Page 125 - Fundamentals Ebook

God! Don’t try to do what only God can do! Be yourself, with your
gifts, your vocation, your calling, and your interests.

When you go fishing it might be sales or it might be teaching or it
might be farming or it might be inventing or it might be a machinist
or a doctor or a lawyer or a housewife. Just be who you are and wait
for Jesus to show up. It doesn’t matter if you are selling pencils or
shining shoes or going to school or if you are retired. Until Jesus
shows up, just live. If you are going to understand the Great
Commission, it begins there. Just live and wait for Jesus.

When he went fishing God began to lay down principles of the Great
Commission. Let me show you at least three things that Peter
learned. The first thing he learned in the Great Commission is what
I’ve already mentioned; that is that I’m not a fisherman. I’m not a
soul winner. I’m not a missionary. I’m not an evangelist. For Peter,
this was a refresher course. Three years before, he had a similar
experience. On the level of earth, he fished all night. He fished in
the shallows. He was an expert with the nets. He wasn’t lazy. He
fished all night. Some fisherman have a bad day. He had more than
a bad day. When you have a bad day you catch a few fish. He
worked all night and he caught nothing.

The first thing God teaches us in the Great Commission is that we
don’t know how to fish. John 21:5, “Jesus therefore said to them,
‘Children, you do not have any fish, do you?” they answered Him,
‘No.’” “Have you caught any fish,” and they had to say, “No.” If
you want to fulfill the Great Commission you’ve got to see that you
can’t do it. You can’t do it, God can do it but He won’t. He says,
“I won’t do it by myself and you can’t do it but I will do it in union
with you.

Peter learned, “I can’t do it. I’m not sufficient.” Here is the second
lesson, John 21:6, “And he said to them, ‘Cast the net on the right-
hand side of the boat, and you will find a catch.’ They cast therefore,
and then they were not able to haul it in because of the great number