The Clarion Call

I want to preach today on The Clarion Call. The word "clarion" means "a clear, sharp announcement that sometimes is even loud." The clarion call of Jesus. Take your Bibles and turn to John 1:43-44. This is background. This is preliminary. Let's look at the beginning of the ministry of our Master Jesus Christ as He begins gathering His disciples. "The following day, Jesus wanted to go to Galilee, and He found Philip." Philip didn't find Jesus. Jesus found Philip. You didn't nor did I find Jesus. I wasn't looking for Him, and neither were you. He found us! "The Son of Man came to seek and to save." The initiative is God so loved us that He sent Jesus to seek us, find us, and save us. Say AMEN!

So Jesus finds Philip. Philip wasn't looking for Jesus, "and when He found Philip, He said to him." It is implied in the language here that before the word "follow" is the word "you." It's implied that when Jesus spoke to Philip, He said, "You follow Me." When Jesus began to formulate His disciples, He told them to "Follow Me."

1 John 1:9 says, "We must confess our sins," but we have such an erroneous teaching today. We tell people all they have to do is come to the altar, pray a little prayer, go into the water and get baptized, then sit in the church pew and collect dust until Jesus comes and takes them home to glory. No, no, no. You're saved to follow Jesus!

Look at Verse 44. I have to see what Philip's response was. "Now Philip was from Bethsaida, the city of Andrew and Peter," and when he got the message, he took off looking for his brothers. Bethsaida here means "the town, or the city, of fishermen." You must note that. From this little village, which scholars and researchers just recently found, Jesus called five world changers to follow Him. Peter, Philip, Andrew, James, and John all came from this little village. That may not mean anything to you, but that would be like bringing five presidents out of one little town--Rock Branch. Five world changers shook the world, came out of one little village, and that village was called "the village of fishermen."

Turn to Matthew 9:9. Matthew is a tax collector, and he is in his office. He is a successful businessman. He is an IRS man. He not only collects taxes from the Jews and Gentiles for the Romans, but he adds a little bit on top of that so he can make himself some money. He is very successful, and Jesus finds Matthew. When He finds him, He tells him, "Follow Me." "So he got up [You have to get up.] and followed Him."

Now turn to Matthew 4:18, and I want you to know something. God doesn't do anything by accident. He isn't drawing these men and women out of the world just so He can have some big shots. Matthew was a big shot tax collector, a businessman; but Peter, James, John, and Andrew were just local workers. They were fishermen. They came from a town of fishermen, and the prophecy in Jeremiah 16:16 is a prophetic prophecy about this call. He says, "But now I will send for many fishermen, declares the Lord, and they will catch them." They won't go fishing and come back empty-handed. He is calling for fishermen. He is calling for you to go out and catch fish. No, catch men and women, boys and girls.

Look at Matthew 4:18. This is a powerful Scripture. "And Jesus, walking by the Sea of Galilee, saw two brothers, Simon called Peter, and Andrew his brother, casting a net into the sea; for they were fishermen." They weren't using poles. They were using nets. They weren't catching fish one at a time. They were catching many of them at a time. Verse 19: "Then Jesus said to them." It's a personal call. There was no mistake as to whom He was calling. Church, today Jesus is giving you a personal call. The call is not to join a church, the call is not to sing or to preach, the call is to follow Jesus! It's not just on Sunday mornings. It's not just occasionally when you don't have anything else to do. It's all the time! He says, "Follow Me."

Now, you might tell me that this call for these guys back there isn't for you. Before you were ever born, before you were even formed in your mother's womb, the Bible says in Jeremiah that "God knew you." God was calling you and giving you a destiny. You're not an accident. I don't care if you were told that you were not wanted. I don't care if you have been told that you are stupid or dumb. I'm here to tell you that God knew you before you were ever conceived in your mother's womb, and God has a reason for your being on this planet. Don't waste your life.

We Americans are after one thing: ME! I want to feel good. It's for me and mine. People come to church as consumers. What do you have for ME? What do you have to offer ME? I want something for ME. If it's not for ME, then it's for MINE.

You have a call on your life, and that call is permanent. Romans 11:29 tells me that "the call of God is permanent" for every person in this building. The Message Bible says, "God's gifts and God's call are under full warranty." I like that. You say, well, God called Billy Graham, but he hasn't called me. No, no. It's for YOU. God has an assignment for YOU. God has an assignment for ME, and that is to follow Him. "God's gifts and God's call are under full warranty, never cancelled and never rescinded."

The New Century Version says, "God never changes His mind about the people He calls." Oh, but Brother Wright, I've done this and that. "God never changes His mind." But Brother Wright, I've failed. "God never changes His mind." But Brother Wright, I've fallen into the trap of the devil. Oh, that ought to excite somebody! The devil is a liar. "God never changes His mind about the people He calls."

If that doesn't give you hope, I don't know what will. When we're little, when we're young, we have big dreams, but it seems like adulthood robs us of our dreams. We make wrong choices, we go down wrong roads, and we get away from the call of God. Remember something. You may have drifted into this building, but God's call is permanent. You can run from it, but His call is permanent. He will hunt you down. He will sic the hounds of Heaven on you.

I've got people in this building running from God's call, and when I say that, don't get in your mind that I'm talking about a pulpit. I'm just talking about following Jesus. That's a call. I'm called to follow Jesus. I'm called to go where He leads me. Well, but Brother Wright, if the finances are right. No, no, no.

Not one time in 41 years of pastoring has money determined where she [Virginia] and I go. Not one time. When I pastored a church of 19 people, we had a little one on the way, but that didn't determine whether we stayed. Three weeks into my first church, they told me they couldn't pay me, but it didn't deter me from staying. Not one time has my wife told me that we couldn't continue doing this because we didn't have enough food in the cupboard or enough clothes for the kids. My God never fails! My God can bring money in from anywhere He wants to bring it in. Money is the least of your problems.

If you would start putting God first, you would find out that He will take care of you. The problem is you keep eating what belongs to God. There was only one thing in the Garden of Eden that God said didn't belong to Adam and Eve. There was only one thing God said they couldn't touch nor eat. God said, "It is mine, don't touch it, don't eat from it," and that's what they ate! He tells you that there is only one thing that belongs to Him. It's a dime out of every dollar you make. He will take care of you if you won't eat what belongs to Him.

Don't look down. Look in the Word. He said, "I'll rebuke the devourer." He said, "I'll open the windows of Heaven and pour out blessings on you that you can't contain if you don't eat what belongs to Me." You can get mad at me all you want to, but you have to answer to God, not to me. You can growl at me, but it doesn't change what God's Word says.

Jesus said, "Follow Me." It's personal. It's permanent, and this clarion call from the lips of Jesus is a powerful call. When He said, "Follow Me," it wasn't a suggestion. It was a military command. When an officer, when someone in authority, gives a command in the military, there is only one response expected under the authority of that superior officer, and that response is obedience. He didn't expect a rejection. He gave a command.

People want to check their palm pilot and day planner. Oh, we're busy aren't we? We're busy as bees, doing nothing that matters for eternity. We have the idea in church that if we just come to a building called a church that we have done our duty for God that week. No, you haven't. You have shown up for revelry. You've shown up for assembly. You've shown up to get orders. You've shown up to be encouraged. Brother and Sisters, this thing is seven days a week.

In the Greek, the word "follow" is a present imperative, and "imperative" means you have to do it. "Present" means it's not just this one time, but it's every day. It's all day. Are you with me here? In the beginning you got saved. That was the wedding part of it, but does anybody here know that, after the wedding, there is something called marriage? People plan a wedding but don't plan the marriage. Have you worked out a budget?

Do you know that about 75% of the problems you will face in your marriage has to do with money? Oh, we don't talk about money problems, because we know that love will see us through. Love will do what? They don't have a budget. They haven't talked about children. They haven't talked about how they are going to discipline their children. Then six months later, a year later, they have all kinds of problems because they never planned a marriage. They only planned a wedding.

It's the same with people who come to an altar and get saved then think all they have to do is come and sit in the church pew, if they don't have Little League or Midget League. It's following every day. It's a present imperative. It's a command, but it's a command to follow Jesus every day of your life. Does anybody know He can lead you to a different grocery store? It's amazing what God can do. God is an awesome God, but He demands nothing less than obedience.

He said, "Follow Me, and I will make you." Do you see that? That is a promise-filled call. I can't do it on my own. I can't follow Jesus on my own. When I was little, we played "follow the leader." If the leader runs, you run. If the leader stops, you stop. You have to have the idea that the clarion call of the Lord Jesus Christ is filled with promises. He said, "I will make you."

When I got saved at the age of 18, if God had told me He was going to have me preaching, I would have run out the door, because I was going to be a football coach. I was going to teach Social Studies and Driver Education. In my first year of college at West Virginia State University, I didn't feel comfortable. I didn't fit, but I pressed on. In my second year, I didn't fit. I didn't like going to class. I just didn't fit.

In the summer time, between my sophomore and junior year, I went to the altar and felt God was calling. I didn't know all the details. I just said, "Yes," and I went to my father, who was not saved at that time, and said, "Dad, I feel God calling me to Bible College. I don't know why." He paid for all of my education. He saved all of his adult life for me to go to college. He wanted me to become a lawyer, but he paid for all my Bible College. I went just trusting God, and as I went God began to reveal that promise, "I will make you." If you will follow, He will make you. He will give you the power. It was not by my power. It was by His Spirit.

The same God that calls you is the same God that will qualify you and equip you. He will give you everything you need. That's why there are some gifts involved. The gifts are the equipment that will help you become what He has called you to become. When you follow Jesus, you are in the process of becoming what you cannot become on your own. You say, well I'm old. No, no. If you're still breathing, you've got a call on you. You have something to do, and it's important. He appoints you, and then He anoints you.

Do you know what I observe. I observe church members who are just wandering like the world, just aimlessly wandering. Just trying to make another buck so they can buy another van or another SUV or a bigger house. Why do you need a bigger house? Well, we've got three children and only have three bedrooms. Two of them might have to sleep together in the same room. Hello? Oh yeah, they're all individuals and have to have separate rooms. We've got to have that. No, you don't.

I was 21 years old sleeping in the same room with my father, because we didn't have anymore bedrooms. You're killing yourselves by having to have something bigger and bigger and bigger, because then you can't follow Jesus because you're strapped. An old Nazarene Preacher by the name of Uncle Buddy Robinson used to say this. "Don't drive your stakes too deep, because we're leaving in the morning."

What would you do right now if God spoke to you and told you to do something that would be a life-changing course for you, but you couldn't do it because you're strapped? The God that can make me can also provide for me if I will follow, but you won't trust Him. It's amazing how Social Security is taken out of your paycheck, and you're trusting the government that at a certain age you're going to receive a certain income back. Right now, they are telling us that by the year 20?? there won't be enough money in the kitty; yet, we're just continuing to trust them. Let me tell you something. I've got an uncle called Sam whom I've never met, but I've got a Heavenly Father. It takes courage to accept the challenge of the call of God.

This call of God is a purposeful call. There is a purpose behind it. Verse 19 says, "Follow Me, and I will make you fishers of men." The purpose behind everything we do in this church is to get souls saved. We had 1,100 children here this past week, and they were jumping and hollering, and I had this one kid behind me that, every time they did something, his voice got higher. I must confess that I had to put tissue in my ears. Forgive me, Lord, but I had to do it.

Do you know what they all talked about? They brought Pastor Wright up on the platform. At the end of the service, they brought me up here, and they had this big can and this big powder puff. They dipped it down in there, all the kids were hollering "one, two, three," and splat. They puffed me! I had parents tell me that all their kids talked about through the night was, "They puffed Pastor Wright!" There are so many big-shot Preachers that wouldn't let anybody puff them for the world, but if I can get souls saved and get puffed, puff away! Souls! Fishers of men!

Churches are dying. Preachers call me and say, "Our budget is getting smaller and smaller." I've got the answer. I know where the money is. It's in the fish's mouth. Go catch more fish. There's gold in them there pews when you've got them there pews filled with fish. Jesus said, "I'm going to make you fishers of men." There is a purpose behind everything we do.

Today, we have a youth service going on, and they have their own band. We've got children's services going on all over the campus. We have Noah's Ark with a waterfall. You ought to go upstairs and look at what the middle school has. They've got a Potter's House up there. We've put a lot of money into it. Well, I don't think you ought to spend that kind of money. That's why you don't have any kids [in your church]. People say, well, I don't think you ought to do stuff like that. Well, you're not the Pastor here. You would have three people, and two of them would be thinking about leaving any second.

Churches are boring. Following Jesus is not boring. Seeing souls saved is not boring. Seeing lives changed is not boring. I know you have problems. I know you're going to be persecuted, but I'm here to tell you there is nothing like seeing souls saved. God is not in the building business. He's in the people business.

We're got a brand-new building being built across the street. It's our net. It's a big net. We're going to have volleyball nets and basketball nets, and here are the lost [coming in unaware]. They think they're there to play volleyball. They're going toward a net, and when they get there, I'm going to pull them in. Everything we do is to get somebody in the net and bring them to Jesus. I'm not pole fishing. Pole fishing is boring, and churches have one pole and it's on Sunday morning. There are no fish out there. It's like fishing in your bathtub. There aren't any fish. There are 15 people there, all of them have been saved and baptized 25 times, and you're preaching the same old boring message. Get some nets!

When I pass from the scene, this church is not going to die because it's not built on a personality. It's built for a purpose, and the purpose is for catching men and women for Jesus. That is what it's all about. "I will make you fishers of men."

This call is provoking. I like to get in your face and provoke you. You're being challenged for this call. It's provoking. Look at Verse 22. "Immediately they left." They asked no questions. "They immediately left their nets and followed Him, and going on from there, He saw two other brothers, James the son of Zebedee and John his brother." They were in the boat with their father mending their nets, and He called them, and guess what? They immediately left the boat and their daddy and changed the entire course of their careers with two words. "Follow Me." That's provoking. They left with no hesitation and no excuses.

One man said, "I'll follow you, but I have to bury dad and mom." Let me tell you what that meant. His dad and mom weren't even dead. What he said was, "I will follow you, but I have to go back home until dad and mom die." That's what it meant. They had not died. What is YOUR excuse? Well, I'm older now. I don't have the strength.

Do you know where a great ministry is where you could be a fisher of men? Nursing homes. Hundreds of people don't know Christ. All you have to do is go in and hold their hand, and they will tell you the same story 35 times. It's amazing. Their memory of what they had for lunch is gone, but their memory of what happened 30 years ago is as keen as the day it happened. While you're talking to them, every once in a while they will pause, and when they pause you can tell them, "Jesus loves you. Let me pray with you. Why don't you follow me in this prayer?"

You say, but they have Alzheimer's. Their spirit doesn't have Alzheimer's. How does faith come? By hearing. God can bypass their brain and get into their spirit. There are souls going to hell, and we need some fishermen. People want to have Bible studies, and there is nothing wrong with Bible studies, but sometimes we need to get out of our Bible studies and get out there and catch some fish. It's great to have Bible studies. We need to learn more about the Word of God, but when are you going to catch some fish?

In order to catch fish, you have to hang around fish. We hang around our little circle. Give me another prophecy. You've had enough prophecies over you. I'll give you one. "Go thou and catch fish," but we don't want that. We want a new anointing. We want a new revelation. The revelation is "Follow Jesus," and when you follow Jesus you'll catch some fish. Do you know that 95% of church members never win one soul to Jesus? That means 5% of us are winning all the souls. That's not right. They're everywhere.

Hunting and fishing are different. When you're hunting, you use bullets. We're not out to kill them. Have you ever seen a Bible that is four times bigger than this one, and they're hunting? You need to get saved. I've told you once, and I'll tell you twice. People are scared to see you coming. I've been in church where they were like a piranha. They would spot you, and when they spotted you, they would gather around. You need to get saved. I told you once. How many of you have ever been in church where they did that? Look at the hands. That's hunting.

When you're fishing you use bait, and bait attracts. Bait develops an appetite. Bait makes the fish want to go hmmmm. I believe I'll take a bite of that, but what they don't know is there is a hook in there. When they take a bite of the bait, God puts a Holy Ghost hook in there. You think you're coming to church just to make momma happy, because when momma is happy, everybody is happy. No, no, no. Momma set you up. Those meals you get at Noon on Sunday are a setup. She's baiting the hook.

They immediately left their nets. They immediately dropped what they were doing. When was the last time you dropped what you were doing and did what God told you to do? They abandoned their plans. They didn't ask how long they were going to be gone. Peter was married. How was he going to support his wife? They asked no questions. Jesus just said, "Follow Me," and they abandoned all of their plans. No excuses. No hesitation.

A rich man came to Jesus, fell down at His feet, and asked, "What must I do to inherit eternal life?" Christ said, "Keep my commandments." The rich man said, "I've done that since I was a young kid." Then Jesus said, "Sell everything you have and follow Me. He went away sorrowful [jingling his change], because he had great possessions." Jesus knew where his heart was. His heart was in his money. The only reason Jesus told him to sell all that he had was because that was what bound him and kept him from following.

Later on, Jesus said, "If anybody has left everything to follow Me, they will have houses and lands and brothers and sisters and a little bit of persecution." We're afraid to follow Him because we're afraid we won't have this or have that. Jesus said, "If you're going to follow Me, you have to deny yourself." You can't follow Him without denying yourself.

The call of God always produces a challenge. It a challenge, but it's thrills, it's romance, and it's adventure. Wherever He leads you, whenever He leads you, whatever He leads you to do, He will equip you. He will make you capable of doing it, and it will be exciting. I'll be honest with you. I couldn't go to a church where they didn't challenge me. There is a call going out, and I pray we all will accept the challenge. We need to forget about ourselves and go out and catch some fish, and I promise you one thing. If you will stock the pond, I'll preach the Gospel. Whenever we are in this building, we should try and catch fish, and then we'll try to catch them outside.