Easter Sunday

We're in Matthew chapter 28. I'm going to read another

Matthew 28 · chapter mention

resurrection account to you. If this resurrection account

sounds any different from the one I read to you at the

beginning of service, I just want to give a quick

explanation. There's four Gospels written

Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John. They each give an account of the

resurrection. They each highlight different

details. This is not some complicated or

perplexing thing to be overwhelmed by.

They said it was 1 Angel, They said it was 2 angels.

They said this happened outside the tomb.

They said it happened in the tomb.

All of it's true, all of it happened.

And yet particular disciples saw fit to bring out different

points, to raise up different details.

In the same way that when you and I would tell a story we

might highlight different things at different times.

The Holy Spirit saw fit as he inspired the disciples to write

the scriptures to bring out certain points and to make

particular points. So I'm reading to you from

Matthew chapter 28. Now after the Sabbath, toward

Matthew 28 · chapter mention

the dawn of the first day of the week, Mary Magdalene and the

other Mary went to see the tomb, and behold, there was a great

earthquake. For an Angel of the Lord

descended from heaven, and came and rolled back the stone and

sat on it. His appearance was like

lightning and his clothing white as snow, and for fear of him the

guards trembled and became like dead men.

A lot of theologians agree here that in this passage the the the

Roman soldiers were probably faking dead.

They're still four or five boats taking place.

They dropped to the ground like I'm even too scared to run.

I don't want to grab a detention of this, this angelic being.

I'm horrified all throughout scripture, by the way, when an

Angel appears to somebody, they're always horrified.

We don't necessarily know why, but the Angel always has to say,

hey, peace. Well, if it's peaceful for

somebody, depending on why the angel's there.

But a lot of times the angels say, peace be to you.

But for these Roman soldiers, this was not a peaceful event,

This was a horrifying event. They're supposed to be guarding

this body, guarding this tomb and making sure that the

disciples don't come steal the body away.

Now these men play dead in hopes that this Angel doesn't destroy

them. But the Angel said to the women,

Do not be afraid. For I know that you seek Jesus

who was crucified. He is not here, for he has risen

as he said, Come, see the place where he lay.

Then go quickly and tell his disciples that he has risen from

the dead, and behold, he is going before you to Galilee.

There you will see him. See I have told you.

So they departed quickly from the tomb with fear and great

joy, and ran to tell his disciples.

And behold, Jesus met with them and said greetings.

And they came up and took hold of his feet and worshipped him.

Then Jesus said to them, do not be afraid.

Go and tell my brothers to go to Galilee.

And there they will see me. Heavenly Father, thank you so

much for the resurrection. Thank you for all that it means.

Thank you for your continued dominance over all your

creation. You are sovereign over us.

It is our joy and privilege to worship you.

This morning I pray you will bring light and revelation.

God, not just a yearly tradition is happening today, but a

commemoration of the most important event in all of human

history is what's happening today.

The King of Kings, the Lord of Lords, is being worshipped in

his glory in His Majesty. I pray God that you would

resurrect lives. You were the first born from the

through the resurrection, but since you have brought many

others to follow, I pray you would continue to do so today.

In Jesus name, Amen. Jesus, this Jesus, He is king

over all people, all places and over all time.

I want to make that clear right out of the gate.

Why are we so excited? Why are we worshipping?

Why are we raising our hands? Why do we rejoice?

Why don't we? Why don't we put on our Sunday

bass? Even more so on Easter?

Is it because we're a bunch of fake Christians and we want to

look good on the outside? Well, maybe.

I don't know. Maybe.

Maybe That's some people's heart.

Putting on a suit and tie on Easter Sunday doesn't save you.

You can look handsome. You can look good all the way to

hell. Me and my sons have handsome

matching shirts that Natalie picked out for us.

Nothing wrong with Eastern traditions, but Jesus was very

clear that there's a big problem with looking good on the outside

and being dead on the inside. He insulted the Pharisees for

that very thing. They had ornate robes and and it

was all according to the Jewish law.

And he said, you're a tomb, You look good on the outside, a

whitewashed tomb. This was like an artistic way to

display their tombs more beautifully, He said, You're

like a beautiful, a beautiful whitewashed tomb, and they're

like, is this a compliment? And he goes, no, it's not.

You're you look good on the outside, but inside you're dead.

And this was the scathing accusation that Jesus brought

against them. Really.

This is the scathing accusation that goes against all of

humanity. There's good news with the

gospel, but only if you first understood that there was bad

news. The good news of Jesus loves me

to to the American mind. Often times just goes well, of

course he does. I'm awesome.

I mean, yeah, I love me too. Why wouldn't he?

Well, hang on, friend. We sounds like for you, we need

to rewind a little bit. You're not lovable.

You're not lovable. You're not worthy.

You're not enough, Contrary to whatever social media mean you

may have seen this week, you're not enough.

And yet you're deeply loved by God Almighty.

You're deeply sinful. That's scary.

And yet this is the grace of God.

He wants to reveal his love to you.

But I'm scared. I'm.

I'm not feel ashamed. That's normal.

And yet he also wants to remove your shame.

And he has a mechanism by which all of it can be removed.

Your sin, your shame, your fear, your guilt, your condemnation,

all things that you should feel, All things that you and I try to

run from. I don't like this feeling.

Let me medicate it with alcohol. I don't like this feeling.

Let me medicate it with lust. I don't like this feeling.

Let me, let me medicate it with. Fill in the blank with your

preferred means of sinful comfort or whatever it may look

like. I'm going to.

I'm going to medicate this with more work, with more

accomplishment. With, with my spouse, I'll make

them my everything. With my children, I'll make them

my everything with whatever. I've got all kinds of idolatry

that can rise up in my heart. And yet still Jesus calls me

vertical to him to say, hey, Joe, Michael, everything you're

trying to do, it's a poor substitute for me.

I built you. I designed you to walk with and

to live with me. That's the purpose.

That's what God wanted. Back in the garden, all the way

back in the Garden of Eden, God made Adam and Eve 2 real literal

people that actually existed according to to Moses and

according to Jesus and according to all of Scripture.

It was God's will to walk with us and live with us, and we all

live happily ever after. That was the plan.

If Adam hadn't sinned, that's what would have happened.

We continue to walk and live happily ever after, and yet our

covenant head, Adam sinned. So we all fall.

We're all guilty, we're all sinful, and we're all lost.

Why? Is why I thought this supposed

to be a resurrection sermon? It is.

But you need to know why the resurrection matters.

Not some random Jew who died 2000 years ago.

He came back to life. Good for him.

Why does it matter? Who cares?

Good job, Jesus. What does it have to do with me?

Everything and the entire cosmos.

Because not only is Jesus, not only does Jesus resurrection

good news for you, it's good news for the entire universe.

What I said to the children, adults need to hear as well.

Jesus is Lord over all. Jesus is king over everybody,

whether or not they acknowledge him as king.

Jesus is your king. Well, I didn't elect him.

That's not how kings work. Jesus is king over everybody,

everywhere, Whether or not, well, I don't believe that.

And yet he's still king, and yet he still rules, and yet he still

reigns. And friend, that is good news.

You should bend the knee to the Lord Jesus.

You should kiss the ring of the Lord Jesus Christ.

You should submit to the Lord Jesus Christ.

Crush your pride and the human ego, Which is what the gospel

does, by the way. Which is why men don't want to

come to Christ or women or children or anybody.

Because to come to Christ is to acknowledge I am needy, I am

broken. I am sinful.

I am in a humiliated place. Well, I don't.

I don't want to do that. I'm too prideful for that.

And yet he allows you to make that choice.

It's that's your choice to make. No one can force you.

And yet the king calls you and says, come, come, come, come,

come and die. I don't want to die.

You want resurrection, though, right?

Everybody wants resurrection, right?

There's a prerequisite for for resurrection.

Can you guess what it is? It's death.

So, like, do we have to literally die?

Do I have to like, go kill myself and then and then I'll be

resurrected. Well, we will be literally

physically resurrected with our bodies.

But what I'm talking to you about today is the resurrection

of your spirit, a new life on the inside.

And that also requires a death. It also requires a a going to

the cross. So we rejoice because Jesus is

risen. But why did he die?

He died for the sins of the world, for yours and for mine.

The Bible says for the wages. Wages sound good, right?

It's payment I like where this is going.

For the wages of sin is death. Oh, that's a terrible payment.

But the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our

Lord. So Jesus Christ was the pure and

willing sacrifice for the justice and the holiness of God

to be satisfied. This is the mechanism of the

gospel. There's even Christians who are

actually saved. They have been rescued, they are

new, but they still couldn't explain.

If you'd say, why are you saved, they'd say, I believe in Jesus

and you'd say, and what does that mean?

And they go, Jesus died for my sins, you go, do you have any

more clarity around that? So it's OK to be immature, but

we want to continue to grow. We want to have clarity on the

mechanism of even of how the Lord rescued us.

There's plenty of mechanisms that aren't that important to

me, like, I'm not a I'm not a car guy in that right, Fred.

Fred can tell you Joe Michael's not a car guy.

Joe Michael doesn't know a lot about vehicles.

I don't have to know a lot about the mechanism of the truck.

As long as the the thing turns on when I start it, as long as I

don't let it run out of fuel, anything else goes wrong.

I call Fred and Fred. Fred Fred's worried about all

the mechanisms. But I'm like, it doesn't matter

to me, but the mechanism of the gospel matters so that you don't

have a a an incomplete and a distorted misunderstanding of

what happens through the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ.

All people were guilty. Like I told the children, we

should have been crushed and we deserve hell.

The Bible says so repeatedly. Well, I feel like I'm kind of a

good person, and yet God would disagree.

And yet the scripture tells us something different.

Well, I don't like that very much.

Spoken like a human and not like the king who was actually sinned

against. But I haven't given you.

I haven't given you. Well, I have given you bad news,

but I'm giving you good news. So the good news is God doesn't

want to leave us there. God's not willing that we should

stay there. But God also requires us to come

to him in humility and say, Lord, I am a Sinner, I need

forgiveness and I'm actually putting my faith on Christ.

To believe in Jesus is to follow Jesus.

Could you please repeat that with me?

To believe in Jesus is to follow Jesus.

There can be no separation. I believe in Jesus, but I don't

follow Jesus. My friend, you've made-up a new

religion that doesn't exist. You won't find it in the

scriptures. Show it to me and then I'll

believe it. You know you can't show it to

me. Well then I won't believe it.

To believe in Jesus is to follow Jesus the same thing.

Well, I'm not perfect. Hey, I know you're not perfect.

Neither am I. But we're talking about a

faithfulness here, not a perfection.

A faithfulness. Are you perfect as a husband?

Are you perfect as a wife? But can't you still be faithful

as a husband and faithful as a wife without perfection?

I'm not a perfect husband. And that's not a that's also not

an excuse to use. Nobody's perfect, right?

Be careful here. Nobody's perfect.

Sometimes I'll rob banks and kill people, but nobody's

perfect. We're not taking this to some

bizarre extreme here. So yeah, it's true that nobody's

perfect, and yet we can still walk in faithfulness.

The same thing is true for the Christian life.

The Christian life is not marked by perfection.

The Christian life is marked by repentance.

So I walk with the Lord, and when I sin against the Lord,

even as a Christian, I go, oh, that's not who I am anymore.

And the Holy Spirit says that's not who you are anymore.

And I'd say, Lord, I confess my sins and I confess to my my wife

or my children or you or whoever I've sinned against.

And you say, yeah, man, grace, it's forgiven.

Let's move on. And we move on as forgiven

people, as renewed people. Because why?

Because all of our sin was placed on the Lord Jesus Christ

on the cross. And to believe in him and to

follow him means that the righteousness of Christ was not

swallowed up by the sin that overcame him on the cross.

The righteousness of Christ is given to sinful people.

It is a beautiful and radical exchange.

That is the gospel. That's the good news.

It's why every other world religion falls, shows so short.

Every other world religion and world philosophy is a doctrine

of demons. It is demonic.

It is Satanic. How so?

Because it destroys men's lives. Because it leads people to hell.

The Jew, the Muslim, the Mormon, the Jehovah's Witness, they go

to the same place. They all go to hell.

Why? Because they're not in your

club. No, no, no.

It's not my anything. It's it's King Jesus.

It's King Jesus. I'm a nobody except that I bend

the knee to King Jesus. No one will be in the presence

of God in heaven except that no one will look around each other

and say, how'd you get here? Oh, let me tell you my story

now. Everybody's story's the same.

Jesus died for my sins. I trusted him and I walked with

him. That's it.

Jesus paid it all. I did nothing to earn it.

I did nothing to deserve it. Jesus accomplished it.

God saves the world through His Son Jesus.

This is why the resurrection is so exciting and so powerful.

We know the Father accepted Jesus's sacrifice because he

raised him from the dead. Anybody can die on a cross.

How do you really know he died for your sins?

Because the Father, through the resurrection, says this is my

son. And now he is enthroned.

He is enthroned to live forever. He is worthy of it all.

Jesus is not our dead good example of how to live.

Jesus is not just a moral teacher to try and get your kids

to obey you better. Jesus is not just somebody to

help you be a better person. That is not who the Lord is.

He's way, way, way beyond it. Way beyond it.

Let's kill that idea today. Let's smash it violently.

Jesus is so much more. Jesus is the risen, living God

who forgives sin and rescues people from their old life.

Not just people who say I don't want to go to hell because that

sounds terrible. Well, it is, but but I'd rather

go to heaven. That's not the whole gospel.

That is an Americanized gospel that's been given to us for

decades now that has been very focused on you and very focused

on me. Hey, friend, don't go to hell.

It's hot. Go to heaven.

OK, What do I need to do? Just repeat after me.

OK, I'll repeat after you. Now what do I do?

You're good. See.

In heaven. Really.

Where was that? In the scripture.

Show it to me. I'm all in if you can show me in

the word of God. But Jesus actually called for

something entirely different. I'm not giving you some some

kind of super Christianity Today.

This is not like this is Navy SEAL Christianity.

I'm giving you kindergarten Christianity.

I'm giving you Jesus Christianity.

I'm giving you entry level Christianity.

This is not calculus. This is 1 + 1 = 2 Christianity.

The only Christianity anybody should have ever known of.

Well then why don't they? Why don't?

I don't answer for them, friends, but I do answer to him.

And I'm scared of him. I walk with the fear of the Lord

that makes me tell men and women the truth.

Men and women who sometimes their faces tell me.

Shut up, preacher. I don't like where you're going

with this. I say I love you too much to

shut up. I love you too much to be afraid

of you. I love you too much to worry

about what you think about me. I care too much about you.

I've been praying for you. The Lord has been drawing you to

himself. So if you're walking faithful

faithfully with the Lord, a message like this is going to

draw you even closer. And go, Lord, you're so

faithful. You're so good.

Thank you. Thank you.

How can I get even closer? Like John the disciple at the

Last Supper says he laid his head on Jesus's chest.

John's like, I want to be. How close can I get to him?

I want to be with him at all times.

That's that's what the the Christian life is like.

Not cool. I go to heaven when I die,

right. And be like, hang on.

Do you have any love for Jesus in you?

Oh sure, but I go to heaven, right?

Like the kind of person who would be content to not walk

with Jesus their whole life is the kind of person who would be

content to get to a heaven if there was no Jesus.

And a Christian could never say that a Christian would never be

content. Like as long as I go to heaven,

I don't care who's there. Well, my friend, you won't be

going to heaven. Because to to walk with Jesus is

to love Jesus. It's to know him, it is to

actually desire him. A heaven without Jesus just put

me to sleep. Like what there is.

That's that sounds like torment. What's the point?

What's the point? He is the point.

He's the pinnacle. God is the thing, not his

heaven. Heaven is a created thing.

It's glorious. And it's a place where his

family will live together forever.

Why? Because he's going to restore

what went wrong in the garden. Adam's sin.

He blew it. And now you and I are born as

sinners. These sweet babies will also

need to put their faith in the Lord Jesus Christ because

they're born as sinners and God's going to restore all that

through all of Scripture. He's restoring it.

And then we come all the way through the Book of Revelation

where he says here's what's to come and God's people will be

together forever with God their father.

That was the point. God built a family and Jesus

comes and rescues the bride. So we don't follow Jesus to try

and be better people or to try and make God not mad at us.

We come to follow Jesus because we were guilty sinners who were

dead in sin, who needed forgiveness, who needed rescue,

who needed eternal life. We don't need better morals.

We don't need something to just help the kids behave.

We don't need to just make our in laws happy with our church

attendance. We don't need to bring a little

comfort to our guilty conscience.

We need resurrection. And that's what Jesus gives.

What does a dead man need? Does he need some breath

freshener? Does he need somebody to clean

his ear wax? What does a dead man lit?

What does a dead man need? That's you and I outside of

Christ. Well, I I need to do a little

better. What, are you going to put

makeup on a dead man? Maybe we do that for the

funeral. But what does a dead man really

need? He needs a new life.

He needs resurrection. Good news, you can have it.

Jesus promises it. Jesus gives it.

Jesus is king over everybody, everywhere.

And we rejoice that our Savior was victorious over sin on the

cross, but also over death itself when he was raised from

the dead. 1st Corinthians 1521 and 22 tells us For as by a man

came, death, by a man has also come the resurrection of the

dead. For as in Adam all die, so also

in Christ all shall be made alive.

Because of Adam we all sin. Because of Christ we can all be

made alive. It's not automatic, but we can

by faith receive the grace of God.

A man got us into this mess, and now all men suffer under the

curse. But one man got us out of this

mess, and now all men can be free by following him.

But if you want a resurrection, it is going to cost you.

If you've been led to believe that you can follow Jesus and

keep your old life, you were lied to.

But the truth is, if you follow Jesus, you won't want to keep

your old life. You won't see your old life as

something prized and valuable and incredible.

You will see it the way the Lord sees it, as death.

And you will see the new life in Christ as something beautiful.

This is why we pray that the Lord would open the eyes of our

hearts so we would have real revelation, real light.

This is why the Saints have been giving their lives for the past

2000 years. This is why Saints have rather

than reject the name of Jesus that throughout the scriptures,

through the Old Testament into the New, all the disciples,

their lives end very violently. All of them very, very, very

violently. Peter himself, they said we're

going to crucify you like you like we crucified your Lord.

He said please don't crucify me upside down.

Instead, I'm not worthy to be crucified like Jesus was.

What kind of man, what kind of person would do that?

This is the man who denies him, remember?

I don't know him. The night of his crucifixion, He

denies him. I don't know him.

And yet, when power comes from the Holy Spirit, when a man is

made alive by the resurrection power of Jesus, you go, what are

you going to do, kill me? And they go, yeah.

And then you go and then what? That's your only move.

That's your best play. Jesus says don't fear man who

can kill the body and then do nothing else to you.

He says fear God, who can kill your body and then throw your

soul into hell. Jesus would say something like

that. Jesus told us to fear God.

I know, right? The American gospel never told

me that story, but it's right there in the scriptures, over

and over. The King talks this way.

Why? Because he loves you.

He loves people, and he wants his resurrection power to not

just be a story that you look back on, but he wants it to be

an ongoing testimony in your life.

Jesus raised me from the dead. That's why I'm confident.

That's why I can boldly tell you good news and say, hey, it's

good news. I'm giving you good news today.

I'm not giving you bad news and I'm going to prove it to you.

I'm going to go to Matthew chapter 16, Matthew chapter 16

Matthew 16 · chapter mention Matthew 16 · chapter mention

and verse 24. Jesus then told the disciples if

anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his

cross and follow me. For whoever would save his life

will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake will find

it. Wow, what a what a surprising

paradox. If anyone would come after me,

let him deny himself, take up his cross and follow me.

Jesus hadn't gone to the cross yet, but all the Jews listening

to him, they knew exactly what the cross and the crucifixion

looked like. It was not uncommon for the

Romans, whenever there would be a rebellion, to crucify hundreds

of people and they would do it on the roadside.

So you're you're travelling from one town to another and you're

walking past men and sometimes women who are on the cross.

People lived on the cross for days.

Just so you know, we won't go in too much detail here, but people

could survive a crucifixion for days because not everyone was

beaten as savagely as Jesus was. Jesus was beaten multiple times

through the night and and he chose to die when he died on the

cross. But men could live four days on

a cross. So the Jews were very familiar

with what crucifixion looked like.

Children were familiar with what crucifixion looked like.

And this is Jesus's marketing for his ministry.

How are you going to try and get a, you know, if I'm starting a

false religion, I'm not going to tell you that you have to die on

a cross, am I? I'm like, guys, I'll make you

rich. I'll make you wealthy.

I'll keep you happy. I want to.

I want to tell you things that you want to hear.

Jesus says, hey, anyone wants to follow me.

And they go, yeah, And Jesus goes, you have to take up your

cross and follow me. And they go, never mind, maybe

not so much. Why would he say that?

Because he knows what he's worth, and he knows that there

has to be death. Well, did he mean a literal

cross? Well, no, he wasn't Promising.

Everybody has to die on a literal cross.

Although for Peter and a few others, and actually plenty of

other Christians, that's been the case.

But for you and I, that's not the most likely path for us, our

grandchildren. I think things could continue to

go in a different direction, but So what?

So what? Jesus is king, but Jesus

actually commands that we have to let go and give up our lives

for whoever, for whoever would save his life.

No, I'm keeping it. I'm keeping it.

We'll lose it. What?

But whoever loses his life for my sake will actually find it.

Now I'm going to hold on to my thing.

Well, then you're going to lose your life.

You're you're already lost. And you'll continue to lose your

life. That's your default setting.

But if you'll lose your life, Lord, it's all yours.

I give it all to you. My my measly life.

I give it. And he goes, I'll take it.

And he says, and I'm going to give you resurrection because it

pleases the Father when we would put, when we put faith in his

Son. Because the Father loves Jesus

and the Father loves you. But there is no way to please

the Father except by going to his Son, Jesus.

And so if we don't accept the fact that justice was satisfied

through Christ on the cross, then we have to still satisfy

that justice. If you don't, if you don't put

faith in what the Father did through Jesus on the cross, why

was he tormented? Why was he crushed?

Why was he pierced? For our sins, for our

transgressions, for our iniquities?

So if I don't walk by faith in that promise, well, according

for for your life, justice is still feeling unsatisfied.

So when I meet the judge and I stand before him, he'll say I

don't see the blood of Jesus on you.

So the wrath hasn't been satisfied.

And in your case, it will be satisfied for all eternity.

Are you just trying to scare me, Pastor?

I'm not trying to scare you. If I if I was, I would tell you

I've said that at other times in other sermons.

Like, there's nothing wrong with trying to scare people.

There's plenty to be scared of, and yet I want rather to draw

your affection to Christ. I want rather this morning.

What I've been praying for is that you would actually love

him, that you would actually care for him, that you would not

see him as an escape hatch for your life, but that you would

actually want to devote in loyalty and complete submission

to the one who's worthy. Why?

Because he's worth it. And because he will resurrect

you. And because outside of him,

you're a dead man. Well, I don't like ultimatums

Like, OK, we'll pick another universe to live in.

Because this is, this is how this one works, by the way.

He owns that one too, if you could find it.

What does this look like? Has anyone done this before Me.

Yes. You're not the first.

We're going to look at a man named Matthew and his the way he

followed the Lord. Matthew, Chapter 9, My church.

Matthew 9 · chapter mention

We've been walking through Matthew verse by verse, and this

is actually the passions we got to.

So Salt Church folks are wondering, like, are we going to

go through Matthew today? Yes, we're still going to hit

our passage. And it was perfect.

It was perfect timing. This is the calling of Matthew.

So Matthew, he's writing this gospel.

This is the the story about the man who who himself is called

Matthew 9, verse nine. As Jesus passed on from there,

he saw a man called Matthew sitting in the tax booth, and he

said to him, follow me. And he rose and followed him.

And as Jesus reclined at table in the house, so Matthew has him

over that night. Come over, let's have a feast.

Let's celebrate. I want to honor you, Rabbi.

As Jesus reclined at table in the house, behold, many tax

collectors and sinners came and were reclining with Jesus and

his disciples. And when the Pharisees saw this,

they said to his disciples, why does your teacher eat with tax

collectors and sinners? But when he heard it, he said,

those who are well have no need of a physician but those who are

sick. Go and learn what this means.

I desire mercy and not sacrifice, for I came to call

the right not the righteous, but sinners.

So here we have Matthew, a very, very wealthy man.

Quick back story. The Jews were being ruled over

by the Romans. The Romans taxed everybody and

everything. They taxed how many wheels your

cart had on it. They taxed how many fish you

caught. They taxed everything.

Not too, not too different from from life today under under our

government. And yet the Romans also would

employ Jewish people to turn against their people, to spy, to

understand their culture and to keep tabs on families, and to

tax everything to the fullest. But you're a traitor if you do

that. You're going to be hated by your

people, but you're going to be very wealthy.

You're going to, you're going to make a lot of money and you're

going to live very comfortably in one sense.

Well, Matthew was one of those traitors.

The Jews looked down on tax collectors.

Jesus seemed to as well at one point even saying, hey, when you

deal with people through church discipline, if they, if they

don't follow all the proper things, then eventually you

treat them as a tax collector. Jesus even placing judgment

against the way tax collectors live.

So here we have a very wealthy man.

Matthew has a very comfortable life.

Things are easy for him as far as his success goes, and yet a

rabbi comes along. Matthew, by the way, has also

been barred from fellowship in the synagogue.

He's no longer allowed in the synagogue.

That was another thing to happen with tax collectors.

So he's not like a good practicing Jew who's just kind

of hypocritical. He's out.

He's out of the Kingdom. He's out of Jewish culture.

Everybody hates him, except for other rich people who who have

also turned on people, other tax collectors and that kind of

thing. This is the man who turns and

gives it all away. And by the way, he doesn't show

back up to his job the next morning.

To leave a post to sign to you on the Romans is to leave it for

life. You're done.

Matthew walks away from all of that, absolutely all of it, and

he does it with boldness, and he never has any confusion about

it. In one moment he leaves a great

job with status and lots of wealth.

He probably walked away from more worldly comfort and more

worldly success than any of the other disciples.

And in one moment he went after something far greater than

worldly success and someone far greater than worldly success.

Do not pity Matthew. If you feel sorry for Matthew

when you hear that story, then Matthew feels sorry for you.

Right now, Matthew is one of the 24 elders around the throne of

God in heaven. Matthew is doing well.

He gave up his incredible life of wealth and means to what?

To to go suffer a terrible death later in life.

But is that all? No, to actually have the life

that is truly life. Matthew didn't hold on to his

life. He goes, Jesus says follow me.

I don't know how many times. Maybe Jesus only asks once.

How many times has Jesus asked you?

Jesus is merciful and kind to you.

If you're not following Jesus, he's giving you another

invitation today. Follow me, one man, when Jesus

said follow me, the man said, let me go and bury my father

1st. And Jesus said no.

Another man said, I'll follow you anywhere.

And Jesus said, well, it's going to be difficult.

It was a man who had comfort and means and he said it's not going

to be comfortable. It's not going to be what you're

used to. Jesus is not begging.

He's not desperate. He does not get down on his

knees for you and I. It's the opposite.

What should be happening? Why?

Because he knows what he's worth.

Follow me. Hey, I'm not interested.

He goes, OK, move it on, moving on, because there's somebody

who's going to follow. He asked.

A lot of people, hey, follow me. And they're like, no thanks.

I appreciate the miracles though, Appreciate the bread.

Thank you for healing my family. Thank you for answering those

those desperate prayers I pray in the 11th hour.

I really appreciate that You're a you're a wonderful spiritual

Santa Claus. Don't worry, I'll come back

whenever I need something because I know you're merciful.

He might answer it. He's good.

He's faithful, He's kind, He's loving.

He's very, very, very, very good.

So I don't want you to doubt his goodness for one second, but I

do want you to doubt you. I want you to doubt your

hypocrisy. And I and I want you to question

whether or not the life that you have outside of Christ could

ever hold a candle to to the life in Christ.

Matthew chose, and he cast his vote publicly.

And today I'm going to give you the same opportunity.

When we end our service, I'm not sure what I'm going to do.

You should follow Jesus. That's what you should do.

Well, my faith is a private thing.

Except that it's not, and it shouldn't be.

Faith in Jesus is a public thing.

That's what he asks. He says.

If you deny me before men, I just keep quoting Jesus.

How did all this stuff get in the Bible?

If you deny me before men, I will deny you before my Father,

who is in heaven. That is so uncomfortable that

the Jesus of the Bible, if he met the American Jesus, he would

punch him in the face. That's just a silly joke.

There is no such thing as an American Jesus.

There's just King Jesus. But we've gotten distorted

versions that just make us comfortable.

Whatever you're comfortable with, whatever your comfort

level is, Jesus said, Are you comfortable with the cross?

Are you comfortable with crucifixion?

Me either. And yet, for the joy set before

him, he went to the cross. Saints, friends, for the joy set

before us. That's why we go to death.

That's why we go to the cross. To say, Lord, I give it all up.

I turn from my old life, from my own ways.

In Matthew 1344, Jesus said the Kingdom of heaven is like

treasure hidden in a field which a man found and covered up.

So it's a field that he doesn't own.

He's in a field. Maybe he stumps his foot on

something. He goes, what is this?

Let me just dig this thing up. He founds incredible.

He finds incredible treasure in this field.

Then he goes and he sells all that he has in his joy and he

buys the field. That's what the Kingdom of

heaven is like. This is one of my favorite

parables. It's one of the shortest

parables there is. A man finds a treasure in a

field. This is amazing.

Covers it up, goes and sells everything that he has and rails

like, what are you doing? He's like, I'm selling my house,

I'm selling this, I'm selling this, I'm selling this.

I'm just buying this field. What are you going to live in?

I just don't worry about it. I just need the field.

It's just a field. And we drive by and this idiot's

dancing out in his field, rejoicing like that guy loves

that field. Like it?

Just it doesn't look like anything to me.

Such as the Kingdom of heaven. Such as the Kingdom of heaven.

Saints, why do you love Jesus so much?

Oh, I've got the treasure. No, I don't.

I don't see much. Open your eyes.

He is the treasure. Well, but I've got so much to

give up. No, you don't.

You, if you knew about the treasure in the field, then you

would sell everything. You would give everything.

When you finally have your eyes open to see who he is and what

he's worth, he is worthy of it all.

And Matthew knew that. So the tax collector walks away,

and then he has a feast that night.

I'm sure other all the tax collectors and sinners are

pulling Matthew. Hey, this rabbi guy, he's cool,

man. But bro, you just ruined your

whole life. You left your posts today.

It's over. And Matthew's like, it's the

treasure in the field. I know you don't see it, but

like, please walk with us. Follow us.

Please. Like, no, dude, it's not my.

I'm not about that life, Bo. But you should be.

But you should be. He's already.

He's already doing things in me and changing me and making me a

different man like Matthew. Look what you're going to give

up. Look what you're going to lose.

Like what's going to happen? Like he's traveling all over the

region. What are you going to do with

your servants or your household or all this stuff?

Like he's like it. It doesn't matter.

I've got the field. Why can't you see there's a

treasure in the field? You want resurrection?

You can have it. There's just one thing that has

to happen first for the joy set before him.

Jesus died for the joy set before us.

We die to our old life. But there is no mourning, this

death. There's no grieving in this

process. Matthew will sit there that

night like, oh, it's going to be so difficult.

He's going, yes, Victory is mine.

There's no sadness. This is one death where there's

no grieving. Becoming a Christian is not the

finish line. It is the starting point again,

bringing it back to this American gospel that you and I

have been sold for decades. Repeat after me.

Say the prayer. OK, cool.

See you in heavenly. Are you sure that's the Bible?

Invitation to Christ. Was there any more to it?

Don't worry about that. Or Or, yeah, or do, but it

doesn't really matter. You pray to prayer when you're 5

years old at VBS. You're in.

Well, Jamaica, are you saying that they're not?

I'm not saying either way, but I'm saying that if you were born

again at that five year old prayer in VBS, praise God.

And there will also be fruit. Yes, that's what I'm saying.

Well, I don't have any fruit. All right, friend.

Well, that should concern you. And you can also fix it.

You can also say, Lord, wherever I've been, whatever I've done,

we don't even have to parse out. We don't have to do a full audit

on your whole life. We can just bring it all to the

cross. We just come.

And this feels me. I feel a little bit of panic.

I feel a little bit of anxiety around this.

Run to the cross, take it all to the cross.

You're not in charge of solving all of that.

You don't have to reconcile everything.

Jesus does that. You bring your confusion.

You bring your shame. You bring your anxiety.

You bring your worry. You bring all the things.

You bring your anger. You bring that to the cross.

He reconciles it. You don't reconcile the books.

This is the freedom of belonging to somebody.

But that's what it means to call somebody master.

That means he's actually king. He's actually ruling.

He's actually reigning. He's actually in charge.

Being becoming a Christian isn't the finish line.

It is the starting point. It's a life of actually

following Jesus. If somebody believes in Jesus,

they will follow Jesus. It's interesting.

It's a it's a unique thing, preaching in the American South

or preaching on what they call the Bible Belt of the United

States. A lot of times people think will

be so easy, but I don't think so.

I think it's one of the greatest mission fields in the entire

world. Because you go to California,

you go to to more liberally minded places.

It's very clear, Christian, not Christian, Christian not

Christian. It's very, it's very divided and

it also makes your work very clear because that Co worker,

they didn't grow up in the pews with grandma.

They haven't been to church on Christmas and Easter their whole

life. They haven't done any of those

things. So they don't have any

confusion. They're like no, I'm not a

Christian. You know, y'all are cool people,

but I'm not. Praise God for that kind of

clarity. In the American South, we have

no such thing. We have this comfort.

Why? Because I like Jesus.

Everybody likes Jesus. Everybody likes Jesus.

Yeah, I like Jesus. Tip my hat to the man upstairs.

He's in every country song. Let's get hammered on Saturday

night. But on Sunday morning, we're

going to sit on the back row and praise the Lord.

And we get comfortable with this idiot, with this idiotic

perspective of Christianity. We get comfortable.

Oh, yeah. Yeah.

I'm a I'm a generational Catholic.

I'm a generational Methodist. I'm a generational Baptist.

You're Baptist. Oh, OK Oh, where do you worship?

Oh, hey, we don't really go that much.

Like, OK, tell me about your walk with the Lord.

Yikes. That's a weird question.

What are you doing? That's personal.

Don't talk to me about the Jesus that I just said I follow and

love. Oh, OK.

I thought that was kind of a normal question.

No, this is like American, you know, Southern living

Christianity, sweet tea American flag Republicanism.

Let's just, it's all in a pot. Sprinkle Jesus in there, too.

You people are hard to preach to because you all think that

you're already in the Kingdom and you're not all in the

Kingdom and you're the hardest people in the world to preach to

because you're like, yeah, exactly.

I'm like, I'm talking to you. I was talking to you, bro.

Have you grown in the past decade in your faith at all?

I'm talking to you, sister. Are you talking to Mimi?

Yeah, sure. You.

I'm not preaching to myself, man.

You're kind of calling us out. Oh, my goodness.

Almost like a shepherd who loves you.

I don't like this kind of preaching.

It's 'cause you don't want a shepherd.

You want a preacher. I want a preacher, man.

That's another thing that that Southern American Christians

want. I want a preacher.

You don't want a pastor who shepherds your soul.

I want to preach. That was a good sermon.

It made me feel better about myself.

I want you to just know the truth, the whole truth, and

nothing but the truth. And I want you to feel good

because you're so secure in King Jesus.

Not a perfect person, but a repentant person.

A person who is marked, whose life is marked by a a devotion

and a love. You can see a spouse who loves

their spouse, can't you? But do you think that that

person's perfect? No.

But people know that your Michael loves Natalie.

It's obvious to anyone who spends any time with us.

You know that Joe Michael loves Natalie.

And you're also not deceived to think Joe Michael is the perfect

husband. But both of those things can be

true. So devotion is a marker of the

Christian life. Love is a marker of the

Christian life. Resurrection matters because

resurrection gives you and I resurrection.

God accepts Jesus's sacrifice. God accepts Jesus's victory, and

it will be applied to you by faith in the Son of God.

And faith in the Son of God means love for the Son of God.

It's not just going to heaven, it's walking with your Lord

right now. So I told you I was going to

give you that opportunity, and now I'm giving you that

opportunity. I don't have a big band.

Well, I got Dylan. Dylan's going to bring up some

music. I don't have a big band to woo

you in. I don't have a chance to create

some gigantic emotional experience.

I'm not going to say bow your heads and close your eyes and

then make you open your eyes and then raise your hand and then

stand and then kind of baby step you up to the front.

I'm not going to do all of that. I'm going to say if you have

been walking with the Lord Jesus Christ, then praise God,

continue to walk with him faithfully.

That's what we all want to do. We all have a lot of growing to

do, me included. We want to look more and more

like Jesus. But if you haven't, you might

say Joe Michael. I don't even know where I am and

all the things you describe. Am I born again?

Am I not born again? I've prayed that prayer, but

what did it do? But I don't have any of this

fruit. I'm not so sure.

All that aside, let the Lord reconcile all that.

My question is, do you want to be reconciled to God?

Do you want to be rescued from your sin?

And are you willing to give up your life to actually follow

Jesus? I'm not giving you the old, the

old false gospel that we've all been given.

Hey, just go to heaven by repeating after me.

I can teach a bird to to repeat words after me.

Parrots can do it. But what I'm asking is, do you

actually want to confess your sins to the Lord and also say,

Jesus, my life is yours? That's the invitation.

That's what the invitation is. And if your answer to that is

yes, or if your answer to that is man, I, I, I, I did that for

sure, but I haven't been walking faithfully, then the invitation

comes to you as well. So would you please stand to

your feet if that's you, and join me up front.

I want to pray with you. I want to bless you.

I want to encourage you. I want to welcome you into the

Kingdom of God. I won't embarrass you.

It's not going to be anybody else's business.

But you're you're you're coming to the front, sister.

Any other, any others who want to come to the front, you can

just come right here and just face me.

You're not even going to face the Saints.

This is a moment where you're saying I want to give my life to

the Lord. I want to belong to Jesus.

I want to walk in deeper devotion with him.

All the things I want to be fully Christian.

There shouldn't have ever been a distinction.

There's just in and out. But you're saying I'm sign me up

for all of Jesus. Sign me up for all of his

Kingdom. Would anyone else want to

respond to that? The call of Jesus.

He's saying, follow me, it's his invitation.

Follow me. I don't have any other clever

lines to hook you. I don't have any other means to

to bring you along. Confess him before men and he'll

confess you before his father. Everybody comes up for their own

reasons. I know I'm saved, but man Lord,

make me make me more faithful or I don't know if I'm saved, but I

sure want to be anyone else. So for those of you who have

come up here, would you just look at me?

Each of you. God loves you.

I love you. You're each here for your own

reasons. There's two possibilities for

each of you up here right now, you might say.

I know that I'm born again. I know I'm a believer.

I know that God has already done that resurrection miracle inside

of me. But, Lord, I need to walk in a

true devotion and faithfulness to you.

And that's what this moment is for you.

And then there are others of you who would say, I'm not sure,

maybe I've been had some Christianity sprinkled around my

life. I've heard the word, I've had an

affection for Jesus. I like him, but I but I need to

be actually saved. I want a certainty Moment.

I want to know that Jesus is my king, that he's my master, that

he's my Lord, that my sins are forgiven and that I'm in the

Kingdom and I'm devoting my life to him.

Like, this is a new moment. This is Matthew's moment.

You're leaving an old life. What am I supposed to do?

You can still go back to your house later today.

There's some things that still have to happen there.

You're still going to go have lunch.

If you came up here with brown hair, you're going to walk away

with brown hair. There's some things that won't

change, but this will be a moment where you go, I'm.

I'm different now. My priorities are different.

My pursuits are different. Does that make sense to

everybody? So I'm going to lead you in a

prayer. I made fun of that.

But I'm not making fun of praying prayers.

I'm making fun of people who are cheapening the call to follow

King Jesus. It's an expensive thing, but

he's worthy of it all. You have found the treasure in

the field. I rejoice with you.

I bless you. So I will lead you in that

prayer, and I will have you say it out loud with your own mouth

as a moment to mark this, to invite the presence of the Lord.

Will you do that with me? Let's close our eyes together.

Let's bow our heads and say this with joy, with delight.

Heavenly Father, I know that I'm a Sinner.

I know that I'm a Sinner. I have so much guilt.

I have so much guilt and I'm worthy of punishment.

God, you sent Jesus to rescue me.

You put my sins on him so I could have his righteousness.

Lord, I accept that gift of Jesus sacrifice.

He's my Lord. He's my.

He's my master. He's my king.

Make me faithful to you. Make me a new creation, so that

old things pass away and all things become new.

From this moment forward, I am a new creation.

A miracle has taken place. A miracle has taken place.

I was dead. Now I'm alive.

I have the treasure in the field.

Some might not understand, but I want to walk faithfully with you

all the days of my life. I'm a Christian, a real

Christian all the way Christian. A Jesus follower, a disciple who

loves you and I submit to you, My life belongs to you.

I'm no longer mine. I've been purchased and it's

such a good thing to be forgiven, to be loved and to be

LED. Holy Spirit, come into me.

Now. Fill me up, reveal Jesus to me

and guide me to the Father in Jesus name.

Amen. Friends, brothers, sisters, I

love you. I bless you.

In Jesus name. You are in the Kingdom of God.

You are secured by the blood of Jesus.

It's not the mechanism of us just praying.

A prayer. I repeat it after the preacher.

It was the miracle of the new birth, what the Lord did inside

of you because of what Jesus accomplished on the cross by

grace. You've been saved through your

own faith. We didn't earn it.

We don't deserve it. So now what?

Now what? Well, now your next step is to

continue to faithfully follow him.

What would that include? For example?

Not to earn anything or deserve anything, but that would include

some very basic things, like attending church.

Why? So I could continually be

discipled, which is what disciples do, right?

I don't. I didn't get married to Natalie

at the altar and go, well, have a great life.

We're married. We moved in together.

A lot of other things happened that we won't talk about, but

three boys are here. We built a life together.

So that's what we're going to do.

We're going to build a life. I'm.

I will. I would be honored to be your

pastor. But if it's not Salt Church,

that's OK. But it needs to be a local body

of Christ that faithfully follows and loves King Jesus.

So. But if it's salt, it would be my

joy. It would be my privilege.

There's a room of people behind you who want to be a part of

your discipleship story as well. And they want to bring you into

their home, into their family, into this body, to love you and

disciple you so we can continue to walk with and follow King

Jesus. Does that sound good?

Yes. Amen.

Why I love you. You may go back to your seats.

I want to greet you before you leave.