Sermon Tone Analysis

When I was growing up, my father taught me how to fish.

We would spend long amounts of time on the banks of creeks, rivers and ponds with him showing me what bait was best, based upon all of the conditions.

If it was spring, summer, winter or fall, if it was sunny, or cloudy, clear or murky water, etc., which lures would best serve the purpose.

He taught me how to tie the only true knot that stuck with me, a fisherman’s knot.

Which pound test line I would need and which action rod and reel we should use, for the most fun and efficiency.

He bought us an inexpensive v-hulled boat and we would spend days at a time on the lake fishing.

It was on those days, sitting on those lakes, or standing beside those streams with my father, that I learned a lot more about life, than just fishing.

I could ask my father about anything and he would talk to me about it and explain it, to the best of his ability.

I used to love it when my father would come home from work on the railroad in the afternoons and say to me, “We’ve still got some daylight left, you wanna go wet a line for a little while?”

Those times with my father were far more to me than just fishing to me.

They were therapy sessions for my heart and soul, as I was being trained on the practical aspects of life as a man!

And with that being said, let me make a very basic and simple plea to everyone that is of an adult age and withing earshot of this message, before I go on in any further with this message.

Listen to this exert from the Apostle Paul to his disciple Titus, in the book of and also verse 15.

“As for you, Titus, promote the kind of living that reflects wholesome teaching.

Teach the older men to exercise self-control, to be worthy of respect, and to live wisely.

They must have sound faith and be filled with love and patience.

Similarly, teach the older women to live in a way that honors God.

They must not slander others or be heavy drinkers.

Instead, they should teach others what is good.

These older women must train the younger women to love their husbands and their children, to live wisely and be pure, to work in their homes, to do good, and to be submissive to their husbands.

Then they will not bring shame on the word of God.

In the same way, encourage the young men to live wisely.

And you yourself must be an example to them by doing good works of every kind.

Let everything you do reflect the integrity and seriousness of your teaching.

Teach the truth so that your teaching can’t be criticized.

Then those who oppose us will be ashamed and have nothing bad to say about us.

You must teach these things and encourage the believers to do them.

You have the authority to correct them when necessary, so don’t let anyone disregard what you say.”

3 Similarly, teach the older women to live in a way that honors God.

They must not slander others or be heavy drinkers.

Instead, they should teach others what is good.

4 These older women must train the younger women to love their husbands and their children, 5 to live wisely and be pure, to work in their homes, to do good, and to be submissive to their husbands.

Then they will not bring shame on the word of God.

Do you see what Paul is telling Titus?

He’s telling him to make sure that older generation is trained and taught godly teachings, so that they will, in turn, teach the younger generation and thus raise them to see and know what a godly life looks like!

6 In the same way, encourage the young men to live wisely.

7 And you yourself must be an example to them by doing good works of every kind.

Let everything you do reflect the integrity and seriousness of your teaching.

8 Teach the truth so that your teaching can’t be criticized.

Then those who oppose us will be ashamed and have nothing bad to say about us.

That is, Godly men and women spending time with the younger generation, so as to raise up a Godly and spirit filled generation and snatch back those whom the enemy is trying to capture and destroy!

Back to fishing, though.

I learned quickly, as do most people who love to fish, that something happens in our minds eye, when we lose a fish (it gets away) and we then recant the story to others who were not there at the time.

Back to fishing, though.

I learned quickly, as do most people who love to fish, that something happens in our minds eye, when we lose a fish (it gets away) and we then recant the story to others who were not there at the time.

It is old story of “the one that got away!”

You’ve all heard those stories before, right?

stress Godly men and women spending time with the younger generation, so as to raise up a Godly and spirit filled generation and snatch back those whom the enemy is trying to capture and destroy!

MAKE A FUNNY PARODY OF SOMEONE TELLING OF HOW THE HUGE FISH GOT AWAY!

That reminds me of a certain fishing story: A man was stopped by a game warden as he was carrying two buckets of fish leaving a lake well known for its fishing.

The game warden asked the man, "Do you have a license to catch those fish?"

The man replied to the game warden, "No, sir.

These are my pet fish."

"Pet fish?" the warden replied.

"Yes, sir.

Every night I take these here fish down to the lake and let them swim around for a while.

I whistle and they jump back into their buckets, and I take em home."

"That's a bunch of hooey!

Fish can't do that!"

The man looked at the game warden for a moment, and then said, "Here, I'll show you.

It really works."

"O.K. I've GOT to see this!" The game warden was curious now.

The man poured the fish in to the lake and stood and waited.

After several minutes, the game warden turned to the man and said: "Well?"

"Well, What?" the man responded.

"When are you going to call them back?" the game warden prompted.

"Call who back?" the man asked.

"The FISH."

"What fish?" the man asked.

There is an old saying that says, “Give a Man a Fish, and You Feed Him for a Day.

Teach a Man To Fish, and You Feed Him for a Lifetime.”

There are many wives that like the version of that statement, that reads, “Give a man a fish and feed him for a day.

Teach a man to fish and you can get rid of him for a whole weekend.”

But, the point being, once you are fully equipped and empowered to do something, then it benefits you for life!

There are a couple of stories in the Bible that I want to mention to you this morning, that have to do with some fisherman, some fish that got away and then those fish that were all caught and accounted for.

If you will turn with me in your Bibles to the gospel of , we will read of the first story and then go from there.

I think that this is a fairly familiar story to many of us, especially if you were ever raised up in a church setting, or in a home where the word of God was taught.

This is Luke, the physician’s gospel account of Jesus issuing the call to part of His 12 disciples: Andrew and his brother, Simon (Peter) and the brothers, James and John.

The other gospel accounts, show Jesus, at other intervals, possibly having asked these same men to follow Him before, with which they did and then gravitated back to their previous occupations.

For instance, if you look in , shows Andrew, (who had become a follower of John the Baptist and his teaching), seeing and hearing Jesus for the first time and pursuing Jesus and then going and bringing his brother, Simon, to Jesus.

It is here that Jesus to Simon, “Your name is Simon, son of John—but you will be called Cephas” (which means “Peter”).

This account shows us that Andrew and Peter had possibly, followed Jesus for a brief period at the onset of His earthly ministry and then gravitated back to what they knew before; which was their livelihood, fishing!

The Bible tells us that these men were all fisherman, by trade, which is were and what Jesus found them doing on that day, in Luke’s account, by the Sea of Galilee, or, as it was also known as, the Sea of Gennesaret, or the Sea of Tiberius.

So, if we take the whole picture, as the gospels are possibly showing it, then we are now seeing Jesus, approaching Andrew and Simon Peter, again, with the offer to follow Him!

And it’s this understanding, of the repeated call to His followers, that makes my message today all the more compelling for each of us.

So, what is happening in this account where Jesus is coming in contact with these two sets of brothers; these fishermen?

And two of them (Simon and Andrew), probably being a repeated meeting of theirs with Jesus.

Well, for Jesus, this occurrence happens as He is busy teaching a large crowd of people, who were pressing in on Him, crowding all up in His space and giving Jesus no recourse, but to find a better means of addressing them all.

So, as God directs and orchestrates things to His glory, Jesus looks out at the water and there are two empty boats and He proceeds to climb into one of them, which just happens to belong to Andrew and Simon Peter and Jesus looks at Simon Peter and asks him to take the boat out a little bit from the land.

It also makes more sense that Jesus possible knew Peter before, in that He climbed into Peter’s boat and spoke to him as though they already knew one another.

Otherwise, you have to assume one of two possible scenarios took place: 1) Peter was also running a site seeing/tourist boat attraction on the side and Jesus was merely asking for Peter’s service (you know, like cheap ‘Galilee Sea tours’) 2)Jesus stepped into the boat and hypnotized Peter and said “take Me out away from the land!”

It really makes more sense that the two had already met before, as John’s message would allude to.

Then, once away from the shore, Jesus sits down in the boat and begins to teach the crowd at the shoreline.

(Which would have made a lot sense for teaching a large crowd, because of the acoustics that occur across the water.)

When He is done teaching, Jesus says to Peter, “Now go out where it is deeper, and let down your nets to catch some fish.”

You see, up to this point, we have the possible understanding that Peter and Andrew were teetering on their faith and decision to follow Jesus.

So, God being God and Jesus, being His faithful Son, used a miraculous and supernatural occurrence to get Peter and Andrew, as well as their fishing partners, James and John’s attention and that helped to forever change the course of their lives and in the process of their lives being changed, subsequently, the lives of countless millions, upon millions, upon millions of lives thereafter!

Jesus, tells Peter to go out into the deep water and put their nets out, so as to catch some fish.

Well, you need to see how this whole thing is adding up to a miracle, from the get go.

Andrew, Peter, James and John, are professional fishermen.