So today I want to talk to you about Kingdom fishing and we're
going to connect with Frank today.
All right, say this. Say I'm going to connect with
Frank. Say I can't wait to meet Frank.
Now listen, I want you to just touch the shoulder of the person
in front of you. You on the front row.
Just reach towards me. Now listen, if nobody reaches,
nobody gets touched. So draw your hand back just a
little bit where you're not touching them.
There's no connection if you don't reach, right?
So I'm. I'm praying that there's a reach
in you when you leave this sanctuary.
And now I'm. I'm going to find Frank and
connect with him today, tomorrow, this week, next month
and for the rest of my life. Now you say, who is Frank?
I'll tell you. Frank is Frank is friends,
relatives, associates, neighbors and kids.
Come on. Yeah.
Please say that again, man, Frank is friends, relatives,
associates, neighbors and kids. It's really everybody you come
in contact with. And we need to be a church that
has the heart of the Father as he builds our life as we as we
for those that have been saved, delivered and then filled with
the Holy Ghost. God wants that subsequent
experience of what you've had in your life to connect with Frank,
and if nobody reaches, nobody gets touched.
So your assignment this week is, Lord, send Frank my way.
Sometimes Frank looks like an interruption, a phone call you
didn't expect, somebody you didn't think you'd see at
Walmart. You know how it is when you're
at Walmart and you see somebody and you're in a rush and you got
your schedule. Just like Audrey said, you know,
this is my schedule. But Lord sent Frank your way and
said, no, you need to go down the aisle way and talk to Frank.
It's a divine connection, not an interruption.
Not every interruption is a distraction.
So we're going to launch out from Isaiah chapter 58, verse
#12. Isaiah chapter 58 verse #12 says
this and at Anchor Faith Church, we just started this a few weeks
ago. For those of you who are first
time guests, we welcome you. If you're a first time guest,
and I'll tell you this, stay plugged in and keep on coming.
If you're local and you don't have a church to go to, we will
do you good for your spiritual journey.
You will find a community of believers that are passionate
for the Lord Jesus Christ that want to be led by the Spirit.
If you're not with us and you're from out of town, we will help
you find a church in your local area.
Just talk to one of our ushers or myself after service.
We want to get you plugged in somewhere.
Amen. So, but we stand for the reading
of the first Scripture that we say just to honor God.
This came out of Ezra. You know, they stood when they
heard the word of the Lord. So let's read this.
Those from among you shall build the old waste places.
You shall raise up the foundations of many generations.
You shall be called the repair of the breach, the restorer of
streets to dwell in. You may be seated.
So this golden prophet Isaiah declares this word.
Those from among you, that's us in the sanctuary.
Are there people among us today? Yeah.
Out of or from. So those from among you shall
rebuild, ruin, waste places. One of our assignments in life
is anything that's broken or mismanaged or or in destruction
or in decay. A a dysfunctional dad, a broken
relationship, a a sick body. Right.
A distraught mind man. We're called to rebuild.
God is a builder. We're made in his image.
So guess what? He's put the capacity and the
assignment in our lives to be builders, he said.
You're going to rebuild old waste places.
You're going to raise up the foundation of many generations.
God is a transgenerational God. He's the God of Abraham, Isaac
and Jacob. And so he just doesn't want it
for one generation. It's so exciting to see the
teens go to camp because that's another generation and we want
to see them raise up. And you know, Josiah was young
when he started serving God. You don't have to wait till
you're 32 to start serving God. You could be 8 years old and
have a such a passion for Jesus. And you, you never have to lose
that. You never have to abandon that.
You could be fully submerged and submitting that for a lifetime.
So God wants to raise up the foundation.
It's his will to raise up the foundation of many generations.
And then he said you shall be called a repair of the breach
and the restore of pathways to dwell in.
And really out of this verse, the one out of these 4
principles, the one I want to hone in on is he said you shall
be called and not might or maybe, but you shall be called
the repair of the breach. Now the word repair means this,
to wall up or to build a wall. And the word breach means this
there's a gap, there's a break or there's a broken wall.
So God's called us to build up things that are broken, to build
up walls that are broken down to to fill in any gaps.
All right. And this really signifies and
indicate someone who mends that which is broken, particularly in
relationships and communities. So when you repair the breach,
you have the heart of the Father to mend relationships and mend
what is wrong in communities spiritually.
This repair the breach means this healing divisions.
Healing divisions when I was down front man, we don't have
racial divide at Anchor Faith Church.
We don't have segregation at Anchor Faith Church.
We're all born of Jesus Christ and I have brothers and sisters
in the Lord. And so we heal divisions and,
and it's restores unity to God and his people.
This can be seen as a type of Christ who is the ultimate
repairer reconciling humanity to God.
It's like Jesus takes your hand, takes the Father's hand and by
his blood brings it together. He repairs the gap and he he's
seen of the ultimate repair by the breach, by sin.
You realize when Adam fell put a breach between US and God, but
the first Adam did that. The last Adam came and repaired
the breach. And now we can call on the name
of Jesus, declare his finished work, and that breach is closed.
And we have and that that relationship is mended and
restored with the Father. Not only that, but he wants to
restore humanity. If there's broken relationships
or dysfunctional things in communities, we have to have a
heart to see those things mended.
It moves us, it motivates us. It becomes our ambition and our
drive. In historical context, when we
say repair the breach, it refers to repairing the physical
breaches in the walls of Jerusalem.
Jerusalem which leads me to Nehemiah because what was
Nehemiah's assignment? What was God having him build?
What was his task and his purpose?
And so I'll give you a homework assignment.
I'm not going to read every verse of the 1st chapter, but I
think it it would be good for you to go home and read the
first chapter. I think it's only about 11
verses, but Nehemiah. I'll just give a quick summary.
Nehemiah is obviously the cupbearer for the king, but he
heard that there were broken walls and busted gates, that
there was a breach, there was a gap.
And man, when he heard that report, it moved him.
It motivated him matter of fact and and and great compassion.
And with a great cry he was moved.
And then out of that compassion, a cry came prayer, and now that
prayer came action. So we heard the report which
moved him to compassion, made him cry out to God in prayer,
and moved him to action. He told the king, man, my home
city is tore down. There's walls that are busted,
gates that are burned, locks that need reinstalled in it and
movement. He requested and interceded with
the king. Let me go back, will you bless
me to go back And the king granted that and bestowed him
said you're going to go back. I'm going to allow you to go
back and to fix this breach, to fix this gap.
I believe there's gaps today in our community.
There's reports, you know, when I, when I hear a report of a
dysfunctional dad or a, a husband that's out of place or
he's more of a, of a predator than a prayer or a, a house
isn't really a home, or when I hear reports of, of abortion
right now. These reports should have a
heart of compassion. We shouldn't just go by
unconcerned going about our course of life.
Now we have to ears to hear what the Holy Ghost is saying.
And out of that report should come a compassion, and it should
lead to prayer, which leads to action.
And if you study out Nehemiah, very interesting study, but
we're going to look at one gate that he restored.
Out of the 12 gates that he restored, I'll say it again.
He restored 12 gates in the book of Nehemiah.
But one gate we're going to look at right today, and that's in
Nehemiah 3 three. And it said in Nehemiah 3 Three
that the sons of this guy, Mr. H, we'll call him, built the
fish gate and laid its beams and hung its doors with its bolts
and bars. I love this story of Nehemiah
'cause it wasn't Nehemiah doing all the work.
When you read how the gates are rebuilt, it was a community
effort within the body. It's going to take all of us,
say this is going to take all of us, say there's no insignificant
members. It's going to take all of us to
repair the breeches. And so when you read Nehemiah
and how he restored these 12 gates, there was a lot of
different names associated in rebuilding.
And guess what? An anchor fate shows a lot of
different names that God is going to use and work through to
help rebuild things that are broken and gates that are busted
and walls that are torn down. But this fish gate needs
reestablished. This fish gate was on one of the
walls on the northern wall of Jerusalem.
It was named for its proximity to the fish market because fish
from the Mediterranean Sea were brought through it.
Fish from the Mediterranean Sea were brought through this gate.
So in Ezekiel chapter 22 verse #30 Ezekiel chapter 22 verse #30
what is God looking for? Well, the new King James Version
says this. I sought for a man, and that's
mankind. Are you with me?
We could say I'm looking for a man or a woman of God with a
backbone that would make up a wall and stand in the gap before
me on behalf of the land that I would not destroy.
But I found no one people that are indifferent or complacent
going about in their in their course of life, not thinking
about God. This is why this message should
really stir you up. You know, there could be drift
in your life. All of us.
I've had it happen, but thank God for it's just like, you
know, we were driving this weekend to to Disney Glory to
God. It's like melting yesterday,
sweat running everywhere. But my wife had on that her GPS
or the maps, you know, and we're talking and we we missed our
turn to go to Epcot, you know, and So what does that do though?
The map automatically reroutes you and some of us in drift, we
missed our exit. God said you were supposed to
get off there, but let me reroute you.
So we need to be keen enough to listen to the Holy Ghost on a
daily basis. We don't want to God to say I
didn't find anyone to stand in the gap.
The new living translation says it like this.
I look for someone. I look for someone who might
rebuild the wall of righteousness that guards the
land. I search for someone to stand in
the gap in the wall so I wouldn't have destroyed the
land, but I found no one. So what is this fish gate?
I submit that you did this to you today, that Jesus himself
put an emphasis on this fish gate and restored it.
The question is, are we partakers with Him and help Him
keep this fish gate being built? Go with me to Matthew chapter 4
verses 17 through 19. Matthew chapter 4 verses 17
through 19. The word says this.
From that time began Jesus to preach and say repent, for the
Kingdom of heaven is at hand. And Jesus was walking by the Sea
of Galilee and he saw two brothers, Simon called Peter and
Andrew his brother, casting a net into the sea.
Then he said to them, follow me and I will make you fishers of
men. He was reestablishing the fish
gate. I like the next verse it says,
and they left their Nets. That goes along with what Audrey
said. They had their Nets, their way
of doing thing. It said they dropped their Nets
and picked up his net. And when we get the fish gate in
our life, we're dropping our Nets and we're picking up his
net. Say I'm picking up the net of
Jesus. I'm gonna do his will.
So we need to leave our Nets behind.
Man. That word follow is a powerful
word. It means come hit her.
When I saw that, I want to tell my wife, Come, hit her.
Woman. Come now.
Because that's what it means. It is an interjection, which is
a phrase used to express a sudden emotion, reaction and
response when it. And he said, repent for the
Kingdom of heaven as a hand. Then notice he went after
people, 'cause the Kingdom of heaven wants to get people.
Let me say the Kingdom of heaven wants to get people out of
darkness and say, follow me. Quit following your own Nets and
your own plan, but follow me, the Master, the Teacher, be my
disciples. And so that word follow means
come. You know, Matthew 28/28/19, he
says go ye, but before there's a go ye, there's a come ye 'cause
there's a relational side first before he sends you out.
And then I like the next verse when he's talking to Andrew and
Simon, he says they left their Nets and it was great.
If you read on to Matthew 4, he's starting to pick people to
follow them. He finds two more people after
Andrew and Simon and says follow me.
And guess what? Jesus is still saying today,
Come hit her, come now, come hit her.
Come now. Jesus is still calling.
Are you responding? And so he said, I will make I
like that man. That means he's the author of
your life at that point. That means he's preparing you.
He's getting you ready to be productive and fruitful.
He said I will make Are you allowing Jesus to write your
story, author your life? I don't want to be the author of
my life. I want Jesus to author my life.
Well, how do you do that? By being in the word of God, by
church attendance, by being around other people of like
precious faith, by listening to the Holy Spirit.
I want to be productive. I want to be like the one in the
in the word when the the talents were given that it says well
done, thou good and faithful servant.
You've been faithful in a few things.
I'm going to make you ruler over much.
And what is Jesus making? He said follow me.
I will make you a Fisher of men. Now that word I I will make.
Let me just back up and say that is a spiritually transformed
life. It's a spiritually transformed
life. You are not the same.
You are not the same, he said in
Second Corinthians chapter 5 verse #17 Second Corinthians
chapter 5. Spiritually you're not the same.
The amplified Bible says this when he says I will make you.
This is what it means and and we'll see in 2nd Corinthians
517. Therefore, if anyone is in
Christ that is grafted in, joined to him by faith as the
Savior, he's a new creature reborn and renewed by the Holy
Spirit. The old things, the previous
moral and spiritual condition has passed away.
Behold, new things have come because spiritual awakening
brings a new life. Now you realize this, you are a
spirit, you have a soul, you live in the in a body.
So when I got born again in 1997, guess what was born again?
My spirit man became alive to God.
Now my mind and my body, I had to do something with that.
So when it says I will make I want to explain that a little
bit further. But when when the spirit man
being reborn is Jesus work, our response to that is doing
something with our body and our soul.
So in order to make we got to do something with our body and our
soul, but it's him that only and only him and his finished work
that could recreate the spirit man on the inside, which means
your spirit was apart from God. And I couldn't earn that.
I couldn't work myself for that. I couldn't pay for that.
I couldn't redeem that by my own effort, effort or merit, but
Jesus did. He is the Lamb of God that takes
away the sins of the world. He's the repair of the breach.
That said, when my blood's on the mercy seat, if you call on
my name, you shall be saved me and my spirit is alive to God.
That's a good confession, that every day my spirit is alive to
God now just 'cause I was born again in 1997, guess what?
My thinking didn't change and my body didn't change.
You know, if you were bald before you got born again,
you're bald after you got born again.
So that doesn't change. But the spirit man does.
And so it says, when I will make you have a part to play in
letting him make you. Listen to what Isaiah says about
the soul and body in Isaiah 64, eight Isaiah chapter 64, verse
#8 this, this gives a great illustration of what we need to
be doing on a daily basis. But now, O Lord, you are the
Father, We are the clay, You're our Potter, and we are the work
of your hand. If He's really the author of
your life, you need to stay on the Potter's wheel.
Let me say it again, You need to stay on the Potter's wheel.
When he says I will make, that means you stay on the Potter's
wheel. The issue that we have is
because you are a free will moral agent, God doesn't force
anything on you or make you a robot.
You have to decide to let him make you.
And that means every day we come surrendered to that Potter's
wheel. What's the Potter do?
I want his hand forming in fashion in me?
In Ephesians it says it's the washing of the water of the
word. And what does a Potter use to
form that clay water. So you let me put it this way,
you can't mold dry clay. So if you're not in the word
every day, guess what? You're a moldy Christian.
Say I say this, I don't want to be a moldy Christian.
I don't want to be a stank Christian.
I know that's improper English and grammar, but we don't want
to stank. So we need to let Him mold us
and shape us. That's just renewing our mind,
coming to church, being in His word.
Any adjustments He wants us to make?
Man, Lord, your hands on me. Oh, you need me to change that?
Yes Sir, 'cause I know you're always working for my highest
benefit, Father. And so Romans chapter 12 verses
one through 2 says this. I'm gonna read this in the
Message Bible 'cause I really like the way that this reads,
talking about letting Him make your life.
The message says it like this, 'cause it in the message.
These first 2 verses of Romans chapter 12 talks about your body
and talks about your soul, 'cause that's something that you
make a choice on your spirit. Man's recreated because of his
work, but for him to make you a fully fledged disciple, you got
to allow him to do something with your soul and body, which
means I got to be surrendered to him in His word every day.
So the message reads it like this.
So here's what I want you to do. God helping you take your
everyday ordinary life. You're sleeping, eating, going
to work and walking around life and place it before.
God is an offering. Embracing what God does for you
is the best thing you can do for Him.
Don't become so well adjusted to the culture that you fit in
without even thinking. Instead, fix your attention on
God. You will be changed from inside
out. Readily recognize what He wants
from you and quickly respond to it.
Unlike the culture around you, always dragging you down to its
level of immaturity, God brings the best out of you and develops
well for maturity in you. So it says, follow me, I will
make you. And what's the end result of
Fisher of Men? The fish gate restored?
The Fisher of Men knows this. I have a new and a new identity
with a new mission. I'm not trying to catch what I
used to catch. Are you with me?
I've dropped my Nets, picked up his Nets.
Cause all of us had ABC life before Christ.
And there are things that we're pursuing, desires that we had
that were ungodly, that we're not in alignment with this plan.
But now that I'm in Christ, I got a new identity with a new
mission. I have an intentional life.
I don't react, I respond. I live on purpose.
I'm not killing time. Sometimes in counseling
sessions, somebody said, well, I'm killing.
No, we invest time 'cause I'm intentional.
Even when I nap, I nap on purpose.
Glory to God, it's not out of depression, not out of sorrow,
you know, 'cause some people sleep.
Even even the disciples fell asleep because they couldn't
stay on in prayer with Jesus and they were depressed that he was
leaving. But man, he was saying I'm going
to go to the father. This is great news.
They were sad about it. He said, oh, and if you only
knew, I'm going to put the Holy Ghost on the inside of you and
live a purpose, mission centered life.
A Fisher of men means you have patience.
Glory to God. Let's declare that say aye.
Have patience. Say this even when somebody,
somebody has 15 items in the 10 item check out line.
I know you're counting because I've counted, but guess what?
We got patience as 10 1/2 items. We have persistence, man.
You know, to to bring in fish, you got to be patient and you
got to be persistent. My friend Steve Miller, who
actually went home to be with the Lord probably about a year
and a half, two years after I got born again.
What a great example of a Fisher of men.
I just want this to be etched in your life 'cause this is you
this week. Are you with me?
He was so intentional, so patient, so persistent.
And the last thing about a fisherman is compassion.
And so we we ran again, both of us before Christ at Gahanna
Lincoln High School. Hallelujah, 1992.
Glory to God, I'm getting wiser. I asked Brian the other day when
he was born. I was like, wow, I'm getting
old. I was like, what?
You're where you're born? Wait, I graduated from high
school already. But Steve, man, we used to run
around. He actually moved my senior year
of high school from Florida. His dad was a a salesman for
Quaker State, not a Quaker, but Quaker State Oil.
And he came up to Gahanna, OH, and man, he, he got born again.
We used to party together, drink together.
We like athletics, we like lifting, we like being crazy.
You know, we thought we were manly, manly men, but what we
were was immature males, stupid, making dumb decisions.
Thank God. Thank God I didn't die in that
state. Thank God for his mercy, thank
God for his redemption, 'cause you know, there's some dumb
things we all did, like drinking and driving.
I used to go to West Liberty State College and to get from
the bottom of the mountain to the top of the mountain without
all the brain cells firing is tough 'cause there's no rail
guards. You know about West Virginia,
There's no rail guards in some places.
And man, one wrong turn, you're off.
But Steve, man, he got born again and I'm, he was like a
Jesus freak. You remember that talk?
What would people say if you were a Jesus freak?
And man, he was just so transformed and radically
converted that he, I mean, it annoyed me just to be honest.
I'm living in my own net with my own plan, and he's just talking
about Jesus. I mean, I got to the point where
it was back in the day when he had pagers, says anybody got me?
I better get some new examples. You know, golly, some people are
like, what's a pager? Well, you were really cool if
you had one at one point, people thought you were a doctor.
It was really cool when he used to page me.
I'll explain later to you, Young 1.
I would I would ignore his phone call, but man, he was patient
and persistent and just would not give up on me.
Who are you not going to give up on this week?
And he kept on talking about Jesus.
I would duck his phone calls. And finally I got so fed up with
him he invited me to a conference call.
The divine revelation of hell. I said just to shut you up.
I didn't tell him that I'm gonna go with you.
And so we went down to the Convention Center in Columbus,
OH, and this lady preached on the divine and it scared the
hell out of me. It was a fire and brimstone
message. And man, I was like, I am not
going there. So my motivation for getting
born again was thank God he works with us.
Amen. It wasn't really the love of
God. It was, man, that's hell,
brimstone fire. I mean, I don't want to be
burned up in fire, but I got born.
I had a sincere conversion even in that.
And man, I had a passion. I just knew I need to get in
church. I just something on the inside,
something on the inside said you need to be planted.
And man, I've, I've only been in three churches since 1997.
And the only reason I left Columbus, OH is 'cause I went to
Bible school and attended Rebel Bible College.
And then when I left there, God said to come here with pastoral
and Marcy, apostle and Marcy. And in 2004 we came, my wife and
I, sorry, we're so ingrained. Sometimes it's like our
anniversary date and the coming here is like, OK, which one's
which? And I've been been with this
ministry ever since, you know. But man, he was persistent.
I'm glad that he invited me. I'm glad he didn't give up on
me. I'm glad he was compassionate to
me. What he experienced, he wanted
me to experience. He didn't want to see me, his
friend Frank. He didn't want to see Frank go
to hell. And we don't want to see Frank
go to hell. Matter for matter of fact.
We want to see Frank follow. We want to see Frank be made.
We want to see Frank become a Fisher of men.
Did you get that? We want to see Frank follow.
Come hit her, Frank. You should be leaving the
service saying come hit her, Frank.
Well, maybe not that loud, but 'cause you want to see Frank be
made, and then you just want to see Frank be a Fisher of men,
'cause God is the master advertiser and the master
marketer. He just doesn't use the fivefold
ministry. How bad of a marketing plan
would that be if only a fivefold ministry could reach somebody
for Jesus Christ? No, he said, all of you become
fishers of men. This fish gate needs to be
restored. It needs to be in our lives
every day. We need to be mindful.
Are we building this fish gate in our life where we can go to
the Mediterranean Sea out in the darkness and bring back into the
city of Jerusalem, the safe place God's name is a strong
tower the righteous run into and they're safe to see somebody
broke, taken out of dysfunction and brought into order and
peace. So the summary of this whole
interaction that Jesus had in Matthew chapter 4, verse 17
through 19, they're going to put this on the screen just so you
can see. You can take a picture of it.
You can try to write it down if they don't go through the slides
too fast. But the summary of this whole
interaction is this Jesus initiates the relationship there
it comes and has he initiated? He says, come, Jesus is still
calling today. Come, follow, right?
And then secondly, Jesus calls for a wholehearted discipleship.
Wholehearted. You've heard the term rabbi
before, which means the master teacher.
The whole point of discipleship is this.
The disciple wanted three things from the rabbi, same three
things we want from Jesus, our rabbi.
That's to know what the rabbi knows, do what the rabbi does,
and to be like the rabbi. I want to know what Jesus knows,
do what Jesus does and be like Jesus.
So it's a whole. It's a fully devoted disciple.
It's not lukewarm. It's not come on Christmas
service and Easter, those only two time I come to church.
It's not I read my Bible only when I get in trouble and I need
to cry out for help. No, he initiates A relate.
What's a relationship? You commune with him every day.
It would be a sad state if I said, hey, Angie, you want to
marry me? She said, yeah, OK, we get
married. I'll see you next year.
Well, I'll come visit you on Christmas and Easter, Angie, she
said thanks. I'll talk to you when I feel
like it Is that how we is that how we treat Jesus?
No, not this church. We're passionate about the
things of Christ. It's a relationship first come
ye and then it costs her wholehearted discipleship and
then #3 Jesus with divine promise gives spirit and power
transformation to your life. He said I will make what a great
confession for you to have. I Jesus is making me.
Jesus is author of my life. Jesus is preparing for me
prepare me. God puts no untested product on
his market. Why do you think you're going
through some of the things you're going through?
Oh, if you could only see from his point of view instead of
your point of view. The apostle Paul said, Lord
remove this thing from me. He prayed 3 times about it and
God said, no, my grace is sufficient, for my strength is
made perfect in your weakness. Sometimes you're going through
things because God is making you.
He's getting you ready. He's preparing for you.
He's got a higher level. He's got another mountain for
you to climb, another assignment for you to do.
God is always in the in the business of promotion.
God wants to put you on display. Are you listening?
God wants to take your life and put it on display to the world,
but it comes with a spiritual transformation.
He's not going to display somebody that's lukewarm.
You're not ready yet. He's waiting for you to turn up
the degree of heat. And then #4 he said, I'm going
to make you a Fisher of men. So to summarize this whole
interaction from Matthew chapter 4 with these two disciples, He
gives us a clear mission and direction.
A clear mission and direction. Your life becomes focused.
Even when I'm home as a husband and as a father, I'm a Fisher of
men. I'm intentional, I'm patient,
I'm persistent, I'm compassionate.
When I'm at Walmart, I'm a Fisher of men.
When I'm at the gas station, I'm a Fisher of men.
When I'm walking out the church building today, I'm a Fisher of
men. I respond to this call and it
means I leave a self-directed life.
I've dropped my Nets, I've surrendered.
I said Lord, I don't want to RIP my pants.
Glory to God. I didn't do leg day yesterday,
but I felt something going. So Hallelujah.
That would have been staples and bad, but it's a wholehearted
surrender. It means cleaving to Christ.
Matt, you are everything to me, Jesus, without you, I am
nothing. I let your message, I am vitally
united to you, and I let your message live in my heart.
It's such a comprehensive redemption, such a total
redemption. Maybe you've never heard this
good news. I mean, when God brought you
out, He brought all of you out. That was His plan.
If you don't feel like He brought all of you out, there is
more for you. He came to give you life and to
give it to you more abundantly. But it's just that hard man I
am. There's nobody more that I'm in
love with or want to be around. Thank God for my wife.
But you know, the reason this is a success cause with Him and to
Him is everything. You know, when you, you think
you fell in love with somebody, you know, and what do you do?
You're always thinking about that person, right?
And the problem with humanity is typically when that person and
you get together, unfortunately for humanity, it becomes can
become common and drift happens. And let me put it this way, the
pursuit wasn't there like it used to be.
And that's how marriages could fail.
I mean, when you were pursuing your soon to be spouse, for
those of you that are married or you're just trying to get
married. I mean, you, you put on your
best, you smell good. You get the door for her, right?
Your car's clean. You got the voice.
Hey, Boo, I don't call, I don't call my wife Boo.
I say, hey, babe, it doesn't turn to hey, come here.
I don't, I mean that shouldn't happen five years down the road.
But do we do this with Jesus? I mean, we should get up every
day. I mean, think about what he did
for us. And although I got saved cause
of the the fire of hell, right now I live because of the love
of God. How could I not be eternally
grateful when I was on death row destined for hell and a payment
had to be made. You know this happens in our
prison systems. There is by law people that have
violated and broken the law. Murdered somebody and they could
be facing life in prison or even the death sentence and
rightfully so. Cause according to our statutes
and laws, they have broken the law, right?
They could be a multiple time offender.
And so a payment has to be made that can't just be sweeped under
the rug. And they, they're pardoned.
But what Jesus did for us would be like what would happen with
them if somebody said I'm gonna go in and take your place.
Say you were executed death. That's what he did.
I'm said, say we're going to say Melvin had committed his crimes.
But he he went in Melvin's stead and stance and said I am going
to be the one that is taking your place and paying this price
so that Melvin can go free. And so he went to the cross.
But good news, on the third day he rose again from the dead,
right. So that motivates me now out of
out of his love compels me just to think about that every day to
make me a fisherman. In Matthew chapter 5, this great
sermon on the Mount, Jesus says you're two things when it comes
to being a Fisher of men on this sermon, verse 13 through 15 is
very important for us on a daily basis.
In verse 13, he said you are the salt of the earth, but if the
salt loses its flavor, how shall it be seasoned?
It's then good for nothing but to be thrown out and trampled
under foot by men. Now, salt in the ancient world
was a valuable commodity, just like your life in Christ is a
valuable commodity. It was used for preserving
foods, enhancing flavor, and it was even a form of currency.
In order to connect with Frank, we have to be salt.
That means I've got to be able to reach.
Salt has no impact unless it touches something.
I can have a salt shaker in my pantry, but if it doesn't get on
the food, it has no impact. So thank God we're around us
today, believers. But guess what?
We need to go into the world and be salt and go and re establish
that fish gate if it loses its flavor.
This phrase underscores the seriousness of 11 losing his his
or her spiritual influence. Somebody that's drifted, they're
unsavory, it's and become useless.
This is a believer who fails to live out their faith and their
purpose. Don't be a believer that fails
out to live out their faith and their purpose.
It's a sober reminder of spiritual complacency.
We need to wake up and realize, man, there is a lost and dying
world out there. And I live a mission.
Mission centered life focused on discipleship and evangelism, He
said in in verse 14, you are the light of the world, a city that
is set on a hill that cannot be hidden.
Nor do they light a lamp and put under a basket, but on a
lampstand. Lampstand.
It gives light to all who are in the house as a light.
We are a lamp to people. We are brightness to people.
We have brilliant qualities that attract people.
People should come and say what is different about you?
You know, light doesn't make a sound, but it could be seen.
And when you go to work tomorrow, you people should
recognize that you're a fully. They may not know that you're a
fully divided villa disciple. That's my best Jim Carrey.
Sorry. We could have fun at church.
If you're really sanctified and saved and you know who Jim
Carrey is, see me after church. OK, I'll explain what a pager is
and who the actor is. I'm being silly right now, but
light gives truth and knowledge. Man.
Does your life display truth and knowledge?
So salt has contact, but light can just be seen.
So you know your character should just shine forth.
Should shine forth. This phrase identifies the
Father as Jesus, as a source of spiritual illumination in a
world often characterized by darkness and sin.
Our lives should be visible and make impact.
Jesus never called us all just to come to church 168 hours a
week. No, he said, you're going to
come to church to get equipped so that when you go back out in
the world. I like the way that Donald G
said this. He's deceased now, but he was a,
a powerful apostle really that Kennethy Hagin, the founder of
our Bible school, listened to a lot of his teaching.
He said when you come to church, it's, it's powerful, powerful
truth within for a, a powerful impact without basically what
he's saying is when you come to church, you're getting built up
so that when you go out, it's a powerful impact.
And so you come on Sunday or Wednesday, you come to a men's
discipleship at 318 or you come to a women's event.
What's it doing? It's building you up.
It is the spiritual gym. And sometimes there's going to
be drop sets, sometimes there's going to be forced wraps.
Sometimes it's going to be like, whoo, I don't know if I can get
through this, but there's some spiritual spotting going on,
which means we're going to, we're going to help you get
through sticking points and help you to grow and develop and
mature. So there'll be some challenging
things that take place, but guess what?
You're going to get a good spiritual meal when you come.
So build you up. It's not always going to be ice
cream, although ice cream comes through some sermons.
There's going to be some Brussels sprouts, Amen, some
broccoli, some healthy spiritual carbs and protein 'cause we need
a balanced diet to grow. So all this being said, this
fish gate being restored, how Jesus said you shall be fishers
of men, you're going to be fully devoted disciples of Jesus
Christ. I want to give you some action
points today. So I'm going to give you 6 M's.
It's not because my name is Mike, but they just go well
together. So #1 they'll put these up on
the slides. When it comes to being a Fisher
of men and a disciple Jesus Christ, and fall in him #1 you
have to be a model. Now remember, we said you're the
salt of the earth. That word salt was also used in
sacrifices in the Old Testament, He said On your sacrifices,
you're gonna put some salt. That tells us that we need to
live, indicating that we need to live holy lives.
Are you with me? Pure lives, lives that line up
with the standards and the values of God.
I didn't just get married for a good time.
I got married for a long time. So we don't want to see you back
at church next year on your third marriage.
Now, I know that divorce happens, but listen, and that's
not to make light of that, but just doing what the world, the
world, just if I don't like it, I just, there's no commitment.
There's no covenant. Now abuse is one thing,
adultery, abandonment, but just because I don't feel like it,
where is the commitment, right? So we want to model this thing
out. I mean, the ultimate example is
the Lord Jesus Christ. We need to align our life with
the principles and the character of Jesus.
That's what a model does. I'm aligning my life with the
principles, the truth from the Word, and the character of Jesus
Christ. Remember the old brace
bracelets? WWJD.
What would Jesus do? That's still a good question.
We need to ask what would Jesus do?
Am I modeling the apostle Paul in First Corinthians Chapter 11
verse #111 verse one says this. It's only 12 and 1.
So I don't know why I'm rushing, feel like an auctioneer, blah
blah. Not that I'm gonna take you a
long to take a long time, but he said this and really amplified
pattern yourselves after me. Follow my example as I imitate
and follow Christ the Messiah. Let me ask you this question.
Is your life worthy of somebody else making that a pattern?
And you, you know, in your heart, if I need to adjust, this
is not a message of condemnation.
This is a message to pick you up.
Does that mean you have to be perfect?
No. But are you growing?
Are you better now than you were last year?
Do you respond differently now than you did four months ago?
I remember the time in my life, man, where if it was a funky
situation, it could take me some days to get out of that funk.
But I, I knew, I knew. And you know, as I grew in
Christ, those days became hours and those hours became minutes
'cause I learned how to respond to the Word and the Holy Ghost
quicker. And that's what he's saying.
Are you worthy of being modeled? Are you different now?
Are you allowing? Are you on the Potter's wheel
and you respond differently now? You know, when, if you had a hot
button of anger, if you're more patient today than you were six
months ago, And if not, guess what?
Change. Change has not changed until
it's changed. So we need to model this.
And then when you model this, you can go on the second point
as a disciple and a Fisher of men, which is mentor.
And to be a mentor, I'll put it this way, to make disciples, you
have to be a disciple. That means you got to be fully
devoted. I'll put in the educational
field and plan of God. Second Timothy 2, two from the
Amplified says this. The instructions which you've
heard from me, along with many witnesses, transmit and entrust
as a deposit to reliable and faithful men who will be
competent and qualified to teach others.
Also, God's plan is mentorship. God's saying as you grow, you
need to everything you've learned, everything that's been
invested from you, you need to pour into somebody else.
It's the law of reproduction. There's no higher law in the
Kingdom of God than the law of reproduction, right?
And so he's looking for people that are that'll mentor other
people. This is all throughout the Bible
mentorship, you see, with Eli and Samuel, with Moses and
Joshua, with Paul and Timothy, with Jesus and the disciples,
there was an investment from one generation to the next.
These men modeled it, but then they mentored it.
Mentoring is a relational experience through which one's
one person empowers another by sharing God-given resources, and
it facilitates development and empowerment.
So it's a relational experience to empower and to share with
somebody else so they can grow and develop.
And we need mentors in the body of Christ.
And then the third thing is we need to, after you model it, you
can mentor it. And when you're a mentor, you
have to monitor. In our society, we have this
mediocre people and mediocre people want authority without
accountability. And monitoring means I bring
accountability to your life. Do you know if I get squirrely?
You know what that means? Off the beaten path, my wife
there's knows there's two people she can reach out to and I'll
get a text and I'll get yanked up by the neck, spiritually
slapped on the butt. You know that keeps you straight
when there's somebody that your spouse knows they could reach
out to or if you're singer, somebody you know that is
monitoring your life. Right, 'cause I just want to
stay on track. I remember when I was at Bible
school and my roommate confronted me, 'cause my wife
and I would were starting to take naps together.
We we weren't married at the time, we were just engaged and
we thought it would be a good thing.
We sure did before. You know you're napping on top
of each other. We did say pure, but thank God
for monitoring because my roommate came to me one day and
he said this looks no bueno. He said it no good.
And man, I wanted to like you jive Turkey.
But you know what, he was right. Proverbs 27 six says faith were
the wounds of a friend. It felt like a punch in the gut
at that time. But after I thought about it, I
was like, you're right. Thank God, 'cause we did stay
pure. And if I didn't have somebody
say, hey, that's not right, we've could have failed before
our marriage covenant, but we did not because somebody was
monitoring. So if you really want to achieve
greatness, thank God for those mentors of yours that could ask
the tough questions. The thing with America is we
want independence, and God in the Kingdom is calling us to
interdependence. You know, even in Second
Corinthians chapter 13 verse #5 it says this is from the
amplified Second Corinthians 13 verse 5 says examine and test
and evaluate to see whether you're holding to your faith and
showing the proper fruits of it, right?
Examine, test, and evaluate. Thank God for that.
That's called accountability. And after monitoring comes
motivate, you know, 'cause after you get corrected sometimes,
guess what? Listen, that's the voice that
comes in. You're going to make it.
There's hope. Listen, above the clouds, the
sun is always shining. And I like to say it, the SON,
the sun is always shining. So no matter how gloomy the day
or bleak the outlet, there's a thing called hope.
And we need to have a hermeneutic.
You know, hermeneutic is a sermon of hope.
And hope means things can change, things can get better.
God is not done with you yet. And I'm really not trying to be
carnal today. But the only thing I can think
of, and it may be a bad example, and you may have never watched
the movie because I don't think Josh ever watched it, Pastor
Josh, but I'm going to quote it anyways, which is Rocky Balboa.
You need somebody like Mick and says, get up, you bum, it ain't
over. Now, God wouldn't call you a
bum, but Mick was the corner man and you got the Holy Ghost on
the inside of you. You got people around you
cheering you on, saying get up, get up.
The adjustment may fall, but get back up, repent.
He said he's faithful and just to forgive you if you confess
your sins and if God has forgiven you, why are you still
holding on to it? A mentor is going to say, have
you repented? Did you believe that?
Then guess what, let's not do that again.
Let's not go down that track or that course of that decision,
but let's get washed up and cleanse.
Let's get back on course. Just like that, that rerouting
that took place with us at Disney.
God saying, OK, we can still make it.
There was a little delay 'cause you missed the exit, but guess
what? I'm rerouting you and now you're
back on the plan and pathway that I have for you.
And oh, to be in the the plan and pathway of God.
There's nothing like it. There is nothing like it.
So we got to motivate in Hebrews chapter 10, verse #24 this is
such a great scripture. The Amplified Bible says this.
Let us consider thoughtfully how we may encourage one another to
love and good deeds. Are we doing that?
Are we encouraging one another in love and good deeds?
First Thessalonians chapter 5 verse #11 says this.
Therefore, encourage and comfort one another and build up one
another just as you are doing, man.
We should have a word of hope that says man, Gabe, you got
this. You're in 318.
You are a mighty man in training man.
You're not the same that you were in first year.
And wait till we got the sword ceremony next year that you're
going to be in, right? You're gonna get your sword next
year, you're gonna do it. And then after that, you're just
gonna be so impactful for your grandkids.
If the Lord tarries, 'cause you're a mighty man.
That's encouragement. Gabe's in our 318 discipleship
second year and growing and going with the things of God,
and I appreciate that. Has it always been easy?
Has there been monitoring and motivation and mentorship?
But guess what? He's starting to model these
things out now. Man.
This excites the heart of the Father.
Another verse in Isaiah verse 50, I'm sorry, chapter 50 verse
#4 Isaiah chapter 50 verse #4 it says the Lord God has given me
the tongue of the learned man. This is my prayer, that I should
know how to speak a word in season to Him who is weary.
He wakes me morning by morning he wakes me to to my ear to hear
as the learned what a prayer Lord wake me morning by morning
to speak a word to encourage him that's weary.
The next hymn is God wants you to mature.
So he wants you to model. He wants you to mentor mentor.
He wants you to monitor. He wants you to motivate, but
then he wants us to mature. Ephesians chapter 4 verse #15
says this speaking the truth in love me we may grow up.
Turn to your neighbor and say, grow up.
Turn the one on the other side other side and say grow up.
Now look forward and say God wants me to grow man.
In order to reach Frank, we got to grow.
We got to grow. Matthew chapter 5 verse #48 says
therefore you shall be perfect, just as your Father in heaven is
perfect. That word perfect does not mean
without fault or failure. It means to be full grown and
mature. Think about it, you can only
reproduce when you get to a certain age.
Did you get that physically? You can only reproduce when you
get. So why does God want you to grow
up so you can reproduce? Colossians chapter one verse #28
says this. It's Jesus that we preach,
warning every man and teaching every man in all wisdom that we
may present every man perfect or fully grown in Christ Jesus or
mature in Christ Jesus. The aim of anointing ministries
to grow you up and mature you. And my last point is this.
And the worship team can come, all four of them.
I went to Pastor Josh right before they were done with
worship on the front side of service has said.
So like, is anybody gonna be left at the end 'cause our
worship team went to camp? I was like, am I gonna have to
like play a banjo up there or something?
Or he told me Rafael, be on the keys.
Good. But the the last thing is
multiply at the Fish Gate because we are evangelist,
evangelistically centered. We are constantly thinking about
people coming into the Kingdom. I mean we are living like I
said, that mission centered life.
Every day is an opportunity. Every day is an opportunity.
What are you doing with your time and your attention?
What seeds are you sowing and what seeds are your water in
'cause some opportunities we have on a daily basis are just
seeds sown. And then then another believer
comes around, another disciple of Jesus Christ, another
fisherman. I remember when I was at
Worthington Steel when my life was floundering around, you see,
Remember I told you about Steve Miller invited me at the same
time I was, I was a college temp at Worthington Steel.
There's this guy named Brian that worked there.
So I was getting the squeeze between Brian and Steve.
You know what I mean? Steve was sewing into my life,
but so was Brian. And as a Fisher of men, Brian,
he was, I was like really not knowing where I where I was
going. I was a bouncer at the time.
I was into powerlifting. Thank God I'm saved.
I was 275 lbs. I don't think my heart would
have sustained that for too long.
Strong but dead. But Brian started, I'm at word
to steal. He starts saying, I know you
like lifting and everything. Have you, have you ever thought
about like vitamins and herbs? What was he doing?
He's looking for a fishing lure bait.
And what's a fisherman do? He puts the right bait on.
I'm not going up as somebody praying in tongues, prophesying
over them. That's not the bait.
No, we need to let our our speech be seasoned with salt.
We are the Sol of the Word, Holy Spirit.
What do I need to say in this moment?
And Brian knew he wasn't preachy to me, but he would ask some
questions and then all of a sudden those questions got a
little bit deeper, like, where's your walk at with the Lord?
And so last thing that is that we should see in this pattern of
modeling of mentoring as we're Fisher of men, of monitoring, of
motivating, of maturing, is we should see multiplication.
Man, I, I look out right now. I'm thankful for everybody's in
attendance. But what it would it be like if
we had this fish gate every day where we're out and we are
connecting people with Christ and then connecting them to the
church. What I'm saying is we should
have a heart to see this place full.
Are you with me? I mean, we should be so mission
centered and focused in discipleship that men are harder
to see this place full. The same way that Christ has
impacted my life out of compassion, I want to see
somebody else's life changed forever, transformed forever,
never going back to the way that it was or used to be.
And we see this in the book of Acts.
Man, there was 120 in Acts chapter one in the upper room
start off with 120 people. We got more than 120 here today,
but we have at least 120. But you know, when you get to
Acts chapter 2, one chapter later, by the end of the verse,
it says 3000 were added 3000. That's my cry, Lord.
Add 3000 by next Sunday. Let's create a problem with
standing room only. We will.
We will be fluid and put speakers somewhere to reach
everybody, right? You know, in Acts chapter 6
verse #7 though it said that the disciples multiple multiplied
greatly. I don't even know how much that
is. They gave us 3000 Acts too.
But there should be an increase at this fish gate where we are
winning people. The lost are coming in because
of the redemption of Jesus Christ.
I close with this scripture, Matthew Chapter 9, verses 36 to
38. But when Jesus saw the
multitudes, what do you see this week when you're out and about,
'cause I want to see it like Jesus saw it.
It says when he saw the multitudes, he was moved with
compassion because they were weary and scattered like sheep,
having no shepherd. Then he said to the disciples,
those that said, follow me, I will make you fishers of men.
He said to them, The harvest is plentiful.
The harvest is plentiful in Saint Augustine.
The harvest is plentiful in Duval County, the harvest is
plentiful in Northeast Florida, the harvest is plentiful in
Florida, the harvest is plentiful in the world, he said,
but the laborers are few. Pray to the Lord of the harvest
to send out laborers into his harvest.
The question is, are you a laborer this week?
Are you going to rise up to the call in the Commission to go out
and evangelistically win the loss this week by being salt and
being light?