Lord Please Help Me Find One More

Our theme this year at camp was "I catch, He cleans". We opened our camp with a lesson on understanding our role in bringing someone to Christ with the right attitude and trusting Jesus to take care of the rest.

Note: I mistakenly said that Corporal Desmond Doss was in the Marine Corps and that the Marines took Hacksaw Ridge. It was the United States Army that fought at Hacksaw Ridge, and it was the Army that Corporal Doss served in. I apologize and will do better research in the future.

Transcript

SPEAKER_01 0:30

And good morning, y'all. It's the Preacher Man here. It is a fabulous Friday, 4th of July. Eve. We are back better than ever. Still recovering a little bit from our camp experience at Central Texas Christian camps, where we had a very blessed week. This one and the next one I'm going to post are going to be coming from camp. Successfully record the sermon that I preached on Sunday and one of the Bible classes that I taught during the week. And I'll give a little more explanation when we get to that podcast about the Bible lessons. But we were very fortunate with good weather. We had a bunch of campers, both junior campers and senior campers. We had some great staff people come and help and be a part. Just a really, really good week. And we were really, really praying for a good week, a complete week, due to the fact that there were some issues that took place in 25 where the uh Texas legislature was trying to put a few more safeguards onto uh Texas camps in general. And there were some uh mighty big hurdles to jump over, and we were thanks to the Lord, we were able to accomplish those things, uh find some um ways to work around uh some of the issues that we were experiencing and have a full week of camp. Um glory to God, because it was um an answer to our prayers. So um normally how camp starts is we we start our camps on Sunday Sunday afternoon, uh Sunday evening. Um everybody comes in, uh we get our campers uh settled, we get them into their cabins, we uh allow them to meet their counselors, and then there's a time of just reunion where everybody gets to hang out and run around and reconnect with friends they haven't seen in since last season session of camp. And then we all migrate toward the amphitheater where um we have our intro into uh um the camp theme, the camp rules, um just reminders about how things are gonna go this week. Uh we spend some time singing, and then we have our first lesson. I was fortunate enough to um bring the first lesson uh uh talking about the theme of camp. And the theme of camp this week was uh I catch, he cleans based on uh Mark's gospel where Jesus calls uh uh Peter and uh Andrew to follow him, follow Jesus, and he would make them fishers of people. So the entire week of camp was based on that um idea. What does it mean to be a fisher of people, a fisher of men? What does it mean that Jesus clings after we catch? And what's the uh result of that catch? Um what happens to those who are caught? And we spent all week, amongst other things, studying that concept, talking about that concept, and learning what it means to be fishers of men and learning what it means to give our catch over to Christ and allow him to do the rest of the work. So we're gonna go ahead and jump right into it. This is Lord, please help me find one more. And it is the intro to our camp theme at Central Texas Christian camps. And after the recording, we will come back with a few more closing thoughts.

SPEAKER_00 5:32

If you uh have your Bibles turned on or open, uh let's go ahead and jump into it. We're gonna start in Luke 15. I know that the theme verse is in Mark, but we'll get there, trust me. Want to tell you, I want to tell you a little uh a story. So um we were eating some really good sandwiches and tater chips out there, and um a young camper said, uh, so are you are you are you speaking tonight? And I said, Yes, ma'am. She said, This whole thing about me catching and he cleaning, I'm not sure I I get this, what what what all this is all about. And I said, Well, you know what, you're just in luck because tonight I'm gonna be talking about just that. Now, I'm not gonna tell you who this camper is, but her initials are Lily Squires. Oh, sorry. Um, but in all honesty, she brings up a good point. If you if you get into your Bible and you start reading it daily and you start studying it, and you start paying attention to what the what the Bible lessons are all about and what the preaching, what the preacher preach is about, and what the Bible class teacher does, or you're doing a devotional, you are going to come across passages of scripture that are kind of confusing, and it's and it's a really simple, it's a really simple thing to understand. The Bible is not written to you, the Bible is written for you. Okay, so if if if when if you ever get a confusion, and so and the point of being confused about a passage of scripture or a subject matter, is to go and find someone who you feel like you can trust, who has uh a lot, you know, who make can who may who may understand that scripture and get them to show you and teach you and explain to you what it means? That's how you bring that's how people get brought together, you know. In a lot of ways, that's how um our theme is really, really done. Tonight I want you to think about one question. And the question is this is fishing fun and enjoyable because of its simplicity, or is it fun because of the great catch or the opportunity to catch something really, really big? You don't have to answer that question, it's just that I want you to think about as we go through this this lesson tonight because what we're gonna talk about tonight, and what we're gonna be looking at all week long, is understanding what the primary role is for someone who is a Christ, who is a Christian, who is uh trying to follow Jesus, who is trying to do what Jesus wants them to do. Jesus wants us to be fishers of people, according to the Mark's uh gospel, fishers of men, fishers of people. And that's it. After we, if we have a catch, when we have a catch, that's when Jesus is supposed to take over and continue the job in cleaning him up, or cleaning them up, if you will. Our calling is to go out into the places that may have already been fished or may not even have been fished before. You you may show up in some place where you don't know if there's any potential, or anybody out there who who may or may not know Jesus. Doesn't matter, your job is to fish. And and to kind of introduce this the importance of this, I want to tell you a little story, uh, give you a little uh history of fact. So back in World War II, there was a a gentleman a person who he was he was can he was considered he considered himself a religious pacifist. And if you do know what a pacifist means, it means that he he did not believe in violence or or using weapons, or he did not believe in killing in order to prove a point, but he did want to support and help in the fight against uh tyranny and Nazism in World War II. And and out of all the places he enlisted, he enlisted in the Marine Corps. But when it came time to uh decide and figure out if uh when it came time to shoot a gun, he respectfully said, I'm I I don't want to pick up a gun. Well, what do you what what and they said, well, what what do you Corporal Doss? What do we what do you expect us to you to do while everybody else is fighting? He says, I'm gonna be saving people who have already been wounded and shot, getting them medical help, patching them up, helping them. And it took them, it took a court hearing, it took uh some letters, it took a lot of stuff to get Corporal Desmond Doss into the battlefield assigned to a platoon, and in World War II, his men were asked for no were ordered to climb up a cliff and take control over an area in Okinawa in the Gulf, in the Pacific War. And the cliff that they had to climb up was a straight face cliff, and once you got to the top, you didn't know what to expect. The military referred to this this ridge as Hacksaw Ridge, because anyone who climbed up that ridge got literally cut in half by military fire. So they followed orders. The men climbed up the men climbed up the cliff on ladders, on rope ladders. They got to this top and they started fighting. The first time they attacked, they were they got attacked, they got overrun. And they were told to fall back, fall back because Marines don't retreat. They fall back, but they don't retreat. And during all that commotion of men going back down the ridge and everything else, they started counting people and they they they they and they and they realized that they had lost some people. They didn't know where they were, they didn't know if they were killed in action or they were just wounded or whatever. And one of the people that they couldn't find was the pacifist Desmond Doss. And so the a large majority of the men packed up their stuff and went back to where they were stationed to hold up and go and find get medical assistance and and and kind of regroup, rethink. But they left two men at the bottom of the ridge. And the two men were sitting there just waiting to see what was waiting, you know, guarding their post, manning their post, and all of a sudden, wounded Marines started getting lowering down on ropes. They called for a medic and they grabbed him and took him back. About 10 minutes later, here comes another one being lowered down on a rope. And another. And another. And another. And they were like, who is up there doing this? We don't there, we're not, I'm not gonna climb up there and see because I don't want to get shot, but someone's up there and and they're they're training the men and they're lowering them down. Well, finally, one of the captains gets lowered down, or one of the higher men, I don't know what the ranks are in the Marine Corps, sorry, but they they get lowered them down, and he says, Desmond Doss is up there. Desmond Doss is the one who's been crawling on his hands and knees through the mud, through the crud, through the blood. He's been digging around. He's been treating he's been finding soldiers, he's been treating their wounds, he's been dragging them back to the cliff, dodging bullets, dodging bayonets, hiding from the Japanese, and lowering these men down one more time. And they and then and the bodies, and finally, the last one to come down was Desmond himself. Covered in blood, shell-shocked. He and he was an emotional wreck. His hands were raw because he didn't have a pair of gloves to lower these men down off this high cliff, and he experienced he had so much rope burn that they had to bandage his hands up while he healed up all through the night and into the morning. This non-weapon carrying, he didn't carry a pistol, carrying Marine medic, went around, found men, treated their wounds, hauled them back, lowered them over the cliff. And when the man got and when his and when his uh patient got to the bottom of the ridge, he would get up and he would say this, he would say, he was quoted himself saying, he would say this, Lord, please help me find just one more. And the Lord would answer his prayer, lower that one down, get him help. Lord, please help me find just one more. It's said that he even found a wounded Japanese soldier, treated his wounds, left him there, but because he didn't want to take him prisoner, and went on to do some other things. In Luke 15, Jesus tells a parable, and the parable goes of something like this Luke 15, starting in verse 3. Well, actually, verse 4. What man among you, if he has a hundred sheep and has lost one of them, does not leave the 99, open the hold on. Oh, sorry, does not leave the 99, open the pasture, and go after the one that is lost until he finds it. And when he has found it, he puts it on his shoulders, rejoicing. And then when he comes home, he calls together his friends and his neighbors, saying to him, Rejoice with me, because I have found my lost sheep. I tell you, in the same way, there will be more joy in heaven over one sinner who repents over 99 righteous people who have no need for repentance. Finding lost sheep is similar or in the same context of being fishers of people. We catch, he cleans. In the story where this takes place, Jesus is talking to Peter and his and Andrew while they're working. He doesn't say to them, Now go make sure that the fish are clean before you catch them. That's impossible to do. Because, you know, they didn't use nice zip co fishing rods like this. No, they would they would have a big old net and they would haul in all different kinds of fish out in the Sea of Galilee. Now, today I can see how many of us can see the analogy by using a fishing pole. That pants found me a really good pole, too, man. I mean, it really can it can really zing it. He told me to be careful when I was singing this thing, and he goes, You're not gonna throw it up there, are you? And I went, No, no, no. I'm just gonna cast it out that way. You see how smooth that was? You see how easy and precise that was? Now I don't know what's out there. I don't know. I mean, I wouldn't, if I was fishing for a real, I wouldn't know if there was any fish out there or not. But I do know that if I kept on doing it, I would wind up catching something eventually. If I'm patient enough, I'm trying enough. With a net, you catch a lot of different fish. But he but Jesus didn't tell him. He didn't say, look, make sure you clean the fish before you catch them. You see, it's not our job to be judging, judges. It's not our job to be even fish inspectors, it's not our job to be the fish police to make sure that these fish are good enough to be cleaned by Jesus. We're called to do one simple task. Throw your net, cast your line, and catch fish. Passing along the Sea of Galilee, he saw Simon and Anjou, and he said, Then follow me, and I'll make you become fishers of people. Now, I want to be clear because there might be some confusion here also. Jesus isn't going to tell you something, give you a command, give you an assignment, and not give you some hands-on tactical training. He's going to take you as you are, a follower of him, someone who loves him, someone who has been worshiping him, who it may be you maybe you have already surrendered to him, made him Lord and Master through baptism, and now you just want to know what's next, Jesus. The answer is cast your line, throw your net. And when you catch them, give them to me, and I'll take care of them from there. He's going to show you your talent. If Peter and Andrew weren't fishermen and they had another different occupation, I would be willing to wager a six-pack of Dr. Pepper that he would have used whatever and whatever work, job, or talent they had and said, I will make you that in order to bring people to me. Now, I don't want to insult anybody's intelligence here. All of you are very, very smart young men and women. Y'all are really good kids. You you go to church, you do all these things. So you know this, but sometimes I think it's helpful, at least for me, because like Britt said, I know my limitations, to be reminded of the simple things. Because if there's one thing I know about me, and I would dare say what I know about all of you, is that we can complicate something so easy to the point that we just want to wash our hands and throw and throw up throw away and give up. So here's what I want you to remind you tonight. In order to catch fish, you gotta throw a net. You gotta throw a line. In Jesus' day, they use nets. In this day and age, we use good fishing poles. You gotta be willing to throw the line. Some of you have really good, expensive. Well tide fishing poles and lures. Some of you have all kinds of really good tackle and lures in your in your tackle box. Some of you even know where the honey holes are. You know what? Hey, how many of you know when I when I say honey hole? How many of you know what I'm talking about? Okay, good. So I'm I'm I'm I'm speaking your language then. Some of you know where the best places are to fish. And you're not even picking up a pole. Well, I I don't know if I'm if I'm good at casting over logs. I don't I I don't know. I don't know if I have a fishing license. Or I I'm I'm I'm I'm I maybe I I don't have the right kind of bait. Maybe I don't have the right kind of bait. Doesn't matter. Pick up your pole and go. Grab your net and find a play a body of water and see if there's any fish in there. Whatever it is you're using to fish, the theory is so simple. If you want to catch fish, then you've got to throw a line. And I can't make you do it. I can I can talk about the benefits and the positives of and how happy that would make Jesus and the Lord and a lot of other people, but if it's not in your heart, I can't fix that. I can't fix that. If you want to catch fish, you gotta throw a line. If you want to catch fish, then you need to know how to use a fishing pole or a net. And if you don't know how to use something, there's only two ways you can do it. You got to go fish more and you got to get more reps in. And if you're lucky, maybe there's someone who is older, more mature, who's been fishing for a very long time who can take you and show you how to fish. That's called discipleship. In order to catch fish, you need to know where the fish are, and sometimes that's the exciting part. Sometimes we we you know we we we know where to go to fish, and we look forward to it because we know hey, every time we hit this place, every time we go to this lake, we always catch a fish, and that's exciting, but it's also exciting when you show up to another uh body of water or a pool or or a river or or you're in a boat or uh your buddy's taking you someplace new. You still, the excitement is still there, even though you're not guaranteed to know. But once you know and you start fishing, it's all over. You're hooked, you're gonna enjoy it, you're gonna appreciate the challenge, and you're gonna look forward to the next time you have the opportunity to fish. Now, before I get to my next point, I want to I want to talk about one more little aspect here, and it's an aspect that you really need to consider because fishing is not just about going out with lures or bait or and or getting in a boat and casting your line. Fishing also is to know this that it sometimes you got to know when not to fish. And when when you're not fishing, you're tending to your you're taking care of your equipment, and you're taking care of yourself. If you go to Mark chapter 1 and you read that little verse where Jesus tells Peter and Andrew, follow me, I'll make your fishes of men. And if you don't continue in the story, this point won't make a bit of sense. In verse 19 and 20, it says this going a little farther, he saw James, the son of Zebedee, and his brother John, who were also in a boat, but they weren't fishing, they were doing something equally important. It says in verse 19, they were in the boat mending their nets. So Jesus said, Oh, you're not fishing. I'll come back and check on you later. Tootles, bye. Is that what happened? No. Immediately, by the way, Mark likes to use that word a lot in case you didn't know. Immediately he calls to them and says, He called them. And I bet you he said the same thing. Hey, you two follow me. I'll make you fishers of people also. And they immediately dropped what they were doing, left their dad with all that mending to do, and his hired men and went off and followed him. James and John weren't fishing. Maybe they had already got done. But they were doing something equally important because if you don't take care of your net, if you don't take care of your fishing pole, you don't take care of your boat, you don't take care of yourself, you will wear yourself out fishing and not catching anything. Sometimes you've got to be able to take care of the important things, even though you still have a love and a desire for fishing. So in those times where you feel like, man, I have been trying to get my friends to come with me to church, I ask them every Sunday, Saturday, Friday, night, Friday night, and ask them every Wednesday night, and they still keep telling me no, I'm just gonna stop. Okay, that's fine. Take a break, but don't give up. Mend your nets, restring your fishing pole. Maybe think about another approach to get them to come with you. All the Lord wants you to do is fish, He will clean them when you catch them, and I want to close with this very important statement because I am guilty of messing this up big time, and I've been doing this for a long time. We often make the mistake of trying to play like we're the Holy Spirit, and the Holy Spirit is not in us. We try to pretend that it's our job to not only catch, but it's our job also to clean. We go on, and we want to try to help people fix their habits, clean up their language, change their lifestyle before we even think about throwing a net or casting a line. And we use those problems to say, Well, I'm not gonna fish over there. There's nothing but mud fish over there, and I those aren't those those are beyond cleaning. Our job is to catch fish, it's Christ's job to provide the cleansing power. His blood can take care of a lot of problems. His blood did take care of a lot of problems and will continue to take care of a lot of problems. He will take a fish that you think needs to be thrown back and go, oh no, no, no, no. That's a prize catch right there. I can use that one. Good job. Now go pick up your pole and bring me another one. I'll work on this one. No, no, no, no, no, no. You've done your job. You've done your you you've done your job. You don't need to worry about cleaning them. Quite frankly, you don't know how. Just go fish. But Jesus, I go fish. But Jesus, you don't know where that fish was caught. I don't care. I'll take care of it. You go fish. The minute we start figuring out that if he can use a dirty, nasty, smelly, rough around the edges old fish like me and clean me up, then there's no telling what he can do with someone or something else that's down the line. We become a lot better fishermen. Stop trying to help. Just do your job. Fish. Worry about that, and everything else will take care. It's very simple. Paul says in Corinthians 3, I planted, Apollos watered, God gave the growth. But you, now Paul's writing to a bunch of church-going Christians, but you were washed, you were sanctified, you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ by the Spirit of God. Now look at you. You got good nets, you got good poles, there's plenty of places where you can cast a line. All you gotta do is start fishing. Don't be scared. If your line hangs up, that's okay. Just don't throw it over there no more. Go over here. All we gotta do is remember to fish and let Jesus clean. Let me tell you something. This world is not easing up on the spiritual battles. It breaks my heart to hear what some young people actually say is truthful. It breaks my heart to hear what some college kids have been brainwashed into thinking that this way or that way, this lifestyle, this way, this understanding, this whatever is right. When we know that the answers, the truthful answers, are found, and they speak and they tell another tale. You are surrounded, listen to me, you are surrounded, not here, but in the world. You are surrounded by wounded, beat up, lied to, brainwashed, trapped in the mud, running out of time, like a fish running out of oxygen because of lack of water. You're surrounded by all kinds of those kinds of fish. Today, God is looking for a few good fishermen who believe and who will be willing to ask and pray the same prayer that Maureen prayed on Hacksaw Ridge. Dear God, please just help me find one more. There's a lot of power in finding one more, one at a time. You can do a lot of good that way. May the Lord bless you and keep you. May the Lord lift his countenance upon you. May the Lord's face shine upon you, and may the good Lord give you peace. Thank you.

SPEAKER_01 35:30

Um you probably have already guessed it, but I made a very um well, some say it's a minor thing, but when you're trying to be accurate in your in your storytelling and in your preaching, you uh pick up on mistakes and I, for one, try to be my own world's worst critic. So there is an error in that in that lesson. Fortunately, it's not scriptural. It's involved the story of Corporal Doss. And um Corporal Doss did not serve in the Marine Corps. Corporal Doss served in the United States Army. It was the United States Army uh that took uh Hacksaw Ridge. Uh Corporal Doss not only uh uh uh provided medical aid for his men, but he also, I learned later, um, did medical uh performed medical uh aid on Japanese soldiers and in fact lowered some Japanese soldiers down off of Hacksaw Ridge. So I kind of messed up on the story, but the message was still the same. The idea to ask the Lord to help us find one more person to introduce to Jesus is something that should be a part of our daily lives and a part of our mission as Christians. I want to thank you for listening today. We will be I will be posting uh more of um the lessons from camp uh here pretty quick as soon as I can get them uploaded and put onto my uh computer and then get uh the podcast set up. So the uh the next uh podcast will involve the Bible class lesson that I taught at camp. And we will be uh having that up next. In the meantime, if like always, if you have any questions or comments or uh show ideas or anything that you would like to ask me, talk with me about, you can always contact me through electronic mail. My email address is preacherman1178 at gmail.com. That's preacherman1178 at gmail.com. Thanks for tuning in and listening. Uh two more podcasts to post, and then we'll be caught up for the week. This is the Preacher Man signing off, and I hope you have a wonderful, blessed day, a wonderful 4th of July weekend, and always remember who you are and whose you are.