4. The "I Will" of Service
      The next is the "I will" of service.

      There are a good many Christians who have been quickened and aroused to say, "I want to do some service for Christ."

      Well, Christ says, "Follow me, and I will make you fishers of men."

      There is no Christian who cannot help to bring someone to the Saviour. Christ says, "And I, if I be lifted up", will draw all men unto me"; and our business is just to lift up Christ.

      Our Lord said, "Follow me, Peter, and I will make you a fisher of men"; and Peter simply obeyed. On that day of Pentecost we see the result. I doubt if Peter ever caught so many fish in one day as he did men on that day. It would have broken every net they had on board if they had had to drag up three thousand fish.

      I read some time ago of a man who took passage in a stagecoach. There were first-, second- and third-class passengers. But when he looked into the coach, he saw all the passengers sitting together without distinction. He could not understand it.

      By and by they came to a hill. The coach stopped. The driver called out, "First-class passengers keep their seats. Second-class passengers get out and walk. Third-class passengers get behind and push."

      In the church we have no room for first-class passengers–people who think salvation means an easy ride all the way to Heaven. We have no room for second-class passengers–people who are carried most of the time, and who, when they should be showing their faith by their works, go trudging on giving never a thought to helping their fellows along. All church members ought to be third-class passengers–ready to dismount and push with a will.

      John Wesley's definition of a church: "All at it and always at it." Every Christian is to be a worker. He need not be a preacher or an evangelist to be useful. He may be useful in business. See what power an employer has with his employees! Often a man can be as useful in a business sphere as in another.

There is one reason–and a great reason–why so many do not succeed at Christian service. I have been asked by a great many good men, "Why is it we don't have any results? We work hard, pray hard, preach hard, yet the success does not come."

      I tell them, "Because you spend all your time mending nets. No wonder you never catch anything."

      The great matter is to give invitations and compel sinners to come and thus pull the net in and see if you have caught anything. If you are always mending and setting the net, you won't catch many fish. Who ever heard of a man's going out to fish and setting his net, then letting it stop there and never pulling it in? Everybody would laugh at such a man's folly.

      A minister in England came to me one day and said, "I wish you would tell me why we ministers don't succeed better than we do."

      I brought before him this idea of pulling in the net: "You have to pull in your nets. There are many ministers in Manchester who can preach much better than I can, but I pull in the net."

      Many people have objections to giving invitations, but I urge upon them the importance of offering people the chance to make a decision.

      The minister said, "I never did pull in my net; but I will try next Sunday."

      He did so, and eight anxious inquirers went into his study.

      The next Sunday he came down to tell me he had never had such a Sunday in his life. He had met with marvelous blessing.

      The next time he drew the net, there were forty. And when he came to see me later, he said to me joyfully, "Moody, I have had eight hundred conversions this last year! It is a great mistake I did not begin earlier to pull in the net."

      My friends, if you want to catch men, just present the Gospel and pull in the net. If you only catch one, it will be something. It may be a little child, but I have known a little child to convert a whole family. You don't know what is in that little dull-headed boy in the inquiry room. He may become a Martin Luther, a reformer who shall make the world tremble.

      God uses the weak things of this world to confound the mighty. God's promise is as good as a bank note. And here is one of Christ's promissory notes: 'If you follow Me, I will make you fishers of men.'

      Will you not lay hold of the promise and trust it and follow Him now?

      If a man preaches the Gospel faithfully, he ought to expect results then and there. It is the privilege of God's children to reap the fruit of their labor three hundred sixty-five days in the year.

"Well, but is there not a sowing time as well as a harvest?" you ask.

      Yes, there is; but then, you can sow with one hand and reap with the other.

      What would you think of a farmer who went on sowing all the year round and never thought of reaping? I repeat: we want to sow with one hand and reap with the other. And if we look for the fruit of our labors, we shall see it.

      "I, if I be lifted up", will draw all men unto me." We must lift Christ up, then seek men out and bring them to Him.

      You must use the right kind of bait. A good many don't do this, then they wonder why they are not successful. You see them getting up all kinds of entertainment with which to try to catch men. They go the wrong way to work.

      This perishing world wants Christ and Him crucified. There's a void in every man's bosom that wants filling up, and if we only approach him with the right kind of bait, we shall catch him.

      This poor world needs a Saviour; and if we are going to be successful in catching men, we must preach Christ crucified–not His life only, but His death. And if we are only faithful in doing this, we shall succeed. Why? Because there is His promise: 'If you follow Me, I will make you fishers of men.'

      That promise holds just as good to you and me as it did to His disciples and is as true now as it was in their time.