How many of you have ever been deep sea fishing? I was shocked to learn that more than 2.4 million people participated in this sport last year, resulting in retail sales of almost $2.4 billion dollars and a total economic impact of almost $4.5 billion dollars. Deep sea fishing provides jobs for nearly 55,000 people.

You may be asking what does deep sea fishing have to do with the church? You are going to see over the next four weeks that deep sea fishing is a picture of the deep soul fishing we are to be about as a church.

As I thought about what my very first message in this church would be, I asked myself the question, "If Jesus was here today, what would He see and what would He say?" I believe He wouldn't see a building. I believe He would see a boat. In this crowd, He would see two types of people - fishermen and fish. Let me let you in on a little secret, you are one or the other.

I have no reason to doubt that the very first thing He would say to us would be the very first words He spoke to the very first people who became His disciples. "As He was going along by the Sea of Galilee, He saw Simon and Andrew, the brother of Simon, casting a net in the sea; for they were fishermen. And Jesus said to them, 'Follow Me, and, I will make you fishers of men.'" (Mark 1:16-17, NASB) That one statement tells us what our primary business is, both as a church corporately and as followers of Jesus individually.

I. We Are In The Following Business

It never ceases to amaze me that the first two words Jesus ever said to those who would become His followers were "Follow Me". There are two amazing things about those words. What He said and why He said it. Think about it. When He said those two words, He was talking to complete strangers. He gave them no formal introduction. He presented no credentials, no proof of id, no driver’s license and no social security number. He just simply said, "Follow Me."

Can you imagine what immediately went through their minds, "Follow you?? I don't even know you.” I am reminded of a man that was walking through a cemetery one time and on an old faded gravestone he found this epitaph.

Pause my friend as you go by
As you are now so once was I
As I am now so you will be
Prepare my friend to follow me.
Later on somebody came along and scratched these words underneath those words.
To follow you is not my intent
Until I know which way you went!

I am sure that is how these men felt, but even more amazing is why Jesus asked these men to follow him. He didn't say, "Follow Me and I will make you prosperous" or "Follow Me and I will make you popular" or even "Follow Me and I will make you powerful." What He did say to them was very surprising, very intimidating and very frightening. He said, "Follow Me and I will make you become fishers of men."

You can understand if they had looked at him and said, "Thanks, but no thanks." Look at their response. "Immediately they left their nets and followed Him." (Mark 1:18, NASB)

They were gone in sixty seconds! In the blink of an eye, with a snap of a finger (just like that), gone, left home, business, friends and family and began to follow Jesus.

If you want to know what a true Christian is - there you have it. A Christian is a follower of Jesus. That is where the Christian life begins and ends - following Jesus in life and following Jesus through death.

There is another lesson we learned and that is to follow is to fish or to put it even more simply - Followers Fish. Jesus kept His word to these men, because by the end of the New Testament, these fishermen became fishers of men. Jesus spent all three years of His ministry doing two things - turning people into followers and turning followers into fishermen.

II. We Are In The Finding Business

Now if it is true that to follow is to fish, and if followers fish, that obviously you have to find fish because you can't catch fish until you find them. It stands to reason, if we are in the following business we have to be in the finding business. Please understand this. The church exists for the fish who have not yet been caught. It is our job to go out and find those fish and to catch those fish and to bring those fish into the Kingdom of God.

I do not know very much about fishing. I've not done a lot of it, but I will tell you one thing I do know. Fish do not come to the fisherman. Fishermen have to go to the fish.

In the Book of Romans there is a passage of scripture which is extremely logical and also very relevant. We read these words. "Anyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.” But how can they call on Him to save them unless they believe in Him? How can they believe in Him if they have never heard about Him? How can they hear about him unless someone tells them? How will anyone go and tell them without being sent?" (Romans 10:13-15, NLT)

Let me change the wording of these verses and simply apply it to fishing.

Whatever fish bites the bait of the Gospel will be saved
How can fish be caught without bait?
How can they bite the bait unless they see it?
How will they see it unless it is placed in the water?
How will the bait get into the water unless the fisherman goes to the lake?

You see the problem is, so many of us will leave the church and we will get into our Toyota motorboats, our Audi motorboats, our Ford motorboats, our Mercedes motorboats, or our Lexus motorboats and go cruising around the lakes of our neighborhoods, our schools, our workplace and never once look for fish. Then, we wonder why we never catch any.

There was a young boy who wanted to go down to the lake and fish and his mother asked him to take his little sister with him. He said, "Mom, don't make me take her with me. The last time she came with me I didn't catch a single fish." The mother said, "I'll talk to her and I promise this time she won't make any noise." The boy said, "Mom, it wasn't the noise, she ate all my bait!"

Let me share with you two reasons why most of us are not catching fish. First of all, most of us are not looking for fish and secondly, when we find them we don't fish. We never bait a hook. We never throw a line into the water. We never go fishing.

Your neighborhood is a lake full of fish. Your office is a lake full of fish. Your school is a lake full of fish. I know some of you think you could never fish. Some of you may not know how to fish. Some of you may feel like you are too shy to fish. Listen to what Jesus said, "Follow Me and I will make you become fishers of men." I promise you at Cross Pointe, we are going to train you in a variety of ways on how to build relationships and in a gracious, easy fashion begin to fish for people, but just remember, if you will get into the following business, Jesus will make sure you get into the fishing business.

III. We Are In The Fishing Business

Listen to the words one more time. "Follow Me, and I will make you become fishers of men." (Mark 1:17, NASB) Isn't it interesting that the first people Jesus called to follow Him were fishermen? The first title He gave to them were "fishers of men". What He basically said to them was this, "What you are now doing for a living, I want you to do with your life."

When Jesus said, "I will make you fishers of men", He was saying I will take your with your personality, your background, your testimony, your influence and I will use you to catch men and women and boys and girls and bring them into my family.

I am so grateful for this building we are meeting in. This building is loaded to the gills (no pun intended) with 21st century technology. We have bells and whistles and gidgets and gadgets that are absolutely incredible, but I want to state what I hope is obvious. Buildings don't reach people. Technology doesn't reach people. Bells and whistles and gidgets and gadgets don't reach people. Only people reach people.

Boats don't catch fish. Rods and reels and hooks and lines and sinkers by themselves don't catch fish, only people catch fish and that is why the fishing business is our business.

That is why the very first part of our mission statement is first base. Leading people to be different through knowing Christ, because the greatest difference you will ever make in this life is to lead others to be different in their life by knowing Christ.

I realize there may be some here today that are not followers of Jesus. I want to ask you to think about something as you look around at some of the people beside you who may be followers of Jesus and if you are a follower of Jesus, I want you to consider this as well. We were all fish once and the reason why we want to fish for you is because somebody fished for us. We were caught. We were cleaned and we were changed by the power of Jesus Christ and we love it.

If you are a follower of Jesus I want you to understand that everyday Jesus Christ wants Cross Pointe fishermen to launch out into the sea of humanity and go deep soul fishing, because the church's primary business, the Christian's primary business is the fishing business and no matter what else we do nor how well we do it, if we ever get out of the fishing business, we are out of business.