Jesus Goes Fishing

So we are doing something this year called following Jesus.

We are spending the entire year going through the entire book of Matthew.

Started this a couple of weeks ago.

We're gonna go through the entire book of Matthew.

By the way, this also includes our children, first grade, all the way up through high school.

They're going through the same stories every Sunday that we're going through.

So if you have kids in those age ranges, it's something you get to do as a whole family, which is really fun.

But we're trying to follow Jesus for a pretty simple reason.

We want to know him more.

It's amazing how much that came into the worship that we sang this morning.

That is the desire with this.

We want to know Jesus more.

You can never know Jesus too well.

It's impossible.

Maybe you've been following Jesus for decades.

You're never going to get to the end of Jesus.

If there ever comes a point in your life where you're like, you know, I think I've had my fill, then you don't, oh, you clearly, you would never even say that.

It's ridiculous to say it if you know Jesus.

You'll never get to the end of him.

And if if you're new to Jesus, and to some degree all of us are, really, if you're new to Jesus, oh my gosh, there's so much to discover.

There's so much about him.

He's so different.

He's so amazing.

Listen to what the book of Hebrews describes Jesus as.

This is Hebrews chapter 1, verse 3.

Hebrews 1:3

It says, the sun, talking about Jesus, radiates God's own glory and expresses the very character of God.

In other words, if you want to know what God is like, you don't have to look further than Jesus.

Jesus is the exact representation of God.

He shows us what God is really like.

He shows us what God really cares about.

He shows us how God sees us.

He shows us all that God can do.

And if we want to know God, we know Jesus.

He is God.

He's God the Son.

And we can never get to the end of Him.

So this whole year as we follow Jesus, we're just trying to know Him better.

We're trying to learn as much as we can about Him so that He becomes more clear in our understanding.

I'm so excited about it.

Now we're taking the phrase following Jesus somewhat literally, and we're really leaning into like where Jesus is and who he's talking to and what's going on in the world around him.

So we've been using a lot of maps, and we're going to keep doing that.

We're all going to be map enthusiasts by the time this year is done.

Here's kind of the main map that we're looking at.

This shows you ancient Israel in terms of the regions that were uh were operating at that time, the different areas.

And I actually had some people say, hey, it's kind of hard for me to like get my bearings when I look at this, so let me kind of strip some of this away for you.

So this would be uh all of the regions taken out because there's not physical barriers there.

Okay, that's ancient Israel.

I mean, still Israel today, still the same place.

Um but if we we go back a little bit more and zoom out, you can kind of get your bearings at least geographically.

So you've got the Mediterranean Sea up there on the top left, and then you've got these two really important bodies of water: the Sea of Galilee, which is that that northern uh body of water you see, and then the Dead Sea toward the south, and this river that connects them, the Jordan River, and those sort of make up the major boundaries.

Okay, so we'll zoom back in a little bit.

Now you might understand where you're at.

Okay, that is that's ancient Israel.

This is the area that Jesus traversed.

This is where he was walking, this is where he was teaching, this is where he was performing the miracles, and all year long, as we follow Jesus, we're gonna learn so much detail about the world that he was part of, about what was going on.

It's gonna help enrich our understanding of him.

So I'm excited to learn as I prepare and study and pray each week.

I hope you're excited to learn because I think we're all gonna learn a lot of new things.

Now, today we get to tag along with Jesus as he uh goes fishing in a manner of speaking.

We get to watch Jesus uh fish for people, which sounds odd, but that's a phrase that Jesus himself used.

We get to see Jesus recruit.

Today we're gonna explore the first people that Jesus picks to be part of his team.

And I think it's so interesting because you actually learn a lot about someone based on the filters they have when they choose a team.

Whether it's hiring someone for a job, whether it's you know assembling a team for some task that you're gonna do.

Like, for example, if you went with me to the gym, I like to play basketball.

Um, I mean, I'm five foot nine, clearly, God built me for basketball, so I mean, I gotta lean into that, right?

So I play a lot of basketball.

And if you went with me to the gym, well, number one, you would respect me less, but that's okay, it's a separate story.

Because when when a ball is in my hand, I'm just not the same person.

And I'm working on it and I'm better than I used to be.

We're getting there, okay?

But you would learn my filters.

When I pick a team, you would learn what I value.

And like, so let's say you were my super close friend, and you're like, hey, uh, you we're good friends, I'd love to play basketball, um, I'll tag along, I'd be like, sure.

But then you might be surprised that I don't value friendship when I play basketball.

I don't care who my friend is, I'm not trying to make friends.

I value winning.

And I value winning too much, and I admit that.

But I'm 41 years old, and the injuries are piling up, right?

I've had ankle surgery, I've got tendonitis in one of my Achilles.

It's just a matter of time.

It's just a matter of time before the basketball days are done.

So I've got to win every game might be my last at this point, and I've got to win every single one.

And so, like, there's this verse in the Old Testament.

God speaks to this prophet named Samuel.

And Samuel's got to pick the king of Israel, and God's telling Samuel that all of his filters are wrong, that God sees things differently when he picks his team.

And this is what he says to Samuel He says, Don't judge by appearance or height, for I've rejected him.

The Lord doesn't see things the way you see them.

People judge by outward appearance, but the Lord looks at the heart.

Now, when I pick a team for basketball, I ignore this verse completely.

I don't know your heart, I don't care about your heart.

I am judging by appearance and especially height.

Like that is exactly like that's it's all if I know you and I know that you're good, I want skill, I want size, I want athleticism, I want motor, I don't want kindness, I don't want a servant heart, I don't care, right?

Because I want to win for that period of time.

And so, like when I pick a team for basketball, those are my filters.

That's what I'm looking at.

I totally base it on appearance.

If you're tall, I'm probably gonna pick you.

I have some things over the years I've developed, like if you're wearing an outfit, not gonna pick you for my team.

What I mean by that is you're not wearing clothes, like if as a guy, you have a headband that matches your socks, not gonna pick you for my team.

And you might be amazing, but life has taught me that the more time a guy spends looking in the mirror, the less time he has spent practicing.

And so, not gonna do it.

If you're wearing super expensive shoes, I'm not gonna pick you for my team.

Because guys who wear super expensive shoes shoot a lot.

And I shoot a lot.

And so we've already got that covered.

I don't want you on my team.

That's my job.

All right?

So if you're wearing like nice Kobe's, you can get picked by the other team.

I'm not doing it.

And if you're, and this is just because I'm older and I have pet peeves, the older you get, you get to have pet peeves.

It's like a rite of passage.

If you're like wearing an AirPod and it doesn't look like you're gonna take it out, I'm not picking you for my team.

I'm just, it just bothers me.

There's no reason, it just bothers me, and I'm not gonna do it.

So when I pick a team, I'm I'm playing to win, and I care about winning a lot, too much, it's a problem.

I'm I'm working on it, it's just gonna take a long time for this to finish.

And I completely and totally value like height, skill, strength, athleticism, those types of things.

I'm I'm just picking my team based on those filters.

You learn a lot about what someone values and cares about based on the way they assemble a team.

And we get to watch Jesus assemble a team today.

And it's surprising.

He does not pick a team the way I would pick a team.

I'm just gonna say that.

Like, Jesus is not using the same filters that I use when he picks his team, and it's gonna tell us so much about who he is and who we are to him.

It's really exciting.

So let's jump back in to uh to Matthew.

And actually, let's let's do this.

Um, let's remember where we left off.

We left off with Jesus uh being tempted in the desert.

He was tempted in the Judean wilderness after he was baptized, and we learned a lot about Jesus last week based on how he was tested and tempted.

We learned about the purity of Jesus, the security that Jesus had and who he was.

He didn't need to prove himself to anyone.

We learned about the fact that Jesus was so wise, he saw Satan's temptations for what they were.

So we learned a lot about Jesus last week, who he is based on how he responded to temptation.

But now we pick right back up.

Matthew chapter 4.

Matthew 4 · chapter mention

It says that when Jesus heard that John had been arrested, this is John the Baptist, his cousin, he left Judea and he returned to Galilee.

He first went to Nazareth, and then from there he moved to Capernaum, beside the Sea of Galilee, in the region of Zebulun and Naphtali.

This fulfilled what God said through the prophet Isaiah, in the land of Zebulun and of Nophtali, beside the sea, beyond the Jordan River in Galilee, where so many Gentiles live, the people who sat in darkness have seen a great light.

And for those who lived in the land where death cast its shadow, a light has shined.

And from then on, Jesus began to preach, Repent of your sins and turn to God, for the kingdom of heaven is near.

Which is essentially the same message that John the Baptist had been preaching before he was arrested.

And we'll get into John's arrest at a later time.

So let's go back to our map.

Let's see where Jesus is going.

Okay, so like I said, last week we left off with Jesus being tempted in the Judean wilderness, and now he's going all the way back to Nazareth, which was his hometown.

This is where he grew up.

It appears that he doesn't spend a lot of time there.

He's probably just going to gather some things because he's not visiting Capernaum, he's moving there.

And so here we see Jesus go to Capernaum, which is right on the northern side of the Sea of Galilee.

This is where Jesus moves.

He sets up shop here.

This becomes the place that Jesus decides to be like the birthplace of his ministry.

And it's a really interesting choice of location.

Like in some ways, you might ask, like, why not a more important city?

Why not Jerusalem?

He was in the Judean wilderness, which is toward the south, and that's very close to the city of Jerusalem.

And you think that if you're Jesus and it's time to start your ministry, and it's time to like get the word out about who you are and what God is doing, that you would pick some place really important.

And Jerusalem was certainly a bigger city and much more important historically than a place like Capernaum.

But if you understand sort of the history and the world at that time, it becomes pretty brilliant, and you're you see how brilliant Jesus is and where he sets up shops.

So I'm gonna show you a different map.

Um, this isn't a map that we created, uh, this is just a map of ancient roads that were part of the Roman Empire in Israel at this time.

Okay?

So I'm gonna bring up another map.

This yellow line is this ancient road.

It was a huge deal at the time of Jesus.

It was called the Via Martis, which means the way of the sea.

And this road went all the way from Egypt, all the way up the coast of the Mediterranean Sea.

You see, it touches the Sea of Galilee right at Capernaum, if you can see it.

And then it goes all the way up into Syria.

This is where major trade was happening.

People are coming via this road all the time, going from Syria down to Egypt.

And then the second road, uh, that is a road that leads to Jerusalem.

And actually, you see that road sort of terminates in the middle of nowhere.

In fact, there was an ancient saying that it said, the road to Jerusalem leads to nowhere.

So it was a very important place, Jerusalem for the Jewish people.

It was a very big city, absolutely, it was the capital of Israel.

But in terms of its importance in the world, it wasn't that big of a deal.

Most of the people traveling to Jerusalem were doing so for religious purposes.

That road was sort of singular in purpose.

But this other road, this international route, this way of the sea that runs along the coast that goes right through Capernaum was one of the most traveled roads in the entirety of the ancient world.

And it was so developed that for the first time in history, people could travel as far as 20 miles in a single day.

Like that's nothing to us.

Some of us drove over 20 miles to be here this morning.

But 20 miles in a day, at this point in history, most people never went 20 miles beyond the place of their birth.

And now, because of Rome building all of these roads and the development that happens, people can now travel to entire other nations, entire other cultures, and most of them have been united by a common language in Greek.

So think about this for a second.

Jesus sets up shop in Capernaum, which is right on that road.

And if you're familiar with the stories and the gospels, you get the impression that Jesus does things and says things, and word begins to spread fast.

And people start coming from all over, and you're like, how?

How could word spread that fast?

Well, it's because Jesus is doing everything right in the hub of one of the most traveled roads in the entire world.

And thousands upon thousands of people are passing through, they're hearing what Jesus is doing, they're seeing what Jesus is doing, and then they're on their way, and the very next day they're 20 miles away, two, three days later, they're 50 miles away, they're telling everybody about it, and everyone just hops on the road and they go to see Jesus.

So he puts himself in this incredibly important place.

Incredibly busy.

Now, Capernaum as a city was really not huge.

It was like traveled through, but not a lot of people live there.

Maybe about 15,000 or so at the time of Jesus, and it was primarily a fishing village.

Almost everything on the Sea of Galilee revolves around fishing.

And like I said earlier, we get to see Jesus do his own sort of fishing today.

And so here we go, Matthew chapter 4, verses 18 through 22.

Matthew 4:18–22

It says, One day as Jesus was walking along the shore of the Sea of Galilee, he saw two brothers, Simon, also called Peter, and Andrew, throwing a net into the water, for they fished for a living.

So these are commercial fishermen.

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 farther up the shore, he saw two other brothers, James and John, sitting in a boat with their father, Zebedee, repairing their nets.

And he called them to come too.

They immediately followed him, leaving their boat and their father behind.

Now some of the other Gospels give us a little bit more detail.

They kind of flesh this story out for us a little bit.

You kind of get the impression that this is super random.

Like Jesus is just walking and he sees these dudes he's never met before, he doesn't know, they don't know him, and he's like, hey, follow me.

We'll fish for people now.

And they're like, Cool.

Uh, which is definitely not how it went down.

Like we know, for example, from John's gospel, John chapter 1.

John 1 · chapter mention

Uh, this gives us a little bit of backstory.

It says, The following day, John, this is before John was arrested, was again standing with two of his disciples, and Jesus walked by, because he would have visited that area often.

John looked at him and declared, Look, there is the Lamb of God.

When John's two disciples heard this, they followed Jesus.

Jesus looked around and saw them following.

What do you want?

He asked them.

They replied, Rabbi, which means teacher, where are you staying?

Come and see, he said.

It was about four o'clock in the afternoon when they went with him to the place where he was staying, and they remained with him the rest of the day.

Andrew, Simon Peter's brother, was one of these men who heard what John said and then followed Jesus.

So there's a relationship there.

John the Baptist, the someone that Andrew was following, had pointed to Jesus and said, Look, he's the one you really ought to be following.

Andrew starts doing that.

He introduces his brother to them, and then at some point in time later on, after John is arrested, Jesus says, now it's time to get started officially, and he picks Peter and Andrew, and then he goes a little bit further down and he picks James and John.

So think about this.

You're Jesus.

You have the most important mission in the history of the world.

You just have to save the world.

You have to save the world from sin, from from like Satan, from everything, right?

And you have the choice.

You have your choice of whoever you want to pick.

You get to pick your team.

And the very first picks you have, your first four picks, you're like, I'm ready to change the world, I'm ready to get this ministry started.

Let's go.

Here's what I'm gonna go with.

Pick number one, fishermen.

Pick number two, gonna stick with fishermen.

Picks three and four, two more fishermen.

Right?

It's like an odd, it's an odd choice.

Like these are commercial fishermen.

Just any of you ever see the show Deadliest Catch way back in the day?

It was like one of those shows that's like always on TV.

You're like Law in Order, Deadliest Catch, Law and Order, it was like always on.

Commercial fishermen.

And if you have been a commercial fisherman or you are currently a commercial, I'm not trying to offend you.

But based on my limited experience watching Deadliest Catch, it's kind of a rough group.

Like if I said, guys, we're launching a brand new church.

We are starting a brand new church, uh, we're gonna plant a church uh over here, and don't worry, we're we're staffing it with commercial fishermen.

We have found a whole group of commercial fishermen that are off season and they're like, we got it, we're gonna help start the church, we're gonna launch it.

Um they got huge beards, smell kind of weird, um, you know, lots of tattoos and some choice language, but we think they've got what it takes.

You'd be like that.

Shouldn't we maybe interview?

Can we just at least find a little bit more variety in the experience that people are bringing to the table?

But Jesus goes, I got four guys, I'm starting my ministry, fishermen, fishermen, fishermen, fishermen.

And we begin to see that Jesus clearly sees things differently than we see things.

Jesus has all sorts of different values in terms of who he's looking for and who he wants to work with.

Because these are not the four people that you would pick.

They're just, they're not.

In fact, in their culture, rabbis would pick disciples at a pretty young age.

And it's likely, by the way, that most of these guys are teenagers.

It's very likely.

We'll talk about this at a later time.

But you would pick the best and the brightest, you would pick the ones that showed the most promise.

And I'm not saying if you were a fisherman, that means you were like someone that didn't have promise, but it just it wouldn't have typically been your top pick of a job.

It was hard work, long hours, manual labor.

It smelled like fish.

I mean, the the list goes on, right?

And Jesus picks these guys.

They're the ones that would have been passed over.

They're the ones that other people would have looked at and said, nah, not you.

And Jesus picks them.

So here's what I want to do with the rest of our time.

I want to explore what it is that Jesus values, because I think the question I'd like all of us to ask is, hey, would Jesus pick me?

Like, would Jesus pick me?

Am I the kind of person that Jesus says, I love working with that type of person?

That's a question we should ask ourselves.

And I think we'll be kind of surprised when we look at some of the things that Jesus values.

Let's start with this.

The people that Jesus chose to work with were ordinary.

They were ordinary people.

They were not people of particular influence, they weren't super well connected.

And I love that.

Have you ever had someone that sort of unnecessarily resume builds around you?

Like you meet them and without asking, they start like dropping names and accomplishments, and they kind of just anyone know what I'm talking about?

Okay.

So it's annoying, right?

Like, can we just agree that that's it's like a super weird thing to do?

It usually comes from a place of insecurity, and so it's understandable, but sometimes it comes from a place of pride, and you'll meet people and they're like, hey, just I'm kind of a big deal.

And I think you need to know that.

And it's it's really funny because like if you've been part of his hands for long, you know that our church is just different.

We have different values.

Um, like I didn't go to seminary.

I know for some people it's like, well, then what are I do?

I I can read and I have a Bible, and I've read it a lot.

I planned on going to seminary at one point in time, it just didn't work out.

I got really busy working here and it just didn't happen.

I had four children and then became the pastor of the church, and it's just it is what it is.

But I've read a lot of books.

I've started even more books.

I've read the first chapter of more books than you can even imagine.

Okay?

And most of the good stuff's in the first chapter, let's be honest.

Okay?

But I read the main book a lot.

So, but no, like that's something that our church has never been about prestige.

And so, the people that we have in leadership, it's not because they have some pedigree, it's not because of all the accomplishments.

Um, like I'm unqualified for this job.

I've been unqualified for it the whole time I've had it, which has been 17 years.

Okay?

It's just the way it works.

And so at our church, if you come and you start to like resume build, um, clap for my unqualification.

There we go.

That's good.

But my point is the resume building stuff just doesn't work here.

And every once in a while we'll have someone come and they just they're from a different environment, and we have all the grace in the world for that, and they'll be like, So, do you know so and so?

And I'm like, I do not.

And they're like, oh, well, I used to do this with so-and-so.

I'm like, that's cool, I don't know who that is.

And they'll be like, well, you've surely you've heard of you know this person.

I have not.

And they start to find, well, hold on.

I don't know how to have value here if you're not impressed by all the people that I know and have worked with and all that kind of stuff.

And it's like, man, just who are you?

That's what we'd want to know.

Not who have you known, what have you done?

Give me the list, the resume.

It's not about that.

And it wasn't about that with Jesus because none of the people he picked had impressive resumes.

None of them.

They were ordinary people.

I love this quote.

I think it puts it really plainly.

They were not men of great scholarship or influence or wealth or social background.

They were not poor, they were simple, working people with no great background, and certainly anyone would have said with no great future.

What Jesus needs is ordinary men and women who will give him themselves.

He can do anything with people like that.

So the question becomes, are you ordinary?

Like, are you an ordinary person?

Are you like, I'm just kind of I'm there's nothing super special about me, there's nothing amazing or impressive about me.

Maybe you are amazing and impressive, and you're like, no, no, you have no idea who I am.

That's a different, we'll have a different conversation about that.

But if you can say to yourself, yeah, I'm I'm just an ordinary person, I'm someone who's trying to go through life and do the best that I can do, and I'm I'm doing my job, or I'm in school, or I'm raising my kids, or I'm trying to be a good grandparent to my my grandchildren.

I'm just trying to do life, and I'm getting by, just like everybody else.

If that's you.

You're the type of person Jesus likes to work with.

These people don't have great experience.

Jesus does not need your experience.

Let's think about this for a second.

Even if you have tremendous experience, that's awesome.

But Jesus doesn't need your experience.

You need to experience him.

That's what you need.

He doesn't need us to bring anything to the table.

Now, what's amazing about him is he'll use whatever we have.

He can use all that we've got, that's great.

But the thing about it, he's God.

He doesn't need us to like sweeten the pot.

He doesn't need our experience.

We need to experience him.

And if you're willing to have that happen, if you're willing to give Jesus yourself as you are, you're the type of person he likes to work with.

Let's explore even more.

Jesus loved to work with people who were imperfect and they knew it.

People who were not perfect, but they were very aware of that.

As we get later into Jesus' ministry, he begins to round out his team.

He starts with four fishermen, but don't worry.

He expands.

He adds a tax collector really early.

And uh, and many of you know this, but you know, it's kind of somewhat common knowledge, but maybe you don't.

And if you're new to church, you probably don't.

It's kind of interesting.

Tax collectors were despised and hated as much as anyone in their culture.

No one liked tax collectors.

And it wasn't just because they were working for the government and collecting taxes and no one likes to pay taxes.

It wasn't that at all.

It's that they were traitors.

If you were a Jewish tax collector, that means that you had partnered with Rome and you were working with Rome to collect taxes from the people.

And typically, as a tax collector, you would become wealthy by extorting people.

You would say, Hey, you owe Rome this much in taxes, and what you would do is take what you actually owed Rome and you'd add a little bit for yourself.

And so these were people that became very rich by exploiting their own people.

They were despised and they were hated.

And Jesus picks four fishermen, and all the religious leaders are like, hmm, that's interesting.

And then he picks a tax collector and they freak out.

And this tax collector, we'll meet him a little later, he invites Jesus to his house.

And he invites his friends, who are other tax collectors and other people that no one likes.

And it causes a really big stir.

We see this in Mark chapter 2.

Mark 2 · chapter mention

It says, Later Levi, who's also named Matthew, invited Jesus and his disciples to his home as dinner guests, along with many tax collectors and other disreputable sinners.

And by the way, if you haven't picked up on it, this is the guy that wrote the gospel that we're exploring all year long.

Kind of interesting.

Now there were many people of this kind among Jesus' followers.

Many people of this kind.

But when the teachers of religious law who were Pharisees saw him eating with tax collectors and other sinners, they asked his disciples, why does he eat with such scum?

And when Jesus heard this, he told them, healthy people don't need a doctor, sick people do.

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

I've come not to call those who think they've got it all figured out, who think that they know all the right answers.

I've come to call those who know that they're sinners.

They know it.

And if you're someone who can say, Man, I know I've got issues.

I know I've got all kinds of stuff that isn't the way it ought to be.

I am not as I ought to be.

If you can own that and say that and be aware of that, then there's really good news.

You're the type of person that Jesus loves to work with.

Those are the people he picked for his team.

Those are the people that he went and had dinner with.

And the people who thought they had it all together and had all the answers, they came to Jesus and they didn't get very far with Jesus, and Jesus didn't get very far with them.

But Jesus said, I've come to call people who know they don't have the answers.

I've come to call people who know they're a little bit messed up.

I really like working with those people.

Jesus picked people who were ordinary and people who knew that they were imperfect.

They knew they had issues.

But it's not just that.

Jesus, he was looking for people who knew that something was missing.

He loved working with people who recognized that there has to be more.

There's got to be more.

There's an amazing story in Mark chapter 10 of this man, we don't know his name, but he has this incredible interaction with Jesus.

Mark 10 · chapter mention

And it says, as Jesus was starting out on his way to Jerusalem, a man came running to him, knelt down, and asked, Good teacher, what must I do to inherit eternal life?

Well, why do you call me good?

Jesus asked.

Only God is truly good.

But to answer your question, you know the commandments.

You must not murder, you must not commit adultery, you must not steal, you must not testify falsely, you must not cheat anyone, honor your father and mother.

And he cuts Jesus off.

Teacher, I've obeyed all these commandments since I was young.

Looking at the man, Jesus felt genuine love for him.

There's still one thing you haven't done, he told him.

Go and sell all your possessions and give the money to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven.

Then come follow me.

It's the same structure as what we see Jesus do with the other disciples.

He's like, hey, drop what you're doing, follow me.

He loves this guy.

Unfortunately, we don't know this guy's name because he does not answer this call.

He can't bring himself to let go of all that he has.

So he doesn't follow Jesus, at least not at this moment.

But it says that Jesus felt genuine love for him.

Now here's the situation.

This is a guy who says, I've been doing the religious stuff my whole life.

Like in our culture, he's like, grew up in church.

Read my Bible.

I pray the prayers.

I do the things.

I've done it all.

And something's missing.

Something's missing.

This whole religious activity thing, it's not, there's got to be more.

And I think you might have it.

So he goes to Jesus because he's looking for more.

He recognized that something wasn't right, that there had to be something that he hadn't experienced yet.

And he was correct about that.

His assumptions were correct.

His instincts were right.

He just didn't follow through on it.

And it says that Jesus looked at him and loved him.

You know, Jesus says, well, hey, he's kind of testing him.

Like, you know the rules, you know all the commandments, and he starts rattling off, yeah, Jesus, I've done all that, but still, I don't think, I don't think I've experienced all that I've meant to experience.

And Jesus goes, Yes, you're right.

There's more.

There's more.

Some of us were really new to church and new to the whole Jesus thing and worshiping and all of that.

And maybe you're kind of even checking it out and you're not sure where you stand with it.

And this is a good place to be if that's the case, because we're not gonna we're not gonna pressure you.

We're not gonna force you or try to emotionally manipulate you to make a decision.

We don't do that.

So you can take your time and figure that out.

Many of us, though, we we grew up in church.

And sometimes there's that natural thing where you kind of question at a certain age everything you've ever been told because you were, you know, let's be honest, because you grew up being taught by your parents, and eventually we all discover that our parents don't know everything.

And maybe if our parents are wrong about all these other things, maybe they're wrong about God too.

And so we question and maybe we walk away for a while.

We've probably all had experiences like that to some degree, or we've known people who have.

It's natural to do that.

And the truth is, if you grew up in church your whole life, you may have had moments where you're like, is this it?

Is this really it?

Even if you've been here, like, I mean, I'm biased, but I think his hand is a pretty good church.

And thank you.

Um, yeah.

And so I like this place, right?

But if you were here your whole life, and we actually have people now who this is the crazy thing.

Like, I know high school students that are gonna graduate this year who have been at this church since they were born.

We used to be much newer than that, so we're old now.

We're old enough to have like almost 20-year-olds who have this is the only place they've ever known.

And if it doesn't matter how great a church is, if all you ever experience is kind of the motion, the activity.

That's not what it's all about.

This isn't it.

Like this isn't it.

It's about it's about experiencing Jesus.

He's what we need.

Now, coming together on Sundays and worshiping and singing and opening up scripture and listening, and all it's super helpful for us to get to him, but this isn't it.

This experience, what we're doing right now, this is just the best that we can do on this side of heaven to get a taste of what it's really going to be like.

But like I like I love the fact that when I think about heaven, I don't do you guys ever think about what you'll do in heaven, like what you'll do, because I don't think we're gonna be bored.

I just know that I'll be out of a job.

Like, seriously.

I love this thought.

Because my job is to talk about Jesus.

I mean, at the end of the day, that's what it's all about.

It's kind of my my joke, is people are like, hey, what you're talking about this week?

Jesus.

That's been what I've talked about every week for 20 years.

And I love it.

Because what I mean, what better to talk about than Jesus?

But like in heaven, he'll be there.

Like no one is gonna say, hey, Justin, tell us about Jesus.

That's never gonna happen.

Because he's there.

Like you'll just know him.

That's gonna be awesome.

I'm not gonna know what to do.

I'll just play basketball.

Well, of course, I'm gonna talk to him, of course.

Yeah, duh.

No, he and I are gonna be super close.

We already are.

So, like my point is that this guy, he's grown up in church.

He's grown up doing all the religious stuff, and you can do all the religious stuff, even at a really good church, and still miss it because there's more.

It's about knowing him.

We're spending our whole year studying Jesus.

He's not a subject, though.

He's not a subject that we study, he's a person that we can know.

And I hope that this year our hunger to know him, to really know him, and to know what it's like to be known by him grows.

That to whatever degree you can say, I know Jesus, there's more.

There's always more.

And if you hunger for more, Jesus said, Hey, if you want more, ask.

Like, ask the Father.

If you ask God for more of him, he'll give it to you.

And this man, he recognizes I've done it all, and there's there's gotta be more, and ding, ding, ding, there is.

If you're someone who desires more, that no matter how much you have of God and all the God's stuff, you're like, I just want more, you are exactly the kind of person that Jesus wants to invite into what he's doing.

One more.

They were willing to be stretched.

In Matthew chapter 9, it says, one day the disciples of John the Baptist came to Jesus and asked him, Why don't your disciples fast like we do and the Pharisees do?

Matthew 9 · chapter mention

Jesus replied, Do wedding guests mourn while celebrating with the groom?

Of course not, but someday the groom will be taken away from them, and then they will fast.

Besides, who would patch old clothing with new cloth?

For the new patch would shrink and rip away from the old cloth, leaving an even bigger tear than before.

And no one puts new wine into old wineskins.

For the old skins would burst from the pressure, spilling the wine and ruining the skins.

New wine is stored in new wineskins so that both are preserved.

Wineskins would get rigid and hard as they got older.

And if you put new wine, which is expanding in them, it would burst.

And so if you had new wine, which is still going to expand and grow, right, as it ferments, you would put it in a new wineskin, something that was flexible.

And Jesus is telling these other disciples, he's like, hey, don't be offended.

It's not that I don't think you guys are great.

It's just that y'all are set in your ways.

And I'm doing something new.

And I need people who are willing to kind of move and bend and grow.

Now, if we're honest with ourselves, we don't like change.

We don't like to stretch.

Like, I mean, I don't like to physically stretch.

But as much as I like the idea of stretching, as much as I might say, no, I'm a person who's really open to new experiences and I want to be challenged.

I really want people to challenge the way I see things.

That not really.

I mean, if I'm honest, no, I kind of like things the way they are.

Don't mess with my world.

But Jesus likes messing with stuff.

I'm just gonna tell you, this may be a disclaimer, I guess, to following Jesus.

If you give Jesus your life, he's gonna mess with everything.

If you think Jesus is gonna be like, oh, you're amazing and I love you, and you got no, yes, absolutely.

But he's got he's got big plans for you, and you're gonna have to change a lot.

But it's gonna be awesome if you trust him with it.

But he changes stuff, he messes with stuff.

He challenges.

I had a friend that um lives a little further away, and he was talking to me about choosing a church.

Like, you know, I'm have experience with churches, and so he's like, hey, I found a church and I love it.

I was like, dude, tell me about it.

He's like, man, I went and I grilled the pastor after church, and I was like, that sounds like fun.

Um I I get grilled every once in a while.

I love it, by the way.

If you've never been to a newcomer gathering, I'd say about a third of the questions we get in a newcomer gathering are I just want to make sure this isn't a cult.

Like we get a lot of those because I think people have fun here and they're worried that if you're having fun in church, it must be a cult.

But this is a rule.

Cult um leaders drive much nicer cars than I drive.

So I promise you, it's not it's an easy way to spot if it's a cult.

First, look at the car the guy drives.

If it's really nice, I'm not saying it's a cult, but it might be.

Um, okay, we're good.

We're good.

No, like a lot of people have those questions.

I get it.

You want to grill the pastor and learn and make sure.

And so here's what he told me.

He's like, dude, I grilled this guy.

I asked him 30 questions, and I agreed with everything he said.

And I was like, You and him agreed on 30 things?

He's like, Yeah.

I was like, you should not go to that church.

I was really honest with him.

He was shocked.

He was like, What do you mean?

I was like, Well, look, one of two things is happening.

A, he's just really good at reading people, and he's kind of giving you the answers that he thinks you'll like.

Because I don't know anyone that I agree with on 30 things.

30?

I don't agree with my wife on 30 things.

If you find that's why if you're dating and you find someone that agrees with you on like 10, you gotta marry that person.

Like you have to.

Especially if the first one is Jesus.

You got nine more.

You guys agree on Jesus and nine more things, you need to get married.

It's not gonna get better than that.

And chances are the longer you're married, you'll agree on even less.

So you gotta like.

Maybe.

But I'm like, 30 things.

He was, yeah.

I was like, there's just no way you should go to that church.

Because either this guy's just trying to please you, and maybe that's not the case, or you're never gonna get challenged in this church.

And he's like, What do you mean?

I said, well, dude, like the pastor's never gonna say something that you go, ooh, I don't like that.

That challenges me, that makes me stretch.

Don't go to that church.

Because you won't grow there.

You won't grow there.

If you're, I mean, you might as well be the pastor.

Right?

Like, just don't go there.

And he went there.

But it's okay.

Um sometimes we like being in a place where we just agree with everyone.

We we get I get that.

No one agreed with Jesus on everything.

No one saw things the way that he saw things.

We're gonna see that.

I've said this many times before, it's kind of like a I think it's something I probably say too often, but anytime politics gets brought up, you know, I'll talk about how the different political factions in Jesus' day, you had the Pharisees, the Sadducees, and they didn't agree on much, but they definitely agreed on killing Jesus.

Okay, we like to think sometimes that in our world Jesus would be one or the other, I promise you, no.

Like, mm-mm.

He would challenge everybody.

Because that's what he did, that's what he does.

But he doesn't challenge you just to make you upset, to make you feel bad.

This is the beauty of Jesus.

He loves you.

He loves you.

And he loves you more than anyone has ever loved you.

One of the ways that you know that someone really loves you is if they're willing to challenge you because they believe that you have the capacity to be better than you are today.

That's a really high level of love.

There are other aspects of love like compassion.

That's an aspect of love where you look at someone and you hurt because they're hurting and you just want to comfort them.

That is important, that is a part of love.

But that is not the whole of love.

If all you have is compassion, you won't grow.

But when you really love someone, when you really love someone, you are willing to challenge them because you believe that they can be better than they are.

You're willing to have those conversations, and often they're unpleasant.

I'm gonna give you an example of one, and this is not in my notes, and I was I was not planning on doing this, and so I'm just gonna say this to my oldest son.

I'm sorry, and uh I'm gonna pay you 20 bucks for telling this story.

I'm doing it.

I put it out there because then I can show him, so he gets 20 bucks.

Um I haven't done this in like four weeks.

This has been a lot.

I'm about to lose my chip.

Uh, I have a son who plays basketball.

He just won the state championship.

That's actually a big deal.

That was really good.

State championship.

So there's that.

It was awesome.

He's he's really good.

And uh we were playing, and I've I've used a lot of basketball today.

You just, if you're new to church, here at his hands, I'm gonna do that.

It's like one of the main parts of my life, but whatever.

Um, maybe I'll take up golf and then I'll tell golf stories, but I don't think so.

So I was playing with him like two months ago.

We were playing pickup ball at this gym, and like I said, I'm intense and I want to win.

And I've worked with him since he was a kid, he's super talented, and sometimes, I mean, if you're a dad or even a mom and you have kids that do sports or they do something competitive and you're competitive, you know that sometimes it gets kind of intense.

And so there's this moment where I told him, like, dude, move faster.

Like, I'm 40 years old and I'm moving faster than you.

That shouldn't happen.

And he went, I am moving fast.

I was like, You're not.

And we we started having, I mean, he's 13, about to be 14, so and we both kind of puff up.

Like when we play sports, so I'll say something, he'd be like, Yeah, and I'm like, yeah, yeah.

And we just kind of like, we do that, okay.

So there's this moment where I was challenging him pretty hard.

And he looked at me and he said, Dad, you're always pushing me.

And sometimes I just need you to encourage me.

No, no.

You know what I said to him?

I I literally leaned in and I went, get over yourself.

And I said, dude, I have celebrated you your entire life.

I make videos of all your games.

I'm all I should you you have no idea how many people I've pulled out my phone to and be like, hey, watch my son play basketball.

Like I do this all, I annoy people so much.

I tell you you're awesome.

You got plenty of encouragement.

If you can't handle me challenging you and telling you that I know that you've got more in the tank than you have right now, then just figure that out.

And he went, Yes, sir.

And then he played awesome.

Okay.

No, he was already playing awesome.

But my point is in that moment, he might, I'm gonna say this caveat.

Is it possible that I was too hard on him in that moment and that I should have just given him a hug and whatever?

Yes, that is entirely possible.

And I know that's where you thought the story was going, but it's not where it went.

It wasn't a moment where I was like, oh, I feel bad.

I was like, no, get over yourself asking for encouragement.

We're playing basketball.

You don't win with encouragement.

And then we had a conversation in the car, and I apologized, and he apologized, and we hugged it out, and that's how it goes.

But in that moment, no, there's there's this thing, and again, I don't nail that bullseye, I get it all wrong, and he and I have a very awesome relationship.

We we've worked out a lot of stuff between the two of us because of that.

But in that moment, I'm like, dude, I there's a tension there, right?

There's a tension there.

And that A, I do just want to wrap my arms around you and tell you that you're awesome.

B, like, I I I know you are capable of more.

And as a parent, that tension stinks.

It stinks.

And I don't always handle it right, but God always does.

What I'm trying to say is that there's gonna be a tension with Jesus.

And to be honest, he's kind of looking for people who can handle the tension.

And the tension is that he loves you exactly the way you are.

I mean, he picked these guys, they're fishermen.

There's nothing impressive about them.

They don't bring anything to the table.

I mean, I guess fish.

Other than that, other than that, they don't have a whole lot else to bring.

And there's gonna be this tension, and man, you're gonna see it with Peter as we go through the book of Matthew.

Oh my goodness, the number of times that you're gonna see tension between Jesus and Peter.

There is this constant tension in that Jesus loves Peter tremendously, just like he loves all the disciples, but he will not allow Peter to remain as he is.

He's gonna push Peter, he's gonna push Peter's button sometimes, he's gonna challenge Peter, he's gonna call Peter out, he's gonna have some get over yourself moments with Peter.

Because Jesus loves Peter so much, just like he loves all of us so much, that he refuses to stop at compassion.

He goes beyond that and he prioritizes who Peter can become over who Peter is today.

And I'm telling you, Jesus loves you so much, he loves you so much that he prioritizes who you can be.

Be empowered by his spirit in your life over who you are right now.

He wants new wineskins.

He wants people who are willing to be stretched.

He's looking for people who can say, Yeah, do something new in my life that maybe I'm not prepared for, but I promise if you do it, Lord, I might struggle.

There might be tension.

I might not be good at it.

I might not get it right, but I'm gonna stretch.

I'm gonna stretch to the best of my ability.

And if I do that, I will experience the new thing that you're doing.

That's who Jesus is looking for.

And so if you're like, you know what, I can handle that.

I can handle some tension.

I'm alright being stretched.

I don't look forward to it.

But I want the new thing.

I want to be part of something that Jesus is doing that he hasn't done before.

I want to be part of Jesus doing something in my life that he's never done before.

And that's not gonna happen if I'm rigid and if I feel like I already have all the answers and I already know what to do.

So we'll wrap it up with this.

Worship team, you guys can make your way up.

Jesus has some unusual filters.

He has unusual filters.

He doesn't pick teams the way that we pick teams.

He doesn't do it.

He just sees things differently and he sees you differently.

But here's who he's looking for.

He's looking for people who are ordinary.

Is anyone here ordinary?

Just out of curiosity.

Any ordinary people?

Yeah?

Any dads who have pushed your kids too hard in sports, just out of curiosity?

So I'm not alone in that?

Okay, good.

I feel a little insecure about telling that story earlier.

But it's all good.

It's not about me, it's about Jesus.

I don't have to look good on this stage.

That's not my job.

It's Jesus looks good.

I can look bad.

Alright.

So, ordinary people, let me hear you again.

Ordinaries, where are we at?

Where are all the ordinaries at?

Alright, good.

Jesus likes you.

It's you, exceptional people, that Jesus.

No, I'm just joking.

Um, if you're ordinary, that's a good thing.

If you know that you're not perfect, anybody like that?

Anyone like, yeah, I'm I got lots of stuff.

Oh man, let's have a competition.

Who has the most stuff to work on?

Anyone feel like you'd win that one?

Any competitive people?

I'm the good.

Jesus really likes that.

That's like a high mark in his book.

He came to call not those who think they're righteous, but those who know they're sinners.

That's who he's looking for.

Okay?

People who desire something more.

People who look at this world and all that it offers, right?

All the money and all the success and all the stuff, and you go, nah, I want more.

Is there anyone here who wants more than what this world can offer?

You're like, there has to be more, even more than like church.

Even if you've been in church your whole life and you've liked it, you're like, is there more?

I want more.

If you want more, Jesus has more and he's looking for people.

He loves people who want more.

And if you're willing to stretch, if you can just embrace the tension and recognize that it's love.

Like, even in that story I told my son, like, I do feel a little insecure about telling that story because I don't know if that was my best moment.

I don't, let me put it this way.

I know that wasn't my best moment.

It wasn't my worst either.

But it wasn't my best.

But my desire in that moment was just to help someone be better.

And I don't always go about that the right way, but like I said earlier, Jesus does.

He's incredibly gentle.

Incredibly gentle.

And then at times, he's incredibly pointed.

Like, there's moments in my life where he has said things to me, like spoken in my heart, and it's like, whoo.

And it's awesome.

Like, I'll wrap up with this.

When I was in college, Megan and I were at a different church in Kansas City, Missouri.

I've told this story before, I think, but sometimes I lose track.

And we went there for a few weeks and we liked it.

But then, you know, if you go somewhere like 10 times, you don't love it as much.

It gets old, it gets a little boring.

Like if you're new to his hands, you're like, this place is great, come nine more times, it won't be as great.

That's just human nature.

And so we walked out of this church and we've been there for a couple months, and I said to Megan out loud, I said, you know, I just don't know if I'm getting much out of this anymore.

And the second I said it, it's one of the first times I feel like I've ever heard God speak to me, like a voice in my head that I knew wasn't me, and it was, he said, What are you putting into it?

I said, I don't think I'm getting much out of this anymore, and boom, what are you putting into it?

I was like, uh nothing.

Zilch.

The very next week we signed up to work with students, and I ended up being an intern there for two years, working with their kids through that, and wouldn't be have been a youth pastor if not for that, wouldn't have been here if not for that.

And that was a moment where it was gentle, but it was pointed, and God was like, time to stretch.

There was tension in that moment, but it was good, it was for my benefit.

If you're okay with the tension, you're willing to stretch and grow.

Jesus is like, I'm telling you, he is so excited about you.

Because he has plans for you.

And when we usually say that, it's always like, he has plans for you, plans to bless you and give you all the stuff you want.

Maybe.

But I know he has plans to change you.

I know he has plans to transform you.

I know he has plans to make you a new creation, to day by day, slowly but surely, make you into the person that you were created to be.

And that process is gonna be, who's gonna you're gonna be sore every once in a while.

It's gonna be worth it.

Because then you get to discover who you actually are.

See, that's what Jesus did.

He saw people for who they could be, not for who they were right now.

No one else was impressed with the fishermen, but Jesus said, No, I don't see fishermen, I see fishers of men.

I see people who can do more than they've ever believed that they can do.

Jesus believes in you more than you believe in yourself.

I promise you that.

And if you're ordinary and you know you're a sinner and you desire more and you're willing to be stretched, you are exactly the person that Jesus loves working with.

And if one of those isn't who you are, pray about that.

Be open to that changing.

See what God can do with it.

We're gonna take Lord's Supper together.

We've got a little piece of bread and a little cup of juice, and if you missed this on your way in, there's tables at the back.

You can go grab one now.

Everyone's invited to be part of this.

Um, you know, this bread represents his body that was given up for us as a sacrifice on the cross, and this juice represents his blood that was spilled for us.

Now, when Jesus first took this meal with his disciples, it would have been wine.

And uh we don't, there is a wine version of these.

They're much more expensive, so we don't buy.

Um there actually is.

I know.

But we're doing we're doing juice.

Guys, it's 11 in the morning.

Come on.

We sang a song earlier today about new wine, and it's exactly what Jesus was talking about here, that he wants to do a new thing in us.

And it's important, I think, to remember when we take this meal from time to time that this isn't just remembering a thing that happened.

That this is us remembering that something is still happening.

Something is still happening.

When you take this in to you, like physically, something happens, right?

Your body's gonna break this down, and all kinds of things are gonna happen inside of you.

When we have the Holy Spirit inside of us, something is happening.

He has poured new wine into us.

His spirit is new wine, so to speak.

And it's gonna expand and it's gonna grow and it's gonna require change, but man, the result of it is gonna be so good.

And as we take Lord's Supper today, let's remember that.

Let's remember that he's doing something in us, and we need to be open to that and willing to move with him.

And if we are, we get to experience all the change and all the transformation.

We get to be the people that he loves to work with, and that's pretty special.

So let's pray together.

Father, we thank you for this piece of bread and what it represents.

This is your body.

You gave it for us on the cross to pay the price for our sins, to do for us what we could not do for ourselves.

Let's take the bread.

And Lord, we thank you for this cup, this juice.

We thank you, Lord, for new wine.

We thank you, Jesus, that you desire to pour yourself into us, to fill us, Lord, with your spirit.

And we recognize, Lord, that that involves change.

That that involves some stretching, some surrendering.

It's gonna involve us letting go of things that we've held on to for a long time so that we can grab a hold of things that we've never known before.

Just help us be open to that, Lord.

Help us be those people.

Help us be the people that you love to work with.

Help us be the ordinary people who are not perfect but we know it, who want something more, who want something new and are willing to change in order to experience it.

Help us be those people because those are the people you're looking for.

We pray this in your name, Jesus.

Amen.

Let's take the Jews.