1 00:00:04,720 --> 00:00:13,070 And all right, that's for the college theme there. 2 00:00:13,110 --> 00:00:19,150 So we got a rowdy bunch today. I love it, but it's enough. 3 00:00:19,230 --> 00:00:22,590 Let's, let's go. You got your Bibles. 4 00:00:22,590 --> 00:00:23,910 Let's grab them. We'll go to work. 5 00:00:25,230 --> 00:00:27,590 Matthew Chapter 4 My name is Dustin. 6 00:00:29,160 --> 00:00:31,240 I look a lot better than the guy that's normally here. 7 00:00:31,240 --> 00:00:36,920 It's just natural. OK, that's no my name is Dustin. 8 00:00:36,920 --> 00:00:40,160 I'm privileged to be able to join you this morning. 9 00:00:41,160 --> 00:00:46,000 Matthew chapter 4 we're going to continue right on where we've 10 00:00:46,000 --> 00:00:52,920 been studying chapter 4 verse 12 really is Jesus beginning his 11 00:00:52,920 --> 00:00:56,000 ministry. It starts this section that will 12 00:00:56,000 --> 00:01:00,880 run through Matthew chapter 4, the whole the whole chapter and 13 00:01:00,880 --> 00:01:04,599 it just outlines what happens when he comes on the scene. 14 00:01:05,360 --> 00:01:08,680 It's a beautiful picture. There's there's things he does 15 00:01:08,960 --> 00:01:11,000 here. He as he begins his ministry. 16 00:01:11,000 --> 00:01:14,480 What we read last week, if you remember that the light that had 17 00:01:14,480 --> 00:01:19,720 been promised had come, this thing that God had promised for 18 00:01:19,720 --> 00:01:26,040 centuries had come true. And when Jesus came, verse 17, 19 00:01:26,040 --> 00:01:30,520 if you remember and says from that time, Jesus began to 20 00:01:30,520 --> 00:01:32,880 preach. That's why he came. 21 00:01:33,720 --> 00:01:38,160 He came to do that, not just to live, not just to die, not just 22 00:01:38,160 --> 00:01:42,160 to pay the penalty for our sins, but he came to preach and he 23 00:01:42,160 --> 00:01:46,880 preached saying repent for the Kingdom of heaven is at hand. 24 00:01:47,680 --> 00:01:52,480 Now you know that's a necessary truth that is foundational to 25 00:01:52,480 --> 00:01:56,440 Christianity, and it must be because of this. 26 00:01:56,440 --> 00:02:02,080 What Christ came to preach must be pressed in upon all mankind. 27 00:02:02,080 --> 00:02:04,880 With no exception. We're called to preach the 28 00:02:04,880 --> 00:02:11,120 gospel to every creature. All have sinned and fallen short 29 00:02:11,120 --> 00:02:15,880 of the glory of God. All are guilty before God and 30 00:02:15,880 --> 00:02:19,480 they must be converted if they want to be saved. 31 00:02:20,320 --> 00:02:25,360 This of course, not just repentance is the reason for 32 00:02:25,760 --> 00:02:29,760 Christ's coming, but His coming is to save. 33 00:02:32,360 --> 00:02:38,440 For God so loved the world that He gave His only Son, so that 34 00:02:38,520 --> 00:02:41,920 all who believe in Him should not perish, but have eternal 35 00:02:41,920 --> 00:02:43,720 life. Christ has come to save. 36 00:02:43,920 --> 00:02:46,160 Luke 1910. For the Son of man has come to 37 00:02:46,160 --> 00:02:49,200 seek and to save that which was lost. 38 00:02:49,200 --> 00:02:52,520 Luke 2446. Christ came to suffer and to 39 00:02:52,520 --> 00:02:55,640 rise from the dead the third day, and that remission, 40 00:02:55,800 --> 00:02:58,480 repentance, and remission of sins should be preached in His 41 00:02:58,480 --> 00:03:01,800 name among all nations, beginning at Jerusalem. 42 00:03:02,320 --> 00:03:05,520 And you are witnesses to these things. 43 00:03:07,160 --> 00:03:11,680 The Holy Spirit comes and convicts men of sin and of 44 00:03:11,680 --> 00:03:15,680 righteous judgment, and he seals them. 45 00:03:17,120 --> 00:03:19,280 This salvation is what it's about. 46 00:03:20,320 --> 00:03:25,000 And doesn't it make sense that those who are recipients of that 47 00:03:25,640 --> 00:03:31,120 would become witnesses for Christ in, as he says, Jerusalem 48 00:03:31,320 --> 00:03:34,760 and Judea and Samaria to the uttermost parts of the earth? 49 00:03:36,880 --> 00:03:41,400 And it threw these activities of witnessing to the grace and 50 00:03:41,400 --> 00:03:46,040 glory of Christ that the Spirit would draw others into this 51 00:03:46,040 --> 00:03:49,120 great salvation. You understand, we're not called 52 00:03:49,120 --> 00:03:52,600 just to be recipients of it. We're not called just to be 53 00:03:52,600 --> 00:03:56,960 invited into the Kingdom. We are called to invite others 54 00:03:56,960 --> 00:04:01,000 into the Kingdom. So if you would stand with me as 55 00:04:01,000 --> 00:04:07,000 we read Matthew chapter 4 verses 18 through 22, when I'm done, 56 00:04:07,000 --> 00:04:10,760 please remind me to say this is the word of the Lord and you 57 00:04:10,760 --> 00:04:13,200 guys can respond. Thanks be to God. 58 00:04:14,480 --> 00:04:20,000 Matthew chapter 4, verse 18, while walking by the Sea of 59 00:04:20,000 --> 00:04:26,000 Galilee, he saw two brothers, Simon, who is called Peter, and 60 00:04:26,000 --> 00:04:29,600 Andrew his brother, casting a net into the sea, for they were 61 00:04:29,600 --> 00:04:33,200 fishermen. And he, Jesus said to them, 62 00:04:33,880 --> 00:04:36,760 follow me and I will make you fishers of men. 63 00:04:37,560 --> 00:04:40,200 Immediately they left their Nets and followed him. 64 00:04:40,720 --> 00:04:43,400 And going on from there, he saw two other two other brothers, 65 00:04:43,400 --> 00:04:47,520 James the son of Zebedee, and John his brother, in the boat 66 00:04:47,520 --> 00:04:49,760 with Zebedee, their father, mending their Nets. 67 00:04:50,200 --> 00:04:54,200 And he called them immediately. They left the boat and their 68 00:04:54,200 --> 00:04:57,920 father and followed him. This is the word of the Lord. 69 00:04:59,320 --> 00:05:02,960 Let's pray, Father, we're grateful this morning to join in 70 00:05:02,960 --> 00:05:09,440 with brothers and sisters, and we're thankful that you did send 71 00:05:09,440 --> 00:05:14,480 your son and he came with a message, but he came with the 72 00:05:14,480 --> 00:05:18,040 power to save. We're so thankful, Father, for 73 00:05:18,040 --> 00:05:21,440 his life, his death, his resurrection. 74 00:05:22,040 --> 00:05:26,480 And I'm thankful today, Father, for the call, the call that has 75 00:05:26,480 --> 00:05:30,840 gone forth to follow him. And I'm thankful, Father, for 76 00:05:30,840 --> 00:05:37,000 the purpose of fishing for men as the call continues to go 77 00:05:37,000 --> 00:05:40,240 forth. So, Father, help us as your 78 00:05:40,240 --> 00:05:45,000 people to receive your word this morning, for I ask this in 79 00:05:45,000 --> 00:05:47,920 Christ's name, Amen. You may be seated. 80 00:05:50,840 --> 00:05:58,200 So Jesus begins to preach and he immediately begins to gather. 81 00:05:58,520 --> 00:06:02,080 He's you know, you can see this he's been on on the scene really 82 00:06:02,080 --> 00:06:06,360 6 verses and he's already preached and he's already 83 00:06:06,400 --> 00:06:09,000 gathering. That's what he does, right? 84 00:06:09,840 --> 00:06:13,640 Jesus proclaims good news and he brings people in. 85 00:06:13,800 --> 00:06:16,640 That's his goal from the start to preach and gather a people 86 00:06:16,640 --> 00:06:20,600 and to himself. And so here we see that Jesus is 87 00:06:20,600 --> 00:06:24,240 calling his first disciples. This is really a narrative. 88 00:06:24,920 --> 00:06:27,400 This is just telling what Jesus did. 89 00:06:27,680 --> 00:06:30,720 But there's so much really important things in it. 90 00:06:30,720 --> 00:06:34,680 So I want to spend a little time helping you see a few things 91 00:06:34,680 --> 00:06:38,000 that might be helpful for you and also might clear up some 92 00:06:38,000 --> 00:06:43,280 confusion. We see in the book of John and 93 00:06:43,280 --> 00:06:48,000 in the book of Luke that Jesus calls these same guys and they 94 00:06:48,000 --> 00:06:50,840 sound like different stories, OK. 95 00:06:51,280 --> 00:06:53,960 And I want to tell you they are different stories. 96 00:06:54,640 --> 00:06:56,120 And so I want to put them in the right order. 97 00:06:56,120 --> 00:06:57,920 So I hope you got your Bible still out. 98 00:06:57,920 --> 00:07:03,240 Go with me to John, chapter one. This is the first time that 99 00:07:03,400 --> 00:07:09,240 Jesus meets these men. John chapter 1. 100 00:07:09,800 --> 00:07:14,520 And I want to read just because the Bible's perfect and I think 101 00:07:14,520 --> 00:07:18,440 it can do it better than I can. All right, John, chapter one, 102 00:07:18,440 --> 00:07:28,920 verse 35. We're not good on the speed test 103 00:07:28,920 --> 00:07:29,800 here. We're going to have to get a 104 00:07:29,800 --> 00:07:34,080 little faster. All right, John chapter one, 105 00:07:34,120 --> 00:07:38,120 verse 35 says the next day, again, John was standing, John 106 00:07:38,120 --> 00:07:40,640 the Baptist was standing with two of his disciples and he 107 00:07:40,640 --> 00:07:43,720 looked at Jesus as he walked by and said, behold, the Lamb of 108 00:07:43,720 --> 00:07:49,320 God, Alan stole my Thunder here. The two disciples heard him say 109 00:07:49,320 --> 00:07:53,200 this, and they followed Jesus. Jesus turned and saw them 110 00:07:53,200 --> 00:07:55,320 following and said to them, what are you seeking? 111 00:07:55,680 --> 00:07:58,480 And they said to him, Rabbi, which means teacher, where are 112 00:07:58,480 --> 00:08:01,440 you staying? And he said to them, come and 113 00:08:01,440 --> 00:08:03,880 you will see. So they came and saw where he 114 00:08:03,880 --> 00:08:06,880 was staying, and they stayed with him that day, for it was 115 00:08:06,880 --> 00:08:11,720 about about the 10th hour. One of the two who had heard 116 00:08:11,720 --> 00:08:14,480 John speak and followed Jesus was Andrew, Simon Peter's 117 00:08:14,480 --> 00:08:17,360 brother. And he first, and he first found 118 00:08:17,360 --> 00:08:19,960 his own brother Simon, and said to him, We have found the 119 00:08:19,960 --> 00:08:25,640 Messiah, which means Christ. He brought him to Jesus, which 120 00:08:25,640 --> 00:08:27,240 is great. You notice this. 121 00:08:28,240 --> 00:08:32,320 He brought him to Jesus. Jesus says, I'm going to teach 122 00:08:32,320 --> 00:08:34,720 you how to do it, but he's already trying to do it right. 123 00:08:35,159 --> 00:08:37,200 Those who believe, they're part of that. 124 00:08:39,360 --> 00:08:42,559 You're Simon. And and Jesus looked at him and 125 00:08:42,559 --> 00:08:44,120 said, you're Simon, the son of John. 126 00:08:44,120 --> 00:08:46,680 You shall be called Cephas, which means Peter. 127 00:08:47,560 --> 00:08:50,640 So this is the first meeting, OK? 128 00:08:51,280 --> 00:08:54,480 And now Jesus is going around, he's walking around the Sea of 129 00:08:54,480 --> 00:08:57,120 Galilee. And then the second meeting, 130 00:08:57,120 --> 00:09:02,240 Phase 2, is really our text today, OK, where Jesus walks, he 131 00:09:02,240 --> 00:09:04,640 sees these brothers, they spend a day with him. 132 00:09:04,640 --> 00:09:05,880 They wanted to see where he was staying. 133 00:09:05,880 --> 00:09:09,880 And they, they knew who's the Messiah, right? 134 00:09:09,920 --> 00:09:14,000 But they went back to their normal vocations. 135 00:09:14,840 --> 00:09:19,080 OK, Jesus comes to them and he says, follow me and I'll make 136 00:09:19,080 --> 00:09:21,680 you fishers of men. And immediately, immediately 137 00:09:21,680 --> 00:09:24,960 they left their Nets and they're set to him, left their father 138 00:09:25,320 --> 00:09:29,240 and they followed him. Now if you go to Luke chapter 5, 139 00:09:29,560 --> 00:09:32,160 I want to show you this happens 1/3 time. 140 00:09:33,320 --> 00:09:36,120 There's an instance in this where Jesus says, come on, let's 141 00:09:36,120 --> 00:09:39,560 hang out. We are going to, I'm going to 142 00:09:39,560 --> 00:09:43,680 show you how to fish for men. And they did that a while, but 143 00:09:43,680 --> 00:09:46,680 they went back to fishing. This is how they made their 144 00:09:46,680 --> 00:09:50,240 living and everyday life. They just go back and start 145 00:09:50,240 --> 00:09:52,000 doing the things that they knew how to do. 146 00:09:52,400 --> 00:09:54,640 These are professional fishermen, OK? 147 00:09:54,640 --> 00:09:58,040 This is what they do. John chapter 5, verse one. 148 00:09:58,160 --> 00:10:01,640 I'm sorry, Luke chapter 5. If I've told you, John the whole 149 00:10:01,640 --> 00:10:03,200 time, there's no way you're at Luke 5. 150 00:10:03,440 --> 00:10:08,640 OK? Luke chapter 5 verse one says on 151 00:10:08,640 --> 00:10:12,720 one occasion while the while the crowd was pressing in on him to 152 00:10:12,720 --> 00:10:16,440 hear the word of God, he was standing by the lake of Geneser. 153 00:10:16,440 --> 00:10:19,680 It OK, fun fact here. OK, it's the same place. 154 00:10:21,280 --> 00:10:25,880 All right. Three of the apostles when they 155 00:10:25,920 --> 00:10:30,040 write about this, they call this the Sea of Galilee or the Sea of 156 00:10:30,040 --> 00:10:34,480 Tiberius. Around this sea is 13. 157 00:10:34,600 --> 00:10:39,320 No, sorry, 9 cities. The the lake is 13 miles or so 158 00:10:39,320 --> 00:10:41,320 long. I can see. 159 00:10:41,320 --> 00:10:42,760 I keep calling it sea and lake too. 160 00:10:42,760 --> 00:10:45,960 OK? It's 13 miles long and less than 161 00:10:45,960 --> 00:10:49,280 7 miles wide, but there's nine cities around it. 162 00:10:49,280 --> 00:10:52,800 And whatever city that they're in, they just right there in 163 00:10:52,800 --> 00:10:54,760 front of them. They'll call it the sea of 164 00:10:54,760 --> 00:11:00,960 whatever that place is, OK? So here Luke says it's the Lake 165 00:11:00,960 --> 00:11:02,960 of Ganasser. I think Luke did it because 166 00:11:02,960 --> 00:11:08,080 Luke's been around, OK, if, if you've not been many places, a 167 00:11:08,840 --> 00:11:12,840 body of water that's 13 miles long and six or seven miles wide 168 00:11:13,200 --> 00:11:16,120 is monstrous. But if you've flown over the 169 00:11:16,120 --> 00:11:20,280 Pacific, it's a lake, OK? You know what I mean? 170 00:11:21,880 --> 00:11:24,440 What you see some of these things that just changes your 171 00:11:24,440 --> 00:11:26,440 perspective. And Luke calls it a lake. 172 00:11:26,440 --> 00:11:28,840 And I, I find it funny. Same body of water. 173 00:11:29,040 --> 00:11:33,680 OK, so Peter and Andrew did not have boats on all these 174 00:11:33,680 --> 00:11:35,720 different places. It's the same place. 175 00:11:36,120 --> 00:11:41,520 OK, all right, back to the text. So he's standing by the Lake of 176 00:11:41,560 --> 00:11:45,160 Geneser and he saw two boats by the lake, but the fishermen had 177 00:11:45,160 --> 00:11:48,080 gone out of them and were washing their Nets. 178 00:11:48,560 --> 00:11:50,720 Getting into the one of the boats, which was Simon's is 179 00:11:50,720 --> 00:11:52,280 Peter. He asked him to put out a little 180 00:11:52,280 --> 00:11:54,960 from the land and he sat down and taught the people from the 181 00:11:54,960 --> 00:11:56,920 boat. And when he had finished Pete 182 00:11:56,920 --> 00:12:00,640 speaking, he said to Simon, put out into the deep and let down 183 00:12:00,640 --> 00:12:05,880 your Nets for a catch. OK, Now these fishermen had been 184 00:12:05,880 --> 00:12:10,040 fishing forever, OK. And Simon answers and says, 185 00:12:10,040 --> 00:12:14,360 Master, we toiled all night and took nothing. 186 00:12:16,080 --> 00:12:20,280 Peter says, we're pros at this. We know exactly what we're 187 00:12:20,280 --> 00:12:22,480 doing. And we'd have had just as much 188 00:12:22,480 --> 00:12:24,880 luck last night if we'd have been fishing in the desert. 189 00:12:25,400 --> 00:12:33,040 There's no fish today, right? And Jesus says to them, so first 190 00:12:33,040 --> 00:12:35,520 of all, he says this, which is important, but at your word, I 191 00:12:35,520 --> 00:12:37,080 will let down the Nets. OK. 192 00:12:37,520 --> 00:12:41,760 And when they had done this, they enclosed a large number of 193 00:12:41,760 --> 00:12:44,880 fish and their Nets were breaking. 194 00:12:45,320 --> 00:12:47,680 So they signaled to their partners in the other boat to 195 00:12:47,680 --> 00:12:50,680 come and help them. And they came and filled both 196 00:12:50,680 --> 00:12:53,400 the boats so that they began to sink. 197 00:12:54,080 --> 00:12:56,960 But when Simon Peter saw it, he fell down at Jesus's knees 198 00:12:56,960 --> 00:12:59,040 saying, depart from me, for I'm a sinful man. 199 00:12:59,040 --> 00:13:02,240 Oh Lord, I got, I got a really good sermon on that, but I can't 200 00:13:02,240 --> 00:13:05,880 preach it right now. For he and all who were with him 201 00:13:05,880 --> 00:13:08,680 were astonished at the catch of fish that they had taken. 202 00:13:09,120 --> 00:13:11,800 And so also were James and John, sons of Zebedee, who are 203 00:13:11,800 --> 00:13:14,800 partners with Simon. And Jesus said to Simon, do not 204 00:13:14,800 --> 00:13:17,920 be afraid, from now on you will be catching men. 205 00:13:17,920 --> 00:13:20,120 And when they had brought their boats to land, they left 206 00:13:20,160 --> 00:13:23,200 everything and followed him. So I want to tell you what's 207 00:13:23,200 --> 00:13:28,720 going on. OK, There's this call in John 208 00:13:28,720 --> 00:13:35,480 chapter 1 where I believe these men were saved John. 209 00:13:35,480 --> 00:13:39,000 They've been followers of John. They'd they'd seen John and 210 00:13:39,000 --> 00:13:42,000 heard John talk about this Messiah that was to come. 211 00:13:42,320 --> 00:13:46,520 And that day John points him out and says, behold, there he is, 212 00:13:47,480 --> 00:13:50,760 right? And they follow him and they 213 00:13:50,760 --> 00:13:54,520 went, this is amazing. I guess we're going to have to 214 00:13:54,520 --> 00:13:57,000 eat today, so let's go fishing. OK. 215 00:13:57,520 --> 00:14:01,240 And so they go fishing. Well, Jesus shows up maybe even 216 00:14:01,240 --> 00:14:05,720 months later, we're not sure, but Jesus shows back up, sees 217 00:14:05,720 --> 00:14:09,480 him and says, follow me and I'll make you fishers of men. 218 00:14:10,040 --> 00:14:12,080 And so they followed him around a little bit more. 219 00:14:13,000 --> 00:14:16,440 And at some point in the way life goes, they go back to 220 00:14:16,440 --> 00:14:19,000 fishing. And there I think what's 221 00:14:19,000 --> 00:14:22,360 happening in phase three in Luke, 5I really think what's 222 00:14:22,360 --> 00:14:25,560 going on is they're going, this is our normal life. 223 00:14:25,560 --> 00:14:27,080 This is what we're supposed to be doing. 224 00:14:27,080 --> 00:14:30,360 And I think it's very clear that Jesus says at this point you 225 00:14:30,360 --> 00:14:33,000 don't get to catch any fish, that I don't let you fish or 226 00:14:33,000 --> 00:14:35,600 that I don't let you catch, right? 227 00:14:36,040 --> 00:14:40,320 Your life is no longer your own. It's mine. 228 00:14:40,720 --> 00:14:44,320 And I'm now I've, I've called you to myself and you've been a 229 00:14:44,320 --> 00:14:47,240 Fisher of fish. But now I'm telling you, let's 230 00:14:47,240 --> 00:14:51,800 make you a Fisher of men so that all you'll catch from now on is 231 00:14:51,800 --> 00:14:54,600 men. And I think that's what's going 232 00:14:54,600 --> 00:14:57,200 on. And I think that's applicable to 233 00:14:57,200 --> 00:14:59,920 us today because I want you to know there's not just one 234 00:14:59,920 --> 00:15:04,440 calling, There's not just that effectual call to salvation that 235 00:15:04,440 --> 00:15:06,760 Christ has on his people. There's more than that. 236 00:15:07,080 --> 00:15:12,440 There's also a call to sanctification, right? 237 00:15:14,080 --> 00:15:16,520 And there's also calls to service. 238 00:15:17,040 --> 00:15:20,280 And I believe everybody gets calls to service in some in some 239 00:15:20,280 --> 00:15:23,560 sense, but there's calls to special service that some of our 240 00:15:23,560 --> 00:15:27,080 brothers and sisters get to serve the Lord where they're not 241 00:15:27,080 --> 00:15:31,000 allowed to go fishing anymore, right. 242 00:15:33,440 --> 00:15:36,400 The Lord called me earlier. I have no marketable skills. 243 00:15:37,120 --> 00:15:40,480 It would be nice to be a fish. I went fishing once with my 244 00:15:40,480 --> 00:15:43,240 grandfather, who was a phenomenal fisherman. 245 00:15:43,800 --> 00:15:45,800 OK, He took me fishing for crappie. 246 00:15:45,920 --> 00:15:49,120 He rigged it up. I was about 7 years old and he, 247 00:15:49,200 --> 00:15:51,800 he rigged this thing up. I put it in and I caught 2 fish 248 00:15:51,800 --> 00:15:56,320 the first time. Well, at lunchtime that day, I 249 00:15:56,320 --> 00:15:59,200 had still caught 2 fish and he had caught 78. 250 00:16:01,040 --> 00:16:02,880 That's I didn't make that up. That's true. 251 00:16:04,480 --> 00:16:08,360 And I realized the Lord's not calling me to fish for fish at 252 00:16:08,360 --> 00:16:11,640 an early age. I just I just have no skills. 253 00:16:12,760 --> 00:16:15,720 Just not what I'm allowed to do. OK. 254 00:16:16,360 --> 00:16:20,400 So here this same see the same lake that he's been around. 255 00:16:20,600 --> 00:16:24,120 These men are staying there. It's this busy little place, but 256 00:16:24,120 --> 00:16:27,800 God is pressing and Christ is coming and pressing into these 257 00:16:27,800 --> 00:16:31,800 men because He has something special for them. 258 00:16:32,640 --> 00:16:36,640 I want you to understand this call is still a call that He has 259 00:16:36,640 --> 00:16:40,400 for people today. It does. 260 00:16:40,400 --> 00:16:43,800 It looks a little different because He's not walking around 261 00:16:43,800 --> 00:16:48,240 the lake that we're at, but there's still a call to come and 262 00:16:48,240 --> 00:16:52,240 follow Him. So before we jump into the call, 263 00:16:52,240 --> 00:16:54,600 let's look at the first round of disciples. 264 00:16:54,600 --> 00:16:56,760 These are really the first disciples. 265 00:16:57,720 --> 00:17:00,640 They're two sets of brothers. You can see here in our text, 266 00:17:02,000 --> 00:17:05,040 Simon Peter and Andrew, and then James and John. 267 00:17:05,040 --> 00:17:09,599 These are, I believe, tough outdoorsman fishing on this 268 00:17:09,599 --> 00:17:11,920 lake. If you remember, most of the 269 00:17:11,920 --> 00:17:14,240 time when it's talking about this lake, Jesus is either 270 00:17:14,240 --> 00:17:17,000 teaching around it or there's a massive storm on it. 271 00:17:17,319 --> 00:17:22,480 OK, it's a tough place because you can storms would rise up 272 00:17:22,480 --> 00:17:25,560 very quickly. It was a dangerous job. 273 00:17:25,640 --> 00:17:28,840 These are tough guys. I do believe they were spiritual 274 00:17:28,840 --> 00:17:32,280 men because they had spent so much time with John the Baptist. 275 00:17:32,520 --> 00:17:36,760 I think they had eyes and ears for spiritual things, but I 276 00:17:36,760 --> 00:17:42,240 don't think they had a very high spiritual aptitude because if 277 00:17:42,240 --> 00:17:45,920 you read through the Gospel so many times, Jesus says something 278 00:17:45,920 --> 00:17:50,560 in the disciples with great wisdom go huh, what, what does 279 00:17:50,560 --> 00:17:51,960 that mean? I'm counted up. 280 00:17:52,200 --> 00:17:55,800 It is all the time when you said this, what that mean? 281 00:17:56,880 --> 00:18:00,280 And Jesus would lovingly, patiently try to clear it up for 282 00:18:00,280 --> 00:18:02,360 him. And so Jesus is like, these guys 283 00:18:02,360 --> 00:18:04,920 are tough outdoorsman out. So he's like, this is a fig 284 00:18:04,920 --> 00:18:06,880 tree. You see that some fig tree 285 00:18:06,880 --> 00:18:09,080 supposed to have fruit, you with me, right? 286 00:18:10,080 --> 00:18:12,040 That's the way you'd have to talk to them before they'd be 287 00:18:12,240 --> 00:18:16,160 like, oh, we got it. So it's it's not that these guys 288 00:18:16,160 --> 00:18:18,000 were all that impressive. That's my point. 289 00:18:18,720 --> 00:18:22,520 They really weren't people, person type of people. 290 00:18:24,120 --> 00:18:27,120 You read a story and some kids are trying to come around and 291 00:18:27,120 --> 00:18:31,320 they kick the kids out and Jesus has to review. 292 00:18:31,440 --> 00:18:36,680 No, you let the kids come, what time there's Sinner, there's 293 00:18:36,680 --> 00:18:39,160 this huge crowd. Can Jesus, can we just send 294 00:18:39,160 --> 00:18:41,080 these people away so we can go get something to eat? 295 00:18:41,920 --> 00:18:48,160 Jesus goes no, like wolf feed them when you can just see it. 296 00:18:49,080 --> 00:18:51,720 Like I just really don't like people that much. 297 00:18:53,440 --> 00:18:57,400 They weren't all that humble, even though they're not all that 298 00:18:57,400 --> 00:18:58,960 impressive. They didn't realize it. 299 00:19:06,080 --> 00:19:09,600 If the shoe fits right, you know, some of you don't even 300 00:19:09,600 --> 00:19:11,680 have to. It just fits itself, OK? 301 00:19:13,880 --> 00:19:16,680 They weren't all that humble. I mean, they argued consistently 302 00:19:16,920 --> 00:19:18,960 who's going to be the best? Who's going to be the first? 303 00:19:20,560 --> 00:19:28,600 And I love our Savior because He took them with all their foibles 304 00:19:28,600 --> 00:19:35,600 and frailties and faults and kept loving, kept enticing, kept 305 00:19:35,600 --> 00:19:39,720 bringing them into himself. So patient, isn't He? 306 00:19:41,600 --> 00:19:44,880 There are times that I grow impatient with other people's 307 00:19:44,880 --> 00:19:49,960 sins, and it always does me good to remember how long the Lord 308 00:19:49,960 --> 00:19:53,200 has been patient with my. And you can fill in the blank 309 00:19:53,200 --> 00:19:54,360 because I've got a bunch of them. 310 00:19:56,360 --> 00:19:58,400 He's very kind and He's very patient here. 311 00:20:00,720 --> 00:20:04,640 One of the things that could be said about these these men is 312 00:20:04,920 --> 00:20:08,720 there, there's so many spiritual people around the time there 313 00:20:08,720 --> 00:20:10,960 were so many scribes and things like that. 314 00:20:12,400 --> 00:20:15,040 But these were, these guys weren't trained by scribes. 315 00:20:15,040 --> 00:20:16,680 They weren't trained by the Pharisees. 316 00:20:16,680 --> 00:20:21,400 They, they weren't pushed into this tradition. 317 00:20:21,680 --> 00:20:25,400 And I think that's one of the reasons Jesus called them first 318 00:20:26,200 --> 00:20:29,760 is because they were willing to listen and receive and even 319 00:20:29,760 --> 00:20:33,160 transmit the new doctrine that Jesus had for them. 320 00:20:34,920 --> 00:20:41,000 But they were men of the people. Do you think they had a passion 321 00:20:41,000 --> 00:20:43,000 for souls? I want to just go ahead and say 322 00:20:43,000 --> 00:20:45,200 I doubt it. I really do. 323 00:20:45,200 --> 00:20:47,920 I doubt it. I think that they gained a 324 00:20:47,920 --> 00:20:50,720 passion for souls. And there's like loads of proof 325 00:20:50,720 --> 00:20:54,360 through this, through the book of Acts that gained a passion 326 00:20:54,360 --> 00:20:59,400 from souls because of obedience. When Jesus says, come, follow 327 00:20:59,400 --> 00:21:03,240 me, I think it's through that act of obedience that they began 328 00:21:03,240 --> 00:21:09,000 to realize and and they began to burn for souls. 329 00:21:11,360 --> 00:21:14,800 So super not impressive. I'm I'm grateful to know that 330 00:21:14,800 --> 00:21:18,640 Christ doesn't see his man sees. I'm grateful to know that God 331 00:21:18,640 --> 00:21:22,080 chooses the foolish things of the world to confound the wise. 332 00:21:22,880 --> 00:21:27,520 I'm thankful that God calls out of obscurity into a service. 333 00:21:27,920 --> 00:21:33,160 This all shows His power and His purpose and His good and His 334 00:21:33,160 --> 00:21:36,920 glory and helps us to realize it's not about us. 335 00:21:41,360 --> 00:21:44,520 But He takes men like this and it acts. 336 00:21:44,520 --> 00:21:49,080 Chapter 4, There's a great verse of Scripture where John and 337 00:21:49,080 --> 00:21:51,600 James are there and they're, I'm sorry, Peter and John are there 338 00:21:51,600 --> 00:21:55,600 and they're preaching and they're filled with the spirit 339 00:21:55,600 --> 00:21:57,160 and they're in front of this council. 340 00:21:57,480 --> 00:22:00,640 And, and these wise religious men said this. 341 00:22:01,280 --> 00:22:04,080 It says now when they, these wise religious men saw the 342 00:22:04,080 --> 00:22:06,800 boldness of Peter and John, they perceived that they were 343 00:22:06,800 --> 00:22:10,880 uneducated men. They perceived they were common 344 00:22:10,880 --> 00:22:15,840 men, but they were astonished because they recognized that 345 00:22:15,840 --> 00:22:21,520 they had been with Jesus. And so I want to encourage you. 346 00:22:21,520 --> 00:22:24,480 It's it's really not about who you are when Christ calls you. 347 00:22:26,040 --> 00:22:29,960 It's about what he makes you into when you spend time with 348 00:22:29,960 --> 00:22:35,480 him. So let's quickly, because the 349 00:22:35,960 --> 00:22:39,840 again, this narrative just God sees two brothers, it calls them 350 00:22:40,120 --> 00:22:43,560 God, Christ continues, He sees 2 brother and brothers and he 351 00:22:43,560 --> 00:22:45,640 calls them. That's really the text. 352 00:22:48,480 --> 00:22:52,400 So I want to look if we can at the call itself. 353 00:22:53,920 --> 00:23:00,560 It's an important little sentence that he says here in 354 00:23:00,560 --> 00:23:02,240 your Bibles. It's translated. 355 00:23:02,240 --> 00:23:06,520 Follow me and I will make you fishers of men. 356 00:23:06,520 --> 00:23:09,120 Let's do, let's start with a word study and then we'll break 357 00:23:09,120 --> 00:23:14,200 it. OK, so your English, my English 358 00:23:14,560 --> 00:23:18,880 cannot do justice to this. It is just a weird way that 359 00:23:18,960 --> 00:23:22,000 Jesus says this. So it is not a command. 360 00:23:22,520 --> 00:23:28,120 Follow me. It's actually an adverb, which 361 00:23:28,120 --> 00:23:29,720 if you're an English person, that makes sense. 362 00:23:29,720 --> 00:23:31,280 If you're not, I'll explain to you. 363 00:23:31,280 --> 00:23:35,560 He's not saying follow me really, if we were to translate 364 00:23:35,560 --> 00:23:41,280 it just as as as Greek as I could as backwards as this thing 365 00:23:41,280 --> 00:23:44,560 is worded. It's really that Jesus says hey 366 00:23:44,560 --> 00:23:49,640 here behind me, OK, here and come, come over here behind me. 367 00:23:50,440 --> 00:23:53,800 And and the point, the way he says it is not this come once 368 00:23:54,240 --> 00:23:57,880 sort of thing and stand here, but it's come once get behind me 369 00:23:58,200 --> 00:24:04,520 and just ongoing as we continue on continuously be here behind 370 00:24:04,520 --> 00:24:06,440 me. Does that make sense? 371 00:24:08,720 --> 00:24:11,640 Are here behind me. And then it gets crazy. 372 00:24:11,640 --> 00:24:18,880 You ready for this here? He says, and I will make you. 373 00:24:18,880 --> 00:24:22,880 And the word is proper for make. I will create in you. 374 00:24:22,880 --> 00:24:28,680 I will produce this in you. I will make you sonners of men, 375 00:24:29,560 --> 00:24:34,880 SUNNERS. OK, This was brand new to me. 376 00:24:34,880 --> 00:24:40,480 I learned this this week in the Greek to fish is to sun. 377 00:24:41,800 --> 00:24:45,480 And I thought for a while about this and it's yeah, there's this 378 00:24:45,480 --> 00:24:48,640 aspect that you as a fisherman, you're out in the sun all the 379 00:24:48,640 --> 00:24:52,320 time, right? But we see in Luke chapter 5 380 00:24:52,680 --> 00:24:57,880 that Peter says we toiled all night, right? 381 00:24:57,880 --> 00:25:02,400 I'm like, what is this idea? And the idea is, and in one 382 00:25:02,400 --> 00:25:05,040 aspect, yes, you're out in the sun all day, but the other 383 00:25:05,040 --> 00:25:09,960 aspect is you're fishing because you're going to take fish that 384 00:25:09,960 --> 00:25:12,360 are in the water and you're going to pull them into the sun. 385 00:25:17,610 --> 00:25:19,610 You're already there. I was really thinking, I was 386 00:25:19,610 --> 00:25:20,890 going to have to explain the whole thing. 387 00:25:20,890 --> 00:25:26,090 No, you got it. When when Christ says this, 388 00:25:26,290 --> 00:25:30,250 you're going to do this for men. You're going to take men that 389 00:25:30,250 --> 00:25:33,770 are in darkness, you know, bring them into the light. 390 00:25:35,080 --> 00:25:39,720 This is evangelism, right? Evangelism mentioned 53 times in 391 00:25:39,720 --> 00:25:45,080 the New Testament. Christ's heart has been to go 392 00:25:45,080 --> 00:25:50,280 and take people who are lost and to get the gospel to them so 393 00:25:50,280 --> 00:25:56,600 that they may be saved. And here the call of Jesus to 394 00:25:56,600 --> 00:25:59,520 his first disciples is here. Come on behind me. 395 00:25:59,520 --> 00:26:04,240 I'm going to show you. I'll make you into a Fisher of 396 00:26:04,240 --> 00:26:08,560 men, which I find fascinating. OK, All right. 397 00:26:08,560 --> 00:26:10,640 I want to break the call down with this. 398 00:26:12,360 --> 00:26:15,480 To understand this sentence. Follow me and I will make you 399 00:26:15,480 --> 00:26:17,360 fishers of men. You need to realize there's a 400 00:26:17,360 --> 00:26:21,640 person, there's a path, and there's a purpose. 401 00:26:23,720 --> 00:26:26,080 Person. A path and a purpose. 402 00:26:26,560 --> 00:26:29,240 Now you hear me? Well, here's where things get 403 00:26:29,240 --> 00:26:35,440 dangerous. The tendency of our hearts is to 404 00:26:35,440 --> 00:26:41,120 say there's a path, there's a person and a purpose, and you 405 00:26:41,120 --> 00:26:47,760 cannot do it like that. You cannot do it like that in 406 00:26:47,800 --> 00:26:54,200 our individualized cultures and with our sinfulness and our 407 00:26:54,200 --> 00:26:58,080 pride that tries to well up in us to want to be good enough at 408 00:26:58,080 --> 00:27:03,920 something, we, we lessen the person of Jesus Christ and we 409 00:27:03,920 --> 00:27:07,600 emphasize the path and we and we start drowning in this whole 410 00:27:07,600 --> 00:27:10,880 idea of this legalism of the follow. 411 00:27:14,080 --> 00:27:17,200 And we've got to protect from that. 412 00:27:20,720 --> 00:27:26,400 We've got to protect from that. So let's make sure we think 413 00:27:26,400 --> 00:27:31,920 first about the person. The emphasis really is on the me 414 00:27:33,360 --> 00:27:42,480 and not on the follow. OK, You understand this call of 415 00:27:42,480 --> 00:27:47,800 Jesus to these disciples. And I will say today to all 416 00:27:47,800 --> 00:27:52,680 disciples, the call remains the same to come here. 417 00:27:52,680 --> 00:27:57,680 We are called to Christ. We're called to fellowship with 418 00:27:57,680 --> 00:27:59,400 him. We're called to commune with 419 00:27:59,400 --> 00:28:03,680 him. Before you can follow, before 420 00:28:03,680 --> 00:28:07,440 you can fish, you've got to be with Jesus Christ. 421 00:28:08,400 --> 00:28:15,200 You must learn Jesus Christ. By this I mean Jesus is the one 422 00:28:15,360 --> 00:28:18,760 that is going to provide all the righteousness that you will ever 423 00:28:18,760 --> 00:28:23,880 need. He is the one that provides all 424 00:28:23,880 --> 00:28:27,560 the strength that will ever be needed to follow along. 425 00:28:27,720 --> 00:28:34,200 It's comes from him. This is the person is the one 426 00:28:34,200 --> 00:28:36,960 that provides all the power that's going to be needed to 427 00:28:36,960 --> 00:28:40,120 actually fish for men when that time comes. 428 00:28:41,480 --> 00:28:47,200 But the call is to Jesus. You understand discipleship is 429 00:28:47,760 --> 00:28:50,040 is really becoming what the teacher is. 430 00:28:51,160 --> 00:28:53,720 That's I think that's the best definition of discipleship I can 431 00:28:53,720 --> 00:28:57,160 give is becoming what the teacher is. 432 00:28:58,360 --> 00:29:04,720 And Jesus is inviting us into him to relationship with him. 433 00:29:06,640 --> 00:29:10,360 Relationship with him really is the training ground for all 434 00:29:10,360 --> 00:29:13,720 sanctification That is the follow and it is the training 435 00:29:13,720 --> 00:29:16,800 ground for all evangelization that is the fish. 436 00:29:17,800 --> 00:29:21,880 It is being with Jesus that matters that by that I mean 437 00:29:21,880 --> 00:29:25,360 attempting to his word, relying upon his grace. 438 00:29:25,360 --> 00:29:31,600 Knowing Jesus, Jesus says to know him is eternal life. 439 00:29:33,520 --> 00:29:38,160 It is this that we're called to. This is the beautiful Savior 440 00:29:38,280 --> 00:29:40,520 that invites us into relationship. 441 00:29:45,770 --> 00:29:52,280 The follow is where we get in trouble because we we look at 442 00:29:52,280 --> 00:29:59,240 the following, we hear legalism. The great reformer said that 443 00:29:59,240 --> 00:30:05,680 there's three uses of the law. The use of the law is 1 to curb 444 00:30:05,680 --> 00:30:10,560 evil in society. Second use of the law is to 445 00:30:10,560 --> 00:30:13,680 expose sin and drive people to Christ. 446 00:30:15,560 --> 00:30:19,880 And the third use of the law is to instruct believers on what a 447 00:30:19,880 --> 00:30:23,000 life would be pleasing to God looks like. 448 00:30:23,800 --> 00:30:28,880 OK, there's instruction there, but I use the term pleasing to 449 00:30:28,880 --> 00:30:34,000 God on purpose because you and I ought to be able to talk about 450 00:30:34,320 --> 00:30:38,880 would this be pleasing to God while at the same time realizing 451 00:30:38,880 --> 00:30:41,040 we're not doing this in order to please God. 452 00:30:45,280 --> 00:30:49,640 You see, there's three uses, not 4 uses. 453 00:30:51,560 --> 00:30:56,400 There's no use of the law that says a man can try to follow it 454 00:30:56,400 --> 00:31:01,800 in order to gain the affection of God, that there's no such 455 00:31:01,800 --> 00:31:04,120 thing. There's no use of the law like 456 00:31:04,120 --> 00:31:07,040 that. Legalism. 457 00:31:07,040 --> 00:31:12,280 Legalism is this conviction that law keeping is now on this side 458 00:31:12,280 --> 00:31:18,160 of the of the of the fall, that law keeping can be the ground of 459 00:31:18,400 --> 00:31:25,200 acceptance with God. Now, I want to be very clear 460 00:31:25,920 --> 00:31:28,640 with you. The guy in the room that needs 461 00:31:28,640 --> 00:31:33,000 to hear this the most and learn this the most is the guy that's 462 00:31:33,000 --> 00:31:42,400 trying to tell you I grew up in a very, very legalistic religion 463 00:31:43,920 --> 00:31:49,880 and it was always pushed upon me that Jesus was very angry at me, 464 00:31:50,920 --> 00:31:57,320 that God was very angry at me. But hear me well, not angry at 465 00:31:57,320 --> 00:32:00,960 me before Jesus, angry at me after Jesus. 466 00:32:03,960 --> 00:32:05,520 I need you to understand the difference. 467 00:32:09,160 --> 00:32:15,440 God hates sinners. God abhors evil doers. 468 00:32:16,840 --> 00:32:19,920 You need to understand that. I need to understand that that 469 00:32:19,920 --> 00:32:24,520 apart from Jesus Christ, there's no affection of God towards you. 470 00:32:24,800 --> 00:32:30,560 That is not just common to all, there's none. 471 00:32:32,280 --> 00:32:36,200 But I need you to get that when we come to Jesus Christ and 472 00:32:36,200 --> 00:32:42,560 Christ saves us and imputes his righteousness to us, then God 473 00:32:42,720 --> 00:32:50,040 has all the affections for you. That the same affections he has 474 00:32:50,040 --> 00:32:54,080 for you on your very, very best day is the same affections He 475 00:32:54,080 --> 00:32:56,120 has for you on your very, very worst day. 476 00:33:00,640 --> 00:33:04,280 And it's not we're keeping the law in order to try to find 477 00:33:04,280 --> 00:33:08,400 affections from God, to try to find acceptance from God. 478 00:33:08,640 --> 00:33:12,560 It's not that if you were to say, how can I get God to be for 479 00:33:12,560 --> 00:33:15,480 me and not against me? The legalist answers keep the 480 00:33:15,480 --> 00:33:21,080 law, perform the law. I want you to understand 481 00:33:21,080 --> 00:33:23,840 legalism is totally destroyed in the New Testament. 482 00:33:24,960 --> 00:33:29,440 Romans 320 says this For by works of the law no human being 483 00:33:29,440 --> 00:33:33,560 will be justified in his sight, since through the law comes 484 00:33:33,560 --> 00:33:40,360 knowledge of sin. I say that because I want to. 485 00:33:40,920 --> 00:33:43,040 If you're in here and you're still thinking that you're going 486 00:33:43,040 --> 00:33:47,840 to be good enough one day, I want you to just note it says no 487 00:33:47,840 --> 00:33:50,800 human being will be justified in this site. 488 00:33:53,440 --> 00:33:59,280 Romans 328 says we hold that one is justified by faith apart from 489 00:33:59,280 --> 00:34:03,320 works of the law. Meaning works of the law have no 490 00:34:03,320 --> 00:34:07,600 part in it at all apart, separated completely. 491 00:34:07,840 --> 00:34:11,600 It's not in the same conversation as being justified. 492 00:34:11,600 --> 00:34:13,320 Why? Because justification will only 493 00:34:13,320 --> 00:34:21,040 happen by faith in Jesus. And Galatians chapter 2, verse 494 00:34:21,040 --> 00:34:26,159 16, we know that a person is not justified by works of the law, 495 00:34:26,639 --> 00:34:29,639 but through faith in Christ Jesus. 496 00:34:31,320 --> 00:34:32,960 Does the Bible have anything plain to say? 497 00:34:33,040 --> 00:34:41,760 Yeah, we live in a country and a culture that still has this idea 498 00:34:41,760 --> 00:34:45,000 that we're supposed to approach God because of our moral 499 00:34:45,040 --> 00:34:48,760 tendencies, and that needs to die. 500 00:34:50,800 --> 00:34:53,960 I need you to understand that there's no way that any human 501 00:34:53,960 --> 00:34:57,120 being on any earth, in any religion, it does not matter, 502 00:34:57,360 --> 00:34:59,160 will ever be able to be good enough. 503 00:35:04,640 --> 00:35:10,520 When Christ says follow, he does not say do all these things so 504 00:35:10,520 --> 00:35:16,800 that you can hang out with me. Jesus says I've done all these 505 00:35:16,800 --> 00:35:22,760 things and because of the grace and mercy found in the cross, 506 00:35:23,480 --> 00:35:27,360 come all the way in, Come all the way in. 507 00:35:27,920 --> 00:35:31,600 That's the call of Christ to a lost person. 508 00:35:32,000 --> 00:35:34,200 Come all the way in. You don't have to clean yourself 509 00:35:34,200 --> 00:35:41,400 up and come all the way in, though. 510 00:35:41,400 --> 00:35:45,920 Preachers will say you catch him, he'll clean them, right? 511 00:35:48,640 --> 00:35:53,120 That's the order. The cleaning happens after 512 00:35:53,120 --> 00:36:03,160 you're in the sun. You understand we get God to be 513 00:36:03,160 --> 00:36:07,120 for us and not against us through Jesus. 514 00:36:08,120 --> 00:36:13,040 The biblical gospel is the good news that legalism and the 515 00:36:13,040 --> 00:36:16,200 legalist approach to God is totally impossible. 516 00:36:17,440 --> 00:36:21,720 God knows it's impossible, which is why He provided His Son. 517 00:36:22,720 --> 00:36:26,040 We have the way through Jesus Christ to Himself bore our 518 00:36:26,040 --> 00:36:29,480 punishment for not keeping the law, and He Himself fulfilled 519 00:36:29,480 --> 00:36:33,560 it. So biblically, I stole this. 520 00:36:33,560 --> 00:36:35,600 Somebody wrote this and I thought this is so good, I'm 521 00:36:35,600 --> 00:36:38,440 just going to steal it. I said. 522 00:36:38,440 --> 00:36:43,680 Legalism biblically is an attitude, a spirit, a 523 00:36:43,680 --> 00:36:47,840 disposition of all kinds of behaviors and feelings that are 524 00:36:47,840 --> 00:36:56,920 rooted in a failure to be amazed that I am saved by grace, a 525 00:36:56,920 --> 00:37:03,280 failure to be melted, broken, humbled, and filled with joy 526 00:37:03,720 --> 00:37:11,920 because of what God has done. If you look at the cross of 527 00:37:11,920 --> 00:37:16,640 Christ and still say I'm going to have to do something to earn 528 00:37:16,640 --> 00:37:20,040 it, I don't think you've looked properly at the cross. 529 00:37:21,480 --> 00:37:24,160 I don't think you fully understood the weight of your 530 00:37:24,160 --> 00:37:27,920 sin. The amazing thing about Jesus is 531 00:37:27,920 --> 00:37:32,000 he takes all of it from us and dies. 532 00:37:32,000 --> 00:37:36,840 For it removes all guilt. All guilt. 533 00:37:37,240 --> 00:37:40,400 There's now no guilt. Well, what happens when we have 534 00:37:40,400 --> 00:37:42,480 a bad day? There's still no guilt. 535 00:37:46,120 --> 00:37:47,280 You should have heard what I said. 536 00:37:47,560 --> 00:37:50,360 Oh, I did. There's still no guilt. 537 00:37:58,040 --> 00:38:04,080 I think what you and I need more than anything is to truly be 538 00:38:04,080 --> 00:38:11,960 amazed that we are saved by grace, to truly be melted, 539 00:38:11,960 --> 00:38:15,520 broken, humbled, and filled with joy because of what God has 540 00:38:15,520 --> 00:38:19,800 done. Because I when we do this, when 541 00:38:19,800 --> 00:38:25,360 we put this in the right place, we understand that the ME is 542 00:38:25,360 --> 00:38:29,760 Christ and therefore the follow is not in order to gain his 543 00:38:29,760 --> 00:38:34,600 affections, but it's because we have affections in Christ 544 00:38:35,960 --> 00:38:40,160 because he loves us, therefore we follow him. 545 00:38:41,600 --> 00:38:45,400 It just makes perfect sense. I want to be around the only one 546 00:38:45,400 --> 00:38:51,880 who can put up with me and still love me for eternity. 547 00:38:54,760 --> 00:38:56,880 I'm not sure you're quite impressed enough. 548 00:38:58,360 --> 00:39:05,320 That's a big deal. But I want you to understand 549 00:39:09,520 --> 00:39:13,680 when when Christ calls a disciple, it is not just that he 550 00:39:13,680 --> 00:39:22,040 says me. He does say follow and I want 551 00:39:22,040 --> 00:39:27,120 you to to know that the free grace of Christ will cost you 552 00:39:27,160 --> 00:39:33,440 everything it is offered to us freely to receive. 553 00:39:33,680 --> 00:39:38,120 But he says if you will follow me, you must take up your cross. 554 00:39:38,720 --> 00:39:42,120 It will cost us everything. We could do nothing to earn our 555 00:39:42,120 --> 00:39:44,680 salvation. We are absolute beggars 556 00:39:44,680 --> 00:39:51,120 receiving a gift of a king, but the gate of repentance is far 557 00:39:51,120 --> 00:39:56,600 too narrow for us to be able to keep 1 foot in the world. 558 00:39:58,880 --> 00:40:03,760 You just can't do it. You can't bring your own agenda. 559 00:40:04,160 --> 00:40:05,920 You can't bring your own priorities. 560 00:40:06,680 --> 00:40:11,040 The call of Christ is follow me. There's a person, there is a 561 00:40:11,040 --> 00:40:16,640 path and we must reject all and submit ourselves holy to Christ 562 00:40:16,640 --> 00:40:19,440 and his rule. But again, we do this because of 563 00:40:19,440 --> 00:40:23,120 the favor we have not to earn favor. 564 00:40:24,400 --> 00:40:29,160 There's no second lever level of affections from Christ. 565 00:40:29,720 --> 00:40:34,720 There's not all the the love that God has for us we have in 566 00:40:34,720 --> 00:40:47,660 Christ, not in and of ourselves. That news is freeing. 567 00:40:51,340 --> 00:40:56,220 The news is freeing. You see, when we understand the 568 00:40:56,220 --> 00:40:59,300 salvation we have in Christ, the law is no longer a burden. 569 00:41:01,820 --> 00:41:06,460 We get to read David and just rejoice. 570 00:41:06,460 --> 00:41:11,600 Oh, how I love your law. I love it. 571 00:41:11,600 --> 00:41:13,840 Why? Because it teaches me what it 572 00:41:13,840 --> 00:41:15,640 looks like to follow in your ways. 573 00:41:16,160 --> 00:41:20,240 I'm doing my best to stay right as close in behind you as I can, 574 00:41:21,240 --> 00:41:23,520 and I want to follow your ways so I can do it. 575 00:41:24,120 --> 00:41:26,920 Because I love communion with Christ. 576 00:41:32,260 --> 00:41:36,700 Now you got a purpose. No, sorry. 577 00:41:37,500 --> 00:41:42,040 You got a person. You got a path, and then Jesus 578 00:41:42,040 --> 00:41:46,200 gives us a purpose. Follow me and I will make you 579 00:41:46,280 --> 00:41:50,480 fishers of men. Fishers of men. 580 00:41:51,560 --> 00:41:56,800 Now let's just get right at it. If you're not fishing, you're 581 00:41:56,800 --> 00:41:58,920 not following, or else I don't know how to read. 582 00:42:04,180 --> 00:42:08,340 Follow me and I will make you fishers of men. 583 00:42:12,060 --> 00:42:16,560 That's a beautiful promise. That's a beautiful promise that 584 00:42:16,560 --> 00:42:20,320 you have been given a purpose not just to be a recipient of 585 00:42:20,320 --> 00:42:23,720 grace, but to be an agent of getting that grace to others. 586 00:42:23,720 --> 00:42:28,800 We are ambassadors for Christ and He calls us to that. 587 00:42:28,960 --> 00:42:32,200 I want to be very clear in our day and age and so many times in 588 00:42:32,200 --> 00:42:39,600 our theological huddles that we get into, we don't believe this 589 00:42:39,600 --> 00:42:41,920 fishing for men. We believe more often than we're 590 00:42:41,920 --> 00:42:47,120 called to destroy men. We don't understand that we're 591 00:42:47,120 --> 00:42:51,400 called to draw men to Christ. So many guys believe that their 592 00:42:51,400 --> 00:42:57,240 job is ultimately to condemn. Their job is to use words of 593 00:42:57,240 --> 00:42:59,280 judgement against wicked behavior. 594 00:42:59,840 --> 00:43:02,480 And I want to help you understand the way the world 595 00:43:02,480 --> 00:43:04,920 hears that most of the time about our complainings and our 596 00:43:04,920 --> 00:43:07,360 condemnation of them, our rejection of them. 597 00:43:07,360 --> 00:43:11,200 They feel like we're looking down upon them as lesser beings 598 00:43:11,200 --> 00:43:15,960 than ourselves, as if we've achieved some high status of 599 00:43:15,960 --> 00:43:20,800 piety or religiosity or perfection, and they resent it. 600 00:43:22,880 --> 00:43:27,160 They resent it. Hear me? 601 00:43:27,160 --> 00:43:29,400 Well, I'm not saying don't condemn sin. 602 00:43:31,760 --> 00:43:34,400 I'm saying don't condemn sin because you get your kicks out 603 00:43:34,400 --> 00:43:39,800 of condemning sin. I'm saying we condemn sin 604 00:43:39,960 --> 00:43:43,240 because we genuinely have a concern for people who will face 605 00:43:43,440 --> 00:43:47,200 an eternal reality of punishment if they do not turn to Christ. 606 00:43:49,360 --> 00:43:53,000 There is a use of the law when it's supposed to expose people's 607 00:43:53,000 --> 00:43:55,320 sin and then drive them to Jesus. 608 00:43:55,840 --> 00:43:59,440 We can use it like that, but let's not use it to condemn. 609 00:44:01,600 --> 00:44:06,720 So we do condemn sin in hopes that men might be shaken from 610 00:44:06,720 --> 00:44:10,240 their spiritual slumper and come to Jesus. 611 00:44:10,840 --> 00:44:15,080 But I want you to understand Our Calling through Christ is to 612 00:44:15,080 --> 00:44:17,920 draw men. It's the call to save, not to 613 00:44:17,920 --> 00:44:21,840 destroy. It's our call. 614 00:44:21,960 --> 00:44:27,320 Our call is to go and share. Our call is to go and say, 615 00:44:27,320 --> 00:44:33,760 listen, I was in that darkness and somebody fished for me and 616 00:44:33,760 --> 00:44:37,120 they brought me into the sun. And now I'm doing the same 617 00:44:37,120 --> 00:44:40,360 thing. I was just like you. 618 00:44:42,800 --> 00:44:45,840 I know that we got to help people. 619 00:44:45,840 --> 00:44:49,440 See, This is why Paul so many times says and such for some of 620 00:44:49,440 --> 00:44:52,440 you, don't you remember? Sometimes we forget. 621 00:44:54,320 --> 00:44:59,520 He lists these horrendous things, the worst sins, and he 622 00:44:59,520 --> 00:45:02,480 says and such were some of you and I can do that, can read 623 00:45:02,480 --> 00:45:04,400 those things and read my biography. 624 00:45:04,680 --> 00:45:06,720 Check, check, check. Yeah, that was me too. 625 00:45:06,720 --> 00:45:07,440 Check. Right. 626 00:45:09,280 --> 00:45:12,640 And then I remember that's what Christ brought me out of. 627 00:45:13,920 --> 00:45:15,920 That's what Christ saved me from. 628 00:45:18,400 --> 00:45:26,280 And if He did it to to me, the lowest of sinners, then I have 629 00:45:26,280 --> 00:45:29,640 great confidence then that His grace can reach you too. 630 00:45:31,160 --> 00:45:34,040 I have great confidence that as he sends me into the world, 631 00:45:34,200 --> 00:45:36,960 there's men out there that I'm supposed to be fishing for, that 632 00:45:36,960 --> 00:45:41,400 His grace can save. He didn't send me on a mission 633 00:45:41,400 --> 00:45:44,800 that was impossible. There's no music that plays. 634 00:45:47,720 --> 00:45:49,440 You just go out and faithfully do it. 635 00:45:51,400 --> 00:45:57,960 I hope you do. You understand that it's a 636 00:45:57,960 --> 00:46:03,840 massive task, but it's not as big as you might think it is. 637 00:46:07,440 --> 00:46:12,160 I read an author who wrote in 1877 had to look up the 638 00:46:12,160 --> 00:46:18,960 publishing date in 1877. This man said there was what 639 00:46:18,960 --> 00:46:20,440 they estimated. He didn't. 640 00:46:20,440 --> 00:46:25,040 They didn't know, OK, we don't know today, but they estimated 641 00:46:25,040 --> 00:46:28,440 there was about 1.6 billion people in the world. 642 00:46:31,480 --> 00:46:34,920 And he gave an encouragement to the church and he said, church, 643 00:46:35,320 --> 00:46:42,680 if one person will this year reach two people for Christ, and 644 00:46:42,680 --> 00:46:49,080 then those people go out and each of them reach to next year 645 00:46:50,440 --> 00:46:53,800 and then the the third year, if those people would just go and 646 00:46:53,800 --> 00:46:59,840 do it, Do you know how long it would take to reach all 1.6 647 00:46:59,840 --> 00:47:04,320 billion? Less than 30 years. 648 00:47:07,520 --> 00:47:09,880 I didn't believe him. So I pulled my calculator out 649 00:47:11,960 --> 00:47:17,560 and I'm not, I don't math very well but I got the same number 650 00:47:17,560 --> 00:47:21,720 he did. Was real impressed. 651 00:47:28,230 --> 00:47:29,750 I got bad news they didn't do it. 652 00:47:35,610 --> 00:47:42,770 So I did the math for us. If just one person would this 653 00:47:42,770 --> 00:47:50,010 year go reach 2 and disciple them to be like Jesus and teach 654 00:47:50,010 --> 00:47:53,570 them to fish for men. And next year they all did the 655 00:47:53,570 --> 00:47:56,720 same. So I started thinking about 656 00:47:56,720 --> 00:47:58,680 ahead. And so I, I googled what's the 657 00:47:58,680 --> 00:48:00,800 pop? What's the estimated population 658 00:48:00,800 --> 00:48:04,400 of 2060? And it's 10.2 billion people. 659 00:48:06,080 --> 00:48:10,240 That number's huge. It'll take forever, 32 years 660 00:48:14,720 --> 00:48:19,000 actually, in 32 years we could get 17 billion people. 661 00:48:21,760 --> 00:48:26,680 So even if this next generation decides to be really fertile, we 662 00:48:26,680 --> 00:48:37,580 can still do it. The question is, are we going to 663 00:48:37,580 --> 00:48:41,780 do it? So many times we look at the 664 00:48:41,780 --> 00:48:44,220 world that what can we do? Interesting. 665 00:48:44,260 --> 00:48:47,060 Jesus started with 12 and changed everything. 666 00:48:49,380 --> 00:48:51,860 Anybody want to do the math on how long it take us to reach 667 00:48:51,860 --> 00:48:54,180 Magnolia? Because I did it. 668 00:48:56,180 --> 00:49:02,440 It's not very long. You know how long it takes if we 669 00:49:02,440 --> 00:49:13,800 don't obey. I want to encourage you as a 670 00:49:14,280 --> 00:49:17,440 individual disciple because that's really the call. 671 00:49:18,640 --> 00:49:24,080 The call is follow me, and we can't do that collectively. 672 00:49:27,440 --> 00:49:29,000 Follow me. That's an individual thing. 673 00:49:29,000 --> 00:49:34,080 That's what are you going to do with the Lord, but there is this 674 00:49:34,320 --> 00:49:39,120 collective thing about I will make you all plural fishers of 675 00:49:39,120 --> 00:49:40,760 men because he was talking to two brothers. 676 00:49:40,800 --> 00:49:53,920 I'll make you fishers of men. A long time ago there was a fire 677 00:49:53,920 --> 00:50:02,480 station the outside of a city and they were just a group of 678 00:50:02,520 --> 00:50:08,440 life saving firefighting people. There's a small little shed, 679 00:50:08,440 --> 00:50:12,080 it's all they had. They had one fire engine and 680 00:50:12,120 --> 00:50:14,440 they would watch over and anytime there was a fire they 681 00:50:14,440 --> 00:50:16,480 would just run right into the middle of it. 682 00:50:17,400 --> 00:50:21,160 And it was incredible the success that they had because 683 00:50:21,160 --> 00:50:24,480 they were saving lots of people. They would gather people up and 684 00:50:24,480 --> 00:50:30,600 they bring them back that help them heal, that help them clean 685 00:50:30,600 --> 00:50:34,280 up. Well, because they were so 686 00:50:34,280 --> 00:50:37,440 successful, There were so many people that started to see that 687 00:50:37,440 --> 00:50:41,320 or be be saved by that, that they wanted to like come hang 688 00:50:41,320 --> 00:50:45,040 out and they, they came in, they want to start giving and, and 689 00:50:45,040 --> 00:50:47,320 realizing, man, we need to make this bigger. 690 00:50:48,280 --> 00:50:50,920 And so they looked at the little shed and they're like, let's, 691 00:50:51,080 --> 00:50:54,160 let's do this big nice station. They built a nice day. 692 00:50:54,160 --> 00:50:57,080 Well, let's, let's find better equipment. 693 00:50:57,480 --> 00:51:01,120 And they started decking it out and they started decorating it 694 00:51:01,120 --> 00:51:04,320 with all sorts of life saving equipment and all this motif. 695 00:51:04,320 --> 00:51:11,040 And they started trying to train others to be lifesavers as well 696 00:51:11,040 --> 00:51:17,920 firefighters. And as it continued, they 697 00:51:18,000 --> 00:51:22,320 started people didn't didn't want to just come for the fires 698 00:51:22,320 --> 00:51:23,760 anymore. They wanted to just kind of come 699 00:51:23,760 --> 00:51:26,760 and, and hang out and enjoy each other's company and they kind of 700 00:51:26,760 --> 00:51:32,400 became a social club. One day there's a fire and they 701 00:51:32,400 --> 00:51:35,720 send people off and they brought a bunch of, they've rescued 702 00:51:35,720 --> 00:51:37,880 people and they brought them back in while it really stuck up 703 00:51:37,880 --> 00:51:40,880 the place. They were real dirty. 704 00:51:42,120 --> 00:51:46,400 So they decided what we don't, this is kind of some exclusive 705 00:51:46,400 --> 00:51:48,440 club we've got going. Let's just hire somebody else to 706 00:51:48,440 --> 00:51:53,720 go do the job for us. And so they told somebody else 707 00:51:53,720 --> 00:52:05,870 to go become firefighters. Some of the people, especially 708 00:52:05,870 --> 00:52:09,110 the ones that have been saved from the fire, said, don't we 709 00:52:09,110 --> 00:52:16,270 need to still be doing this? And they were voted down and the 710 00:52:16,270 --> 00:52:18,270 people said, why don't y'all just go start at your own fire 711 00:52:18,270 --> 00:52:20,990 station somewhere else? And so they did. 712 00:52:22,790 --> 00:52:25,230 And pretty soon it became an exclusive club. 713 00:52:28,960 --> 00:52:32,080 And if you look at the town now, there's tons and tons of 714 00:52:32,080 --> 00:52:34,520 exclusive clubs that used to be fire stations. 715 00:52:40,490 --> 00:52:43,170 You know, this call to discipleship and this call to 716 00:52:43,170 --> 00:52:45,410 fish is not just an individual call. 717 00:52:49,330 --> 00:52:53,730 I tell the stories about a fire station because it's my Trojan 718 00:52:53,730 --> 00:53:01,200 horse to try to get in. Because that's the history of so 719 00:53:01,200 --> 00:53:07,680 many churches, isn't it? And I praise the Lord that we 720 00:53:07,680 --> 00:53:10,520 care deeply about evangelism here and we talk a lot about 721 00:53:10,520 --> 00:53:15,520 missions. But you understand, if we keep 722 00:53:15,520 --> 00:53:19,440 doing this and keep bringing in more people, if we don't 723 00:53:19,440 --> 00:53:23,960 understand our call is a life saving mission to fish for men, 724 00:53:25,240 --> 00:53:29,520 then when we keep bringing in the stinky ones, new believers 725 00:53:29,520 --> 00:53:31,840 sometimes say and do things they're not supposed to do, 726 00:53:33,080 --> 00:53:40,240 babies in the faith make messes. If we start becoming a club 727 00:53:41,440 --> 00:53:44,280 instead of a life saving station, we're going to quickly, 728 00:53:45,360 --> 00:53:52,640 quickly lose our purpose. So I have a call to you as an 729 00:53:52,640 --> 00:53:59,120 individual today to be a Fisher of men, but also have a call to 730 00:53:59,120 --> 00:54:03,880 us collectively today. We're going to keep our purpose 731 00:54:03,880 --> 00:54:08,440 of fishing for men because when Christ calls people to 732 00:54:08,440 --> 00:54:11,760 discipleship, when he calls them into fellowship with him, this 733 00:54:11,760 --> 00:54:16,360 is the purpose. It's not to sit and to enjoy 734 00:54:16,360 --> 00:54:20,720 each other's company. By God's grace, He gives us each 735 00:54:20,720 --> 00:54:22,720 other to strengthen one another. For what? 736 00:54:23,480 --> 00:54:30,480 For our purpose of going forth. Could you imagine a fire station 737 00:54:32,160 --> 00:54:34,560 that all they did was they had one guy that would set up and 738 00:54:34,560 --> 00:54:37,560 he'd turn anytime there was a fire in the city and they'd turn 739 00:54:37,560 --> 00:54:40,720 on this alarm, go, hey, there's a fire, there's a fire. 740 00:54:45,880 --> 00:54:47,680 Thanks. I guess right? 741 00:54:50,160 --> 00:54:52,480 My dear brother gets up here every day and faithfully 742 00:54:52,480 --> 00:54:57,800 proclaims it and you need it because people will be warned 743 00:54:58,320 --> 00:55:03,680 from here. But my brother stands up and he 744 00:55:03,680 --> 00:55:07,760 faithfully proclaims the truth so that you and I can go into 745 00:55:07,760 --> 00:55:13,440 the fire. So we can go find our Co workers 746 00:55:13,440 --> 00:55:16,040 and our family. We can go find friends. 747 00:55:16,040 --> 00:55:20,240 We can go find lost people when talk to the guy at the gas 748 00:55:20,240 --> 00:55:25,000 station so that we can tell him about Jesus and the one who 749 00:55:25,000 --> 00:55:29,120 saves. Let's not be one of those 750 00:55:29,120 --> 00:55:31,680 stations that just sounds an alarm from one place. 751 00:55:33,160 --> 00:55:37,680 Let's be that life rescuing station that sends our people 752 00:55:37,680 --> 00:55:41,920 out to go and seek and to save the lost. 753 00:55:46,640 --> 00:55:55,200 The call of discipleship stands. The call goes forth to give up 754 00:55:55,200 --> 00:56:00,080 everything and follow Him. I loved how both these brothers, 755 00:56:00,080 --> 00:56:03,840 both sets of brothers, excuse me, It says immediately they 756 00:56:03,840 --> 00:56:05,080 left their Nets and followed him. 757 00:56:05,080 --> 00:56:08,520 Immediately they left their boat and their father and followed 758 00:56:08,520 --> 00:56:10,440 him. The call goes forth. 759 00:56:12,520 --> 00:56:15,720 I need you to understand that the call has two responses. 760 00:56:16,400 --> 00:56:19,800 It may either be rejected or gladly accepted. 761 00:56:20,920 --> 00:56:26,320 And the call goes forth to us into relationship to Him, to 762 00:56:26,320 --> 00:56:31,360 follow in His ways and to fish for more, just like us. 763 00:56:33,320 --> 00:56:37,840 What will we do today? Let's pray. 764 00:56:39,800 --> 00:56:41,640 Father, I'm thankful for your word. 765 00:56:42,680 --> 00:56:45,160 I'm grateful, God, that you've given it to us that You've given 766 00:56:45,160 --> 00:56:50,840 us all of it that you come to us as Lord and Savior. 767 00:56:51,720 --> 00:56:54,880 You come with all the things that are required for our 768 00:56:54,880 --> 00:57:00,600 salvation fully accomplished. And when you bring them to us, 769 00:57:00,600 --> 00:57:05,560 you bring them where we can joyfully relish and be in awe of 770 00:57:05,560 --> 00:57:08,600 the fact that you've done everything for us. 771 00:57:11,120 --> 00:57:15,840 So Lord, when when the call goes forth from this pulpit to to 772 00:57:15,840 --> 00:57:20,240 repent and believe the gospel, that's all that the call 773 00:57:20,240 --> 00:57:24,920 requires. It's it does not require good 774 00:57:24,920 --> 00:57:30,440 obedience. It's it's not this legalistic 775 00:57:30,440 --> 00:57:39,400 call, no matter how disobedient that person has been, repent and 776 00:57:39,400 --> 00:57:42,520 believe means that that's all that's required. 777 00:57:46,040 --> 00:57:48,800 So Lord, I pray that you would draw them into yourself today. 778 00:57:54,170 --> 00:57:57,050 Many may have been waiting because they were hoping to get 779 00:57:57,050 --> 00:58:01,450 some things fixed first. But Lord, may they just come. 780 00:58:05,050 --> 00:58:08,210 Father, I do pray that you help us to walk in the ways of 781 00:58:08,210 --> 00:58:11,050 Christ. I do pray that you help us to 782 00:58:11,050 --> 00:58:17,800 understand your call upon us to fish, the call to not just 783 00:58:17,800 --> 00:58:22,920 simply be a recipient, but also be an ambassador for Christ. 784 00:58:25,560 --> 00:58:32,320 Lord, You've sent us out as light in The Dark World, and we 785 00:58:32,320 --> 00:58:35,520 can look in fear about how are we ever going to be able to 786 00:58:35,520 --> 00:58:40,120 overcome the darkness. But I pray that You help us to 787 00:58:40,120 --> 00:58:46,320 see that You are the light of the world and that we can 788 00:58:46,320 --> 00:58:51,120 overcome the darkness, because greater is You who is in US than 789 00:58:51,120 --> 00:59:03,660 the one that is in the world. Ask that you continue to pray 790 00:59:08,780 --> 00:59:17,860 and consider your calling. Has Christ come and bid you to 791 00:59:17,860 --> 00:59:22,640 follow Him? Are you in relationship with 792 00:59:22,640 --> 00:59:29,820 Christ? Have you communed with Him? 793 00:59:29,820 --> 00:59:31,500 Have you become like the teacher? 794 00:59:36,300 --> 00:59:48,900 Are you following in His path? Do you have the love for souls, 795 00:59:51,460 --> 00:59:56,200 or have you walked in disobedience so long that you've 796 00:59:56,200 --> 01:00:00,280 grown cold to the fact that eternity hangs in the balance? 797 01:00:47,680 --> 01:00:50,320 Father, we pray that you would strengthen us. 798 01:00:52,320 --> 01:00:55,440 I thank you for the words of Dustin this morning, for you 799 01:00:55,440 --> 01:00:59,520 speaking through your word and just pray God and ask that you 800 01:00:59,520 --> 01:01:02,920 would help us to to follow you a better. 801 01:01:03,640 --> 01:01:06,880 To be better fishers of. Men as Dustin, as mentioned, not 802 01:01:07,080 --> 01:01:10,520 out of legalism or an attempt to to gain some sort of standing 803 01:01:10,520 --> 01:01:15,000 with you, but because of the the great love that you've loved us 804 01:01:15,000 --> 01:01:19,520 with that you've called us out of darkness and into the sun, 805 01:01:19,520 --> 01:01:23,480 into the light. Help us to to help others to do 806 01:01:23,480 --> 01:01:27,240 the same. Please strengthen us and to do 807 01:01:27,240 --> 01:01:30,120 this work that you've given us and help us to to take it 808 01:01:30,120 --> 01:01:36,080 seriously Lord and we thank you so much for Christ who has saved 809 01:01:36,080 --> 01:01:39,880 us. We pray that all of this brings 810 01:01:39,880 --> 01:01:41,760 glory and honor to His great name. 811 01:01:42,560 --> 01:01:44,920 We ask it in His name, Amen.