(Sunday) Go Fish: Why We Should Fish

What if sharing your faith isn’t about memorized scripts, awkward conversations, or feeling like a pushy salesperson for Jesus?

In this episode, we dive into a message built around one big idea: the lost have always been the priority of Jesus—and they still are. Using funny fishing stories, real-life fast-food drive-thru moments, and key passages from the Gospels, this talk unpacks what it really means to be a “fisher of men” in a world where evangelism often feels cringey, manipulative, or even morally wrong.

You’ll hear about:

• Why Jesus actually called His followers “fishers of men”
• How we turned evangelism into a sales pitch—and why that feels so fake
• What research says about millennials and Gen Z who love Jesus but hesitate to share their faith
• A fresh definition of evangelism: joining a conversation the Holy Spirit has already started
• A simple, honest story of building a relationship with a stranger at a drive-thru—no pressure, no performance

If you’re torn between loving Jesus and hating “religious sales tactics,” this episode is for you. Learn how to share your faith in a way that’s relational, authentic, and rooted in love—not guilt.

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:00

Because one of the great truths that we want to embrace in this series is this the lost were, and they are the priority of Jesus. Over the next three weeks, we're gonna talk about fishing. Now it is springtime, which means a lot of wonderful things are happening. The flowers are blooming, the Azaleas are outstanding, uh, the masters is this afternoon. I'm prepared. If Roy has a problem on the back knife, I'm glad to step in any way I can to help him out. But it's also a time for us to go fishing. Anybody here love to fish? I I remember as a boy being raised, we seem like so many memories around fishing with my dad or with my friends, and I I just love fishing. I don't get to do it as often as I wish I could. And when I do go, it's always a great time. And I was thinking about that and some of the great memories, and one of these photos popped up, and this was Circa 1980. Uh, here I am. Yeah, I'm telling you, sun's out, guns out. We're ready to roll. My dad and I went down to Panama City with some guys, and we went out deep sea fishing. We caught these amberjacks and red snappers, and man, I remember it's one of the fond memories of my childhood fishing with my dad and their friends and the great time. And then I was fortunate to have children, and and it wasn't long until I introduced them. And uh, man, Chandler and Taylor, man, we had a great time when they were small and we'd go fishing, and Trisha would say, do everything outside, don't bring that mess in my house. And as Chandler got older, we went out and he caught this giant uh red snapper. And I will tell you that the fish in these photos were harmed and they were delicious. And so uh it was all right. This was a great moment that uh uh I cherished. Uh it was a time my dad and Chandler and I, we went out to Stan Hatchie, Florida, and we went trout fishing and red fishing. And man, we just had the best time being on the water and fishing, and there was something about the pull of the fish that just captured you, but it's just not with my my family and my mom, my dad, and my my kids. Um, I had this opportunity to go here with uh Mike Cahoon. Daniel Boone Cahoon. This is we're on the uh Okongee River, and uh we had gone fishing that day. That's the only fish we caught that day. It was a white bass, but I'm telling you, we had we had the best time. Mike Cahoon can tell some stories. Most of them I can't repeat from the stage, but I'm telling you, they're a great story. And and I'm just gonna show you these because these are just uh these are just kind of trophy moments in my life. I had the opportunity to go down and go fishing in the Bahamas, and I caught that big uh bull mahi and that yahoo. Uh and uh man, that was a great time. And I thought, man, I love to fish, and I wish I could fish more than what I'm able to right now, and maybe you have some of those same experiences. But then I remembered that that Christ calls us to be fishers of men. And matter of fact, most of his disciples were fishermen, and when he called them to following him, it's interesting. He said, Follow me, and I will make you a fisher of men. He did not say, if you'll follow me, I'll make you successful. If you follow me, your marriage will be perfect, your kids will be great, uh, your career will take off like a meteor. He did not say, if you follow me, life will be easy and joyful and always peaceful. He says, But if you will follow me, I will make you a fisher of men. I don't even know if they heard it. I'm almost certain they had no idea what it meant. But it was so compelling that they said, Yes, we want to be fishers of men. We want to follow you, and we want you to develop us into what you want us to be. And I think it's important for us to get back to this truth because one of the great truths that we want to embrace in this series is this the lost were, and they are the priority of Jesus. The lost were and they remain the priority of Jesus. Matter of fact, we see throughout the New Testament that Jesus was always thinking about the lost. The week before Jesus' death, Jesus summed up the whole of his ministry when he says, the Son of Man came to seek and to save the lost. The reason I showed up is not for the lost to come to me, but for me to go to them and that I would seek them and I would bring salvation to them. When Jesus was describing the heart of God to his followers, he said more than once, Nothing gives God greater joy than one of his that are lost when they are found and they are restored. Jesus said, There is more rejoicing in heaven when one sinner turns than when 99 righteous do not care. There is something so deeply moving about lost people coming to the Lord and into covenant relationship, even so much when the religious priests were all upset because Jesus constantly broke all their laws and rules. He says, I've not called come to call the righteous, but I've come to call sinners. And I love the fact that he calls us lost, that I have come to seek and save the lost, because that is not a word of condemnation, and that's not a word of categorization, that is a word of compassion. Because at one point or another in your life, you have been lost. Geographically, you have been lost, where you did not know where you were, or you did not where know where you were going to or how to get there, or even worse, you didn't know where you came from, and you did not know how to get back to even where you started. You were just simply lost. And being lost is something that impacts all of us. It doesn't matter if you're successful or you're struggling, it doesn't matter if you're highly educated or you barely finished high school, it doesn't matter if your family's all together or your family is scattered to the wind. It doesn't matter if everything is going in your direction or nothing seems to be going in your direction. We all find ourselves in moments where we're lost. And Jesus says, I want to be compassionate towards you in your lostness and bring you to the Father. And that's what covenantal relationship with the Father looks like for Jesus. He says, You were lost, you could not find your way back, you could not find your way home. So I came that I might help you and bring you back to relationship with God. This was the priority of Jesus. This was the great desire of our Savior. And now he says to us, that's what I want you to be as well. Matter of fact, in all four Gospels, they conclude with Jesus making this statement to his disciples, to his followers. All four. Matthew chapter 28, Jesus said it like this: Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I've commanded you. And lo, I will be with you until the end of the earth and to the end of the age. In Mark's gospel, Jesus' words are recorded by Mark when he writes, and Jesus says, Go now into all the nations and preach the gospels. In Luke's two gospel, two-volume gospel, he says in Acts chapter 1, he says, Jesus declared, you shall receive power when the Holy Spirit comes upon you, so that you might be my witnesses in Jerusalem, Judea, Samaria, and even to the uttermost parts of the earth. And in John's gospel, John sums it up with the words of Jesus, as I was sent, so I am sending you. And what we discover throughout the gospel is this urgency that the gospel, the good news that man can be made right with the living God is the overwhelming priority of the Lord Jesus. And if it is the overwhelming priority of Jesus, it should be the overwhelming priority of his church. But what I've discovered is this when we use the word evangelism, there's almost a collective pullback, isn't there? There's almost this drawback. We don't even like to hear the word evangelism, which is kind of crazy because most of us in this room, and hopefully all of us by the end of the day, if you're not, will become, and you are, a believer, a follower of Jesus. And when we think about being a follower of Jesus, we love to God and we love to come to church and we love to be in the community of faith, and we love to sing the songs of the Lord, and we love to be in our small groups, and and we believe that people need to get saved, and and we love all these things. But as soon as we get the call or the challenge to go and to preach and to share and give our faith away and help those who don't know Christ come to know Christ, it seems that we somehow we just sort of draw up. Matter of fact, evangelism often feels like something we shy away from instead of lean into. And if you fill the tension of that, you're not the only one. We know it matters, but we also know that for some reason we don't seem to understand how to do it and we shy away. And it's not just us. Barna in research entitled, Is Evangelism Goin Out of Style? Pulled 2,000 adults who identified as fully committed born-again Christians. And they said this, listen to this. 100%, you almost never get that. 100% said it was their responsibility as a believer to tell others about Jesus. That's wonderful. We get the messaging. But the follow-up shows us that 69 said that they had been more than a year since they had shared their faith with someone who is not a follower of Christ. That we have a 31% gap in what we believe and what we practice. And chances are all of us in this room would go, yes, we need to share our faith. But when we look at our daily practice of following Jesus, we discover that so often we do not find ourselves sharing our faith with others. So Barney wanted to do some additional research. So they dug down and they wanted to focus on millennials. And there is a real revival move in God's kingdom among millennials, and they asked them their views on evangelism, millennials that self-identified as Christ's followers and fully committed. And 96% of them said that their faith does require that they be a witness to others about Jesus. Friends, that's wonderful. They're getting the message that our life is not to live isolated or secret, but we're to live openly. 96%, 94% of them said the best thing that can happen to someone's life is that they know Jesus Christ personally and his love and peace and grace. 94% of them said that. That's amazing. 86% said, listen, they know how to respond to questions about their faith. Like if someone comes up and asks me about Christ in the Bible, I feel comfortable that I can respond and I can manage those questions pretty well. And then 73% of them said that they were gifted at sharing their faith. That they really felt God had touched them and was using them an amazing way. You know, you bring me your friends, they'll get saved. But then listen to this. But 47% said it was wrong to share their beliefs with someone who had a different belief system or worldview. Did you hear that? Yes, I know this is important, that I need to share my faith. And I believe that if they come to know Jesus, it will change everything in their life. And I'm even prepared to share about that. And some even are saying, I am really good in telling the story of Jesus. But nearly 50% of them are saying, but there seems to be a moral issue here that if I share my faith with someone who has a different religion or a different faith or a different worldview, I have crossed a line. Why do we feel this way? Because I could give you a bunch of passages this morning about the importance of going and sharing our faith, and none of you would probably argue at all. Yet our own practice oftentimes denies or defies what Christ Himself calls us. Why? Why has this happened? There's probably a lot of reasons, but maybe one of the reasons is that we've made the gospel more about product placement, and more about the script, and more about the strategy, and more about selling the point. That somehow we have taken a faith that is so deeply rooted and meaningful to us that truly has changed our life, by which the wonder of his love just overflows into our soul and has brought such transformation that somehow evangelism seems like a hollowed-out, cheaper version of the gospel of Christ because it's driven by a strategy, or it's driven by a script, or I'm gonna have all the right answers, or I'm gonna take you through the four spiritual laws, or I'm gonna walk you down the Roman road, and I'm gonna just sell it to you like I am somehow on the divine marketing team of heaven. Does anyone else feel that way at times? That somehow this gospel that I am here to share and I need to share, it feels as though we we do it in such a way that it's transactional and as though it's some type of pyramid scheme, or I'm trying to sell you into Amway, or I'm trying to get you to do this, and if I can just get you in the right space and I can explain it and I can get you to pray, say the prayer, then you're gonna go to heaven and I'm gonna get a crown. And somehow, doesn't that feel somehow cheapened to the glory of the gospel that we have experienced? That our faith is not something that we just pedal around, but it's something that's so intimate and so real. And I believe for most of us today, we long for nothing more than to be able to share in a most authentic way with our family, our friends, our coworkers, our neighbors, our classmates, what it means to have an authentic encounter and relationship with the living God that hasn't been reduced down to take these four steps and it's all gonna be okay. And then we find ourselves in this tension. What does evangelism even look like? What does preaching the gospel even look like? And why do I sort of trigger up even when I hear the word evangelism? Well, let me get let me give you a little insight here, a little freebie here. Did you know the word evangelism is not even in your Bible? It isn't. It feels like a word that's been hijacked somehow. But preaching the gospel and sharing our faith and reaching out to the lost and being a fisher of men is the priority of the kingdom. And yet somehow it feels a bit hijacked, and we find ourselves stuck somewhere between the guy who on game day is standing on the bridge with his bullhorn telling everybody they're going to hell. And we all walk by going, Oh Lord. Or our faith becomes so normative and so secretive, it just doesn't matter. You know what I'm talking about when I say normative, that we've worked so hard just to make Jesus normal, just to be one of us, just to be cool, just to be easy, just like man, he'll be your best friend, he's your buddy, he's gonna help you in life, he's gonna pick you up, he's gonna do all these wonderful things, and he's gonna we make him so cool and so normative. It's like Jesus is leaning over the edges of heaven, going, way to go, bro. You've made me so cool, you've camouflaged me against the culture, they do not even see me as distinctive and worthy of life. Or we've made them so secretive that we are deeply engaged with our faith, and we love Jesus with all of our heart, and we want to grow in Christ, and we want to honor Him and obey Him, but we do it here in a very safe space. And I'm gonna be intellectually engaged with the world in which I'm around, and I realize there's a lot of different worldviews, and I know there's a lot of different ways that people view, and I'll do me, and you do you, and as long as you know we'll find some common ground, maybe I'll share. But if we don't, I'm not going there because it feels immoral. And yet, somewhere in all of this, we still hear this command of our masters whose priority was the loss, that we are to be a people who go and fish. So, can I let you off the hook? No pun intended there, I just heard it myself. Can I give you a definition of what I really believe evangelism can look like in our life for preaching the gospel? Because most of us feel this, and if you're not careful, like half of you right now are going, I just want out of this message, man. These things make me so uncomfortable. I feel so much guilt, and the other half are like, I'm going out this week and I'm knocking on every door in my neighborhood. What if evangelism is not viewed as something that we go and do in and of ourselves and that we generate and that we hope to bring God into them? One theologically that's whacked. Because there is no more God right here in this space than there is in any other place on the earth. God is working at all places, and the idea that I've got to bring God into a place that He isn't is theologically messed up. Number two. Really? So what if evangelism is this? What is what if it means that to preach the gospel, to share my faith, to evangelize whatever adjectives you need? It means that I am simply joining a conversation that the Holy Spirit has already started. What if evangel evangelism is this? What if it's simply me joining a conversation that the Holy Spirit has already started in someone else's life? What if my theology that is based in the text says that God is already at work in people's lives that I know nothing about, and that his work in their life is not dependent on me getting there. But rather I'm simply joining a conversation. What if it that God is so loving, so providential, so sovereign that he is orchestrating not only our feet, our footsteps as the righteous, but he is providentially leading even the unrighteous to the right place that they may hear him. So very quickly. Because he wants to play. Five quick reasons why you and I should fish. Ready? Number one is this. Why should we fish? Because Jesus called us to fish. Follow me, he said, and you'll become fishers of men. This is not a suggestion, this is the part of the calling of a disciple of the Lord Jesus Christ. Fishing is not just for a few who are gifted in talking to people. Fishing is something that every follower of Christ is to do. Fishing is not a spiritual gift, it is our spiritual assignment to go and fish. Secondly, we fish. Because people are far from God. People are far from God. And as I said earlier in Luke chapter 19, Jesus said, the Son of Man came to seek and to save the lost. It means that we cannot be a church that says, hey, we've built this really cool building. Y'all come. We'll be here when you get here. We'll have the coffee ready. Our hospitality team will greet you and our worship team will bless you. Nowhere have I been fishing where the fish jump in the boat. Nowhere have I been sitting in a living room or at a campsite and the fish walked up. And so here I am. It is our job to go to where they are and to find those that are lost and to bring them home. Number three is this we fish because you and I have experienced the grace of God. Because you and I have experienced his love and his mercy and his transformation. 2 Corinthians chapter 4, it says simply like this: for Christ's love compels us. What Christ has done for me now compels me to share this with others. That God has profoundly and substantially transformed my life. He has given me meaning and purpose. He's given me union with him that I know my creator and I am living in his purposes, which brings forth great joy and purpose and delight in my soul. That I no longer carry the bondage of my sin or this condemnation of my past or my fear of a future. I can live in this grace. And the overwhelming desire now is to share that with others because what he has done for me, he will do for you. And I'm compelled to share that story with you. We fish because we are God's plan. We fish because we are God's plan. 2 Corinthians 5, Paul says, we are the ambassadors of Christ. We are his ambassadors. We are the one. He could have done it in a thousand different ways, but he said, the way I'm going to choose, this is plan A, and there is no plan B, is that I am going to find the lost. I will disciple them, and they will go and find other lost people. And it just perpetuates when one believer experiences his grace and shares it with someone else. Listen to these words. I'm going to put them on the screen. Everyone who calls upon the name of the Lord shall be saved. Don't you love that? Everyone who does. But notice what verse number 14 says. But how then will they call upon them in whom they have not believed? And how will they believe in him who they have not heard? And how will they hear without someone telling them? You came to faith because someone told you the gospel. I came to faith because someone preached to me the gospel. I came to know the Lord because God used someone else to finish the work that He had started and drawing me to Himself. It did not happen in the vacuum of humanity. It happened in the context of a Christian church who understood their mission and their calling and the priority of Jesus. And they engaged it themselves and they shared. And that's how you came. Maybe it was a pastor, maybe it was your mom and dad, maybe it was your youth pastor or a coach or a neighbor or a friend that knew Jesus. And they loved you enough and they were compelled enough by his love to share that with you. And God began connecting the dots and drawing you to himself so that you would come to life in Christ. See, what if evangelism is no longer about transactional business? But what if it becomes about a covenant love that God has expressed in us and we share with others? Now let me close. Would you, Maestro? Listen, I don't think there's anything wrong with knowing the four spiritual laws. I know them backwards and forwards, and I actually came to faith through those. And the Roman Road, I think it's a great tool. But when we just begin to hollow it out, that the gospel is just something we do because somehow we feel guilty if we don't. There's something more. There's something about relationship. Back in February on Wednesday night after I had finished up teaching here, uh I had not eaten that day, and I didn't know there was anything to eat at home, so I just stopped by one of the local fast food restaurants and I made my order in the drive-thru and I pull up to the window, and uh, you know, the guy says, Hey, how are you? And I say, I'm pretty good. How are you tonight? Terrible. So, whoa. Sorry to hear that. Tough day, tough life. So, man, I I'm really sorry to hear that. Um, how long you worked here? Well, about six months. Well, you enjoying it? No. Sorry. He says, I don't like my other job too. I says, you got two jobs? He says, Yeah. I start at nine o'clock in the morning at another place, and then I walk here and I do the second shift because I don't have a car. And I'm I'm sorry. Hey, listen, uh I'm gonna pray for you then that God will let you know he's close. It's like he looked at me and said, Hallelujah. Thank God he sent you to me. No. He said, Yeah, whatever, bud. Here's your receipt. But I went home that night and on the way home I just prayed, God, this man's having a lousy, lousy life experience. I don't know anything about him, but God, you know everything about him. So God, I just pray for him. And I just pray that you'll send people along the way that can let him know there's a God that loves them. Didn't think much about it. Next Wednesday night, got done with service here, and I thought, I'm thirsty. And I went by the same restaurant and went through the drive-thin, and he was there again. And I said, Hey, hey, how are you? He's like, I'm good. Who are you, and why are you talking to me like this? And I said, We do I I met you last week. He's all right. I said, You're having a really bad week. I was praying for you. Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah, whatever. Um, do you want you need some napkins? So, yeah, yeah, that'd be great. I said, Well, um, anything get better? Because I've prayed for you. You've been on my heart. Like, no. I said, Well, anything I can pray for you about that? Anything you need? He says, I'll tell you what I need. I need a car. I don't have a car. I said, How do you get to work? He says, I have to Uber every day. It's like 25 bucks a day. So I Uber to my other job down the road and then get done there and I'll walk up here and do this job and Uber home. I said, I'm gonna pray that God will help you get a car. He goes, Well, do you even know where I can get a car? I don't have a lot of money. I said, Well, my mom just bought a car from this place and they do really good. Maybe it'll work out. So I'll be praying. So I drove off. You know, I only got a minute. And he's like, Well, thanks, here's your receipt. Next week, or maybe two weeks later, I show back up, and there he is again. Because now, now it's not about the French fries. Now, maybe God's up to something. And so I get there and I and I said, Hey, uh, uh, hey, how you doing? How's your week going? He goes, actually pretty good. I said, Really? Why? What happened? And he reached into his pocket and he pulled out a keychain with the name of that company. He goes, I got a car. And I said, Bruh, that's great. He goes, Well, it's not great, it's just a beater. I said, but I believe it's an answer to prayer, man. God cares for you. God sees you. You're not lost on God. Yeah, yeah, you know, here's your receipt. Next week I show back up. Hey, how you been? Things working out? Well, I don't know. I mean, just well, is there anything I can pray with you about? I haven't asked you that. He has not, and I love being around people that have not been raised in the church and don't know all the lingo, right? It's like, well, do you have like a prayer for like everything? I mean, like that just sort of got like everything. I said, yeah, matter of fact, I do. I got one of those prayers. And I'll be praying that for you. Drove on. He's like, here's your seat. Drives off. Next couple of weeks, I show up and he's not there. And I'm getting concerned. Oh no, I hope, well, I hope he got a promotion, you know, move up somewhere in life. But last Wednesday before Easter, uh, Trish and I actually rode together to church that Sunday, uh, Wednesday night, and we're on the way home, and I said, hey, stop by such and such. I need to get something. She goes, we just ate dinner. You don't need anything. I said, this isn't about something else. And we drive in, and uh, I said, it's a guy I've been trying to witness to and share with, um, and I don't even know if he works here anymore. And so we get to the drive-in and I hear his voice. I said, That's him, that's him, that's him, that's him. And um, I said, just get a small sprite. So I get a small sprite and drive up. Hey, I said, hey, and I call his name because now I've learned his name. And uh he goes, Oh, hey, how you doing? I said, Hey man, it's good to see you. This is my wife. Just want to come by and say hello. How's everything going? Well, well, kind of the same. I said, Well, are you working this weekend? He goes, No, actually, this weekend I'm on. I said, Would you like to come to church with me? He goes, uh, God will meet you there. Uh well, where is it? And I gave him the address. He put it in on his phone and goes, Oh, I know kind of where this is. And I said, and you can sit with us. Well, how will I find you? I said, Well, if you'll just show up and tell the people at the door, hey, I'm looking for Tony and Trisha, a lot of people know us there, and they can probably connect you. He does not know I'm a preacher because this is not transactional for me. This isn't my job description, this is my calling. And so on Easter Sunday last week, I get up here and I'm scanning. And at first service, I don't see him, and then the second service I don't see him, and I run to the overflow and I'm looking, maybe he's here and he's not here, and I look at the 10:30 or the 1130 and he's not here. I said, Okay, okay, God, I'll see him on Wednesday night and I'll get my receipt. Because fishing cannot just be one and done, it can't just be transactional. That I've done my part, you do with it as you want. It's about engaging. Because Jesus said to men, if you'll follow me, I will develop you in what is the priority of heaven, and that is the lost being found with you.