He Is Good | Mark 2:13-17 | Jesus Calls Levi

The teaching text for today is, believe it or not, Mark 2, 13 through 17.

Tommy preached on this last week, this literal text he preached on last week.

And here's what happened.

I said, Tommy, I want you to preach.

I'm so excited.

I'm gonna be there.

I want you to preach, preach on whatever you want.

What I didn't say was, I've already written a message for Mark 2, 13 through 17.

And so he was like, got it heard.

And he did exactly what I asked me to do.

And I get here, actually he told me on Saturday, I'm like, what are you preaching on, man?

He was like, Mark 2, 13 to 17.

I was like, well, they're gonna get it twice, because I wrote a message on that too.

Uh so this is not a critique on what he did last week.

Uh he did great, and it was so good.

Um, but this is literally the exact same thing.

And so if you're if you were here last week, you're gonna get a double dip, it's gonna be a little different, different perspective, and thankfully God's word is universally rich, and it comes with many perspectives and things that you can look at.

Um, but then at the same time, if you missed last week, here you go.

Um but this is Mark 2, 13 through 17.

Once again, Jesus went out beside the lake.

A large crowd came to him and he began to teach them.

As he walked along, he saw Levi, son of Alpheus, sitting at a tax collector's booth.

Follow me, Jesus told him, and Levi got up and followed him.

And while Jesus was having dinner at Levi's house, many tax collectors and sinners were eating with him and his disciples, for there were many who followed him.

When the teachers of the law who were Pharisees saw him eating with the sinners and tax collectors, they asked his disciples, Why does he eat with the tax collectors and sinners?

And on hearing this, Jesus said to them, It is not the healthy who need a doctor, but the sick.

I have not come to call the righteous, but the sinners.

Let's say this together.

This is the word of the Lord.

Monday night was probably the, this past Monday night was probably the uh angriest I've ever gotten at Teddy, my eight-year-old.

I love him to death, which love includes anger, so I'll get there in a second.

But it's the angriest I think I've ever gotten.

Rainy's not in here to confirm, so you can check with her later.

But it's just, I think it's the angriest I've ever got at him.

We were uh we were trying to plan a trip for him to go to Magic Springs and Hot Springs area.

And um he also at the same time wanted to play a video game on my phone, some Marvel video game.

I have no idea.

And uh I was looking up hotels for this trip that we were trying to bless him with, and in the midst of that, he gets so he's he starts he starts doing this, he like walks up to me and like brushes me and is like and then does it again.

And eventually I finally realized like what's going on.

I'm like, oh you he's he's impatient, he's upset.

And I was like, dude, what's wrong?

And he's like, I want to play this video game.

And I was like, I'm literally trying to bless you with a free trip to Magic Springs, this water park.

Like I'm actively trying to do this thing.

And I got so mad that he was that he was like just you know, like just acting so entitled and so impatient.

And I'm like, we're literally trying to bless you, and all you can think about is like, I can't play the iPad or whatever.

And so I run to our, we have on our in our dining room area, if you've been to our house, we have a calendar, and on the calendar is like, here's a list of like cultural values for the Seegers family.

Like, this is who we are.

You will know your identity, son, and we'd have them written down.

And then it's like, here's who we're not.

We don't just want a positive vision, we want a negative vision as well.

And so the negative vision is like, we are not entitled, we are not hard to please, we are not selfish, we are not impatient, you know, just all the way down.

And I went and grabbed it and I started slamming my hand.

I'm like, what does this say?

What does this say?

And uh he was like, we're not entitled, we're not, and I was like, that's exactly what are you being right now?

He's like entitled, hard to please, just going down the list.

And I was like, this is not who we are.

We are not this person, we are not this type of person.

You are seagers, and we are followers of a man who was not entitled.

All this, I just went after it.

So, how I dealt with a transgressor in my family.

As I was as I was thinking about this message, the way I dealt with a transgressor was I was going to force him to follow Jesus in like I just looked at what he did, like, okay, you're entitled, you're this, you're that, you're all these different things.

You're gonna serve the poor tomorrow, son.

You're going with Larry, and you're going to the soup kitchen, and you're gonna serve people who have nothing.

And he was like, I don't want to do that.

I was like, I don't care.

And he was so upset.

He woke up Tuesday.

We had to wake him up early Tuesday morning.

It's summertime, woke him up early, and uh got him out there, and Larry and uh Alan uh had him uh doing boxes at the at MIFA and all those different things, and uh and actually I think he had a great time, and Alan was so sweet, and he's just like he was a hard worker.

He did this, and he had a great attitude, and it was really good.

But I'll say all that to say probably a number of things that maybe you're thinking about me, but I say all that to say uh to me, that's what Matthew was doing here.

He is, or excuse me, that's what Jesus is doing here to Matthew.

We have somebody who's transgressing his law, and what he does to Matthew is he he doesn't condemn Matthew, he doesn't discount and just kick him out and call him an outcast.

Matthew's a transgressor of his law, and he encourages him and calls him.

I want you to follow Jesus.

You're a transgressor of my law.

I'm not gonna condemn you, I'm gonna call you to follow me.

And that's what I was trying to do for Teddy.

Like, look, you're transgressing the house law and the father's law, like you were going to follow Jesus.

And so today, what I want to look at is that idea, three reasons why Jesus looks at a transgressor.

Why does he look at a transgressor of his laws, of the Old Testament laws and literally against what he's about right now?

Why does he look at Matthew, a transgressor of his law, and call him to follow him?

And I want us to look at that because I think it points to why he also in our lives right now is calling us consistently to follow him as well.

And so, the first reason Matthew, Jesus calls Matthew to follow him, is that Matthew's lifestyle of sin is causing pain and suffering.

His choices and what he's doing, the way that he lives, is causing sin, pain, and suffering.

And it's in the text that he's a tax collector.

And if you know the history of that, you know this is true for him specifically.

I want to read a couple of quotes.

One, Matthew's life is being pained by his decision to be a tax collector.

Um preacher's commentary says this if you wondered who is the most hated person in Capernaum, Levi the tax collector, would win hands down.

Sitting at the toll gate in Capernaum, where he can bleed all the people who pass through that intersecting city, Levi amasses a fortune by selling his soul.

Spiritually, he stands condemned as a sinner because he makes his profit by cheating, intimidation, and bribery.

Poor and powerless people suffer under as his prime victims.

Socially, Levi fares no better.

Even though his money gives him luxury, his circle of friends extends no further to his own kind, to everyone else.

Levi has fallen off the bottom of the social scale because he functions as a hireling of the despised Roman government for which he collects taxes.

Neither Jews nor Romans want anything to do with him.

And then William Lane goes a little bit further in his commentary on Mark and says, Such officials like Matthew were detested everywhere and were classed as the vilest of men.

And when a Jew entered the custom service, he was regarded as an outcast from society, disqualified as a judge or a witness in court.

He was excommunicated from the synagogue, which is your primary community, and in the eyes of the community, his disgrace extended not just to him, but to his family.

You see this happening.

His life and what he's choosing to give his life to is ruining the things that he holds there.

He's got a lot of money, but he has no one to share that money with and no one to share that wealth with.

And on top of all that, it's not just hurting him, it's actually hurting those around him.

Matt Chandler helps us understand in this quote what Matthew's sin was doing, not just to really himself, but really to those around him and everything that's happening around him.

Because I think we come into tax collector ideals with preconceived knowledge of like, oh, they just steal some money and that's a little bit, that's why they hated them.

But he goes on and he says it's even worse than that.

This is what he says.

He says, Everybody believes that a tax collector is someone who simply takes money from people.

Rome taxed$20 and instead the tax collector took$25, and that's why everybody hated them.

He says the problem with that, it's just not it's not true, accurate, or even close.

Rome at this time ruled the world from India to England, and they are wicked, barbaric, and brutal people.

There are historical incidents of Rome sacking a city and crucifying nude, 20,000 men, women, and children along the roadside, leading into the main city, so that as people came into the town, all would know don't mess with Rome.

Here's where the tax collectors come in.

In order to rule a landmass from India to England, you need a massive army.

And how do you fund an empire with a massive army?

Taxes.

Tax collectors purchased the right from Rome to help raise funds for a military force that had slaughtered thousands upon thousands of their own countrymen to the Jewish people.

Matthew was a piece of trash.

And so, in so many ways, like it would be as if uh during the Third Reich in Nazi Germany, as if someone is not just uh working for a Jewish person working for the Third Reich, but a Jewish person working for the Third Reich and Nazi Germany, finding Jewish people and then selling them out and telling them where they're hiding, but then also helping raise money from those Jewish people to fund the Nazi Germany.

Like it would be just this crazy thing, and that's what Matthew's doing.

And in his in his sin, and in choosing to do this and selling out in this particular way, in his selfish ambition to go, I just want to make a lot of money.

He's not just harming himself, he's harming people he doesn't even know.

This is what Matthew's doing, and this is why everyone is condemning him as a tax collector.

It's not just he took too much money, it's like you were literally funding the genocide of people and cities.

That's what you're doing.

And so instead of condemning him the way that everybody else in his culture does, Jesus chooses instead to call him to him.

And really what he's doing is he's being extremely kind to Matthew.

He's like, hey, uh, you know, you don't have to live this way.

This is bad for you.

This is bad for a lot of other people.

And I'm not gonna condemn you like everybody else.

I'm actually gonna show you kindness and just invite you into a different style of living.

I'm gonna invite you out of that life, out of that old life, into a life with me.

You can come and follow me.

You don't have to stay there.

And Matthew gets up as fast as he possibly can.

And who knows why?

We don't really know why, but I mean, you could probably do some math and just think that like he's probably sitting there going, like, I did, I I thought the money would fix it.

I thought it would be enough.

I thought I'd have so much money that even though I'm kind of exiled by my people, and even though it happens to be some bad things that happen after I raise money, the money makes me feel better.

And I think at the end of the day, it's like this didn't help at all.

And so very quickly, Jesus calls him to follow him, and Matthew gets up and he goes to him.

And I think Jesus sees what Matthew's sin is doing to him and what it's doing to others, and so he calls him, let's just do something else.

Why don't you come and follow me instead so that I can save you and everybody else from the pain and the suffering that your sin is actually causing in your life?

And to me, this is why he calls us to follow him as well.

This is why, if you became a Christian a long time ago or you still have that journey in your life, the reason he calls you into that life is because he knows what he knew about Matthew's life, your sin and the things that you would give your life to will cause you pain and destruction, not just in your life, but in the lives of those around you.

And this is why he calls us to follow him as well, to turn from our sin and to follow him.

Now, throughout church history, what has primarily been preached about sin and why to not sin is kind of span the gamut of things.

Like things have been like, don't sin because God will punish you.

If you do bad, God will give you bad.

So don't sin, and that's been preached before in the pulpit.

Uh, do good things, you're supposed to do good things in order to get good things.

That's in church history, is like if you if you bless others, God will bless you.

If you're kind, then it's basically karma for the Christian.

And so that's been preached.

And then another uh way of preaching not sin and to follow Jesus, don't sin, follow Jesus, says if you don't follow my commands, um you're gonna burn in hell and you'll be condemned for those things.

And so you need to be good, otherwise you're gonna burn.

Issue with all of those is none of those are true or correct.

Um we're not saved by our good deeds, um, but by Jesus' good deed.

I'm not going to be punished for my sin, even though I sinned today and tomorrow, I'm not gonna be punished for that sin because Jesus has taken the punishment of my sin.

Once and for all, he took the punishment for all time, for all of us, so that I don't have to receive the punishment of my sin.

Consequences of my sin and what it does around me, true, but punishment from God gonna slap me from heaven, that's not gonna happen because he's taken those things.

And so to say we need to follow Jesus and not do bad stuff and not sin because you're gonna be punished or you're gonna go to hell or something like that, like it's a bad way of communicating it.

But what's clear in this text is that the reason Jesus calls Matthew and the reason he is calling him to leave his life of sin, he's like, that's causing you pain.

That's causing other people pain and suffering.

It's not going well for you, and so I'm calling you out of that thing into this new thing.

And I think when he calls us to follow him in every area of our life, at the beginning of your relationship with him, and in the midst of your following of Jesus, he is seeking to save us from the things that we don't see sin is going to do in our lives, the pain it's gonna cause, the suffering it's gonna cause, and so on and so forth.

And so this is why in your marriage, if you're married, he calls both people to follow him.

And what that looks like is both of you should forgive one another.

Both of you follow me in being gracious to one another, follow me in being patient towards one another, follow me and consider one another greater than the other.

Follow me and not don't slander one another.

He says to husbands, love your wife as Christ has loved the church, as he has loved you, love your wives that way.

To the wives, uh, submit to the leadership of your husband the way that Christ submitted to the leadership of the Father.

You're not less than, but you're just doing what Jesus did.

Both of you are doing what Jesus did to one another.

Jesus has loved you with his life, laying it down for you.

Husbands, love your wives that way.

Jesus has submitted to the Father, even though he was equal to the Father, he submitted to the leadership of the Father.

Wives, love your husbands that way.

And what he's doing is he's not saying this because he's like, otherwise you'll be condemned.

Like he's not saying that.

Like, forgive one another, otherwise I'll come and get you.

Like it's not that.

It's like forgive one another, be gracious to one another, don't slander one another, because if you do those things, if you don't follow me in that, your relationship will be torn to pieces.

And you will still maybe have a relationship and a marriage, but it won't be one that's filled with life and joy.

It'll be one that's filled with pain and suffering, and each of you just sticking it out, even though you hate one another and hate the process and hate the relationship.

And so again, when he's calling us to follow us in that particular, follow him in that particular relationship, he has our interest in mind and our best interest in mind to go, I'm trying to save you from something terrible that could happen.

And that, y'all, if we're honest, you've seen this happen in relationships.

You've watched this, people just staying together because I don't know who else is gonna love me or stay with me or live with me or deal with me.

Who else like, and that's like, man, that exists in relationships.

But Jesus is going, but if both of you follow me, I could lead you into a better spot.

He calls us to follow him in forgiving others.

Again, not because if you don't forgive them, you're gonna go to hell.

It's not that like if you if you don't forgive them, the bitterness and the anger and all of that that lives in there, if you don't release that and give that to me, it's gonna kill you and it's gonna steal from you and it's gonna cause pain in your life.

He calls each of us to turn from our anger because our anger doesn't produce healthy things, good healthy things.

Our anger may give us what we want, but at the end of the day, if we're just able to loudly and angrily force our way, it's not going to produce something that's healthy and good for us.

And so he's like, don't allow your anger to be the way that you get the things in your life.

Turn from that, repent from that, follow me.

I want you to follow me in gentleness.

I want you to follow me in faithfulness and goodness.

Then you'll receive things that are actually good versus like just forcing it.

He calls us to turn from our selfish ambition because your selfish ambition will ultimately lead you to sacrifice the things that you love, the people that you love, and they will get you to a place where you actually wind up in a space where you're like, I have the thing that I was selfishly ambitious for, but I've lost all the things that really loved me and the things that I used to love.

And this thing that I finally have doesn't love me.

He calls us to follow him with gratitude and thankfulness so that we don't miss the gifts in our lives right now.

He calls us not to covet.

Follow me and not coveting.

Don't covet what other people have.

Because he knows it's not going to make you happier, it's gonna make you discontent.

You're gonna look around the world and you're gonna miss all the stuff that you have in your own life, and you're gonna choose to actually be discontent and unhappy about those things, and you're gonna be looking at me like, but I don't have any of that.

And he's like, Don't do that.

Not because it's like it's right and that's what you need to do, that's not that.

It's like it's going to do damage to you.

Don't, would you follow me in this?

Would you trust that I know what I'm doing?

So don't covet what other people have and look at what they have, because you'll miss out on all the good things that you currently have in your life.

He says this to the woman caught in adultery.

He says, Leave your life of sin.

Go, leave your life of sin.

And it's not judgment.

If you know the story in John 8, leave your life of sin as like, hey, here's what your sin has done so far.

Um, it's led you to be caught in adultery, drugged out into the street, publicly nude, and shamed and almost killed.

Your sin's not doing much for you.

Like it's not going great.

And so Jesus is going, like, hey, I've defended you, I took care of you, but I do want you to leave this life of sin, not as judgment, but as kindness.

Like, I just like, would you just leave that so that you don't experience all these things that are happening right now?

Like, certainly you want to avoid this, and I want you to avoid it too.

And so consistently, where Jesus looks at our lives and goes, I'm calling you to follow me, not just as a follower of Jesus, but I want you to follow me with your money.

I want you to follow me in that relationship.

I want you to follow me with your body, with your mind, with your with your job, with everything.

I'm not calling you to follow me because I'm trying to lead you into something worse.

I'm trying to save you from what sin is going to do in your life, and it causes pain and destruction over and over and over again.

And so often we just walk into it and go, I know he calls me to do this, but I'm gonna do this anyways, it's not that bad.

And we think that like, I know, I know that like he doesn't want me to, but I'm gonna do it.

And it's like, no, no, it's it's bigger than that.

He's like, it's going to hurt you.

Like it's poison.

Don't do that.

And so he's calling us consistently, as he does with Matthew.

Follow me.

Leave this life of sin, this thing that's crushing, the stuff that you actually love, the things that you actually want to see succeed, follow me so that you will see those things actually succeed.

So that you won't walk in the path of destruction where you see your sin just ripping through your life and taking away things that you actually long for.

This is why he calls Matthew.

That's the first reason.

The second reason Jesus calls Matthew is because Jesus has better plans for his life than he has for himself.

Jesus has better plans for his life than he has for himself.

This is Matthew's vision and plan for his life.

Next slide here.

Here's Matthew's vision for his life.

I'm going to live as a traitor to my people.

I'll be an outcast and alone, but I'm going to make a lot of money funding an oppressive government that hates me, and maybe he has a nice house.

I don't, we're not really sure what his house is like, but it's big enough to throw a party in.

Like, that's it.

If you just look at him as a tax collector and what he's pursuing, this is his what's your grand vision?

Aim as high as you can.

Traitor to my people, uh, alienated and alone, but I'm gonna have a lot of money though.

It's like that's that's as high as you can aim.

And then notice Jesus' vision for Matthew's life, what he's calling him into.

Jesus' vision for Matthew's life is hey, I want you to write an account of my life that will be translated into over a thousand languages spread across the world in 167 countries that will be read and studied for thousands of years.

That's a pretty strong start.

Very different than Matthew's vision for his life.

I want you to become an evangelist of good news to the Jewish people that you once betrayed.

And I want you to lead people to salvation and fullness of life in Jesus instead of funding a government that it that hates it, oppresses it, oppresses them, and then wants to kill them.

Matthew eventually writes a gospel.

And it's interesting, like who he writes to is not Gentiles, but or Romans.

He spent all this time in like a Roman tax collector's booth.

He should have written to Romans, but Jesus doesn't want him to write to Romans.

He's like, go back to the people that you betrayed.

Write something to them.

You were you were a traitor to them, and now you're a you're an anchor and an evangelist of salvation to them.

He completely flips Matthew's script of his life.

And he turns from someone who's like, My vision is rather small.

I'm just gonna have a lot of money and die and be a blip in history.

And it's like Jesus is like, I'd like you to live forever in history where 2,024 years later, we're still talking about what you wrote down and what you did in your life and your call.

Like, this is the vision that Matthew has, or that Jesus has for Matthew.

It's very, very different, very, two very different visions.

Matthew's vision, a miserable existence with a lot of money.

And Jesus just has more for him than that.

And so he's calling him to follow him because he's like, I see what your grand vision is for your life.

That's that's as that's as high as you can aim.

He's like, I just have more for you.

William Barclay says this about Matthew following Jesus.

He says, in following Jesus, Matthew lost his job, but he finally found his destiny.

He lost a good income, but found his honor.

He lost a comfortable security, but found an adventure, the likes of which he had never dreamed.

And Jesus was calling him into something.

Follow me, into something that you can't even imagine what I'm going to lead you into.

And I think when Jesus calls us to follow him, he is seeking to do the same.

He knows about us what he knew about Matthew, that when we aim as high as we possibly can for the good life, we aim real small.

We think it's big, but it's actually rather small.

And I want to read a conversation just to prove this point between two people.

Don't go to it just yet.

But a conversation between two people that are not in this church that proves the point that we just aim too small.

Now, before I get to it, I normally want to illustrate my points with like brilliant books and like incredible wisdom from books that inspire you to maybe go read the book.

This is not that.

Okay?

This is a dialogue from the show The Office.

I think it still proves the point, but it's not like gospel, okay?

All right, but I do think it proves the point and illustrates that the grandest vision a person can have for themselves is rather small.

And then I'm gonna have a C.S.

Lewis quote after this to like give you something that's actually wise.

Okay.

Dwight Schroot is talking to Jim Halpert, if you know the show.

This is what Dwight Schrute says.

Go for it.

Dwight Schroot says, I'm gonna be your new boss.

My greatest dream come true.

Welcome to Hotel Hell.

Check in time as now, check out time as never.

Jim Halpert says, Does my room have cable?

No.

And the sheets are made of fire.

Can I change rooms?

Sorry, we're all booked up.

Hell convention in town.

Can I have a late checkout?

I'll have to talk to the manager.

You're not even the manager?

Even in your own fantasy, I'm the owner, the co-owner with Satan.

Okay, so, and this is the perfect part.

Just so I understand, in your wildest fantasy, you're in hell and you're co-running a bed and breakfast with the devil.

He goes, Yeah, but I haven't told you my salary yet.

Go.

$80,000 a year.

And I really, I mean, I was expecting just roars of laughter.

This is one of the funniest scenes that I've ever seen in this thing.

Rainey and I were talking about this, and I was adding, I was like, Can I add this to the message?

It's just perfect for this idea.

And we're just rolling on this.

But his wildest dream, in your wildest dream, you're in hell.

Not a strong start.

And then you make 80k a year.

Like and I do think it's funny, but I do think that it's true for us.

I think when we aim as high as we possibly can, like dream as big as you want.

It's like, I want success.

Like, yeah, everybody's vision board is like, I'd like to be, no one's like, I want to be a huge failure.

Like, no one does that.

Like everybody, I want success, I'd like money, I'd like a car, a boat, a plane.

We're thrilled about how we get around in this life.

Like I need more cars and stuff.

Like, we need more of that.

That's somehow that's gonna get it uh from point A to point B, that's gonna change everything.

But like we want to travel, we want to pull, we want like every our biggest dreams really exist of the things that we can think of.

And what we can think of and aim at to give us joy and fullness of life just isn't as big as I think what Jesus can actually do.

Matthew never would have come up with that vision for his life.

He never would have said, Hey, dream big, what do you want?

I'd like to write something that lasts, the stands the test of time, that's gonna be eternal, inspired by the Holy Spirit and all that.

Like he never would have come up with that, but Jesus does.

And I think for us it's the same from the more reliable source, C.

S.

Lewis says this about our grandest desires.

He says, Our Lord finds our desires not too strong but too weak.

And what he means by that is like, Jesus doesn't find our dreams too strong but too weak.

He's not, he's like, you're not thinking too big and asking too much.

You're thinking too little and asking for too little in your prayers.

You don't think big enough of what I actually have for you.

He says we are half-hearted creatures, fooling about with drink and sex and ambition when infinite joy is offered us.

We're like an ignorant child who wants to go on making mud pies in a slum because he cannot imagine what is meant by an offer of a holiday at the sea.

We are far too easily pleased.

And I think there's just a space where our vision for life and our vision of the good life is just smaller than what he has for us.

And so, in kindness and in grace towards us and in hoping that we experience the life that he created, like Paul talks about that he has prepared good works in advance for us to do.

And so the idea isn't like, so you better get to work.

The idea is like, I have prepared amazing things that that are for you and for you alone.

I've created like you were in my mind from eternity past, and I've set in qu in action, I created you because I have these things for you that you can walk into that are good, not just for the world, but are also good for you.

That's what I'm trying to lead you in.

And so when we choose to follow our own path, we step aside from the vision that he has for us that he's been planning from all creation.

We step aside from that and we're like, and we set up basically going like, I just want to do this thing because I saw something on Instagram that was pretty cool, and I think it'd give me a lot of money.

Like, okay, that's just not that great.

That's not as big as what he has for you.

And so he calls us to follow him.

I heard this story uh about this man named Scott Harrison, who maybe you know his name, but he wrote a book called Thirst.

He is the founder of uh an organization called Charity Water, uh, where he goes to Africa and uh basically digs for wells and gives clean water to people who have polluted water.

But he, in his book Thirst, um, he talks about his experience and he grew up in a Christian home, uh, but then at 18 like walked away from Jesus completely, like, don't want to do that, and moved to New York City, which is where you go to be crazy and awesome, um, apparently.

Um and uh so he goes there and he becomes a nightclub promoter.

And so basically his job for 10 years was just to get people drunk and high, like, and that's what he did.

And so he got a lot of money doing that.

He like scaled the social ladder of New York and uh gets he talks about he's like I had a my girlfriend was on the cover of magazines, I had it all.

Um and he was like, and I was completely miserable.

Like I was just completely miserable.

And so in his book, um, this is what he says.

He says, for years I'd been pursuing the wrong things.

From the BW I bought as a teenager to the designer clothes I now wore, to the drugs that I took in the hip cities I bragged about visiting.

But where had it left me?

With a numb body, a drug habit, and fingernails bitten down to ugly nubs.

I'd been partying with some of the richest people I'd ever known.

Guys who'd gamble$10,000 on a hand of blackjack while looking indifferent as to whether they'd win or lose.

I'd watched middle-aged men torch their marriages so they could date girls younger than their own daughters, only to see those relationships fall apart too.

And I enabled and curated all of it in the name of fun and money.

And he gets to this space in his life where he's like, I have done everything I possibly, I have cast the vision from my life, aimed at it for 10 years, and succeeded.

I have the vision of my life, and I'm completely miserable.

And so his dad gives him uh a book uh by A.

W.

Tuzer called Um The Pursuit of God, and he reads it.

And at rock bottom, he turns back to Jesus.

And uh in reading the book and walking through the, he's like, I partied and basically took 10 years of my life, so I want to take a tithe of that 10 years.

I want to take one year and go serve poor people.

I just want to follow Jesus and serve poor people.

I've been rich for 10 years, I want to be poor for one year and give a tithe.

So he goes to West Africa and he starts serving with an organization there.

And what he notices is the lack of clean water and all these people that are dying because they don't have clean water.

And so he started calling all of his previously partying rich friends.

He starts calling from like West Africa, like, hey, and they're like, hey, you back in town, you back in New York?

And he's like, No, I'm in West Africa.

Could you send a bunch of money to a Christian organization that loves Jesus?

And they're like, What?

What?

And then they started doing it.

They're like, whatever.

So they start sending money.

And so he raises money to build wells in Africa, and that's when he decides to become the founder of Charity Water, which is really one of the largest clean water organizations that goes around the world doing this thing.

And what was so interesting as he talks about his story, and his book is rather long, but it's really, really good.

He he talks about the idea is like I literally went from polluting people for a living to when I began following Jesus, I was trying to fight against the pollution of water in other organizations.

He's like, Jesus literally flipped the script of my life.

It's like I was cl it's like I could almost see the vision of my life, and I was polluting people, and then when Jesus actually showed me the vision for my life, all of a sudden I helped polluted areas find clean water.

He went from trying to make millions of dollars to raising hundreds of millions of dollars every single year.

And he just, Jesus just did this thing on his life and just completely flipped it.

And now he's actually living, he has children and a wife and all these.

I mean, he just he's talking about his life and just like, I just never could have dreamed that this is where my life would have gone.

But this is what he does.

And when we follow him, this is what he does.

He has a better vision for our lives than we have for ourselves.

And so for us, when Jesus calls us, he is not calling us into scarcity or to something less.

He's like, I have something grand for you that you can't even imagine.

And I know it can seem scary, I know you can be afraid, and like, what's he gonna do with my life?

It's like, I'm going to lead you into something that you could not possibly imagine that will be far more fulfilling than anything you could possibly do.

So follow me into that.

Because if you continue to do your thing, it's like we know where that's gonna wind up.

You're gonna get what you want.

It's just not going to be that great.

There are tons of millionaires that are miserable.

There are tons of celebrities that have all the fame that are miserable.

There's just that none of the stuff that we aim at can actually do it, but he can lead us into something that he has for us.

He has better plans for our lives than we do for ourselves.

On this, this last quote by C.

S.

Lewis, I think, is really good.

C.

S.

Lewis says, the more we get what we call ourselves out of the way and let Jesus take us over, the more truly our real selves we become.

He made us all.

He invented, as an author invents characters in a novel, all the different people that you and I were intended to be.

And in that sense, our real selves are all waiting for us in him.

It is no good trying to be myself without him.

The more I resist him and try to live on my own, the more I become dominated by my own heredity, upbringing, surroundings, and natural desires.

Until you have given up yourself to him, you will not have a real self.

Basically, in that, it's like you'll not have a real self, you'll just become what other people want you to become.

You'll become what you see in the news.

You'll just become the type of person that you're at school and it's like, what are you gonna do for a living?

I'm gonna do this.

Like, great.

I guess I'll do that too.

How much money does that make?

Makes it so much money.

Okay, cool.

And like, and then on your life is decided by all these, like how you how you're brought up, the things that your parents want you to do, and all this stuff.

It's like, and he's like, your real self actually is found in Jesus.

He says, it is similar to the way that salt works in food.

Salt brings out the taste of eggs and fish and cabbage.

Foods do not show their real taste until you have added the salt.

And he says, it is something like that with Christ and us.

The more we get what we call ourselves out of the way and let him take us over, the more truly our real selves we become.

The more we allow him in, give him more space, give him more quarter in our lives.

And like just do whatever else you want to do.

Like you're working on my heart right now, great, work on my hands too.

You're working in my marriage right now, that's awesome.

Work in my job as well.

You're working in my ambition, awesome.

Would you also work with my finances?

Like, just give him every space.

And the more you add him in to those spaces, the more truly who we're supposed to be.

And the real thing that's actually in there, the thing that he created us to be, the more that thing starts to come out.

And I think for us, especially if we find ourselves in a miserable spot where we're going, I've chased everything and have nothing.

It's like chase him.

Walk after him, follow in his dust.

Let him be the person who leads you.

He will lead you into something that is far more fulfilling than we can get in ourselves.

That's the second reason Jesus calls Matthew pretty strong, too.

A lot better vision for his life.

Lastly, Jesus calls Matthew to follow him because he wants a friendship with him.

At the end of the day, Jesus wants a friendship with Matthew.

This is what table fellowship meant back in the day: friendship.

To sit and eat with somebody was friendship.

And preacher's commentary again says, in those times, servants didn't eat with their masters.

Only friends ate together.

And Jesus was demonstrating that these were his friends.

And so maybe people don't think about following Jesus this way.

And they don't think that when you're calling them to follow Jesus, they don't think dinner party.

They think slogging through something.

I don't know, like, I gotta try and be good, not watch porn.

I don't know, like what does it mean to follow Jesus?

And it's like, apparently, what it means to follow for Matthew, hey, first thing we're gonna do is throw a huge party.

I'm like, I could follow Jesus and do some of that.

Like, that sounds great.

And that's what he wants for Matthew.

Like, I want to welcome you into this space.

I want to be friends with you.

And people just don't think that way about.

I think if you were to ask them, what do you think it means to follow Jesus?

Very few of them would say that, like, oh, he wants me to follow him.

He wants me to believe in him because he wants to be my friend.

Normally what people would say is like he wants me to follow him and believe in him because I'm gonna either go to hell or I'm doing bad things and he wants me to be better.

But what the testimony of this text is is like, why does he call him to follow him?

So that he could eat with him and display and communicate, not just to him, but to others.

Like, I want to be friends with you.

I'm going to create the friendship of God with you and restore you back.

That's exactly what he does here.

Verse 15, he says, Many tax collectors and sinners were eating with him.

Were friends with him?

I mean, you can just translate it.

They were friends with him, and for there were many who followed him.

He calls us to follow him so that we can experience his friendship.

He calls us to follow him so that we can experience his kindness, his joy, his non-judgmental presence.

And I think so many people think that following Jesus is Jesus is going to be the moral police in my life.

He's looking at my life for mistakes, he's looking at my life for ways he can criticize me, he's looking at all the bad spots, and it's like, man, at his end goal with you, why does he want to be close to you?

Because he wants to be your friend.

He wants to move you into friendship with himself.

He wants to be close with you.

He gave his life so that when he calls you to follow him, that you could enter into a friendship with him and experience that life with him.

Paul says it this way He says, You were once far away from God.

You were his enemies, separated from him by your evil thoughts and actions.

Yet now he has reconciled you to himself through the death of Christ in his physical body.

As a result, he has brought you into his own presence.

This is what he wants.

Why does he call me to like what am I turning away from?

It's like, I don't know.

But he is calling you into friendship with him, closeness with him, and in his presence is fullness of joy.

At his right hand are pleasures forevermore.

The people in the gospels who interact with him, who hear his kind words and experience his compassion and experience his grace are left filled up and stirred up and are like, this is the best person I've ever met.

Crowds are flocking, they just can't figure it out.

Like, what is being around him is so great.

And he's like, I'm inviting you to follow me so that you experience those things.

He is calling a sinner who's hurting other people and hurting himself.

He is calling that person, would you please come be friends with me?

Will you please come and be close to me?

This is what it's like to be with Jesus.

Every command, every call to repentance, everything that he's doing, he's calling us to be his friends.

And so for us, this is why he calls Matthew to follow him, and this is why he calls us to follow him.

He wants to save you, save you from the pain and suffering that your sin will cause in your own life and in the lives of others.

He doesn't want you to experience that, and like any good friend, he's like, hey, let's avoid that.

Let's not do those things.

He wants to lead you into the vision that he has for your life, he wants to lead you into who you're created to be and to save you from winding up having your vision fulfilled and go, this didn't do it for me.

He wants to lead you.

And he wants you to follow him so that you can enjoy a friendship with him.

So for us, my question is, where is he calling you to follow him?

And for some of you, maybe it's like the first thing, like he's he's finally calling you've never followed him at all, you've never trusted him at all, or you've walked with him for a bit, but like Scott Harrison, you you walked away from him.

I mean, he's calling you back.

Like, I want you to follow me.

I don't know why you left.

I have no idea.

But I just want you to follow me.

And others of you, like you're following him, but there's areas of your life where you're not following him, where you're like, he can have this and this and this, but in this particular area, I'm gonna do that my way.

He's like, if you continue doing it your way, it's not condemnation that you're gonna find, it's death that you're gonna find.

You're gonna find that that doesn't do anything, and I have something better for you.

I'm trying to save you from what that would do in your life.

And so, where is he calling you to follow him?

And my encouragement to you is to, wherever that is, wherever he is saying, like, let's walk a little closer, let's let's do this, let's practice my way versus practicing your way.

Wherever that is, I would encourage you by his spirit working in you to move in that direction, to actually follow him in that thing, because he is not trying to harm you, he's actually trying to help you.

So follow him.

Let me pray.

Father, I pray that this gift that you gave Matthew.

This man that probably thought, I'll be an outcast the rest of my life.

No one wants me, no one wants to talk to me, the government I work for hates me.

And probably just thought, this is it, this is where my life will end, this is where I'll stay.

The gift that you gave him, I just asked him and extending the invitation and saying, you know, you can follow me out of that.

I can get you out of that if you want it.

God, I pray that you would stir that in our hearts as well, that we would look and find the pain points in our story, the pain points in our lives, the unanswered questions and the things that we're longing for and still have this longing in our heart to be fulfilled.

I pray that we would just begin following you.

You are better at leading our lives than we are at leading our lives.

And God, I pray that you would build faith in us to believe that.

Would you help us today?

Would your spirit convict and guide and just lead us into greater fidelity to you and to want to follow you and follow your way versus ours because it's far better, it's far kinder.

And according to Matthew's story, it's a feast.

You're calling him to a feast, a feast of joy.

And so, Lord, I pray that you do that for us as well.

In Jesus' name.

Amen.

We get the opportunity to take communion.

Again, I love the idea that the first thing that Matthew is called to do, like, all right, I'm following you.

Give me my orders.

It's like, great.

Set up a huge party, invite all your friends.

It's gonna be awesome.

And uh, so awesome that people hear about it and come and try and shut it down.

That's the kind of party you want to go to with Jesus.

I like those parties.

Um, but today, I mean, this is the idea.

This is the we get to celebrate with our little cup and our little piece of bread, but it proclaims a huge party.

It's this tiny thing that that points to this future thing that we'll sit with with Jesus, and it's like, what are you calling me into?

It's like, well, eventually, I want to experience such close friendship with you that one day we're eating together in the kingdom of heaven with my Father.

And there's new wine flowing from the mountains, and there's there's great food and a feast that you can't even understand.

And so that's what he's leading us into.

And so this is just a foretaste of the future kingdom that he's walking us into.

And so, if you're wondering, what will it be like to follow Jesus?

What is it, what does he want with my life?

This testifies he wants to be friends with you and lead you into a life where you're actually experiencing his fullness breaking into your life.

And this is just a teeny, tiny taste.

The wine represents the joy in his blood, and the bread represents his body that's like this will fill you.

And so, as we come and take this, I just encourage you in your seats just to process what Jesus wants with you.

Figure out where you're at with him, but then come and just believe.

Maybe for the first time or maybe just again, like this testifies that like he wants to fill you with joy and actually fill you with fullness.

This is what he wants for you.

And he was willing to give his life so that that's true for you.

And so please come and receive the elements.

If you help set it up, please come and um serve the elements.

But come from your chairs whenever you're ready, receive the elements, and then go back to your seats, and we'll take communion together by taking uh by reading the liturgy.