I'm Sickly and I Know It

Welcome to Gateway Churches Podcast.

Wherever you're tuning in from, we hope you're encouraged by today's message.

Hey y'all! I love you.

So glad to be here with you.

Hey, listen, um uh you heard that last one about Presbytery, which starts Sunday night.

Uh I want everybody to be a part of it because one word can truly change your life.

I saw uh Pastor Wayne Drain here, and I actually have uh the prophecy that he spoke over me and Juliet back uh in August of 2012, and everything that he wrote on this piece of paper has come to pass, and it has not left my Bible since.

So you want to be a part of Presbytery.

I am so grateful to all of the Gateway family, all the campuses.

I want to say hi.

I'm giving a special shout out to Embassy City Church because they get flat Timmy for the next four weeks.

So, hi on the screen at Embassy City Church.

Thank you for allowing me to be back home with my Gateway family.

I'm so excited.

We are starting a series of do y'all know y'all stuck with me all month?

I don't know how y'all feel about that, but I ain't leaving till July.

So uh uh I am doing a series this month just called Discipleship 101.

I want to talk to y'all uh about what it means to be a disciple of Jesus Christ.

And the perspective that I want you to have is from the disciples themselves.

And so if you have your Bibles, I want you to go to the book of Matthew, chapter number nine.

The book of Matthew, chapter number nine.

Let me calibrate your expectation for this sermon and all my sermons this month.

Uh, I want to tell you the stories that we find in Scripture, and I want you to come up with your own notes.

I want you to come up with your own points.

I won't have the classic one, two, three points, the second uh passage to turn to.

I'm just gonna tell stories.

And if God don't speak to you through these stories, you won't be spoken to.

But I think he is gonna speak to you through these uh stories, these passages that we have in Scripture.

And so, whatever you're catching, write it down.

Is that good?

If it's real, real good, I'll tell you to write it down.

But I want you uh to get these.

The last thing I will say is that Embassy City Church is a little bit louder when it comes to the word of God being expressed than you are.

For the next four weeks, when they watch us on the screen, I don't need this church to be quiet.

So when something's good, y'all need to holler back.

I'm gonna rely on you, 83 people, for the next four weeks.

Matthew chapter number nine, starting at the ninth verse, here's what it says.

As Jesus was walking along, he saw a man named Matthew sitting at his tax collector's booth.

Follow me and be my disciple, Jesus said to him.

So Matthew got up and followed him.

Later, Matthew invited Jesus and his disciples to his home as dinner guests, along with many tax collectors and other disreputable sinners.

But when the Pharisees saw this, they asked his disciples, why does your teacher eat with such scum?

When Jesus heard this, can you imagine Jesus overhearing you?

Throw some shade like this.

When Jesus heard this, he said, healthy people don't need a doctor, sick people do.

Then he added, now go and learn the meaning of this scripture.

I want you to show mercy, not offer sacrifices.

For I have come to call not those who think they are righteous, but those who know they are sinners.

I want you to pay close attention to the 12th verse.

When Jesus heard this, he said, healthy people don't need a doctor, sick people do.

I want to teach to you on this opening weekend of this series on discipleship.

I'm sickly and I know it.

I'm sickly and I know it.

Bow your hands.

Let's pray over the word, shall we?

Holy Spirit, show us where we're sick.

Amen.

You're welcome.

Matthew's gospel is uh rightfully first in the canonized gospels, Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John, because the gospel is to the Jew first and then to the Gentile.

Matthew starts his gospel with a genealogy.

Because he wants to prove to those that have a covenant with God through Abraham that he is indeed Savior and Lord.

That this Jesus that he is writing about is actually Yeshua, the Messiah, who was promised to Abraham, born through the womb of a virgin, and now he is present with us.

Matthew's gospel is full of Jewish references and things that point to the validity of Jesus being their Savior, their Messiah.

What I love about Matthew's gospel is that in this particular passage, chapter 9, verses 9 through 13, it gets very autobiography.

He decides to talk about himself.

I don't know if it's in the third person.

Maybe when they found the letter, it said I.

But because they wanted you to know that it was Matthew, they changed it to like this is about Matthew.

But Matthew actually tells the story of his own conversion experience and his own opportunity to make a decision to follow Jesus.

Will you answer?

Matthew is a tax collector.

A Jewish man collecting taxes from Jewish people on behalf of the Roman government.

This is not a person who is liked.

This is not a person that's revered in his own community, quite the opposite.

Matthew would be viewed by his own people as a low-down, dirty scoundrel of a thing.

That you would even side with the people that are occupying our territory, that you would collect taxes from us on behalf of a government that doesn't even line up with the prophecies to our people, is completely egregious and deplorable.

Yet here Matthew is.

Matthew, by all estimations, should be enjoying his life.

Even though he's rejected by some in his community, he's making a lot of money.

He seems to be on the right side governmentally, they're not bothering him.

So, so how come he's not enjoying his life?

I believe he's not enjoying his life because even though he has money flowing, and even though he has some status, even though he has some clout, Matthew knows something that it doesn't seem like he has shared with his peers around him.

I'm sick.

You may not know I'm sick, but I know that I am sick.

I got money in my pocket, and I'm sick.

I live in the right neighborhood, but I'm sick.

My marriage is going okay, but I'm sick.

I got the car that I wanted to drive in the driveway, but I'm still sick.

And you still feel a little sick?

It just seems like something's off, like, like, like I everything's not lining up, and I don't I don't know what to do about it.

Matthew's in the same situation.

And one day while he's at work, God, I love you, Jesus.

I love the fact that Jesus can come get you wherever you are right now.

He doesn't have to wait for you to get to 777 Blessed Way, He doesn't have to wait till you pick one of the services, He doesn't care if you're watching online, Jesus will come and get you wherever you choose to be at the time because He is not blocked by the four walls of the church, He is not waiting for Presbytery, He is not waiting for revival when your time is up from being sick.

He will come and find you right where you are and say, Come.

Six words change Matthew's life.

At work.

Six words change his life.

Jesus walks up to a tax collector booth while a man, a grown man, is at work.

And says, Follow me and be my disciple.

This is what's stellar to me.

Matthew doesn't say, who are you?

Sir, I'm at work.

If you would like to talk about this discipleship opportunity on my lunch break, I have 90 more minutes.

And then we can chat.

Matthew knew he was sick.

And there had never been an invitation that made him feel better until this one.

But it wasn't until you were invited into the presence of God that things really started to change in your life.

Nothing changed externally, but something started to change internally.

The thing that blows my mind about Matthew's story of discipleship is that he didn't even make a response to Jesus.

He just says nothing and leaves work.

He didn't say, I quit.

Sick of y'all anyway.

He didn't go tell off the manager.

He gets six words.

And he just leaves.

Jesus walks to his test collector booth.

He says, Follow me and be my disciple.

And Matthew just.

I want to be a disciple of Jesus Christ.

And when you call, I will follow.

He did not ask him on the way.

So where are we going?

He did not ask him on the way.

So I'm going to get a bonus, right?

He did not ask him on the way.

So I'll be happy for the rest of my days.

He did not ask him on the way.

You're going to make me a preacher like you, right?

He did not ask him on the way.

So would my spouse come this year?

He did not ask him on the way anything.

He just followed.

This is what it looks like to be a follower of Jesus.

It's just following.

Where are we going today, Jesus?

Jesus?

Are you gonna answer me?

Anybody beside me been following Jesus through a season where you wanted answers and didn't get them?

I mean, he right in front of you, so you know he hears you.

You right in back of him.

You the first one to write your gospel.

Jesus.

You know you hear me.

When will this storm be over?

She's just like.

And wherever I go, you go.

Because whatever I see, you'll see.

And whatever I'll do, you do.

Wherever I go, you go.

Just follow the way.

The sickly part of him knew that it wasn't going to happen at the tax collector's booth.

The sickly part of him knew that there was never going to be enough money in the account to change the sickness in his heart.

The sickly part of him knew that he needed something other than what he had already obtained.

So he followed.

And what's amazing is Scripture says later Matthew throws a dinner party.

This gets me every time.

This dude quits work.

And then later on says, Hey y'all, wanna come to dinner at my house?

Just invite Jesus over.

He says, Yeah, we'll come.

Me and the disciples, we'll come and you're one of my new disciples.

We'll come eat dinner at your house.

He's like, Great, great, great, great.

I'm so glad y'all are coming.

Because I know I'm sick.

But I got some friends.

They're sicker than me.

Some of them is sick and detestable.

You thought, you thought I did some stuff.

These people, they've done five times worse than what anything I've ever done.

I'ma call them to the house too.

Jesus goes, sweet.

Isn't it amazing that that Matthew turns into an evangelist, and the only person he can evangelize are other sick people like him.

See, the misconception that we have is that Jesus is trying to fill his church with people that are already well.

It is well with my soul.

It is well, it is well with my soul.

No, it's not.

That's sick.

And he invites them to his house.

The house is jam-packed with a bunch of other sick dudes like Matthew.

This is where Jesus wants to be.

Jesus wants to be in a room full of people that know they're sick.

Jesus wants to be in a room with a bunch of people that know that without him they will not be okay.

And I'm pretty sure that this guest list Preston had to be meticulous, right?

I mean, Matthew knows who his friends are.

He knows he's calling John over.

He knows he's calling Curtis over.

He knows he's calling his coworker Michelle over.

He's calling everybody over.

That's sick.

Where do the Pharisees come from?

How'd they get to his house?

How'd they even know?

A dinner party was happening.

I'm reading this verse.

And I'm looking right there.

But when the Pharisees saw this, how come church people so nosy?

This seems like it's a perfect deal.

I don't think a corrupt tax collector would invite Pharisees to his house.

Were they just walking by?

How come they just came when the Pharisees saw this?

It's always some really deep religious person who's forgot their sick that has commentary about everybody else.

Pharisees just in there, just nosy.

Who in there?

I put the Pharisees in the hood just now with that statement.

That just I don't know why I did that.

It's just, who in there?

Who in who up in there?

Now I put them in Cali.

Who up in there?

There's a bunch of Matthew's friends.

Matthew?

Tax collector?

Dude in the tax booth?

Yeah, him.

And these cowards won't confront Jesus so they find his disciples.

They don't want to stand up to Jesus and ask the question.

So they ask one of the associate pastors.

Come here.

You want me to get Jesus?

No, no, no.

You come here.

I don't have enough authority for him, but I think I can take you out.

Come here.

Why is he eaten with this scum?

Can you imagine this judgment?

Jesus is in here with a bunch of people that that need deliverance, that need salvation, that need a miracle, that need a breakthrough.

And and and the Pharisees cannot reconcile this in their head.

And so instead of just asking the one, they decided to ask someone.

Why is he eating with such scum?

I don't know how deep Jesus is into the dinner party.

Hey man, you good?

All right.

Yeah, you good, all right.

Yeah, it's great.

Hey, what's up?

Curtis?

Yeah, Curtis, yeah.

Work with Matthew?

Yeah.

Okay, okay, okay.

I created you, Curtis.

Piece of fish in your hand?

Created that too.

Should roll with me sometime.

He overhears the Pharisees.

I don't know if he heard the whole statement or if he just heard scum.

And you know that uh Jesus is the descendant of David.

And they pick up on slights like this.

Remember, David just came to give his brother some cheese and bread, and he heard Goliath defaming the name of God in front of the Israelite army.

And David turned around, he said, Who is this?

That would defy God to my you know, Jesus got David's blood running through his veins.

Scum! Did you just what did you just?

And he's he's much more polite than David.

Because David would have cut off his head.

Jesus' words are polite, but but but they are also pointed.

As politely and pointedly as he could, he said, healthy people don't need a doctor.

Sick people do.

And in that moment there was an indictment.

For every Pharisee that stood before him.

That one phrase told them who they were and who they were not.

In that one phrase, they were both told who they were and who they were not.

In that one phrase, Jesus told them who he was and who they could never be.

I'm the doctor.

And contrary to your Pharisaical beliefs, you are as sick as everyone in the room.

But I can't do anything for you because you don't know it.

So go back and read Hosea.

Find out what it means to show mercy.

For I have come to call not those who think they are righteous.

But those that know they are sinners.

I wasn't in a in the back of a tax collector booth.

Like Matthew.

But I was at the back of my parents' church, God's way holding his fellowship.

West Covina, California.

January 14th of 1996, sitting on the back row, right after Sunday school and right before praise and worship.

And I came to church to do what I did every Sunday.

Write raps and laugh at the people that spoke in tongues.

And on this day, the Holy Spirit whispered in my ear, you are a sinner.

There was no condemnation in the statement.

It was as matter of fact of me spotting mustard on your blouse.

He said, You're a sinner.

And for the very first time in my entire life, I had grown up in church.

My parents were pastors.

I had heard the gospel message.

None of it penetrated until I heard the Holy Spirit say, You're a sinner.

And in that moment, I could feel my disconnection from God.

And in that very moment, I began to weep.

I said, I need to give my life to Jesus right now.

But this is a Pentecostal church.

Praise and worship had just started.

We were at least three hours away from an auto call.

What was I gonna do?

So I stood up during testimony service.

40 minutes into the service.

They decided to have testimony service.

And I stood up during testimony service.

I was the last one picked because I was on the last row.

There was about four or five people in front of me, and only 40% of them had actual testimonies.

Everybody else had complaints with a prayer request at the end.

Pray my strength in the Lord.

My father finally got to me.

My dad was officiating the service that day, and he looked back with surprise.

And he said, I think Tim has something to say.

It's a small church, only 50 people.

What is he going to say?

And my response was, I give up.

I need to give my life to Jesus right now.

My mama in that moment, who had been praying for all of her sons since they came out of her womb, let out the biggest Tyler Perry-esque hallelujah you have ever heard in your life.

And on that day, over twenty-five years ago, I walked down to the front of an altar.

And I became a disciple of Jesus.

And I've been following him ever since.

Will you follow him?

At home?

Will you follow him at work?

Will you follow him through a storm?

Will you follow him through a divorce?

Will you follow him on a mountain?

And on a valley?

When you are up or when you are down.

All I know is I'm sickly.

And I know it.

And he's the only doctor that has my cure.

Would you bow your heads and close your eyes?

What is the Holy Spirit saying to you through this message?

Here's my hope and my prayer.

My hope and my prayer is that today for the rest of this month, people that find themselves stuck in a box like Matthew would break out to follow him wherever he leads you.

So, Holy Spirit, thank you for identifying who is the doctor and who is the patient.

Now, may we be patient as Jesus leads us through our life.

Jesus' name we pray.

Amen.

Thanks for joining us today.

If you'd like to connect with us, text Connect to 71010 or visit gatewaypeople.com.

We hope you have a great week.