How long will it take you to say yes to the Lord's calling? If you're willing to take him at his word and trust him to lead you, just as he trusts you to follow him, then your answer is not only yes; it can be today—an immediate yes. When Jesus calls someone into his service, he sees more than the person standing in front of him. He sees not what we are, but what we're meant to be. Today, on Insight for Living, Chuck Swindoll takes us to Galilee, where Jesus looked at rough, unpolished fishermen and saw what they'd one day become.
He sees the same potential in us. It's one of the most encouraging truths in all of Scripture, and it started with a simple response. Chuck titled today's message "Saying Yes to Christ's Call." Look at verse 16 of Mark 1. 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.
These men are casting their nets. They are professional fishermen. We read that here at the end of verse sixteen. You may not know it, but fishing was big business back then, and remained so for years in Galilee. These men knew the world of fishing.
Now notice when Jesus sees them doing what they did for a living, He spoke to them again. If you carry a red letter edition of the Bible, you'll see red words here. Jesus said to them, "Follow me. Follow me, and I will make you become fishers of men." All He says is. Follow me.
This was an enormous risk because, in order to follow him, they would need to leave what was familiar, their source of income, the way they supported their family. He only made one promise after the command. Do you see it? I will make you become. Fishers of men.
It would be a process which is seen in the word "become." They didn't ten minutes after starting to follow qualify as fishers of men. That took time. They needed to be trained in that. They would become that over a process of it, and they would need to leave the familiar. Places of their life and go to what was unfamiliar.
Ultimately, they would stop catching fish, and they would start catching people. I think Jesus was saying this: If I can trust you to follow me, you can trust me to train you. His call always has that implication. If I can trust you to follow me, then you can trust me to train you. To take care of you, to guide you, to lead you.
Now I observe how they responded, and here is a remarkable thing: immediately, they left their nets and they followed him. Look at this next couple of men going on a little farther. He saw James the son of Zebedee and John his brother.
Now, where were they?
Well, they are in the boat. In their case, they're mending nets. The others were casting. These men are sitting in their boats and they're mending their nets. What do we read?
Immediately, he called them. What was their response? They left their father. Zebedee in the boat with the hired servants, and they went away to follow him. No reluctance.
If there were questions, we don't read of them. If there was hesitation, Mark doesn't tell us about it. They simply followed him.
Now let me pause and interject a couple of thoughts that I think might be helpful before I apply all of this, because this is not a history lesson or a geography lesson. This is a spiritual direction for all of us. This is a message for every one of us. But let me mention a couple of things. First, Jesus knew much more than he promised.
He told them they would become fishers of men, and he left it at that. But there was so much more he knew. He knew what that would include: the training process of those next three and a half years. There would be privation. There would be pain.
There would be exhaustion. There would be times of exhilaration and celebration. There would be occasions when the scene would be so dark they wouldn't know what to do, being unable to cast out demons. They've never been around the demonic realm. They'll be in the midst of that.
There'll be times of confusion. There'll be times when they're under attack, misunderstood and misrepresented, and in fact they'll be killed for their walk with Christ. They don't know any of that. Most of them became martyrs. He doesn't tell them that.
All he says, remember this: you will become fishers of men. When your direction in life is turned from the mundane nets and boats and water of your life, and it's turned toward people, and God is calling you in that direction, you are in for one surprise after another.
Now the second thing I want to mention is that Jesus saw in them much more than he than he revealed. Jesus saw in them much more than he revealed. Let's take Simon Peter. Peter saw himself as just a fisherman. Jesus saw other things deep within him.
He saw Simon casting his net, but at the same time he saw three thousand souls being saved by a single sermon that Peter would deliver years ahead. He saw Peter, and he saw Gentiles being added to the church. He saw Peter, and he saw a man carrying a cross. To execution hill, faithful unto death, even the death of the cross. He saw Peter, and he saw a name being written down in glory, engraved with an iron pen.
Never doubt it. When he calls you, he sees you not as what you are, but as what you are to become. Trust me on this. When God first calls us into His calling and work. The people who see us today would never have believed it back then, because of the work the Lord is doing, as He teaches us to become fishers of men and women.
Now, the invitation of Jesus today. I have three searching questions that I want to linger on with you for the next few minutes, because this is, as I say, this is all about a spiritual lesson today, as much as it is about the teaching of the passage of Scripture. Three searching questions. The first one is this: Based on what we have just read about Peter and Andrew and James and John, where does the Lord find you today? Where does the Lord find you today?
He sees you inside and out. He knows your past as well as your future. He knows your potential, though you are probably blind to most of it. Jesus started where these men were. He saw them just where they were, and he took them to where he had in mind for them.
Stay with the thought. I'll come back to it in a few moments. Where does the Lord find you today? Second question. Please write it down.
What's the Lord's calling in your life? Put it down, just like I gave it to you. What is the Lord's calling in your life? I'm not referring necessarily to a geographical move, though it may include that. I'm not saying that you need to get into some form of occupation that's different than what you're in, though you may.
Here's what I'm interested in: Do you have a reason for being? Put another way. Do you have a focused sense of purpose, or do you just sort of take one day from one dawn to the next, after another day, after another day? Do you have a focused sense of purpose? For these four men, did you get the sense of purpose?
You're going to become fishers of men. Once that commanding calling arrested their attention, they lost virtually all interest in fishing. Rarely do you find them returning to the sea, except in the mission of the Lord at sea. They left it, and they truly left it behind them. It was no longer their reason for existence.
What's the Lord's calling in your? Life. What purpose has He given you that transcends occupation? It transcends your age. It transcends your familiar world.
Here's the third one, and it's the one that stings. How long will it take you to say yes? How long will it take you to say yes to the Lord's calling? Now I want to speak to some of you who are the insecure type. You're waiting until all of your questions are answered.
You're weighing all the options. Trust me, don't waste your time. You'll never say yes because you'll never get all those questions answered. If you're a perfectionist, the Lord's got his work cut out for you. Because it takes you a long time to get through all the perfectionistic details of every part of the future being worked out ahead of time.
Same thing for risks. If you're wanting all the risks removed before you tolerate the thought of yes, you're doomed to a perpetual no. If you're willing to take him at his word and trust him to lead you, just as he trusts you to follow him. Then your answer is not only yes; it can be today, an immediate yes, an immediate yes.
Now, why would I say that? Because I know what I am talking about today, and because I know my story better than yours. I am going to have to ask you to please listen to my story, and I give you mine because it's the one I know the most details about. I was casting nets and mending nets and working the boats and familiar with the sea, in a ministry for almost twenty-five years. I had reached the ripe age of fifty-nine.
Some of you are retired before you're 59, but but not me. I was engaged in this. It was fulfilling. It was exciting. Everything was rolling along, great, and the Lord came along.
It wasn't the Sea of Galilee. It was a phone call that came from Dallas to California. On the other end of the line were two men I knew very well: the president of Dallas Seminary and the chairman of the board at that time, Jack Turpin. Jack and Don Campbell, together on the line, called me. My first thought was, "Uh-oh, maybe they know something I don't know." They said, "We'd like you to consider being the next president of Dallas Seminary." My response in great faith was hilarious laughter.
You have got to be kidding! I almost said, "What are you guys smoking?" But I didn't say that. I was tempted, but I didn't say that. You can't be serious. Oh yeah, we are.
Look, come on, you guys. Let me give you the name of five or six qualified people.
Okay, let's go there rather than waste your time with me. Hey, I got nets. I got boats. I got sea. I got fish.
Everything's going great here. Why in the world would I even think of?
Well, we'd like you to think, but no, actually, I don't need you to think about. I know.
Well, would you pray about it? Did you hear the brakes? That's always a great question to ask when you feel resistance.
Well, will you pray about it? What preacher on earth would say no? I am not going to pray.
So I say, okay.
So it's supper time. I'm sitting there at supper, still sort of chuckling to myself. I haven't started praying much. And I say to Cynthia at supper, I said, "You will never guess what happened today." She said, "What?" I said, "I got a phone call from Don Campbell and Jack Turpin from Dallas Seminary. Don has resigned, and a year from now, he's going to retire from that role.
And they want a new president. And they've asked me, of all things." She didn't laugh.
Okay. At that point, I know I'm going to kind of get in deep in this situation. Because I have learned that the voice of the Holy Spirit sounds a lot like the voice of Cynthia. I just learned that. Just learned it.
Just amazing. How did I learn that? She told me that.
So. And so I laugh at her. She says, "I don't think that's a silly idea. I think you ought to think about it." You kidding? Our family is here.
Our home is here. It's almost all paid for. We know we got the ministry. I know that. I know that.
I know.
I think you ought to consider it. No, but honey, come on.
So we slept on it.
Next morning, first thing I heard, I think you ought to consider that, honey. I can't wait to tell him no.
So she says, "Have you prayed about it?" So now I got to start praying. Not that I've got to start praying, but you know what I mean.
So I go to the Lord in prayer, and while I'm praying, I'm thinking of six or eight other guys that could do the job.
So I pray for the Lord to guide me to recommending someone who's qualified to do that job, because I'm not the one. I mean, I have no reason to be the one. I got it made where I am, if you will, and that's not a good way to put it. But you know what I mean. Everything's familiar.
I mean, I even knew the freeways. I knew all around there. I mean, I had great friends, all my family. Everything was going great.
So they had the audacity to call back, and I said, "I've got the names of about five or six," and they wouldn't even listen to the names. Would you consider? And I won't even bore you with the process. But it was a call. It broke all the rules of what you would call logic.
But you see, the Lord's will isn't necessarily humanly logical. Will you remember I said that? We all like logic. We like one plus one equals two. With Jesus, it's one plus one equals fifteen and a half point seven, or something like that.
And you go, what?
So I tolerated the thought. All right, I'll be on the search committee. I was on the board, so I'll serve on the search committee.
So they reluctantly said, "Okay, it's good." So we sent out questionnaires all over the country. Send back those you think would be the right choice. I know that Don Campbell and Jack Turpin wrote all those people ahead of time. Because my name was on the top of those lists, one list after another after another after another, I resigned from the search committee. And I then really did begin to pray.
I was fifty-nine years old. In that period of time, I come to the seminary, and nobody lasts me off the stage. It's amazing. All these bright men and women in the faculty and. I realize they don't need another scholar because I'm not a scholar, but I'm a shepherd.
And they had the foresight to know that at that time in the school's history, the school needed a shepherd. I didn't know that, and I don't know that they would have articulated it like that. But kind of began to dawn on me. And while I'm there, I'm thinking, you know, now that I'm here, since I'm a preacher. And Cynthia helped me understand.
You know, there is these forty languages going to work on Dallas Seminary campus, and we could use them in our Insight for Living ministry as translators. I mean, it makes sense, and it did. And so I I go and and while I am there, I am getting acquainted with a lot of these guys, and I am thinking, you know what? We got to have a laboratory where they can learn what a church is about. Maybe I ought to start a church.
How do you start a church? I don't know.
So, how do you find the place to start one? You pin a tail on a geographical donkey, Frisco, Frisco. That's where I used to come to hunt dove. Frisco.
So I thought, well, we'll at least have a Bible class.
Some Bible class, and before I knew it, a church was formed.
Now, looking back, did God know what He was doing? What's the answer? Yes. Say it again. Yes.
Get used to saying it, because you say, "What a great story!" This isn't about me. Don't think this is about my story. This is your story. This is their story. They turned the world upside down because they said yes.
They were these spokesmen for the cause of Christ, as they learned to fish for men and women. To this day, we know the names. Rock structures are named the Twelve Apostles. It's it's it's amazing these simple fishermen, who had had no training, and they were Galileans except for the only one bright one among them, Judas. And God used them to turn the whole tide around.
Oz Guinness in a book called The Call. Don't miss a word. Released from what was not me, my discovery of my calling enabled me to find what I was. God's call has become a sure beacon ahead of me, and a blazing fire within me. Keep listening.
Follow me, Jesus said two thousand years ago. And he changed the course of history. That is why calling provides the Archimedean point by which faith moves the world. Answering the call is the way to find and fulfill the central purpose of your life. Answering the call is the way to find and fulfill the central purpose of your life.
Do you have a reason for being? A focused sense of purpose in your life, or is your life the product of shifting resolutions? Do you want to go beyond success to significance? Have you come to realize that self-reliance always falls short and provides no answer in the end? Listen to Jesus of Nazareth answer his call.
And if I knew what it was, I promise you, I would stay all afternoon at the door and tell each one of you what that call is. And then I would say, now commit yourself to doing it. Say yes. But I don't know what it is. I got a full time job taking care of this guy, so I can't tell you what your call is.
You have to determine that. I know this. I'd have never picked Peter. I mean, all Andrew did was just bring people to Jesus. That's all he needed to do.
James and John, sons of thunder, with a temper like theirs, which you're chosen. No, you wouldn't have hired any of the twelve.
Well, maybe Judas, but he's bright.
So don't give me the line that well, I'm not really qualified. I've been there.
Well, you don't understand, Chuck. I mean, we've got our whole family. I've I've been there.
Well, you don't realize, Chuck. I got to I got to take care of my. I mean, I'm I am deep in debt. I've been there.
You want all those questions answered? You're doomed to a perpetual no. You need to practice yes.
So let's start right now. Yes. Okay. Yes. Some of you your face doesn't know it yet.
Here we go again. Yes. We're almost there. Here again, yes. One more time, yes.
Good for you. Don't you forget this when we don't see each other for the next few days, okay? Don't you forget that? Yes, okay. Thank you, Father, for your patience with me in this journey that I would never have even imagined.
Maybe it was for no other reason aside from the chance today to declare how great it has been to walk with you and to trust you and to see you open doors I would never have known would open and to pave the way for a ministry I could not have even envisioned. And to use me in the life of young men learning to preach, young women learning to minister. Oh Lord, what a privilege! And now in this church, this enviable place of ministry, how faithful you are. May this yes be a ringing word in our ears and hearts this coming week.
May we look for a reason to say yes. May we think. Yes, may we listen with yes on our lips. Hear us today, our Father, in all of our needs and all of our circumstances. Our answer is yes, yes.
You can trust us to follow you because we are going to trust you to train and lead us. This enormous yes ringing in our hearts, we commit now this time to you in the name of Jesus, who Himself said yes to fulfill a mission that no one could have ever imagined. In His name, we pray, and everyone said, "Amen." May that little word "yes" keep ringing in your heart this week. When the Lord calls, we don't have to have every question answered before we respond. We can trust Him and follow because He can be trusted to lead us.
This is Insight for Living. Chuck Swindoll, our Bible teacher, has just begun a brand new study through the Gospel according to Mark. Because of the size of Mark's gospel, Chuck split this study into three volumes, and all three Bible study workbooks for Mark are ready today. The Searching the Scriptures Bible study workbooks are spiral bound, and you can find all the details for volumes one, two, and three at insight.org/offer. Also, I'd like to tell you about a wonderful resource created and published by Insight for Living.
Next month, we'll begin the holiday season in earnest, and it's the perfect time to focus on the coming King, Jesus, and to find ways to reflect His love and generosity. Through His birth, life, and resurrection from the grave, we've been redeemed for a whole new purpose. In that spirit, Insight for Living is pleased to offer a devotional book for you and your family. It's called Everlasting Light: A Journey from Promise to Presence. Written by Pastor Carlos Sasueta along with Chuck Swindoll, this 25-day Advent devotional will elevate your holiday season as you celebrate the birth of Christ.
It's our gift to you when you make a generous gift to support the ministry of Insight for Living. I think you'd agree that our times are urgent. People need the hope of the everlasting light, and your contribution to Insight for Living will be applied directly toward broadcasting this message. Not only in North America, but all around the world, to give a generous donation and request the Advent devotional "Everlasting Light," address your envelope to Insight for Living, Post Office Box 5000, Frisco, Texas 75034. You can also call us at 800 772 8888, or go online to insight.org/donate.
I'm Bill Meyer. Join us when Chuck Swindoll describes what he calls astonishing authority Friday on Insight for Living. The preceding message, saying yes to Christ's call, was copyrighted in 2010 and 2026, and the sound recording was copyrighted in 2026 by Charles R. Swindoll Incorporated. All rights are reserved worldwide.
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