Fishers Of Men

If Jesus were building a movement today, would He start with polished religious professionals or with ordinary workers who know how to grind, adapt, and go get results? We sit in Matthew 4 as Jesus calls Peter, Andrew, James, and John, and we wrestle with a question that cuts through church comfort fast: are we fishermen, or are we just hanging out on the boat?

We break down what “disciple” actually means in the Bible, why it is closer to apprenticeship than classroom attendance, and how American church habits can drift into making converts instead of making disciples. Along the way, we draw a hard line between collecting Christian information and becoming the kind of person who looks like Jesus in real life, Monday through Saturday, not just during a service.

Then we lean into the fishing metaphor for spiritual growth and evangelism: preparation, study, repetition, and urgency. We talk about time stewardship, the modern attention economy, and why “immediately” matters when Jesus calls. We also unpack sobering stats about how rarely Christians share their faith and how many people, especially Gen Z, would actually show up if someone simply invited them. The takeaway is practical and personal: stop coasting, start studying, and make a cast this week.

If this challenged you, subscribe, share it with a friend, and leave a review so more people can find it. Who is one person you can invite or talk to about Jesus this week?

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Transcript

Are You A Fisherman

Josh 0:00

Now, this week, I will tell you, could not be a more well-crafted sermon for me. And if there has ever been a week that I'm gonna go long, it's gonna be this week. Alright? Eric is about to look like a superstar with what we are covering this week. He's gonna shock everyone in here. And honestly, it's stuff I've been saying for like 30 years now. Alright? Now I'm gonna start with our big idea, and that's this. Are you a fisherman? Like, would that describe you? And most of you in here are like, I don't even know what kind of fish that is, but can anyone tell me? Yeah, it's a can anyone give me the Latin name for it? Like, really go above and beyond. We'll go with it. I don't know what it is, but are you a fisherman? See, I told you this message is going to be handcrafted. And if I'm gonna go long, we're talking about fishing today, so this is gonna be it. So I'm gonna pray, we'll jump right in. Father, I thank you so much for your word, and I ask and I pray, God, that as we go through your word, that it be that just your word, that I am just the mouthpiece you use to speak to your people. Father, I ask and I pray that we challenge ourselves and that our hearts are changed, that we are changed people from the inside out through the power of your spirit. Father, we pray this in Jesus' name. Amen. Alright, so Matthew 4, starting in verse 18, it says this while walking by the Sea of Galilee, he saw, he being Jesus, saw two brothers, Simon, who is called Peter, and Andrew his brother, casting a net into the sea, for they were fishermen. And he said to them, Follow me, and I will make you fishers of men. Immediately they left their nets and followed him. And going on from there, he saw two other brothers, James the son of Zebedee and John his brother, in the boat with Zebedee their father, mending their nets, and he called them. Immediately they left the boat and their father and followed him. I had a really, really hard time writing this message this week because like of the five times I started this message, can anyone guess the one word I just wanted the whole message to be about? Fishing, right? Like I went, okay, look, it's in the text. Like we get to talk about fishing and all things fishing, and although we are gonna discuss that, unfortunately for me, that isn't even the main thrust of the passage. Like the main thrust, and what Jesus is really, or the Bible is really shown us here, is Jesus is calling his first disciples

What A Disciple Really Means

Josh 2:56

to himself. So we're gonna really, at the beginning here, we're gonna look at and go, what is a disciple? Because I think that's very important. Like we really need to understand what a disciple is to fully understand what it means to be a disciple. Does anybody in here like go, this is what a disciple is? If you were in Mission Academy and you do not know this word yet, you obviously have not been paying attention. And that's what we call it, right? A student, a learner, or a follower. In Greek, it's this word Mathetias, and it means learner or follower, and most of us think a student. Well, if you're thinking a student, then what does that make your person you're following? Your teacher, right? In fact, we see Jesus referred to as rabbi throughout the scriptures, and the term rabbi, it simply means teacher. So what we do is especially in the English language, is we sit here and we go, oh, okay, so we have a teacher-student relationship. Now, this is where we misunderstand what that word actually means. Because in a student-teacher relationship, what is the role of the teacher?

unknown 4:16

To teach with information.

Josh 4:17

Oh, Miss Kathy, that yes, it is to teach, it is to give information, right? Like if you were to come sit in while your kids are in class, here's what you would see. It would look a lot like this. Except they would be at tables with things in front of them. And the first part of the lesson as a teacher, what you're gonna do is called whole group learning, and you're gonna go through the lesson, whatever that lesson may be. You're gonna cover the things that that student is gonna need to know, and then at some point in that block of instruction, you're gonna go, okay, now you do. And then after you've done X amount of task, you're gonna go, okay, now we're gonna give you a good job, a test. And we're gonna see if all of the information you were supposed to know, you know. And when we think teacher disciple, that's kind of what we think. That it's just we sit here and we're just getting all of this information. However, that would be very biblically inaccurate. The relationship that existed between a rabbi and a disciple was way more in-depth than a relationship that exists between a teacher and a student. Four starters, when you became someone's disciple, you went with them. You left your family and you went and followed your teacher. Wherever your teacher went, you went. Your teacher went to the store, you went to the store. Your teacher interacted with people in the community, you interacted with people in the community. Your teacher went to the town center and decided to go ahead and debate the other teachers in the city? Well, you went with your teacher and you did that. You lived with them, you were around them, you saw how they interacted with people. And the end goal of that would be what? To become your teacher. So, like for you Star Wars fans in here. And I know I'm gonna mess this up. I should have. But a Jedi Padwan relationship is more in line with a biblical understanding of what a teacher disciple is. In other words, you followed your teacher around to become your teacher. A lot more like an apprentice. An apprentice, yes, that's actually a better analogy because more people know what that is. You you would see how your teacher viewed situations, you would see how your teacher handled situations, and then you would

Converts Versus Disciples

Josh 7:00

become your teacher. In fact, this is somewhere we went really wrong here in the American church. Because in about the 1860s, we had this preacher come along who introduced us to what's called an altar call. And at the end of all of his messages, he would give an invitation. Now, does that sound familiar to us? Yes, because in the American church, that is what we do, and we're called, we believe, to make converts. There is a huge difference between a convert and a disciple. A convert is someone who has an emotional response to a message. And they come forward and they go, hey, I'm going to. A disciple is someone who sits here and goes, I'm gonna give my life. And the Bible never calls us, the sinner's prayer is nowhere in the Bible. The Bible never calls us to make converts. Matthew 28, 18 to 20 calls us to make disciples. The great commission is go and make disciples. Teach them to observe all that I have commanded you. This is not a, hey, get people to make a prayer. This is get people to go, hey, I'm gonna change who I am to become my teacher. In other words, Jesus is sitting here going, I taught you how to do this. Now you go teach others what I have taught you so that all of you may look like me. Hopefully, by now you're starting to understand that there is a huge difference between a sales pitch for the gospel and going, hey, no, no, no, no, lay down everything you are and look like Jesus. Follow after Jesus. Do the things Jesus did. In other words, stop looking like yourself and start looking like Jesus. That should be our end goal. That should be what any disciple of Jesus sits here and says, I want to look more like Jesus. Now, how do we know what Jesus looks like? And obviously, we're not talking about physical appearance, right? Like I'm not sitting here going, after service, go to the plastic surgeon with a picture of Jesus and go, hey, make me look like this. Well, the only way for us to know what Jesus looked like is to actually read what Jesus did. So hopefully by now we we can understand, okay, there is a difference between what we think is the end goal here in the American Church and what a disciple actually is. But there's another interesting point we have to pull out from here. In the first century, if you were a rabbi, if you were a teacher, what would happen is people would like to apply to come to your school. Think about it like college, right? This is why, and I never can say this guy's name right, so someone can help me out here. When Paul learns to become a Pharisee, he is trained by Gabamil. Thank you. I always say Gabamil, which I know is not right, but he was a sought-after teacher because he produced really good Pharisees. The easiest way for us to understand this is like he's the Ivy League, right? He's the Harvard. Some of us on our side, we're we're the Daytona states. Okay? Still getting a degree, still gonna learn how to do it. It's just not gonna be as prestigious as other schools you have gone to. And that's not a knock on colleges. It is showing a difference, though.

Jesus Picks Fishermen On Purpose

Josh 10:56

Now, what would happen though is you went, hey, I like so-and-so's teaching, I'm gonna go follow them. So you would pretty much apply, you would go interview, you would go do all of the things, and then if they liked you, they would have accepted you as a student. Did people get rejected then? Yes, people did get rejected from that. However, when Jesus comes along, we see a very, very different way of following Jesus. See, Peter and James, or Peter and Andrew, I'm sorry, what were they doing? They were fishing. They're sitting there throwing a net out into the water and they're trying to catch fish. Were they looking for Jesus? No, they weren't. We do know Andrew had at least an understanding of who Jesus is because we see in other parts of the Bible that Andrew was a disciple of John the Baptist. But they're just sitting there fishing. They weren't out looking for Jesus. Jesus, on the other hand, comes and looks for them. Jesus comes and finds them. Jesus goes to them, and instead of them going, hey, can we follow you? Jesus went to them and went, You follow me. That is very, very different than what we would have seen. This would have been like, you know, you're sitting there just minding your own business, doing your, you know, schoolwork, and a representative from Harvard just walks in and goes, Hey, really like what I see here. Why don't you come be with me? That never happens, though. Not in our society. But yet Jesus doesn't do things the way that we do it. Now the question then should come if Jesus is sitting here going, hey, I'm gonna go pick my team, why on earth would Jesus start with fishermen? Like, think about this. Like if you could sit here and go, I'm gonna put together my own team, my own disciple team. I'm gonna put together the base work of what I will build and call it the church. Why are fishermen the first people you want to go get? Like me personally, I'm I'm like, no, I want to go get the best and the brightest, right? Like I want to get those people that are gonna be able to like I want the paws of the disciple world. Like I want those people that are gonna be able to walk into Athens and go, okay, hey, you greatest minds of all time, let's sit down and debate these theological truths. Like, I want these guys that are gonna confuse all of the other disciples. That's how smart they are. Because they're gonna be able to like logically just pick apart arguments and and all of that. They're gonna be able to defend the faith. Like, those are the people I would have gone and got, hence why I'm not Jesus. Because Jesus doesn't go to those people first, he goes to the fishermen first. Now, I would argue that that makes a very, very good point. And here's why.

Fishing Mindset For Spiritual Growth

Josh 14:01

JT, put up the picture of spot dissection. Okay? We're out on the boat. We're pulling up to this area. How many of you in here can sit here and go, I know where the fish are gonna be here? Two? Now I know some of us are like, oh yeah, sure, I know. They're in the water, because that's where fish live. But if you look at this picture, there's a lot of water and there's a lot of features there. And I'm gonna tell you, as someone who spends a lot of time out on the water, you're not gonna catch fish everywhere in here. Like you there are places in here that there aren't any fish. Like, for example, JT, put your arrow on that sandbar. Right there? No, up, uh, right there. Right there, it's probably only about three or four inches deep. You're gonna catch fish there? No. Then if you come just off that sandbar right here in the front, it's like six to eight feet deep. Are you gonna catch fish there? Maybe. They may swim through that channel, but honestly, if I'm approaching this spot, JT, yep, right there. See that little creek back there? Especially on an outgoing tide, what that's gonna do is it's gonna pull bait from back in that very back, and it's just gonna pull it out. And here's what's gonna happen Snook, trout, redfish, and flounder are gonna stack up right there in the mouth of that creek. Because they're lazy, just like any animal. And instead of going in hunting food, they're just gonna sit there, and as the food comes out to them, they're just gonna pop up and grab it. So, what we're gonna do is we're gonna we're gonna go ahead and set up about 20 to 30 feet out in front of that, and then we're gonna cast our bait or lures up into that, and then we're just gonna let it come out naturally, just like any of their other food would. And guess what? You're gonna catch fish after fish after fish after fish. Because any real fisherman knows that 90% of all of the fish are only in 10% of the water. Now, here's what most people do. We're gonna pull up here, we're gonna throw out an anchor, we're gonna take shrimp or crab or whatever squid, whatever we're using for bait, and we're gonna bait our hooks, and then we're just gonna throw it out into the water, and then we're just gonna kick back and kick our feet up, maybe drink a beer, and just we're gonna wait and see if a fish comes by. Now, would I call those people fishermen? I would not. I would not call them fishermen. I would call them weekend warriors because you're not actually fishing. You're just hoping. You're just maybe if we do this long enough, maybe a fish is gonna swim by. And chances are, yeah, you'll probably catch fish, but you know what you're gonna catch? Dirty, nasty catfish. Because they're the most abundant fish out there. And and that's what Miss Kathy, that's what people will say, right? A fish is a fish, is a fish. Yep, but you know what? You're never gonna see people holding the catfish up on their wall.

unknown 16:57

You don't need them, so it doesn't matter what cat I cover.

Josh 16:59

Oh, it does matter. It matters very much to him. Yes. I catch fish that win tournaments. Like, and what we're seeing here is there's a reason why Jesus would go, hey, because not everybody is gonna be able to pull up to a spot like that. Now, why can a fisherman do that? Experience knowledge. You know what a real fisherman's gonna do before they ever even hook up the boat and head out? They're gonna research. I spend hours before any trip. What's the weather? What's the barometric pressure doing? Which way is the wind blowing? Is it what's the tide? That's a hugely important one. Like you spend hours pouring through. I'll go through past catches and go, okay, on this day or around this time, what fish did we catch where? What did we catch them on? What time of the day did we catch them? And I'll look through pictures and all of the things before I ever even hook up the boat. So when Jesus is sitting here going, hey, I'm gonna call people to build my church, who would you rather have? You want those people that are gonna be like, hey, you know what? I'm gonna do whatever it takes to make sure that I catch that fish. See, like the Pharisees. The people I would have picked. Do they know what they're talking about? Hands down. Could quote Genesis to Malachi with no problem. I mean, they knew the Bible verses, they knew the prophecies, they knew everything that was gonna happen. Did the Pharisees leave the temple? I mean, they would go out into the markets, right? But when they went out into the markets, what'd they go out there for?

unknown 18:57

To be seen.

Josh 18:58

Where? To be seen, to pray in front of the people. They would literally get on a corner, wait for a group to gather, and then go, okay, listen to my prayers. This is why when Jesus, later in Matthew, and we'll see this, when Jesus is teaching his disciples how to pray, he goes, Do not pray like the hypocrites who pray that people may be seen. In other words, it would be like me going, okay, I'm gonna wait until everyone gets here. All right, listen. Jesus, thank you for not making me a woman, a gentile, or a tax collector. This is how their prayers would start. And then they would just have these super lofty prayers so that the people looking at them could go, oh, they are amazing. Y'all ain't gotta worry about that because I can't say half the words I need to. And see, and what happens is Jesus sits here and goes, Yeah, y'all know what you're talking about, but you're useless. These fishermen, on the other hand, you don't catch fish, what don't you do? You don't get to sell fish, you don't get to provide for your family, you don't get to do any of that. See, these fishermen know, hey. Let me ask y'all. BNJT, have the boat out in the water. Eric, you can even be on this trip. All of a sudden we see storm clouds coming in. Do you think we're hightailing it back to the dock? Nope. Don't tell me about it. I'm on a fiberglass boat using a fiberglass or a carbon fiber pole. None of it's conductive. I'm good. There have been times we've had to like anchor up the boat because I went, uh-oh, this storm got a little more vicious than we thought it was. There have been times we've had to turn the bilge pump on because the rain was putting water in the boat to the point where the top of the boat's becoming even with the water.

unknown 20:52

Oh my god.

Josh 20:52

It's a bad time. But no, we're not just heading in. The funniest thing in the world to me though, is if you're ever out on the boat and you see those afternoon storms that we get every day here in summer, what do you see all the other boats doing? I love going up by like the boat dock right before it's about to storm. Because you see a thousand people trying to get their boats on a trailer and they're trying to do it quickly, which they can't do to begin with. And it's the greatest show on earth. Yeah, we sit in a storm. But see, Jesus knows this. Jesus knows, no, I don't want these guys who who have all the right answers, but all they're gonna do is sit in their ivory towers. I want these rough-necked fishermen. I want these boys that no matter what happens, storm comes in. I mean, how many times in the scriptures do we see they're out in the boat, and what happens? A storm. And they don't panic sometimes. I do. And I'm not gonna lie, I've panicked in a storm. My boat isn't that big. But again, Jesus is sitting here going, no, no, no, no, no, no. I want these roughnecks who are gonna go do whatever it takes to get the fish. See, the church has forgot this. Because we've made it all about what? Today. This is the pinnacle of what we do, right? We come sit in this room. We sing some songs. You're kind enough to let me get up here and just ramble on and on and on. And then we leave, and it's see you next week. Now I'm gonna get back to my real life. Now I'm gonna get back to that life that I do Monday through Saturday. I'm gonna get back to those things that, like, okay, now I'm done with this. I did my good deed. I did the one thing I needed to have required. I gave my hour and a half out of the 168 hours I have this week to Jesus. I'm good. That's not what a fisherman does. I'm gonna tell you right now. JT and I, we have the shark fishing trip coming up June 12th, right? What do you need for shark fishing? Anyone want to take a guess what bait is like the best bait for shark?

unknown 23:16

Cat fishing?

Josh 23:17

Ooh, no, nut needs catfish.

unknown 23:19

Ladyfish.

Josh 23:20

Huh? Ladyfish! Chop up some ladyfish, it's a nice oily fish, it's gonna chum by itself. The best bait you can use for shark. And guess what? I don't they don't sell ladyfish at Walmart. I don't know if you know that or not.

unknown 23:34

I don't like catfish.

Josh 23:35

So you know what me and JT get to go do? Catch ladyfish. Well, see, when you're targeting a specific fish like that, though, again, look at the picture. Where are those ladyfish gonna be? And if we don't go catch ladyfish, then guess what we can't do on June 12th? Y'all are gonna show up and be like, okay, I'm ready to catch a shark, and I'm gonna be like, well, I need someone's finger. Because we don't have any bait. And I go, and this is what it takes. It takes preparation. It takes understanding. It takes building. It takes, listen, you doing stuff when we're not here, when it's not an event, when it's not convenient. This is why I, and I've gone back and forth for about a month now with this church-wide membership for logos. But this is ultimately why I went, yeah, I'll pull the trigger on it. Because any resource I can put in your hands that gets you to do something else when you're not here is a good thing. I will tell you right now, and I was talking to someone over the past couple of weeks, and they told me, hey, I started listening to Christian music. And they were telling me how it like soothes them and how it helps their mood and how it helps this. And all they did was change the radio station from this channel to this channel. But see, again, I don't know how many times I've told you what you put in matters. What you put in matters because that's what you're building your heart with. So when Jesus is only this hour and a half on a Sunday, what are you building your heart with? Like think through the movies you watch, think through the music you listen to, think through the podcast you watch, YouTube. What are you building up in your heart? See, as a fisherman, I'll tell you, if it didn't I'm trying to go back and forth, it would take a lot to switch over the TVs, but if JT were to put my YouTube up, you're gonna see three kinds of videos. Okay, you know, on your recommended where AI shows you, like, hey, this is what you watch the most. It's gonna be something about Jesus, it's gonna be something about phishing, and then right now that third one's gonna probably be video game repair, because I have a PlayStation 2 that broke, and it's a 30-year-old piece of technology, and I had to fix it. And you know what? Successfully I did. Thank you, YouTube. That's why we don't have excuses, because there is a video on everything you can possibly think of right now. But again, what you put in matters. I will watch hours of other people fishing in states I don't even have a want, will, or desire to go to. But I'll see different things, I'll learn different things. But see, what the church turned into is we're just gonna pull up to the sandbar. Yeah, we'll throw some shrimp out, we'll throw some crab out. But we're really just here to kind of kick up our feet and rest and relax. We're fishing, we're fishermen. But we're not actually fishing. We're just kicking up our feet in the boat. And that's what we've turned church into. We just throw out our bait, right? What bait do we use? Oh, we're having an Easter egg hunt. We're dropping 50,000 eggs from the helicopter. Cool. Hey, we're having a Christmas cantata. We're just gonna have a Christmas play. Where we're gonna tell you the same Christmas story you've heard every year. Hey, you know what? We're gonna get the youth together and we're gonna have a pizza party. And then we're we're gonna try to bring the bait in like that. And I'm not saying any of these are bad things. Please don't misunderstand what I'm saying. Like you have to use bait when you're out fishing. You just throw an empty hook in the water. Unless you're in like a frenzy, you ain't getting none. But for the most part, every fisherman knows that just sitting there waiting for something to swim by is a good way to get skunked. And for those of you that like, I don't know what skunk means. That means you just spent eight hours out on your boat, you can get any fish. And if you're sitting here going, oh, that's impossible. Is it, JT? I've had plenty of trips. Not plenty. I've had one or two. Where we got back and it was like, what'd you catch? Nothing. Didn't even get a bite. But see, this is what the American church has done. And we're just kicking up our feet and we're just hoping and praying that someone walks by. Maybe if we get a sign for the door, then that'll like bring people in. Would it? How many people you see walking through this plaza right now? See, a fisherman goes and gets the fish. A fisherman spends hours of time researching where the fish are, what bait they're biting on, what techniques are working, what articles they could read, what videos they can watch. A fisherman, you know what else they do? They talk to other fishermen. Like I'm part of a fishing club, which means I can go on at any given time and go, hey, Mario, I've seen you've been fishing up there in Oak Hill. What have you been using? Where have you been fishing at? Not like specific GPS coordinates, but like, hey, like I'm hitting a lot of fish coming off of the edges of islands where there's a deep drop-off right next to it. Okay, so when I go out, guess what I'm gonna look for? Just that. A fisherman will do anything in the world they can to get better at their craft. I know guys that before every fishing trip, they'll go and just hand sharpen every hook. Just because they don't want to get that one fish and not be able to set the hook. Yet, how do we sharpen what we do? See, Jesus knew this about fishermen. He knew we were obsessive. He knew that like they're gonna be able to do whatever. But the question then becomes if we know what a disciple is, and we understand why Jesus chose fishermen, the last part we need

Immediately Follow And Drop Excuses

Josh 30:10

to cover is summed up actually in one word. Immediately. Immediately they followed. Immediately they followed. Like Peter and Andrew, they're throwing a cast net, and this guy comes walking up and he's like, hey, follow me, and they're like, okay, cool. Left their cast net there. Do you know what would happen if like I was out like trying to catch bait and like someone was like, hey, follow me? Like, you are crazy. No. How did you get here to begin with? Like, think about this, but immediately they go. They didn't have to sit there and go, like, oh, uh, so, and they didn't play 20 questions with Jesus. They didn't go, where are we going? One of the things I think a lot of us miss, Peter has a family. Like, he's not just some single, you know, 20-year-old out there just like chilling on the beach trying to catch fish. He has a wife, he has a kid. We know this because later his mother-in-law is sick, and he brings Jesus to the house to heal her. So we know he has a family. Like, all of this has to be in his mind. And yet, what did he still do? Went and followed Jesus. Like, could y'all imagine the conversation I would have to have with Debbie? If I was like, hey, after service today while you were at the volleyball tournament, like me and Gabby were leaving, and this like weird guy walked up. He was like, hey, follow me. And I was like, Gabby, take the truck and go. I'm gonna just walk off with this guy. Like, that's the stuff like movies are made out of, right? Like Debbie's not gonna be like, oh, okay, I get it. Actually, she probably would. She blindly follows what I'm saying. Now that. If y'all know Debbie, she doesn't. Think about it. James and John, when Jesus goes up to them, they're in the boat with who? Their dad. They're mending nets. Like, that's very important. They didn't go, alright, Paw, I'm out. They just got up and left immediately. How heartbroken would I be as a father if some other guy came by and JT, like, we're cleaning the boat, and he's like, hey, you, come follow me. And JT's like, alright, dad, see you later, and just like walked off. Like, man, I really went wrong somewhere. And you're 18 now, so I can't stop you. So next time we're at the dock and someone goes, Hey, I like you. You can go home with them. See, as soon as I heard this, I was, I thought of this verse. In Matthew 8, 21 and 22, it says this. Another of the disciples said to him, Lord, let me first go and bury my father. And Jesus said to him, Follow me and leave the dead to bury their own dead. In other words, Jesus is sitting here going, We ain't got time for that. Be on mission. Now is Jesus saying, be like heartless and cold? Is that what he's driving at in this verse? Kind of. He's sitting here going, hey, like the most important thing you can do is follow me. None of this other temporary stuff matters. Like, think about this when he goes to Peter and he's like, hey, follow me and I'll make you fishers of men. What he's saying is, this is so much more important than fishing. You know how hard that is for me to read? Like, do you know the sanctification I have to do in my own heart when I see stuff like that? I'm like, wait, Jesus, what do you mean, more? See, Jesus is sitting here going, we ain't got time. We have a mission. Too many of us, we just think that we can just relax, kick our feet up, wait for something to swim by. Understand, you have to be intentional with your time. Like anyone in here, do you budget? Like you budget your money? Hopefully. You have an idea of where your money is going. Right? In fact, they they tell you, like, if you did Financial Peace or if you listen to Dave Ramsey at all, if you do not budget a dollar, that dollar is gonna go somewhere. You just don't know where. Understand your time, your time matters just as much. I would argue, more than your money. Because if you spent everything in your 401, everything in your bank account, all of that, could you work really hard and get that money back? Yeah, you could. 100%, right? I hope so because I've done some stupid things with money over the years. But think about this. You spend a second. Can you get that second back? Nope. Five minutes is gone. It's gone. You know the number one commodity that people sell to us right now is your attention. Think about this. Your attention is the number one thing people are trying to buy right now. Social media is built to buy your attention. And some of you, you've like sold out to that. Because I bet if we like compared your battery phones, phone batteries, I'm gonna guess some of you, you got some hours written down on that. Some of you it might be video games. I can't believe that Jesus let me fix my PS2 because I beat Ace Combat 4 in two days. A couple hours playing a video game. And I was just excited because I fixed it. Because if I'm not careful, if I don't set a timer and go, hey, I'm gonna I'm gonna go ahead and budget 20 minutes to this, and when this timer goes off, I'm gonna turn this off. You know how quickly it went from it was daylight out, and then my window was dark yesterday. Why? Because we love to be entertained. See, and that's what people are buying. Your attention, your time. What are we doing with our time? Because as I was researching for this, one of my commentaries is written by uh John MacArthur. And this was a stat he came up with in that commentary. It is estimated that 95% of Christians have never shared their faith or led someone to Christ. This is backed up by Barna and Pugh, by the way. Think about that number. 95%. That means if there were a hundred of us in this room, which there are not, but if there were a hundred of us in this room, only five of us have shared our faith. So if we look at this room, what would that number be? One. Think about that. And most of us, right, when we think of church, whose job is it to share their faith? It is all of ours. That is the correct answer. The pastors. Well, you're the one that does this. You're the professional faith sharer. All I gotta do is be a good person. I go, another stat that I saw this week from Reach Write said this. 50% of Gen Z people said they would be happy to attend church if someone they knew invited them. So 95% of us don't share our faith, but yet 50% of the fish are sitting here going, hey, I would go. I'm just waiting on someone to go, hey, would you come with me? Think about how many people that is. And yet we just sit here and do what? We're gonna kick up our feet, right? It's time for us to go just, okay, I did the church thing, I'm done with the Jesus thing for the week. Now it's just my life. Now it's my things. Now I'm just gonna do all of the things I want to go do. Think about it. When was the last time you invited someone to church? When was the last time you went, hey, I'm gonna share who this Jesus person is? I'll tell you right now, we have a Christian school, right? And there are kids from other churches who have no problem inviting kids that they know go to other churches to their church. All day, every day. And I mean badgering, inviting. I'm not talking about like, hey, why don't you come with me? I'm talking about like, no, you should come with, like, seriously, come with me. Like in their little text group, hey, come with me. But yet, how often do we do that? How often do we talk to people we work with and go, hey, do people you work with even know you're Christian? Like, think through that. I go, honestly, if if if we looked at these stats, right, 50% would say yes. On any given fishing trip I go on, I will cast 200 plus times. Easy. And for those of you that are like, why do you cast so much? I don't use like live bait. I'm like almost 100% strictly lures. So you're casting over and over and over and over. And on any given trip, I would do

The Numbers That Should Wake Us Up

Josh 39:55

200 cast. If 50% of those got me a fish, do you realize that's a hundred fish in a trip? Do you know the tournaments I could win if I could guarantee a hundred fish in a trip? And some of them tournaments pay a lot of money. Like I could be, I could do that professionally. If I could guarantee a hundred fish a trip. Of you people in here who have ever gone out fishing, have you ever caught a hundred fish in a trip? I think the most we've ever gotten is like 47. Think about a hundred. See, this is why the Bible says that the harvest is plentiful, it is the laborers that are few. And yet, what we see in scripture looks completely different than what we actually see in real life. When we're talking about Christians in Scripture, let's look through this. In Scripture, when we see people who see Jesus for who he is, their lives are transformed. In fact, in John 4.39, we see the woman at the well, right? And this woman at the well, like Jesus comes to her and promises her all the great things in life, right? Is anybody familiar with this story? Is that what Jesus does? No. Jesus literally just goes, Hey, you've had five husbands, and the one you're with now, he ain't your husband either. Go get your house in order. Like Jesus confronts her sin, and what does she do? What's her reaction? She's amazed. She sees Jesus for who he is and runs back to town and does what? Tells everybody. Because she can't help it. Because she actually saw Jesus for who he is. Again, if we look at the man at the tombs in Mark 5.19, here's a guy who is so possessed by demons that he's running around a cemetery butt naked. They try to chain him up, he breaks the chains because he can't even be bound. Jesus shows up, casts the demons out of him. He goes, Hey, can I follow you? And at his point, wouldn't you ask to follow him too? Like you've cured me. I want to be with you. I don't care where you're going. I just want to be there. And Jesus calmly goes, No, that's not your role. Go back to town and tell everybody. You think that boy had a story to tell? You think he would tell anyone who would listen? You think he would tell people that wouldn't even listen? Because some of y'all talk, I mean, think about it, just think about the discussion we had before service. Some of us talk about some stupid things. Right? And I'll put myself on that list. And I'll talk about things that you may not care about. I mean, 50% of the message has been about fishing. So there's only like four of you in here who are like, oh, I really like this is clicking for me. Everybody else is like, are you kidding me? This is not why I came today. But I sit here and go, that boy probably told everyone. Anyone who would listen. James and Peter, they get arrested in the book of Acts in chapter 4, verse 20. They're getting beat by the Pharisees. And I mean beat. They're black and blue and bloody. And the Pharisees go, hey, enough out of you. Stop preaching about this Jesus guy. He's dead. We killed him. And they go, whether we should listen to you or God, hey, you can be the judge of that. But as for us, we cannot help but talk about what we have seen and heard. How many of us is that us? Like, how many of us would take a butt whooping and still be like, I'm gonna tell you about Jesus? And I know all of us in our mind are like, I signed up to die. But yet you won't even share on Facebook. You won't even tell your co worker about it. But yet what? You're gonna go where? You're gonna go to some third world country where they've Never heard about Jesus, and I'm going to be the voice in the wilderness. The wilderness is right here. You can be the voice. Look at your own neighborhood. If you live here in Deltona or even in Osteen, probably Osteen more because you guys do live in the wilderness. But if you live here in Deltona, it's the wilderness. As a deputy, I went to at least 50 different calls for service a night. Most nights I averaged in that like 70 to 90 calls per service. There wasn't a break. It's the wilderness. You want to be a voice? Go be a voice. But stop thinking that we're like, oh, I'll do this. Because these boys immediately, immediately followed. The last stat I'm going to show out, and I don't even know if there's a slide for it, but according to Barna, only about 24% of Christians actively pursue their faith when not at service. That means one out of every four of us in here. Actively pursue your faith. Because again, here's what we do. I did my hour and a half. I listened to Josh. Some of you, like, seriously, like I've had conversations with you in the week and you've heard this come out of my mouth. I was just preaching about this on Sunday. You were there. You nodded your head. Why are you asking me again? Because only 24% of us pursue our faith when not at service. Because we leave here and we go, my life now. I'm going to do the things I want to do now. I don't have to be in my Jesus mode anymore. Now I can actually be the real me. And it does say 24%, so about one out of every four of us in this room, you are doing exactly what it says to do. But 75% of us, three out of four of us, we're not. You guys understand, like, there is a devotional you can subscribe to that we do every morning at 6 a.m. And here's the thing I know who listens to it. Not who, but I know how many people listen to it. And this 24% stat is pretty right on the money. There's a weekly devotional that comes out every Sunday. It'll be up about two hours after you guys leave service that is going, hey, Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday. There isn't anything on Saturday. You guys can take a rest. I go, and it shouldn't take you any longer than five minutes out of your day to do these things. But I go videos and podcasts and all of that. The membership to logos, like all of that I'm doing because I'm sitting here going, we can't just have 24% of us. That's the problem. The problem is Jesus went, hey, follow me. That means we gotta do the things Jesus did. And in order for us to know the things that Jesus did, you have to study what Jesus did. That's why we can look at a picture of water and I can go, hey, here's where the fish will be. Because that's how you study. Like when you're sitting here and you're like, oh, I was talking to a coworker and blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. You should have that answer. Because they study. That's why, on one hand, I can sit here and talk about things that I have no business knowing. Because I study. That's why JT can build an engine.

Stop Coasting And Start Studying

Josh 47:46

Because he studies. He can sit here and tell you the difference between a first gen coyote and a third gen coyote, and what cars they came in, and what years they did this, and what crank this one has, and what camshaft this one has. Why? Because he studies. And make no mistake, you study. Every single one of you in here study. Some of you, it's just you're studying The Simpsons and Family Guy. Some of you, it's, well, I'm studying how to escape reality. As far as this message goes, here's how I'm going to end that. You're taking a nap on the boat. You went out, you threw the anchor, you even put bait on your hook, and you threw your pole out in the water, you kicked your feet up, and you went, I just want a cold drink now, and I'm just gonna close my eyes. I'll hear when the drag goes off. And I'm just gonna kind of coast through this. That's not fishing. You're not a fisherman doing that. Every single day, hundreds, if not thousands, of people are gonna go out on the water. You think any of them have a picture of a 40-inch snook? Yeah, we yeah, we got that. You're right. And I'm gonna tell you, my dad fished his whole life, never caught one. And you know why? I'm just gonna be honest. He never changed tactics. Our fishing trips were just that. Throw the anchor out, put the bait on the hook, throw it out there. One of my biggest regrets in life right now is I never got to take my dad out and actually put him on a snook. Because I all it was simple. It was just, dad, instead of anchoring right here, all you gotta do is go right here. Instead of throwing out a piece of dead shrimp, dad, just take this lure and throw it right there at those mangroves. That's all it would have taken. And some of us, that's the same thing you need to start doing. You have people in your life that you need to be able to go, hey, this, this thing you believe about Jesus, let's have a conversation about that. Let me show you what the Bible says about that. Some of you in here I've had some really deep theological conversations with. The one thing I always try to avoid, the one thing you very rarely will hear me come out of my mouth, I feel or I think. Because honestly, both of those things are terrible. Anytime I have a biblical conversation with someone, I try to remain with what the Bible says. Well, how are you gonna know what the Bible says if you don't read the Bible? 24% of us do. So as we close this morning, ask yourself Am I a fisherman? Am I out fishing? Am I putting in the time to learn my craft? Am I honing my skills to find the fish? Or am I just chilling on the boat with my feet kicked up? See, we hadn't even got into kayak fishing. Like, you guys want to talk about doing some work? Think about this. There's different levels of being a fisherman, right? Like, think about it. I have a boat that you just stand there and turn a little motor on and just like Eric has to run a marathon every time he goes out fishing. Or bike a marathon, I guess, would be better. See, some of us like we need to be putting in that much work. And

The Weekly Challenge Go Fishing

Josh 51:45

here's our challenge this week. You ready? It's super simple. Go fishing. Go fishing. Now, do I mean that literally? Yes, I do. Go fishing. You won't have anyone to go fish with? Give me a call. I'm on summer break now. I can go anytime you want to. Go fishing. Do I mean that spiritually? Yes, I do. Take time to learn your craft. There are plenty of resources at missionscent.org to study. There are plenty of resources. Going back to truth, like we were talking about before service. There's a reason why I am constantly going at missionscent.org at missioncent.org. Because are all resources going to be the same? No, I'm telling you right now, there are pastors out there that you could listen to, and their message is going to be the exact opposite of things that I will tell you. Because not everything out there is true. You need to be careful about what you're putting in. If you have questions, what should you do? Ask. Text me. Go, hey, I just found so-and-so. Would you recommend this? I was having a conversation with someone the other day and was giving them a quote from a movie. Now, this is a very old movie, and I watched it way before I decided, hey, God's calling me into ministry. But in Van Wilder, which I do not recommend anyone watch, it is a terrible movie. God will use anything, and he has a quote: don't worry too much about life, you're never gonna make it out alive. And I went, wow, that makes a lot of sense. And it's true. But see, just because I can pull away something from this that's true doesn't mean that I would be like, hey, you guys should take two hours out of your day-to-day and go watch it. Because the other 99% of the stuff in it isn't stuff you should be putting in your head. Does that make sense? But if you have a question, call. Text. But go fishing because I'm gonna tell you right now, there's no fish in the boat. JT hears this at least a hundred times every fishing trip we go on. The longer your pole is in this boat, the less fish you are going to catch, because I can guarantee you no fish catching up here. And I'm gonna tell you guys, fishing's easy. When we were in Pensacola, I had my uh rod over my shoulder. We were wade fishing, and the waves were hitting me. So I had my rod just hanging over my shoulder, and I had a gold spoon that was just like dangling behind me. As I was walking in the water, all of a sudden I felt this, and I thought it was one of the kids. So I didn't even think anything of it. And I didn't want to just snatch because then I'm driving a hook into one of my children, and I really thought it would have been JT if anybody. Sure enough, I very slowly lifted up my rod, and there was a pompano. Okay, now this is a very hard fish to catch, just on my hook. I wasn't even like, I was literally just walking. Guys, fish aren't that hard to catch. 50% of them are sitting here going, yes, all you gotta do is fish for me. And I'll go. So be the 5% of Christians this week sharing your faith with someone. Invite someone to service, invite them to shark fishing, invite them somewhere. Another thing you can do to fish this week is prep at home. Every day at 6 a.m., there's a daily devotional podcast. Every other week, practically Christian releases a new episode. There's a written devotion. When I get questions, just so y'all know, hopefully you guys have seen this, when you guys actually text in questions, I will make sure I do a video that week that answers your questions. Like my whole goal is to sit here and go, hey guys, let's be better fishermen. But remember, regardless of how many resources we have, if you don't use them, they are no good. I'm telling you right now, you can come on my boat. I can give you my favorite rod with my favorite lure. And if it just stays in the rod holder, you are not going to catch fish. Does that make sense? So, Father, I ask and I pray, God, that you be with us and make us fishers of men. Father, I ask and I pray that that even though I know I gave up plenty of information that has nothing really pertaining to, that God, you by spiritually supernatural gifting, have it hit our hearts. Father, I pray that we just develop a love for fishing, both literally and figuratively, inside this building. Father, I ask and I pray that you make us fishermen, that you send us out into the harvest, and that, Father, we start fishing, we stop relaxing. Father, I pray all of this in Jesus' name. Amen.