These past several weeks we’ve been meeting as the new Elders and examining the roles the church and Christ has lain upon us. As we seek His wisdom providing the spiritual leadership of the church at Southview we’ve come to quickly realize that evangelism is and must be at the core of everything we as a church aspire to be and do. Excited by the possibilities and blessed by all that God has done for the church these past two years under William’s pastoral leadership we are in awe of all that we’ve seen God do in our midst. We’ve committed to be in constant prayer asking God for His leadership as we seek His desire for us and we search for the specific work in His kingdom he’s called us to do.
This morning as I listened to William preach and teach on Haggai and the need to consider the job ahead of building a new work I remembered again what we as Elders had just discussed the prior Sunday afternoon. The need to be evangelic, to reach out looking for the lost, and to spread the Good News of Jesus. Where to begin, what to do, how to do it? All questions we are asking ourselves. And today I realized that we are as Jesus early disciples were, prepared to fish but lacking the knowledge of where the fish are. It occurred to me we need to ask Jesus where should we cast our nets?
You may recall in Matthew 4:19 Jesus tells us, “Come, follow me, and I will make you fishers of men.” That calling is as true for us at Southview today as it was for Jesus’ early disciples. Later you may also recall that as Jesus was teaching, it tells us in Luke chapter 5 that he instructed Peter and the others to row their fishing boats out to a certain place and to drop their nets for a catch. What a ridiculous and seemingly meaningless thing to ask seasoned fisherman as Jesus was pointing them back to the very spot they had fished all night and caught nothing – that very same spot, and yet when they did what Jesus asked, when they went where he sent them, and at the time they were supposed to go, that very same spot yielded a catch of fish so large two boats could not hold it and they actually got so heavy they took on water and almost sank. Imagine, from the exact same fishing spot where professional had fished all night.
Today God laid on my heart that that is what we must do – if we want to be fishers of men, and finders of the lost sheep, we need to ask the one who knows where they are to point us in the right direction and at the right time – and when he says go there and drop your nets we are to go immediately and do as he says, even if it means returning to the exact same place we fished before. I’m excited about the days ahead; clearly anyone who looks back over the past two years at Southview can see God’s hand at work. Where will He lead us, what will He call us do, is it going to be soon and are we ready?
Let’s pray today and ask Jesus to show us where to drop our nets so that we can have a catch of lost souls so heavy no one would believe it, a catch so large no single church could hold them all – let’s ask the Master Fisherman, then let’s be ready for the biggest catch we’ve ever imagined! Show us Lord Jesus today, where do we drop our nets, we’re ready and willing to follow you.
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