Forsaking The Nets

WHAT ARE THESE THREE LIFE CHANGING DECISIONS?

(1) WHEN YOU GET MARRIED

Ask any married person if their life changed when they got married, and I am confident you will find that there were many changes made when they made this life changing decision.

(2) WHEN YOU HAVE CHILDREN

When a couple chooses to make this life changing decision to have a baby, that little baby will determine:

• If there is going to be quietness in the home

• When everyone in the home can sleep or not sleep

(3) WHEN YOU ACCEPT JESUS CHRIST AS YOUR LORD AND SAVIOR

This is the biggest life-changing decision we can make. Once we make it, we will never again be the same. NEVER!

Now I am pretty sure that some of you know of people who claimed to have made this life-changing decision, and shortly after that, they were back:

• Telling lies

• Telling dirty jokes

• Gambling

• Drinking

• Cursing

You couldn’t see any difference in the way they lived their life after they got saved from the way they lived before they got saved.

WHAT HAPPENED TO THESE PEOPLE? THESE PEOPLE NEVER GOT SAVED! They do not know the difference between PROFESSION and POSSESSION!

WE CAN PROFESS ANYTHING WE WANT TO PROFESS, BUT PROFESSING SOMETHING DOES NOT MAKE IT REAL!

Illus: (Select someone in the congregation that can take a joke) For example, ___________may PROFESS to have the skills of a brain surgeon. DOES HE? He may PROFESS TO HAVE THOSE SKILLS, but knowing him the way I know him, I do not believe he POSSESSES those skills!

The same can be true in MARRIAGE. There are some who go to the sacred altar of holy matrimony and profess to love some one.

Illus: One pastor had a young couple start attending his church. After several weeks, they came to him and expressed a desire to get married. He counseled with them, and performed the wedding. It was a beautiful wedding and all seemed to go well. Soon the couple stopped coming to church. One day the young lady came to the pastor’s office and told him that her marriage was over. She said that shortly after the wedding, she caught her husband in a compromising situation with another woman.

That young man had deceived this beautiful young girl into thinking he loved her. HE TRICKED HER, AND EVERYONE WHO ATTENDED THE MARRIAGE CEREMONY INTO THINKING THAT HE LOVED HER!

But folks cannot fool the Lord, and make Him believe they love Him when they do not. HE IS OMNISCIENT - HE KNOWS!

Look at Matt. 7: 22-23, “Many will say to me in that day, Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in thy name? and in thy name have cast out devils? and in thy name done many wonderful works? And then will I profess unto them, I never knew you: depart from me, ye that work iniquity.”

According to the Word of God, Hell is going to be full of church members who SAID:

• They loved the Lord

• They accepted Him as their Savior

But that is all that it was, NOTHING BUT WORDS!

When a person receives Christ, their lives WILL CHANGE! If a person really gets saved, THERE WILL BE A CHANGE IN THEIR LIVES!!

2 Cor. 5:17, “Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new.”

Many people simply make a decision to be saved, and there is no repentance or remorse over sin in their lives

Confession and repentance are things that accompany true salvation. Some people are really not serious when they profess to get saved.

I’d like you to notice that once these men had an encounter with the Lord Jesus Christ, and accepted His invitation to follow Him, “... they forsook their nets, and followed him.”

These fishing nets had been a part of their lives for many years, but once they accepted the Lord, they forsook their nets and followed him.

When we think of these men leaving their nets, we realize that anything that keeps us from following the Lord is a net that we must be willing to forsake.

Christians cannot continue in sin and follow Jesus at the same time. Things must change! This is why the Lord said -

I. WE ARE THE LIGHT OF THE WORLD

Matt. 5:14-16, “Ye are the light of the world. A city that is set on an hill cannot be hid. Neither do men light a candle, and put it under a bushel, but on a candlestick; and it giveth light unto all that are in the house. Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father which is in heaven.”