Discover Jesus Series Pt. 8 - Pastor Greg Addison - February 2, 2025

Ministering to the heart of Western Arkansas's River Valley for over 165 years, welcome to Chapter and First, the Bible teaching ministry of Fort Smith's First Baptist Church.

You'll find sermons and teachings from Pastor Greg, our ministry staff, and guest speakers.

Thank you for listening.

Thank you for that time of worship today.

Baptism is just wonderful commissioning men to go off and to share the gospel on our behalf as a church.

It's just a great morning.

I want you to turn with me in your Bibles to Matthew 4 as we continue on our Discover Jesus series.

We have worked through the preparation time of Jesus.

We have seen how he is equipped to help us through our temptation and the struggles of life.

We saw last week how Jesus' sole concern for every person he interacts with is building their faith and their trust in him as their Savior.

So today we're going to pick up kind of this time frame as Jesus goes out now and begins his ministry, and we're going to talk about the business and joy of fishing.

It's awesome.

I love to go fishing.

My dad was a big-time fisherman.

I'm not all that great at it, but I enjoy doing it.

It's a lot of fun, and it's always fun when you see something in Scripture like that that's very interesting.

This is a very iconic story that we're going to read here in Matthew chapter 4.

Matthew 4 · chapter mention

In fact, it is found in three of the four Gospels, it is related.

And it has got one of the most famous statements that Jesus made.

And it certainly for us should be our understanding that it is one of the most important commands that we have from him.

So let's think about the business and joy of fishing today.

In Matthew chapter 4, beginning in verse 13, this is after his temptation time.

Matthew 4 · chapter mention

The Bible says he left Nazareth behind and went to live in Capernaum by the sea in the region of Zebulon and Naphtali.

In other words, those are tribes of Israel.

You know, it's divided into twelve tribes.

And as they went into the land of Canaan, each of these tribes had certain geographic areas.

And so Matthew is making a point here.

As we know, Matthew wrote primarily to the Jewish people to help them understand that Jesus was the Jewish Messiah.

And very often he takes these moments from Jewish culture and he quotes from the Old Testament to identify Jesus as the Messiah and the Savior.

And so this is one of these moments.

He says that Jesus went to this region of Zebulon and Naphtali.

This is the area where these tribes were given their inheritance of land.

And then he says in verse 14, this is, this was to fulfill what was spoken through the prophet Isaiah, and then he quotes from Isaiah, land of Zebulon and land of Naphtali, along the sea road beyond the Jordan, Galilee of the Gentiles, the people who live in darkness have seen a great light.

And for those living in the shadow land of death, light has dawned.

It is a prophecy that Jesus came to bring light into the world, that he came to conquer death and sin and to break those fears and shackles of death.

So the Bible says from then on in verse 17, Jesus began to preach, and here's his message repent, because the kingdom of heaven has come near.

Now I chose this version of the story from Matthew because of this very passage right here.

What we see is that Jesus came for the purpose of leading men and women, boys and girls, to a saving faith in him as the Savior.

And as he begins to preach, and as he begins to step out and explain to folks, that's why he'd come.

Repent of your sin, trust in the Lord, and his provision of salvation, the kingdom of heaven is near.

He is calling them to salvation.

Now, the Bible says, as he was walking along the Sea of Galilee, he lives in that area.

This is in the northern part of Israel.

He's now walking along the banks of the Sea of Galilee.

He saw two brothers, Simon, who was called Peter, and his brother Andrew.

Now, in the book of John, we know that he had already met them.

In fact, Andrew had met Jesus and understood that he was the Messiah, placed his faith in him, and then brought his brother Peter to meet Jesus.

So they had met before this instance.

Okay?

And then the Bible says, they were casting a net into the sea since they were fishermen.

Follow me, he told them, and I will make you fish for people, or fishers of men.

Immediately they left their nets and followed him.

Going on from there, he saw two other brothers, James, the son of Zebedee, and his brother John.

Now, this is who we would understand was the apostle John.

They were in a boat with Zebedee their father, mending their nets, and he called them.

And immediately they left the boat and their father and followed him.

So what you have right there is Jesus beginning to build his team of apostles who will be the ones that he will teach and he will show them how to do ministry in his name, how to share the gospel.

He will reveal who he is to give them that strength and underpinning as the first leaders that he has recruited to go out and advance the gospel.

But it's also important to understand that Jesus doesn't stop with them, he just starts with them.

So what the process that he starts of making them evangelists and fishers of men is just that.

It is a start.

From these 12 men that he calls, it will fan out into others, and then from that it'll fan out into others.

And as you watch through the book of Acts, you will see that the church begins to expand on its mission of evangelism.

And so this is a key spot for us to understand.

We've seen who Jesus is, that he is the Messiah.

We saw last week that he is concerned about people's salvation.

But now it's important that we begin to understand the business that Jesus is about.

The business of fishing.

Now I want you to see the setting of this story for a moment.

It's really fascinating that he calls these men while they are at work in their secular careers.

It's also important he calls twelve men, but it's very unique that these four men are called from the profession of fishing, and he, Jesus, explains and shares this story in detail when the others, you just basically get their names.

You get a little bit more.

One of them you knew was a tax collector.

But these guys right here, he focuses in on their calling and gives us this description.

In fact, in the book of Luke, he gives us an even longer description of this moment.

So it's fascinating.

Why does Jesus focus here on these four men who are fishermen?

And why does he use this as the example of calling?

Well, I think it has to do with fishing.

In Sunday school this morning, my Sunday school teacher, not me, the Sunday school teacher that Janet and I are in, made this comment in our lesson.

If you're not going to a small group, uh, if you're not involved, I want to encourage you, you need to be involved.

We have some incredible Bible teachers and people who are encouraging in the Word.

And today we talked about our fellowships that are coming up in our class, and we have a whole slew of classes that look just like you, I promise.

And you miss moments like this.

Here I am working through this sermon, and my Sunday school teacher makes this comment.

We were studying in Acts chapter 11, and it's a story that's repeated.

Acts 11 · chapter mention

And so we were talking about why would God repeat a story?

Here, you have three different or three Gospels all explaining the same story.

God is repeating Himself on purpose.

And our Sunday school teacher said, look, if God's going to repeat something, he wants you to pay attention to it.

If it's in there, it's really important.

And I'm thinking, that's exactly right.

This is really important.

And the setting of this is important.

Why would he call these men as fishermen?

Jesus is setting up this illustration that I will make you fishers of men.

And I think it is not an accident at all.

It is on purpose that he chooses this setting.

And he delineates and describes the events in these four men's lives in much more detail than when he calls the other eight apostles.

See, fishing back then was hard work.

When we go fishing, my dad was my sort of mentor in the fishing world, and I'm telling you, it was really important.

He had a big old huge bass boat with a big old monster engine in it, and the first thing he loaded was the cooler with all of the drinks.

We always had Cokes and Sprites and root beer.

My dad was a root beer guy and he taught me how to love root beer.

Because people who love Jesus love root beer, right?

And if you love Jesus, you're a fisherman.

And the next most important thing after the cooler of root beer, moon pies.

You had to have moon pies, right?

I'm from Tennessee.

I was born in Tennessee.

My parents raised us there.

Moon pies come from Tennessee.

We all know it's important, right?

So we have moon pies, so it's really important.

And you get out on the boat and you got this big old comfortable boat, these big old cushy seats and this whole deal, and you're eating moon pies, drinking root beers, hanging out with your dad.

Fishing is a blessing.

Amen?

But it's also work.

And in that day it was real work.

I've been out on the Sea of Galilee, and I've been out on one of those boats like they have, and they do not have comfortable bass tracker boat seats on those boats.

Alright?

And the way they would go fishing, they didn't have some cool, you know, rod and reel and all this kind of contraption they have.

It was hard work.

They had nets made of ropes, what we would call ropes.

And they would have weights on those ropes.

And I've had the privilege to go fishing in the Gulf and actually fish like this.

And you would take that net and it would be folded in a certain way, and you would fling that net, and as you flung it out, the weights would cause it to spin around, and it would make a huge circle like a parachute.

And it would hit that water and it would go down.

And as it got down to the level where the fish are, there's a rope that comes from that net, and you start to pull that rope, and it draws that net into a bag, and it pulls those fish out of that boat.

It's hard work, and the fish that come out of the Sea of Galilee are not great.

I would take good old Arkansas crappie and catfish any day over what they're drawing out of the Sea of Galilee.

But they would pull these nets out, and so it was huge, and this is a commercial fishing operation where they're selling these fish, and so these nets are huge, and the nets that would come in, and so this is a commercial setting, and this is their business and their livelihood, and you've got to be good at this.

It's also very messy.

If you've been to the lake and you pull out fish like that and you dump those on the deck, it smells like fish.

It stinks.

And you know, one of the things my dad taught me in fishing when we'd pull bass out, he was all about big mouth bass.

And you'd say, Dad, what are we doing this weekend?

And he'd say, We're going to jerk some lips, right?

Or we'd go and chase bucket mouth, or he had all these different ways.

And he would teach us how to do that, and so then he'd teach us how to clean it because bass is good eating.

And so what we'd flay it.

So he'd bring his electric knife and you lay that bass down and you cut right under the gill, and you go down to a certain level, and then you just run it all the way down the length of the fish, and you cut out all the bones.

You've got a beautiful fillet.

And when you're really good at this, it goes pretty quick.

You go whoosh and you flip it over, it flops over, you run it right off the skin, flip it over, do that, and it's great.

Man, back then, they're in the whole thing like your grandma and grandpa's taught you how to do it, where you're gutting the fish and pulling out the guts and doing all that business.

Praise the Lord for electric knives.

And so it's messy and it's bloody, and you got all this stuff going on, and it smells, and it's hard work, and you're dragging all these fish in, and you're rowing out to where they are.

And if you row out to where your normal sweet spot is, and you throw the fish in there, and there's no fish under there, or the schools have moved, and you're pulling it in, it can be a time where it's empty and there's nothing happening, and you're trying to pull those fish in, and you're feeling like you're a failure, and how am I gonna feed my family if I have two or three days without the fish?

And Jesus picks this setting on purpose.

He wants them, as he is beginning to call and train them into fishing, he wants them to understand what they're doing and what this is about.

I think he's setting a setting in their lives that they will always draw back to.

He wants them to understand and remember the smell of the Sea of Galilee and the lake out there.

He wants them to remember the smell of fish.

He wants them to remember the work involved, what it takes to go out to where the fish are and to bring them back in.

Because he is about to call them to himself and put them in the business that Jesus came for, and that is fishing for the souls of men.

It is evangelism, going out into a lost world and sharing with people that Jesus loves them so much that he died for them on the cross, so that he could pay the price for their sins, and helping them to understand who Jesus is and why he did that, so they'll place their faith in him as a substitute for their own deaths.

They trust Jesus' death on the cross, and then he rose again, conquering death and sin to offer them forgiveness, to offer them new life, to offer them eternal life.

And as he is creating this image in these men's minds, he wants them to understand this is the business that we're about.

This is the professional, if you can use that term, work and purpose and intentionality for why I came.

Gentlemen, when you go out and you start becoming the church and then leading the church and teaching the church that this is your business.

Going out and finding lost people, fishing for the souls of men and bringing them to the gospel.

I want you to remember the work.

I want you to remember the knowledge.

I want you to remember the joy and success when you bring in a hall.

I want you to remember the burden of when you cast your nets and no one, no fish have come in, and you have to commit yourself, recommit yourself to find out what went wrong and what to do and get back out there because it is not allowed to fail if you're a commercial fisherman.

And he wants them to be reminded of that as the church, as the leaders of the church, as the foundation of the church, as setting the intention of the church and the goal of the church and the purposes of the church.

Jesus is he's picking this setting for a reason.

It is not an accident that he highlights the calling of these men from this profession of fishing, and then he directly connects the intentionality of evangelism to the fishing of men.

The fishing of men.

So when you break this down, really, this powerful statement of Jesus, follow me, follow me, and I will make you a fisher of people.

There are just three components to that statement.

So I'm just going to put those three components up there on the screen.

We're going to work through these, but I want you to understand that this is what we are about.

We are about the business of fishing.

That is our purpose in being.

It is the business of fishing.

Jesus, after they have had this moment where they are fishing and they're doing what they're doing, John and James is a little bit different.

They're in the boat and they're maintaining the nets.

They are about the professional business of keeping their equipment in place and in good working order and being ready for the next day when they go out to fish again.

And so he gets James, he gets James and John doing the prep work and the maintenance work.

He gets Peter and Andrew in the pulling in of the fish, and he's covered this whole picture.

And then he, each of them, he tells them, first, follow me, follow me.

Now that in the original language, that word is interesting.

Follow me.

He says, I am calling you to follow me as a mentor and become my disciple.

That's the word that's described in this original language.

It has word pictures attached to it.

One description I saw it means when he says, follow me, you are following so close on his heels that as he walks on the dusty roads of Galilee, the dust from his sandals is kicked back on you.

He is calling them to his purpose.

Follow me, become my follower.

See what I see, hear what I hear, love what I love, preach what I preach, do what I do, become like me.

Follow me so close that my example becomes how you do what you do.

We also see in this picture that all four of these men, they were in the family business.

In fact, it even describes James and John with their father learning from them the family trade of fishing, just like I had a chance to learn from my dad.

They're learning from their dad.

And he says, You follow me, I want you to learn from me now.

We're going to take those lessons that you've learned and we're going to extrapolate them.

And I want you on my side.

I want you so close that as I walk out into a lost world to preach the gospel and call people to salvation, I literally want you so close that the dust from my sandals lands on you.

When he says follow me, he's saying you become like me.

You have the same mission and purpose as I do.

You have the same heart as I do.

As you read in the next few verses, the Bible says, verse 23, for example, Jesus was going all over Galilee, teaching in their synagogues, preaching the good news of the kingdom, and healing every disease and sickness among the people.

All of that Jesus is doing, and he has them right on his heels, and he is drawing them in, teaching, engaging, helping them model.

He wants them to understand this is our business.

We are fishermen.

We're healing, but we're not a hospital.

We're teaching, but we're not educators.

We're engaged in people, but we're not a community organization.

Gentlemen, as you follow me, you are called to one purpose.

You follow me.

I am doing this because I am going to die on the cross for them, and that is your message.

I did it because without me, all of you will die and spend an eternity in hell.

That's why Jesus said, For God so loved the world that he gave his only son, and Jesus understood his purpose.

He described himself in the book of Luke as the Son of Man, and he says, The Son of Man has come to seek and to save the lost.

Fellows, as you follow me, everywhere we go, we're fishing for lost souls.

Gentlemen, this is about more people in heaven and less people in hell.

Gentlemen, our business is calling people to repentance and seeing them place their faith in God's plan of salvation.

Fellows, everything that we do has a purpose.

When I heal someone, it's so that they will know that I am the Son of God, that I profess to be, and I have the ability and the power and the authority to forgive their sin.

When I'm teaching the Word of God, all in that I am teaching so that they understand that the number one theme of Scripture, the thread that runs throughout, the purpose on every page, the theme in every book, is God's plan of salvation and calling people to be saved.

And fellas, I need you to follow me so you can become like me.

Now, the next piece of that is easy to get to.

I will make you fishers of men.

Follow me, and I will make you fishers of men.

He calls them in that setting of fishing because he wants them to understand that this fishing is what we do.

Listen, there's a reason that our church has a heritage of evangelism.

There is a reason why our church has a long history of men who have stood here on this stage or in other buildings that used to dot this property.

And at the end of the service, they called people to Jesus and they gave an invitation.

And they offered the opportunity to be saved.

There's a reason that our church is built on this heritage because of all of those preachers and the heritage of all those people at First Baptist Church of Fort Smith, from its very founding, well over a hundred years ago, understood that we're here to fish for lost people.

All the other things we do are all and should be for the purpose of drawing the nets.

As we work, as we disciple, as we become like Jesus, the whole point of that is to be like Jesus, the fisherman, who is fishing for the souls of men.

I read a book a few years ago, first part of my ministry, that really became a powerful thing.

There are certain books that, you know, you read and you just kind of blow through them and whatever, and then there are certain ones that grab your attention and then you just hang on to them and it becomes some wisdom for us.

It was a book written a number of years ago by a pastor in Nashville, Tennessee that I respected.

Some friends of ours went to his church, and he talked about in one chapter what kind of church are you going to be, and he listed the purposes of the church.

And depending on what author you're looking at, it's all kind of a look list that looks like this.

The purposes of the church are evangelism, worship, community, ministry, discipleship, and stewardship.

Those things are the purposes of the church.

If you block down all the things that we do, we're doing evangelism, we're doing worship, we're doing discipleship, we're doing community, we're doing stewardship.

All of those things are transforming us into the image of Jesus.

But when Jesus said, follow me, I'll make you fishers of men, he is trying to make the point with his followers, it all starts with evangelism.

It all starts with evangelism.

And the pastor in this book, when he listed those chapters, he said, Here's what you must understand.

If you're understanding this story and this calling of Jesus, that our calling, our business is fishing.

He said, You start with that.

He said, Now listen, it's good to have worship in your church.

It's biblical.

We should do that.

Worship is a part of that.

It's what draws us to Jesus.

It's what lost people see.

They've got something that I don't have.

But he said, listen, if you start with worship, you may or may not get to evangelism.

Discipleship is vital.

We can't just see people saved and then leave them trying to figure out what happens in the rest of their lives.

The Great Commission begins with baptize them in the name of the Father and Son of the Holy Spirit and teach them to observe whatever I've commanded you.

So discipleship is a vital part of what we do.

But he said a lot of churches start with discipleship and never get to evangelism.

You can start with community and you can really build a fellowship in your church and it'd be a great place to be, and people love each other in the love of Jesus, and they're doing ministry for each other and they're taking care of each other.

And you can have a church where everyone in the church takes care of each other.

And if people come in and join, we take care of them too and welcome them and love them.

But if you start with community, you may or may not get to evangelism.

He said, but if you understand that our business is fishing and you start with evangelism, you are going to worship because people are getting saved in your church.

We see that in days like today, don't we?

Like last week, when people get saved and we worship, and there is a spirit in our worship because we are watching people whose lives they have given to Christ, and we see them, that picture of salvation, they're buried with him in the likeness of his death and raised in the likeness of his resurrection, as Brother Roger said today.

And because of that, our worship is elevated because we're seeing what God is doing and we're praising him as the God of salvation.

If you are evangelizing people and people are coming to faith in Christ, man, you're going to have to disciple them because you got all these new Christians and these new believers, and you got to help them with the walk and you got to teach them what happens, and they have questions.

What happens now?

And how do I do that?

And if they get saved, then we're going to disciple them and we're going to do that.

If people are getting saved, we're going to fold them into our church family and we're going to love them.

But we have to start with evangelism because our business is fishing.

Jesus didn't say, I will make you pastors and shepherds.

Jesus didn't say, I will make you like David and Asaph and men of the Old Testament who made instruments to praise to the glory of God.

Those are biblical and that's in Scripture.

But what he said is, gentlemen, I need you to remember the smell of fish.

I need you to remember the joy of pulling in a catch and the stress of missing fish and the intent and the focus that you went through to try to figure out the next day where did the fish go?

Because I have to catch fish.

I need you to remember that because I'm going to make you fishers of men.

You're going to fish for people.

And so our first purpose is to share the gospel and to call people to faith in Christ.

That does not in any way lessen the importance of worship and the necessity of discipleship.

In fact, one of the reasons that we don't have as many soul winners in the church today is because we're not effective enough at discipling them to get there.

You see, if the business of the church is fishing, everybody's supposed to be a fisherman.

Everyone is supposed to be involved.

To be successful as a commercial fisherman, it's all hands on deck, and everybody's got to pull in, and the only way to grow your business is more people fishing, bringing in more fish.

And Jesus is making this picture to them.

He is illustrating this point.

Everything about this moment relates to the lesson that he is teaching.

I will make you fishers of men.

My illustrations as just a Greg fall apart.

I mean, they're, I'm lucky if they have a point, right?

Jesus' illustrations, they never break down.

And he is making the point.

Gentlemen, when you go out, you're going to be fishermen, and then you're going to teach the next round of fish, and you're going to teach the next round of fish, and you're going to teach the next round of fish.

That's why at the end of his ministry, before he ascends to heaven, we have two places where he gives the marching orders.

He tells these men that he had taught to be fishers of men.

And Matthew chapter 28.

Matthew 28 · chapter mention

Here's what it is: go into all the world.

And they're thinking, yeah, I remember when Jesus called me.

I remember the strain of the oars.

We didn't catch enough fish off of this point, and we didn't catch enough of fish right here.

We got to go farther to find the fish.

Because Jesus said, Go into all the world.

In Acts chapter 1, verse 8, Jesus says it this way.

Acts 1:8

You'll receive the Holy Spirit, and then you'll have power, and you'll do what?

Paint the synagogue, expand the synagogue, put a sign out on the roadway so that anybody who sees it might come to church where we are.

No.

You'll go and be witnesses to me in Jerusalem, in Judea, Samaria, and the uttermost part of the earth.

You will go where the fish are because you are a fisherman.

And going to where the fish are is what we do.

Jesus said, Follow me and I will make you like me.

Follow me.

I'm calling you to be my disciple.

I'm calling you to allow me to mentor you.

I want you so close that the dust on my heel of my sandals falls on you, and I want you to see what I'm doing, and I want you to learn because you're going to do the same thing.

You're going to be a fisherman the way I'm a fisherman.

And then he says, I will make you.

This is one of those things you have to learn.

Fishing is hard to learn, especially back in that day.

There's so much to learn and so much to do.

I have so many stories about my dad trying to teach me how to fish, and I'm really not that good a fisherman.

It's not natural for me.

I remember when I was a young guy, and my kids were little, and my dad, his main source of recreation, he had a high-level job in a pharmaceutical manufacturing company in Memphis.

I used to say my dad makes drugs, and that didn't really go well.

So I had to clarify that.

He works for a legal company.

And so his main stress relief was to go fishing, and so he'd call me and he'd say, We're going fishing.

And we for so many times went to Sardis Reservoir in Sardis, Mississippi, which is about an hour, a little over an hour south of Memphis, and some of you may know that.

It's a huge reservoir, it's an incredible fishing location.

And so we'd go out there and he'd always fish at night.

He loved fish at night.

I don't know why.

I'm like, Dad, like, let's sleep.

What are we doing?

But he had root beer and moon pies, so I was in, right?

And I remember one time we're out there fishing and he's trying to teach me how to worm fish.

And that's really difficult to do that.

You guys know what I'm talking about.

If you're fishing plastic and you string it several different ways, my dad would teach me how to come through the top and through and pull it through.

Bobby Dyer, he does a wacky worm deal.

That's like you got the worm and you do it in a half and it flops around, and I hadn't figured out.

Bobby is a great fisherman because he can do that.

I can't figure out how to do that.

So I'm out there fishing, and so what happens is you throw it out there and it goes down to the bottom and you kind of bump it along the bottom.

And his favorite place to fish was called the rock pile.

And so why he needed this big old 29-foot bass boat with a 250-horse motor on it to go from me to the four-year off the boat ramp where the rock pile was, I have no idea.

But that was kind of his thing.

So we'd pull in and we'd go over to the rock pile, literally was about from where I'm standing, to the four year of the church, and then we'd fish all around it, and there were all kinds of fish around that.

So there'd be all kinds of fishermen out there.

Now you got a picture.

At night on the water, it's quiet.

And if you say anything, you can hear, and it projects across the water.

So here I am, I'm out there, it's a full moon.

I'm in this boat with my dad.

I'm trying to enjoy my moon pies.

And he's trying to make us learn how to worm fish, and there's about eight other boats wrapped around the rock pile.

And we throw it out there, and I'm trying to figure this out, and it's bumping across the bottom, and apparently what'll happen is a bass will come up to it and he'll bump it and play with it as you move it along.

Very seldom is it a and hammer it like that when you're worm fishing.

Now you got some lures that you're dragging through and they make a lot of noise.

It makes bass mad and they hit it hard and it's exciting because your rod bends over it.

You do all this.

I'm like, Dad, why can't we do that?

But we're doing this thing and it's bumping across the bottom, and they play with it, and they kind of whatever.

And I, it's hard to know if it's a bass or just snag a rock or something.

And I'm trying to figure that out, and some of you guys that are good at it, I see you laughing at me out there.

And I'm trying to figure that out, and it's hard.

I'm doing that, and my dad begins to get frustrated.

And so he begins to coach me here on the lake where you can hear a whisper with all these other boats.

Son, can't you see he's eating your line?

I'm like, Dad, that's a rock.

And he goes, Set the hook, that's a fish.

And you hear chuckles just like y'all did across the water.

And he goes, son, you got to learn how to do this.

Just watch this and do what I do.

And he throws it out there and he starts to bump it along and he goes, Okay, son, here it is.

He's playing with it.

He's playing, oh, he spit it out.

And I'm thinking, you're just making that up.

That's ridiculous.

No, here he is, here he is.

He's got it again, he's got it again.

And when my dad set a hook, he set the hook.

Let me tell you what, the boat shook when my dad set a hook.

I mean, if you didn't break a rib setting a hook, he called you a wimp.

Like, set the hook.

And so he's over there, here he is, here he is.

He put it out.

No, here he is, and he and he's got a big old fish.

And I'm over there playing, and he goes, Set the hook, set the hook, son! And I jerk it, and it's no fish, and it comes out of the water and flops over.

And 14 men on Lake Sardis are laughing at me over this deal.

You got to learn how to fish.

I went a few years ago, I've started fishing on my kayak, which is a whole lot more fun.

I enjoy it because I like the boat, and you're doing all this.

And I went down with some friends to the Gulf of Mexico, and we're fishing south of New Orleans in kind of the brackish water, and we're fishing for speckled trout and redfish, and they're awesome.

Man, you get a redfish about that big, and he lights on your boat and he starts pulling your kayak around.

You feel like you've caught Moby Dick, it's awesome.

Okay.

But I'd never done that kind of fishing before, and you have these metal leaders, and you do all this, and you I've got a live well back in here, and I've got shrimp in there, and you pull out that live shrimp, and it's kind of creepy on your hand, and he's wiggling, and I'm like, get fried and be on my plate.

And so you set that thing and you throw it out there, and it's this metal leader, and I didn't know how to do this.

First time I've ever done that.

So they made some for me, and we set them out there, and it dangles around, and that fish hits it, and it pulls this big bobber down, and you got a fish on it, it's awesome.

Well, I'm trying to figure that out, and and you know, you lose leaders and stuff get caught or whatever.

And so rather than just make new leaders and hand them out because we're all fishing, God just hands me his rod and just use this, and it's got a leader on it, and we'll keep going, make it later.

So I got this rod.

And if you know anything about reels, there's the reel that sits on the top of the rod, and you'd use your thumb and you throw it out and it wheels and comes back.

There's another reel that's a bigger one, and it hangs below, and you pull this thing across the top, you grab the string with your finger, and when you cast it, it makes a loop.

When you cast a normal kind of rod, you cast it out, bait casting rod, and it just kind of goes on a line.

But this thing, if you do it not exactly right, it makes this big old loop.

So here I am, I'm using this guy's rod.

I've never used this particular reel he has.

It's bigger, and it's so it makes this big loop, and I'm trying to fish out there, and I catch a red fish, and I'm telling you, it's awesome.

It's about this big.

This is not a fish story, it legit is that big.

It's awesome.

And so I put it on the stringer, I wrap it on the side of my kayak on a handle, and then I start fishing again.

And as I throw that deal out there, there's a tree sticking up over here, and I'm trying to get close to the tree, and it makes this big old loop, and I hang it on a limb about 12 feet in the air, and then it falls down.

And then I get a fish on, and it's 12 feet in the air, and I look hear this splashing next to my kayak, and the stringer has come undone, and the one I've got on the stringer is trying to swim away.

So I've got one on the line, it's over a limb, 12 feet in the air, and I'm trying not to lose the fish I got, and that fish.

And I'm trying to do this, and I happen to look up and I see my two buddies on kayaks over there, and they are laughing so hard they're about to fall out of their boat.

It's hard to learn how to fish.

There are nuances.

There are different lures, there are different places that you go to find the fish.

There are different ways that you set the hook.

I came from my dad screaming at me in front of all those Mississippi rednecks on Lake Stardust to set the hook as hard as you can.

If you set the hook like that in a redfish, you're gonna pull it right out of his mouth.

You got to learn.

You don't start out being an excellent fisherman.

In fact, you start out catching fish by accident.

There's always something to learn, and there's always a new way to do it.

And there's this always this drive, I've got to catch another one, and one more cast, and this is not working here, and I wonder if that's stump, or I wonder if there are logs over there, or I wonder if I go over here and we're pursuing the fish, and you're always learning something.

Again, Jesus says, I will make you fishers of men.

It's okay that we don't start out knowing how to fish for lost people.

Jesus makes it clear it's okay.

I am going to teach you, follow me, stand at my hip, dust off my sandals.

You're so close, you're learning our purpose of fishing.

Fellas, stand right here, go with me, and we're going to learn how to fish.

In fact, James and John, in their part of that, he calls them while they're with their father, doing what he's taught them to do.

So that when Jesus uses the illustration of fishing for men, and he says, I will make you, they understand he's going to teach us how to do this.

Here's the question in this first message for us.

Number one, are you following Jesus?

Didn't ask you if you're in church or whatever.

Has there been a moment in your life where you've trusted Christ as your Savior, where you have realized I'm going to die and go to hell without Jesus?

I cannot fix what's wrong in my life.

I cannot forgive myself.

And I see how much Jesus loves me, that he died for me on the cross, that he offered me a way of salvation.

Have you placed your faith in Jesus?

If not, in a moment, we're going to sing a hymn.

Our pastors will be here, and we're going to invite you to come and trust Jesus.

Next question.

Are you in the family business?

Are you joined in the fishing?

Are you fishing?

Who have you told about the gospel?

Who have you invited to church?

Who's on your love list that you're praying over?

When God has called you to go on one of these mission trips, did you say yes or did you say no?

If a friend asks you to be their prayer partner when on the trip, are you faithfully pleading as a fisherman for people to be saved?

Are you fishing?

If not, it's okay.

Nobody starts out as a fisherman.

You're gonna throw over the limb a few times.

You're gonna get hung up and lose a lure.

You're gonna have times that you cast and you get no bites.

But you know what?

Jesus will make you a fisherman if you'll follow him.

Jesus has promised to teach you to fish.

Jesus has promised to bring you in the business, and Jesus wants to give you the joy of hauling in the fish.

Over the next week or two, we're going to talk about that making process.

But it is so important that we understand that we have to take this first week and remind us that this is our, all of us, our business.

It's not the business of the church, it's the business of everybody who's in the church.

And so I want to encourage you today, just think about how my fishing education is going.

I want you to bow your heads as we close.

If you've never accepted Christ as your Savior, that call from Jesus to follow him comes, and it's the place that it starts.

And I want to invite you in just a moment to come and place your faith in Jesus as a Savior.

It is literally why he came.

We are sharing with you this gospel invitation, whether you're watching online or you're here in person, because it is our business to tell you that Jesus loves you and he died for you on the cross.

He conquered death and sin for you so you could be saved and forgiven and have an eternity spend in heaven with him.

Come and give your life to him.

We have folks here that'll help you with that.

We'll be glad to pray with you and talk with you if you have any questions about that decision.

And then for those of us who are saved, my question for us is how's fishing going?

And I'm just gonna make a simple commitment to ask you for a simple commitment today.

Just say, Lord, I want to allow you to make me a fisherman.

Don't worry about what that means.

We'll sort some of that out as it goes.

We'll learn all this together.

But this morning, I just want you to make a commitment.

I will follow Jesus so I can be a fisherman like him.

Lord, we love you and we thank you, and we come and we ask that you do your work in and through us today.

And if there are folks who need to be saved, Lord, that is why we are here to share the gospel with them.

And I pray, Father, that you'll give them the freedom to respond to be saved.

If there's someone who needs to deal with a baptism decision, we thank you for Brad's step of faith and showing that to us today.

And I pray, Father, if that stirs someone's heart and that's a part of their following you, give them the freedom to make that decision, to get that baptism correct.

And for the rest of us, Lord, I pray that you'll help us surrender to the education process of becoming a fisherman.

We pray these things in the saving name of Jesus when all God's people said.

We pray this message has been a blessing to you and helped to strengthen your walk with Jesus.

Please know we want to minister to you and pray for you.

Send an email to contact us at fsfbc.org and let us pray for you and help you in any way we can.

Thank you for listening to Chapter and First, the Bible Teaching Ministry of Fort Smith's First Baptist Church.