They immediately left their nets

Matthew 4:18-25

What would someone have to say to you to cause you immediately to change your life?  Here it comes sports fans:

Come, follow Me, and I will make you fishers of men.

Here are four men who have a dirty stinky life indeed.  Their days were filled with sweat, grime and fish.  Jesus found them up to their ankles in mud and up to their elbows in fish nets. The stench of their trade is all around them. And yet, here comes the rabbi Jesus, straight up to these most unlikely candidates and He calls out to them.  The result?  They immediately walk away from the only life they knew, from their work, from their family. 

Bill Hybels had called it casting the grander vision.  There it is, all laid out. Jesus doesn't call us to follow Him to a picnic.  He doesn't call us to an eternal concert where we all play harps, sing soprano and float on clouds forever.  No, He to a purpose and it's a big one.  He calls us to do His work. 

It was a movement.  Jesus started it, and then we, us normal average people, get to continue it.  He calls us to fish for men. Jesus calls us to invite others to follow along.

There is nothing that disqualifies us from this adventure.  Not our lack of ability, our past, our career, our family, our socioeconomic status, our lack of education. Look at the regular guys Jesus calls.  They only thing that can hold us back is our unwillingness to trust.

What does that mean?  It means we invite people to join us in coming back to Jesus, turning from our stinky lives and then they intend invite the next generation.  Like a baton we pass on and on.

Here is Al and Gio, my favorite big and little men, out fishing.  But it is really Al passing that baton to Gio.

I see the words, Jesus, and I too want to come along.  I want to answer the call. It is still so compelling to me, as it must have been that day You said it to Peter, Andrew, James, and John. I want to get up out of my seat and follow You, like they did.  Please show me who You want me to call into Your Kingdom.  Please show me how.

...immediately they left their boat and their father to follow Jesus... Large crowds from Galilee, from Jerusalem, from the ten cities called the Decapolis, from Judea, and from the region across the Jordan followed Him.