Cast Your Net part3

Scotch or bourbon, mix it all up, trade out pills and just get after it. Basically just have orgies during school holidays and after school. Now, oh, that doesn't happen in Keller and Southlake. You're wrong. You're wrong. You're deceived. Well, my kid goes to church and so do all the other kids that are at these parties. See, that's the problem. We're deceived. This gospel that we're preaching is not permeating, is not permeating our culture. We've all heard of the term streetwise, but how about the church term churchwise? We know how to lift our hands, pray our prayers. Yes, sir, ma'am, sir, whatever it is, sir. And all we do is— it's all a facade. It's bluff and bubble. There is no penetration of the soul with the true gospel. Everyone in Texas knows how to play the game. Everyone does. The gospel hasn't penetrated the hearts of men and women. It's like we're burnt over. It's like it's hard, tough ground. No more so does the verse apply to break up the fallow ground of the heart. This ground is not producing fruit, and the hearts are so hard, and they're so desperate for truth. I mean desperate. People are desperate for reality, and they go to church to church to church looking for it, and they just don't seem to be able to find it. Amen. You know, our Lord said, and, you know, we saw it there, Matthew 13:47. He said, again, the kingdom of heaven is like a net that was thrown into the sea and gathered fish of every kind. So the kingdom of God is like. In other words, the kingdom of God can be compared to. It can be, you know, it is a facsimile of. It has a substance. It's like a particular sort of thing. So the kingdom of God is like this. It says it's like a net. So we've got this net, but that's what the ESV calls it. Becky set up a little fire for me outside because it gets a bit stuffy in the shed. It's like a net. Now the ESV calls it a net, but the King James translates it a dragnet. A dragnet's very different. I've got a picture of a dragnet here for you. So imagine this is a fancy PowerPoint presentation. Sliding in. Or it could be the Ken's Burn effect. But see, that's basically a dragnet. It's a monstrous net. It's a huge net. Now the thing with a dragnet is, and that brings us to our first point, it says, and the kingdom of God is like a net that was thrown into the sea. A dragnet needs many people. Before you were saved, as I've said, the entire focus of every Christian you ever ran into should have been to see you won to Jesus Christ. Many people see not one person is responsible for a soul being saved. I, I got, I got saved or made a public, a particular public confession of my faith. on an altar call by a guy in Australia. And, you know, as I went on in ministry and did things, he'd often call me up and say, well, I led so-and-so to the Lord. You know, I get that, but that's actually not true. My first encounter with Christ was 9 years old at a Scottish Calvinist church where they would have a missionary Sunday and the missionary week, and this guy would come out from Scotland and he would preach a message. And all over the world this one week, all these preachers, missionaries would go out throughout the world and And they'd preach the gospel and call people to Christ. And at 9 years old, I remember surrendering my life to Christ. But then later on in high school, there was this weird hippie guy that'd come into something called the Interschool Christian Fellowship. And I'd go up there and he'd come in, take his sandals off and play guitars and sing songs. And one day after group, he said, why don't you stand back? And I stood back and he said, have you ever wanted to speak in the tongues of angels? I said, dude, that sounds awesome. I want to baptize in the Holy Ghost with the evidence of speaking in tongues. And you know, I know it'll ruin your theology and blah blah blah, whatever. But God did such an amazing work. I remember, you know, I don't know if I was saved or I wasn't saved. My theology tends to believe that I was saved from 9, but it was a slow process of drawing me into sanctification. I got filled with the Holy Ghost and spoke in other tongues. And then there was a mate of mine, Richo. at college who went away for a year, came back, and he was totally changed. But then it was my Mormon mate Ray Fuggle. You see, Ray Fuggle and I would go every Sunday church hopping all around Sydney, going to a church. And I remember responding and going down to an altar in this little Spanish church in Sydney where no one spoke any English, and this elder translated for me. And I remember sobbing my way through service. And then my mate Richo and I went down to this altar call in Sydney And, and I remember being so radically touched by what was said. Now, now, that was the end process of a process. But many people were involved in bringing me to Christ. And you can't discount whatever it is that you do to help someone collide with Jesus Christ. And you can't discount the role that you must play, that you must in some way Passionately, decidedly, and dedicatedly get after presenting the gospel to people that need to know it. You know, no one leads someone to Christ, I believe. I believe the Holy Ghost does. The Holy Ghost is responsible for drawing all men to himself, but we just have the privilege of playing, of playing a role in that. So let me come to the second part of this, this verse. It says, and like a net, it's thrown into the sea and gathers many fish. It's thrown into the sea. See, if you bring someone to church, it's a culmination, as I've showed, of many people's touches. It takes many people to throw the net. Many people are involved. Even, even on church on Saturday night, even tonight when we're doing it, there's someone watching the internet. There's someone who's prepared the offerings. There's someone who's posted it up. There's someone who's taken some cell phone off some kid somewhere. You're supposed to be listening to church and Pastor John. All those things are happening. Church on a Saturday night, they've got people cleaning things, doing things. Everyone gets involved. Many people throw a net. You know, I had a mate of mine. He used to live in the area and he used to often have a barbecue and he'd get a whole bunch of guys around and they'd all sit around and they'd have a beverage of their choice, smoke a cigar and And the one commonality about them, there was 2 groups. He'd either get pastors there or he'd get business guys that are just ticked off with the church, guys that are totally disenfranchised. Now, he was disenfranchised with the church as well. So he'd gather all these people to him and then he'd throw me in amongst them. See, he would gather them and I would help him draw in the net. And one of my dear friends, he's been a friend now for about 5 years, a really good friend, was at one of these particular meetings. And for the first 20 minutes of meeting this guy, man, he was into every pastor he ever hated, every building fund he ever went to, the denominations he listed them. La la la la la. You know, I mean, seriously into it. And then he finally took a breath and asked me what I did, and I said I was a pastor. And you should have seen his face. I said, don't worry about it, mate. I feel exactly the same way pastors, but I said, I also feel the same about business people. They sort of screwed me over as we go. So We sat there swapping stories about all that sort of stuff. Now we're still close, close, close friends, great buddies, hang out a lot, still arguing over theology and the things of God and wanting to change the world. But you see, my friend could not draw that particular net in. I could. I couldn't gather those people there, but I could talk to them in a way they could understand. He would be able to get them there, but he had no answer to them. He, he couldn't get past his own issues to present a pure gospel to them. I couldn't gather those men because I'm not that disenfranchised. I'm not that disenfranchised with life or church or business or whatever it was. But, but I could understand where they were coming from. I had great empathy for them. So we would all throw this net together and we would all gather this net together. The group I had problems meeting with was the pastors. I could never understand those guys. They They would never talk honestly with each other about what was going on, you know, and they were in so much desperate need. But still, you know, it takes a lot of people. Sorry, my finger's a bit cold. It takes a lot of people to throw a net. And if you're not actively throwing a net, I think you need to ask yourself why. Why aren't you building relationships with people? And why aren't you actively presenting the gospel? Look, the days are evil and times are short. Our nation's changing, the world is changing, and it's not for the better. I'm not, I'm not a doomsayer, but I'm a realist. You know, things have changed in the last 10 years in this nation. I've been over here 15 years. I was on the first plane. I've told many people this. We've been over here a total of 15, 16 years. I was on the first plane out of Australia after 9/11. I wanted to be here. And there was a junction in this nation where there was an opportunity for God to do something. And it lasted about 9 months. And then people forgot. They forgot what had happened. They forgot what God had delivered them from. They forgot God in the midst of it all. And it was an absolute tragedy. Absolute tragedy. And so here we are, we sit today and it's like people have lost sight of God. So we've got this verse and Jesus says, the kingdom of heaven is like a net. It was thrown into the sea and gathered fish of every kind. So this huge net is thrown by a whole bunch of people and it's thrown out into the sea. It's thrown out into the population. It's thrown out in there and it's pulled in by many people. And it says it gathers fish of every kind. Now, my personal example is my friend could gather them, but he couldn't talk to them. I could talk to them, but I couldn't gather them. You know, I had another friend, a local pastor, and he would run one of these regional pastors meetings, and he'd always invite me to meet these guys, and, you know, I'd go. But honestly, I can't do that stuff anymore. I did it for years, and I just don't want to be there. They're not my fish. Like, these guys are standing around, and it's like, They're lying to each other. They're talking to each other about how awesome it is and how life's just awesome and they're awesome and they're more awesome than the guy down the road and the poor guy down the road who's not so awesome. Well, we're just praying and believing God for him, brother. And they're not. They're actively poaching the guy's sheep. They're not helping the fella. You know, I just can't stand that lack of authenticity. I can't catch those fish. My friend is very compassionate and very driven for helping other people in the ministry, and I'm just not. I just think these guys need to wake up to themselves and You know, stop kidding themselves. But, but I know what I can do. I can talk to businessmen. I can talk to sportsmen, young men, old men, men who've got it together, men who are falling apart. I, I can talk with intellectual men or working-class men. It doesn't matter. I can meet those guys where they're up to and have a conversation with them. I can't teach preschoolers because they're fundamentally alien. I can't do that. I can't do like Mass youth meetings. I can do mass youth meetings. They're okay, but like youth meetings, I find them teenagers annoying. You know, love them. They're good, but I don't understand what they're talking about. It's odd. I understand what they're talking. Anyway, you know what I mean. I can do women's meetings, but I always get in trouble for that. Let's say something that's insensitive. Can't sing for you. That's terrible. Scotty won't let me. But I can study theology and take complex theological thought and hopefully break them down in a way that most people can understand them. I can't play, play an instrument, but I know I can do that. So I can't answer all your questions or solve all your problems, but I can sit and cry with you, talk to you, maybe find someone who can understand and help you. You see, that I can do. I can't reach those that you can reach. I can only reach those that I can reach. So you must reach those people. You have to throw your net and you have to be actively involved in pulling in the net and establishing the Kingdom of God in the hearts of those people that you know. If we all throw this net in together, we all play a role and a part, then the job gets done. Amen. See, before you were saved, it was all about you. Now it's got to be about them. It has to be extroverted in its focus. Them, those that are out there. Now, you know, I don't say this to be, you know, necessarily aggravating, but the reality is I'm not passionate about your faith.