We've been praying for God to send more men and he's sending them guys. Listen I'm for real We've been praying for someone to to man the sound booth for probably two three years now and guess what? Someone's doing it. Amen, right?
And then and then we got AJ. I'm sorry media and then the soundboard we got another one that's man in it So God's just he's bringing people in to serve and we just love it. I'm excited today. Who's excited to be here?
Hey, that's even growing. I used to say that me get like yeah So now I can't count how many people it is Hey, man do that right? All right guys. I got a lot to get through I Thought I was done increase But Fred's message and we were just talking and thought like there's another message that God just has laid on my heart about the call of God Our purpose is important.
Okay. We got to work on that spot one person said that one now our purpose is important Amen Yeah guy has called us all to something and if anything today I hope leaving here that you understand that you got a purpose For your life God has a great purpose for your life He's called you and listen today might even be the first time that your ears open up to that call and that is great But God has called us to something great and he's equipped us and today. I'm gonna. I'm hopefully I'm gonna walk us through that I'll go back for a second, bro.
I mean my man's on it Go to the first slide Yeah Alright, so are you new is anybody new here? We raise your hand if you're new. Oh, yeah, we guys welcome. We're happy you're here I don't know if we welcome new people today, but I'm happy you're here.
So I'm a huge sports fan Like God speaks to me through sports. I love sports and you'll see here says the phone call and that's a picture of a draft And that's a GM that's that's taking a phone call that's calling a player to call them up to the big leagues, right? They they selected them in the draft and To understand this picture and what I'm about to talk to this is the highest call that you can get This is it like when you're getting that call Everything this means everything like you're excited right because you've been working your whole life to get to this point to get that call To get selected to the league, right? So I'm excited This is what God laid on my heart to just start to talk about the call God because I hope we understand how important it is I don't know that's I didn't look real real sure what I was saying there I hope you understand how important the call is that God chooses you he trusts you He thinks you have it even before you know you have it or think you have it he chooses you to carry out The call that's exciting all right, so y'all are getting the call today.
You're getting called to the big leagues Yeah, someone get excited. Thank you. All right. So the first thing we're gonna talk about is the call to believe The call to believe and I just want to start off with kind of talking about How this is gonna make sense and how God really laid this out to me that Jesus called his disciples amen But what's important and what I thought was so interesting about this is that you know you got the gospels Everybody know the gospels Okay Well this this what we're about to talk about you have to understand and you got it You got to see the fine details and you got to follow it in order for it to all make sense Because one of them is at the very beginning and then it goes to Matthew that's in the middle and then it goes to Luke And what we're gonna see is that God increases the call You know here what I said he increases the call and we're in a series of increase So this is super exciting for me to talk about and how he showed me because he first calls us to following right believe That's the first that's the first thing believe is the following so if you have your bibles turn with me to John 1 You don't have your Bible's coming here.
I'll pray for you real quick. I'm kidding. It's it's on the screen I'm just kidding, but we're gonna talk about We're gonna start in John chapter 1 verse 35 it says the next day John was back in his post with two disciples Some translational say John's two disciples. How many of you know that John is the forerunner for Jesus, right?
So these two disciples he's spending time with them. He's teaching them everything. He knows he's getting them ready Right? He's the forerunner for Jesus and it says two disciples who are watching There and they're at the Jordan bath housing.
I'm sure he looked up saw Jesus walking nearby and said here He is everyone say here is God's Passover lamb the two disciples heard him and went after Jesus The two disciples heard him and went after Jesus Because John knew and taught them that Jesus was coming right and yet remember when John says I must decrease so he might he can increase Yeah, this is a picture right here is he's saying there he is. That's the God and guess what they do Gone why because he's the one John's pointing to him and he's the one that need to be following So it says here is God's Passover lamb the two disciples heard him and went after Jesus Jesus will go over his shoulder and said to them What are you after? They said rabbi which means teacher. Where are you staying next slide?
He replied come along and see for yourself They came saw where he was living and ended up staying with him for the day. It was late afternoon when this happened All right, y'all I don't know if you gives this read what I read but they just got to hang out with Jesus for a whole day Like a whole day He's like come on. Let me show you and they get to hang out with him man what I would do to have that opportunity It says he said he said come Saw where he was living and ended up staying with him for the day It was late afternoon when this happened Andrew Simon Peter's brother Was one of the two her John's witness and followed Jesus the first thing he did after finding where Jesus lived? What do you do the first thing he did?
Was find his own brother Simon telling him we found the Messiah The first thing he did went told his brother. We found the Messiah I got to tell you a quick story real quick. This reminded me when I was so funny back when I was in the home We would like you know in our rooms We'd be in a room at a certain time and we could sit and you know talk to each other Todd will probably know what I'm talking about this was so funny and one of the guys that was with me he said He said man, it was crazy until I you know I found I found God and we started busting out laughing We're like you found God You're on to something if you found God then like we could really do something here You found God and we laugh for probably two and a half hours It was it sounds so stupid, but it was just so funny because he said we found him and it made it brought me back to that Because they're like we found the Messiah We found the one that they were talking about oh man. It was so funny and it said we found the Messiah That is Christ He immediately led him to Jesus Jesus took took one look and said you are John's son Simon from now on your name is Cephas or Peter, which means rock You guys hear what I said?
He said Your name is Cephas or Peter, which means rock so to understand in biblical times here what he's doing to change someone's name It was like you were kind of taking like control over them So he sees he sees Peter for the first time and and if you guys read your Bible then you would know how important Peter is He calls him rock you'll be the rock and he ends up being the rock for the 12 apostles I'll tell you that Going on to the next verse it says the next day Jesus decided to go to Galilee remember there catch that for me This is all happening. It says the next day. They're going to Galilee So they're not in Galilee what we just talked about so it says the next day Jesus decided to go to Galilee When he got there he ran across Philip and said come follow me Philip's hometown Was Bethesda or probably butchered at the same as Andrew and Peter Philip went and found Nathaniel and told him We've found the one Moses wrote of in the law the one preached by the prophets It's Jesus Joseph's son the one from Nazareth the fan who said Nazareth you've got to be kidding me But Philip said come see for yourself other translations say that he's like Cumberland What what good can come from Cumberland? And he's like I don't have all the answers come and find out yourself I thought that was so funny because he's just like hey come and find out So this is this is the first account of the call We need to understand here that this account and John is much earlier than Matthews Which we're about to read about here in a second and John chapter two just just right after this And this is not up there just follow with me It says starting in verse one and two it says the next day there was a wedding Celebration in the village of Canaan and Galilee Jesus mother was there and Jesus and his disciples were also invited to the celebration So right there right off the bat it tells us that they are now followers Right and if you remember in the wedding celebration is where Jesus turns water into Help me somebody he turns water into Okay, so he's starting to show signs right So they believe and they become believers right followers at this point Okay so Obviously there was some time between Jesus goes and he changed water into wine He's done a couple other things and we're gonna jump to Matthew here in just a second Just so we're we're on the same page who is who is called in this first John we have Andrew Peter Philip and Nathaniel we all on the same page Okay, all right Now let's go ahead to the next slide and go back The call is about to increase We're about to jump to Matthew now and as you see here says follow me and I will make you So the first one is the call to believe the call to follow Matthew chapter 4 if you have your bibles starting in verse 18, and I'm gonna switch it up and go to the amplified version I know right.
Oh my gosh. I'm slipping What you say it's growth. Hey increase It says as Jesus was walking by the sea of Galilee. He noticed two brothers Simon who was called Peter and Andrew his brother casting a net into the sea for they were fishermen And he said to them everyone say follow me And the amplified version says as my disciple Accepting me as your master and teacher and walking the same path of life that I walk You guys hear that it says and walking the same path of life that I walk I Will make you fishers of men Come on somebody I Will make you fishers of men All right next slide says immediately they left their nets and followed him becoming his disciples Believing and trusting in him and following his example and going on further from there He noticed two other brothers James the son of Zebedee and his brother John in the boat with their father Zebedee Mending their nets and he called them to follow him as his disciples Immediately they left the boat and their father and their father and followed him Becoming his disciples believing and trusting in him and following his example.
I will make you fishers of men Immediately, so do you see how from the first from in John they become followers? And then when he comes across and you I don't know if you caught it or not But they were with Jesus remember they were hanging out with him. They were with him He was doing stuff He was with them at the wedding turn water in a while I'm probably doing some really cool stuff and and then we jump to Matthew And what were they doing again? So one person said it how they get back to fishing?
Interesting it doesn't tell us. I wish it did I believe I studied it I studied it I studied but what I did know and realized that in that time in biblical culture then that if you remember Andrew was a fisherman right and he was an apostle of or he has a disciple of John and they were doing ministry said He was with John so Andrew was still a fisherman. So guess what he was doing Ministry and his day job You'll catch up he was on both and I just want to encourage you today I don't know if you know this or not, but hey you can do both You can walk your calling out and you can be a teacher a doctor I don't know what you do a golf instructor if you are wanting let me know I need some help But you can do all of these things and still walk your calling out. You didn't call you to quit your day job They were doing both.
Yeah, that's why I like to hear yeah So I thought that was super cool when you started to show me these tiny little things That I think when we we just read this we overlook it But again if we put the gospels together it really starts to tell a full picture of what was going on So yeah, all right, so we got I will make you fishers of men Did you notice? Andrew Peter James and John they were fishing Andrew Peter Philip in the annual first Add in some people different people right? We all on the same page. I just I'm trying to help us here I'm trying to help us see the progression of the call that it's different.
It's a little bit different so Matthew and Mark are parallel But John comes before and Matthew and Mark come before Luke And you're really going to put together the progression of the call and I hope that it hit you like it hit me I'm looking at some people and they're like they're like on cross-eyed only So hopefully this is all coming together So they're already disciples of Christ and you're going to see here It says Jesus was walking and Matthew says Jesus was walking beside the sea and those two brothers casting their nets into the sea So they were in their boats obviously right? All right, you're falling with me all right Next slide What do you call do again? increased From now on So if you will jump with me to Luke chapter 5 Starting in verse 1 and I use the new all y'all gonna shake all up I use the new living translation here. Yeah, I'm trying to touch with everybody today I don't even want it's not gonna David.
I'm sorry, but I don't have any these and thousand here for you You're a new King Jameser. I'm sorry or King James Starting in verse 1 and Luke it says one day as Jesus was preaching on the shore of the Sea of Galilee Great crowds pressed in on him to listen to the word of God Tune into this one with me. He noticed Two boats at the water's edge where the fishermen had left them and were washing their nets So they were in the boat and Matthew Not in the boat here boats were empty And it says stepping into one of the boats Jesus as Simon its owner to push it out into the water So we set in the boat and taught the crowds from there When he had finished speaking he said to Simon now go out where it is deeper and let down your nets to catch some fish Go out where it is deeper and let down your nets to catch some fish Master Simon replied we worked hard all last night and didn't catch a thing But if you say so, I'll let them that's down again Master did you notice he called him master? But if you say so, I'll let the nets down again and this time And this time come on Yeah, someone's gonna help me today and this time their nets were so full of fish they began to tear a Shout for help brought their partners in the other boat and soon both boats were filled with fish And on the verge of sinking when Simon Peter realized what had happened He fell to his knees before Jesus said oh Lord Please leave me.
I'm too much of a sinner to be around you For he was all struck by the number of fish they had caught and were the others with him I'll keep going his partners James and John the son of Zebedee were also amazed Jesus replied to Simon don't be afraid Say with me church from now on you'll be fishing for people. I don't know if you just caught it But the complete switch just happened From now on the final call. I don't know what you want to call it You can you can call what you want? But it was a call to believe the call increase and said I will make you and he said from now on And you know Peter Peter was a disciple right he was a follower.
He's a believer in all of this and what do we do sometimes? He's all right listen. Don't forget guys. He's already seen him turn water in a wand.
He's seen a lot of these things He's like hey cast your net out Master I've been doing this all night as I don't know what you've been doing all night But he's saying cast your net out and when he cast it out it was so full and Peter drops to his knees Turn from like like do you do you understand what Peter's doing? He does what a lot of us do guys. We've seen God works so much in our lives I believe Fred's talked about last week where you catch that fire as a new believer, right? And you're just like yeah, and then you just back here and then he walks back in he's like hey come on follow me And you're just like all right, and it's like he continues.
Here's another thing I learned he continued to pursue him Guess what he didn't do I'm gonna get tired of cumber. I'm gonna go to PA and find some real fishermen You hear what I said? He went back Come on He intensified the call did you did you are you seeing it church? He's intensifying the call that he's calling the disciples He's saying hey, this is great down here.
You believe now. Let's step it up. That's intensified this I you have the best teacher and this is probably my I'm going to Peter because he sees Jesus as a carpenter or a craftsman You know whatever you want to call it, and he is the professional fisherman That's gotta be challenging. I'm short to some extent you got a guy that don't know what he's talking about But you've seen him do something that doesn't you can't even explain and he's just like I'm sorry master He says hey from now on give me someone from now on Listen, it's all right.
It's all right from now on You're gonna fish. I was I will make you into this from now on you will do this You have what it takes you follow me. You've seen me. It's okay.
Get up follow me and Man, I'm gonna teach you I'm gonna teach you now. You're gonna fish for him Do you see what the master's doing? He's saying? Fishing for people and as soon as they landed y'all read us with me they left everything and follow Jesus All right, the two people that caught it y'all clap.
I'm excited for you And you'll see that I'm not gonna spend too much time on it because I want to land this plane on time But right talked a little bit about it last week where you know he restores Peter, right? And he refocuses and gets him back to remember in his call and in that the the translat The great translations of the word that he uses follow me there is you're it's it's a command It was an invitation at first. You see me and then it's the Peter follow me You see the difference there invitation follow me And I think you'll continue to see throughout this that he just continues to increase Increase increase like he's all about increase and it says everything what you'll really you'll Want you to realize that everything here is what I believe is that this this moment is when Peter really Surrenders it all right this He's not going to continue to go back to fishing this time Did y'all hear what I said like this time? It's I'm all in like everything and don't get confused I know if you got some fact checkers in here.
Yeah after Jesus is crucified Peter's like hey I'm going back to fishing Yeah, we learned about that and obviously again in that time remember that I said way back from the beginning and if you even remember It said he left a father so some family or something Continued on the business. I'm sure it's not like Peter had to go back and and buy a boat and buy a net All that stuff. It was probably already available to him But do you see what I'm saying? It says this time everything everything That's the nets following but this time guess what they left the nets the boats everything the nets the boats Everything and listen guys today.
I feel like God is just really late in my heart to show you the progression the increase of the call And I'm not here to pass judgment on no one but I believe what he wanted me blade to some of my heart to say is Where are you at in the call? Here what I said at the beginning we're all called Where are you at? Are you spending time with Jesus? And then going back to fishing and then when he comes follow me and get excited again Are you accepting the progression of the call?
When he's saying follow me hey listen that was great You believe in me now and the guys there are so many things I wanted to touch on there is The thing you know about a big tree like there's so many things I want to touch on for you to understand like How he did even more things but I believe I showed you enough that he showed them who he was and they said I believe and then he steps him up Says follow me and that second one is so important because he says I will I will make you I Have a feeling there might be some people in here that you might have stopped following him and started following yourself Because he said I will make you fisher of men I will teach you to fish for men for women and I feel like that second call is so crucial you believe great But did you answer the call? Did you answer a call for him to say hey let's intensify the the cypal shift? It's got to get greater because guess what we're doing Fish is cool Your livelihood you made money don't it we're fishing for people now. It's a different fishing that you got to do It's a different lore you got to use you do you hear what I'm saying?
It's a whole nother catch y'all It takes a lot more to reel in the bigger fish you know what I'm saying? So he says we went from doing that to this and guess what you're gonna have to do in this in this section Follow me Do you all remember he's he's the way the truth in the life right? And and they had the greatest man to ever walk on this planet to model an example to them what it was The fish and never how does that keep the day job? I love that he chose fishermen.
I just think it's so awesome He just you know I mean it's like like one of those just rand on yeah But guess what you know what else I saw in this and I don't know don't beat me up, but he took hard-working people And what they were doing and used what they knew how to do and just said follow me And I'm gonna show you and what you already know how to do you already have it in you I created you remember you already have it in you So whatever that you're doing I'm gonna teach you to fish for people and the thing that you were doing and man I'm like he didn't say follow me and I'm gonna teach you religion don't get mad at me all He said follow me and I'm gonna teach you how to fish for men People were important in this y'all That's how I think they're getting it. Hey people are important if you didn't know and then he said Right Yeah, listen I was going through I was gonna play a video for y'all because I can't imagine you play sports your whole life and from a young kid You're like could you imagine getting that call to the greatest like it doesn't get any higher than that? It doesn't go any further you made it. I can't imagine getting that phone call hey And I think it was the Tennessee talking I just use it because it was blue on the John's fan and I knew that Jesus wasn't gonna play for the Steelers So I didn't even bother Because that's who y'all need to call forgive me.
Oh you ain't sliding babies fans y'all need Jesus too, but Could you imagine getting that call? Like hey come play for us and I don't know if you guys know today But Jesus is doing that to you you say hey come to the highest level of this because I choose you to do this I've equipped you to do this the highest level that you can be called to the the creator of the universe said hey Whitney I choose you come come be a part of my team Let's do it and listen, you know what's so cool about that too This is a quarterback just played in multiple different leagues and guess what they got to do In the big leagues. It's a faster game. They got to relearn everything But guess what they're gonna do follow me follow me So he steps up air and gets the final call so God increases our call is that everything?
Called into full time the cycle ship The final call and this is what got laid on my heart this morning Why was that playing at fitness because I couldn't sleep y'all I'm in there getting it and he said to experience the life We were called to the way it was meant to be experienced we have to respond to life the way he taught us I'm gonna say it again to experience the life. We were called to the way it was meant to be experienced We have to respond to life the way he taught us So remember they were following him and he's he's stepping them up. All right. See a little more now do this He taught him the whole way and I don't know where you're at y'all.
I do not know where you're at with this But I'll say this if Jesus is teaching you and you're following him He's giving you everything you need Listen everything that you need To walk out the call on the purpose that he's placed on your life and if you'll keep your eyes focused on him I'm telling you right now that increase that progression will take place in your life And you'll get to a place where I believe I'm gonna close with with one of the greatest people to be called But you'll get to a place do I think walk in that freedom we have that final understanding that Peter had member when he's like I'm sorry Right, you're gonna get to that place to be able to walk this thing out and confidence And complete confidence of who he is because the the greatest teacher of all time taught you and you should never take your eyes off of him Never even when we messed up. He restored Peter. He said Peter follow me And guess what Peter knew and I wonder today how many people were sitting in here like I said it maybe stop and he's saying follow me Come on follow me What's it gonna take for you to get back up and say all right? I'm gonna follow you God.
Maybe maybe religion did get in the way I said that guys, but I mean it religion You know what religion always has more rules than God And if you want to know how to walk and do what Jesus did The word tells us and shows us everything that he did and I don't know about you What all we got to do is follow Aren't you glad that he just said hey follow me and you know what that really that means that means like Literally he's saying he I'm gonna use you but you always get me stretch arm strong, but it literally means to fall in mind and follow Thank you. Amen. Listen the phones call him someone's calling But guys, you know when it gets difficult it can only get difficult when we're not following him You ever hit places when you're like all right God I need you where you at where you at? That should be the biggest and simplest red flag that you must have stepped out of line and you ain't following him Thank you father that you lead us that you guide us Next slide This is I did have to throw the message translation back in here It's that eight and ten in Luke it says Simon Peter when he saw it fell to his knees before Jesus master leave I'm a sinner and can't handle this holiness Leave me to myself When they pulled in the catch of fish and all Overwhelmed Simon and everyone with him.
It was the same with James and John's every son co-workers with Simon Jesus said to Simon There is nothing to fear everyone say nothing For now on you'll be fishing for men and women They pulled their boats up to the beach left left them nets and all and followed them All right, well, you can go ahead come up if you will Go to the next slide for me boom. Oh, no. No, yeah, so Remember how I started off at the NFL draft at the call? Well, the very last pick of the draft is called mystery relevant.
It's a neat name. I know it's kind of interesting But guess what even though they were last they still got picked And you know some of those as you'll see on the scene in the screen went on to do great things For great players Opportunity and there's one guy that was called One guy that was called that I want to close with because you can't I don't think you can really talk about it without him. It was the apostle Paul I'm not gonna get into the the calling of You don't believe the the calling of the posses are still I'm not gonna get into all that but you remember the Damascus road right then encounter with Paul You know it said to be that Paul was the last one that's called The next slide for me and this touched my heart this week And I ain't trying to take anything out of context, but I just kind of want to tie this in it says in Romans 8 38 and 39 the message translation reads none of this phases us because Jesus loves us I'm absolutely convinced Do you remember Peter? Like I get it now Paul said I'm absolutely convinced church That nothing all right.
I'm gonna say it until y'all say it with me nothing. I need it one more time nothing Oh Living or dead this is gonna shake some of you up angelic or demonic today or tomorrow Short little short little input there nothing about your past is brought up. I'm gonna leave that alone It says high or low thinkable or unthinkable Thinkable or unthinkable are you all reading the same thing that I'm reading here? Absolutely nothing Can get between us and God's love because of the way that Jesus our master has embraced us Someone please we stand with me today church Also, Paul also said in 1 Corinthians 11 imitate me as I imitate Christ Remember John point them to Christ see oh understood.
It's about him. It's not about us guys. It's about him Like I said earlier, I don't know if maybe you've gotten away and you stopped following Christ I don't know if you're in P. We league.
I don't know if you're in the P. We's You know you're getting into like high school college Or you're in the big leagues and you need to be reminded I don't know where you're at today But I want to encourage you I saw that when we realize he is everything We will leave everything and follow him Nothing can get between his love for us You guys do you understand what I what he's saying there? When they saw everything The miracle was great. Oh the loads of fish was great, but when he saw that he was everything Left everything so I don't know today guys But if you if you will see that he's everything you will leave everything and follow him