Well, I like hanging out with the young missionaries. They make me feel younger. And I probably make them feel older. I don't know. But I talk with my wife. I talk with her every day. I called her this morning and then again this evening. And we've had a great privilege. We've all talked about being shy and not really wanting to preach and all that. But Lynn and I started out, we never thought we'd go anywhere. That was the last thing on our list. We've gone, we've lived now on three different continents, several different countries. We didn't, we never thought we would do that. Every place we've gone and every ministry we've been in, we loved it. And we thought that's where we live and die. But God does have a sense of humor. And so after 16 years working in Senegal, working with Muslim people, We were asked, would you pray about going to Zaire? And we gave the Christian answer, we'll pray about it. That means there's no way in the world we're gonna do that. It didn't make sense, not logical. We invested in French and Wolof and knew our people and knew the customs and out there you don't point, where's Brother Sinclair? Now that's not what you do in Senegal, you point this way. I've been wanting to do that, not really. You point with your tongue. In the Philippines, you use your lips. Anyway, we thought we'd live and die in Senegal, but I went on a trip with a group of young people, 17 young people felt called to come to Zaire to work in a work that had been established back in 1920. I traveled with them on a trip that was just crazy. We rode on top of one of these big trucks for 48 hours. Had barrels of fuel, trunks on top of the barrels, suitcases on top of that. And then we sat on top of that, hanging on for dear life, and thought we'd never get out there. We slept on that trip five nights. We slept on a sandbar in the middle of the Kasai River, and the hippopotamus and the crocodiles coming up out of the river around us. But God used that trip to change our lives, because all those young people were willing to go there, but none of them spoke the language, none of them had any experience. And we went there and got caught up immediately in fighting and trouble. And for the next six months, nobody knew we were dead or nobody here in the United States knew we were dead or alive, including our mission agency. And we had a daughter in college and a married son, and they didn't know we were alive for six months. We got no money, no mail. You know the hardest thing about that? We were fine, but we had no way of letting other people know we were okay. And those Christians there would walk 20, 30 miles to our house with a bowl full of eggs, pineapples, bananas. grub, whatever they had, they shared with us. And we stayed there until 1993 when we were evacuated out, my wife and kids, and then later I had to leave. And I thought I'd go be back there. I thought six months, I'll be back there. And that didn't happen. And I became pastor for nine years. And then again, the phone rang, Brother Godfrey, would you pray about and I gave the Christian answer. I'll pray about it, but I really fought that, all right? I'm just being honest with you. I fought that for seven months. I pastored a growing church, a wonderful church. I had been a kid preacher under the founding pastor of that church. and the folk associated me with him, and I just stepped, and God was blessing, and God was calling young people into missions. Our faith promise went up every year. In fact, it was more than the whole church budget when I came back in 93 and took it, but I thought, and I was teaching missions at Ambassador, this is exactly what I'm made for. But then the question came, would you pray about coming back? Would I be serving as Far East field director? And I told Dr. Sisk, you're out of your mind. We're Africans, we speak French, Wolof, Kikongo, and some Arabic, and you want me to go to China and Japan and Mongolia? And it's scared my wife worse than anything we've ever done. because leaving where she loved in a church and people, we had one to the Lord, many of them, and we were in Alaska last year, and the privilege of doing what we do, the first church, I preached in four churches last November in Alaska. The first one, the missionary is a young man who I led to the Lord, who graduated from our Christian school, surrendered to preach the gospel there, went to Crown College, got married, and they're way out in the, 300, four hours drive outside of Anchorage out in the middle of nowhere. I'm just saying, God does have a sense of humor. And if you think you can figure it out, you probably can't. because it is God working in our hearts and lives. Just a few weeks ago, this year, Linda and I lived from January to May in Lancaster, California, and one day, a lot of the year out there is really hot, but in the January, February, March, it can be cold there, and the wind blows. In fact, I tell the students, I say, when I came here, I had hair. But anyway, that's not the truth. But I had gone home, usually Linda would walk over and have lunch with me at the college, but one day I'd gone home to get her because it was cold and windy, and I was getting ready to back out to go to lunch, and my phone rang, and I looked at it, and it said, Jamie Smithy. Well, that's the other missions teacher there, brand new teacher, and I was trying to help him. They asked me, would you teach him how to teach missions? So, it said Jamie Smithy, and I answered, and when I answered, someone said, salam aleikum. And I said, aleikum salam. He said, do you have peace? And I said, peace only. He said, how are you doing? I'm doing fine, I'm praising God. What's your name? And I had a 15 minute conversation in California in Wolof. Because Jamie was out knocking on doors out there and this man was, he spoke English with an accent and he said, sir, where are you from? He said, Senegal. He said, well, do you speak Wolof? And the guy about passed out because Americans don't know that Wolof is a language. He said, yes, I do. Do you? He said, not a word. But I have a friend who does. I'm just telling you, that was my third time living in California when I've had extended conversations. with Muslim people. In fact, one army officer near Edwards Air Force Base got saved about several years ago there. Anyway, I want you to open your Bibles tonight to Luke chapter five. Now this is, I was here Sunday all day and last night, and here we are Tuesday night, and so it's time for a test. How many of you like to take tests? Don't lie. I tell my students, y'all think you don't like to take tests, it's worse to make a test. Luke chapter five, we're gonna talk tonight about passing the test. Let me read the first 11 verses. And it came to pass that as the people pressed upon him to hear the word of God, he stood by the lake of Gennesaret and saw two ships standing by the lake, but the fishermen were going out of them and were washing their nets. And he entered into one of the ships, which was Simon's, and prayed him that he would thrust out a little from the land. And he sat down and taught the people out of the ship. Now, when he left speaking, he said unto Simon, watch out into the deep, let down your nets for a drop. And Simon answering, said unto him, Master, we taught all night, and we taken nothing. Nevertheless, at thy word, I will let down the net. And when they had thus done, they enclosed a great multitude of fish in their net break, and they beckoned unto their partners that were in the other ship, that they should come and help them. And they came and filled both the ships so that they began to sink. When Simon Peter saw it, he fell down at Jesus' knees saying, depart from me for I'm a sinful man, oh Lord. Have you ever felt that way? I talked last night about the glory of God. When you're praying, when you're meditating, reading God's word, Lord, I'm a sinful person. I don't even know why you would want anything to do with me. But verse number nine, for he was astonished, and all that were with him at the draught of the fish which they had taken. And so was also James and John, the sons of Zebedee, which were partners with Simon. And Jesus said unto Simon, fear not, from henceforth thou shalt catch men. And when they had brought their ships to land, they forsook all and followed him. In the chapter before, you know, I mentioned this already, context is so important. The chapter before, Jesus had returned from his temptation, where he was led of the Holy Spirit out into the wilderness to be tempted. It was no accident. The Holy Spirit led him there, and he went through those days of temptation, and he returns from that in the power of the Spirit of God to Galilee and then to Nazareth, and he's in the synagogue, and when he's there, he reads the words, the Spirit of the Lord is upon me. because he hath anointed me to preach the gospel to the poor. He has sent me to heal the brokenhearted, to preach deliverance to the captives, and recovering of sight to the blind, and to set at liberty them that are bruised. Look, the people heard that, they were astonished. He had power over demons, he had power over disease. So no wonder when we come to chapter five, that as he was there, the people pressed upon him. They wanted to hear him. Have you ever tried to preach, and you probably have, and you're going to, have you ever tried to preach when everybody's standing right here in front of you? And there are hundreds of people, and it's not sloped, it's just people there, and the people pressed upon him. If you've never tried to preach that way, you've got a treat coming. I remember my first days in Senegal, we'd just gotten there, and up there the drums beat all the time. And every time the drums start beating, there's either a wedding or a funeral or a party or something's going on. And I've got this curious side of me, I want to see what it is. And one evening the drum started, the tom-toms started going, I'm going to go see what's happening. I don't know why we weren't afraid of anything back then. That's a long time ago. So I went to where the drums were at, and at this time, it was an African wrestling match. Now, it's not like what they show on TV, all right? It was just sandy there, it's desert, and they had some stakes in the ground about this high, and one rope all the way around that wrestling match. Well, I got there early. We got here early. All of us missionaries got here before you all did, Sandy. That's a good thing, though. And so I got there early, so I'm standing at that rope. And that's the only thing between me and where they're going to wrestle. Well, their wrestling is like Greco-Roman. They're big guys, and they come in with grease all over them, and they put on a show. But then the first guy that hits the ground, the match is over. but they really get excited about this, so I'm standing there, well, I wasn't really noticing, people kept coming and kept coming and kept coming, and now I'm at the rope, and everybody's trying to watch the match, and I am digging in with both feet, and there's nothing to hold, and I'm just praying, Lord, I don't wanna go in that ring with all those two big Africans. And Jesus was there, and there's something different about him. Now he's fully man, we know that, but he's the God man, and he's the friend of sinners. And everyone around him knew there was something different about him, and they came to hear him. And he stepped onto a boat, and he was preaching that day to the crowds. But he was there, I think you'll see in a moment in these verses I just read that his message that day, even though he was preaching to the crowd, his message was really to one person. Have you ever been in church when you know that the preacher knew exactly what you'd been doing last week? Sometimes I've been there and I know that message today, maybe not for anyone else, but that message was for me. Because Jesus takes time to help people personally. That's one of the greatest things in my opinion. There's so many wonderful things about him. But one of the greatest things about Jesus is he is so personal. For God so loved the world, that is so true. But it's a whole lot more personal than that. God loves you, and God loves me, and he knows all about me. And Jesus wanted to help people personally. He wanted to transform them to become like him so that he could send them out and catch fish. We just heard about that a moment ago. So here in this beautiful setting, the Sea of Galilee, it's called the Sea of Tiberias, the Lake of Gennesaret. Luke called it a lake. He wasn't from there. It was a beautiful part of the world. It was, at that time, populated. They tell us probably 15,000 people lived around the shores of that lake. And that day, his message was for Simon Peter. Let me just point out before I get into those, my five, it's five test questions, that's what I have. But this was not the first time that Peter had met Jesus. The first time you meet him, you don't know everything about him. In fact, sometime when you first hear about him, when you first get saved, you know very little about him, but you know that you're a sinner and he died for you. But Jesus and Peter met back in John chapter one. I love that chapter. I've used it very many times, witnessing the Muslim people, because I start with Abraham and the sacrifice of his son and how God provided the ram. And then I tell them, okay, you understand the son did not have to die because the ram died in his place. And when Yahia, that's John the Baptist, when Yahia saw Jesus, here's what he said, holenum botemiala, buddhinde bakarubadinasi, behold the Lamb of God which taketh away the sin of the world. So back there, Peter wasn't there when that was stated, but a short time later, Peter showed up and he heard John the Baptist say, behold the Lamb of God. And I believe, and I think if you go back and read that chapter, John chapter one, that was the day that Peter got saved. He's the Lamb of God that takes away the sin of the world. And we know he followed Jesus even then. Matthew chapter four, we have another meeting. Jesus was passing by this, not this same place maybe, but by the Sea of Galilee. And here was Peter along with Andrew and James and John. And he had said, follow me. and I will make you fishers of men. There's nothing greater in the world than being a fisher of men. I keep referring to just privileges and blessing God's given to Linda and to me. We started out as a little hillbilly kids that didn't want to go anywhere. We've had the privilege now of winning people to Christ on six different continents, not countries. I make that statement and I feel so unworthy. I feel so humble that God's let us go all over this world and tell people about Jesus. So Peter, along with Andrew and James and John, they had been enlisted in travel with Jesus. And they went in what we would call a call to a life of full-time discipleship. Jesus said, follow me. Now all Christians should get there in a hurry. That's not how you get saved. You get saved when you realize He is the Lamb of God. He died for you. But shortly thereafter, we ought to all be involved in doing our best, giving out. I don't travel a lot. I don't go anywhere. I've got gospel tracts in my pocket. I've got gospel tracts in my car. You know one of the best things about winning people? Just put a smile on your face. It shocks people so bad. Our daughter, we had three daughters, but one of our daughters, she's not so young anymore either, but she was saying one day, she said, when I go to the grocery store, it's like I got a sign on my back, please come talk to me. You know why? Because it's so rare that you see somebody that's got a smile on their face, and usually you can tell the joy of the Lord about them. But anyway, Peter had met Jesus there. But Jesus, listen, Jesus wanted more from Peter. Every one of these missionaries and the pastors, and most of you could tell in your own life that you didn't get it all at once. You got salvation, but there was a progression. You started learning things. In my own testimony, I know I got saved when I was 12 years old, but no one ever discipled me. I wish they had. I went to church, I didn't go all the time. I didn't even go to church for the right reason. When I went, they played football after church was over. And I thought, this is a pretty good place to find a girlfriend. Anyway, I didn't even go for the right reason, but I went and I heard the gospel and I got saved. But there was a time in my life when I came to that time, am I going to surrender to his will or not? Now every one of us ought to do that. Can I just say this? The day you get saved, it's a great day in your life. But for me, the day that I surrendered everything, my will, my future, who I was gonna marry, how I was gonna make my living, what I was gonna do with my life. That was one of the greatest days in my life. It takes the burden off your shoulders. You don't have to worry about it. You belong to him, and I surrendered. But there was a time in our life, Linda and I, before we got married, we had decided certain things. Let me just, certain things we don't even have to pray about. We never have one time prayed about whether we should tithe or not. Why don't you pray about something that God told you to do? We don't even pray about giving faith promise. I mean, we pray about the amount. Well, we had already, both of us, surrendered our lives to the Lord before we got married, but we had no idea where we were gonna go. Every time we heard a missionary, we wanted to go there. So we came to a missions conference like this, we'd be confused. We'd feel like a termite in a yo-yo after the mission conference. We want to go to Cameroon, we want to go to South Africa. We didn't know, but we knew God would use us. But there came a time in our lives when he said, here's what I want you to do. I want you to go to Africa. and we didn't understand all that was involved in that, but we surrendered to it. Now, let me come to my five questions. Here they are, this is your test. Jesus is talking to Peter, and he's giving him a test, and the first question was this. Peter, will you give me your boat? My boat, Lord? That's my livelihood. There were a lot of other boats there that day. Jesus could have asked a lot of other people, but he's, Peter, can I have your boat? I believe that God cannot use many people because they're slaves to stuff. We Americans, Anybody ever watch this program, Hoarders on TV? We Americans, we're not as bad as some of those on, but we can't put everything we've got, a lot of us can't even park in our own garage. Because we got so much stuff in there. And then when that overflows, we rent storage. And I'm not fussing or anything, I'm just saying that. Are we tied to stuff? whatever that may be, a house, a job, a family, habits and hobbies. And God says, this first test question, is there anything that would keep me from using you? And Jesus said to Peter, can I have your boat? Now it might not be your boat. It may be, I don't know. I'm not gonna give a list of suggestions. God, the Holy Spirit will do that. Question number one, will you give me your boat? His second question was similar. He said, not only Peter do I want your boat, I want you with the boat. Now, Peter at this point, I'm not going to reread it, but Peter was tired and frustrated. And Jesus is saying, Peter, is your time my time? How many people say, I don't have time for those church services. I'm too busy for that. Ministry all day, all time, I work hard, missions conference, I'm not. Jesus said, Peter, can I have your time? I don't want just what you have. I want you. And he does, he wants me, he wants you. Third question to Peter was this, Peter, will you yield to me your will? Now, can you imagine what Peter's thinking by now? What in the world do carpenters know about fishing? It wasn't really a command that Jesus gave him. It was more of a suggestion. There were other people there. They could have let down their nets. Peter thought, it's the wrong time. Somebody else can do this. Lord, we've been out all night. We've already been out there. And Jesus is saying to Peter, Peter, would you change your plans for me? See, God had called Peter to fail the night before. All the fish went on vacation. And they had been out there laboring and they hadn't caught one single fish. And the Lord gave him a request and a promise. He said, let down your nets. And of course there, Peter contradicts Jesus and Peter went partway. But I will say this, when you put all your nets into the water of the will of God, you'll stand back and watch God work. When you can't figure it out, when you have questions, Lord, I've been trying to do it. Anybody here, don't raise your hands, because I would have to be the first one. Anybody here tonight, you've already tried to do it without Him? Let me give you question number four. Peter, will you yield to me, not only your will, but will you yield to me your pride? I know it's embarrassing, Peter. You're a fisherman. You've been fishing all night. But here's what I want you to do. Peter had to get rid of his pride to do that. Now watch it. As soon as the nets hit the water, he fell at Christ's feet. A man is seldom as tall as when he kneels before his maker, an act of the deepest humility coupled with worship. Why did Peter fall at his feet? Let me just say what I think. I think Peter was trying to figure out prior to this, he knew there was something different about Jesus. He knew he was the Lamb of God. He was trying to figure out, now let's not be too hard on these disciples and apostles We wouldn't have figured it out probably either. But I believe the moment those nets hit the water and all those fish were caught, Peter realized something more than he had ever realized about who Jesus really was. His power, his deity, in a way that totally overcame him. And immediately, Peter saw Jesus as not only savior and not only master, but he saw him as God. In fact, he called him here Lord. Before he had called him Captain, now he's calling him Lord because he yielded to Christ his pride. And then my fifth question is this, Peter, will you give me your love? That's what he was wanting all the time. Because we see in these verses, the end of the verses I read, not only Peter, but these other men, they forsook all. The fish they had caught would help provide for their families. They didn't ask the question where. They don't care about the boat. They don't care about the job. They don't care about retirement. Peter said, Lord, I've had enough. Let me alone. I'll do anything you want me to do. Will you give me your love, Peter? Now let me finish this way this evening. What if Peter had failed the test? Just think about that a moment. He would not have been an apostle. There would be no first and second Peter in this holy book. Well, how many would miss that? First Peter and all the great verses about the comfort of God There would have been no first and second Peter. The first 12 chapters of the book of Acts would have very little in it if Peter had failed this test. What if William Carey and Adonai Judson and Jim Elliott, David Livingston had failed their test? What if Rick Martin and James Ray and Ron White and Ben Sinclair. What if we failed? What if we fail our test? What if I fail? I surrendered my all to the Lord in 1967. That was a long time ago. Let me tell you what I lost. It won't take me long. Not one thing that I can even imagine. Boy, but tell you what I gained. You see, one second of time can change your whole life, change mine. That second of time, when I said, Lord, I don't understand it, it scares me to death, the thought of preaching and going across the world. But in that one second of time, I made the decision, Lord, I'm yours. You've got my will, you've got my pride, you've got my love, it's yours. And the verse 11 here says, listen, having left the boats and the fish and their work and their families and their home, you might could say they lost all that, but they gained Christ. Can we pass the test? Dear Lord, I pray tonight that as we consider these questions, every person here tonight, many of us have already answered them, but sometimes we have to come back again and say, Lord, I really did mean it when I said I surrender my all to you. And Lord, if there's someone that's just been clinging on to some boat or something, I just pray that you would help them work in their hearts tonight. May we all answer the questions by saying, Lord, I fall upon my face. I'm a sinful person because I realize who you are. And I pray that you'd help me to live in the light of that fact. In Jesus' name, I pray. Let's all stand, please. If God's speaking to your heart tonight and you need to come to the altar and pray, you need to speak with your pastor, please feel free to do that. Pastor, let's have our invitation.