Leading The Way

Guest (Male): The greatest threat to America is the wrath of God on a wayward nation. Is there still hope for America? Change can happen, but only when our nation repents and turns back to the God of our founding fathers. In *The Price of Liberty*, Dr. Michael Youssef sounds the warning bell to call God’s people to wake up, repent, and return to reliance on Him. Contact us today to get your own copy of *The Price of Liberty* at LTW.org. That's LTW.org. Introducing today's Leading The Way, Dr. Michael Youssef.

Dr. Michael Youssef: Matthew 16:25. Listen to what Jesus said: "Whoever wants to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake will find it." Beloved, this is a paradox of all paradoxes in the Scripture. What is Jesus saying?

Guest (Male): Thank you for joining Dr. Michael Youssef and listeners from across six continents for Leading The Way, celebrating more than 35 years of life-changing ministry, now in 28 of the world's most spoken and most understood languages.

We invite you to learn more about Leading The Way when you visit LTW.org, and I encourage you to consider a generous gift, too, so that we can continue the ministry right here in this neighborhood and in neighborhoods just like yours all over the world.

You can give securely when you call us at 866-626-4356 or at that same website, LTW.org. Now, listen as Dr. Michael Youssef begins a fascinating teaching series. It's called *Jesus has an App for You*.

Dr. Michael Youssef: The first app that I want to talk to you about is in Matthew 4:19. Jesus just called His disciples to follow Him, and then He says to them, "Come, follow Me, and I'll make you fishers of men." Now, you have to get that picture in your head because it's very important.

Jesus is talking to some of the most experienced fishermen around. I mean, these guys knew all about fishing. Their life experience was all around fishing. They were so knowledgeable on the subject; they took pride in it. They were confident about fishing. To them, fishing was a profitable business. They were good at it.

But then Jesus comes in and He gives them a new app relating to their business, but it's a new app. This app is not only new to them; it is a new lingo, it is a new paradigm, and it's a new worldview altogether from that which they grew up with. Imagine a person who's never seen an iPhone and you hand him one that's filled with different kinds of apps and say, "Use this." What are you talking about?

Now, remember these fishermen, the disciples of Jesus, they grew up with certain prejudices in their lives. They grew up with a whole bunch of superstitions. They grew up with very different views of this app that they'd been challenged by Jesus giving to them. And if Jesus said, "Follow Me and I'll make you fishers," oh, isn't that great? That means we're going to get more fish, we'll make more money, we're going to be blessed and all that stuff. But that's not where it stops. Fishers of men. That's the new app.

Now, let me testify to you that in many ways, no matter how powerful a person may be, no matter how famous or well-respected a person may be, no matter how rich a person may be, whenever you take on something new, whenever you are taken out of that which is familiar to you, whenever you're taken out of that which is comfortable to you, you're going to feel helpless. You feel like a little child, and that's not very comforting.

Perhaps there's no greater application to this than what I'm telling you than when you learn a new language. You become a child again when you learn a new language. Ask me. I can tell you. I know what I'm talking about because you stutter, you mutter, and you don't pronounce it well, and people correct you and all that stuff. You become like a little child. And that is why people don't want to learn new things. They don't want to look like children.

I am convinced personally, after all these years in ministry, that this is why very few Christians are growing in their Christian faith. They don't want to receive new challenges. They don't want to accept new challenges from the word of God. They don't want to grow because in growing you stumble and you fail, then you get up and you go again, and you stumble and you fail, then you get up again. And they don't want to do that.

Because they do not want an app on their spiritual iPhone that they cannot control, that they do not know how to use, and they don't want to learn how to do it. And I dare say that is the reason why so many Christians would rather stay with what is known. They would rather not be stretched in their Christian life. They would rather not risk being snubbed or maybe even rejected altogether.

They would rather just go to church, maybe even attend a Bible study or a small group or something and read their Bible and perhaps go to a prayer meeting, especially if they need something from God, and they just leave it at that. But to learn a new app, a new application, that's challenging. And that's why they miss out on the blessing. They miss out on the blessing.

The truth is this: every one of Jesus's apps, as we're going to be seeing throughout this series of messages, every one of them is challenging. Every one of them. That's why they're the source of growth. Listen, every time you make a decision that you're going to obey and serve the Lord Jesus Christ with all your heart, you will be challenged. Every time you attempt in growing in Christlikeness, you will be challenged. Not possibly; you will be. But here's the good news. Before He told them, "I'll make you fishers of men," He said what? Follow Me. You see, that's the secret.

I'm fond of telling a story from my own life, the one and only experience I had in fishing. Back in the '90s, Sam Ayub walked into my house and he announced, "We are going fishing." I said, "What is that we, Kemosabe?" He said, "You and I." My first reaction, I still remember it as if it's today. I still remember the feeling that came upon me. This is a new app for me.

I don't know anything about fishing. I've watched people fish only for a few minutes. I don't have the time to fish. And all of my protest meant nothing to Sam. He just waits until you say yes. And so he said, "We're going to fish for three days." Now, I thought we're going to drive to a lake somewhere and do some fishing. He said three days in Canada. Well, I love the man so dearly and I did not know what to do, and finally I gave up.

He called that fishing place a resort. Well, all of my phobia that some of you are aware of about camping came upon me. And I thought it's going to be a camping thing, and I know you hear me joke about that, but I have to confess to you, I started agonizing for the whole week. And it seemed to pass quickly. And so we landed in Minneapolis, then we drove three hours across the Canadian border to Lake Lacroix.

It's a huge lake. I didn't even know it existed. And I must admit, it was better than I expected. It was a nice place. I mean, it was not luxury, but it was okay. Comfortable bed, comfortable room, nice people serving. And then we get up in the next morning and everything is ready. We got a nice boat and a native Canadian guide in the boat, and it looked good.

I said, "Okay, I'll give this a shot." And so we go to a certain spot. I mean, remember this native Canadian knew that lake like the back of his hand. So we go to a certain spot and he stops the boat. He said, "Okay, this is a good place to fish." And then to my surprise, because I had nothing in my hands. They had everything there in the boat; they'd arranged everything.

And this guide takes the bait, puts it on the hook, hands me the line. I didn't have to do a thing. He said, "Sir, just throw it in the water." I threw it in the water. I could do that. Lo and behold, within just few minutes, I got a tug. And they said, "You got a fish! Pull! Pull!" I said, "Well, tell me how." He said, "Just do this."

And so I did this, and it was a huge walleye fish. It was! Now, listen, this is not a fishing story because my ego's not tied up to this stuff. I mean, it reminds me of that Texan who was talking to his friend about this big 24, 25-pound bass, and he was describing the effort of reeling it in, and finally his friend said to him, he said, "Did it put up a fight?" He said, "Yep. Not half as much as the 10-pound grasshopper I caught it with."

But this is not a fishing story. To my utter surprise, to Sam's excitement, we get this big thing in there and he takes pictures. He said, "They're not going to believe this!" I said, "Don't you show that to anybody." Question: Why was I reluctant to go fishing with Sam? My ignorance about fishing. My fear of the unfamiliar. Probably fear of failure, that I stink at it.

All I knew was that once I caught that one fish, I became an overnight success. What made the difference? What made the difference? Sam. He made the difference. He knew where to go, he knew which guide to get, he knew—I mean, he had past experience, he had past knowledge. He's been there before. He understood things—who, what, where—he knew all of that. He got that all taken care of.

Once I placed myself in Sam's hands, I became an overnight success. I became successful in something that up to this point in my life, I knew nothing about. I was intimidated by it. I was afraid of. I want you to hear me right, please, because in a far greater, far deeper, far higher way, this Jesus app that He is giving to every one of us who claim to be the disciples of Jesus Christ, this app says, "Follow Me."

And the secret of your success in fishing for men and women, boys and girls, your secret is following Him. That is the secret of not only success but fulfillment. That's the secret of having confidence in being fishers of men. That is the secret of overcoming fear, anxiety, and concern about your reputation and everything else for fishing for people.

I hear people like you do who glibly say, "I'm a follower of Jesus Christ," particularly politicians on both sides of the aisle. I want to scream at the television and say, "Do you know what you're saying? Do you know what that means?" Being a follower of Jesus Christ means that you are willing to abandon yourself completely to Him. It's to place His will, His word, His command above all else in life.

To be willing to sacrifice anything for His sake. To be willing to place Him above all your needs and above all your wants and above all of the things that you are facing. To be willing to trust Him no matter what crushing circumstances you're going through. Follow Me, and then I'll make you fishers of men. This trust is illustrated in the words of Jesus here and in Matthew 16:25.

Matthew 16:25, listen to what Jesus said: "Whoever wants to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake will find it." Beloved, this is a paradox of all paradoxes in the Scripture. What is Jesus saying? He is saying that in saving others, we lose ourselves. In losing ourselves in the task that He called us to, we will be used to win others.

Sharing Christ involves sacrificing the greater for the lesser, the worthy for the unworthy. It is the willingness of the strong one to die for the weak so that the weak may be able to live. And that's precisely what Jesus did. The Lord of Lords died on a cross so that He may raise from the dead everyone who put their trust in Him. Now, beloved, listen to me. This is the exact opposite of what is in our culture today—this lunacy, this crude notion that the survival is for the fittest.

Contrary to our culture, it is Follow Me first, then the app becomes easy. In fact, the app becomes joyful. And you notice Jesus did not say follow Me and I'll make you hunters of men, or follow Me and I'll make you persuaders of men, or follow Me and I'll make you marketers to men, or follow Me and I'll make you teachers of men. He didn't say that.

You say, "Well, why?" The answer is much simpler than you think. He was relating this new app to their experience. All they knew was fishing, and there's no use telling them about hunting or anything else because all they know is fishing. So He brings a new app to their experience. And that's exactly what Jesus does for every one of us today, every one of His disciples.

That's when He brings this app to everyone. He says, wherever you are, wherever He placed you, whatever your profession might be, whatever your social status is in life, use that to tell others about Jesus. I read a statistic the other day that says 95% of those who call themselves Christians never share Christ with others. 95%.

And then I thought of the history of the church and how God again and again had to intervene in order to get back His people back to applying this app in their lives, to apply this app in their churches. It's the story of the church, over and over and over, and God had to do it. He had to intervene. MacArthur tells a story about a dangerous seacoast where shipwrecks were commonplace. They were frequent occurrence.

And the village community built a crude hut, little hut, with a very simple boat in it. And the village population were all volunteers. Every time they hear the siren, there's a shipwreck. They run out of their homes and they get into that boat, and they go out and they rescue lives, and they bring them back home. Saved so many as they could.

These selfless people, they did this day or night. It didn't make any difference. They saved lives whenever the opportunities came. And after a while, they became famous for the rescuing operation. They became well-known for it. And some of the members said, "Let's invite some of those who have been rescued to come and join us." And they did.

And many came and become a large operation of rescuing those who come into the shipwreck. Always eager to go out and save lives. Always, always, always. They sacrificed time, they sacrificed money, they sacrificed effort, and this station grew and grew. And then they decided to hire professional rescue workers so that they can rest a little bit, don't go out as often.

And they got professional rescue workers, paid rescue workers. And then as time go by, they become unhappy with the shabby-looking shed, hut. And they wanted to build a larger, a much more comfortable building, a nicer building. And they did. After a while, the station became a very popular hanging-out place.

People would come and they would have tea and coffee and chat and talk about life in general and become a great social experience. Some of them had a great idea and they said we need to even improve and enlarge this building even more. They did. So they built a bigger and nicer building.

The next thing, some of the members began to enjoy the fellowship, enjoy the social life. Forgot about rescuing. They said, "That's for the professionals. Let the professionals do it. We hire them; that's what we pay them for." And in time, very few members were insistent on going out and rescuing people as they've done in the past.

One day a large ship wrecked right there in front of them. And so the professional rescuers went in and they tried to save as many people from the frozen water as they could. And in doing so, they messed up that beautiful building. They messed the furniture; they messed it all up. And the members were very upset about that.

And so in the next membership meeting, the members voted to suspend their life-saving activities altogether. The reason? It was disturbing the social life of the club. Few brave souls tried to speak up and remind them, "This is the very reason for our existence. This is the very reason why we're here. This is the very reason why we have a building."

But these few members were outvoted, and they were told that if you want to have a life-saving operation, go down the street and build another one. And so they did. And in time, that building also got better and bigger. So some were pushed out to build another one and build another one.

Until today, according to that Scottish eyewitness, he said, "If you look at that coast, you see it dotted with beautiful buildings for social life. Shipwrecks still happen. They're still frequent occurrence in those terrible waters. But now people drown instead of being rescued."

Beloved, this is the sad history of the church of Jesus Christ. In fact, it's from the very beginning. It's human nature. We want to be comfortable, we want to stay with the familiar, we don't want to be challenged by a new app, we don't want to do this and we don't want to do that.

In fact, if you read in the book of Acts, in one breath, it says that they grew in number and enjoy the fellowship of one another. And then the next says the Lord sent persecution in order to scatter them so they can take the word of the gospel out to Smyrna, to other most parts of the world. Why does God have to do that in order to get us to apply this important, all-important application that He is giving to every one of His children?

It's easier to enjoy the cozy fellowship than to be challenged to go out of our comfort zone. And I want to tell you, listen to me very carefully, I'm getting ready to close because this is important. When we give up the noblest, the purest, the truest work of the church of saving souls, of being fishers of men, we lose sight of who we are. We lose sight of who we are as the church of Jesus Christ.

Guest (Male): Dr. Michael Youssef, challenging you to step out of your comfort zone and into a deeper walk with Christ. We thank you for listening to Leading The Way audio. Now, one way to listen to or watch additional content from Dr. Youssef is by downloading the Leading The Way app. Put that on all of your mobile devices. You can learn more about that at LTW.org.

37 years ago, when Dr. Michael Youssef founded Leading The Way, he had a bold vision to harness the most advanced technology of the time to proclaim the gospel to the ends of the earth. And now once again, Leading The Way is leveraging cutting-edge technology with our gospel innovation, My Faith Assistant. This powerful digital tool allows seekers and believers alike to ask spiritual questions and receive clear, biblically sound answers.

Try it out at MyFaithAssistant.com or on the mobile app. With questions such as, "How do I share my faith with a hostile family member?" or, "Is it unloving to say Jesus is the only way?" Carefully designed to provide responses rooted solely in the Bible and the trusted teaching of Dr. Michael Youssef, it is also a milestone in Leading The Way's Open Door campaign.

My Faith Assistant: anytime, anyway. Share it with someone you love who's searching for answers today. Test out this great biblical tool when you visit LTW.org or find it within the Leading The Way app. Thank you for listening. You're invited back again next time right here for more Leading The Way and the continuation of Dr. Youssef's teaching, *Jesus has an App for You*. This program is brought to you by Leading The Way with Dr. Michael Youssef.