Fishing In Our Own Pond

Adapted from a Steven Chapman sermon
http://www.sermoncentral.com/print_friendly.asp?
SermonID=102204

The call to be witnesses was a call to go
fishing in our own ponds, to be a witness within
the network of relationships God has placed
us, to capture the hearts and souls of family,
friends, coworkers, neighbors and
acquaintances, and spiritually reel them in.

Principle #1: ____________ like never
before.
Principle #2: Show _________ to the church
family.
Principle #3: ____________ those outside of
God’s family.
Principle #4: Live a ______________ life.
Principle #5: ________ the truth.

ESV
What is your life worth?
Do you understand that your life is worth an
eternity to someone?
Did you know that the way you live your life,
and relate to others, is an issue of life-or-
death?

Just before Jesus ascended to heaven, He told
his disciples, “ ”
Applying the rules of simple grammar to this
statement we see that being a witness is not a
choice.
It is your identity.
It is not an option.
It is an assumption.

It is the same assumption that Jesus has in
, when, contrary to the
imperative command “ ”, the way most
English translations render it, Jesus says, “As
you are going, while you are going, or since
you are going anyway, make disciples.”
The same Greek word is used when Jesus
sent out the 12.
ESV

Jesus took for granted that we would be on the
move to make disciples.
The question raised is not will you be a
witness.
It is what kind of witness are you going to be.

In the courts witnesses are categorized in
several ways:
Lay witness – someone who observed events
pertinent to the case.
This is the average Joe who simple shares
what he saw.
Independent expert witness – a doctor, lawyer,
or other professional who was directly involved
in events surrounding the case, who because
of their involvement have professional insights
to share.

Controlled expert witness – a professional who
is paid to give expert testimony. These are the
hired guns.
Hostile witness – a witness who is expected to
be contrary to questioning by either side.
These are the ones who whether they like it or
not are called to be witnesses.

We often convince ourselves that we have a
choice to witness or not.
But the awkward truth is that those who have
chosen to not be a witness have actually
chosen to be a poor witness, a negligible
witness, or worse yet a witness for the wrong
side because like it or not the world is watching
our lives for evidence of Christ.

The call for the 12 disciples to be witnesses in
Jerusalem was the call for them to go fishing in
their own pond.
It remains the call for us to fish our own ponds,
to be a witness within the network of
relationships God has placed us, to capture the
hearts and souls of family, friends, coworkers,
neighbors and acquaintances, and spiritually
reel them in.

Each of us has our own pond of relationships,
the network of people that God has
strategically placed us among to be a witness.
Our ponds are all stocked, some more than
others, but all have something to catch.
It may be a family member who has never
accepted Christ.

It may be a neighbor who has abandoned their
childhood faith.
It may be someone who is actively involved in
their home church, but has never really
stepped across the line of faith, accepting
Christ as their Lord & Savior.
It may be a spiritual seeker sitting in the pew
near you.

In the first several chapters of Acts, we
observe what made the disciples effective
fishermen for the souls of men.
These principles become the standard for
fishing in our own pond.

I think we often study the book of Acts like an
action novel.
It seems many Bible studies of Acts give
emphasis to those sections with lots of action.
We glimpse at the ascension.
We jump to Pentecost.
We pause at the healing of the lame man.

We drop our jaws at the story of Ananias and
Sapphira.
But there is a whole lot of material between
those events that we do only a cursory skim of,
and those events set the stage for the action
scenes.
Let me point of three verses in particular:

ESV
They all joined together constantly in prayer…

Did you catch it? The place we need to start in
fishing for souls is with prayer. Principle #1:
Pray like never before. This is like talking with
others to find where the hot spots are before
you drop the line in the water.
The power of prayer is really the power of God
realized through prayer.
We’re privileged to be part of God’s team to
accomplish His mission to others.
Yet we don’t want to try to reach people for
Christ without consulting God.

We can’t help people without prayer.
Talking to God about his concern for your
neighbors is something you can do no matter if
you are a Charlie Church member or Eddie the
Elder.
It’s the starting point for answering the “now
what?” questions in witnessing.

Prayer still has the power to produce results it
had in the first century.
Listen to these results from the prayer
service:
ESV

If you have a family member who is screwing
up their life, pray for them.
If you have a neighbor that is trouble to the
neighborhood, pray for them.
If you have a coworker with no moral compass,
pray for them.

And only the God who answers prayers can
soften the hearts and open minds to the point
that people will see the church as a connection
with an experience of God rather than as a
prison for the spirit, a self-serving social
organization, or a political supporter of the
status quo.

Prayer was the starting point of the witness of
the early church.
However, it was only the beginning.
Now let’s think through our fishing bait.
Principle #2: Show love to the church family.

At the end of Acts 2, after 3000 had poured
into the church, we get a description of how the
church lived as a loving community.
Listen to these words.
(that’s
connection) (that
is loving compassion).

(Look at this picture of loving fellowship)
(an act of
loving acceptance)

Observe that this was not a “Hi, how ya doin’?”
time of Parlor fellowship.
This was believers getting involved in concrete
acts of love for one another, liquidating their
own property for the sake of the financial well-
being of others.
What was the result of this outpouring of love
among the body of Christ.

In chapter , we are given another description
of the church at work.
ESV

This connection between fellowship and a
Christian’s witness to the world was part of
Jesus’ prayer in .
In that prayer He prayed that His followers
would love one another so deeply that it would
provide convincing evidence of faith for a lost
world.

Our love for one another is beautifully
attractive to a lost and lonely world.
However, we cannot stop at the principle of
loving God’s family because that results in too
many Christians no longer being fishers of men
but keepers of the aquarium.

Evangelism must be done where lost people
are.
We have to get our feet wet at the pond.
As witnesses, we have to step into the lives of
those outside of Christ.
The principle we learn from this story: Principle
#3: Serve those outside of God’s family.

You want to make an eternal difference in the
lives of lost people, make a temporary
difference.
Find their needs, whether large or small, and
do something about it.
Some of us need to stop sermonizing and start
serving.
Service goes a long way toward breaking
through the resistance of people to the gospel.

Service as a primary witness was a principle
pattern of Jesus.
As a matter of fact, you would pretty much
outline the gospel of John with a Service-
Sermon outline.
Jesus served – then he taught.
Jesus healed – then he taught.
Jesus fed – then he taught.

Evangelism has been described as one beggar
telling another beggar where to find food.
Sometimes we need to see that statement as
more than a metaphor.

Jim, an elder at a church, was to oversee the
evangelism of new people that moved into the
area.
Sun Lee and his family were Vietnamese
refugees who had recently been moved into
the area.
They had no possessions, knew no one,
needed help in every way.

Jim began by helping them get food and then
spent much time finding Sun Lee a good job.
Jim wanted so much to tell Sun Lee about
Jesus, but he didn’t know Vietnamese and the
refugees knew very little English.
Out of this struggle Jim and Sun Lee agreed to
teach each other their native languages.

One day, Jim felt that he had learned enough
Vietnamese to tell Sun Lee about Jesus.
Jim began to explain about God and Jesus to
Sun Lee, but the more he talked, the more
confusing it seemed to get.
Finally, Jim was so frustrated that he decided
to give up trying to communicate until he had
learned more of the language.
Sun Lee at this point blurted out, “Is your God
like you? If he is, I want to know him.”

Jim had thought for months that he was not
communicating the gospel.
But he was, with the greatest form of
communication a person can use – the
example of a life filled with Jesus Christ.

One man said, “Let me tell you something. I’m
not perfect but one thing I’ve done right is mow
the neighbor’s lawn and clean out their toilet
and store their stuff in our garage when they
were evicted because it showed I cared and by
it I earned the right to share my story.”
Pray like never before. Show love to the
church family. Serve those outside of God’s
family.

After healing this man, Peter and John were
dragged before the religious authorities.
And in this encounter we observe Principle #4:
Live a transformed life.
Here in front of the religious leaders, who just
weeks before had conspired to have Jesus
arrested and ultimately killed, stand Peter and
John.

This is Peter, uneducated fisherman and owner
of the blistering dock-worker personality who
just weeks earlier had heatedly denied that he
even knew Jesus, and John of the same low-
class, uneducated, blue collar line of work,
confronting the religious leaders with the
gospel.
And in that scene, Luke records this
assessment.

Being with Jesus had changed them, and that
change was observed.
And being with Jesus should have the same
effect on our life and our character.
It is a life radically transformed by Christ that
serves as bait to a world hungry for a life with
meaning.
Yet, the biggest reason the unsaved reject
Christianity is not on the basis of religious
belief.

The largest reason for rejecting Christianity is
the inconsistent, ungracious, and ungodly lives
of Christ’s followers. Why would the lost want
to become Christian when Christians are just
as likely to cheat their employers, be unhappy,
rude, use profanity, lie, addicted to
pornography, cheat on their taxes, take
advantage of others, pick or cause fights?…
You could say that the only difference that the
unchurched notice is that we lose sleep-time
on Sunday morning.

To a church with that kind of reputation Will
Rogers would repeat: “So live that you wouldn’t
be ashamed to sell the family parrot to the
town gossip.”
ESV

To be an effective witness we need to pray like
never before, show love to God’s family, serve
those outside of the family, and live a
transformed life.
Yet we can’t stop there.
There comes a time when we have to open our
mouths.
Principle #5: Tell the truth.

Someone once said, “Many Christians are like
the Artic River – frozen over at the mouth!”
In evangelism, the hardest thing seems to be
to open your mouth to get the first word out.
Here’s an observation – the reason it is so
hard is that we make it harder than it is.
Talking about Christ doesn’t require special
schooling or a degree.
Simply tell the truth. What is the truth?

The clear story of what God did to save us
through Christ.
ESV
ESV
ESV

So what are you going to do?
Toward the end of the movie Schindler’s List,
Oskar Schindler physically collapses as he
wrestles with the idea that he could have done
more to save oppressed Jews from the Nazi
regime’s death camps.
The moment occurs as Schindler and his wife
walk toward the car, and Rabbi Levartov hands
him some papers.

“We’ve written a letter trying to explain things,”
Levartov says. “In case you’re captured. Every
worker has signed it.”
Schindler looks at a long list of signatures
below the typewritten text. “Thank you,” he
says.
His longtime assistant, Itzhak Stern, then
places a gold ring in Schindler’s hand.
Schindler notices an inscription on the ring.

“It’s Hebrew,” explains Stern. “It says,
‘Whoever saves one life, saves the world.’”
Schindler puts the ring onto this finger, nods
his thanks, and then begins to talk to himself: “
I could’ve got more … if I’d just … I don’t know,
if I’d just … I could’ve got more.”
Stern cuts in, “Oskar, there are twelve hundred
people who are alive because of you. Look at
them.”

Schindler continues his lament, “If I’d made
more money … I threw away so much money,
you have no idea. If I’d just …”
Stern again interrupts, “There will be
generations because of what you did.”
“I didn’t do enough,” says Schindler.
Schindler starts to lose control, with tears
coming; Stern too.

“This car,” Schindler continues. “Goeth
would’ve bought this car. Why did I keep the
car? Ten people, right there. Ten more I
could’ve got.”
Looking around he continues. “This pin.” He
rips the elaborate swastika from his lapel and
says, “Two people. This is gold. Two more
people. He would’ve given me two for it. He
would’ve given me one. One more … I
could’ve gotten one more person, but I didn’t.”

Schindler breaks down, weeping. Eventually
Schindler and his wife, Emilie, get into the car
and drive away.
Do you realize that your life has made the
same life-or-death difference to others?
A difference, not just for this life, but for
eternity.

Jesus said you are His witness.
Are you going to be a witness that politely nods
as friends, family, neighbors, coworkers, and
associates walk into a Christ-less eternity?
Or are you going to be a witness that provides
a compelling argument for loving and being
loved by Christ for an eternity? What kind of
witness will you be?
Let’s go fishing!

Fishing In Our Own Pond

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