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[Music] ♪ Went on the cross of Calvary ♪ ♪ The Lord was crucified ♪ ♪ The mob stood round about him ♪

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♪ And they mocked him until he died ♪ ♪ Two thieves were hanging beside him ♪ ♪ Just to share the agony ♪ ♪ But one of them, one of them cried out to him ♪

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♪ Oh Lord, remember me ♪ ♪ Oh what, what a shame to kill him ♪ ♪ Out there on that old rugged cross ♪ ♪ Oh, but such, such a death was needed ♪

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♪ Just to rescue all of the lost ♪ ♪ Oh, his blood was made a ransom ♪ ♪ Just to set the captains free ♪ ♪ And I know, I know I'm included ♪

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♪ Lord will remember me ♪ ♪ Oh will the Lord remember me ♪ ♪ Oh when I am called to go ♪ ♪ Oh when I have crossed that chilly sea ♪

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♪ Will he, his love, I'll show ♪ ♪ Yes, yes he, yes he heard ♪ ♪ Heard my feeble call from bondage ♪ ♪ Set me free ♪

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♪ Oh and when, when I reach those pearly gates ♪ ♪ The Lord will, he will remember me ♪ ♪ Oh what, what a shame to kill him ♪ ♪ Out there on that old rugged cross ♪

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♪ The Bible tells me that such ♪ ♪ Such a death was needed ♪ ♪ Just to rescue us ♪ ♪ Because we were lost ♪

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♪ Oh, His blood was made a ransom ♪ ♪ Just to set ♪ ♪ Set the captives free ♪ ♪ And I know, I know, I know that I'm included ♪

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♪ Lord will, I know He will remember me ♪ ♪ Oh, will the Lord remember me ♪ ♪ Oh, when I am called to go ♪ ♪ Oh, when I have crossed the sea ♪

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♪ Will he see, will he ♪ ♪ His love there show ♪ ♪ Yes, yes he ♪ ♪ He heard my feeble cry from bondage ♪

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♪ I'm glad he set me free ♪ ♪ Oh, when I reach those early gates ♪ ♪ The Lord will, yes he will remember me ♪ ♪ Oh, will the Lord remember me ♪

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♪ Oh, when I am called to go ♪ ♪ When I have crossed that chilly sea ♪ ♪ Oh, when He has loved our children ♪ ♪ Oh, yes, yes, yes ♪

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heard my feeble cry from bondage, He set me free. Oh, and when, when I reach the early gates, He will, ♪ The Lord will, the Lord will, the Lord will ♪ ♪ Oh, will, when I reach those ♪ ♪ I'll reach those ♪

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♪ He will, yes he will ♪ ♪ I'll reach those ♪ ♪ Oh, when I reach ♪ ♪ I'll reach those ♪

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♪ Those pearly gates ♪ ♪ The Lord will, yes he will ♪ ♪ He will, remember, remember me ♪ [applause]

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That was thrown into the sea and caught fish of every kind. When it was full, they drew it ashore, sat down and put the good into baskets, but threw out the bad. So it will be at the end of the age. The angels will come out and separate the evil from the righteous and throw them into

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the furnace of fire, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth." This is the Word of the Lord. Let us stand as we sing together Hymn 134, "Break Thou the Bread of Life." Once now, we have been considering a sermon series entitled "Parables Jesus Told."

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We come today to consider the parable of the dragnet. Jesus said, "The kingdom of heaven is like unto a fishnet." It's telling me my time is up before I begin. This particular parable comes from a section where there are three parables.

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We have considered the other two, and now we come to the third parable that Jesus told. These are called similitudes. They tell us what the kingdom of heaven is like. It may be compared to.

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The kingdom of heaven is like a fishnet. Dr. John Biggers, distinguished professor at Texas Southern, had a drawing that he entitled The Fisherman, and this particular sketch is based on a scene from African life when he spent a summer and most of the year in Ghana.

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This is a scene that he portrays depicting just this particular aspect of the African-American experience. In the scene, there are six fishermen and a child on the seashore. They are in several boats.

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One fisherman is counting money, another is drinking water, another is embracing a child. to cleaning nets and hanging them out to dry. It's a different way of fishing than what I was able to see when I was growing up. Most of the older people had a fishing pole.

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But the custom of the disciples was to have a fishing net. And so it is out of that experience which was so prevalent in Israel that Jesus draws this story, which he compares with the kingdom of God. The dragnet is a fishing net which is dragged along the bottom of the sea.

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Now fishing was the means of livelihood for the first disciples Jesus called. Like the oldest gospel tells us that Jesus was walking along the seashore, and he saw Simon Peter and Andrew with their nets. And he said to them, "Follow me."

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they left their nets and followed him. He went a little further and he saw two brothers, James and John, sons of Zebedee. And they were mending their nets. They were with their father Zebedee and they left their father in the boat and followed him. Now I never saw anybody fishing with a net when I was growing up but I tried to borrow a

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knit to use here in connection with and the closest I could get to a knit was this knit. This is used for a basketball but it is enough to illustrate what I want you to see. It has places in it where in the days of Jesus those nets would be could be stretched from boat to boat where Sister Brian is. It could be

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there and then there would be quite some distance between these two boats and the nets would be let down, and whatever was gathered in the net would be brought to shore and sorted, sifted and sorted to get the good fish which was desired. So when it was drawn up, it was let down again, and this is what Jesus says, that in the gathering

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there are all kinds of fish. And this net which is let down catches all kinds. Plenty of fish in the sea. Plenty of fish in the sea. You know, sometimes we get in a hurry and we think that the first thing we get out of the net is the thing for us and that may not be the case. Many fish can see. Wait! I say to young and old because

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there are plenty of fish in the sea. This net that is let down is to gather the food that is needed. I've seen fishermen catch fish and then throw it back. I say, "Why do you throw it back. So that one is not any good, not a good fish. You don't eat that. You just throw it back and sometimes they leave it out, sometimes they just

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throw it back. So this net is let down and it reaches the bottom of the sea, drags along the bottom and it gathers in a little of everything whatever's down there it drags it in. So Jesus tells this story so that people could understand why the church in the world is like it is.

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Some people say, "Well, you know, so-and-so is a member up there at such-and-such a church, and he's so dirty. I don't see why they should have him up there." Well, that's what's in the sea. And the net gathers whatever it can out in the sea.

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And there may be some crawfish, there may be some frogs, there may even be some snakes that you gather in the net. All of that's gathered in the net. So first of all, it is good for us, as we consider this message, to consider the fact

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that our nets need to be in good working order. They were mending their nets, some torn places in the nets, mending their nets. Lincoln never joined a church. He said when he found a church that was like Jesus Christ, which the church claims to be, he said he would join it. And so he

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never joined a church. Well, if he had really read this parable and understood what Jesus was saying, Jesus is saying that don't be disturbed about the many kinds of fish that are drawn up from the sea in the net because that's just the nature of the sea to produce and to harbor these things and it's the task of

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the net to bring them up. So one church here in the city is known by this motto We take them any way we can get them. And that's really in keeping with the net. You take the net, takes whatever it can get.

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Haul it to shore. That's the net's nature. First Baptist Church, our sister church a few blocks from here, on Trinity,

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has a net that is let down over the pulpit. It's a gospel net. So that's the task of the church, to be a net, a fish net in the world,

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let down to the bottom of the sea, dragged along the sea, and then brought up again so that it might reveal what is there.

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The net must catch and hold the fish for it to make the journey from the sea to the seashore. It's got to catch it and hold it. So the fish must first be caught. I think a great deal of our fishing is fishing in the aquarium, you know, not really in the

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sea, but in the aquarium. But our task, as Jesus expresses it in this story, is to use the net, and the net we use is the gospel net. When it's thrown out, there it brings in all kinds of people, all kinds of people. So people must be caught, must be caught. If you get in the net, you need

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net in order to get the fish that you want but it is made in such a way that it catches and holds certain things this net you get caught in this net you get caught in it. I get caught. And that's what should happen. Sometimes we feel that we catch the wrong thing. But there are plenty of fish in the sea. Some young lady sees a young man,

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he's handsome, looks good in his clothes, and she says, "That's the fish for me." And It may not be desirable fish. So the fish that are caught, all manner of fish, whatever's there, is caught. And Jesus says that is the nature of the church to draw all kinds of people, people with different

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motives. Everybody in the church doesn't have the same motives and the right motives, but they get caught in the net. And every one of us here today possibly has been caught in the net.

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Good fish and bad fish get together in the net. Those without fins or scales as the eel whose habits are foul, they're in the mud moving, about, they're brought in, and you have also in the waters shark, those who are of the terrible disposition, those who are trying to gouge people and get out

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of them whatever they can, they're down there in the sea, and the net is down there also so remember there are plenty fish in the sea the net catches whatever is there that was a comic strip very popular when I was youngster little and they had a habit that, well Daisy was always around the lab and that lab was

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running from her but they had a Sadie Hawkins day. On Sadie Hawkins day well the ladies could get or the girls could get whatever male they could catch on on Sadie Hawkins' day. Well, the net is something like that. We've been caught. We're in the net, and that net has been cast into the sea. And when you have really been caught, you've

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really been caught. That's something that compels you. Compels you. A whole lot of times, you see, we all give up this. I see some people who get in certain positions and they stay there a hot minute and they're gone. They really haven't been caught. They have gotten, somehow they've gotten through one of these holes.

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have not been caught. But we are, some people are caught and they are not taught. Yes, yes. That's always the task in the church. That's why Sunday school has a small percentage of the membership enrolled because they have been caught but they do not wish to be taught. It's a wonderful thing if you have people who have

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been both caught by the Spirit of God and also taught what is the way of God and what is the will of God. So to be caught and taught, that's our goal, that's our task as the people of God. That's the task of the church in the world. So here we have all of these kinds of fish caught in the net, drawn to the shore, and there the fishermen are sifting them,

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ordering them, putting some in one place that are considered good, and others in another place. Good and bad fish caught in the same net of the kingdom of God. So the fishermen's catch. Fishermen's catch. Sometimes we fish, but we do not catch what we are seeking. What What is in the net is his catch.

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Each time the fishermen embark upon the bosom of the deep and let down their net, they do not know the number of fish they will catch. They do not know that they will possibly receive all kinds of fish, but they do not know exactly what will be the catch of the day.

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That's our ministry, however. The dragnet is there to sweep all that is before it. The kingdom of God is like a net. The net is the Word of God.

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The Word of God covers all people, not just some people. It applies to everybody, whatever is in the sea. The Word of God applies to it, seeks to gather in the net. The Word of God embraces, the Word of God entangles, we get involved with the Word of

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God and we get involved in the net, and you can't get out, can't get out, can't get away from the judgment of God. Oh, we can go away from our parents and all of that, but wherever we go, those truths that were given us, that we were taught when we were youngsters, they somehow follow us.

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Wherever you are, they follow us. And so, what about the catch? Those who deal in fish have what they call the catch of the day, catch of the day. So Jesus is walking along and He calls two disciples--that's a catch.

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And He calls two more as He goes farther along--that's another catch. And those who are here today can look back upon their lives and say that I was involved in a catch. Peter, the great evangelist, was involved and he made a significant contribution to

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Christendom. James and John were considered sons of thunder. They were in the fishing business, but when they heard the call of Jesus, they left their nets, they left their ties and began to follow Him.

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Peter and Andrew, James and John, we remember them. We have ways that we've honored them through the years. But there was also Judas, who was caught in the same net. He betrayed Jesus.

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Oh, it would have been better, it is said, if he were not born. There was Demas who forsook Paul. He was a dropout. When he was needed, he was not there. He dropped out. But he, too, was caught in the net. So the kingdom of God does not separate the good from the bad. We don't try to separate the good from the bad here in the church,

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any church for that matter because we don't know how to do it. We don't know enough. We don't know the core of one's being. So the kingdom of God does not separate in this world the good fish from the bad. It just leaves whatever is in the net until the net is drawn a show. And there the sifting and the sorting take place. Whatever is in the net, I said,

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is what is in the sea. Whatever is in the net is what is caught. And it's a good thing to be caught, but it�s equally important to be taught. Some are caught, they become members of the church, they�re not taught, they don�t study the Word of God. But the fish that are caught and taught are those that recognize that they have been bought,

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only caught and taught but bought by Jesus Christ and that he makes a significant sacrifice to come to the sea where we are he makes a significant sacrifice he pays a great price for the net to be let down just where we are so So in the final stage of separation, the fish are brought ashore and there they are separated.

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But it is a time coming when there will be another place for the fish. They'll be removed from the sea, they'll be removed from the shore, and they will be fish or food for the Master's table. So the church before Easter is a fearful church.

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run and hide but I like to think about the church after Easter Peter says after Easter I think I'll go fishing and the other said we'll go with you and they went out and they toiled and they worked all night and caught nothing and in morning, the daybreak, Jesus stands on the shore. He's always there. When we think He's

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not, He's there. There on the seashore as they come in, He says to them, "Fellows, have you any fish?" And they said, "We have trod all night, and we've caught nothing." Some of us know what it's like to work and not get the kind of results that you thought. Tore all night and caught nothing. Well, he said, "Now let down your nets for a

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big catch." And they said, "But Lord, we've tore all night, but the Word of God is let down your net for a catch and so the response is we've taught all night and we caught nothing but nevertheless nevertheless at your word we will let down our nets and they let their nets, and they brought in a multitude of fishes. Never before in their lives had

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they caught so many fish. Such a great catch. And then Jesus had them to come and have breakfast That's that's the end of the story They have breakfast with Jesus that that's a wonderful thing to have been caught in

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his net and To have fellowship. Yeah. Yeah at his table That's a wonderful thing and I I'm so glad that I got caught in

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his neck I Was sinking deep in sin far from the peaceful shore very deeply stained within seeking to rise no more but the master of the sea heard my despairing cry and from the waters Lifted me now say am I loud

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Lifted me loud lifted me Jesus Christ lifts us from a low level

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and to a high experience with Him in the Spirit. So, this is the Word that He would have us hear to be faithful to Him and to be caught in His net. As we come now to the hymn of invitation,

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We extend the privilege of the church to accept Jesus Christ as Lord of your life. You may come by letter By Christian experience or profession of faith Softly and kinderly Jesus is calling calling for you and for me [Music]

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The door of the church is open. [Music] [Choral singing] [applause]

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[Music] ♪ I reach for you and love you ♪ ♪ The hope that's found ♪ ♪ In you I reach from home ♪

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♪ I reach in eager ♪ [Music] [END PLAYBACK] [Silence]

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[Music] ♪ You are weary, don't go ♪ ♪ I'm here with you ♪ ♪ In the morning light ♪

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♪ I'm here for you ♪ ♪ I'm here for you ♪ ♪ For you ♪ [Music]

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[Silence] [Music] [Music] [ Silence ]