 Matthew chapter 4 verses 18 through 22 Matthew writes now Jesus walking by the Sea of Galilee saw two brothers Simon called Peter and Andrew his brother casting a net into the sea for they were fishermen and he said to them follow me and I will make you fishers of men then they immediately left their nets and followed him and going on from there he saw two other brothers James the son of Zebedee and John his brother in the boat with Zebedee their father mending their nets and he called them and immediately they left the boat and their father and followed him so what we have here is in these verses Jesus calling four of his apostles he's calling Simon he's calling Andrew James and John now when you look at your Bible there are multitudes of people who heard the message of the gospel from these multitudes came disciples from these disciples came the Apostles a disciple is a lifelong learner who has attached themselves to a leader a mentor learning the teachings of that mentor and learning how to explain those teachings to others we as Christians have been called to be disciples but out of the disciples the Lord Jesus Christ called 12 who were also called apostles apostles are people who are called by God delegated with authority and sent out and so not every disciple is an apostle but all the apostles were to be disciples and what we have here is Jesus calling four of these who not only are moving from being called disciples but they are also referred to as apostles and so we're looking at the calling of four of these men as mentioned Simon Andrew James and John now this is not Simon and Andrew's first encounter with Jesus because we know that according to John chapter 1 verses 35 through 42 Andrew had been a disciple of John and we know that Andrew had brought his brother Peter to meet Jesus Christ in John chapter 1 verses 41 and 42 it says the first thing Andrew did was to find his brother Simon and tell him we have found the Messiah that is the Christ and he brought him to Jesus and Jesus looked at him and said you are Simon son of John you will be called Cephas which when translated is Peter and so Jesus had already spoken to them and ministered to them but now they're coming into what would be called full-time or permanent discipleship when you look at this verse here let me give you a second thing here as an introduction in verse 18 notice how it says Jesus walking by the sea of Galilee saw two brothers when you read your Bible and I'm assuming all of us do when you read your Bible in the Old Testament as well as they knew you're going to discover that the sea of Galilee is actually referred to by different names it's called the sea of Kineret in the Old Testament it's also called Lake Tiberias it's referred to also as the Lake of Ganesaret and so there are different names associated with this one body of water that we call the sea of Galilee the reason it's called the sea of Galilee is because it's actually a good-sized lake it's like eight miles from the east to the west it's about 13 miles from the north to the south and at its deepest point it's about 720 feet and so it's a good-sized body of water and so the Lord Jesus Christ is there ministering in this location so it says in verse 18 Jesus walking by the sea of Galilee saw two brothers Simon called Peter and Andrew his brother casting a net into the sea for they were fishermen during that time there were different ways to catch fish there are basically three ways that the fishermen would fish they had what we today simply call hook and line they also had a system of a drag net that would be strung between two or three boats and it would it was a drag net it was used in that fashion and then they had a different kind of fishing that was called net fishing and the net itself was probably around nine feet in diameter and they would they would take this this this net and they would throw it into the water just offshore and that's what's taking place here and so Jesus Christ is ministering to these people who are busy at work as it says they are casting a net into the sea they were fishermen but notice verse 19 what happens he said to them follow me and I will make you fishers of men they immediately left their nets followed him and so in the first encounter Jesus had with his men he was intending for them to have solid faith in him because obviously he's going to save you before he sends you but now they're his followers he intends to send them out into a ministry field and so as we look at this I want to develop a few things let me lay a foundation and then we're going to look some practical application of this but as we look at this today I want to show you a couple things one thing isn't really noticeable when you first read it but it's something you find later in your reading of Scripture and that would be that these men are intended to be the building blocks of of the church these are men who are going to be foundations of the church these apostles and that's because the church was designed by God to continue past the first century you know we as believers are called by God to impact the world until the return of Jesus Christ and so these men are really what we would call his building blocks for the work of the church on earth how do we know that well Ephesians 2 19 and 20 in the New Testament book of Ephesians it says consequently you are no longer foreigners and aliens but fellow citizens with God's people and members of God's household built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets with Christ Jesus himself is a chief cornerstone so they were the building blocks for the work that would continue till the return of Christ and the church has been created by God with the purpose it's to shine as lights in a sin darkened world in first Peter chapter 2 verse 9 the apostles said you are a chosen generation a royal priesthood a holy nation his own special people that you may proclaim the praises of him who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light so we are intended as a church to be transformed agents of a transforming message and as believers we are then sent out to share what God has done for us it's really important to develop this at this point God never intended us believers to keep to ourselves what he's done for us God doesn't intend to do a work in me on a personal level and then for me to remain silent about it God intends me to take and speak concerning the things he's done because what he's done for me he can do for anyone and we really have to have that kind of idea in these last days when so many people seem to be so quiet about their faith it's time for believers to open up it's time for us not to be you know pugnacious and belligerent and argumentative and and all of that no but at the same time if God has touched our lives we ought to tell somebody about it we ought to share about the good things that God has done that's what he intends us to do there was a man the Bible speaks of him is a man that was in a region called the Gadarenes and this man had been severely demon-possessed Jesus and his men had landed there on the shoreline the eastern shoreline of the Sea of Galilee and this demonized man came running out of the tombs and he was shrieking and people were so afraid to go past this particular region because they had tried to bind him in chains and shackles and and he had broken them and he was in the in the tombs and he had sharpened stones and he was constantly harming himself cutting himself shrieking and the people were so afraid and yet this man comes rushing out from that area when Jesus lands in and he runs up to the Lord Jesus Christ and begins to speak to him and as this takes place Jesus ultimately cast the demon out of him there were actually Jesus said what is your name and he said Legion for we are many and so there were 2,000 demons within this man who severely demonized and we know the story I found that Jesus granted them permission to go into the pigs and the pigs rushed over the lip of that cliff there fell into the Sea of Galilee and were drowned and this man was now seated there in his right mind and Jesus begins to minister to him it says in Luke chapter 8 verses 38 and 39 the man from whom the demons had departed begged him that he might be with him but Jesus sent him away saying return to your own house and tell what great things God has done for you and he went his way and proclaimed throughout the whole city what great things Jesus had done for him he said go and tell somebody what God has done so God does not intend us to keep to ourselves what he's done for us he wants us to go out and tell others and God intends the work that would that was done to continue to be done into the future and these men that were looking at here and in Matthew chapter 4 verses 18 following these are men that God's in tending to use now as I was looking at this I began to look at some of the things that related to their call and there are some things I'd like to share with you about the calling of these men I would remind you first and foremost though that as we look at these men yes this is the calling of the apostles but these are what would be called transferable concepts these are things that not only can apply to them but can apply to us as believers because I'm speaking about these men being used to minister and sometimes today especially when I say those who are in ministry you may immediately be thinking in terms of paid staff members of a church but every one of us has been called by God to serve him every member of this fellowship is equipped for the works of service that's what we're supposed to do so every member is a minister and so it doesn't matter if you're a staff member it doesn't matter if you're called pastor or elder deacon or whatever the fact is this is something all of us are intended by God to do and when God calls you to serve him there are various things that apply to all of us for example in this particular case we first see according to verse 18 that God's calling and timing may interrupt your life these men had an occupation that was picked out they were fishermen they were businessmen but Jesus had different plans for them and I've discovered that God has a way of interrupting our own plans in order that he might bring us into his and his plans are always better than ours anyway if I had my way if I was following my own script at this moment I wouldn't be married to Marie I'd be married to somebody else because I wanted to marry anybody who'd say yes she just happens to be the first one who said yes but I would have if I had my way at one time before I met Marie I definitely wanted to marry somebody else and if I'd have been married to that person I wouldn't be here right now another thing I think about is I wouldn't even be in Chino I would probably be in San Luis Obispo which is where I've been wanting to escape for many years because I like it up there but God has better plans God has plans for you Jeremiah 29 11 says I know the plans I have for you declares the Lord plans to prosper you and not to harm you plans to give you hope in a future God wants to do a work and God wants to use us to do that work and he has plans for us to do those things and you may have a plan for yourself you want to go to school you want to get your degree you want to do a variety of things and end up doing some occupation whereas God may say well that's great that you have all that training but I'm calling you to something else I got saved I sensed to call into the ministry I started going to Bible college my plan was to go through school I was going to Biola Biola was five year school to get your bachelor's degree then you have your master's that you get after that takes you to two to three years my plan for myself was to get my bachelor's move on into my master's and at the age of 31 to go into full-time ministry as a pastor of my church that was my plan it's interesting how that the Lord had different plans because I didn't graduate from Biola I didn't get my master's degree but I did get into full-time ministry when I was 31 actually 30 and so the Lord had his plan for me the plan was for me to do what I'm doing and I had to learn to flow with his plan rather than to try and make him flow with mine and one of the things you see about this also is that and I want you to notice this that these were ordinary men casting a net into the sea they were fishermen and so God delights in using ordinary men to do extraordinary things again they were simple fishermen but God intends to make them into men of God and part of what he is teaching them is that they don't have the adequacy but he does Luke 1827 says that things which are impossible with men are possible with God and that is the overwhelming testimony of Scripture when you look at yourself you may be saying within that you don't have anything to commend yourself you don't speak well you're not good looking perhaps you're you're not from a real well-known family I'm a variety of things you may not be well educated but when you look in Scripture the overwhelming testimony of Scripture is that God uses ordinary people to do extraordinary things you look at Abraham the father of the nation of Israel he was an idolater David who became king and Amos who was a prophet were both shepherds Jeremiah was simply a young man we see Simon Peter Andrew James and John as fishermen Matthew was a tax collector and Luke was a doctor God takes ordinary and makes it into extraordinary if God can do that with them here's your question to apply to yourself if God could do that with them why can't he do that with you what is it in your life that God wants to do that you're not allowing him to do what is it that you're nervous about you're afraid to trust them in listen when I got saved one of the things that was hindering me from getting saved was a fact that I'm shy I don't I don't want the center of attention I don't necessarily feel comfortable there and so the idea of having to stand in front of all of those people the idea I still remember the prayer I mentioned it to you recently how that I said to the Lord I can't stand because Arthur Blessed was saying stand to your feet I can't stand because I said to him because I'm shy and I still am there have been times when people think that I'm a bit stuck up maybe I am I don't know so what shut up no but I am shy and reserved always been the idea that the Lord would place me in front of people is a cosmic joke is something that I would never have planned for myself my plan for me was a very simple plan my dad was a truck driver I like driving trucks I want to be a truck driver as a matter of fact at one point I was an assistant pastor and I resigned my position and I told Marie my wife I said to her you know I'm no longer serving in pastoral capacity the Lord has released me from that obligation that service I said maybe it's time for me to move up to San Luis Obispo I said I have a friend named Nick who is actually a manager over a bread company it's a delivery company and so I said I could go up to San Luis Obispo and deliver bread I said I've been delivering bread for a long time the bread of life why not just real bread for a while she wasn't into it and so the rest is history the rest is history you know don't run away from what God wants to do in your life God wants to do abundantly above all you could ask her thing he has something he wants to do in you and you may be saying to yourself but I'm not extraordinary that's fine because God is and all you need to do is trust him God delights on building on the foundation of human impossibilities that's so that no flesh will glory in 1st Corinthians chapter 1 verses 26 and 27 Paul said it like this brothers think of what you were what you were called not many of you were wise by human standards not many were influential not many were of noble birth but God shows the foolish things of the world to shame the wise God chose the weak things of the world to shame the strong why so that no flesh should glory in his sight God can use anybody anybody who is available the question simply is are you available now God when he calls you intends for you to respond immediately immediately notice verse 20 it says they immediately left their nets and followed him and so the Lord wants us to meant to to respond he calls you to follow him and then over your life you seek him through prayer by his word his spirit leads you to where you're supposed to be is like what it says in Psalm 37 23 the steps of a good man are ordered by the Lord and he delights in his way the Lord has a way of working I'm from Norwalk I get saved go into the army get out of the army September of 1973 start teaching a home Bible study in Norwalk my brother Frank a year later in August August 4th 1974 my brother Frank gets saved Frank doesn't have a church close by needs to be discipled my sister Madeline and I climb in my 1965 Volkswagen start driving from Norwalk to Ontario in September of 1974 my brother used to live right off of San Antonio and Holt right by a park they're close to I think it's B Street and I used to go to this little apartment and I would teach my brother it was my sister Madeline my brother Frank and me that was our Bible study I came just to speak to him about Jesus he began to invite friends when he invites friends their co-workers a young woman a Marie shows up Marie comes in two weeks later or so she gets saved she needs discipling I take the task upon myself she's from Chino we get married now prior to getting married I used to live just up the street from here if you went to Philadelphia and you took a left you went to East End just go about half a block block or so off to the right there's this place is Lou Bay hay and feed or something like that there's this this house there I used to say it's a rock house but people got the wrong idea it's not a rock house it's the house with rocks on it house really rocks and I used to I used to live there I had Bible studies there Marie would come and meet me there and we would drive past this location when the chapel there was new and we would drive by and I still remember telling her when you drove by man that's a great looking little church there that'd be a great place to have as a church little did I know that the Lord was ordaining my footsteps to one day pastor on the property that I used to drive by when I lived just up the road God has a way of putting your your destiny if you will your your future he has a way of bringing you into it and while all he wants us to do is just to respond to follow him and and to follow his leading and he wants to do something because when it says follow me that word follow is a word that speaks with of an immediate reaction no delay come now so he says I want you to move now and this is what I want to do with you I want to make you fishers of men so he said follow me my premier responsibility is to follow Jesus Christ carefully and closely remember Christianity is not a system it's not a denomination it's not a simple church it's a savior and we follow the Lord Jesus Christ and we're followers of him and as we follow him and pursue him he opens up doors for us and he says to us this he says follow me and I will make you fishers of men and so as I follow him and delight myself in him he's saying I am the one who's going to make you into the fisherman so he says follow me and I will make you fishers of men follow me don't pattern yourself after someone else let Jesus Christ fashion you into what he wants you to be here's something if you're a single young man or even a single young woman for that matter this could apply I won't pretend that I had a lot of dates when I was growing up because I didn't I was shy and I didn't ask a lot of girls out but when I did ask somebody out I didn't know how to date I have a clue how to date how do you date so what I did is I did what a lot of young men do I guess I'd asked him would you like to go out and if they said well I'll take a chance I'd say what do you want to do where do you want to go I would get to know them and I would say what kind of food do you like and they'd say whatever it is you know I like grasshoppers on seaweed and I'd say man that sounds good to me whatever you like I like it too kind of music do you like well I like Western music well hot dogs so do I hey I don't like Western music so whatever you were I was I was a chameleon and I was that way all of my young life then one day I realized that's just not real I'm being somebody else and they're gonna eventually find out who I am if they stay with me long enough they'll discover who I am and what I am I can't wear the mask all the time and so by the time I met Marie who became my wife I had made a decision just be yourself so when I would ask Marie to go out I would say where do you want to go I would say I'm going somewhere would you like to go with me if we went somewhere to eat I'd say how much money do you have what do you want to eat I was in the mood for steak go get some more no I'd say where do you want you know I wouldn't say where do you want to go I'd say I'm gonna go get some Italian or I'm gonna do that's what I did and and I figured it like this I figured this if she likes me she's gonna like me she's gonna like the real person this is who I am not the pretend David who's trying to be you know Rico Suave with her I'm gonna be just me she's gonna like me she's gonna like the things about me or just like the real things about me that's how I was and that's how I am what you see is what you get because I just got tired of playing that game where you're trying to be everybody's best friend you're trying to be everybody I don't want to be I just want to be who I am in the Lord and so that's how it was with Marie and guess what that's what I brought into ministry so what I am is what I am I when we started this church I began to praise that Lord you know people are coming from other Calvary ministries and I don't know what they're expecting do they expect me to be like Chuck Smith or do they expect me to be like Greg Laurie or Rall Reese what would they expect me to be and the Lord said I made you unique you are who you are just be yourself just be yourself and that's a key in ministry it really is it's a key in serving the Lord just be who you are how has God worked in you that's real that's real you don't have to talk about what God did in somebody else you know all I heard the story this you don't have to what did God do in you what is God doing in you be yourself be real because somebody once said have you ever wanted to be somebody else well if you've wanted to be somebody else have you ever stopped to think that if you were somebody else and one of you isn't necessary that's true so just be who you are by the grace of God and let the Lord work in you Jesus said I will make you fishers of men don't pattern yourself after someone else let the Lord fashion you into what he wants you to be now something you might miss when you look at this in verse 19 again as when Jesus says follow me and I will make you fishers of men we have a very personalized way of thinking today we think in terms of individuals so we may think as we're reading this that Jesus is speaking to me on a personal level but in reality when he says I will make you he's speaking about Andrew and James John Simon Peter in other words Christianity isn't about the individual Christianity is corporate it's about the body of Christ he's not saying in other words Simon Peter I'm making you and you alone a fisher of men he's not saying that to James or John or Andrew he's saying that to them and so that word is a word that goes out to all of us ministry is a team effort you have a baseball team or a football team a basketball team but what we have today is we have taken the idea of team and we've lost it and so when we talk about the Lakers you don't just say losers when we talk about the Lakers we think Kobe Bryant and the losers Kobe Bryant I thought Kobe was on a team I thought there were five men on that team on that court at that time but Kobe by himself and see what happens well it won't change an awful lot will it they'll lose baseball all we talk about that picture that picture can throw 105 miles an hour but if you don't have a catcher you're gonna be hurting that that umpire a lot you need a catcher you know look at anything that requires team anything and instead of us lifting up one individual there's only one we should lift don't you think and that's Jesus Christ he's the one who should be lifted the rest of us are just part of the group that's what we are and each of us have an individual ministry that God blesses but we need each other we connect and we have to and so when he's speaking concerning ministry be careful not to elevate one person into superstardom because in the elevation of one is the bringing down of somebody else we all are in this together and we work together what do they do well they immediately leave their nets and they follow him now I'm gonna give you a couple of things more because in verses 21 and 22 you see him calling James and John and I want to show you a couple things there but I really want to spend time looking at the word mending with you and that's how we're going to conclude our study today because it says in verse 21 going on from there he saw two other brothers James the son of Zebedee and John his brother in the boat with Zebedee their father mending their nets and he called them and immediately they left the boat and their father and followed him now notice with me these were men that were mending their nets so Christianity is not simply an evangelistic effort alone go into all the world and preach the gospel to all living creatures all men yes that's what we're called to do and I want to develop this with you for a minute Christianity is is a message of God of salvation we are called by God to take it out to the world but what is God doing in that message God is reaching into lives and mending them mending people is part of ministry and sometimes what happens in churches is we can get so caught up trying to fill the pews that we leave the pews filled with empty people they're there their bodies are there we've gone through all of our programs to get them in there but they're still empty because Christianity is more than simply reaching out it is actually reaching out touching and bringing healing to lives mending people as part of ministry in Luke chapter 4 verses 18 through 21 Jesus said the spirit of the Lord is upon me because he has anointed me to preach the gospel to the poor he has sent me to heal the brokenhearted to proclaim liberty to the captives recovery of sight to the blind to set it liberty those who are oppressed to proclaim the acceptable year of the Lord he closed the book gave it back to the attendant sat down the eyes of all who are in the synagogue were fixed on him he began to say to them today this scripture is fulfilled in your hearing to heal the brokenhearted when Jesus says that the spirit of the Lord was upon him to heal the brokenhearted the words brokenhearted speaks of the crushed the crippled or the wrecked people in the world Jesus Christ came to mend that which was broken to mend when it speaks here of mending their nets that word mend it means to repair or to complete to to repair what was broken or torn ethically it means to strengthen or to complete to make a person what they ought to be he has given some to be apostles prophets evangelists pastors and teachers for the equipping of the saints for the work of ministry the word equipping in Ephesians 4 11 and 12 for the equipping of the saints the word equipping is the same word that is translated mending for the mending of the saints why are you supposed to bring a word that brings mending because that's what needs the gospel broken crushed wrecked lives it's not just going out with your Bible street witnessing their door-to-door witnessing and then chalking up one more sinner coming to faith and then bragging about bringing him to faith in Christ it's bringing him a message that heals a broken heart that's what the gospel does it heals the broken Jesus came to mend and that's what he does Jesus goes to the city of Capernaum he enters into a synagogue in that synagogue is a demonized man and Jesus delivers him later Jesus visits Simon Peter's house Simon Peter's mother-in-law is is ill Jesus heals her later on in his ministry a leper approaches him moved by compassion Jesus cleanses him later he encounters a blind man by the name of Bartimaeus on the side of a road Jesus was walking and and I call it the Christian parade was lined up with him and as Jesus is walking and people are jostling for attention listening carefully as he's walking the they pass by a man his name is Bartimaeus Bartimaeus hears the commotion he says what's going on and somebody says Jesus of Nazareth is passing by and he begins to cry out loudly he says Jesus son of David have mercy on me and people who hear this Bartimaeus begin to cry they they turn to him the scripture makes it clear they say to him be quiet don't bother the master but he cries out all the more Jesus son of David have mercy on me and Jesus stops and as he stops the parade stops and he turns bring him to me he casts away everything and he gets up in your finds his way to Christ what would you have me to do for you Lord that I might receive my sight let it be done according to your faith from that moment he receives the sight that's what Jesus does in the midst of the jostling crowd the commotion the people walking by admiring him his ear was open to the cry of a blind man on the side of the road that other people were saying to be silenced a woman is brought to Jesus the religious leaders had been looking for an opportunity they wanted to find an accusation against Christ and they knew that they could find it with this woman because this woman was well known for her immorality her infidelities and so they grab her and they bring her to Jesus as Jesus is ministering and they cast her at his feet and they say this woman was caught in adultery in the very act and Moses in his loss says that such should be stoned but we're asking you what should we do and they can see all these people there are watching Christ as he's ministering what is he going to do Bible tells us very clearly what he does it's down in your rights doesn't tell us what he writes it's the only time in Scripture that you find Jesus actually writing anything he writes and he stands up again which one of you is without sin I'll let the first one without sin let him be the first one to cast a stone that's how he dealt with it from the oldest to the youngest they melt away out of shame because not a single perfect person was standing there woman where your accusers do you have none because he knew that without an accusation then Moses's law would not be able to be fulfilled as a pertain to that particular sin where your accusers do you have none she's none Lord neither do I accuse you go and sin no more need to give her permission to go back into adultery no he said go and sin no more he didn't give her an excuse to remain immoral he set her free from immorality that's what he does Jesus is at a dinner party Simon the Pharisees invited him Jesus is seated there next to Simon when a woman comes in she stands there looking around finally her eyes find Jesus and she goes to him and as she comes she begins to weep she begins to weep uncontrollably and the tears begin to flood from her eyes to her chin begin to drip onto his feet as she's standing over him she becomes aware of the fact that her tears have landed on his feet she bends down undoes her hair dries his feet as she's holding his feet and her hand she begins to kiss his feet Simon's looking this Pharisee this man were truly a prophet he'd know who in what manner a woman this is that is touching him Jesus sinner Simon I have something to say to you I'll say on Jesus speaks about two men who owed a great sum and won a lesser sum to the same lender and he says the one who had the money owed to him completely forgave both of them I want to ask you a question Simon which one is going to love him the most and Simon says well I suppose the one who was forgiven the most and Jesus made it very clear he said you didn't even give me the customary greetings of a kiss oil of any sort washing my feet into any of that this woman here did all of that the things that you left undone she has done and you want to know why because as great as a sinner she is as great of a sinner as she is she also loves much because the one who's been forgiven much that same loves a much loves much beloved disciples speak into Jesus on one occasion says though all forsake you I never will I would die for you would you really Simon I'm saying to you before the rooster crow is twice tonight you will deny me three times I would never do that I would even die for you Simon Simon Satanist desired you he's prayed for you he's obtained you that he may sift you even as wheat is sifted but I have prayed for you that your strength does not fail and after you've been converted strengthen your brethren what did Simon do he denied the Lord three times this broken man what did Jesus do Jesus makes a special trip to Simon to ask him a question do you love me do you love me do you love me you know I do feed my lands tend to sheep I restore you that's the Savior that we should that's the Savior that we worship gracious loving kind and forgiving men's the nets immense the nets the broken net he repairs the gospel is intended to mend nets the broken lives if I were to ask people if I said close your eyes which I won't do but if I were to say close your eyes ladies how many of you have been hurt by a man little boys how many of you have been abused how many of you have been beaten how many of you were abandoned how many of you remember a Christmas when a father said I'll be there and he never showed up how many of you have been under that seen that Christmas tree with nothing under you didn't even have the tree you just had nothing many of you how many of you had a mother who said I love you but beat you how many of you have been hurt broken mangled torn up discarded left on the side of the road all of us to one degree or another have been hurt all of us and Jesus came to heal the broken hearted that's what the gospel does that's what it does and that's the message of the gospel that's what God calls us to we haven't been called to be the world's judges we've been called to save them from judgment one of the things about the word saved that you may not know it's like when you read John 3 16 17 God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son that who so ever believes in him should not perish but have everlasting life for God sent not his son into the world to condemn the world but that the world through him might be saved that word saved so it's a Greek word that means brought to health or healed or made complete salvation is about making you complete about healing that brokenness in your life God can do that God can give you a new mind it can give you a new spirit he can take you even if you've been very immoral and make you as pure as a virgin he can wash you and cleanse you and make you new he does it through the power of the gospel and these men were to send he was sending them out he says you are becoming fishers of men you will catch them alive and set them free he wasn't saying you're gonna catch him and they're gonna die and you're gonna eat them he's saying you're gonna catch them alive and you will set them free that's what you're gonna do leave your daddy behind leave your business behind you're following me and you will find a thrill in your life by following me a thrill that you would never have had in your business a thrill that you'd never have in any other way you will be thrilled to the end of your life as you follow me bringing this message of healing the Bible says the law of the Lord is perfect converting the soul that word convert means to restore or to heal it's the word of God that heals the soul so we have been mended and as we are mended we go forth to share his great love with others that they too might be mended all we are are beggars who know where there's a good place that has a free meal and we're inviting our friends to it so you can have that meal along with me the meal that's been provided by God himself all you need to do is ask God forgive me me I have that and he'll say it's prepared for you come it's yours