Gone Fishin’
Every year about February or March, it starts. Cody starts asking me, “When are you gonna
get your license so we can go fishing?” He LOVES to fish. He’d like to go several times a week
if we could. Now, he hasn’t been nagging me, but when he asked me again a couple of weeks
ago, I decided it was about time to get my “license to throw back anything I might catch.” What
you might correctly call a “fishing license”. So we made a trip uptown to LaPorte Sporting
Goods and bought the legal documents allowing me to “drown worms and/or feed the fish”.
This was around the middle of the day and, of course, Cody wants to go “right now”.
Considering myself to be somewhat of an “expert”, you know, having read all the books and
having fished for years, I tell him we’ll go first thing in the morning because fishing is better in
the mornings or evenings. Of course he wanted an explanation. So I told him that fish eat best at
those times and therefore we’ll have the best chance of catching them then.
So we get down to the Mill Pond right after breakfast and see about 6 or 8 other people that
have already “staked out” their prime fishing spots. Fortunately no one has taken our spots. We
get our poles out, put on our bobbers, sinkers, and bait and commence to fishin’ over by the big
drain. We’re casting and waiting. Ok, I’m casting and waiting. Cody generally casts 10-15 times
to my one. And he always wants to see who casts the farthest. So he’s casting and casting. He
starts out pretty good. He’ll leave the bait sit for 30 sec. to a min. before reeling it in to cast
again. And he doesn’t just reel it in. You know, slow, so any fish swimming by can see it and
maybe be enticed into grabbing on. No, I picture the fish being spectators at the Indy 500
hundred and the bait being a car going around the track at 200 M.P.H. But he’s enjoying himself.
He is catching things, too. Moss, sticks, etc. But he’s having fun fishing with dad.
This gets old, so we move across the driveway to the spillway. Now it gets exciting. There are
trees, rocks, and power or phone lines running overhead somewhat near to where we are casting.
So we’re casting and getting a few bites. By now, Cody’s up to 15-20 casts to my one. And he is
improving, he only cast one over the power/phone lines. Being experienced at these sort of
things, I deftly get his line off without getting it snagged. Of course there are still the trees and
rocks. If you want, I can show you Cody’s 2 bobbers and one of mine have been enshrined in the
“Mill Pond Bobber Hall of Fame”, along with a multitude of others.
I know we’d get more bites if we put on real worms, but we’d also spend more time
replacing the worms that got zinged off in casting or taken off by a fish. So we use artificial bait.
We also had to untangle the lines a few times. By now, we’re about an hour into our fishing.
Cody has taking to throwing rocks (not stones or pebbles) at his bobber to see how close he can
come to it. That won’t scare the fish will it? But he’s having a blast. Along about this time, my
mind starts formulating this sermon you’re hearing today.
All of these things that are happening bring to my mind the “fish story” we read today. We
are called to be “fishers of men”. This whole fishing trip with Cody has similarities to our lives
as Christians and how we share the “Good News” with others around us. There are lessons we
need to understand.
Lesson 1:The Equipment
To fish, you have to have the right equipment. Sometimes a stick and string will work,
sometimes you need a bigger pole with heavier line, sometimes you need waders or a boat to get
out into the waters where the fish are. As Christians, our equipment is simpler: our commitment
to Jesus and the Word of God. But we must learn to use our equipment effectively. We must
practice our “fishing” techniques to catch fish. We must go fishing. Sometimes our fishing lines
get “tangled”.
There was a barber who felt it his duty to witness to his customers, but he wasn’t always careful
and sometimes his lines got “tangled”. One day he lathered a man for a shave, picked up the
razor, and asked, “Sir, are you prepared to meet your God?” The poor guy flew out that door
with the lather still on his face.
Lesson 2: The Bait
Like I said we use artificial bait instead of real worms. I know we’d catch more fish, or at
least a fish, if we used live bait. There are situations when artificial bait works great, other times
when you need the worms, minnows, etc. to catch anything. Different fish require different bait.
As fishers of men, we have to use different methodologies. No plan is foolproof. But the only
bait we better be using is God’s Word that reveals to us that Jesus Christ is the only way.
And the bait must be enticing to the fish. You have to make the fish want what you’re
offering. The young salesman was disappointed about losing a big sale, and as he talked with his
sales manager he complained, "I guess it just proves you can lead a horse to water but you can’t
make him drink." The manager said, "Son, take my advice: your job is not to make him drink.
Your job is to make him thirsty." Our lives should be so filled with Christ that they create a
thirst for the Gospel. Sometimes our bait is just our living in the world. Sometimes you are the
only Bible someone will ever read.
MATT. 5:14 “You are the light of the world. A city on a hill cannot be hidden. 15 Neither do
people light a lamp and put it under a bowl. Instead they put it on its stand, and it gives light to
everyone in the house. 16 In the same way, let your light shine before men, that they may see
your good deeds and praise your Father in heaven.”
Lesson 3: The Cast
You can’t catch a fish without casting. You have to get your bait out there among the fish to
have a chance at reeling them in. You have to know where to cast, where the fish are, too. One
evening, this preacher was walking with his son, who was then 12 or 13 years old. The father
surprised the son by taking him into a saloon! The place was crowded with men and women,
many of them bearing on their faces the marks of vice and crime; some were drunk. The fumes
of alcohol and tobacco were strong. "Willie," he said to his son, "These are our people; these are
the people I want you to live for and bring to Christ." Years later, that son commented, “That
made a lasting impression on me.”
Those people down at the pond had their spots staked out. But the fish aren’t always
there, sometimes you have to move to a new spot and start casting there, like Cody and I did. But
you have to be careful of getting caught in things like trees, rocks, and power lines. Satan puts
out snares like this to mess you up and cut into your fishing time. Which leads us into lesson #4.
Lesson 4: Time (patience)
There are no guarantees. You may fish all day and not catch anything. Cody and I fished
for about an hour and only got a few bites. Cody is losing patience, he’s casting more often and
reeling in faster. When he quits reeling in, he starts throwing rocks in by his bobber. We’re like
that. If we don’t see results fairly soon, we lose interest. We rush through it, then quit casting
altogether. We need to remember, some plant, some water, some reap.
Lesson 5: Go
You can’t fish in your living room. There is the story about a fisherman from Minnesota.
You see, this fisherman was very well prepared. He knew how to fish. He had everything you
need to be a good fisherman. He had poles, nets, bait, and even a really nice boat, but this
fisherman had a problem. You see, for all his preparation he never caught anything. Not one fish.
Not one, not ever. And you know why he never caught a fish? What do you think? The answer’s
easy: He never went fishing. He had all the knowledge and all the equipment, but he never got
into the boat, he never left the dock.
Jesus met unbelievers where they were. He realized what many Christians today still don’t seem
to understand. We have to get out in the field. According to one count, the gospels record 132
contacts that Jesus had with people. Six were in the Temple, four in the synagogues and 122
were out with the people in the mainstream of life, in everyday living.
Statistics show that only 3% of all lost people come to church on their own. So by doing a
little math, that tells us that 97% of lost people are out there, lost, helpless, powerless,
condemned, and alienated from God. We must go where they are and share the Good News.
The late Sam Shoemaker, an Episcopalian bishop, summed up the situation this way: "In the
Great Commission the Lord has called us to be--like Peter--fishers of men. We’ve turned the
commission around so that we have become merely keepers of the aquarium. Occasionally I take
some fish out of your fishbowl and put them into mine, and you do the same with my bowl. But
we’re all tending the same fish."
You’ve all gotten your fishing license. You have the right equipment. The Gospel of Good
News is the best bait in the world. Cast it out there by whatever method you feel comfortable
with. Have patience, allow time for the Holy Spirit to work. As Jesus said to the Samaritan, “Go
and do”. And don’t throw rocks at your bobber.
