Connecting with F.R.A.N.K. - Kingdom Fishing with P. Mike Krulcik

So today I want to talk to you about Kingdom fishing and we're

going to connect with Frank today.

All right, say this. Say I'm going to connect with

Frank. Say I can't wait to meet Frank.

Now listen, I want you to just touch the shoulder of the person

in front of you. You on the front row.

Just reach towards me. Now listen, if nobody reaches,

nobody gets touched. So draw your hand back just a

little bit where you're not touching them.

There's no connection if you don't reach, right?

So I'm. I'm praying that there's a reach

in you when you leave this sanctuary.

And now I'm. I'm going to find Frank and

connect with him today, tomorrow, this week, next month

and for the rest of my life. Now you say, who is Frank?

I'll tell you. Frank is Frank is friends,

relatives, associates, neighbors and kids.

Come on. Yeah.

Please say that again, man, Frank is friends, relatives,

associates, neighbors and kids. It's really everybody you come

in contact with. And we need to be a church that

has the heart of the Father as he builds our life as we as we

for those that have been saved, delivered and then filled with

the Holy Ghost. God wants that subsequent

experience of what you've had in your life to connect with Frank,

and if nobody reaches, nobody gets touched.

So your assignment this week is, Lord, send Frank my way.

Sometimes Frank looks like an interruption, a phone call you

didn't expect, somebody you didn't think you'd see at

Walmart. You know how it is when you're

at Walmart and you see somebody and you're in a rush and you got

your schedule. Just like Audrey said, you know,

this is my schedule. But Lord sent Frank your way and

said, no, you need to go down the aisle way and talk to Frank.

It's a divine connection, not an interruption.

Not every interruption is a distraction.

So we're going to launch out from Isaiah chapter 58, verse

Isaiah 58 · chapter mention

#12. Isaiah chapter 58 verse #12 says

Isaiah 58 · chapter mention

this and at Anchor Faith Church, we just started this a few weeks

ago. For those of you who are first

time guests, we welcome you. If you're a first time guest,

and I'll tell you this, stay plugged in and keep on coming.

If you're local and you don't have a church to go to, we will

do you good for your spiritual journey.

You will find a community of believers that are passionate

for the Lord Jesus Christ that want to be led by the Spirit.

If you're not with us and you're from out of town, we will help

you find a church in your local area.

Just talk to one of our ushers or myself after service.

We want to get you plugged in somewhere.

Amen. So, but we stand for the reading

of the first Scripture that we say just to honor God.

This came out of Ezra. You know, they stood when they

heard the word of the Lord. So let's read this.

Those from among you shall build the old waste places.

You shall raise up the foundations of many generations.

You shall be called the repair of the breach, the restorer of

streets to dwell in. You may be seated.

So this golden prophet Isaiah declares this word.

Those from among you, that's us in the sanctuary.

Are there people among us today? Yeah.

Out of or from. So those from among you shall

rebuild, ruin, waste places. One of our assignments in life

is anything that's broken or mismanaged or or in destruction

or in decay. A a dysfunctional dad, a broken

relationship, a a sick body. Right.

A distraught mind man. We're called to rebuild.

God is a builder. We're made in his image.

So guess what? He's put the capacity and the

assignment in our lives to be builders, he said.

You're going to rebuild old waste places.

You're going to raise up the foundation of many generations.

God is a transgenerational God. He's the God of Abraham, Isaac

and Jacob. And so he just doesn't want it

for one generation. It's so exciting to see the

teens go to camp because that's another generation and we want

to see them raise up. And you know, Josiah was young

when he started serving God. You don't have to wait till

you're 32 to start serving God. You could be 8 years old and

have a such a passion for Jesus. And you, you never have to lose

that. You never have to abandon that.

You could be fully submerged and submitting that for a lifetime.

So God wants to raise up the foundation.

It's his will to raise up the foundation of many generations.

And then he said you shall be called a repair of the breach

and the restore of pathways to dwell in.

And really out of this verse, the one out of these 4

principles, the one I want to hone in on is he said you shall

be called and not might or maybe, but you shall be called

the repair of the breach. Now the word repair means this,

to wall up or to build a wall. And the word breach means this

there's a gap, there's a break or there's a broken wall.

So God's called us to build up things that are broken, to build

up walls that are broken down to to fill in any gaps.

All right. And this really signifies and

indicate someone who mends that which is broken, particularly in

relationships and communities. So when you repair the breach,

you have the heart of the Father to mend relationships and mend

what is wrong in communities spiritually.

This repair the breach means this healing divisions.

Healing divisions when I was down front man, we don't have

racial divide at Anchor Faith Church.

We don't have segregation at Anchor Faith Church.

We're all born of Jesus Christ and I have brothers and sisters

in the Lord. And so we heal divisions and,

and it's restores unity to God and his people.

This can be seen as a type of Christ who is the ultimate

repairer reconciling humanity to God.

It's like Jesus takes your hand, takes the Father's hand and by

his blood brings it together. He repairs the gap and he he's

seen of the ultimate repair by the breach, by sin.

You realize when Adam fell put a breach between US and God, but

the first Adam did that. The last Adam came and repaired

the breach. And now we can call on the name

of Jesus, declare his finished work, and that breach is closed.

And we have and that that relationship is mended and

restored with the Father. Not only that, but he wants to

restore humanity. If there's broken relationships

or dysfunctional things in communities, we have to have a

heart to see those things mended.

It moves us, it motivates us. It becomes our ambition and our

drive. In historical context, when we

say repair the breach, it refers to repairing the physical

breaches in the walls of Jerusalem.

Jerusalem which leads me to Nehemiah because what was

Nehemiah's assignment? What was God having him build?

What was his task and his purpose?

And so I'll give you a homework assignment.

I'm not going to read every verse of the 1st chapter, but I

think it it would be good for you to go home and read the

first chapter. I think it's only about 11

verses, but Nehemiah. I'll just give a quick summary.

Nehemiah is obviously the cupbearer for the king, but he

heard that there were broken walls and busted gates, that

there was a breach, there was a gap.

And man, when he heard that report, it moved him.

It motivated him matter of fact and and and great compassion.

And with a great cry he was moved.

And then out of that compassion, a cry came prayer, and now that

prayer came action. So we heard the report which

moved him to compassion, made him cry out to God in prayer,

and moved him to action. He told the king, man, my home

city is tore down. There's walls that are busted,

gates that are burned, locks that need reinstalled in it and

movement. He requested and interceded with

the king. Let me go back, will you bless

me to go back And the king granted that and bestowed him

said you're going to go back. I'm going to allow you to go

back and to fix this breach, to fix this gap.

I believe there's gaps today in our community.

There's reports, you know, when I, when I hear a report of a

dysfunctional dad or a, a husband that's out of place or

he's more of a, of a predator than a prayer or a, a house

isn't really a home, or when I hear reports of, of abortion

right now. These reports should have a

heart of compassion. We shouldn't just go by

unconcerned going about our course of life.

Now we have to ears to hear what the Holy Ghost is saying.

And out of that report should come a compassion, and it should

lead to prayer, which leads to action.

And if you study out Nehemiah, very interesting study, but

we're going to look at one gate that he restored.

Out of the 12 gates that he restored, I'll say it again.

He restored 12 gates in the book of Nehemiah.

But one gate we're going to look at right today, and that's in

Nehemiah 3 three. And it said in Nehemiah 3 Three

that the sons of this guy, Mr. H, we'll call him, built the

fish gate and laid its beams and hung its doors with its bolts

and bars. I love this story of Nehemiah

'cause it wasn't Nehemiah doing all the work.

When you read how the gates are rebuilt, it was a community

effort within the body. It's going to take all of us,

say this is going to take all of us, say there's no insignificant

members. It's going to take all of us to

repair the breeches. And so when you read Nehemiah

and how he restored these 12 gates, there was a lot of

different names associated in rebuilding.

And guess what? An anchor fate shows a lot of

different names that God is going to use and work through to

help rebuild things that are broken and gates that are busted

and walls that are torn down. But this fish gate needs

reestablished. This fish gate was on one of the

walls on the northern wall of Jerusalem.

It was named for its proximity to the fish market because fish

from the Mediterranean Sea were brought through it.

Fish from the Mediterranean Sea were brought through this gate.

So in Ezekiel chapter 22 verse #30 Ezekiel chapter 22 verse #30

Ezekiel 22 · chapter mention Ezekiel 22 · chapter mention

what is God looking for? Well, the new King James Version

says this. I sought for a man, and that's

mankind. Are you with me?

We could say I'm looking for a man or a woman of God with a

backbone that would make up a wall and stand in the gap before

me on behalf of the land that I would not destroy.

But I found no one people that are indifferent or complacent

going about in their in their course of life, not thinking

about God. This is why this message should

really stir you up. You know, there could be drift

in your life. All of us.

I've had it happen, but thank God for it's just like, you

know, we were driving this weekend to to Disney Glory to

God. It's like melting yesterday,

sweat running everywhere. But my wife had on that her GPS

or the maps, you know, and we're talking and we we missed our

turn to go to Epcot, you know, and So what does that do though?

The map automatically reroutes you and some of us in drift, we

missed our exit. God said you were supposed to

get off there, but let me reroute you.

So we need to be keen enough to listen to the Holy Ghost on a

daily basis. We don't want to God to say I

didn't find anyone to stand in the gap.

The new living translation says it like this.

I look for someone. I look for someone who might

rebuild the wall of righteousness that guards the

land. I search for someone to stand in

the gap in the wall so I wouldn't have destroyed the

land, but I found no one. So what is this fish gate?

I submit that you did this to you today, that Jesus himself

put an emphasis on this fish gate and restored it.

The question is, are we partakers with Him and help Him

keep this fish gate being built? Go with me to Matthew chapter 4

Matthew 4:17–19

verses 17 through 19. Matthew chapter 4 verses 17

Matthew 4:17–19

through 19. The word says this.

From that time began Jesus to preach and say repent, for the

Kingdom of heaven is at hand. And Jesus was walking by the Sea

of Galilee and he saw two brothers, Simon called Peter and

Andrew his brother, casting a net into the sea.

Then he said to them, follow me and I will make you fishers of

men. He was reestablishing the fish

gate. I like the next verse it says,

and they left their Nets. That goes along with what Audrey

said. They had their Nets, their way

of doing thing. It said they dropped their Nets

and picked up his net. And when we get the fish gate in

our life, we're dropping our Nets and we're picking up his

net. Say I'm picking up the net of

Jesus. I'm gonna do his will.

So we need to leave our Nets behind.

Man. That word follow is a powerful

word. It means come hit her.

When I saw that, I want to tell my wife, Come, hit her.

Woman. Come now.

Because that's what it means. It is an interjection, which is

a phrase used to express a sudden emotion, reaction and

response when it. And he said, repent for the

Kingdom of heaven as a hand. Then notice he went after

people, 'cause the Kingdom of heaven wants to get people.

Let me say the Kingdom of heaven wants to get people out of

darkness and say, follow me. Quit following your own Nets and

your own plan, but follow me, the Master, the Teacher, be my

disciples. And so that word follow means

come. You know, Matthew 28/28/19, he

says go ye, but before there's a go ye, there's a come ye 'cause

there's a relational side first before he sends you out.

And then I like the next verse when he's talking to Andrew and

Simon, he says they left their Nets and it was great.

If you read on to Matthew 4, he's starting to pick people to

follow them. He finds two more people after

Andrew and Simon and says follow me.

And guess what? Jesus is still saying today,

Come hit her, come now, come hit her.

Come now. Jesus is still calling.

Are you responding? And so he said, I will make I

like that man. That means he's the author of

your life at that point. That means he's preparing you.

He's getting you ready to be productive and fruitful.

He said I will make Are you allowing Jesus to write your

story, author your life? I don't want to be the author of

my life. I want Jesus to author my life.

Well, how do you do that? By being in the word of God, by

church attendance, by being around other people of like

precious faith, by listening to the Holy Spirit.

I want to be productive. I want to be like the one in the

in the word when the the talents were given that it says well

done, thou good and faithful servant.

You've been faithful in a few things.

I'm going to make you ruler over much.

And what is Jesus making? He said follow me.

I will make you a Fisher of men. Now that word I I will make.

Let me just back up and say that is a spiritually transformed

life. It's a spiritually transformed

life. You are not the same.

You are not the same. You are not the same, he said in

Second Corinthians chapter 5 verse #17 Second Corinthians

2 Corinthians 5 · chapter mention 2 Corinthians 5 · chapter mention

chapter 5. Spiritually you're not the same.

The amplified Bible says this when he says I will make you.

This is what it means and and we'll see in 2nd Corinthians

517. Therefore, if anyone is in

Christ that is grafted in, joined to him by faith as the

Savior, he's a new creature reborn and renewed by the Holy

Spirit. The old things, the previous

moral and spiritual condition has passed away.

Behold, new things have come because spiritual awakening

brings a new life. Now you realize this, you are a

spirit, you have a soul, you live in the in a body.

So when I got born again in 1997, guess what was born again?

My spirit man became alive to God.

Now my mind and my body, I had to do something with that.

So when it says I will make I want to explain that a little

bit further. But when when the spirit man

being reborn is Jesus work, our response to that is doing

something with our body and our soul.

So in order to make we got to do something with our body and our

soul, but it's him that only and only him and his finished work

that could recreate the spirit man on the inside, which means

your spirit was apart from God. And I couldn't earn that.

I couldn't work myself for that. I couldn't pay for that.

I couldn't redeem that by my own effort, effort or merit, but

Jesus did. He is the Lamb of God that takes

away the sins of the world. He's the repair of the breach.

That said, when my blood's on the mercy seat, if you call on

my name, you shall be saved me and my spirit is alive to God.

That's a good confession, that every day my spirit is alive to

God now just 'cause I was born again in 1997, guess what?

My thinking didn't change and my body didn't change.

You know, if you were bald before you got born again,

you're bald after you got born again.

So that doesn't change. But the spirit man does.

And so it says, when I will make you have a part to play in

letting him make you. Listen to what Isaiah says about

the soul and body in Isaiah 64, eight Isaiah chapter 64, verse

Isaiah 64 · chapter mention

#8 this, this gives a great illustration of what we need to

be doing on a daily basis. But now, O Lord, you are the

Father, We are the clay, You're our Potter, and we are the work

of your hand. If He's really the author of

your life, you need to stay on the Potter's wheel.

Let me say it again, You need to stay on the Potter's wheel.

When he says I will make, that means you stay on the Potter's

wheel. The issue that we have is

because you are a free will moral agent, God doesn't force

anything on you or make you a robot.

You have to decide to let him make you.

And that means every day we come surrendered to that Potter's

wheel. What's the Potter do?

I want his hand forming in fashion in me?

In Ephesians it says it's the washing of the water of the

word. And what does a Potter use to

form that clay water. So you let me put it this way,

you can't mold dry clay. So if you're not in the word

every day, guess what? You're a moldy Christian.

Say I say this, I don't want to be a moldy Christian.

I don't want to be a stank Christian.

I know that's improper English and grammar, but we don't want

to stank. So we need to let Him mold us

and shape us. That's just renewing our mind,

coming to church, being in His word.

Any adjustments He wants us to make?

Man, Lord, your hands on me. Oh, you need me to change that?

Yes Sir, 'cause I know you're always working for my highest

benefit, Father. And so Romans chapter 12 verses

Romans 12 · chapter mention

one through 2 says this. I'm gonna read this in the

Message Bible 'cause I really like the way that this reads,

talking about letting Him make your life.

The message says it like this, 'cause it in the message.

These first 2 verses of Romans chapter 12 talks about your body

Romans 12 · chapter mention

and talks about your soul, 'cause that's something that you

make a choice on your spirit. Man's recreated because of his

work, but for him to make you a fully fledged disciple, you got

to allow him to do something with your soul and body, which

means I got to be surrendered to him in His word every day.

So the message reads it like this.

So here's what I want you to do. God helping you take your

everyday ordinary life. You're sleeping, eating, going

to work and walking around life and place it before.

God is an offering. Embracing what God does for you

is the best thing you can do for Him.

Don't become so well adjusted to the culture that you fit in

without even thinking. Instead, fix your attention on

God. You will be changed from inside

out. Readily recognize what He wants

from you and quickly respond to it.

Unlike the culture around you, always dragging you down to its

level of immaturity, God brings the best out of you and develops

well for maturity in you. So it says, follow me, I will

make you. And what's the end result of

Fisher of Men? The fish gate restored?

The Fisher of Men knows this. I have a new and a new identity

with a new mission. I'm not trying to catch what I

used to catch. Are you with me?

I've dropped my Nets, picked up his Nets.

Cause all of us had ABC life before Christ.

And there are things that we're pursuing, desires that we had

that were ungodly, that we're not in alignment with this plan.

But now that I'm in Christ, I got a new identity with a new

mission. I have an intentional life.

I don't react, I respond. I live on purpose.

I'm not killing time. Sometimes in counseling

sessions, somebody said, well, I'm killing.

No, we invest time 'cause I'm intentional.

Even when I nap, I nap on purpose.

Glory to God, it's not out of depression, not out of sorrow,

you know, 'cause some people sleep.

Even even the disciples fell asleep because they couldn't

stay on in prayer with Jesus and they were depressed that he was

leaving. But man, he was saying I'm going

to go to the father. This is great news.

They were sad about it. He said, oh, and if you only

knew, I'm going to put the Holy Ghost on the inside of you and

live a purpose, mission centered life.

A Fisher of men means you have patience.

Glory to God. Let's declare that say aye.

Have patience. Say this even when somebody,

somebody has 15 items in the 10 item check out line.

I know you're counting because I've counted, but guess what?

We got patience as 10 1/2 items. We have persistence, man.

You know, to to bring in fish, you got to be patient and you

got to be persistent. My friend Steve Miller, who

actually went home to be with the Lord probably about a year

and a half, two years after I got born again.

What a great example of a Fisher of men.

I just want this to be etched in your life 'cause this is you

this week. Are you with me?

He was so intentional, so patient, so persistent.

And the last thing about a fisherman is compassion.

And so we we ran again, both of us before Christ at Gahanna

Lincoln High School. Hallelujah, 1992.

Glory to God, I'm getting wiser. I asked Brian the other day when

he was born. I was like, wow, I'm getting

old. I was like, what?

You're where you're born? Wait, I graduated from high

school already. But Steve, man, we used to run

around. He actually moved my senior year

of high school from Florida. His dad was a a salesman for

Quaker State, not a Quaker, but Quaker State Oil.

And he came up to Gahanna, OH, and man, he, he got born again.

We used to party together, drink together.

We like athletics, we like lifting, we like being crazy.

You know, we thought we were manly, manly men, but what we

were was immature males, stupid, making dumb decisions.

Thank God. Thank God I didn't die in that

state. Thank God for his mercy, thank

God for his redemption, 'cause you know, there's some dumb

things we all did, like drinking and driving.

I used to go to West Liberty State College and to get from

the bottom of the mountain to the top of the mountain without

all the brain cells firing is tough 'cause there's no rail

guards. You know about West Virginia,

There's no rail guards in some places.

And man, one wrong turn, you're off.

But Steve, man, he got born again and I'm, he was like a

Jesus freak. You remember that talk?

What would people say if you were a Jesus freak?

And man, he was just so transformed and radically

converted that he, I mean, it annoyed me just to be honest.

I'm living in my own net with my own plan, and he's just talking

about Jesus. I mean, I got to the point where

it was back in the day when he had pagers, says anybody got me?

I better get some new examples. You know, golly, some people are

like, what's a pager? Well, you were really cool if

you had one at one point, people thought you were a doctor.

It was really cool when he used to page me.

I'll explain later to you, Young 1.

I would I would ignore his phone call, but man, he was patient

and persistent and just would not give up on me.

Who are you not going to give up on this week?

And he kept on talking about Jesus.

I would duck his phone calls. And finally I got so fed up with

him he invited me to a conference call.

The divine revelation of hell. I said just to shut you up.

I didn't tell him that I'm gonna go with you.

And so we went down to the Convention Center in Columbus,

OH, and this lady preached on the divine and it scared the

hell out of me. It was a fire and brimstone

message. And man, I was like, I am not

going there. So my motivation for getting

born again was thank God he works with us.

Amen. It wasn't really the love of

God. It was, man, that's hell,

brimstone fire. I mean, I don't want to be

burned up in fire, but I got born.

I had a sincere conversion even in that.

And man, I had a passion. I just knew I need to get in

church. I just something on the inside,

something on the inside said you need to be planted.

And man, I've, I've only been in three churches since 1997.

And the only reason I left Columbus, OH is 'cause I went to

Bible school and attended Rebel Bible College.

And then when I left there, God said to come here with pastoral

and Marcy, apostle and Marcy. And in 2004 we came, my wife and

I, sorry, we're so ingrained. Sometimes it's like our

anniversary date and the coming here is like, OK, which one's

which? And I've been been with this

ministry ever since, you know. But man, he was persistent.

I'm glad that he invited me. I'm glad he didn't give up on

me. I'm glad he was compassionate to

me. What he experienced, he wanted

me to experience. He didn't want to see me, his

friend Frank. He didn't want to see Frank go

to hell. And we don't want to see Frank

go to hell. Matter for matter of fact.

We want to see Frank follow. We want to see Frank be made.

We want to see Frank become a Fisher of men.

Did you get that? We want to see Frank follow.

Come hit her, Frank. You should be leaving the

service saying come hit her, Frank.

Well, maybe not that loud, but 'cause you want to see Frank be

made, and then you just want to see Frank be a Fisher of men,

'cause God is the master advertiser and the master

marketer. He just doesn't use the fivefold

ministry. How bad of a marketing plan

would that be if only a fivefold ministry could reach somebody

for Jesus Christ? No, he said, all of you become

fishers of men. This fish gate needs to be

restored. It needs to be in our lives

every day. We need to be mindful.

Are we building this fish gate in our life where we can go to

the Mediterranean Sea out in the darkness and bring back into the

city of Jerusalem, the safe place God's name is a strong

tower the righteous run into and they're safe to see somebody

broke, taken out of dysfunction and brought into order and

peace. So the summary of this whole

interaction that Jesus had in Matthew chapter 4, verse 17

Matthew 4:17–19

through 19, they're going to put this on the screen just so you

can see. You can take a picture of it.

You can try to write it down if they don't go through the slides

too fast. But the summary of this whole

interaction is this Jesus initiates the relationship there

it comes and has he initiated? He says, come, Jesus is still

calling today. Come, follow, right?

And then secondly, Jesus calls for a wholehearted discipleship.

Wholehearted. You've heard the term rabbi

before, which means the master teacher.

The whole point of discipleship is this.

The disciple wanted three things from the rabbi, same three

things we want from Jesus, our rabbi.

That's to know what the rabbi knows, do what the rabbi does,

and to be like the rabbi. I want to know what Jesus knows,

do what Jesus does and be like Jesus.

So it's a whole. It's a fully devoted disciple.

It's not lukewarm. It's not come on Christmas

service and Easter, those only two time I come to church.

It's not I read my Bible only when I get in trouble and I need

to cry out for help. No, he initiates A relate.

What's a relationship? You commune with him every day.

It would be a sad state if I said, hey, Angie, you want to

marry me? She said, yeah, OK, we get

married. I'll see you next year.

Well, I'll come visit you on Christmas and Easter, Angie, she

said thanks. I'll talk to you when I feel

like it Is that how we is that how we treat Jesus?

No, not this church. We're passionate about the

things of Christ. It's a relationship first come

ye and then it costs her wholehearted discipleship and

then #3 Jesus with divine promise gives spirit and power

transformation to your life. He said I will make what a great

confession for you to have. I Jesus is making me.

Jesus is author of my life. Jesus is preparing for me

prepare me. God puts no untested product on

his market. Why do you think you're going

through some of the things you're going through?

Oh, if you could only see from his point of view instead of

your point of view. The apostle Paul said, Lord

remove this thing from me. He prayed 3 times about it and

God said, no, my grace is sufficient, for my strength is

made perfect in your weakness. Sometimes you're going through

things because God is making you.

He's getting you ready. He's preparing for you.

He's got a higher level. He's got another mountain for

you to climb, another assignment for you to do.

God is always in the in the business of promotion.

God wants to put you on display. Are you listening?

God wants to take your life and put it on display to the world,

but it comes with a spiritual transformation.

He's not going to display somebody that's lukewarm.

You're not ready yet. He's waiting for you to turn up

the degree of heat. And then #4 he said, I'm going

to make you a Fisher of men. So to summarize this whole

interaction from Matthew chapter 4 with these two disciples, He

Matthew 4 · chapter mention

gives us a clear mission and direction.

A clear mission and direction. Your life becomes focused.

Even when I'm home as a husband and as a father, I'm a Fisher of

men. I'm intentional, I'm patient,

I'm persistent, I'm compassionate.

When I'm at Walmart, I'm a Fisher of men.

When I'm at the gas station, I'm a Fisher of men.

When I'm walking out the church building today, I'm a Fisher of

men. I respond to this call and it

means I leave a self-directed life.

I've dropped my Nets, I've surrendered.

I said Lord, I don't want to RIP my pants.

Glory to God. I didn't do leg day yesterday,

but I felt something going. So Hallelujah.

That would have been staples and bad, but it's a wholehearted

surrender. It means cleaving to Christ.

Matt, you are everything to me, Jesus, without you, I am

nothing. I let your message, I am vitally

united to you, and I let your message live in my heart.

It's such a comprehensive redemption, such a total

redemption. Maybe you've never heard this

good news. I mean, when God brought you

out, He brought all of you out. That was His plan.

If you don't feel like He brought all of you out, there is

more for you. He came to give you life and to

give it to you more abundantly. But it's just that hard man I

am. There's nobody more that I'm in

love with or want to be around. Thank God for my wife.

But you know, the reason this is a success cause with Him and to

Him is everything. You know, when you, you think

you fell in love with somebody, you know, and what do you do?

You're always thinking about that person, right?

And the problem with humanity is typically when that person and

you get together, unfortunately for humanity, it becomes can

become common and drift happens. And let me put it this way, the

pursuit wasn't there like it used to be.

And that's how marriages could fail.

I mean, when you were pursuing your soon to be spouse, for

those of you that are married or you're just trying to get

married. I mean, you, you put on your

best, you smell good. You get the door for her, right?

Your car's clean. You got the voice.

Hey, Boo, I don't call, I don't call my wife Boo.

I say, hey, babe, it doesn't turn to hey, come here.

I don't, I mean that shouldn't happen five years down the road.

But do we do this with Jesus? I mean, we should get up every

day. I mean, think about what he did

for us. And although I got saved cause

of the the fire of hell, right now I live because of the love

of God. How could I not be eternally

grateful when I was on death row destined for hell and a payment

had to be made. You know this happens in our

prison systems. There is by law people that have

violated and broken the law. Murdered somebody and they could

be facing life in prison or even the death sentence and

rightfully so. Cause according to our statutes

and laws, they have broken the law, right?

They could be a multiple time offender.

And so a payment has to be made that can't just be sweeped under

the rug. And they, they're pardoned.

But what Jesus did for us would be like what would happen with

them if somebody said I'm gonna go in and take your place.

Say you were executed death. That's what he did.

I'm said, say we're going to say Melvin had committed his crimes.

But he he went in Melvin's stead and stance and said I am going

to be the one that is taking your place and paying this price

so that Melvin can go free. And so he went to the cross.

But good news, on the third day he rose again from the dead,

right. So that motivates me now out of

out of his love compels me just to think about that every day to

make me a fisherman. In Matthew chapter 5, this great

Matthew 5 · chapter mention

sermon on the Mount, Jesus says you're two things when it comes

to being a Fisher of men on this sermon, verse 13 through 15 is

very important for us on a daily basis.

In verse 13, he said you are the salt of the earth, but if the

salt loses its flavor, how shall it be seasoned?

It's then good for nothing but to be thrown out and trampled

under foot by men. Now, salt in the ancient world

was a valuable commodity, just like your life in Christ is a

valuable commodity. It was used for preserving

foods, enhancing flavor, and it was even a form of currency.

In order to connect with Frank, we have to be salt.

That means I've got to be able to reach.

Salt has no impact unless it touches something.

I can have a salt shaker in my pantry, but if it doesn't get on

the food, it has no impact. So thank God we're around us

today, believers. But guess what?

We need to go into the world and be salt and go and re establish

that fish gate if it loses its flavor.

This phrase underscores the seriousness of 11 losing his his

or her spiritual influence. Somebody that's drifted, they're

unsavory, it's and become useless.

This is a believer who fails to live out their faith and their

purpose. Don't be a believer that fails

out to live out their faith and their purpose.

It's a sober reminder of spiritual complacency.

We need to wake up and realize, man, there is a lost and dying

world out there. And I live a mission.

Mission centered life focused on discipleship and evangelism, He

said in in verse 14, you are the light of the world, a city that

is set on a hill that cannot be hidden.

Nor do they light a lamp and put under a basket, but on a

lampstand. Lampstand.

It gives light to all who are in the house as a light.

We are a lamp to people. We are brightness to people.

We have brilliant qualities that attract people.

People should come and say what is different about you?

You know, light doesn't make a sound, but it could be seen.

And when you go to work tomorrow, you people should

recognize that you're a fully. They may not know that you're a

fully divided villa disciple. That's my best Jim Carrey.

Sorry. We could have fun at church.

If you're really sanctified and saved and you know who Jim

Carrey is, see me after church. OK, I'll explain what a pager is

and who the actor is. I'm being silly right now, but

light gives truth and knowledge. Man.

Does your life display truth and knowledge?

So salt has contact, but light can just be seen.

So you know your character should just shine forth.

Should shine forth. This phrase identifies the

Father as Jesus, as a source of spiritual illumination in a

world often characterized by darkness and sin.

Our lives should be visible and make impact.

Jesus never called us all just to come to church 168 hours a

week. No, he said, you're going to

come to church to get equipped so that when you go back out in

the world. I like the way that Donald G

said this. He's deceased now, but he was a,

a powerful apostle really that Kennethy Hagin, the founder of

our Bible school, listened to a lot of his teaching.

He said when you come to church, it's, it's powerful, powerful

truth within for a, a powerful impact without basically what

he's saying is when you come to church, you're getting built up

so that when you go out, it's a powerful impact.

And so you come on Sunday or Wednesday, you come to a men's

discipleship at 318 or you come to a women's event.

What's it doing? It's building you up.

It is the spiritual gym. And sometimes there's going to

be drop sets, sometimes there's going to be forced wraps.

Sometimes it's going to be like, whoo, I don't know if I can get

through this, but there's some spiritual spotting going on,

which means we're going to, we're going to help you get

through sticking points and help you to grow and develop and

mature. So there'll be some challenging

things that take place, but guess what?

You're going to get a good spiritual meal when you come.

So build you up. It's not always going to be ice

cream, although ice cream comes through some sermons.

There's going to be some Brussels sprouts, Amen, some

broccoli, some healthy spiritual carbs and protein 'cause we need

a balanced diet to grow. So all this being said, this

fish gate being restored, how Jesus said you shall be fishers

of men, you're going to be fully devoted disciples of Jesus

Christ. I want to give you some action

points today. So I'm going to give you 6 M's.

It's not because my name is Mike, but they just go well

together. So #1 they'll put these up on

the slides. When it comes to being a Fisher

of men and a disciple Jesus Christ, and fall in him #1 you

have to be a model. Now remember, we said you're the

salt of the earth. That word salt was also used in

sacrifices in the Old Testament, He said On your sacrifices,

you're gonna put some salt. That tells us that we need to

live, indicating that we need to live holy lives.

Are you with me? Pure lives, lives that line up

with the standards and the values of God.

I didn't just get married for a good time.

I got married for a long time. So we don't want to see you back

at church next year on your third marriage.

Now, I know that divorce happens, but listen, and that's

not to make light of that, but just doing what the world, the

world, just if I don't like it, I just, there's no commitment.

There's no covenant. Now abuse is one thing,

adultery, abandonment, but just because I don't feel like it,

where is the commitment, right? So we want to model this thing

out. I mean, the ultimate example is

the Lord Jesus Christ. We need to align our life with

the principles and the character of Jesus.

That's what a model does. I'm aligning my life with the

principles, the truth from the Word, and the character of Jesus

Christ. Remember the old brace

bracelets? WWJD.

What would Jesus do? That's still a good question.

We need to ask what would Jesus do?

Am I modeling the apostle Paul in First Corinthians Chapter 11

1 Corinthians 11 · chapter mention

verse #111 verse one says this. It's only 12 and 1.

So I don't know why I'm rushing, feel like an auctioneer, blah

blah. Not that I'm gonna take you a

long to take a long time, but he said this and really amplified

pattern yourselves after me. Follow my example as I imitate

and follow Christ the Messiah. Let me ask you this question.

Is your life worthy of somebody else making that a pattern?

And you, you know, in your heart, if I need to adjust, this

is not a message of condemnation.

This is a message to pick you up.

Does that mean you have to be perfect?

No. But are you growing?

Are you better now than you were last year?

Do you respond differently now than you did four months ago?

I remember the time in my life, man, where if it was a funky

situation, it could take me some days to get out of that funk.

But I, I knew, I knew. And you know, as I grew in

Christ, those days became hours and those hours became minutes

'cause I learned how to respond to the Word and the Holy Ghost

quicker. And that's what he's saying.

Are you worthy of being modeled? Are you different now?

Are you allowing? Are you on the Potter's wheel

and you respond differently now? You know, when, if you had a hot

button of anger, if you're more patient today than you were six

months ago, And if not, guess what?

Change. Change has not changed until

it's changed. So we need to model this.

And then when you model this, you can go on the second point

as a disciple and a Fisher of men, which is mentor.

And to be a mentor, I'll put it this way, to make disciples, you

have to be a disciple. That means you got to be fully

devoted. I'll put in the educational

field and plan of God. Second Timothy 2, two from the

Amplified says this. The instructions which you've

heard from me, along with many witnesses, transmit and entrust

as a deposit to reliable and faithful men who will be

competent and qualified to teach others.

Also, God's plan is mentorship. God's saying as you grow, you

need to everything you've learned, everything that's been

invested from you, you need to pour into somebody else.

It's the law of reproduction. There's no higher law in the

Kingdom of God than the law of reproduction, right?

And so he's looking for people that are that'll mentor other

people. This is all throughout the Bible

mentorship, you see, with Eli and Samuel, with Moses and

Joshua, with Paul and Timothy, with Jesus and the disciples,

there was an investment from one generation to the next.

These men modeled it, but then they mentored it.

Mentoring is a relational experience through which one's

one person empowers another by sharing God-given resources, and

it facilitates development and empowerment.

So it's a relational experience to empower and to share with

somebody else so they can grow and develop.

And we need mentors in the body of Christ.

And then the third thing is we need to, after you model it, you

can mentor it. And when you're a mentor, you

have to monitor. In our society, we have this

mediocre people and mediocre people want authority without

accountability. And monitoring means I bring

accountability to your life. Do you know if I get squirrely?

You know what that means? Off the beaten path, my wife

there's knows there's two people she can reach out to and I'll

get a text and I'll get yanked up by the neck, spiritually

slapped on the butt. You know that keeps you straight

when there's somebody that your spouse knows they could reach

out to or if you're singer, somebody you know that is

monitoring your life. Right, 'cause I just want to

stay on track. I remember when I was at Bible

school and my roommate confronted me, 'cause my wife

and I would were starting to take naps together.

We we weren't married at the time, we were just engaged and

we thought it would be a good thing.

We sure did before. You know you're napping on top

of each other. We did say pure, but thank God

for monitoring because my roommate came to me one day and

he said this looks no bueno. He said it no good.

And man, I wanted to like you jive Turkey.

But you know what, he was right. Proverbs 27 six says faith were

the wounds of a friend. It felt like a punch in the gut

at that time. But after I thought about it, I

was like, you're right. Thank God, 'cause we did stay

pure. And if I didn't have somebody

say, hey, that's not right, we've could have failed before

our marriage covenant, but we did not because somebody was

monitoring. So if you really want to achieve

greatness, thank God for those mentors of yours that could ask

the tough questions. The thing with America is we

want independence, and God in the Kingdom is calling us to

interdependence. You know, even in Second

2 Corinthians 13 · chapter mention

Corinthians chapter 13 verse #5 it says this is from the

amplified Second Corinthians 13 verse 5 says examine and test

2 Corinthians 13:5

and evaluate to see whether you're holding to your faith and

showing the proper fruits of it, right?

Examine, test, and evaluate. Thank God for that.

That's called accountability. And after monitoring comes

motivate, you know, 'cause after you get corrected sometimes,

guess what? Listen, that's the voice that

comes in. You're going to make it.

There's hope. Listen, above the clouds, the

sun is always shining. And I like to say it, the SON,

the sun is always shining. So no matter how gloomy the day

or bleak the outlet, there's a thing called hope.

And we need to have a hermeneutic.

You know, hermeneutic is a sermon of hope.

And hope means things can change, things can get better.

God is not done with you yet. And I'm really not trying to be

carnal today. But the only thing I can think

of, and it may be a bad example, and you may have never watched

the movie because I don't think Josh ever watched it, Pastor

Josh, but I'm going to quote it anyways, which is Rocky Balboa.

You need somebody like Mick and says, get up, you bum, it ain't

over. Now, God wouldn't call you a

bum, but Mick was the corner man and you got the Holy Ghost on

the inside of you. You got people around you

cheering you on, saying get up, get up.

The adjustment may fall, but get back up, repent.

He said he's faithful and just to forgive you if you confess

your sins and if God has forgiven you, why are you still

holding on to it? A mentor is going to say, have

you repented? Did you believe that?

Then guess what, let's not do that again.

Let's not go down that track or that course of that decision,

but let's get washed up and cleanse.

Let's get back on course. Just like that, that rerouting

that took place with us at Disney.

God saying, OK, we can still make it.

There was a little delay 'cause you missed the exit, but guess

what? I'm rerouting you and now you're

back on the plan and pathway that I have for you.

And oh, to be in the the plan and pathway of God.

There's nothing like it. There is nothing like it.

So we got to motivate in Hebrews chapter 10, verse #24 this is

Hebrews 10 · chapter mention

such a great scripture. The Amplified Bible says this.

Let us consider thoughtfully how we may encourage one another to

love and good deeds. Are we doing that?

Are we encouraging one another in love and good deeds?

First Thessalonians chapter 5 verse #11 says this.

1 Thessalonians 5 · chapter mention

Therefore, encourage and comfort one another and build up one

another just as you are doing, man.

We should have a word of hope that says man, Gabe, you got

this. You're in 318.

You are a mighty man in training man.

You're not the same that you were in first year.

And wait till we got the sword ceremony next year that you're

going to be in, right? You're gonna get your sword next

year, you're gonna do it. And then after that, you're just

gonna be so impactful for your grandkids.

If the Lord tarries, 'cause you're a mighty man.

That's encouragement. Gabe's in our 318 discipleship

second year and growing and going with the things of God,

and I appreciate that. Has it always been easy?

Has there been monitoring and motivation and mentorship?

But guess what? He's starting to model these

things out now. Man.

This excites the heart of the Father.

Another verse in Isaiah verse 50, I'm sorry, chapter 50 verse

#4 Isaiah chapter 50 verse #4 it says the Lord God has given me

Isaiah 50 · chapter mention

the tongue of the learned man. This is my prayer, that I should

know how to speak a word in season to Him who is weary.

He wakes me morning by morning he wakes me to to my ear to hear

as the learned what a prayer Lord wake me morning by morning

to speak a word to encourage him that's weary.

The next hymn is God wants you to mature.

So he wants you to model. He wants you to mentor mentor.

He wants you to monitor. He wants you to motivate, but

then he wants us to mature. Ephesians chapter 4 verse #15

Ephesians 4 · chapter mention

says this speaking the truth in love me we may grow up.

Turn to your neighbor and say, grow up.

Turn the one on the other side other side and say grow up.

Now look forward and say God wants me to grow man.

In order to reach Frank, we got to grow.

We got to grow. Matthew chapter 5 verse #48 says

Matthew 5 · chapter mention

therefore you shall be perfect, just as your Father in heaven is

perfect. That word perfect does not mean

without fault or failure. It means to be full grown and

mature. Think about it, you can only

reproduce when you get to a certain age.

Did you get that physically? You can only reproduce when you

get. So why does God want you to grow

up so you can reproduce? Colossians chapter one verse #28

says this. It's Jesus that we preach,

warning every man and teaching every man in all wisdom that we

may present every man perfect or fully grown in Christ Jesus or

mature in Christ Jesus. The aim of anointing ministries

to grow you up and mature you. And my last point is this.

And the worship team can come, all four of them.

I went to Pastor Josh right before they were done with

worship on the front side of service has said.

So like, is anybody gonna be left at the end 'cause our

worship team went to camp? I was like, am I gonna have to

like play a banjo up there or something?

Or he told me Rafael, be on the keys.

Good. But the the last thing is

multiply at the Fish Gate because we are evangelist,

evangelistically centered. We are constantly thinking about

people coming into the Kingdom. I mean we are living like I

said, that mission centered life.

Every day is an opportunity. Every day is an opportunity.

What are you doing with your time and your attention?

What seeds are you sowing and what seeds are your water in

'cause some opportunities we have on a daily basis are just

seeds sown. And then then another believer

comes around, another disciple of Jesus Christ, another

fisherman. I remember when I was at

Worthington Steel when my life was floundering around, you see,

Remember I told you about Steve Miller invited me at the same

time I was, I was a college temp at Worthington Steel.

There's this guy named Brian that worked there.

So I was getting the squeeze between Brian and Steve.

You know what I mean? Steve was sewing into my life,

but so was Brian. And as a Fisher of men, Brian,

he was, I was like really not knowing where I where I was

going. I was a bouncer at the time.

I was into powerlifting. Thank God I'm saved.

I was 275 lbs. I don't think my heart would

have sustained that for too long.

Strong but dead. But Brian started, I'm at word

to steal. He starts saying, I know you

like lifting and everything. Have you, have you ever thought

about like vitamins and herbs? What was he doing?

He's looking for a fishing lure bait.

And what's a fisherman do? He puts the right bait on.

I'm not going up as somebody praying in tongues, prophesying

over them. That's not the bait.

No, we need to let our our speech be seasoned with salt.

We are the Sol of the Word, Holy Spirit.

What do I need to say in this moment?

And Brian knew he wasn't preachy to me, but he would ask some

questions and then all of a sudden those questions got a

little bit deeper, like, where's your walk at with the Lord?

And so last thing that is that we should see in this pattern of

modeling of mentoring as we're Fisher of men, of monitoring, of

motivating, of maturing, is we should see multiplication.

Man, I, I look out right now. I'm thankful for everybody's in

attendance. But what it would it be like if

we had this fish gate every day where we're out and we are

connecting people with Christ and then connecting them to the

church. What I'm saying is we should

have a heart to see this place full.

Are you with me? I mean, we should be so mission

centered and focused in discipleship that men are harder

to see this place full. The same way that Christ has

impacted my life out of compassion, I want to see

somebody else's life changed forever, transformed forever,

never going back to the way that it was or used to be.

And we see this in the book of Acts.

Man, there was 120 in Acts chapter one in the upper room

start off with 120 people. We got more than 120 here today,

but we have at least 120. But you know, when you get to

Acts chapter 2, one chapter later, by the end of the verse,

Acts 2 · chapter mention

it says 3000 were added 3000. That's my cry, Lord.

Add 3000 by next Sunday. Let's create a problem with

standing room only. We will.

We will be fluid and put speakers somewhere to reach

everybody, right? You know, in Acts chapter 6

Acts 6 · chapter mention

verse #7 though it said that the disciples multiple multiplied

greatly. I don't even know how much that

is. They gave us 3000 Acts too.

But there should be an increase at this fish gate where we are

winning people. The lost are coming in because

of the redemption of Jesus Christ.

I close with this scripture, Matthew Chapter 9, verses 36 to

Matthew 9:36–38

38. But when Jesus saw the

multitudes, what do you see this week when you're out and about,

'cause I want to see it like Jesus saw it.

It says when he saw the multitudes, he was moved with

compassion because they were weary and scattered like sheep,

having no shepherd. Then he said to the disciples,

those that said, follow me, I will make you fishers of men.

He said to them, The harvest is plentiful.

The harvest is plentiful in Saint Augustine.

The harvest is plentiful in Duval County, the harvest is

plentiful in Northeast Florida, the harvest is plentiful in

Florida, the harvest is plentiful in the world, he said,

but the laborers are few. Pray to the Lord of the harvest

to send out laborers into his harvest.

The question is, are you a laborer this week?

Are you going to rise up to the call in the Commission to go out

and evangelistically win the loss this week by being salt and

being light?