In this sermon, the preacher continues the series on getting back to basics and focuses on the concept of becoming fishers of men. He references the story of Jesus calling Peter and Andrew to follow Him and become fishers of men. The preacher emphasizes the simplicity of the gospel message and the importance of counting the cost of following Jesus. He also highlights the dangers of preaching a gospel that appeals to the flesh and the need to make money serve God rather than serving money as God. The sermon concludes with a powerful story of ministering in a nursing home and the impact of sharing the gospel with those who have not heard it in a long time.

Praise the Lord. We're going to continue our study this morning in the series that I've entitled, Getting Back to Basics. And we're moving into chapter 7 in this particular study this morning. And last week, we talked about the survival of the revival. And in that lesson, we explored a lot of the hindrances, a lot of the opposition, a lot of the issues associated with revival. And keeping revival among God's people. And this week, we're going to shift gears a little bit and move on beyond revival and what the very essence and the ultimate end, I believe, of what revival is. And that is that we would become fishers of men. So I've entitled chapter 7 in our series, Fishers of Men. Follow me, Jesus said. In Matthew chapter 4, verses 18 to 22, we read, And Jesus, walking by the Sea of Galilee, saw two brothers, Simon called Peter, and Andrew his brother, casting a net into the sea, for they were fishers. And he said unto them, Follow me, and I will make you fishers of men. And they straightway left their nets, and they followed him. And going on from thence, he saw two more brothers, James the son of Zebedee, and John his brother, in a ship with Zebedee their father, mending their nets, and he called them. And he called them, Scripture says. According to John chapter 1, verses 35 to 40, Andrew was a disciple of John the Baptist. He was one of John the Baptist's disciples, as very likely was John the Revelator himself. Quite possibly, Andrew, Peter, James, and John were all acquaintances or possibly even friends before Jesus started His ministry. And however these things fit together, one thing is certain, they were all fishermen. They were all fishermen. Some historians tell us that Peter very possibly had a whole fleet of ships and that there was actually more than just a simple fishing boat where you had a couple of people going out, but they actually had a business doing this. After seeing John and Jesus in John chapter 1, Jesus passes by their way with a life-changing commandment. And here's what He said to them. Follow me, and I will make you to become fishers of men. You know, that is the ultimate end that God wants us to be. As Christians, we have not truly arrived, as it were, until we become fishers of men. This is the place where many people literally stop short of in their Christian walk. They will reach a certain level, but they will stop short of evangelism. Notice Jesus did not ask them to follow Him. He didn't walk by and say, Would you like to follow me? He didn't walk by and say, You know, if you wouldn't mind, you fellows might follow me. He said, Follow me, okay? And I will make you to become fishers of men. The Scripture is clear to demonstrate that when Jesus gives a command, everyone, including James and John's father, was under His authority to obey them. This is a very important element. You know what? There is oftentimes a lot of resistance to people following God in His perfect will. And that's what the first aspect of this lesson is going to be about. A lot of us have our own desires for our life. Even our families have desires for our life. But God has a perfect plan for all of our life that He wants us to walk in. And unless we walk in that plan, we will not live a life that is fulfilling according to what God wants us to do. And we will utterly miss the very purpose for which we were born to begin with. The disciples straightway left their father and the work of mending their nets and fishing for food or for money and resources, whatever they did. And they followed Christ. You must understand that James and John's dad probably had a career in mind for his sons to take over the family business of fishing. But God had different plans. Did you know that? He had different plans. As I read this story, I wonder how that played out. Here's this man with his sons mending their nets. And here comes this man by and says, follow me. And then all of a sudden his workers are gone. And he's left to tend this business alone. Totally being life-shattering and life-altering for this man and his family. We know that the family was probably somewhat wealthy because in Mark 1, verse 20, they had hired workers. Scripture does not elaborate on their father anymore. We do not know if he objected to them following Christ or not. But one thing we know is that their mother did follow the Lord. And she was there with Jesus all the way up, ministering even to the grave. And you can see this in Matthew 27, Mark 15, and also Matthew 25 and Luke 8. You can compare those passages of Scripture to find that. Forsaking your plans. Forsaking your plans. See, Jesus asks us, follow Me. And what that means is we drop what we are doing, we drop what we want to do, and we begin to follow Him. That is the true essence of what it means to be a disciple of Jesus Christ. There is a cost associated with following Christ that can truly be great. Jesus said, count the cost. Before you go to build a tower, you always count the cost, He said, lest when you are halfway through it, you are not able to complete it, and then others would turn and mock you. Many young men are pressured, and young women, by their mother and father to be what they want them to be. Did you know that? A lot of them are pressured. I've got teenage children, and I can tell you without hesitation that my will for their life is God's perfect will. That is my will for their life. I don't have a predisposition to hope that my kids are going to grow up to become wealthy lawyers, or they're going to grow up to have big businesses. I do not have a predisposition that the girls will marry rich men, or anything crazy. My will for my kids, which I have told them from the time they were children, is that they would marry a man or a woman that loved the Lord, and they would live a life that was pleasing to God. Anything else, I don't care if they live and they just barely scrape by their whole life, or if they live in utter wealth. As long as that's done, that's my hope and prayer for their life. Period. Young men who want to please their dad often end up doing what he wants them to do. This is one of the many obstacles to following Christ. You see, many people like the idea of following Christ, but not the reality of following Christ. See, we're like that. See, my computer at home, it's kind of funny, somehow along the way, in putting in various software, I installed a virtual CD recorder on my machine. And every time I go to burn something on a CD, it writes to that virtual CD recorder. And nothing gets on the CD. See, my computer, follow my analogy, likes the idea of burning a CD, but it's all in its head. It's all virtual. There's no reality. No little orange light comes on, starts flickering, and I don't hear any zzzz, or anything. When God says, follow me, we go to print to the virtual CD driver, and we don't in reality follow Him, and we think they're one and the same, but in the end, no CD ejects out of the cover, and there's nothing with anything rememberable on it. It was all just a pipe dream. They follow in word and in tongue, but not in deed and in truth. Before Jesus' ministry was over, most people felt that forsaking all and following Christ was simply taking things too far. You're just taking it too far. I had a man tell me, got into a big discussion with this man. He's like, man, the biggest problem with religion is people just take it too far. I'm like, man, if you took Christianity too far, you would love your neighbor in an unprecedented fashion. There wouldn't be sin or confusion anywhere in your life. If you took Christianity too far, which I don't think is even humanly possible, you wouldn't believe what your life would be like. Some pretend to follow Jesus, but are never found one single place that Jesus would regularly go, and they attend many places that He would never be found. You're not a follower of Jesus until you're following where He would be going. Following Jesus means to forsake our will for our life and to allow Him to lead us into His will, the will that He rightfully purchased for us to walk in with His own blood. See, He bought the rights to you when you came to the altar. Did you hear what I said? He bought the rights to you when you came to the altar. We invite God to follow us with His presence into our services. Don't we do that? God, come and inhabit what we're doing. God, come and dwell among us. Come and be with us. Lord, come and follow me, Lord. Lord, come, but you know what the Lord is saying to us? He's saying to us, He's demanding us that we would follow Him with our presence into the fields to do His will. Follow me, and I will make you to be fishers of men, self-willed and spirit-filled Christians. Self-willed and spirit-filled Christians. 2 Peter 2.10 paints a portrait of what it really means to walk in the flesh. To describe this, he uses a Greek word, orthodēs, and it means self-willed. Christians who so desire to do their own will that they refuse to do the will of Him that bought them by their own actions testify that they were never bought with a price. A slave knows that they are a slave and they obey their master. When he says, Go, they go. They do not argue or do their own thing. Why? Because they are slaves, and it is not for them to question. If we are slaves of Christ, we follow Him no matter when or how He asks us to leave our nets and do His will. This is the number one problem in Christianity today, in my estimation. Nearly everyone is doing their own thing and following it, following Jesus, or worse yet, they believe they can be self-willed slaves of Christ and do their will and pretend to be Christians. But what saith the Scripture? Not every one that saith unto me, Lord, Lord, shall enter into the kingdom of heaven, but he that doeth the will of my Father which is in heaven. Many will say to me in that day, Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in Thy name? And in Thy name cast out devils. And in Thy name done many wonderful works or acts of dunamis. And then will I profess unto them, I never knew you, depart from me, ye that work iniquity. Why? Why? Because when they got ready to be seen of men, they prayed for the anointing and God used them. But in their life, they did their own will and not God's. The things that we do that men would glorify us for, like me teaching this class, when I sing a song and everybody gives a big hand, I've received my reward. I've already received it. When I get the praise of men, brother, I've already received my reward. I've already received it. It don't even count as God's will. We already have our reward on earth when we're praised of men. When you really start doing God's will, you won't get many praises because God's heart is with the helpless. Amen. The Bible also says it's to visit who and to keep yourself unspotted in the world. It's a strange thing, you know, what Sister Dorothy's saying is so very true. It is so very easy to get caught up, seeing the absolute and utter need that you literally spend yourself trying to do what others refuse to do. Literally burn yourself out trying to do it. But you have to ask yourself this question. Let me ask you this. If we have 500 plus churches signing up to do ministry over here at Arrowhead, wanting to do that, why are there not 500 churches going in to nursing homes to where we would not have to so spend ourselves to go into the place to do pure religion and undefiled before God and the Father? Why is that possible? How is that even possible? If we are doing the will of the Father that sent us here, that our heart would not be to be with those people. Did you know that there are people in nursing homes, most of which you must understand are widows. I've talked to my wife. Sometimes you'll have a man and a woman that are married that's there. Sometimes you'll have a man that survived his wife. Many of the people have outlived their children. There they are. They're widows. They're just clusters of widows. Widows, widows, widows, more widows. They're sitting everywhere. And your scripture, your Bible tells you, visit them in their affliction. And yet people are like, We love you, Lord. Raising our hands. Do we really love the Lord when we don't even do what He told us to do? I'll move on in that. And I want to share some more about that. The fearlessness. The fearlessness of Aphodes. The fearlessness of Aphodes. The root of the word self-willed or the self-willed heart is firmly planted in the soil of rebellion. We see it boldly today, for example, in televangelism. When ministers become self-willed, they begin to make merchandise to the people. Hear the words of Peter. But there were false prophets also among the people, even as there shall be also false teachers among you, who privily shall bring indomitable heresies, even denying the Lord that bought them. By reason of whom the way of truth, watch this, shall be evil spoken of. What's that mean? All people ever think of the gospel as money. Why should we pretend not to know? The world speaks of it openly. Just listen. They talk of it openly. There was actually a situation where a young woman asked my wife if she could come to church at our church just this week. Can I come to your church? She says and whispers in her ear, but do I have to give up half of my money to come? And it almost drove me to tears. The truth shall be evil spoken of. And through covetousness shall they with feigned words make merchandise of you whose judgment now of a long time lingereth not and their damnation slumbereth not. Church, this is exactly where we are today. The truth is being evil spoken of. Why? Because of the damnable heresies that make merchandise of the people. That's what it is. Well-intentioned people who ask to come to church these days ask, do I have to give X amount of money to come to your church? This woman was a single mother who had two little babies. Preachers who talk more about money than they do souls are serving the God of mammon. I'll go on record with it. You can throw me out and stone me to death. It makes no matter to me. God respecteth no man's person. We're either serving God or the God of mammon church. What's it going to be? God's thrown a line in the sand. He wants to know who's on the Lord's side. Huh? He's thrown down the gauntlet. When they take more time to raise funds than they do to give an altar call, they serve mammon. What shall be their end? Swift judgment, your Bible says. If a person is obedient to God, they don't have to be reminded or reminding Him to bless them. Brother Tony talked about in the nursing home. Listen, if you live right before the Lord, you don't have to fear God's blessing. It's coming. You don't even have to remind Him. How arrogant is it that we would think we have to remind God Almighty of His Word? Why don't we remind ourselves of the commandments and let Him do the Word? Because He will. He's not a man that He should lie. He will do what He said He will do. And when He blesses them, if they love Him, they will do what He wills with the money. This is why a bishop's number two requirement according to Titus 1-7 is that they must not be self-willed. Because if they begin to see the Kingdom of God as a business, they are out of God's will automatically. It's not a business, church. This is the Kingdom of God. Soon, their decision-making processes are a little different than a board meeting at a corporation. God does not have control of the ministry. The mammon does. That's what controls it. Watch this. It controls their messages and the tone and the content of their teachings. You say, prove it. Just turn on your TV. That's all you have to do. Just turn it on. Listen to the tone of many of these messages. Now, that's not all. There are many good ones. Don't get me wrong. But the unfortunate thing is it finds itself in our camp more than anywhere else. And that ought not to be. Soon, no messages will be allowed that cut down the offerings. Sin preaching on television, church, is nearly extinct. It's nearly extinct. Turn on the TV and get fired up over your sin to where you fall to your knees in front of your TV and repent. When was the last time that happened? There are but a few brave souls left. There are some. The gospel of prosperity is a damnable heresy that seeks to lure people into the Kingdom of God as though it were a multi-level business opportunity. Amway or Shackley? As Paris Wright had said, the gospel of humanism is no different than two men sitting in a coffee shop talking about how they're going to go down the street and rob a bank in the way it appeals to the flesh. No different. Luke 20, 46-47 describes them as seeking vain glory, devouring widows' houses, and receiving the greater damnation. Say, how do you devour a widow's house? Lead them to think that you're preaching the gospel. Have them send their 401K in watching TV because they can't come to church. Because they need, listen, a way to express their faith. They can't get out and witness no more. They figure, I'll just do this, Lord. There are really only two types of people. Those who serve their money as God and those who make their money serve God. That's it. You're either serving God with your money and making it serve Him, or you're serving your money and it is your God. It's dictating everything about your life. Because Jesus said, you cannot serve both. It will be one or the other. Period. One serves mammon, the other serves God, but not both. Christians are slaves to God. They are not servants of mammon. And here's the indictment that I want to show you now. Last night, my wife, check this out, my black leather jacket had been misplaced or stolen. In the front pocket, there was a checkbook that had my check and account, everything in it. Couldn't find it. It's been lost. As a precautionary act, the bank advised that we shut that account down. Shut that account down. So I had my wife keep out $300 cash so we would have cash because my cards don't work. I don't have credit cards, you must understand. Debit cards, my checks, I have no access to my banking account unless I go to the bank. She gave us some starter checks and said, here, use these. These will work. No printed name. They work real good. So last night, I looked in my wallet and we were going to Cool Crisp to play miniature golf with the kids and having a good time. I'm like, man, I'm running pretty low on cash. You're thinking, what? I'm doing okay. Don't get me wrong. I don't need an offering. Not soliciting an offering. Not doing that. I have money to make it to tomorrow just fine. But watch this. My wife's like, I want to go to the store. We need to get some stuff to the store. I'm like, you can't go to the store. Yeah, I can take these checks and I can go to the store, she says. And when she gets to the store with this check, I say, go right ahead. Go on, I'll let you go. She went, check this out. She went and she rolled her card of groceries up. The lady said, I don't know why people issue these checks because nobody takes these. Not Walmart, not stores. Nobody takes them. A man standing behind her stepped out, pulled out his wallet and slammed down the full cost of the groceries on the table. People's eyes in the line went boom! My wife was like, no, sir, you don't understand. We have money. No, ma'am. I want to do this. Yeah. Hey. She said, let me write you a check, sir, as you're leaving. Just let me write you. We've got money, sir. Let me just write you up on the old shoulder. No, ma'am. When you get the opportunity, do it for someone else in need. There was a man that made his money serve God. And God made sure that he had the money in his pocket when the need arose to pay the bill. And it was no small piece of change, church. It was an amount of money I doubt very few people would have thrown down. She'd come home with all these bags of groceries. I said, they took the check? She says, no, they didn't. I'm thinking, oh, goodness. And then my daughter Kelsey was standing there. And what an impression it made on her life. Glory be to the Lamb of God, who was slain from the foundation of the world, for He is worthy to be praised. Amen. Amen. Now that's powerful. That's what I'm talking about. These are people that don't serve mammon, church. Mammon serves God in their life. Taking to the fields, and I've got to move. A lot of people are gung-ho to reach the lost until the ministry is placed in shoe leather. They're real gung-ho. They're real quick to print to the virtual drive. They'll print to it all day as though they're doing the Lord a service. The time is coming, and now is, that real messages of the true gospel that confront sin and sinners will not be allowed in most churches because of the backlash associated with it. The largest church in America, church, don't even allow a cross in there. According to Fox News, in a report they gave, sin is not on the menu. There is no way to lead a person to Christ under those conditions. I did a message on it and sent it to the pastor of that church entitled Rat Poison. God ordained it to be done, and it happened. It went certified mail. This is about a month ago. I don't say that to boast. God's throwing down the dot on these nonsensical teachings. He's asking people to stand up and preach my gospel or step aside and let somebody do it. You're standing in the way of what God is doing. As it is written, take heed to yourselves. The persecution and backlash, keep this in mind, for they will deliver you up to councils, and in synagogues you will be beaten, and you will be brought before rulers and kings for my name's sake, for a testimony against them. And this gospel must first be preached among all nations. But when they shall lead you and deliver you and take you up, take no thought, he said beforehand, what you shall speak, neither do you premeditate. But whatsoever shall be given you in that hour, that you will speak. For it is not you that will speak, but the Holy Ghost. Now the brother will betray the brother to death. The father, the son, and the children will rise up against their parents, and they shall cause them to be put to death. Watch this. And you will be hated of all men for my name's sake. But he that endures to the end, the same shall be saved. You know, the Bible says all they who live godly in Christ Jesus will suffer persecution. We have to live our life in such a way that we have enough light that when people see it, they cover their eye with persecution. When we're not living close enough to God and walking with Him, enough to be salt and light in that way, we need to reevaluate our life. That is the prophecy of the last days in which we are now living. People cannot endure sound doctrine, and they heap to themselves teachers having itching ears. They don't care. Listen, they don't care what you talk about as long as you don't invade their comfort zone. How long has it been since you heard that word? You can preach anything you want, just don't get in my comfort zone because I'm asleep over here. Turn the lights out. That's hard to do when God's calling you to wake the church up out of its slumber. How do you nicely wake someone up? You know, some people come out of bed swinging. Literally. My wife used to say that they almost used to have to prod her dad with a pole almost because he'd come up out of... That's how a lot of Christians are. They've been in their slumber so long. God starts to bring a revival, starts shaking. What's going on in here? Pastor, are you going to shut them up or am I going to have to? Yeah, I said it. If that's the way you're reacting to revival, it's only evidence that you were in a slumber. Let me tell you guys a story real quick about the nursing home that we ministered in on Thursday. The most remarkable thing I've ever seen. It's an indictment against today's modern church growth philosophy, which believe me, I have a lot of material on. We arrived at this home where there was probably, I don't know, 13, 14 people. I'd have to ask Sister Lisa that's there that haven't heard the gospel in Lord knows when. One lady said it's been years since they've even been able to be to church. So we rolled up in there. We're singing these songs and the Spirit of God is just moving, moving and moving and moving. All of a sudden we come to the message and I begin presenting the message. I started. I didn't even have any notes. Now you guys know, listen, anybody who knows me knows I do not teach without notes. I don't speak without notes. I don't believe in that. I mean, I remember telling Brother Tony years ago, I believe that if I just open my mouth, the Lord will fill it. And he said, yeah, brother, but that's how a lot of heresies get started. So I thought, you know what? I better pray and seek the Lord for His will and I better type my stuff out lest I be blaspheming. Amen? Because you never, listen, hey, you never know what can come out of your mouth if you ain't prepared. You're liable to say some heresy. So, you know, with that as a backdrop, here I am with no notes. Here I am. I'm in Genesis chapter 3, talking about the fall of man. God told him, I want you to tell them about the fall and lead them to the cross. Dude, the Spirit of God came on me. The unction of God came and I'm preaching in love, in the soft tone of voice, in the most simplistic gospel I have ever spoken. I'm like, man, this is some serious pat one, God. You know, because I'm all the time trying to, you know, over complicate something. I know you probably know that. Amen? I can tell by your laughter. It's not necessary, but I'm guilty. I repent. Check this out, I hope. Anyways, check this out. So, I'm presenting the gospel and at the end I say, I say this, I say, now anybody would like to follow Jesus, and I did the story of Andrew and Peter, would like to follow Jesus, raise your hand. Three people raise their hand. You were there, Sister Judy, you remember that. I said, now put your hands back down, please. I said, now you know that following Jesus will cost you. You need to count the cost to follow the Lord. He said, it may mean that you may lose some friends that used to like you, and they don't like the new you. It's going to probably cost you something to follow. And I gave this little discourse for a few minutes, and I said, now I will ask you again, how many of you would like to follow Jesus? Just like I said, it just said. Those three people raised their hand, and three to four more people raised their hand to bring a total to six to seven, possibly eight, people raised their hand once they heard the fullness of the gospel. Amen. Take the crosses out of the church. Sin ain't on the menu. Excuse me. Let me tell you something. The greatest church growth philosophy in the history of the church is to preach the gospel as Jesus wrote it. You'll fill the church, not with chaff, but with wheat. I believe it. Praise the Lord. Let's move on. Does God honor our sacrifice? The purpose of the church is to go into the world and teach all nations the gospel. It is why the Holy Ghost fell at Pentecost. It is why Jesus died on the cross. It is up to each generation that passes to ensure that in their generation, Christ receives the return on the investment that He made on the cross. Each generation. It's your responsibility and mine to make sure the Lord receives the fullness of His reward. To go into the fields and gather the wheat that He purchased with His own blood is what we are to do in each generation. It's as though, listen, I hear the Holy Ghost whispering, what meaning then is this bleeding of the sheep in my ears? And the lowing of the oxen, which I hear. How can we in good conscience tell the Lord how much we love Him in all of our worship songs and not even be in step with a direct commandment to reach the lost? Think about it. Hear what I just said. We love you, Lord, but we will not reach the lost. He said, if you love me, keep my commandments. What greater commandment could there be than to reach those for whom He died and shed His blood for on the cross? So oftentimes we think we're guilty of these sins which we are that are sins of commission, but this one sin of omission has to be as great as any sin of commission we could commit. That we would not make sure that the lamb that was slain received the very reward of His suffering and His shed blood upon the cross and the tree in which He bore our sins. We put together a vegetables and fruit offering of our songs and hymns, but what God really wanted us to do was to bring in the spotless lamb's reward of His sufferings. That's what He wanted. He wanted the lamb that was slain's rewards to be brought. Oh, it's nice to worship God and I'm, you know, hey, I love to sing. I love, you guys know I sing. I thank God I sing as much as you all. But that is not what we're really to be doing. We're bringing the vegetables in this meal, church, but there's no meat on the table and that's the reward of the lamb's sufferings. Do we really believe that God desires our worship more than He desires our obedience and the souls that He came and died for? Be kind of like telling your husband or wife, here, honey, here's your roses. I really love you. Give them a big old kiss. But then you're just living contrary to everything that they desire for you to live like. Would you even receive those flowers? Would you even receive that box of candy? They treat you like a dog. They don't do anything that they're supposed to do. As I mentioned before, people are all for a feel-good revival. Perchance some would even endure a revival of worship and possibly even repentance, but who could endure a revival of perpetual holy living and reaching the lost through evangelism? Who could endure such a revival? That when God really started stirring and the fire really got burning, that we cast the net on the other side of the wall where we've been casting it inside the boat for so long. That's God's will, church. That is the true meaning of revival. Jesus said, and I'm not going to read my last section. You can read it when you get home. It just deals with the fact that churches in our community and the way in which churches are set up today are very different from in the past. You can read about it. It's very self-explanatory. But the bottom line is Jesus said that the children of the devil are wiser in this generation than the children of life. Because even the children of the devil realize that they can use money to gain advantage in certain circumstances. You hear what I said? Oh, you owe 30, only pay 10. You owe 50, only pay 25. See, they're using mammon to gain advantage so that later in life, when he's being put out, he might have a home to go to because he's made some friends out of mammon. This is strange to some of you. This is strange to some of you. We don't buy friendships, church. But I'll tell you one thing. When you lose the first strings on your wallet, you're going to create people that say, now that's Jesus. I'm not saying this to be boasting, but this stuff needs to be told. We have a lunch fund at my work. It sits on my desk. Did you know that people have stolen, even from boxes of candy and things that's been done for all kind of crippled kids or whatever kind of charity it was, I forget, people have stolen the money out of that at our work. And people just like, who would do such a gruesome thing? But I've got on my desk money sitting continually in a certain spot that everybody in my entire department knows where it's at. And it never gets touched unless it's needed. They know what it's there for. They know who I am. And they do not touch it unless they need it.