Dive into an introspective journey with Sharon Knotts as she unpacks the profound moment when Jesus called Peter into a new life as a ‘fisher of men’. Discover the depth of faith and surrender as Peter navigates between his expertise in fishing and the divine call placed upon him by the Lord. This episode looks at how an ordinary visit to familiar shores became an extraordinary call to a divine mission.
Greetings friends and new listeners. Welcome to the Sound of Faith. I’m Sharon Knotts thanking you for joining us today because we know faith comes by hearing and hearing by the Word of God. I’m really excited to bring you today’s message, Bringing in the Big Fish. Now this was an illustrated sermon which included a short video clip from a tuna fishing trip that my husband Benny went on with some Christian brothers. While you obviously cannot see the video, I believe that you can still receive a blessing from the hearing of the word and from the thrust of the message on how you can win those hardcore unsaved cases to the Lord in bringing in the big fish. Peter recognized that there was something astonishing, amazing. authoritative about the word of this new rabbi, this Jesus. And so even though somewhere in the back of his mind he was thinking, I am so tired I can hardly hold my head up. And I do not feel like lugging these heavy nets and throwing them out there again. And we’ve done fished all night when the fish can’t see the nets. And doesn’t he get it? Maybe he doesn’t know. He’s a carpenter. What does he know about fishing? You can’t fish with nets in the daylight. And all of these ifs and buts were in the back of Peter’s mind. But he said, on the ground of your word. Because when you speak, something supernatural happens. So on the ground of your word, I’m going to let the net down again. Amen. And when they had done this… He got so many fish in the net that the net broke. And he had to summon, he had to call out, hey John, hey James, hurry, hurry, hurry. And they got their boat over there and they began to take some of the fish out of the net and put it in their boat. And both of their boats were so filled that they began to sink. Can you imagine this? Now, I read, according to the information that I had, that that would have been about three quarters of a ton of fish. Do you know how much that is? You know a ton is 2,000 pounds, right? So this was three quarters of a ton. That’s how, and do you normally, it would have taken them going out every night and having a good night every night. It would have taken them at least two weeks. to bring that much fish in. And they had so many fish that the net was beginning to break. Now, Peter says, does something very unusual. He falls down at Jesus, says his knees. So I don’t know if he’s grabbing hold of his knees or what he’s doing, but he said, depart from me. Depart from me, Lord. I’m a sinful man, Lord. Now Jesus has been to his house. I don’t know how many times he sat there and had dinner with him so many times. I mean, Jesus was just beginning to be like just part of the family. And all of a sudden he said, get away from me, Lord. Get away from me. I’m a sinful man. What was going on here? Because when Peter became aware and witnessed the extraordinary, miraculous, creative demonstration that Jesus just said, just let down your net, and they took in that kind of fish, he realized that this was something that was so supernatural, so spectacular. He was thinking, what kind of man is this? And let me tell you something. When he said Lord, he wasn’t using it in the polite sense. Because I’ve told you before that there is sometimes in the scripture the word Lord is equivalent to sir. It’s like Lord and lady. It’s a polite title. He wasn’t using it in that way. He was saying Lord like in capital L-O-R-D. He was saying oh this is the awesome God. This is the Jehovah God. This is the creator God. This is the supreme Lord. And you see the closer that you get to God’s holiness the closer that you get to the divine power of God the more Humble you become. And the more you look at yourself, you know, you can think, well, I’ve been saved so long and I’ve got this ministry and I do this and that and the other. But let me tell you something. When you have those seasons that you press into God. and you get close to the Lord, all of the sudden you’ll begin to feel there’s filth and uncleanness in you. You’ll begin to cry out, search me, O Lord, and know my heart today. Try me, O Savior, and see if there’s any wicked way in me. And that’s what Peter was experiencing because he realized that he was in the presence of divinity. He was in the presence of God, and he was astonished. Amen. Now, they were familiar with his healing miracles, but they had never seen anything. This was taking it to a whole new level. And consider how Jesus answered him back. He said, fear not. Now, what were they afraid of? Were they afraid they were all going to sink? No, Jesus wasn’t speaking like they were afraid of sinking. He was telling them fear not because he realized that at this point they were so overwhelmed at the presence, the power, the majesty of Jesus that as Peter said, they wanted to draw back. Whenever you see in the Bible where angels came and showed up with a message, what is the first thing out of their mouth? Fear not. I came to tell you something good. Fear not. Because when you get in the presence of the supernatural, your natural body just starts turning to jello. Something on the inside of you starts quivering. Amen. Sometimes when you get filled with the Holy Ghost, your whole body shakes. You can’t control it. Your lips get to stammering. Your tongue gets to quivering because it is the effect of the supernatural on the natural. So Jesus said, fear not. And you know, Jesus knew that this was the moment. How long had he been hanging around in Capernaum? How many times he had been to dinner at Peter’s house? How many times had he been there in the synagogue Sabbath ministering? But he was waiting for the right moment because God knows when the fish is ready. He knows the right moment. And he knew that this was the moment for him to say to them, Fear not, because from now on, you’re going to be catching men. If you read it in Matthew, it says, follow me and I will make you fishers of men. Amen. And Jesus knew this was the time and he had it right because they couldn’t get the boats back to the shore quick enough. They got the boats back. They got the nets in and the oars in and they threw it all in there. They said, dad, James and John went to their papa, said, papa, you better find somebody else to take the boat out tonight because we’re going to follow Jesus. Hallelujah. Hallelujah. He had the right moment. And I can imagine they had so much zeal. You know how it was when you first got saved. You were ready to win the world all by yourself. You had so much zeal and the love of God burning in your soul. And they were thinking, my God, if catching men is half as fun as catching fish like this, sign me up. I want to go in business with this guy. Amen? They thought this is the most fun, this is the most wonderful, awesome thing we’ve ever seen. And if he says we can go out and catch men, if it’s going to be anything like this, we’re ready to go on our adventure in partnership with Jesus. Amen? So I want you to see now, we’re realizing now we’re going into the place and we understand that he has called us to be fishers of men. Now, when they fished with nets, they caught all kinds of fish. In fact, sometimes they caught fish and things they had to throw back. When you put a net out there, you don’t know what you’ll get. Especially today, you might get somebody’s old rusty army boot. I mean, it’s no telling what you might come up in your net today. And you see, we don’t see fishing with nets today except for in commercial use. Like in Alaska, they catch the salmon. And up in the northern waters of Atlantic, they catch the cod and the pollock. And those fish, they are allowed, they’re licensed to catch them with nets. Amen? And so I think of catching with nets spiritually now, and I hope that you will always see that I’m talking on two tracks at once, the spiritual and the natural. If you think that way, then we’ll get it all, okay? And so… When we see the big crusades, when we see crusades, when I was growing up, it was like A.A. Allen. And we had the tent revivals of Brother Allen and Jack Coe and Gene Ewing and Brother Schambach. And then we had the big auditorium meetings. We had, like today, Benny Hinn will rent the arena. And we’ll see thousands. There might be 15,000 or 20,000 people in an arena. And so when he has an altar call, there’s no way to minister to every one of those people individually. So they have an altar call. And if you’ve ever been there, it takes a long time to bring that net in. People are coming from the third tier on the balcony and all over the place. And they all press up there in the front. And it’s literally thousands all pressed up there. He put out the net. and pulled in, and thousands of people come up to receive Jesus. But we know honestly and truthfully they don’t all stick. Amen. A lot of them go back. Amen. Not all of them go through with the Lord. And when you fish with big nets, that’s how it is. You catch a lot of fish, but some have to be thrown back. Sadly, not everyone that comes in those altar calls really mean business and go all the way with the Lord. So we want to look at individual fishing because that is what he’s called me to do and you to do as individual fishers. When we have services where we invite many to come up, it’s like putting out the net. But God has called us to go individually and catch fish one at a time. Amen? And so at this point, I want my assistant, if he will get the gear, I would like my assistant brother Mike, he’s going to show us what it’s like to go out fishing when you’re catching one fish at a time. And he, like my husband, loves to go fishing. And sometimes he would go off down to Ocean City and go out on one of those boats where you catch sea bass. Sometimes when he used to have a little canoe down at the campgrounds, he’d go out all by himself in that little canoe. And he would, I want you to come up here so the people can see you better. And now, look at these lures. Aren’t they wild? What happens is, you want me to hold which one? Okay, you’re okay. Now, this one’s not on a rod because he didn’t want to have to bring out two rods. Now, what happens is this would be on a rod. And, of course, when you’re reeling it out there, it’s moving. And this is what you use to catch what, Mike? For rockfish. This one. Well, this one, in other words, this one’s got the hook on it. See, this one’s got the big hook. And what they do is this one will be the one trailing, right? He’s trailing, and why? Because when the fish see the one fish all by himself, he thinks that’s a school of fish. You’ve got to imagine in the water, these little things are flipping around, and they’re all flipping around. They look real pretty, and they’re dancing in the water. But this guy’s way back here all alone. And so the other fish think, ah, I see a weak one. And so he goes after that one, and that’s the one with the big hook. So that’s one type. And then show them the one that’s actually on the rod. Now this one’s pretty fancy. I forgot what Benny told me it cost to rig something like this, but it’s not cheap. Okay, look at this guy. Now remember, in the water, folks, now here we go. Here’s the trailer with the hook. In the water, this is going to flip sideways. In other words, in the water, this is going to be like this. That means the fish are going to be doing this. Okay? And then this guy is lagging behind. And so he’s the one with the big hook. So the fish are going to come and latch on to him. And hopefully you get a big rockfish. Because rockfish, it depends. They can go anywhere. Well, you’re not allowed to keep them unless they’re a certain size. But rockfish can be anywhere from 32 inches to 60 inches. Now, I’m only 63 inches. So you’re talking about a rockfish probably about up to here. And they can weigh anywhere from 15 to 50 pounds. And that’s why you have to have these kinds of lure. Now, Mike is usually… Normally, I thought he was going to come out with his sunglasses on and his fishing hat on and all that because you’ve got to go prepared, amen, for the weather. But I wanted him to show you these. All right, thank you, Brother Mike. Now, this is what you would need if you wanted to go with rock fishing. Now, when Benny would go down on the ocean city boats… These boats can hold up to 75 people. And you have to get in line early because people are trying to get on the boat. And so it’s always probably at least 50 people on most of the boats. Some boats are bigger than others, but let’s say an average of 50 boats. And here’s the thing about it. All kinds of people. Women are on there, even kids, learning how to fish. They go with their parents, learning how to fish. And it’s a lot of fun. And they’re jammed in there next to one another. One, you know, I mean, they’re all just jammed in there. Now, a mate goes around and helps them with their… They use bait. And Benny says that most of the time they use squid. And so they have to put that on there. Now, here’s the thing about it. The captain, he’s driving the boat. And he’s got sophisticated fish finder sonar equipment on the boat. and it tells them where the fish are. So he’s driving along, and he’s waiting for those beeps to come up, and that electronic finds the fish. He goes there, and you know, he’s in that area, and he says, all right, this is where the fish are, guys, and I’m telling you, everybody’s fishing. They’re having a good time, and when the fish are biting, you can catch them as fast as you can Take them off the hook and put more bait on. You can catch them fish one after the other. And it’s a lot of fun. And it’s a lot of fun to come home with a cooler full of sea bass. You talk about some good eating. Fresh out of the ocean. And you cook it while it’s still fresh. Don’t even freeze it. Get some and cook it right away. Oh, man, you talk about good. Now, the sea bass are much smaller, of course. You don’t have to have the big old sophisticated things like you have for the rockfish. They’re only from 13 to 14 inches, and they only weigh from a pound to a pound and a half. And so all they need is the little piece of squid on there to catch it. I read a cute story the other day. I thought it was so cute, I have to tell you, about this young boy. And I don’t know the ages, but anyway, his parents allowed him to take his little sister out fishing while they went shopping. And so later on that evening, they all came home, and the little boy was so aggravated. He says, I will never do that again. I didn’t catch anything. And the mom says, oh, what’s wrong? What happened? Did your sister make too much noise? No, he said, she ate all the bait. Everybody’s got a fish story. So that’s what you have to do if you want to seriously go. If you’re going to go on that boat and pay 70 or 75 bucks, you want to come home with a bunch of fish. You want to have a good time. You want to catch them. And I can tell when they pull up in the driveway, I look out the window. All I got to do is look at their countenance. And I can tell. I know whether it’s been a good fishing day. I can tell how he jumps out of that truck and goes and gets, you know, you can just see, you know, and they’re smiling. And I can tell when they get out and they close the door and they’re like, oh, boy. Oh, boy. Fished all day and caught no fish. Amen. But now I told you that the message was going to be about fishing for the big fish. Amen. And when you want to fish for the big fish saints, you got to go out into the deeper waters. And it’s a whole lot more work. Amen. And I’m talking about like fishing for tuna fish. How many like to eat tuna? Well, you know, they’re pretty big fish. And not only that, they are really fighters. They fight when you get them on the hook. But that’s part of the fun of going fishing, is fighting to bring the fish in. Amen? And so in order to go fishing for them, you have to get on a rather decent-sized boat. You have to get on a charter boat and something that can go out there on the Atlantic Ocean in the deep waters. Amen? And because depending on whether it’s a yellowfin or a bluefin, it can weigh anywhere from 40 pounds to 120 pounds and be from 3 feet to 5 feet long because they get kind of like bulgy around here. Rockfish are longer. These are like fat around the middle. And so when you go out on one of those charter boats, you need special equipment. Now, once again, he’s going to have the fish finder. He’s going to be able to know where to find the fish because these people have paid a lot of money. to go out on this kind of fishing. And so he’s going to have the right equipment. The captain’s going to know the waters. He’s going to know his boat well. He knows where the fish are. He knows how to take the fishermen to the place where the fish are. And so this means they are really going to need special rods. In fact, you can’t bring your own rod. And that’s why the boat supplies its own rods. There is no way you’re going to have a rod that’s going to be strong enough to be able to catch a tuna. These are heavy-duty rods and heavy-duty reels that will not snap and will not break under pressure and under prolonged pressure. Amen? Because let me tell you something. The captain can get you there. He can get you to the spot where the fish are. It’s not hard for him to find them. And if you’ve got the right rods, you’ve got the right lures, you’ve got the right bait, it’s not hard to get the tuna to bite. But bringing them in… You see, you don’t want them just to bite. You want to bring them in. And bringing them in is a lot harder. You’re going to have to fight and hang on and crank and crank until you think your arm is going to explode. And hold on until your arm is burning and your fingers are cramping up until you feel like you can’t hold on any longer. And your arms are screaming. But whatever you do… Don’t let go of the rod. Look at somebody and say whatever you do. Don’t let go of the rod. Don’t let go. All right, now if the brother will put the lights out, please. I now want to introduce you to, this is video from a tuna trip that Benny, brother Mike, brother Frank, his two sons, Frankie and Danny, and brother Lonnie went on back in 2008 off of Watchapree, Virginia. And I’m only going to show you one clip, and this clip is Dan the tuna man. Now that’s Lonnie holding the chair and that’s Dan in the seat. I wish that you could see, but you can’t. His feet pushing on the front of the boat. He’s happened to use his legs and the strength of his legs to push against the boat to hold himself in the chair. He’s belted in the chair. The rod is in a rod holder between his legs, holding the rod. That’s not a tuna, that’s something else. That’s a mahi-mahi. Now, what I want you to see, that guy there is the mate. So don’t ask me who he is. I’m telling you now, he’s the mate. You’re not going to see the other guys because they’re in the back. But you’ll notice that throughout the whole time that Lonnie is there to support him in that chair. Amen. What an exciting message bringing in the big fish. Jesus began his ministry on the shores of Galilee, a large freshwater lake where fishing was big business because fish was the people’s main source of protein. He actually preached a sermon from a boat as the multitudes were gathered along the shore on Galilee. afterward he told simon peter to launch out into deeper waters and let down his nets for a haul of fish at which peter protested and informed him we fished all night and did not catch a thing but on the ground of your word we will let them down again And when they did, to their surprise, they caught so many fish, he had to call for backup of his partners, James and John, to bring them in. Jesus said, from now on, you will catch men. And when they came to land, they forsook all and followed him. Now they fished with nets, and this meant they caught all kinds of fish, and some had to be thrown back. To me, this is analogous to the great tent and auditorium and TV crusades today, when thousands answer an altar call to be saved, and sadly, some will go back. But what about those one-on-one hard cases of trying to win someone to Christ? For these, you need a rod, a hook, and bait. Sort of like tuna fishing. These fish are huge, heavy, and they fight hard. Getting them on the hook is easy. Reeling them in is the hard part. You have to be belted into a fighting chair and And it can take a long time until the fish exhausts itself. And that’s how it is when the Holy Ghost has someone on the hook of conviction. That’s when you have to hold on to the rod. Don’t let go. Stay in the prayer chair and keep cranking it until that person is tired of running from God. Bringing in the big fish can be ordered on CD for a love gift to the radio ministry of $10 or more. Request SK154 today. That’s SK154. Mail to P.O. Box 1744, Baltimore, Maryland, 21203. Or order online at ArchieHardy.org, where you can also get it on MP3, where you can also browse our other resources and email us. But to order by mail, send a minimum love gift of $10 to P.O. Box 1744, baltimore maryland 21203 request sk154 until next time this is sharon not saying maranatha
Dive into an introspective journey with Sharon Knotts as she unpacks the profound moment when Jesus called Peter into a new life as a ‘fisher of men’. Discover the depth of faith and surrender as Peter navigates between his expertise in fishing and the divine call placed upon him by the Lord. This episode looks at how an ordinary visit to familiar shores became an extraordinary call to a divine mission.
