAKER_02]: So what's stopping us?

[SPEAKER_02]: What's stopping us from letting our worlds collide a little?

[SPEAKER_02]: You know, tomorrow night we have men's Monday.

[SPEAKER_02]: It is the perfect opportunity to let your worlds collide a little, to invite some along.

[SPEAKER_02]: The only thing on the agenda is ribs and conversation.

[SPEAKER_02]: Who doesn't like that?

[SPEAKER_02]: There's no prayer on the agenda.

[SPEAKER_02]: There's no worship songs.

[SPEAKER_02]: There's no sermon.

[SPEAKER_02]: It's conversation and ribs.

[SPEAKER_02]: This week our women's community had a night where they drank mold wine and played games and wore funny Christmas sweaters.

[SPEAKER_02]: There was no Jesus on the conversation and the agenda.

[SPEAKER_02]: It's the perfect opportunity to let your world's collide a little.

[SPEAKER_02]: Our on-core group, it meets monthly to go for a walk.

[SPEAKER_02]: There's no worship on that agenda.

[SPEAKER_02]: It's just conversation and walking.

[SPEAKER_02]: We in our community have all these types of events where it's just ideal to invite someone along, to introduce them to the evangelists in our community and to let them see something different.

[SPEAKER_02]: We're going to take communion now and

[SPEAKER_02]: This is a meal that Jesus gave us to remember him and it struck me this week that that little first community when they first met together and had communion.

[SPEAKER_02]: The probably wasn't too much bread and wine needed.

[SPEAKER_02]: But we know that the second time they met together, Pentecost did happen, and there were hundreds more people there.

[SPEAKER_02]: And the Lord added to their number daily, just imagine how much bread they must have needed after a few weeks.

[SPEAKER_02]: Wouldn't it be great if our bread order got, or our cracker order had to get bigger?

[SPEAKER_02]: Wouldn't it be amazing if our juice order, we had to order double and triple?

[SPEAKER_02]: How's that gonna happen?

[SPEAKER_02]: This is a meal that we share to remember Jesus, but it's actually a meal that we would love more people to be at as well.

[SPEAKER_02]: And so this morning, just before we take communion, I wanna give you a moment to imagine who you might see at this table.

[SPEAKER_02]: To allow the Holy Spirit to put on your mind a name,

[SPEAKER_02]: of a person or maybe a group of people that you would love to see at this table.

[SPEAKER_02]: Maybe it's an individual, maybe it's a family, maybe it's your workplace, maybe it's a sporting team.

[SPEAKER_02]: On the way in you are given a piece of paper, a little card and a pencil,

[SPEAKER_02]: as the Holy Spirit puts someone on your mind or a group of people.

[SPEAKER_02]: I just want to encourage your writer on there.

[SPEAKER_02]: Just put their first name, doesn't have to be their surname.

[SPEAKER_02]: If there's more than one person or it's a group, write the group name.

[SPEAKER_02]: And this morning as we take communion, I want to encourage you to bring it forward as a prophetic act.

[SPEAKER_02]: And to bring it to the cross, we've got a little basket before each of the crosses.

[SPEAKER_02]: And to leave it there, in hope, believing that they might come to this table.

[SPEAKER_02]: Because as much as you want to see them at this table, God wants to see them there too.

[SPEAKER_02]: So this morning we're going to come to the table and we're going to take bread, which is a reminder of Jesus' body.

[SPEAKER_02]: And we're going to take juice, which is a reminder of his love.

[SPEAKER_02]: And we're going to remember him, but we're going to do it in hope, bringing the person, all the group as well.

[SPEAKER_02]: That's pray together.

[SPEAKER_02]: Look up, we thank you that your heart is aligned with our heart when we imagine our friends and our family and those that we know at this table.

[SPEAKER_02]: God, will you place these people on our heart?

[SPEAKER_02]: And would you open ways for us to join you in the work of bringing them to the table?

[SPEAKER_02]: But we thank you for these emblems and these symbols of your body and your blood.

[SPEAKER_02]: We want to take this time to remember you to celebrate your life and your death and what that means to us.

[SPEAKER_02]: Amen.