When Fishermen Don’t Fish
Matthew 4:18-20
In his book In the Eye of the Storm, Max Lucado tells about something that happened to him while he was in high school. Every year, he and his family used to go fishing during spring break. But one year, his brother and his mom couldn’t go, so his dad let him invite a friend.
They looked forward to this vacation with great anticipation. They pictured the sun shining down on them as they sat in the boat in the middle of the lake. The yank of the rod and the spin of the reel as they wrestled the bass into the boat. The smell of fish frying in a skillet over an open fire. They could hardly wait. Finally spring break arrived, they loaded the camper and set out for the lake.
They arrived at night, set up the camper and went to bed anxious to get up the next morning and go fishing. But that night, a northeaster blew through. The wind was so strong they could barely open the door of the camper the next morning. The sky was gray. The lake was choppy. There was no way they could fish in that weather.
"No problem," they said. They could spend the day in the camper. They had brought Monopoly and Reader’s Digest. They knew a few jokes. It wasn’t what they came to do, but they would make the best of it and fish the next day. So they passed the day indoors. The hours passed slowly but they did pass. Night finally came and they crawled into their sleeping bags dreaming of fishing.
The next morning it wasn’t the wind that made the door hard to open, it was the ice! They tried to be cheerful. "No problem," they said. "We can play Monopoly...again. We can reread the stories in Reader’s Digest. And surely we know another joke or two." But they weren’t nearly as cheerful about it all.
And as the day went on, they began to get more and more irritable and edgy. It was a long day and a long night. The next morning, when they awoke to the sound of sleet hitting the roof, they didn’t even pretend to be cheerful. They were flat-out grumpy. They sat in misery the whole day, their fishing equipment still unpacked.
The next day was even colder and they finally headed home. But Max says that he learned an important lesson that week. Not about fishing, but about people. He writes, "When those who are called to fish don’t fish, they fight. When energy intended to be used outside is used inside, the result is explosive. Instead of casting nets, we cast stones...Instead of being fishers of the lost, we become critics of the saved."
This morning I met with our shepherds and talked about this very thing. I consider it a great honor that our Shepherds expect me to be here for the next 20 years or so; Dan has even said that he expects me to be his last preacher. And my family is happier serving at New Hope than we have been in a long time, but I often wonder if there is going to be a New Hope to serve at 20 years from now.
So today I am here in fishing attire. I have my waders on, lucky ball cap and my fishing pole and tackle box. I look like I am ready to fish, but am I?
I want to you let these words sink into your sub conscience today it’s important for the life of this church: “When those who are called to fish don’t fish, they fight.”
The sad reality is that most Christians aren’t concerned with fishing anymore and neither are the Churches they attend. More often than not our churches give lip service to seeing the lost come to Jesus. Most churches gave up fishing long ago. They’re willing to accept a fish if it leaps into the boat by itself, but they’re not willing to cast there nets & work to pull them in. But when fishermen don’t fish problems arise.
I. When Fishermen Don’t Fish, They Fight
Matthew 20:20-24 Then the mother of Zebedee’s sons came to Jesus with her two sons. She bowed down in front of him to ask him for a favor. "What do you want?" he asked her. She said to him, "Promise that one of my sons will sit at your right and the other at your left in your kingdom." Jesus replied, "You don’t realize what you’re asking. Can you drink the cup that I’m going to drink?" "We can," they told him. Jesus said to them, "You will drink my cup. But I don’t have the authority to grant you a seat at my right or left. My Father has already prepared these positions for certain people." When the other ten apostles heard about this, they were irritated with the two brothers.
The Disciples had forgotten all about Fishing for men. They had already started struggling with who was the greatest in the kingdom.
I believe that you can tell a lot about a church by how much fishing they are doing. You see if a church is truly seeking and saving the lost there is no time to compare pews with each other. It is amazing to me that as long as a family of believers are working together there is harmony and unity, but when the work stops and the talking starts so does the struggle over who’s the greatest. The church has lost its focus!
I have been involved in the men’s, elder, ministry leaders, meetings of 7 different congregations. Across the board the only times of peace come when the members are actively fishing. When fishermen forget to fish they have time to look into other people’s business and fuss, fight, and complain.
We can all quote the great commission to go out and seek & to save the lost. But I believe it breaks God’s heart when church fights amongst itself about who’s going to do what, when & how, While a lost & dying World slips into Hell before our eyes! I believe we’ll be held accountable for Fighting instead of Fishing!
II. When Fishermen Don’t Fish, they Run Away.
Luke 22:56- 62 The guards lit a fire in the courtyard and sat around it, and Peter joined them there. A servant girl noticed him in the firelight and began staring at him. Finally she said, "This man was one of Jesus’ followers!" Peter denied it. "Woman," he said, "I don’t even know the man!" After a while someone else looked at him and said, "You must be one of them!" "No, man, I’m not!" Peter replied. About an hour later someone else insisted, "This must be one of Jesus’ disciples because he is a Galilean, too." But Peter said, "Man, I don’t know what you are talking about." And as soon as he said these words, the rooster crowed. At that moment the Lord turned and looked at Peter. Then Peter remembered that the Lord had said, "Before the rooster crows tomorrow morning, you will deny me three times." And Peter ran away, crying bitterly.
Peter ran when times got and the church does the same! When we lose sight of our call to fish for men we run away from every little problem! Little things make us cut & run! We can’t stand adversity because we’ve lost sight of our purpose. And in our running away we lose all of the good things God has in store for us. When we obey God by working to save others, we can’t help but have some positive effects in your own life. Here are a few results:
We’ll spend more time studying the word of God.
A lot of Christians are afraid to teach because they don’t know all the answers. But there’s nothing wrong with being unable to answer a Bible question. A Bible study should be just that -- a time to study and learn together. The more time you spend teaching, the more time you’ll spend studying.
A second benefit of evangelism will be an increased prayer life.
Paul wrote, "Brethren, my heart’s desire and prayer to God for Israel is that they might be saved." (Romans 10:1). If we attempt to teach others, we will most assuredly pray for them. To do one without the other would be inconsistent. The more time we spend teaching the word, the more time we’ll spend on our knees in prayer.
A third blessing of soul winning is joy.
When the gospel is preached, joy will naturally follow. When the message was preached to Samaria, "there was great joy in the city." (Acts 8:8). After the Ethiopian eunuch was baptized, "he went on his way rejoicing" (Acts 8:39). Following the conversion of the Philippian jailer and his family, he "rejoiced, having believed in God with all his household." (Acts 16:34).
III. When fishermen don’t fish, they Forget
John 21:1-3 Later, Jesus showed himself to his followers again--this time at Lake Galilee. This is how he showed himself: Some of the followers were together: Simon Peter, Thomas, Nathanael from Cana in Galilee, the two sons of Zebedee, and two other followers. Simon Peter said, "I am going out to fish." The others said, "We will go with you." So they went out and got into the boat. They fished that night but caught nothing.
After all Jesus had taught Peter! After all the miracles he’d seen he forgot everything & said, “I’m going out to fish” The Fisher of Men had once again become just a fisherman!
When Fishermen don’t fish, they forget the things of God! Their wants become more important than God’s will! Their desires become paramount to God’s decrees!
We have both a tremendous responsibility and a tremendous privilege to teach the lost. I feel like we might need to remember today why the task of evangelism is so important.
We Need to Evangelize Because of Gratitude
All Christians need to be involved in the work of evangelism because of our obligation to God. When you stop and think about all that God has done for us, the blessings are countless. Both physical and spiritual blessings have been showered down on us.
When you and I became Christians, we vowed to obey God from then until the end of our lives. That includes the responsibility of sharing the gospel with others. Listen to what Paul said in 1 Cornthians 9:16, "For if I preach the gospel, I have nothing to boast of, for necessity is laid upon me; yes, woe is me if I do not preach the gospel!"
Paul says, "I don’t have a choice; I have an obligation to speak about Christ." Somebody might say, "Well, he’s just talking about preachers. I’ve got to work for a living and can’t spend the time they can." And it is true that preachers can devote more time to teaching, and I recognize that I am going to be held responsible before God for that time, but we’re all obligated to God to do what we can to bring salvation to a world without hope. And woe unto us if we don’t teach the gospel!
Church, we can’t hire a preacher to do our personal work for us, any more than we can hire a man to be baptized for us, take the Lord’s Supper for us, or attend services for us. We’re all responsible! We all have an obligation to God.
We should be willing to evangelize simply out of a love for God and a desire to do what he wants us to do.
We Should Evangelize Because of Our Love For Other People
That’s another reason why Paul devoted so much time and energy and love toward teaching. He wrote to the Corinthians and said, "For out of much affliction and anguish of heart I wrote to you, with many tears, not that you should be grieved, but that you might know the love which I have so abundantly for you." (2 Corinthians 2:4).
Paul felt a special concern for his Jewish brethren in the flesh. Now, I don’t know about you, but I’ve always thought that if only one person makes it to heaven, I want to be that person. Obviously, I have a hard time even comprehending the love that Paul had for unsaved men and women. But, I know that we’ve got to feel that burden to reach lost people or we’ll never do anything.
We Need to Evangelize to Be Like Jesus
John wrote, "He who says he abides in him ought himself also to walk just as he walked." (I John 2:6). Jesus Christ is our pattern for every thought, word and action. In every aspect of life, we’re to try to be like him.
That means that teaching must take a top priority in our lives because in Luke 19:10, Jesus summed up his mission by saying, "The son of man has come to seek and to save that which was lost." Jesus certainly did that through teaching publicly. There were occasions when he spoke to the multitudes, such as the Sermon on the Mount. But, according to one count, only 16 of the Lord’s lessons were public. The rest were private or personal.
As you read through the gospels, you have to be impressed with the many occasions that Jesus took the time to spend with people one on one. In John 3, he spoke with Nicodemus; Jesus spoke with the Samaritan woman by the well in John 4, a conversation leading not only to her salvation but that of the whole city as well. He went home with Zaccheus, a tax collector, and shared the message of salvation with him in Luke 19.
VI. We Have Got To Start Fishing
But anything worth doing is worth doing God’s way so let’s look at what we need to do, to get fishing again.
First we need to Plan your trip.
Now if I were planning to go fishing in the morning, I would do just that; “plan the trip”. I don’t know many people who just can drop everything and go fishing. They usually have to get their equipment and bait ready first. Likewise, if we are going to become “fishers of men” we cannot expect to catch a soul if there has been no preparation or planning in advance
We have already discussed the benefit of prayer and studying God’s word. A daily quiet time of prayer and study is the essential planning we need to win others to Christ.
Next, get your equipment together.
If we were all to go look in Jim East’s boat you will find 5 rods. He told me he hates to tie knots while he was supposed to be fishing. He stayed ready so that rather than spend time tying on new baits, He was fishing all the time.
In the same way, God has given us the right equipment to be “fishers of men”.
2 Timothy 3:16-17 says, “All Scripture is given by God and is useful for teaching, for showing people what is wrong in their lives, for correcting faults, and for teaching how to live right. Using the Scriptures, the person who serves God will be capable, having all that is needed to do every good work..”
The Holy Spirit also brings into our tackle box the attitudes we need. He provides us with love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control.
If we have the Word and the Holy Spirit, we are ready to go out and to catch some “fish”.
Next, we need to know the place that we are going to fish.
A lake may be just filled with fish, but if you don’t know where to start looking for them it can be an unproductive day. Many fishermen today use fish finders and all kinds of gadgets and gizmos to locate fish. But a fish whisper like Johnny Walker just knows, he has a feeling.
As a “fisher of men”, God has provided us with “feeling” as well, it’s called the Holy Spirit, and when we follow it’s promptings it will always lead us to someone to share the gospel with.
Also, the fisherman knows how to choose the right bait in order to catch the kind of fish that he’s fishing for.
You wouldn’t cast a 12-inch lure to try to catch a small brim would you? The poor brim would either run from it or choke to death on it! You would use a cricket on a small hook.
Well when you’re fishing for lost souls, don’t start by using your interpretation of the visions of Daniel. A lost person will either run from it or choke to death on it! Just share the simple Gospel that Jesus died to redeem us and give us eternal life. That’s enough.
And the last thing I want you to remember is this. Expect to catch fish.
“There is a thin line between fishing and standing on the shore like an idiot.” There are lots of idiots standing on the shore in our churches across America. If all Christians were even half the prayer warriors and soul winners that we claim to be, our churches would be full.
Conclusion.
Are you Fishing today or are you spending your time frustrated with God, The Church, and the family? The only way that a fisherman can be happy is when he’s fishing.
** Special apprecieation goes out to Alan Smith for his help on this sermon.
