Matthew 4:19-20 "Fishers of Men"

"Come, follow me," Jesus said, "and I will make you fishers of men." At once they left their nets and followed him. (Matthew 4:19-20)

So I have been given the responsibility and privledge to lead a short talk in our Young Life group called High Rollers and I am extremely excited about it. I chose to do it on the verse above for many reasons, and even more were revealed to me as I begin to study it and talk to the Young Life staff member, Emily, about it. This is such an overlooked and important verse to know. It is not so much that Jesus called for these four fisherman to follow him, it is verse 20, where they "at once dropped their nets and followed him". They left behind everything! They left their jobs, homes, family, loved ones....truly gave everything to Christ!

I am not saying they gave everything up for a complete stranger, some of them were even thought of to be followers of John the Baptist. However, even though they have heard Christ speak, and knew what he was all about, they still followed with out hesistation and went by faith. How many of us would truly do this, or how many of us truly have? I am almost certain I would have raised some questions, as I am sure you would as well. How many job interviews have people called to ministry asked what the pay would be, benefits, job security? And then how many have turned those jobs down becasue of the lack their of. These four men were called to ministry, given nothing for it, and they followed without hesistation....and this is before the grace given by the Jesus and the Cross.

So I decided to look at this another way, try and apply it to my life, so maybe teh High Rollers might be given a better idea of what is going on. However, as I did, I noticed that Moses and myself had the same questions while God was trying to use us. When God came to Moses and commanded him to set His people free, Moses gave a bunch of different reasons why he would not be the best pick. That is where Moses got it wrong...God was not searching for teh "best" pick wto lead His people, he was looking for the right one. Someone that God had chosen before birth to lead his people from slavery. This was all put in motion a long time ago. Yet Moses persisted on saying that he was not a great speaker, since he had a spech impetament, and his brother Aaron would be such a better choice. Yes, God used Aaron but spoke through Moses, he was the only one to do the things God commanded.

I have felt this way twice in my life. First on my 21st birthday I left for my small, 3 week mission trip to the United Kingdom, I kept thinking of every reason why I should not be going. The place I was with God was not a good nor strong one and I have minimal knowledge of teh Bible. I couldn't spout verses off the top of my head and I did not read the Bible regularly. However, once I decided to go and finally made it to the first school in the UK that I spoke at, God made it very clear why he had brought me there. I met kids that knew about Christ yet thought He did not care about them. They came from broken homes and many had turned to selling narcotics for a living, even at the age of 16! God used my past mitakes and sins to be able to relate to the teenagers that wouldn't have listened otherwise. There was one kid in paricular, Daniel, who was 17 and addicted to cocaine as well as other drugs and alcohol. I explaine dthe places I have been and the feelings felt. The ways I thought of getting out of those situations by myself and how it always crumbled. It was not until I accepted Christ and followed Him that I was PULLED out, and not by myself. I do not know whether I got through to Daniel, but I do know I got him to strat thinking. I planted the seed, prayed with him, and knew that was my role in his life.

The second time was pretty recently, when I decided to volunteer at High Rollers. I usually joke around about why I decided to come in the first place. "Came for the girls, stayed for God" Although I play it off as a joke, it is pretty close to the truth. I love God and wanted to find a ministry he was "calling" me to. (Refer to my Jeremiah 29:11 post) But no more than six months ago, if you would have told me I would be in this ministry, I would have laughed at you. I was completely uncomfortable for a half hour the first time I visited. But God used that to have me fall in live with such an amzing ministry and amazing Christian friends came with that.

Basically, all that I am trying to get across is that God is going to stretch us and can use us in so many different ways. We may not be the smartes, most popular, best speaker, or even the "best" pick for the job He has for us, but we are not called to understand, we are commanded to follow. If even that means blindly following hios path, we are to do so. God can use all of us in a variety of ways, and this is something I will tell the High Rollers. They have been seen as disabled in the eyes of the world, yet God is using them everyday to witness and spread His word. I have learned so much more of God's amazing grace and love through them in the last three or four months then any other time in my life.

So I leave you on this challenge....pray! Pray for what God has commanded us to do and ask for what He has planned for you. Search for the purpose God has already set up for you. I guarntee an answer will come, and if not at first be patient. We all have amazing gifts that will be used by Him. And to that I say, AMEN!