SPEAKER_02: How we spend our resources, our time, our energy, all that is driven so that his kingdom would grow.
SPEAKER_02: So that when people come to their last breath on this earth, they know where they're going, and that little space is eternity with a loving God.
SPEAKER_01: This podcast is a ministry of Grand Parkway Baptist Church, helping people know, enjoy, and glorify God.
SPEAKER_01: For more information about Grand Parkway, visit GrandParkway.org.
SPEAKER_02: That is our prayer.
SPEAKER_02: Is that we can be reminded this morning of your great faithfulness, that we never forget that you are a God who has always been there and will never let our hand go.
SPEAKER_02: In the name of Jesus I pray.
SPEAKER_02: Amen.
SPEAKER_02: You may be seated.
SPEAKER_02: Bonjour, vous allez bien ce matin.
unknown: Bonjour.
SPEAKER_02: You guys are.
SPEAKER_02: Je vous salue des frères et sir en France.
SPEAKER_02: Anybody want to translate?
SPEAKER_02: Because normally and I'm not speaking Spanish, okay?
SPEAKER_02: No, greetings from the brothers and sisters in Christ from the country of France to you guys.
SPEAKER_02: Um I'm here just this weekend.
SPEAKER_02: Uh my wife and boys did not come along.
SPEAKER_02: One of my sons were like, uh, Dad, why do you get to go to Houston?
SPEAKER_02: Especially they have the game this afternoon.
SPEAKER_02: And uh anyway, I'm here, he's not.
SPEAKER_02: So I won't tell you the answer I gave him.
SPEAKER_02: Uh I don't know if you visited France, I don't know if you've had a chance to to get over there, but 90 million people per year visit the country of France as tourists.
SPEAKER_02: So even though the the country goes on strike often, it just doesn't seem to keep away the tourists, they just keep coming back.
SPEAKER_02: Uh so it's a beautiful country, and a lot of people enjoy visiting.
SPEAKER_02: I don't know if you're aware, but France produces a billion tons of cheese.
SPEAKER_02: 1,200 different varieties of cheese.
SPEAKER_02: A French proverb basically says you can eat a different cheese every day of the year.
SPEAKER_02: I don't know if you're aware, but France eats around 30 tons of snails.
SPEAKER_02: Thank you.
SPEAKER_02: So this is one of my favorite jokes is uh why do French people enjoy eating snails?
SPEAKER_02: Because they don't like fast food.
SPEAKER_02: Jean Louis Calmont, a lady lived 122 years and 164 days.
SPEAKER_02: She's the world's oldest human to have lived that long, as far as what's recorded.
SPEAKER_02: So the moral of the story is I live in a beautiful country, and if you eat cheese and snails, you will have a long life.
SPEAKER_02: So you're welcome to come and visit us if you would enjoy a life like that.
SPEAKER_02: Obviously, that's not what took us to France.
SPEAKER_02: What took us was a great spiritual need, a beautiful country, but in the hearts of people they're lost.
SPEAKER_02: They don't see the greatness of a God who loves them.
SPEAKER_02: And so what drove us to get over there is to help in church planning.
SPEAKER_02: So we live in the city of Lyon, and it's not spelled like lion, but you can pronounce it Lyon.
SPEAKER_02: You want to try?
SPEAKER_02: Don't do too long, okay?
SPEAKER_02: I mean, don't get that Texas thing going, you like scare us.
SPEAKER_02: Live in Lyon.
SPEAKER_02: So it's a city of 2.2 million people.
SPEAKER_02: Um, there's 53 churches, all denominations.
SPEAKER_02: Uh, average size is 50 people in a church.
SPEAKER_02: Uh there's it's just a great need.
SPEAKER_02: So, I mean, you choose your neighborhood, choose whatever, and just start serving Jesus.
SPEAKER_02: Chances are nobody has heard uh the good news of Jesus Christ.
SPEAKER_02: So that's why we're there.
SPEAKER_02: If you want to know more, you're welcome to come for lunch a little later, and I'll talk more about the ministry.
SPEAKER_02: This morning I would like to uh address a subject which was laid on my heart throughout this whole year because we're coming up to 12 years of ministering in the city, and it's you get you get into meetings, you get into this and that, and you come back to to think through this subject by saying, What is the main goal?
SPEAKER_02: Why are we doing this?
SPEAKER_02: What is are we still on target for what Jesus has asked us to do?
SPEAKER_02: And and I want you individually and as a church and me as your missionary to think through, are we still on target?
SPEAKER_02: Are we still following what Jesus has asked us to do?
SPEAKER_02: Lord, what a topic.
SPEAKER_02: And I ask that you would you would allow our ears to hear you this morning, and that we can just come next to you and listen to you and be amazed once again with our salvation.
SPEAKER_02: In the name of Jesus, amen.
SPEAKER_02: I returned uh to the States this November.
SPEAKER_02: My grandmother passed away, and uh sitting or standing around the grave site, uh I saw her her gravestone.
SPEAKER_02: When my grandfather passed away, they also carved in her name, and so Eleanor Mary Marshall, there it was, the date of her birth, uh Dash, and they hadn't had time yet to carve in the date of her death.
SPEAKER_02: She was a godly woman, loved the Lord, and was ready to see Jesus.
SPEAKER_02: But as I looked at this stone, two truths came out and one choice.
SPEAKER_02: Between the date of her birth and the date of her death, there's a dash.
SPEAKER_02: And that dash represents our life.
SPEAKER_02: That represents the time that God has given us on this earth.
SPEAKER_02: The second truth is the space after the death date.
SPEAKER_02: And I always wonder when I look at other gravestones, the name of that person, where are they?
SPEAKER_02: What happens after that death arrives?
SPEAKER_02: And the the one choice or the form of a question is this.
SPEAKER_02: During the dash, have you made a commitment?
SPEAKER_02: Are you a follower of Jesus Christ?
SPEAKER_02: Are you a Christian?
SPEAKER_02: Are you a disciple of Jesus?
SPEAKER_02: That we can choose, yes or no.
SPEAKER_02: And that will determine what happens after our death date.
SPEAKER_02: I don't know how you would answer it.
SPEAKER_02: You may say, yes, I'm a Christian because I believe in God.
SPEAKER_02: I come to church, I said a prayer, I was baptized, I give some money, I don't do the major sins, my parents are religious.
SPEAKER_02: I don't know how you would answer that.
SPEAKER_02: Are you a Christian?
SPEAKER_02: Are you a follower of Jesus Christ?
SPEAKER_02: But if if you answer it like that, it's not accurate.
SPEAKER_02: It doesn't work.
SPEAKER_02: So let's meet Jesus this morning.
SPEAKER_02: He's along the side of the Sea of Galilee, and he approaches two guys named Simon and Andrew.
SPEAKER_02: They're brothers.
SPEAKER_02: Their job is to fish.
SPEAKER_02: The Bible says they have multiple boats, so there's a business, they're making money, life is good.
SPEAKER_02: And Jesus comes and he meets them.
SPEAKER_02: You can turn in your Bibles to Mark chapter 1, verse 16 and 17, and this is what he says.
SPEAKER_02: Now, it's not the first time they've met Jesus.
SPEAKER_02: Okay?
SPEAKER_02: They met Jesus nine months earlier.
SPEAKER_02: The book of John tells us that.
SPEAKER_02: They listened to the teaching of John the Baptist and they met Jesus.
SPEAKER_02: So they they've kind of, it's not the first encounter.
SPEAKER_02: But Jesus is gonna say something to them.
SPEAKER_02: Mark 1, verse 16 and 17.
SPEAKER_02: As Jesus walked beside the Sea of Galilee, he saw Simon and his brother Andrew casting a net into the lake, for they were fishermen.
SPEAKER_02: Their job description.
SPEAKER_02: This is what he says.
SPEAKER_02: Come, follow me, Jesus said, and I will make you fishers of men.
SPEAKER_02: Come, follow me.
SPEAKER_02: The first element of what it means to be a disciple of Jesus Christ, and I will make you fishers of men, the second element.
SPEAKER_02: But they both go together.
SPEAKER_02: There's two callings.
SPEAKER_02: Follow me, fish for people.
SPEAKER_02: Two callings, but actually are one.
SPEAKER_02: What does it mean to be a disciple of Jesus Christ?
SPEAKER_02: Is someone who follows and someone who makes disciples of him.
SPEAKER_02: So let's look at that.
SPEAKER_02: Let's look at the first one.
SPEAKER_02: Follow me, Jesus says.
SPEAKER_02: In the Bible, 269 times in the New Testament, you have the word disciple, and only three times you have the word Christian.
SPEAKER_02: What that means is we better understand what a disciple is.
SPEAKER_02: A disciple is someone who is learning from a master, is someone who submitted to their authority, who disciplines their lives to follow, and they pursue the teaching of the master.
SPEAKER_02: That's what a disciple does.
SPEAKER_02: And so what is Jesus teaching?
SPEAKER_02: Jesus is asking them to follow what is he teaching.
SPEAKER_02: In verse 14 and 15 of Mark 1.
SPEAKER_02: After John was put into prison, Jesus went into Galilee, proclaiming the good news of God.
SPEAKER_02: The time has come, he said.
SPEAKER_02: Repent and believe the good news.
SPEAKER_02: That's what he's teaching.
SPEAKER_02: There's three major words in those verses.
SPEAKER_02: The first is Kingdom of God.
SPEAKER_02: Jesus is offering that they and you and I can be a part of this kingdom.
SPEAKER_02: He's establishing a kingdom.
SPEAKER_02: And you can be a part of it.
SPEAKER_02: There's another kingdom called the kingdom of Satan.
SPEAKER_02: And you can be a part of that too.
SPEAKER_02: But he's offering, he's saying, you get to be a part of what I am, I am moving forward right now.
SPEAKER_02: The kingdom.
SPEAKER_02: Now, how what's the passport in?
SPEAKER_02: How do we get into this kingdom?
SPEAKER_02: What's the second word in these verses that kind of like, whoa, are huge?
SPEAKER_02: The word repent.
SPEAKER_02: The way into this kingdom is to ask forgiveness, to understand the gravity of your sins, and you you ask forgiveness, you turn from that old lifestyle to a new life with Jesus.
SPEAKER_02: So the kingdom is here, you get to be a part of it, I get to be a part of it.
SPEAKER_02: The way in is to repent.
SPEAKER_02: And what's the third word?
SPEAKER_02: Did you see it?
SPEAKER_02: What's the third word there?
SPEAKER_02: Believe.
SPEAKER_02: To put your trust.
SPEAKER_02: To believe in the person of Jesus Christ and His work.
SPEAKER_02: To put your trust in what he did, what we've sung, the death and resurrection of Christ.
SPEAKER_02: So he says, follow.
SPEAKER_02: Be a disciple of me.
SPEAKER_02: Follow me.
SPEAKER_02: Now that's where it's different.
SPEAKER_02: Because in the culture at that time, you follow the teaching of someone, but not necessarily the person himself.
SPEAKER_02: But there Jesus is basically saying, I have authority and power.
SPEAKER_02: Follow me.
SPEAKER_02: In France, now I don't know if you know French history, but before the French Revolution and we guillotined or chopped the king's head off.
SPEAKER_02: By the way, when the French chopped the king's head off, they also chopped God's head off.
SPEAKER_02: Historically.
SPEAKER_02: But before they did that, when a king in France wanted to reign over his kingdom, they would send them up to the town of Reims, where they would, you know, do this big ceremony and place a crown on their head and say, now you're the king of this kingdom.
SPEAKER_02: And in the Bible, that happened at Jesus' baptism.
SPEAKER_02: When Jesus was baptized, and we read the verses earlier during the time of singing, he was being crowned by his heavenly father as you are now the king of this kingdom.
SPEAKER_02: But in order to be king, he needs to prove himself.
SPEAKER_02: What makes him legitimate compared to anybody else that wants to be king of your life?
SPEAKER_02: And so the spirit, the Bible says in verse 12, at once the spirit pushes him and sends him out into the desert to be tempted by Satan.
SPEAKER_02: Who's gonna win?
SPEAKER_02: Because if Satan wins, he's king.
SPEAKER_02: If Jesus wins, he's king.
SPEAKER_02: Well, Jesus wins.
SPEAKER_02: And Jesus proves that we can follow him because he has authority and power over Satan.
SPEAKER_02: Satan is owned by God.
SPEAKER_02: He does not trump God.
SPEAKER_02: But does he have power?
SPEAKER_02: Does Jesus have power and authority over sin?
SPEAKER_02: And in verse 14 and 15, we just read that his kingdom, if we repent, if we believe, we can be forgiven of sin, and sin no longer has power over us.
SPEAKER_02: And now does Jesus have authority and power over humans?
SPEAKER_02: And he comes to Simon and Andrew, and he's coming to you and I this morning saying, Will you allow me to have authority in your life?
SPEAKER_02: That's what it means to follow me, Jesus said.
SPEAKER_02: Does he?
SPEAKER_02: Does he have authority over your life and what you decide to do or not?
SPEAKER_02: He goes on to say to these two guys, come follow me, and I will make you fishers of men.
SPEAKER_02: So he just doesn't stop with basically salvation and he also says, now I want you to fish for men, for women, for youth, for I want you to get out there and share the good news.
SPEAKER_02: What does this mean?
SPEAKER_02: He's not saying that their job is not good, how they live is not.
SPEAKER_02: What he's saying is now that you go to your job, now that you go to your school, now that you you do your thing, there's a there's a new element, a new focus.
SPEAKER_02: And the focus is this, you know why you're going to a job.
SPEAKER_02: It's not just to make money, it's because there's people that need to hear who I am.
SPEAKER_02: The question though is, how do we make disciples of Jesus Christ?
SPEAKER_02: How do we do that?
SPEAKER_02: How are you doing that?
SPEAKER_02: Is there someone that you've led to Christ in the last month that you've been able to share?
SPEAKER_02: How do we make a disciple of Jesus Christ?
SPEAKER_02: So I'd like to teach you a French word, an acronym, that hopefully you will remember.
SPEAKER_02: One, how to make a disciple, and two, uh, you'll remember France.
SPEAKER_02: So the word is amis.
SPEAKER_02: Anybody know what that is in French?
unknown: Friend.
SPEAKER_02: Good.
SPEAKER_02: Friend.
SPEAKER_02: Ami.
SPEAKER_02: A-M-I-S.
SPEAKER_02: Okay?
SPEAKER_02: So let's look at that.
SPEAKER_02: The first question as far as some lessons in regard to fishing is this.
SPEAKER_02: Where would you go to catch fish?
SPEAKER_02: Where would you go?
SPEAKER_02: Tell me, talk to me.
SPEAKER_02: The ocean.
SPEAKER_02: Where else?
SPEAKER_02: I can't hear you, I'm sorry.
SPEAKER_00: Where the fish are.
SPEAKER_02: Brilliant, right there.
SPEAKER_02: You don't go to where the water is, you go where the fish are.
SPEAKER_02: You go where the fish are.
SPEAKER_02: What we're experiencing this morning is not the end goal of what Jesus had in mind.
SPEAKER_02: This is beautiful.
SPEAKER_02: Coming together to be encouraged, to worship our Savior, to be energized, to get going during our work.
SPEAKER_02: This is beautiful, but this is not the end goal.
SPEAKER_02: The end goal is every tribe, every nation, every language seated on their knees in front of a holy God singing, holy, holy, holy.
SPEAKER_02: That's the end goal.
SPEAKER_02: Today we are to go.
SPEAKER_02: It's a commandment of Jesus.
SPEAKER_02: Go.
SPEAKER_02: We cannot sit at the edge of a bank next to a river and talk to fish and tell them to jump out and come on the bank.
SPEAKER_02: It's not gonna happen.
SPEAKER_02: You're a nut.
SPEAKER_02: You're crazy.
SPEAKER_02: You can't get in a boat and go to the middle of a lake and say, okay, fishies, time.
SPEAKER_02: Come into my boat.
SPEAKER_02: You can't walk along the ocean and call fish to come out and be a part of what you would consider a normal life.
SPEAKER_02: Come to our church.
SPEAKER_02: Come to our camps.
SPEAKER_02: Come to it's not gonna happen.
SPEAKER_02: Wanna catch people for Jesus?
SPEAKER_02: You need to go where they are.
SPEAKER_02: And so the first A in this acronym for AMI is we are aware.
SPEAKER_02: We are aware of the spiritual need around us.
SPEAKER_02: Aware.
SPEAKER_02: Awareness.
SPEAKER_02: It's interesting in the Old Testament, there, and I'll read you a couple verses here, there's a shift.
SPEAKER_02: The Old Testament says this in Isaiah 49, verse 6 I appoint you, so this we're talking about Israel.
SPEAKER_02: I appoint you to be the light of the nations that my salvation may be manifested to the ends of the earth.
SPEAKER_02: The strategy of God at that time was that the nations would come and see the light of God through Israel.
SPEAKER_02: So the key words is come and see.
SPEAKER_02: But when you get to the New Testament, Jesus flips it and he says, No, I don't want you to come and see.
SPEAKER_02: I want you, my disciples, to go and make.
SPEAKER_02: And that's a shift.
SPEAKER_02: Now, the church is still to be the light.
SPEAKER_02: We still are to shine, but we're also to go and to make disciples.
SPEAKER_02: So the A is aware of the spiritual need.
SPEAKER_02: I'm aware that in the city where we're trying to start a new church in the city of Bohon, there's 40,000 people, there's no church.
SPEAKER_02: 39,600 people have not heard the gospel.
SPEAKER_02: I'm aware of that.
SPEAKER_02: And and I I think about that.
SPEAKER_02: Who in your surroundings, a colleague at work, a family member, does not know Jesus?
SPEAKER_02: Are you aware of that?
SPEAKER_02: What is the strategy to catch fish?
SPEAKER_02: So you may think, well, I'm gonna take my fishing rod and I'm gonna go, I'm gonna throw it in and try to catch a fish.
SPEAKER_02: But that's not the image of what Jesus is talking about.
SPEAKER_02: He's talking about the church and he's talking about a team.
SPEAKER_02: We're in this together.
SPEAKER_02: It's teamwork.
SPEAKER_02: How do you catch fish?
SPEAKER_02: We're a team.
SPEAKER_02: William Carey, which is uh a missionary that uh 1792, he's considered the father of modern day missions.
SPEAKER_02: He uh he Preached a sermon that a lot of people have enjoyed.
SPEAKER_02: It's called Expect Great Things, Attempt Great Things.
SPEAKER_02: Expect great things from God, attempt great things for God.
SPEAKER_02: And a lot of people know William Carey, but do you know the name Andrew Fuller?
SPEAKER_02: Andrew Fuller was his buddy.
SPEAKER_02: And before Carey left for India, he looked his buddy in the eyes, and this is what he said.
SPEAKER_02: I will go down into the pit if you will hold the ropes.
SPEAKER_02: And I think it sums it all up.
SPEAKER_02: Maddie will go down into the pit if you're all holding the ropes.
SPEAKER_02: I'll go down into the pit if you're all holding the ropes.
SPEAKER_02: But it's not, there's nothing glorious about going across the ocean to another.
SPEAKER_02: What's glorious is we all have this treasure inside of us, and we all have our pits, and we all need each other holding ropes.
SPEAKER_02: We're in this together.
SPEAKER_02: We're a team.
SPEAKER_02: How do you catch fish?
SPEAKER_02: We're a team.
SPEAKER_02: But we're not, we're a generous team.
SPEAKER_02: How are people gonna know that God exists?
SPEAKER_02: Jesus says in John 13, 35, he said, by this everyone will know that you are my disciples.
SPEAKER_02: What is it?
SPEAKER_02: Anyone know?
SPEAKER_02: Love one another.
SPEAKER_02: You know, I'm in a culture where when you say you believe in God, people are like, you're not intelligent.
SPEAKER_02: You're from somewhere else.
SPEAKER_02: Like you're not making your brain think if you believe in God.
SPEAKER_02: And it's true.
SPEAKER_02: Have I seen God?
SPEAKER_02: I haven't seen God.
SPEAKER_02: Why do I believe in something I haven't seen?
SPEAKER_02: Have you seen God?
SPEAKER_02: Anyone seen God?
SPEAKER_02: If you have, you're probably dead.
SPEAKER_02: Alright?
SPEAKER_02: So I'm glad you're still alive.
SPEAKER_02: 1 John 4.12 says, no one has ever seen God.
SPEAKER_02: So how do we know he exists?
SPEAKER_02: But if we love one another, God lives in us and his love is made complete in us.
SPEAKER_02: The only way someone's gonna know that God exists is there's a love inside of you that no one can explain.
SPEAKER_02: And that's called a generous, unconditional love for others, for your brothers and sisters and others.
SPEAKER_02: And people, they'll they'll scratch their head going, I can't figure this out.
SPEAKER_02: You'd be like, I can't either.
SPEAKER_02: It's God.
SPEAKER_02: He exists.
SPEAKER_02: So we're a generous team.
SPEAKER_02: I'm I'm very, very blessed to be a part of your extension in France.
SPEAKER_02: And I am learning so much from you as a church of what this whole thing means.
SPEAKER_02: How to be generous, how to love others.
SPEAKER_02: The M is this minister to people by caring and being generous with what we have unconditionally.
SPEAKER_02: So the A is we're aware of the spiritual need.
SPEAKER_02: We're aware of that colleague.
SPEAKER_02: We're aware of now, once we're aware of it, we minister to that need.
SPEAKER_02: With no strings attached.
SPEAKER_02: When do you catch fish?
SPEAKER_02: Four years ago, I bought a bunch of fishing equipment.
SPEAKER_02: Um, because with four boys, I was like, you know, okay, we got we gotta do this.
SPEAKER_02: We I mean, right?
SPEAKER_02: We gotta figure this fishing thing out.
SPEAKER_02: And so the Rhone River is the river that kind of goes through Lyon, and not too far from our house, there's some huge nuclear plants.
SPEAKER_02: So I wasn't planning on eating the fish, but at least I wanted to say, hey, we went fishing.
SPEAKER_02: So we we bought all the equipment, we went down to the Rhone River, we threw our you know uh fishing rot net, everything, trying to catch fish.
SPEAKER_02: First time, no fish, second time, no fish, third time no fish, month later, no fish, a couple months later, no fish.
SPEAKER_02: After one year, no fish.
SPEAKER_02: I was like, I need to get some training.
SPEAKER_02: Um, so we asked a couple of the guys who love fishing in the village, and they're explaining where we can go to go fish, and we got all the training.
SPEAKER_02: Went fishing, no fish, second day fish, no fish.
SPEAKER_02: I was like, the nuclear plant killed all the fish or something.
SPEAKER_02: Two years, no fish.
SPEAKER_02: I was like, that's it.
SPEAKER_02: We're gonna take everything, it's still in the garage to this day.
SPEAKER_02: I have not pulled it out.
SPEAKER_02: Discouraged, no fish.
SPEAKER_02: Spiritually, it's the same thing.
SPEAKER_02: You sit there and you're aware of the need, it's breaking your heart, and you're like, God, I'm gonna minister, I'm gonna love these people, I'm gonna love the people of my church, I'm gonna do all this, and yet, nothing.
SPEAKER_02: And you're discouraged.
SPEAKER_02: No fish.
SPEAKER_02: That's what Hudson Taylor, another missionary, said.
SPEAKER_02: You must go forward on your knees.
SPEAKER_02: There are three indispensable requirements for a missionary: patience, patience, and guess what?
SPEAKER_02: Patience.
SPEAKER_02: God desires that everybody be saved.
SPEAKER_02: 1 Timothy 2, 4, who wants all people to be saved and come to a knowledge of the truth.
SPEAKER_02: That's God's desire.
SPEAKER_02: And in Luke, he challenges us to say, pray for it.
SPEAKER_02: Pray.
SPEAKER_02: The harvest is great.
SPEAKER_02: Pray.
SPEAKER_02: And I want you to pray for those people that God's bringing to your mind right now.
SPEAKER_02: I want you to write down three to five names and say, I'm gonna pray for these people.
SPEAKER_02: So you're aware of the need.
SPEAKER_02: You minister to the people through unconditional love and you intercede.
SPEAKER_02: I, A-M-I.
SPEAKER_02: Intercede for them.
SPEAKER_02: Pray for them.
SPEAKER_02: I've got my list.
SPEAKER_02: Get yours.
SPEAKER_02: Watch how God will touch each one of them.
SPEAKER_02: How do you catch fish?
SPEAKER_02: At some point you have to get dirty with them.
SPEAKER_02: You have to touch the fish.
SPEAKER_02: You have to be around the fish.
SPEAKER_02: You know, once you've gone through that, you're there.
SPEAKER_02: You're 1 Peter 3.15 gives us an answer of how to get dirty with a fish.
SPEAKER_02: But in your hearts revere Christ as Lord.
SPEAKER_02: Always be prepared to give an answer to everyone who asks you to give the reason for the hope that you have.
SPEAKER_02: But do this.
SPEAKER_02: There's a way to do it with gentleness and respect.
SPEAKER_02: For years, I did not miss a Sunday.
SPEAKER_02: And my four boys play soccer.
SPEAKER_02: And uh every the end of June, there's this big weekend where they the whole soccer club goes and does these tournaments, and all the kids play, and parents spend some good time together.
SPEAKER_02: And uh for years I always told the boys, no, we can't go, can't go, can't go, can't go.
SPEAKER_02: And last year, I don't know what came to me, but I was like, guys, I want to go.
SPEAKER_02: And we're gonna skip church.
SPEAKER_02: So don't skip church, but just understand what I'm trying to say.
SPEAKER_02: We're gonna go down and we're gonna spend this weekend with our friends.
SPEAKER_02: And we had a blast.
SPEAKER_02: Kids played soccer, um, had some good food all together.
SPEAKER_02: And as we're sitting around in the evening, um, about a hundred of us, now we weren't all like packed in a hundred, but you know, a couple people here and there, and and they all just looked at me and they said, uh, Steve, you're a pastor.
SPEAKER_02: Tell us about God.
SPEAKER_02: Would that have happened if I was not there?
SPEAKER_02: If I wasn't getting dirty.
SPEAKER_02: I'm not gonna become a fish, but I'm gonna get dirty with a fish.
SPEAKER_02: And I'm sitting there going, this is my new church.
SPEAKER_02: I get to talk to all these people about God.
SPEAKER_02: And I wasn't prepared.
SPEAKER_02: I mean, I was prepared, but I didn't prepare a sermon.
SPEAKER_02: I didn't, you know, I just started talking, and the joke started going, and then some people are like really serious, and it was just a wonderful moment.
SPEAKER_02: At some point, once we're aware of the need and we minister and we pray, God will open up doors where you just have to, the people will be like, talk to me about why you're doing this.
SPEAKER_02: Talk to me about this God that just beams all over you.
SPEAKER_02: And when that happens, be ready, scripture says.
SPEAKER_02: Be ready, seize the moment.
SPEAKER_02: And so the S for Ami is share with them the good news of Jesus Christ.
SPEAKER_02: Share with them.
SPEAKER_02: And what's reassuring in all this is God is the only one who saves a person.
SPEAKER_02: It's not you and it's not me.
SPEAKER_02: We're in the process of helping, but he's the one who will save.
SPEAKER_02: I mean, there's stories like crazy in the Bible where they're fishing over here and God says, no, put your net over here, and they go here, boom, they have all why?
SPEAKER_02: Because he's God.
SPEAKER_02: He's the one who saves people, not us.
SPEAKER_02: Salvation is a miracle, and it's given by God.
SPEAKER_02: So review with me.
SPEAKER_02: What's the French word for friend?
SPEAKER_02: A.
SPEAKER_02: Aware.
SPEAKER_02: Go ahead, you can say it.
SPEAKER_02: Aware.
SPEAKER_02: M.
SPEAKER_02: I.
SPEAKER_02: And then God, God's gonna save.
SPEAKER_02: So let's go back to our guys Simon and Andrew.
SPEAKER_02: Jesus says, follow me, and I will make you fishers of men.
SPEAKER_02: What's gonna be their reaction?
SPEAKER_02: Verse 18.
SPEAKER_02: What does the Bible say?
SPEAKER_02: At once.
SPEAKER_02: They left their nets and followed him.
SPEAKER_02: At once they left their nets and followed him.
SPEAKER_02: At once is eris tense in the Greek New Testament, which means it's a permanent, no longer looking back decision.
SPEAKER_02: We're moving forward.
SPEAKER_02: At once.
SPEAKER_02: And then they left their nets.
SPEAKER_02: They left their career, they left their money, they left their identity, they left all this stuff to follow Jesus.
SPEAKER_02: Is that what Jesus is teaching us to leave everything that we have?
SPEAKER_02: No.
SPEAKER_02: No, he's not telling us to leave our bank accounts.
SPEAKER_02: But he is saying if there's something in our lives that is more important than him, you better drop it.
SPEAKER_02: If you want to follow him.
SPEAKER_02: Because there's no competition with Jesus.
SPEAKER_02: He wants everything.
SPEAKER_02: Follow me, and I will make you fishers of men.
SPEAKER_02: When I looked at the gravestone of my grandmother, the date of birth, and the date that will be carved in of her death, there's that dash.
SPEAKER_02: You have a dash.
SPEAKER_02: There's only a certain amount of time we're on this earth.
SPEAKER_02: And during that dash, the greatest decision you can make is to say yes to Jesus Christ and to follow him and make disciples.
SPEAKER_02: That is staying on target.
SPEAKER_02: That's the goal of our life.
SPEAKER_02: And that, how we spend our resources, our time, our energy, all that is driven so that his kingdom would grow.
SPEAKER_02: So that when people come to their last breath on this earth, they know where they're going, and that little space is eternity with a loving God.
SPEAKER_02: Being a disciple of Jesus Christ is following and making disciples of Him.
SPEAKER_02: Lord, thank you so much for breath that you've given us this morning to come and worship the great King of Kings, to ignite our hearts on fire with your word, and to allow us to think a little bit beyond ourselves.
SPEAKER_02: And I'm so grateful that we're a team and we're a generous team.
SPEAKER_02: And we want this family to grow and to grow across all the countries.
SPEAKER_02: And so, Lord, we pray for our little sister Maddie.
SPEAKER_02: We pray for the French people, we pray for the neighborhoods around our church and where we live.
SPEAKER_02: Lord, may your family grow.
SPEAKER_02: In Jesus' name.
SPEAKER_02: Amen.
SPEAKER_00: Thanks, Steve.
SPEAKER_00: Please show your appreciation to Steve if you would.
SPEAKER_00: Let me introduce myself if you're a guest.
SPEAKER_00: My name is Neil, and I'm the lead pastor here at Grand Parkway.
SPEAKER_00: We'd like to expose you to different gifts besides mine, different people, different personalities.
SPEAKER_00: If you arrived late, uh Steve is one of our missionary uh um partners.
SPEAKER_00: We partner with him.
SPEAKER_00: We don't take one-off mission trips, go here, go there, go next year, go there.
SPEAKER_00: We find a man of peace that we believe in, that someone that preaches the gospel, and we just go back over and over and over.
SPEAKER_00: And so we're going in May.
SPEAKER_00: We have a construction trip.
SPEAKER_00: Some of you may be thinking, man, I'm not a preacher.
SPEAKER_00: I don't like talking in front of people.
SPEAKER_00: If you like to work, you like to hang out with other guys, you like to just the camaraderie of manhood, uh, we'd love you to come go with us in May.
SPEAKER_00: We are going to Lyon, France, uh, and we're gonna build.
SPEAKER_00: We're gonna build stuff that's gonna help them uh further do what God's put in their heart to do.
SPEAKER_00: And then in July, we're gonna go and we're gonna practice.
SPEAKER_00: I mean, we're gonna practice friendship.
SPEAKER_00: We're gonna be intentional with the French people.
SPEAKER_00: And so, a couple of opportunities for you to be aware of.
SPEAKER_00: We'd love for you to come and go with us.
SPEAKER_00: But I want us to spend just just maybe a minute just thinking about those two words that just kind of pulsate out of the text this morning.
SPEAKER_00: Follow and fish.
SPEAKER_00: Follow me, and I'll make you fishers of men.
SPEAKER_00: Don't miss what Steve would say.
SPEAKER_00: When you follow Jesus, you don't have to find the courage on your own.
SPEAKER_00: He so works in you that he makes you a fisher of men.
SPEAKER_00: He makes you the person that has a real natural spiritual conversation, he makes you the person that asks a question that causes a coworker to say, Hey, can we get lunch?
SPEAKER_00: I want to hear more about that.
SPEAKER_00: So let's just take the next 30 seconds.
SPEAKER_00: Clyde's just gonna play and just kind of ask yourself what what God said to you and what you do with that this morning.
SPEAKER_00: Let's pray together.
SPEAKER_00: We find ourselves doing things, going places that we would never by nature do.
SPEAKER_00: And so, Holy Spirit, we just say to you, just continue to speak, to lead, to remind, reorient us around God and gospel.
SPEAKER_00: That's why we're breathing.
SPEAKER_00: It's what we are created for.
SPEAKER_00: We believe everybody in this room was created by God in the image of God, for a relationship with God that brings glory to God.
SPEAKER_00: That's why the Bible says, whatever you do, whether you eat or drink, do all for the glory of God.
SPEAKER_00: God, we want to get better at that.
SPEAKER_00: We want to better understand that.
SPEAKER_00: So, Holy Spirit, thank you for uh for Steve and for the work there in Leon.
SPEAKER_00: We want to partner with that.
SPEAKER_00: So show anybody in this room, God, that you're kind of stirring in their heart.
SPEAKER_00: And just don't let them off the hook.
SPEAKER_00: Continue just to nudge, to remind, to invite, to prompt, and to provoke.
SPEAKER_00: We're not just taking a mission trip.
SPEAKER_00: We're we're we're partnering with you to be a part of what you're doing in the world.
SPEAKER_00: And so Lord, we're humbled by humbled by that, and we're excited at the same time.
SPEAKER_00: We say all this in Jesus' name.
SPEAKER_00: And everyone said, Amen.
SPEAKER_00: Amen.
SPEAKER_00: If you're our guest, hope we've had an opportunity.
SPEAKER_00: Uh, there's a seat back pocket in your row, it has a guest card in it.
SPEAKER_00: Hope you've had an opportunity to pull one of those and fill it out in just a minute when you're dismissed.
SPEAKER_00: If you would, as you exit, just drop it in the wooden box by the door.
SPEAKER_00: Uh, we think you matter to God, and so you matter to us.
SPEAKER_00: We also believe that finding the right church for you and your family is a big deal.
SPEAKER_00: Uh, and if you look around, there's a lot of people here that feel the same way.
SPEAKER_00: Uh the parking lots are packed.
SPEAKER_00: We had people leave this morning because they couldn't find a parking space.
SPEAKER_00: I chased them down 1464, but they got away.
SPEAKER_00: Uh uh, so anyway, which means some of you might might need to, I'm talking to my Grand Parkway people that have been here for a long time.
SPEAKER_00: Maybe next week you could attend the 8:30 or the 11:30.
SPEAKER_00: Amen?
SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
SPEAKER_00: Oh, I lost you there.
SPEAKER_00: Some of y'all are like, nope, this is my service, this is my seat.
SPEAKER_00: I'll be punching you in the throat as soon as we're done here.
SPEAKER_00: Anyway, if you're a guest, that doesn't apply to you.
SPEAKER_00: I'll hug you, all right?
SPEAKER_00: Uh, we have a lot of things going on in the life of our church want you to be aware of.
SPEAKER_00: Uh, and so we will the way we do that is through video announcements.
SPEAKER_00: So just take one minute and become familiar with some opportunities for growth that are happening here at our church.
SPEAKER_00: What you've just seen in the video is what we call our midweek classes, uh, which begin this next week.
SPEAKER_00: Ladies, we have women's studies on Tuesday morning.
SPEAKER_00: Uh, there's four different studies that are offered, and our midweek classes meet on Wednesday night.
SPEAKER_00: Uh, we have uh activities going on for children, youth, and for adults, but it's all preceded by what we call the midweek meal, which happens right here.
SPEAKER_00: You saw people eating around the round tables.
SPEAKER_00: Uh this week we'll be notching on Chick-fil-A and all the trimmings.
SPEAKER_00: Uh, the cost is five dollars per person, a maximum of$20 per family.
SPEAKER_00: Uh people come and they eat, and then we we give them a five-minute warning.
SPEAKER_00: Hey, classes start in a few minutes to wrap it up, and people just hang out and just just enjoy meeting other people, just uh just chatting, catching up with folks.
SPEAKER_00: And then they head to a class.
SPEAKER_00: We have four classes that are being taught by our staff, our pastors, here in in our main building this this semester.
SPEAKER_00: Uh, one is on uh gospel-centered worship, one is on gospel-centered parenting.
SPEAKER_00: How do we parent?
SPEAKER_00: How does the Bible instruct us as parents?
SPEAKER_00: One is on becoming the person you really want to be deep inside, which is not hey, not achieved through self-hatred and self-loathing.
SPEAKER_00: It's through understanding.
SPEAKER_00: Uh, and then one is about human sexuality.
SPEAKER_00: Uh, and if somebody was kind of like, God's designed for sexuality, someone was like, What do they talk about in there?
SPEAKER_00: We're talking about transgenderism, talk about the LGBT community.
SPEAKER_00: Uh, and somebody said, I don't struggle with any of that.
SPEAKER_00: I'm like, the class is not for people that struggle with that.
SPEAKER_00: But if you do struggle with any of that, same-sex attraction, whatever, you're welcome, okay?
SPEAKER_00: We're you're welcome.
SPEAKER_00: We love you, we accept you.
SPEAKER_00: We want to, we, we we want to just celebrate the truth with you.
SPEAKER_00: Uh, this class is for us as Christians to enter into the cultural dialogue and not stutter and not apologize.
SPEAKER_00: Uh because our culture is kind of veering a long way from God's design for sexuality.
SPEAKER_00: And so these are the four classes being offered.
SPEAKER_00: You need to register for the classes.
SPEAKER_00: You can go to our website and register online.
SPEAKER_00: We sent you tons of emails with links and stuff to make it easier.
SPEAKER_00: Uh, but great spiritual formation opportunities to grow and understand.
SPEAKER_00: No one's gonna embarrass you.
SPEAKER_00: No one's gonna just say, let's begin by you telling us everything you know about this topic.
SPEAKER_00: You can sit in anonymity and gather and learn, okay?
SPEAKER_00: That's what it's all about.
SPEAKER_00: The midweek meal is just something we make it easier to take dinner off the agenda.
SPEAKER_00: My wife has signed up for every class this semester.
SPEAKER_00: And so uh the stove is broken our house on Wednesday nights.
SPEAKER_00: But anyway, uh we'll have Chick-fil-A, we'll mix it up, we'll have canes, we may have pizza one night.
SPEAKER_00: You never know, but we'll make it public what the meal is, and you have to register every week for that, okay?
SPEAKER_00: So if you have any questions about anything you've seen, some of our pastors will be available down front.
SPEAKER_00: Uh, I'm gonna ask Steve, the guy that preached, if he'd be available.
SPEAKER_00: You may have a question about something he said, or you may say, hey, tell me more about the work in Lyon.
SPEAKER_00: I told him, I said, if the mission trip is you you come over there, you drink wine, you eat bread, and you eat cheese, I'm your man, okay?
SPEAKER_00: I can lead that trip.
SPEAKER_00: Who's with me?
SPEAKER_00: Raise your hand.
SPEAKER_00: Yes, I see the lushes out here.
SPEAKER_00: Just kidding.
SPEAKER_00: Relax, people.
SPEAKER_00: You're like, I thought this was a Baptist church.
SPEAKER_00: Anyway, we'd like to conclude our service with a spoken blessing.
SPEAKER_00: So stand to your feet if you would.
SPEAKER_00: Hold your hands out.
SPEAKER_00: God so trusts you that he has entrusted you with being fishers of men, being fishers of women.
SPEAKER_00: Depart now and steward this trust in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit.
SPEAKER_00: Amen.
SPEAKER_00: Bless you.