Summer of Fishing Part 2

Hello, and welcome to the Salt Church Podcast. Thank you for tuning in to this week's message. Join us as we explore God's Word, providing practical teaching for day-to-day living. The message you are about to hear was recorded live at our Sunday morning worship experience. If you would like to learn more about Salt Church, please visit us at saltchurch.

org. We hope that you are encouraged by today's message. So, my encouragement for you today, as we go into this message, is go fish. Go fish. So, last week, we dealt with the concept of going and fishing, what it really means to fish, and this week, we're going to talk about how to fish, and there's one word that comes up quite a bit, both in the Old Testament and the New Testament.

There's actually two places that I want to talk about today when we talk about going and fishing. Go fish, and that's wisdom. When we go fish, we need to have wisdom. I just think of the fishing wisdom that, you know, I can picture a dad and his son out on a boat, on a pond, and talking through life, and talking through the points of what it means to live out life, you know, those wise points that a father gives a son as they're fishing. Because what better way and what better place to do that is when you're fishing.

So, Jesus is giving fish and wisdom, giving wise fishing wisdom. In Proverbs, but in the Old Testament, we see wisdom used when we talk about reaching people and winning souls. It says, the fruit of the righteous is a tree of life. A tree of life. I love that word, life.

Life-giving. A tree of life. Back in the Old Testament, we see that there was a choice between the tree of the knowledge of good and evil and the tree of life. And the fruit of being right, being made right in God, walking out our righteousness is a tree of life. And he who wins souls is wise.

And then Paul talks about it in the New Testament to the Colossians church in 4, verse 5 and 6. He says, be wise in the way you act towards outsiders. Be wise in the way you deal and have conversations with those who aren't in the fellowship. What does that mean? Well, don't go out and tell them they're going to hell, right?

Because you're going to hail, you know. You need to get right. You think about those street corner preachers, you know, when I was out in college. You had them like kind of in the mall area when you're walking by and they're preaching, hail, you know, fire and brimstone. And everybody's kind of like on the sides picking on these people, you know, because they're just not getting through it.

That's, you know, got to be wise. Maybe it's true. Maybe the theology, you know, hell yes, it's a real place, you know. And that's why we're so desperate to help people find Jesus because we don't want people to go to this place of eternal separation from God. We don't want them to go there.

We're passionate about that. But we're also wise in the way we act towards other people and we make the most of every opportunity. I want to talk about that opportunity. So let your conversations be always full of grace, not condemnation. Let it be full of grace.

We should always sway or weigh on the side of grace when we're talking to people. Let your conversations always be full of grace, seasoned with, and there's one of my favorite words, salt, right? It is to be seasoned with salt, preserved with salt, endured with salt, tastes. The taste is added to it so that you may know how to answer everyone. Always be ready, yes.

Have an answer for the hope that lies within us. And there's three ways, there's three things we can pull from this particular scripture. How are we to be wise? Well, we can be wise in our moment, in our moments, in those opportunities. Here's what God does.

And you need to be aware of this every day when you walk out your door, when you go to work, or whatever you're doing. As God is in the habit of creating divine intersections. We call them divine appointments, if you're the Christianese language, you know. Divine appointments in which we connect with people on a daily basis. And it's no mistake, because God is always working.

And when we go out the door, as I shared with you last week, we need to pray every day as we go out the door, God, give me an opportunity. Give me a divine appointment. Give me an opportunity. Let me take hold of that opportunity. Be wise with that opportunity, yes.

But take hold of that opportunity to share something good with somebody. The best news of their life. So we should be praying for those opportunities, creating these moments. In fact, Psalm 37, 23, the King James Version says, The steps of a good man are ordered by the Lord. What does that mean?

God's involved in every step you take every day. So when you went out yesterday afternoon to go to the grocery store to get some food, because you opened up your cupboard and there wasn't anything there, right? I need to go to the grocery store. In your mind, I'm going to the grocery store, and I'm making that happen, and I'm taking those steps towards the grocery store, right? That's the way we think.

I need food. But God is ordering those steps. It's not you that's ordering those steps. God is ordering those steps. It's no mistake that you had to go to the grocery store, which, you know, makes it a silly example, I know.

But I'm using the silliest of examples so that you understand that God orders absolutely every part and every order of our steps. And then that guy that you always see in the grocery store that's always talking to you and always sharing all their stuff with you, and you're like, I'm in a hurry because I've got to get home, and I've got to do this, and I've got to do that. Those are divine intersections. So maybe take those opportunities and pray for those opportunities and be aware of those opportunities so that we can share with others. Proverbs 16, 9 says this, In his heart, a man plans his course.

We do that, don't we? We plan our course in our heart. We're thinking, well, I've got my goals, and I've got my plans, and I've got my strategies for today, for tomorrow, for the week, for the months ahead. I've got these things lined up. But the Lord determines his steps.

So in our moments, we need to be very aware of what God is doing. And if you're following your notes, there are just a few things of how to do that. A few things I want to state. First of all, be intentional in every relationship. Be intentional in every relationship.

What if we saw our relationships, even the ones we don't like too much, what if we saw them as if God was being involved, if God was directly involved in those relationships, whether it's the waiter at the restaurant, you know? I use that example because I think Christians can misrepresent Christ a lot when we're in restaurants. She's not serving me. This plate's dry, or this plate's too hot, or this plate's too cold, or whatever. And we get angry.

You know, sometimes we need to step back and think about what we're saying and what we're doing, you know? So, you know, am I representing Christ in a way I should? Or when, you know, it's no accident that you bump in, you know, you head to the mall that day and you bump into that person that you haven't seen in years. Man, this could be an opportunity for me to just fellowship with this person, you know? John Maxwell said this, he makes a list of ten people that he intersects with often.

I think everybody in here has those people in your life that you intersect with quite a bit. Not even intentionally, you just intersect with them. You see them in your neighborhood or you see them at the store. You go to a movie and there they are, you see them all the time. And you have those people in your life that you intersect with quite often.

And he makes, he suggested this, that we make a list. And I read this and I thought about the list of the people that I intersect with incredibly often, you know. And I don't have that list. I never made that list. And he makes that list and he prays for those people.

So maybe that's something we could do as believers. Just kind of make a list of people that we often see that we want to pray for. Or maybe somebody who's far from God. Maybe somebody who's in some kind of distress or kind of troubled times. Or maybe they're doing well in life.

You know, maybe they're that neighbor that seems like everything's going well for them. But you want to pray for them because they may not know Christ. Or you just feel led by the Spirit. They're on your heart to pray for them. So we need to pray for those people.

And then, then Maxwell says this, and then he finds their spiritual spot. If you're following your notes, that second one is find their spiritual spot. What do I mean by spiritual spot? Every person has a place that they are most sensitive to. If you're talking or having a conversation with somebody.

I think my father-in-law is probably the most perfect example of this. He sells insurance and he's incredibly good at it. But he's not just a salesman. He really does care about people. And he says he loves his job because he sells life insurance.

And he works with a lot of school teachers and stuff. And he realizes the importance of having life insurance because people really need it. So he really does care about people. But I'll tell you, he can find any connecting point with anybody. He knows everything about everything in the world.

And he can connect with anyone. I mean, he's talking to me. He hasn't been on a surfboard his entire life. And he's telling me about, you know, when he comes over, he's talking, you know, pro surfers and different things going on. And I read about this or I saw this.

And it's just, he finds that place, that sensitive spot, and connects with them. Some of you salespeople probably know that. You know, you've been taught that. You need to find that place, that place that you can connect with somebody. But there's a spiritual reality to that, too.

Because people, not an emotional place, but a spiritual spot. Not an emotional spot, but a spiritual spot. Usually this is family, or mothers and fathers, or kids, or parents. There's this spot. We can connect with people in our relationships.

And it's a story. We share a story about a spot that you found and shared with someone. You know, you connect with someone. You connect with someone on those levels. I've got a neighbor that lives across the street.

I'm not going to say his name, because some of them may. You may know him, and I don't want to embarrass him or anything. But he is like, he's got the perfect grass, man. I just stare at his grass all the time. I'm driving by.

I'm like, how in the world does he have this great grass? And he's always, he's retired military. And he's out there on his grass. I don't know what he even does. I mean, he's got this little thing down there, and he's always, you know, walking around, picking stuff off the grass.

And he's just got this perfect loan. It looks like a carpet. I mean, he's just, and he, and I made it, even though it seems like he has it all together, and everything's going great. I mean, he's retired. He's got his camper.

You know, he's got this big camper. You know, he takes all over the place. And one thing I knew I could connect him with, and this is a really spiritual spot for us, who are from North Carolina. He is a Tar Heels fan. Okay?

And I'm a Tar Heels, blue blood, Tar Heel, born bread. Love the Carolina Tar Heels college basketball, in case you guys, you football people here from Virginia don't know about that. We own basketball in North Carolina. So we take pride in that, because we don't have football. So we hide behind our rocker when football season comes in.

But we love our basketball, and he has Tar Heel plastered all over everything. His license plate says Tar Heel fan. I mean, just, and I found that spot, and we talked and talked and talked and talked. And he's coming down the road. I'm just like, man, you know, we need to get together when basketball season comes in.

And yeah, I know, man, it's going to be awesome. We'll get together and just kind of form this fellowship. I found a spiritual spot there, right? But more than that is, while we were talking about basketball, I just kind of asked him, well, how is life treating you, man? And he started sharing.

Well, my mom's been sick for a while. And I've been down in Winston-Salem a lot, in North Carolina, and been going back and forth. And my dad passed away about three months ago. And it was a sudden passing. And I'm like, oh, my goodness, really?

I didn't know about this, you know? And I found that spot, that connect. And right there, I found a way to minister to this man, to minister to this man. And I was able to comfort him and pray with him. And we're simply just casting seeds, you know?

He says he goes to church. I don't see him in church. He's out in his yard when I'm heading to church. He's out in his yard when I go home. I don't know.

So I'm not passing judgment. He may go to church or whatever. But all I know is I'm casting seeds. And like I mentioned last week, we don't catch. We fish, right?

God does the catching. We are fishers of man, not catchers of men. And we're passing seeds, seeds, like fly fishing, you know? I've never fly fished. I've got to try that sometime.

Yeah, it looks really fun. But we're casting seeds. So find that spot, that spiritual spot. And thirdly, add value to them. Add value to people.

People want value. They have needs. Everyone has needs. All of you business people and psychologists and different ones here probably know Maslow's hierarchy of needs. Had to learn that.

In business school, we talked about it over and over and over again. And Psychology 101 is pretty much what it is. And this concept is actually really good. It may be a business concept or a psychological thought or theory. But it actually is spiritual in nature because people have needs.

And I kind of use my own wording. You know, you have your physiological needs. Those are the first level of needs. People need food. People need water.

People need those things, you know? That's why we serve people, right? There's people out there that have physiological needs that need to be met. July 15th at our church. When you show up July 15th, guess what?

We're not going to have church. We're going to show up and we're going to go back out. And we're going to meet some needs. And these are the kind of needs that people need. The first level of needs.

The first level of needs. Just basic things in life. And then we have love and affection needs. That's why I just kind of put them in my own words. The love and affection needs.

The love, relationships, appreciation. People need to be appreciated, right? And we fail at appreciating people all the time. And not that we don't want to. We, in our private times, we're like, I really appreciate that guy, but why not appreciate somebody in public sometimes, you know?

I appreciate you, I thank you, and I love you, and I respect you. And people need to know that. They need to be valued. They need to be respected in their opinions and their thoughts and things like that, and love and affection needs. And then you have those fulfillment needs.

It's kind of like the deepest level. I've kind of narrowed them down to three different categories. But the fulfillment needs, you have fulfillment needs. This is really, really, it gets down to. All those other needs are kind of, you know, relational and emotional needs, but this is where people really want to be.

People want purpose. People want significance. People want to have a calling. They can go through life. All the money in the world, all the vacations, all the friendships, all the accomplishments that people can achieve.

They will never find the fulfillment that they can only find in God. This is where it gets down to the deepest level. God is the fulfillment that people are looking for. God is the purpose that people are looking for. People want that.

And the only one that can give fulfillment is God, the one who created you, the one who created me for a purpose. We are created for a purpose. And we originally intended, human nature was originally intended to serve God and serve each other and have a purpose in this world. And God's bringing us back to that. 1 Corinthians 3, 6 in the Living Bible.

I love how the Living Bible says this. My work was to plant the seed in your hearts. This is Paul talking. His purpose. He knew his purpose is to plant that seed.

He's planting the seeds. He says, I planted. And Apollos, his companion in ministry, he watered. He watered. But it was God.

Not we. It was God. I may have planted the church. I may have started this ministry. I may be leading these people into doing this.

And Apollos, he may be a little deeper than me. He may take the, he's watering you. He's helping you grow and all that. But here's really where it goes down. But it was God, not we, who made the garden grow in your hearts.

God fulfilled you. Not Paul. Not Apollos. Not Pastor Leon. Not anybody in this church.

God is the one that is fulfilling the purpose in your life. We simply just provide the avenue, the pathway in order for you to find your purpose. God has that purpose designed for you. You've been made to be a specific, purposeful being. God made you that way.

And we need to find our purpose. And number two, second thing is we need to be wise in our manner. Our manner. Your mom ever told you to mind your manners? Well, God's telling you to mind your manners, too.

Because when you're with people, you need to have polite manners. We need to work on our manners when we're loving people, when we're reaching people. Matthew 5, 13 and 14, the message. I love how the message paraphrases this. Let me tell you why you are here.

You're here to be, there's that word again, salt. See, I'm using a lot of salt today. Salt seasoning that brings out the God flavors of this earth. Here's another way to put it. You're here to be light, bringing out the God colors in the world.

So, guess what? We need to be salt seasoning. That means we need to have manners. We need to watch our attitudes, right? We need to watch ourselves when we're around those that we may be ministering to.

Matthew 5, 16 says this in NIV. In the same way, let your light shine before others that they may see your good deeds. We don't do our good deeds just for us to say, hey, look, look at me. I'm good. You know, I'm doing this.

It's to glorify our Father in heaven. That's where real accomplishment comes from. That's where real purpose comes from. And people go through this world and they're doing good things and they're reaching, you know, people with physiological needs and fulfillment needs and all these other love and affection needs, but they still feel so lost because they've been doing it for their own good purposes. You know, like, let my light shine.

I want my light to shine because if I can do enough good in this world, I will have arrived. But they still come up empty in the end. You know why? Because it's not attached to the person who created them. Because it doesn't glorify the Father.

It glorifies the person. So if we want fulfillment, if we want satisfaction in this life, if we want life-giving hope, we do this through Jesus Christ, glorifying Jesus Christ in our good deeds. That's why we do it. That's why the church does what it does. That's why we do everything we can to minister to this community in every way we possibly can.

Not because we want to look good or we want Salt Church to like, hey, give Salt Church a hand. I mean, all that's great and everything, but man, it's about Jesus Christ. It's about who He is. So how do we do that personally in our lives? How do we let Christ's light shine?

And there's a few things we can do. First of all, make things better and brighter. If you're following your notes, make things better and brighter wherever you are, in your context. You know, if it's a rainy day, get up on a Monday, and you know you're going to go to work and everybody's going to be sad. Ah, we're at work today.

Guess what you could do? You could go pick up donuts for everybody. You know, you walk in with donuts in an office. I mean, I worked in an office for years, and you know, it's Monday, it's raining outside, and you walk in with donuts, man. The whole place is like, whee, yeah, hey, brother, you know.

Thank you. Everybody's gathering around, having a good time. You know, lighten somebody's lobe. Make their day happy. Bring your boss a gift, even if you don't like your boss, you know.

You're mad at them. Well, don't be mad at them. Conquer that with a gift, you know. Bring it in. I just appreciate you.

I know your job's hard. I appreciate you here, you know. Make the day bright and better. I had a mentor named Terry Mentor. That was his last name, no lie.

He was a pastor. He was one of my students, one of my, not students, my professors in seminary, and he was just, he would share all kinds of stories. He led a lot of churches and planted a lot of churches and things, and he talked about this one church he was at and how there was this sour, sour man. I think he was on his board, and he's been in a church for years, and he's leading this church, and he said, this man just was awful. He was always negative.

He was always, always had an attitude, and every time he talked to him, everything's down, and this and that. So, so Terry being who he is, one day the guy walked up to him, and Terry just, he had this bald head. This guy had, he said, just a bald head, and he walked up, and he knew what was going to happen when he asked him how he's doing, because he knew what he was going to say, and it was going to go downhill. So, he just grabs the guy, and guy's just that sour fruit look on his face, and I don't even think he likes Terry. He doesn't even think he should be pastor of the church, and he grabs that guy, bear hugs him, and just smacks him right on the head with his lips.

He's, you know, he said the guy just like, dude. He didn't know what to do. He just started smiling. It just made his day. And so, make the day better and brighter for somebody.

It doesn't matter where they are. Just make the day better and brighter for people. And number two, understand their world. Understand their world, because you don't know what they're going through. I've made that mistake over and over again with people, you know, leading people or working with people.

You know, why are they not finishing the project that I asked them to do? Why are they putting this out? Why do they have an attitude? You know, you think about those. You're going to have an attitude.

I want to have an attitude. You know, that's how we are, right? And we're going to attitude each other to death. But if we think about people and we respect people and understand where they're coming from, they respect you. And if we're going to minister to people, if we're fishing for people, we need to understand their world.

We need to have good conversations with people. Politics has really divided our nation big time. And it's as worse as I've ever seen it. I'm 39 years old, and some of you have been around a little longer than me, and maybe you've seen the ups and downs. But I don't think I've ever seen it worse than it's ever been as far as the divide in this country and how people are treating each other.

And nobody wants to sit down at the table anymore and just talk things out and understand each other. We just got these ideas. We need to understand each other, understand where each other is coming from. Whether you're right or I'm right, somebody may be right, more right than the other. But it's important for us to respect people and understand their world.

How do you think, you know, even about God subjects? What do you think about God? How do you see God? How do you see God? And, you know, when you sit down with people, I like to ask people, you know, that may have not been in church for a while or are trying to figure things out.

You know, what's your thoughts on the church? Because I want to know. Why aren't you in church? Why aren't you walking with God? What pulled you away from that?

And a lot of them would, you know, they'll share that stuff with me. Because I really want to understand where people are coming from. Why haven't, you know, what has affected their relationship with God? We want to know their side of the story. And a lot of those things are very legit, you know.

Well, the church hurt me a long time ago. I'm so sorry. I apologize if we've done that. It misrepresents Christ. But that's not what we're about.

That's not who the church really is. And we reach out to people. We understand their world. And thirdly, we show them, and this is most important, we show them unconditional love. We love them just because they're them.

Warts and all. I think of Zacchaeus in the gospel account. The wee little man, you know, that went up into the tree. Everybody that grew up in church knows the wee little man song. Zacchaeus was a wee little man, and a wee little man was he, you know.

Some of you people who haven't grown up in church are like, what the heck? You know, don't ever do that again, you know. I never heard of it. Well, there was this little man named Zacchaeus, and the Bible says he was short in stature, and he climbed up in a tree to see Jesus on the road because he wanted to know. He was a tax collector.

And people didn't like tax collectors in that day. They were awful people. They stole money from people. They were kind of like the IRS today, right? I mean, y'all were like, they're stealing money from me, right?

But it was a lot worse then because they had no accountability. And they would charge you more just to charge you more, and they were very wealthy people. And he crawls up in a tree just to see Jesus because he just wanted to see him and see who he was and hear him. Because the people were gathered around Jesus, and Jesus looks up in the tree and says, Zacchaeus, I know who you are. Come down from there because we're going to go, you're going to go cook me a steak.

And I'm going to hang out with you, and we're going to do some Jesus stuff, okay? We're going to get together. Because he loved him unconditionally. He didn't care about all of his past and all the things he's currently doing. He just simply wanted to have a relationship with Zacchaeus.

And what did Zacchaeus do? He became a follower of Christ. He gave half of what he had to the poor, and he gave back four times what he had stole from people. Why? Because of unconditional love.

Unconditional love. Are we loving people unconditionally? Right where they are, are we talking about them? Because Christians like talking about people. I can't believe he did that.

I can't believe she did that. I saw him the other day. I saw her the other day. You know, I can't. What's she wearing?

What's he doing hanging out there? You know? And we do that. We do that. I saw him at church.

And then the next day I saw him, you know, smoking a joint over at, you know, around the corner over at First Street. You know? We act like that. We do that. But we don't just love people where they are.

You got to give people a chance. You don't know their world. Go back to their world. Understand their world. Understand they're trying to get out of things.

They're still dealing with things. Don't be judgmental. Be respectful. Love people. Yeah, there's going to be a point where life change has to take place.

And Jesus does that. And we help in the process. But we don't make the change happen. God makes the change happen. You just simply need to love those people where they are.

They'll open up to you. They'll tell you. They'll be honest with you. Having pastor in front of my name doesn't keep people from telling me some things. I'm like, whoa.

I'm surprised you told me that. Down south they wouldn't say that. They'd just hide it. You know? They'll open up to you.

They'll open up to you. So we share unconditional love with people. 1 Corinthians 9.22 in the Living Bible says, Whatever a person is like, I try to find common ground with him so that he will let me tell him about Christ. And let Christ save him.

That's why we do what we do. We just want to find common ground with people so that they can have the hope that lies within us. Because that hope was intended for every single person on this earth. No matter their occupation. No matter the background.

No matter whether they're lying, cheating, stealing, thieving, whatever you want to call them, drug, whatever. You know? It doesn't matter. Their intention, God's intention for them is to have hope and have a relationship with them. And then lastly, our message.

Our message. Be general and be respectful with our message. Because here's the deal. You're not going to argue someone in heaven. You know?

Be gentle with your message. Be respectful with your message. You have a good message. We have the best hope in the world. We have good news.

We have the greatest news anyone could ever hear. But we also have to be respectful and gentle with that news. Because we want them to know it is good news. 2 Timothy 2, 23 through 25 in the New Living Translation says, Don't get involved in foolish, arrogant arguments that only start fights. How many of you have been there?

Foolish arguments that just start fights. The Lord's servant must not quarrel but must be kind to everyone. So when we're talking to people, that same talk I mentioned earlier. They must be able to teach effectively and be patient with difficult people. You got to be...

Difficult people are hard. I know. I know. I'm in the people business. You know?

People are just difficult. It's going to... They're going to be difficult. They'll hurt you. They'll slander you.

They'll do things instead. Be patient with them. Be patient with difficult people. They should gently teach those who oppress the truth. Gently teach them.

Don't get mad. Don't misrepresent Jesus. Gently teach them. Yeah, there's a time we want to be straight, we want to be strong, and we want to know our message, right? We want to have confidence when we're sharing our message, but we've got to be gentle with people as well because they come from a different background than you do, or they haven't experienced what you have experienced yet.

And perhaps God will change those people's heart, and they will believe the truth. So ultimately, there's a goal. If they see Jesus in you, if they see the gentleness that you share, the good news that you share in this gentle way, they will want to know the Savior that you have. So be gentle. 1 Peter 3, 15 and 16 says, But in your hearts, revere Christ as Lord.

Always be prepared to give an answer to everyone. That means, you know what that means? It means know your Bible. Be prepared to give an answer. Be prepared to give an answer.

You need to know your stuff. I'm not saying just be biblically ignorant, and just go around, you know, God is good, you know, whatever. You know, know your stuff. Know your stuff. Be prepared to give an answer because, especially in today's day, because people want answers, you know.

They want to know that you believe what you believe because it's, you know, it's legit, right? Be prepared to give an answer to everyone who asks you to give the reason for the hope that you have. So ultimately, you want, it's the hope that you have. It's not reasoning just for reasoning's sake. It's the hope that you have.

But do this with gentleness and what? Respect. Gentleness and respect. Keeping a clear conscience so that those who speak maliciously against your good behavior in Christ may be ashamed of their slander. Isn't that cool?

You'll actually make them ashamed of themselves because the Christ that's in you, the Holy Spirit that's in you, is working through you with gentleness and respect for others. And then they feel bad in the process. There's one version of the Bible that says that being kind to people actually places heaping coals on their head. They feel so bad about it, it's painful, right? Right?

We don't have to put the coals on them. They put the coals on themselves because we respond with kindness and respect. So when you're ministering to people, be respectful. Be respectful. And there's just a few things here in closing that we can do.

First of all, how do we share it? What do we share? We share, first of all, the hope that we have. The hope that we have. Share that we have the greatest news in the world.

That thing that you've been missing, we have. I heard Pastor Chris Hodges of Church of the Highlands in Birmingham, Alabama. I follow him quite a bit. He shared the story of playing golf with a pro golfer. Or he didn't share the name because he didn't want to embarrass the guy because I think the guy went to his church.

But he was playing golf and just kind of being a pastor. Not being a pastor, being a golf player. No pastor hat that day. Just playing with a group of guys. And he happened to be there.

And the guy kind of said, what do you do for a living? He's like, well, I'm a pastor. You know, it says pastors are like, oh gosh, here comes the like thing. You know, they're thinking about how many curse words they said on the golf course that day. You know, or when people hear that I'm a pastor, you know, they're like, oh man, what did I say in the world?

You know, did I say anything? Did I do anything? And he said, oh. So they just start the conference. So after the game, he says, the guy invites him into his car.

He says, I need to talk to you. He says, oh no, what did I do? Did I say something or do something, you know? And he sits down and he says, do you think God could save a person like me? And he starts sharing his life story, you know, about all this stuff that he's never told anybody in his life that he's done and been through.

And Pastor Chris just looks back and says, I love it. I've got the best news you're going to ever hear. You can, none of that stuff matters. Because Christ is our hope. Share the hope that you have.

Share your story. Share the good news with them. Secondly, share your church. You love your church, right? Amen?

I hope so. Share your church. Invite them to church. And, you know, some mornings I wake up and I pray, man, I pray that we don't have a bunch of church people here today. I want people that don't know the Lord to come because they're the ones that really, really, really need the hope.

No, I need church people too, guys. Come on. You know, we need the Christians here too to minister. But I want so badly to see more and more people that we've even already experienced over and over again come to the saving grace of Jesus Christ. People who don't know the Lord, who have no concept of church.

And here's just a commission to you from me. When fall comes, we're going to see a lot of people come back to church, right? When Christmas comes, you have opportunities to invite people to church. Your duty this year is to at least invite one completely unchurched person that's never been to church before in their life to come with you to church one Sunday. That's your goal this year.

Just one. Everybody in here. Just one person. Just one person. Just bring them to church.

Bring them to church with you. Let them sit with you. Take them out to eat afterwards, right? Yeah. I'll take you out to eat.

Just come to church with me. It's okay. You know? It's actually kind of easy. And we want to be a church.

Once a year, do that. We want to be a church that brings in completely unchurched people. That's why we do this. That's why we started a church. Church, we wanted people that were unchurched and de-churched and confused about Christ to be able to come in and say this Christ thing is not crazy.

It's actually real and have a life-changing experience. We wanted to be salt in this community. We want to be light in this community. And we want to do it with everything I spoke about today. Just loving people and sharing the gospel with people, which leads me to my last point.

We need to share Jesus Christ. We share our church, but we share Jesus. Because Jesus is the lifeblood of everything. The God-man. The one who came.

The one who shed his blood. The one who brings life. So I do that today. I share Jesus. If you're here today, like Pastor Chris said, I've got the best news that you can ever know.

It's that Jesus wants to have a relationship with you. If you've never given your life and heart to Christ. If you've never made that commitment to Christ. If you've never done that. Today is your day.

Today is the day where things start new and fresh. Nothing you've done in the past. Nothing you're going to even do in the future. Everything is covered by the blood of Jesus Christ. Share Jesus with people.

Share Jesus with people. Amen. So today my challenge is go fish. Go fish. Go out there.

Make a difference. Please make a difference. Don't be a closet Christian. Be a Christian. It is producing fruit.

The Bible talks about fruit. That's for another subject, another time, but we are to bear good fruit. Jesus is the vine, God is our Father, is our pruner, and we are the branches and we bear fruit. So go out and bear fruit. Amen.

Let's pray, all heads bowed and all eyes closed, as we end this service. God, we just thank you so much for your grace. What more could we do but go fish? Because we know, Lord, there is joy in fishing. It's not just something we do, but we find complete fulfillment in sharing what we have with others, the hope that lies within us.

So, Lord, give us the confidence, Lord. Give us the pursuit. Give us the motivation. Give us the hunger. Give us the thirst for righteousness, because it bears a tree of life.

Inspire us. Reach out to us and touch us, Lord Jesus. With all heads bowed and all eyes closed still, if there is anyone here today who has not given their lives to Jesus, would you make that commitment today? And I'm not going to embarrass you. I'm not going to make you come up to the front.

But I just, if that's you today, maybe you heard something in this message, something spoke to you today, and you're like, I'm ready to make that commitment. Pastor, if you'll just raise your hand, I just want to pray for you. Hallelujah, I see this. Hallelujah. Jesus, the Holy Spirit is moving.

The Holy Spirit is moving. Amen. Amen. Yeah, clap, clap, clap, because these people that just raised their hand today just made life decisions. If y'all will pray this with me, and this is really what it's about.

There's no magic in the prayer. It's just a commitment to Jesus. All it is is a commitment to Jesus. Jesus, I believe that you are the Son of God, that you died on the cross for my sin. You did all that.

You washed away my sin, Lord. Come into my heart. Come into my life. I make a commitment to you today. A relationship I desire with you, Lord.

Come and make your home in me. I love you, and I thank you, God. And I'm with you from this day forth. So, let's do this journey together, Lord, with you leading the way. Amen.

Amen. Praise God.