What’s in your Ice chest?

Posted Nov 27, 2012

How to Fish Series- What’s in your Ice chest? (Devotional 2)

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(Sermon outline excerpt of "Gone Fishing!" byJoe Alain)

SCRIPTURE: Mark 1:17-18

  Then Jesus said to them, "Follow Me, and I will make you become fishers of men."
18  They immediately left their nets and followed Him.

What's in Your Ice Chest?

“Could it be that maybe one reason some folks aren't too quick to see too many people coming into the church is the same reason some of us don't care if we catch too many fish at the lake? Fish are messy! If I catch a mess I have a mess to clean when I get home. It's much easier to just "wet my line" and sit a spell under the cypress tree, eat my sandwich and Twinkie, and sip on my Barges Root Beer. It doesn't take much effort to fish and not catch anything. But it does take some effort to fish like you really want to fill your ice chest.
The question for us is what kind of "fishers of men" are we? Are we content to practice casting our weighted line in the backyard? Or are we truly after some fish and will do whatever it takes to catch some? Of course it's easier to just "wet a line" and say we're fishing, and so the church today has mastered the art of fishing without ever really catching much. Instead of fishing for men and women we often busy ourselves by attending fishing seminars, telling fish stories, or fixing up the fishing camp (the church house), contented with the thought that because our tree appears green we must be fruitful, even though the evidence suggests otherwise. It has been a publicized statistic in my denomination that 70% of our churches are plateaued or declining. This begs the question, "Are we truly fishing or just wetting a line?" In many instances, our fishing today consists mainly of fishing for children of church members in the safe church pond or transferring fish from one church ice chest to another one down the street. Few churches are impacting the pagan pool and reaching their God — given potential!”(Joe Alain)

COMMENTS BY PASTOR GLEN:

 The time is short and now is the time to broaden our outreach and each follower of Jesus share with others outside of the church what you have experienced since you became a believer and active follower of Christ. God bless you as you accept this challenge and do it this week. Get ready to fish!! Ask God to direct you to some soul today. Charles Spurgeon a great evangelist  promised God that he would not sleep until he had spoken to some soul about Jesus. He was faithful to his word and presented these souls to Jesus. Is it any wonder that His preaching was anointed and touched multitudes of people?

PRAYER SUGGESTION: Dear Jesus help us to prepare to catch “fish” for you as fishers of men. Amen.

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