Face2Face | Good News, Not Good Advice | Pastor Jamie Kemp

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I'm Pastor Jamie, and I'm excited that you're joining us for this week's message.

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Thanks for listening.

I can remember when uh Tosh and I, uh the night we got engaged, it was uh it was a snowy February in uh in Chicago.

All right, and uh I can remember we I invited her over to uh the house and I uh I didn't cook.

I ordered in a meal for us to eat together, a nice romantic dinner.

Um we had the candles going, um uh, you know, I'd set the fire in the fireplace because that's where you want the fire.

Um so we got that going on, and uh, and I remember I had the CD of Josh Groben who was playing, uh, you know, kind of set in the atmosphere there, and uh, and uh we eat dinner, but I hardly eat any dinner because I'm so nervous because I know tonight's the night I'm gonna propose to Tasha to ask her to marry me.

All right, and so so we have the dinner and then we sit down, and I kind of made a scrapbook for her about because we were LDR, so long distance relationship.

So we kind of go through it, and then uh then we get to the end of the scrapbook, and and it was all over, and I uh I get down on my one knee, like reach into my pocket, and I and I pull out a ring and I and I open up the box and uh and and I say to her, Tasha, you're my best friend.

Um you know, I want to spend the rest of my life with you.

Will you marry me?

And she pauses, and I was like, just kidding.

You know, so I didn't know what to do, but but finally, after five of the longest seconds of my life, she said, Jamie, you are my best friend.

I want to spend the rest of my life with you.

Yes, I'll marry you.

All right, and then I'm like, yeah, all right.

So so it was in a great moment, it was it was a great moment, but uh, you know, later she told me she paused um because she wanted to enjoy the moment, right?

Um it was terrible for me, you know, but for her, it was a great moment for me.

I was like, what are you doing?

So so of course, you know, later that night, you know, I put the ring on her finger, and um she, you know, now we're engaged, and so she begins to call all her friends and she tells them, she calls them all up, and and she tells them, hey, I've got I've got good news and I've got bad news.

Uh the bad news is uh Jamie's not my my boyfriend anymore.

And all her friends are like, what happened?

And she's like, the good news is he's my fiance, you know, and all her friends are like, all right, so yeah, uh, you know, it's just one of those moments in my life.

But um, have you ever had someone start a conversation with, you know, I have good news and I have bad news?

All right, and so with I think different personality types prefer the good news or bad news first, you know, and so but the Gospel of Mark, which we're gonna spend the next few weeks diving in, taking a deep dive into the Gospel of Mark.

The Gospel of Mark opens with this statement.

It says this in Mark chapter 1, verse 1.

Mark 1:1

The very first verse of Mark's biography of Jesus says this.

This is the good news about Jesus the Messiah, the Son of God.

Everybody say good news.

All right, you're still with me, all right?

This is good news, not good advice, right?

There's a huge difference between news and advice, right?

Advice tells us what we should do, right?

Like I know I should exercise, you know, I know I should eat healthy, uh, you know, I know I should uh I should pray more, read my Bible more.

Advice can be helpful, but it doesn't save us, right?

Now, news, news tells us something that's already happened.

A war is over, that's news.

A debt has been paid, that's news.

A cure has been discovered, that's news.

When Tasha and I got engaged and she told all her friends she was delivering good news.

At least I hope it was good news.

All right, so Mark's gospel begins with this announcement, not an assignment.

The good news is that Jesus has come.

The good news is that Jesus has come.

And when we read through the gospel of Mark, he spends almost no time uh uh explaining theology, but focuses right on introducing us to who Jesus is.

Because Christianity isn't primarily about a set of principles to follow, it's about meeting a person.

Throughout Mark's gospel, people continually come face to face with Jesus, and no one leaves the same.

And that's good news.

That word good news or or gospel, as some translations put it, it's this Greek word Eungelian, which which you, if we understand the etymology of it, uh, we can understand that Mark is choosing his words very carefully when he writes good news.

Mark is taking a calculated risk with one word.

Mark is taking on the entire Roman Empire.

Let me explain.

I'm gonna do my best, Pastor Dave, impression, by trying to give us some historical context, all right?

Some years ago, archaeologists found an ancient inscription dated back to 9 BC.

I mean, that's nine years before Jesus is born.

It's the birthday announcement celebrating Caesar Augustus.

It's called the Prienni Calendar Inscription.

I probably said that wrong, alright?

And it says this since Providence, which has ordered all things, is deeply interested in our lives, has set and mo set most perfect order by giving us Augustus, sending him as savior.

Interesting.

It doesn't say sending him as emperor.

The the the Roman announcement was that he was being saved as sent as a savior both for us and for our uh descendants.

It almost sounds like Mary's magnificent in Matthew chapter 1.

Matthew 1 · chapter mention

That he might end wars and arrange all things.

And since the birth of the God Augustus was the beginning of the good news for the world that came by reason to him.

This announced the birthday of a God that was that was the beginning of the Ungelian, the good news that had come to the world.

But the Romans were trying to say, with the birth of this, this, this, this uh uh new emperor, man, this is good news for the world.

This birthday decree announced good news had come through Caesar Augustus.

Do you see what's happening in Mark's gospel?

Mark is going directly after the Roman Empire.

He's speaking truth to power.

How?

He's using the very word that deified the Roman Emperor and gives it to Jesus.

This is a coup d'etat against Caesar, right?

After all, Caesar, Augustus, at his death in AD 14, he was now being declared the son of God.

And every Roman coin had this inscription on it on it that said, Caesar is Lord.

And here's what's amazing to me.

The very first creed of the Christian church was what?

Jesus is Lord.

Jesus is not Caesar, Jesus is Lord, with just one sentence into Mark's gospel, and he's already dethroned Caesar.

This is the good news about Jesus, the Messiah, the Son of God.

So let's never reduce the gospel to seven steps to a better life or five habits of a successful person.

Jesus isn't another self-help program or a philosopher or even a religion.

The gospel is the announcement that God has acted.

Jesus has come, the king has arrived, sin has been defeated, death has lost its sting, grace is available, forgiveness is offered, hope has a name, and his name is Jesus.

I'm trying to help you guys.

If you're gonna take an Instagram photo, this is the one to take it of, all right?

It doesn't get any better after this, all right.

So, man, so today we're starting a new series called Face to Face, that we're gonna look at these life-changing encounters that people have with Jesus, because it seems like every time through the Gospel of Mark, when someone meets Jesus, they're never the same.

And our first encounter with Jesus is an invitation to all of us.

It's a familiar passage of scripture happening in Mark chapter one.

It says this in verse 16.

One day as Jesus was walking along the shore of the Sea of Galilee, he saw Simon, later called Peter, and his brother Andrew throwing a net into the water, and they fished for a living.

Jesus called out to them, Come follow me, and I will show you how to fish for people.

And they left their nets at once and followed him.

A little further up the shore, Jesus saw Zebede's son, James and John, in a boat repairing their nets.

He called to them at once, and they also followed him, leaving their father, Zebedee, in the boat with hired men.

Everybody say, One day.

I lost some of you just in that few minutes.

All right, I'll try to get you back.

All right, one day.

The Bible says, one day as Jesus was walking along the shore of the Sea of Galilee, have you had a one day with Jesus yet?

Have you had a one day where Jesus stepped into your life?

For me, it was when I was 17 years old.

Um, I had grown up Catholic, and my parents had become Christians when I was in junior high, but but I really didn't have a faith of my own.

And at the beginning of my senior year, my friend Melissa, she gets radically saved and starts inviting me to church, and every week she'd invite me to church, and every week I had a good Alas-an, Alasan.

And I always had all these great excuses and reasons why I couldn't go.

You know, I didn't really want to go, I was busy, I had sports, and all these things, but every week, but I can remember saying to her, Melissa, keep inviting me because I know I should go.

And you know what Melissa did?

She kept inviting me.

All right, so I want to encourage you.

Maybe you've got a friend or a family member who you've invited once, twice, ten times, maybe a hundred times.

Man, keep inviting them.

Because eventually Melissa invites me, she says, hey, there's a there's a teens conference coming up, there's a youth camp that that's happening.

Uh, would you like to go?

And I didn't really want to go because I knew they were gonna talk about Jesus, and I knew that my heart and my life was far from Jesus.

But she said, Jamie, there's gonna be there's gonna be pizza and girls there.

Two things I was into as a 17-year-old, so I thought, okay, sign me up for this event, all right?

So I signed up to go to the event, but that first night of the youth camp, something happened.

Jesus totally transformed my life.

For the first time in my life, I I realized that my sin separated me from a holy God, and that that that I finally started to realize almost like a revelation that that why Jesus had to die on the cross, and and I felt what the what the Bible calls godly sorrow that led to repentance.

And that night, man, I I repented of my sins and I committed my life to following Jesus.

And I and I can remember sitting in my seat.

I didn't even go to the up to the front.

Can you get saved if you don't go to the front?

I don't know.

I did.

So, but I remember sitting back and it felt like almost every tear that I cried was like God just wiping away another sin and another sin and another sin.

And from that moment on, November 28th, 1993.

Some of y'all weren't even born yet.

Um, I committed my life to following Jesus, and I've never turned away.

So it's possible to make a commitment to follow Jesus and to stick with it.

It doesn't have to be up and down, up and down.

I mean, have have I sinned and messed up?

Yeah, plenty of times, but I've never walked away from Jesus.

That was my one day where Jesus met me.

Have you had a one day like that?

When Jesus came into your life and changed all of your tomorrows?

Now get this.

I wasn't even looking for Jesus.

All right.

I mean, I I had a pretty good life before Jesus.

You know, uh I was popular, I had lots of friends, great parents, okay grades, um, you know, I was good at sports, you know, but here's how I would describe my my life before that one day with Jesus.

I was I was a happy sinner.

I was a happy sinner.

I had a good life, but I was still a sinner.

So I didn't come to faith in Jesus because I needed a better life.

Ooh, I need to say that again.

I didn't come to Jesus because I needed a better life.

In reality, my life got more complicated when I came to Jesus.

Uh I came to Jesus because I was a sinner in need of a savior.

I came to Jesus because I was a sinner in need of a savior.

One day, Jesus saw 17-year-old Jamie in suburban Chicago and called out to me, Come, follow me.

And I left my old way of living to follow Jesus.

I'm so grateful for that one day.

And now today, Jesus invites you to come follow him.

Have you had a one day like that with Jesus when your life was totally changed?

The story goes like this.

One day, as Jesus was walking along the shore of the Sea of Galilee, he saw Simon and his brother throwing a net into the water, for they fished for a living.

Now, I'm not much of a fisherman.

Really, I'm I'm what you would call an indoorsman, right?

You've heard of outdoorsmen?

I'm an indoorsman, alright?

But of course, the person that I married, she loves to fish.

And so since I love Tasha, we go fishing.

All right, and so I don't really enjoy it because you know I didn't grow up doing it, so you know you have to take the worm or the bait and it's all slimy and stuff like that, and then you gotta like stab it through the hook and like it's guts circle, or I shouldn't say that.

It's stuff is like coming out of it, and you're like, oh man, and and then uh and then you know, then you put it in the throat in the water, and then you just kind of sit there, right?

You're just like, all right, this is not fun, all right.

But then you finally catch a fish, okay?

You finally catch a fish and you kind of reel it, and that's kind of exciting, but now you got a fish and and it's on the hook, and then you gotta grab the fish, and it's all slimy, and that eye is like staring up at you, you're like, no, look at me.

All right, so you know, so I'm just not into the fishing, and I know some of you, that's a great hobby.

I just don't get it, but hey, a few years ago I did discover something I do like.

Um, it was it's called deep sea fishing.

Have you done it?

You know, they do everything for you.

You know, you just kind of take the picture with the fish afterwards.

You're like, yeah, look at what I caught, but they did all the work for you.

So that's the kind of fishing I can get into.

Now, now don't overlook this detail in the scriptures.

It said that Jesus saw Simon and Andrew uh throwing their net into the water, for they fished for a living.

God's calling doesn't come when we're when we're doing something spiritual.

God's calling doesn't always come when we're doing something spiritual.

More often than not, Jesus meets us in our everyday, ordinary lives.

I love that what that Mark tells us what they're doing.

They weren't at a conference, they weren't at a church retreat, they weren't even looking for their calling.

They were working, they were throwing their nets in the water.

Why?

Because that's what they were supposed to be doing.

They had responsibility, they had a job, they had a family to provide for, they had nets that needed to be thrown, and while they were faithful and doing what was in front of them, Jesus showed up.

Here's the key.

Never underestimate what God can do through a person who is faithful with the ordinary.

Never underestimate what God can do through a person who is faithful with the ordinary.

Or let me put it this way: you want to know the call of God on your life?

Do what you're supposed to do.

Just do what you're supposed to do.

Simon and Andrew, they were doing what they're supposed to be doing, and Jesus found them.

Simon and Andrew were doing what and Jesus found them.

There's something powerful about simply showing up, going to work, taking care of your family, going to class, doing your homework, serving in church, keeping your promises, showing up when you don't feel like showing up, doing the job nobody notices, keeping your word, being faithful when nobody is applauding.

There's something powerful about just showing up.

We tend to celebrate talent, but God often works through faithfulness.

We celebrate people who can do extraordinary things, but God notices people who faithfully do ordinary things.

God notices people who faithfully do ordinary things.

And sometimes the doorway to God's next assignment is being faithful with today's assignment.

Simon and Andrew, they didn't find their calling by abandoning their responsibilities.

They found their calling while fulfilling their responsibilities.

One day, as Jesus was walking along the shore of the Sea of Galilee, he saw Simon and his brother Andrew throwing their nets into the water, and they for they fished for a living.

Jesus called out to them, Come, follow me.

Now in rabbinic tradition, a disciple wasn't someone who just attended the rabbi's Bible studies.

A disciple was an apprentice or a protege or a mentee.

The goal was to learn how the rabbi interpreted the scriptures and then to learn how to imitate his ways and eventually become like the rabbi.

The rabbi believes in his disciple.

The rabbi believed in his, the rabbi would believe that that disciple could become just like him.

It was an honor, it was a privilege to have a rabbi say to you, come follow me.

It meant that that leader or that teacher, that rabbi, it meant that they saw potential in you, that they saw that you could become like them.

You had the capability, the potential to be as they were.

So a disciple, when they heard those words, come follow me, they would leave their father and mother, their synagogue, they'd leave their village and their friends.

They devote their lives to learning what their rabbi would do.

A disciple would follow their rabbi everywhere, imitating how the rabbi walked and how the rabbi talked.

If the rabbi picked up a blade of grass and put it in their mouth, the disciple would do the same thing.

If the rabbi, when telling a story, would rest his chin on his left hand, the disciple would do the same thing.

In some ways, that's how how modern-day discipleship should look like here at IS, right?

Like you should be able to spot the people that I'm closest to, the people that I'm mentoring, the people that I'm discipling, because the people that I'm spending time with, they they begin to talk like me, they begin to worship and pray like I pray.

They seek the Lord like I seek the Lord.

I was checking this out on Instagram this past week.

I was looking at all the last seven pastors that I've mentored in Jokja, they all do the same thing when they start preaching.

They take the podium and they move it to their right.

Some of you thought when I first started preaching here, what's that guy doing?

You know, don't aren't preachers supposed to have the thing right in front of them and then they just yell at us for for 40 minutes.

No, uh, so but I I noticed it because I never taught my disciples, my mentees, like, oh, when you preach, you have to move the the podium to the right.

They just saw me do it over and over and over and over again.

So they started doing it.

Now some of you guys are like, why does he I don't like having anything between you and me?

I want to be open, all right?

So that's why I do it.

You're like, why does he always do that?

All right, so now you guys kind of know.

Life group leaders, I should be able to spot those you are discipling by the way you act and the way that they act.

Soap group leaders, your disciples should be learning to interpret the scriptures just like you.

There's an old pastor in Central Java that I worked with for many years.

He had a he had a loose tooth, alright?

So whenever he would talk, he would always like make this sucking noise, like, alright.

And so when he'd ever talked, so when he'd pray, he would pray and he'd make that same noise.

He'd be like, he'd be like, you know, Father God, we just thank you for today.

You know, because he just kind of had that loose tooth there.

And so, so uh now here's the funny thing is um is now he's been doing this for so long and he's mentored so many pastors and planted so many churches.

You can always tell the pastors that he mentored, because when they go to pray, they go, Father in heaven, we thank you for today.

And they don't even they don't have the loose tooth, it's just they were mentored by this guy, so they just assume that's how you pray, all right?

And that's what we're what we're getting at here with this idea of discipleship.

Next week, my my older brother in the faith, Pastor Steve Andres, is gonna be preaching here.

He's the guy who, when I first became a Christian, he was the first guy to put his arm around me and say, Hey, I see potential in you.

I uh I see that that you've got a heart for the things of God.

Let me uh follow me as I follow Christ.

I'll teach you how to read the Bible, how to pray, how to seek the Lord.

Uh so next week, when you meet this guy, you'll see the impact and the influence he's had on my life.

For you to really get to know me as your new pastor, it's helpful for you to get to know the people who've had the biggest.

Impact on my life.

So in Mark chapter 1, we find Jesus walking along the Sea of Galilee, and he sees these two brothers, Simon and Andrew, and they are fishing.

Mark 1 · chapter mention

Now why are they fishing?

Because that was the family business.

Most people in Jesus' day followed in the family business.

But don't miss the significance of this moment.

Jesus walks up to them and says, Come, follow me.

And I want to see, I want you to see where I'm going with this.

Jesus saw something in these men that they didn't see in themselves.

They've been overlooked and passed by by all the other religious leaders and all the other rabbis and all the leaders.

And now Jesus comes along and says, I believe that you can become like me.

So of course they drop their nets, their old ways of living to learn how to live like Jesus.

I hope you can see where I'm going with all this.

Jesus is inviting you, not commanding you.

Jesus is inviting you, not commanding you.

He's inviting you to come follow him, to leave your old way of living and learn a new way.

Things like love your enemies, pray for those who've wronged you, live to live for a greater purpose.

Now here's where you've got to get.

But what he's inviting you to do is to join him, to be his disciple, to live like Jesus lived.

Here's the way I want to put it: Jesus sees the best version of yourself.

Jesus sees the best version of who you can be.

So the call of Jesus is not an invitation to follow him, it's more of an invitation to become like him.

Because when I become more like Jesus, man, I'm a much better, much better husband.

When I become more like Jesus, I'm I'm a more compassionate father.

I'm a better leader at work.

I'm I'm a better pastor when I'm spending time with Jesus and I'm becoming more like Jesus.

You see, I come with all my faults and failures.

I don't have it all together.

Sometimes I feel I'm I'm the least qualified.

And still, Jesus invites me.

Come follow me.

You come here tomorrow today with broken marriages, habits of sin, anxiety about the future and your finances.

You come here hurt and wounded, and yet Jesus still invites you.

Come follow me.

We read an interesting story in the scriptures on Mark chapter 6.

Mark 6 · chapter mention

We've been reading Mark chapter 6 all week in my soap group.

Mark 6 · chapter mention

Worship team, you guys can come on up and help me close.

Don't get excited.

So he's like, yes, the worship team's coming.

No, we got a way, we got a ways to go.

All right, so before before we finish up, all right.

Um in my soap groups this week, we read through Mark chapter 6, and there's this interesting story.

Mark 6 · chapter mention

It's paralleled in Matthew chapter 14.

Matthew 14 · chapter mention

But um, Jesus' disciples are in a boat on the Sea of Galilee, and all of a sudden this wicked storm just comes, all right?

Lightning, thunder, rain, all this.

The boat is rocking side to side.

And if and if you grew up in Sokolomingu in Sunday school, you kind of know what happens.

That Jesus comes and starts, comes out to the disciples, and he's walking on water, all right?

He's he's walking on the water towards them.

And Peter or Simon Peter, the guy we read about earlier, he looks at Jesus and says, Lord, if it's really you, tell me to come out onto the water.

And Jesus says, Come.

So Peter gets out of the boat and starts walking on the water.

Now remember, remember, if you're a disciple and you've committed your entire life to being like your rabbi, and if you see your rabbi walking on water, what do you immediately want to do?

Walk on water.

If my rabbi said can do it, and I've been following, I'm supposed to do what he does, so it's no wonder Peter gets out of the boat.

And if you read the story, it says he begins to walk on water.

But then what happens?

He begins to see the waves start crashing in, and he begins to feel the wind, and he begins to notice all the things around him.

And the Bible says this that he starts to sink.

And he cries out, Jesus, save me! And Jesus reaches down and pulls him up and says, one of the most interesting things I think I see in the in all the gospels.

Jesus says to him, You of little faith, why did you doubt?

You of little, why did you doubt?

Now, who did Peter lose faith in?

Jesus?

No.

Jesus is standing there on the water, right?

Jesus isn't sinking, Jesus isn't going anywhere.

Peter doesn't lose faith in Jesus.

Peter lost faith in himself.

Peter stopped believing that he could do what his rabbi was doing.

Jesus spends three years with his disciples, teaching them, shaping them, correcting them, challenging them, and believing that they could become just like him.

Now here's what gets me.

At the end of his time, at the end of Jesus' days, Jesus does something incredible.

He goes to them and he says to them, to his disciples, go into all the world and make disciples.

Tell people about me everywhere.

Carry this message to the ends of the earth.

And then he leaves.

God believes that people are capable of doing amazing things.

Now here's what gets me.

I've been told all my life that I need to believe in Jesus.

And that's good, and it's it's true, right?

That's a good thing.

But here's what I'm learning.

I'm learning that it's Jesus who believes in me.

I've been told that I need to have faith in God, and that's true, and that's good.

But I'm learning that God has faith in me.

Jesus sees who we can become when we walk with him.

Jesus sees who we can become when we walk with him.

I hope you enjoyed today's sermon.

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And until next time, may God bless you and keep you.