 Today's message might seem like an unconventional direction that I'm going to go. Today I'm going to talk about evangelism, and that might seem like, well, it's a prayer line Sunday. Let's talk about deliverance. Let me tell you something. This is a perfect opportunity to let those of you who are here for the first time and to remind our church that deliverance is just a step in discipleship. Amen. We don't live from deliverance to deliverance. It's important. It's actually vital that as a believer, we graduate from thinking about ourselves and start looking to say, how can I raise up another person? There's a reason why we call this conference raised to deliver, because each one of us, you, me, every single person in this house is raised up to be a deliverer to their nation, to be a deliverer to their household, to be a deliverer to the workplace. Jesus wants to use us today. Amen. Amen. Church, I want to share a message with you. Like I said, it's about evangelism. It's important for us to remember that we're called to be the light to this world. Amen. It's important for us to come back to some of the most simple, most basic aspects of our faith. Today is a simple message, but unapologetically simple, because it's important that we come back to the basics, that we come back to what we were asked of from Jesus. What was the thing that Jesus told us? Does anybody know his famous last words? Go, therefore, into all the world, making disciples of all nations, baptizing the name and the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. We're called to go, therefore, and make disciples, to be disciple makers. And today, don't get me wrong, we're ready. The atmosphere is charged. Jesus is going to deliver many people today. But more than that, let's take it another step further and let this be a practical reminder that as you're going to receive today, God is doing it so that he can use you to be a vessel to reach somebody else. Amen. The title of my message today is Gone Fishing. Somebody turned to your neighbor and said, let's go fishing. Turn to the other and say, yeah, I don't know about that. I want to read to you Matthew 419. It says, come follow me, Jesus said, and I will make you fishers of men. Now, some of you may or may not know, except for someone probably the first row and probably passed that, know that I love to fish. I wouldn't call myself an avid fisherman because then I don't want to have to show you pictures of the dinky little fishes that I got compared to some of the guys that I know in here who were like, oh yeah, I just caught this huge salmon the other day. I love fishing. I may not be the best at it, but I love it. And there's some things that I've learned along the way as I've been fishing that I don't believe it's a coincidence that Jesus uses this phrase, fishers of men. I mean, he could have said all sorts of things. He could have said hunters of men. That sounds a little interesting. That sounds kind of like John, where are you at? Are hunters of men, gunmen? He's a sniper guy. That's not what we're talking about. He could have used so many different things, but he chose to say fishers of men. And I think there's a lot of symbolism within this idea that I want to share with you some of the things that I've learned along the way that I think are really powerful. And so first thing is this. When I go fishing, and how many fishermen do we have here in the house this morning? Oh good. There'll be several of you. This is going to hit home. When I go fishing, the first thing I have to do is I have to put on my boots, I got to go out of my house, get in my car, drive to the river, take out my gear, put my line in the water, and then I'm fishing, correct? Simple enough. It would be silly for me though to go put on my boots, grab my gear, walk over to my bathroom, open the door, open the shower curtain, and throw my line into my bathtub, right? It's ridiculous. Why would I do that? There's no fish in my bathtub. But oftentimes in church, we forget this thing, this very important key, that if I want to catch fish, I have to go where the fish are. I have to go to the Columbria River. I've got to go and actually be in an area where there's fish. But how many times in church, we come on a Sunday morning, we're believing for God to win souls, to win our family, and then we're here in this house, and we're like, Lord, just save the souls. We're ready if you want to bring them right now. Right now, if you want to bring them to this baptism tank right here, and we never actually see souls saved in our churches or in our families, because we're not stepping outside the four walls of this house. We sit here and we pray, and it's good to pray. Praying lays the groundwork, but you got to start moving. You got to put yourself in vicinity of unbelievers. Mark 2, 15 through 16. While Jesus was having dinner at Levi's house, many tax collectors and sinners were eating with him and his disciples, for there were many who followed him. And when the teachers of the law who were Pharisees saw him eating with the sinners and the tax collectors, they asked these disciples, why does he eat with these guys? And it's important for us to remember Jesus was a friend of sinners. It's important for us to be surrounded by people who are not saved. It's important for us, especially those of us, and it's kind of like the strange phenomena in the church, is that the longer you've been saved, it seems like the less unbelievers that you have as friends, the longer you've been in the church, it seems like your whole crowd is no longer, you know, unsaved. Everybody's saved. Everybody's kind of, you start staying within your own clique. And we have this strange phenomena that happens with all churches everywhere. We kind of get into our own little clubs. And on top of that, you put COVID into the mix in these last two years. You've got people who are so bent on wanting to separate themselves from the world because they're like, man, the world's on fire. Let me go buy a piece of property up in the mountains. Let me go hide away. And let me just, you know, have me, myself and I, and I'll have my own family. My family will be saved, but that's it. I'm not thinking about anything else. And this is kind of the mindset that we can easily adopt here in the church if we're not careful, but we got to remember, if we want to see a harvest of souls, we have to go where the fish are. Amen. We have to get out of our comfort zone. And my question and my, my reflective thought for you this morning or this afternoon is, do you have un, unchurched friends? Do you have unsaved friends? And if not, what are you doing to expose yourself around people? Some of us, like I said, we're kind of in our own lane. We've kind of got ourselves dug in this rut where we're like, I'm so far removed from all of that. And that's a beautiful thing. It's good to be removed from a sinful life. But remember, we live in this world. We're not of this world, but we still are here and we have to be present and active with people. And so my question is, is are you being exposed? And if not, what are you doing about it? What are you doing about it? Shameless plug right here. For some of us, we may need to go to power evangelism with the interns today. For some of us, that means we need to break our routine of instead of at our lunch break, closing our office door and keeping our own space. But actually, that co-worker of yours that always that you're kind of annoyed at that keeps complaining, take them out to lunch. Spend your lunch with them. Step outside of your comfort zone. Don't be in your lane. Step outside of make sure that you have exposure. Go where the fish are. Amen. Point number two, using the right gear. Now, I have here some fishing stuff with me. You've probably seen it already. When you fish, how many of you guys know that I can go to the water and still just because I'm at the water doesn't mean I'm catching fish, right? I have to do something in order to attract the fish to me, right? There's got to be something that I have that they want. Now, I have this little lure in front of you. Maybe in the light, you can see it reflects light. It's kind of shiny. This lure, particularly I've used, I caught a lot of fish with, and it's really effective at catching fish. And the reason why is because this little metal spoon that's on it is shiny. It's reflective. And what happens is when I'm pulling it through the water, the fish see it, the light reflecting off of it, and they go, ooh, shiny. And they take a bite for it. They bite towards it, and I can set the hook. Now, there's a light that each one of us have that we're reflecting. And I want to remind you of what Matthew 5.16 says. In the same way, let your light shine before others that they may see your good deeds and glorify your Father in heaven. What light are you reflecting in your workplace? Do they even know that you're Christian? Do they even know that you love Jesus? Does your character reflect the Son of God? This reflects the Son off the surface of the water, but are you reflecting the light of the Son of God? Are you reflecting Him in the words that you say is God on your lips when you speak? You should be someone that when you speak, everything that comes out of your mouth, you should be oozing God's goodness. People should look at your life and say, man, I want what He has. There's something about it. There's change. He seems happy. And don't get me wrong. It's not about being a fake happy. I'm not asking you to come around and be like, oh, everything's good in my life and all this stuff. I'm not talking about this. Notice that this doesn't produce light on its own. I ain't asking you to manufacture anything. What I'm asking you is to let the Son of God reflect off of you, reflect through you to be that light. You can be real. You don't have to be fake, but let your light shine that all can see it. And don't be afraid. Don't put it down. But like the Bible says on the floor, put it on a lamp stand so that all can see. Amen. And people should be able to see within your life that, wow, they're going through the same struggles as me, but somehow they're handling it a whole lot better than I am. Somehow in their life, the things that meant to destroy them, they're doing better than ever. Things that should have brought them down, man, they're still happy. They have a peace that passes understanding and that lures people into the truth. And that's your opportunity to set the hook and say, you know what? You know what I got? I got Jesus. And that's the hook. You can set the hook. Now, that's one way, but with the fishermen in here, you guys know that there are some fish that you can't catch by shiny objects. The fish that are not at the top of the water, but they're down in the depths of the water. Those of you who know what I'm talking about, cat fishing. If you're trying to fish for catfish, those guys are deep down in the mud. They're at the bottom of the river in the darkest depths of the water. And if I were to try and throw this out, there'll be a fat chance that I catch a fish. And there's some people in our life that we can preach the gospel to them. We can show our life and be a light. And no matter what we say, they're just not going to receive it. They're just not going to want to hear it because it sounds like the same old thing and it sounds too good to be true. But let me tell you, when I go cat fishing, I don't throw this out there. That doesn't impress some people. But you know what I throw? I throw food on the end of my line. Sometimes when I go cat fishing, I can throw something even as simple as a piece of hot dog. Like that's how silly it is. You can throw a hot dog on your line. You can leave it there and it can sit literally in the mud and a catfish will come up and eat it up. And I think that's so indicative of what happens, or representative of what happens. There are some people who are so stuck in the mud, so deep in their thoughts, in the darkness, in the depths. Demons are attacking them so heavily. And they just won't hear what you have to say. They just don't care that you've got everything going well. But there is one thing that will get them. And that's the feeding of their soul. Let me read to you this. John 6.35, Jesus declared, I am the bread of life. Whoever comes to me will never go hungry. And whoever believes in me will never be thirsty. John 21.17, Jesus told Peter, if you love me, you'll feed my sheep. My question to you today, are you feeding the weary soul? Does your life feed the people around you? That even those who don't want to hear your message like it or not, you're the best thing that happened to them. Because the way that you love and the way that you care pulls them even out of the darkest depths that they're in. I had a friend, his name is Reese, and I remember I used to try and preach to him all the time. He did not want to hear what I had to say. He actually was like, yeah, Rice, and that's cool. You grew up in a nice home. Your parents are together and everything. That's cool. He just would always shut me down real quick. And there was one day, we stopped hanging out for a long time. And one random day at my house at 10 o'clock at night, I get a knock on the door, I go answer it. And my friend Reese is there. I haven't seen him in years. And he's crying and he's bawling. And I'm thinking like, whoa, crazy, didn't expect to see you here. And then also didn't expect to see you crying and all this stuff. And first thing he says, he's like, I know it's been a long time since we talked. I'm sorry I kind of like been blowing you off, but I'm going through a really hard time right now. And when I was thinking about who I need to call, I realized you're the only real friend I've ever had in my life. You're the only person that I feel like I could share this with and they would have an answer. And I remember him telling me, he's like, you know, I know that I don't really pray and all, but I've noticed in your life for some reason, God answers your prayers when you pray. And I was wondering if you could pray for me. And it dawned on me, man, I am so grateful that I didn't stop praying, that I didn't stop being available for him when he needed me, even if it didn't turn around in a salvation like this, I still was available. And even when he pushed me away, he knew where he could come and be fed. Whether he liked it or not, there was food for his soul. Whether he liked it or not, he couldn't deny Christ in me and he needed it. The question is, who are you feeding? Who is being fed by your life? One, are you going to the river? Are you exposing yourself? Two, are you showing the light of Christ in your workplace? Do people know it? Three, can people come to you and feel safe that if they need a shoulder to cry on that you're that person, that you might be busy, you might have a bunch of things going on, but at the end of the day, you're a place that people can come to. What are we doing? Are we carrying the burden of people's souls? Now, you see here I have with me in my next point, there's a lot to consider about when you go fishing and one of the things you need to consider is the rod that you have. Now, you see this rod I have here, this rod is actually my daughter's fishing rod. She's caught several fish on it now and she's only three, so she's doing pretty good. I'm raising her well. She's being trained in the ways of the Lord and both physically and soon spiritually with fishing, but this rod is interesting because you look at it and it seems pretty lame. It seems kind of like there's not a whole lot to it and that's true. There's not, but what's interesting about a rod and for those of you who don't understand this, bear with me for a moment. The rod can say a lot about what you are expecting as a fisherman. Now, imagine if I say I'm going to go fishing and I show up to the river with this, like you already know I'm not expecting to catch the river monster offered to the Discovery Channel. Like you already know that I didn't come ready for a big harvest. I came for a dinky little fish that might fit in my pan and if that, right? And so I think that's something to be said about the kind of rod and sometimes that we carry in our workplace in our homes is that we pray, we pray big, but when it comes down to it, our preparation for what God wants to do is like this. We show up to the river with our rod, say, Lord Jesus, send someone to my way and we show up with this pathetic little rod and we're not really prepared for what God wants to do and I wonder how many of us have actually missed out on the harvest in front of us simply because we didn't come prepared. How many of us even had an opportunity because how many had this experience where you know that the perfect opportunity was like lined out for you. It was obvious that Jesus was literally, he was lobbing the ball to you to win a soul and you snapped the line simply because you came to the fishing, the waters with this, not prepared, not ready for it. I think it's so important that you pay attention. What is your expectation of what God is going to do through you? What is your expectation of what God wants to do out of your life just because you're at work, just because you may not be on this stage, just because you might not be praying at this altar. It doesn't mean that you can't go or that doesn't mean that's where ministry happens. Ministry happens here, but real biblical ministry is out on the streets, is out in the world, is out in the workplace and let's not forget that. Let's not forget that some of the greatest fishermen are not guys who sit here and talk about fishing. It's the guys that are already out there on the water. The best fishermen, you don't see them, why? They're fishing. If I'm sitting here talking all the time and I'm not fishing, I wouldn't trust me as a fisherman. You want that guy who's already been out here, he lives on the water, right? If I'm going to learn how to fish, I'm going to learn from the guy who literally is out there every day, right? So don't be impressed or, man, I just, if I could just get on a pulpit or if I could just get in leadership position, then I could do this. I want to remind you that all of us are called to fish. It's not just for pastors and you might have a little rod like this, but that's okay. Let me tell you there's something, I got a story for you. My niece, her name is Kylie. I remember she was like four years old. We went camping and I took her fishing and it was the funniest thing. I strung up her line. I cast it out for her and I said, okay, if you feel a little bite, if you feel a little bounce, set the hook and start reeling in. And so I give it to her and I'm setting up my line over here, trying to get my stuff ready. And all of a sudden I hear, I got one. I got one. And she like, I'm like, thinking, I'm like, no, you don't, you don't have one. Like you don't even know what a fish feels like, you know, on the line. And I look over and her rod is going like this. And I'm like, oh, shoot, you do that one. I'm like, reel it in, reel it in. And she's like, it's a fighter. It's huge. Like she's like four years old and she's just like having the time of her life. And I'm thinking to myself, I'm like, probably in her perspective, it's huge. So I'm like thinking, yeah, reel it in, reel it in. She reels this thing in. This sucker was huge on a tiny little rod like this. And I'm like, okay, good job, Kylie. And so I put the fish in our little stringer and I set her up again. I cast her out. I go over to my rod to set up again and she's like, I got another one. I got another one. I'm like, are you kidding me? And so I go over and I check. Sure enough, she got another one. That literally happened all morning. I didn't even get a chance to put my line in the water. She was literally catching one after another. She called more fish than the rest of us that day. And I think that's something to be said. And there's a lesson that we can learn here because this rod, while it's not super impressive, its foundation isn't very strong, at least comparison to what you look at. When you look at my nice expensive rod, you know, it's nice and big. It's got good strong line on it. And that's a, yeah, somebody was whistling. This is a nice rod. But yeah, it's gone to Bible school and kind of knows all of the tricks of the trade. But you know what's funny? I noticed something about the fishing that oftentimes it's more about the sensitivity of the rod. Now, don't get me wrong, if I could catch a fish on this, there's a probably good chance I'll catch a big one. But it's kind of funny how there's a correlation between the size of the rod and how insensitive and rigid and immovable this rod becomes. And sometimes there's, and I just want to speak to some mature Christians in the house this morning. Maybe your foundations are really strong. Maybe you know a lot about scripture and maybe you used to catch a lot of fish in the past. And so your rod is massive. It's like perfect, perfect for catch. But the problem is the sensitivity to the Holy Spirit, the sensitivity, the action, so to speak. If God put a fish on the other end of your line, would you even know it was there? Would you even know that you had something on? Fish on, like we say, those fishermen, you know, fish on. Would you even know that there was a fish on? Or would you just kind of just kind of go, well, this is a really nice rod. This is really cool. And it's funny because these guys over here, baby Christians, right, they're brand new in the faith. Why does it seem like all the baby Christians are winning people to the Lord, right? Like my nephew, or my niece, Kylie, she's just sitting here one after another, reeling them in. And I haven't even got a chance to catch one. And I think it's kind of interesting and it's so symbolic even what happens to us as believers is that sometimes along the way we become insensitive, we become immovable, we become, we know too much for our own good. But what would happen? And I think there's an example here for us. What would happen is, as a mature believer, I picked up my rod, I put my line in the water, and while mine's in the water, I'm still believing that God's going to give me a catch. But when the little one keeps reeling them in, I'm over here with my net, ready to make sure that boat, that fish makes it into the boat. That's discipleship. That's consolidation. Do you see that church? Sometimes you might not have as many opportunities as this guy. As long as you're sitting here, don't neglect your rod. Make sure it gets into the water. Make sure you're fishing. Make sure you're not missing the opportunities. And make sure that you're sensitive to the Holy Spirit when you've got to fish on. But come alongside the little guys. Come alongside the new believers and help them to bring those fish into the boat. How many of you guys know that when you're a new believer, you're on fire, you're preaching the gospel like crazy, but you're still learning how to actually live the Christian life. You're still learning how to like not sin and stuff. And so this is where the church even gets criticized because we get called hypocrites. And usually it's because the young guys are all preaching the gospel and then sinning at the same time. But what would happen if we came along, those of us who are mature in the faith is like, hey, good catch. Let me help you get that in the boat. We're not missed the opportunities in front of us. A mature Christian will have his net in one hand and have his line in the other. I want to encourage some of us this morning to graduate from thinking about me, myself and I. Some of us have been sitting in our lawn chair being like, wow, I'm so glad you're catching fish. You know, we kind of sit there and we're sitting in our lawn chair drinking a soda and just enjoying the fact that the little ones are getting a bite. But we need to graduate from that. We need to get out of our pews. We need to go to the water. We need to throw our line in and be sensitive if the Holy Spirit wants to mess up our plans. Amen. Get ready for what God has church. I believe we're moving into a season here at Hungry Gen. Man, we've got the beautiful boat. This is a very beautiful boat. It's got a lot of bells and whistles, deliverance, healing. It's got prophecy. It's got all the things. It's got the twin turbo engines in the back and everything. It's sweet. It's a nice boat, but it'd be a shame if this nice boat wasn't ready for the big catch that God has for us. It'd be a shame if we didn't have any fishermen in the house who were ready to be ready with their nets and their lines. Amen. I believe we're about to step into a new season, church, even in this next year. As we are rolling out, like Pastor Vlad said, we're coming back to a place with discipleship within the church and evangelism within the church. And I, church, I just can't help shake, but we're about to move into a massive revival of salvation. A massive revival. Massive revival. We're going to see healing and deliverance and the prophetic. That's going to be all beautifying what's happened, happening, but the real miracle will be the miracle catch of fish in our boat. People coming to know Jesus and being discipled, being brought in by the droves with our nets. Amen, church. I want us to rise up on our feet right now. I want us to rise up and I want us to pray a prayer real quick. As we're coming to the end of the sermon, I know some of us here, we've been sitting in our lawn chair, figuratively speaking for a long time. We've been sitting back, letting the new guys catch the fish, but we haven't caught a fish in a long time. And I want us to pray and ask the Holy Spirit, use me, make me sensitive again. I want to be ready. I'm sorry, Lord, for coming with my dinky rod. This time I'm bringing out the big boys. I want us to close our eyes and I want us to lift our hands up to the Lord right now. And I want us to pray and just genuinely come before the Lord because some of us, we actually need to repent of thinking too much about ourselves and not enough about the mission and the vision of Jesus Christ. So, repeat after me, say, Lord Jesus, forgive me for thinking about myself and not listening to your vision and your mission. Holy Spirit, use me. I ask you, make me sensitive to hear your voice when you speak to me about my co-worker. Use me, Holy Spirit, during my lunch breaks, ruin my plans, make me available, and Lord, let me be sensitive enough to know what you're doing. Lord, we prepare our hearts and I pray right now, as we are here in this house, as a body, as a local church, we're asking you, Holy Spirit, to bring the harvest into this house. We're here and Lord, we're standing and we're here to say, God, we're ready to be the laborers that you asked for. We're ready to be the laborers that you've been looking for. And I pray right now, Lord, there would be a quickening in our hearts to evangelize again, to step out of our comfort zone, a quickening in our hearts again, to be consolidating people as they come to the front and not waiting for a pastor to talk to them, but taking the step of faith to pull them into our own house. And I pray in Jesus' mighty name, Lord, that as we prepare our hearts, Lord, that the harvest will be prepared for us in Jesus' name. And as always, remember, better is not good enough, the best is yet to come.