Daily Devotional

A Ministry of the Kerwin Baptist Church

September 06, 2018

by Pastor Hawtree

I AM PERSUADED THAT HE IS ABLE:

TO PERSUADE MEN

Matthew 4:18 And Jesus, walking by the sea of Galilee, saw two brethren, Simon called Peter, and Andrew his brother, casting a net into the sea: for they were fishers. 19 And he saith unto them, Follow me, and I will make you fishers of men. 20 And they straightway left their nets, and followed him.

If you stop and consider this passage, it is really amazing. Jesus walks by two men, who were brothers, that were fishermen by trade. If you notice in this passage, these men were busy fishing. No, I have been on visitation many times, but I have always found it difficult to get individuals to stop and talk to you if they are busy working. Normally they look at you as if it is a bit of a nuisance to them that you have tried to stop them and talk to them while they are busy working. It would probably be a nuisance to me if the roles were swapped. Normally they just want you to get out of there as quick as you can, so they can finish what they’re doing. Jesus simply walked by as these two men were busy fishing casting out their nets. As Jesus walks by He makes one simple statement, “ follow me and I will make you fishers of men.” That was it. No long drawn out statement. No polished step-by-step soul winning process. Jesus simply says one sentence and not only did these men stop and listen to what He had to say, they believed what He said, and immediately dropped everything to change their entire lives.

I feel in our day and time that often it takes such a long process just to get people to finally listen to you, and then it takes a long time for them to believe the truth you’re trying to share. Even if they get saved it seems to take such a long, tedious process to get them to be faithful in church. I don’t know why so many struggles with the simple task of being faithful to church. These two men changed their entire lives because Jesus spoke one sentence.

This passage does not say that they became fishers of men immediately. This passage says that they just followed Jesus, and Jesus took it from there. I encourage you as you are reading this today, that our lives should be totally uprooted and changed by the truth of God’s Word. Let’s quit holding onto our nets, and let’s start letting go of everything to follow Jesus.