1 00:00:00,480 --> 00:00:03,520 And good morning and welcome to Church of the Resurrection. 2 00:00:03,520 --> 00:00:07,280 On this snowy morning, it is great to see all of you here. 3 00:00:07,280 --> 00:00:10,200 We were guessing how many people would show up, and I was 4 00:00:10,200 --> 00:00:12,960 massively underestimating all of you. 5 00:00:15,280 --> 00:00:18,360 So I praise the Lord for you. I'm so glad that you're here. 6 00:00:19,960 --> 00:00:22,760 I'm also, frankly, grateful for the technology that allows us to 7 00:00:22,760 --> 00:00:25,840 live stream so that the many people at our church who are 8 00:00:25,840 --> 00:00:31,360 elsewhere in Virginia or in Maryland are able to hunker down 9 00:00:31,360 --> 00:00:35,120 at home and stay safe. So welcome if you're on the live 10 00:00:35,120 --> 00:00:38,000 stream, welcome. I suspect my parents are 11 00:00:38,000 --> 00:00:38,880 watching. Hi, Mom. 12 00:00:38,880 --> 00:00:43,800 Hi, Dad. How often can you do that, 13 00:00:43,800 --> 00:00:49,520 right? I do pray that we all stay safe 14 00:00:50,040 --> 00:00:53,480 and that we're able to to care for ourselves, care for those 15 00:00:53,480 --> 00:00:55,320 around us well. So I encourage you to do that. 16 00:00:55,320 --> 00:00:58,840 Let me invite you this morning to turn in your Bibles to our 17 00:00:58,840 --> 00:01:01,680 gospel lesson. That's Matthew chapter 4 18 00:01:01,960 --> 00:01:06,000 starting in verse 12 in the Pew Bibles that begins on page 19 00:01:07,080 --> 00:01:13,480 believe it's 750-9759. We'll be looking at this passage 20 00:01:13,480 --> 00:01:16,520 together. And before we get started, let 21 00:01:16,520 --> 00:01:22,880 me pray. Father, you are the God who 22 00:01:22,880 --> 00:01:26,840 speaks words of life. So I pray, I beg you that you 23 00:01:26,840 --> 00:01:29,400 would speak to us today through your word. 24 00:01:29,400 --> 00:01:35,160 By your Spirit would you breathe life and strength into us for 25 00:01:35,160 --> 00:01:39,800 all that you were calling us to. I pray this in the powerful name 26 00:01:39,800 --> 00:01:41,400 of Jesus. Amen. 27 00:01:43,560 --> 00:01:46,840 Now, as many of you know, Rez, right now, we are engaged in a 28 00:01:46,840 --> 00:01:50,160 strategic planning process. Some of you might have allergic 29 00:01:50,160 --> 00:01:51,680 reactions to that. Some of you are like, yeah, 30 00:01:51,760 --> 00:01:55,720 finally we're doing it. We've, you know, we have new 31 00:01:55,720 --> 00:01:57,360 resources. We've been in this building for 32 00:01:57,360 --> 00:02:01,680 five years now. We are, we are experiencing 33 00:02:01,680 --> 00:02:03,560 growth. We're also experiencing sensing 34 00:02:03,560 --> 00:02:06,840 our limits as as a church and, and we're sensing the need to 35 00:02:06,840 --> 00:02:09,960 pick a direction to pick, pick what we're going to focus on, to 36 00:02:09,960 --> 00:02:11,880 make choices about what we do, what we don't do. 37 00:02:12,360 --> 00:02:16,280 And the goal of this plan is to set a direction for the church 38 00:02:16,440 --> 00:02:19,280 to answer the question, where are we going? 39 00:02:20,080 --> 00:02:22,400 Where are we going? That's the question we we want 40 00:02:22,400 --> 00:02:25,880 to answer. And the question that we as a 41 00:02:25,880 --> 00:02:29,320 church are striving to answer is also a relevant question for us 42 00:02:29,320 --> 00:02:34,800 as individuals, isn't it? Where are you going in your 43 00:02:34,800 --> 00:02:38,440 life? What is your personal mission in 44 00:02:38,440 --> 00:02:40,000 life? Now, for some of you, the answer 45 00:02:40,000 --> 00:02:43,800 to that is probably quite easy. You know exactly what you're 46 00:02:43,800 --> 00:02:47,120 striving to do, you know exactly how you're trying to do it, and 47 00:02:47,120 --> 00:02:49,480 you are moving toward it with decision and focus. 48 00:02:50,520 --> 00:02:55,000 For more of you, I suspect the answer is somewhat fuzzy. 49 00:02:55,200 --> 00:02:58,440 If you still have a kind of direction to it, you know, 50 00:02:58,440 --> 00:03:02,000 generally sort of the direction you're trying to go, you may not 51 00:03:02,000 --> 00:03:07,800 know exactly how different things fit into that, but you 52 00:03:07,800 --> 00:03:10,120 have a sort of general direction and trying to figure out some of 53 00:03:10,120 --> 00:03:12,000 the details. And, and for others of you, the 54 00:03:12,000 --> 00:03:15,320 answer is just not there. Is it? 55 00:03:16,040 --> 00:03:17,560 You don't know what you're doing. 56 00:03:17,560 --> 00:03:20,760 Maybe you just feel adrift, or maybe it's actually that the 57 00:03:20,760 --> 00:03:24,400 challenges and the impossibilities of this city 58 00:03:24,680 --> 00:03:30,080 have worn you down and left you feeling sort of stalled out and 59 00:03:30,080 --> 00:03:34,280 cynical. Where are you going? 60 00:03:34,720 --> 00:03:38,000 Where are we going? However you answer that 61 00:03:38,000 --> 00:03:40,720 question, however we as a church answer that question. 62 00:03:40,720 --> 00:03:45,160 Our gospel lesson this morning meets us with that question. 63 00:03:45,600 --> 00:03:49,720 It invites us to ask the question, but almost immediately 64 00:03:50,280 --> 00:03:55,560 it challenges the question itself and it pushes you to ask 65 00:03:55,560 --> 00:04:02,120 an even better question. I think the most memorable part 66 00:04:02,120 --> 00:04:06,160 of this passage perhaps is it it comes right in the middle where 67 00:04:06,160 --> 00:04:09,880 Jesus calls his first disciples. He calls Andrew and Peter, 68 00:04:10,120 --> 00:04:12,480 they're brothers, and then James and John to follow him. 69 00:04:12,640 --> 00:04:17,360 And he calls them to become fishers of men, fishers of men. 70 00:04:18,040 --> 00:04:21,959 This language about fishers of men is, it's such a, a great 71 00:04:21,959 --> 00:04:25,080 example of Jesus's rhetorical genius, isn't it? 72 00:04:25,080 --> 00:04:26,720 He's, he's talking to these fishermen. 73 00:04:26,720 --> 00:04:29,520 He takes a part of their life, a part of their work, and he and 74 00:04:29,520 --> 00:04:33,080 he turns it into this really rich and provocative metaphor to 75 00:04:33,080 --> 00:04:37,720 invite them into his ministry. It's powerful, it's provocative. 76 00:04:37,720 --> 00:04:41,400 It's something that we can sort of Mull over for a long time, 77 00:04:41,880 --> 00:04:44,240 right? What does it mean exactly to be 78 00:04:44,240 --> 00:04:49,880 a Fisher of men? How do we catch people for God's 79 00:04:49,880 --> 00:04:55,120 Kingdom now? It is so tempting for us to stop 80 00:04:55,120 --> 00:04:59,120 here and to consider this to be Jesus's call to us. 81 00:04:59,280 --> 00:05:04,160 Go out, go be a Fisher of men. Draw people into the Kingdom of 82 00:05:04,160 --> 00:05:10,000 God through word and deed. Proclaim the good news, win 83 00:05:10,000 --> 00:05:15,560 hearts, win lives to Christ. We can view this as our mission, 84 00:05:15,560 --> 00:05:17,880 right? As giving a kind of direction to 85 00:05:17,880 --> 00:05:19,560 our lives. This is the where we're going. 86 00:05:19,560 --> 00:05:22,120 And in a real sense, actually, that's true, right? 87 00:05:22,960 --> 00:05:26,120 That's exactly what he's inviting his new disciples to 88 00:05:26,120 --> 00:05:28,480 do. In my extension, he's inviting 89 00:05:28,800 --> 00:05:32,880 us to do that as well. But that's not where Jesus 90 00:05:32,880 --> 00:05:35,920 starts. He doesn't start with, guys, get 91 00:05:35,920 --> 00:05:37,680 your Nets ready, your metaphorical Nets. 92 00:05:38,720 --> 00:05:43,680 Let's go fishing. Jesus starts with something much 93 00:05:44,040 --> 00:05:48,640 simpler. Follow me, follow me. 94 00:05:48,920 --> 00:05:53,120 And here we see how Jesus is actually undercutting this 95 00:05:53,120 --> 00:05:56,640 question that we start with. We might ask ourselves, where am 96 00:05:56,640 --> 00:06:01,120 I going? But Jesus, he doesn't seek to 97 00:06:01,120 --> 00:06:05,800 align himself with the sort of pre-existing direction of Peter 98 00:06:05,800 --> 00:06:09,000 and Andrew and James and John. He's not looking for sort of 99 00:06:09,080 --> 00:06:12,360 synergy and shared goals. He's not looking to get aligned. 100 00:06:12,640 --> 00:06:16,400 That's sort of been the the trend word of our strategic 101 00:06:16,400 --> 00:06:17,880 planning process. We need to be aligned. 102 00:06:19,920 --> 00:06:21,520 Jesus isn't looking for alignment. 103 00:06:22,800 --> 00:06:25,400 He isn't asking where you're going and how can I join you on 104 00:06:25,400 --> 00:06:29,480 that mission. He says very simply, follow me. 105 00:06:31,440 --> 00:06:35,920 Come and see where I'm going, go where I go. 106 00:06:37,040 --> 00:06:43,720 Join me on my journey. Jesus wants us to be going 107 00:06:43,720 --> 00:06:49,440 somewhere, but he doesn't want us to ask where am I going? 108 00:06:50,120 --> 00:06:54,160 He wants us to ask where is he going. 109 00:06:55,400 --> 00:06:59,760 This is such a a difficult and important question. 110 00:06:59,760 --> 00:07:03,640 And the example of the disciples here is actually shows us both 111 00:07:03,640 --> 00:07:08,320 the challenges and the barriers that we can face when Christ 112 00:07:08,320 --> 00:07:13,200 calls us to follow him. When Jesus first encounters 113 00:07:13,200 --> 00:07:14,640 Peter and Andrew, what are they doing? 114 00:07:15,280 --> 00:07:19,720 They're working. Jesus calls them to follow him 115 00:07:20,160 --> 00:07:25,920 and they must leave behind their work in order to follow him. 116 00:07:28,320 --> 00:07:30,360 And it doesn't take a lot of self reflection to realize, 117 00:07:30,360 --> 00:07:33,880 right, that one of the great barriers to following Jesus can 118 00:07:33,880 --> 00:07:38,400 be our work. When we work, we are exercising 119 00:07:38,560 --> 00:07:47,560 our agency to shape our world. It can be really fun and as a 120 00:07:47,560 --> 00:07:54,000 result, work very easily can become a place of our primary 121 00:07:54,000 --> 00:08:00,200 allegiance. We feel tied to our jobs, and 122 00:08:00,200 --> 00:08:05,280 our work can start to organize not only our time, but our 123 00:08:05,400 --> 00:08:10,880 priorities. Our work can start to define us. 124 00:08:11,720 --> 00:08:15,400 And Jesus here is challenging exactly that approach to work. 125 00:08:15,400 --> 00:08:20,280 Following Jesus means that work does not control and define us. 126 00:08:20,520 --> 00:08:23,640 Jesus does. And when we submit to Jesus in 127 00:08:23,640 --> 00:08:27,400 this way, we are giving up control in a sense. 128 00:08:27,720 --> 00:08:30,440 It's scary. It's scary now and it was scary 129 00:08:30,440 --> 00:08:34,280 then. This doesn't mean stopping 130 00:08:34,280 --> 00:08:39,720 working, exactly, but it does mean refusing to let work set 131 00:08:39,720 --> 00:08:42,720 our priorities and define our value. 132 00:08:44,400 --> 00:08:49,560 And most pointedly, it means being willing to walk away from 133 00:08:49,560 --> 00:08:53,760 our work in order to follow Jesus faithfully. 134 00:08:56,440 --> 00:09:00,680 This is hard, but it's part of what it means to follow Jesus. 135 00:09:01,400 --> 00:09:03,880 Now, that's the first barrier that we can see here, and the 136 00:09:03,880 --> 00:09:07,280 second is perhaps even harder to reckon with in some ways. 137 00:09:08,280 --> 00:09:12,720 When Jesus encounters James and John, they are working just like 138 00:09:12,720 --> 00:09:15,840 Peter and Andrew, but they're working with their father. 139 00:09:16,440 --> 00:09:20,520 And Matthew sort of goes out of his way to note that they leave 140 00:09:20,640 --> 00:09:26,200 both their boat and their father in order to follow Jesus. 141 00:09:26,200 --> 00:09:31,760 They left their family. Now, in a sense, this is a cost 142 00:09:31,760 --> 00:09:35,040 that many of us don't feel. But in other parts of the world, 143 00:09:35,440 --> 00:09:39,240 our brothers and sisters in Christ can and do feel this 144 00:09:39,240 --> 00:09:43,520 acutely. Nabil Qureshi was a Christian 145 00:09:43,520 --> 00:09:47,600 evangelist apologist. He converted from Islam to 146 00:09:47,600 --> 00:09:52,160 Christianity while in college. And in his book Seeking Allah, 147 00:09:52,160 --> 00:09:54,920 Finding Jesus, it's a great book, he talks about the 148 00:09:54,920 --> 00:09:59,840 tremendous personal cost of leaving Islam in order to follow 149 00:09:59,840 --> 00:10:04,000 Christ. The result is, at best, strained 150 00:10:04,280 --> 00:10:09,280 relationships with your family. And he lived in America. 151 00:10:09,680 --> 00:10:11,880 In other parts of the world, Christian converts are 152 00:10:11,880 --> 00:10:15,600 completely ostracized and sometimes even killed for their 153 00:10:15,600 --> 00:10:22,320 faith by their families. Family is so important. 154 00:10:23,400 --> 00:10:26,680 Family should provide a place of peace and belonging. 155 00:10:28,080 --> 00:10:32,280 But following Jesus can sometimes mean that you lose 156 00:10:32,360 --> 00:10:36,800 even that now. For us as as Americans right 157 00:10:36,800 --> 00:10:41,640 now, that that might mean taking little stands that alienate us 158 00:10:42,240 --> 00:10:45,040 from the rest of our family. That maybe that means a level of 159 00:10:45,040 --> 00:10:49,040 generosity to the church that your family finds to be 160 00:10:49,040 --> 00:10:53,320 irresponsible. Maybe it means upsetting the 161 00:10:53,320 --> 00:10:57,720 peace at the dinner table by defending the dignity of certain 162 00:10:57,720 --> 00:11:04,880 people others want to vilify, or refusing to acquiesce to the 163 00:11:04,880 --> 00:11:08,880 demands of someone's personal identity that they want to 164 00:11:08,880 --> 00:11:12,560 impose. Maybe it means continuing to 165 00:11:12,560 --> 00:11:16,840 love and pursue your spouse even when all of your friends and 166 00:11:16,840 --> 00:11:19,440 your family tell you that there is no hope. 167 00:11:21,520 --> 00:11:25,880 In all of these ways, we are choosing to follow Jesus rather 168 00:11:25,880 --> 00:11:28,360 than bend to the demands of our family. 169 00:11:29,880 --> 00:11:33,920 And in this, we are willing to sacrifice the security and peace 170 00:11:33,920 --> 00:11:37,640 of our family in order to follow Jesus faithfully. 171 00:11:39,480 --> 00:11:42,400 Now, to be clear here, the disciples don't totally give up 172 00:11:42,400 --> 00:11:46,080 their families or their work. We know that it's important to 173 00:11:46,080 --> 00:11:48,360 see that these brothers came to Jesus together. 174 00:11:49,080 --> 00:11:52,680 They weren't following Jesus alone, and neither should we. 175 00:11:54,120 --> 00:11:56,960 They also continue to work. They sort of have a connection 176 00:11:56,960 --> 00:12:00,880 to their work. But work and family note are no 177 00:12:00,880 --> 00:12:03,920 longer the organizing and defining features of their 178 00:12:03,920 --> 00:12:07,280 lives. That was Jesus and following 179 00:12:07,280 --> 00:12:10,040 him. They gave up the control that 180 00:12:10,040 --> 00:12:14,200 they had over their lives in order to follow Jesus wherever 181 00:12:14,400 --> 00:12:18,440 he went. It can be so tempting when 182 00:12:18,440 --> 00:12:23,160 thinking about mission to jump over this part of following 183 00:12:23,200 --> 00:12:28,480 Jesus and to think only about the the fishing for men, which 184 00:12:28,480 --> 00:12:30,640 is very important. But my friends, there is no 185 00:12:30,640 --> 00:12:32,280 mission apart from following Jesus. 186 00:12:33,160 --> 00:12:38,720 We must go where he is going. And that's exactly what this 187 00:12:38,720 --> 00:12:44,000 passage presents to us here. It shows us where Jesus is 188 00:12:44,000 --> 00:12:46,080 going. I think it's so telling that 189 00:12:46,080 --> 00:12:48,760 this, this story of the calling of the disciples is actually 190 00:12:48,760 --> 00:12:52,480 framed by these descriptions of Jesus's ministry. 191 00:12:53,240 --> 00:12:56,760 The disciples are not the start of Jesus's ministry, as though 192 00:12:57,040 --> 00:12:59,120 Jesus somehow has to have them to get started. 193 00:12:59,480 --> 00:13:03,360 They're not the end of Jesus's ministry, as though everything 194 00:13:03,360 --> 00:13:05,280 sort of culminates in the disciples. 195 00:13:05,840 --> 00:13:06,720 They're right there in the middle. 196 00:13:06,720 --> 00:13:09,520 He's, he's calling them to join him on this mission, on this 197 00:13:09,520 --> 00:13:11,880 ministry, on this journey that he's already on. 198 00:13:13,360 --> 00:13:16,160 And the same is true for us. We must go where Jesus is 199 00:13:16,160 --> 00:13:18,800 already going. And what we see from the start 200 00:13:18,800 --> 00:13:22,640 of our passage is that Jesus is going into places of deep 201 00:13:22,640 --> 00:13:27,960 darkness in order to bring light and life to the lost and to the 202 00:13:27,960 --> 00:13:30,840 hurting. Now look with me at verse 12, if 203 00:13:30,840 --> 00:13:33,160 you would. We learn here that Jesus 204 00:13:33,160 --> 00:13:37,480 withdraws into Galilee and that implies that he's been down 205 00:13:37,480 --> 00:13:40,200 South in the region around Jerusalem, in Judea. 206 00:13:41,320 --> 00:13:45,200 Now he relocates into this northern area, we're told after 207 00:13:45,800 --> 00:13:50,640 after John has been arrested. And Matthew tells us that this 208 00:13:50,640 --> 00:13:55,200 move fulfills with the prophet Isaiah said about this northern 209 00:13:55,200 --> 00:13:58,040 area. This northern place, far from 210 00:13:58,040 --> 00:14:02,360 the center of Israel, is a place of darkness, but light is 211 00:14:02,360 --> 00:14:06,640 dawning there now. It wasn't just a place of 212 00:14:06,640 --> 00:14:08,760 darkness in Isaiah's time either, though. 213 00:14:08,760 --> 00:14:13,400 During Jesus time it was a place of mixed religion where people 214 00:14:13,400 --> 00:14:17,640 from different areas converged and brought their different 215 00:14:17,640 --> 00:14:19,520 faiths. There were some Jews Jesus is 216 00:14:19,520 --> 00:14:22,480 teaching in synagogues, but there were lots of other kinds 217 00:14:22,480 --> 00:14:25,560 of people as well. There were many Gentiles living 218 00:14:25,560 --> 00:14:28,840 in this area. This is the place that is far 219 00:14:28,840 --> 00:14:31,880 from the religious and the Cultural Center of Jerusalem. 220 00:14:32,440 --> 00:14:36,760 It's a place where many, many people are far from God, you 221 00:14:36,760 --> 00:14:39,320 could say both, both spiritually and physically. 222 00:14:40,320 --> 00:14:43,440 It's a place with connections to many other people who are far 223 00:14:43,440 --> 00:14:47,280 from God. And it's here and precisely here 224 00:14:47,920 --> 00:14:54,240 that Jesus starts his ministry. See Jerusalem and most 225 00:14:54,240 --> 00:14:58,720 specifically the temple, or the place where God's light was 226 00:14:58,720 --> 00:15:01,880 supposed to shine. It was where people went for 227 00:15:01,880 --> 00:15:04,240 healing, for forgiveness, for reconciliation. 228 00:15:04,240 --> 00:15:06,560 It's where they went to meet with God. 229 00:15:06,760 --> 00:15:08,040 That's what you did at the temple. 230 00:15:08,960 --> 00:15:13,520 But by starting his ministry outside of Jerusalem, in this 231 00:15:13,680 --> 00:15:19,320 mixed and diverse land of darkness, Jesus is demonstrating 232 00:15:19,680 --> 00:15:22,920 that he is in fact, the new temple. 233 00:15:24,040 --> 00:15:27,920 By bringing God's light to this far-flung place, Jesus is 234 00:15:27,920 --> 00:15:31,440 showing that he himself is God's light. 235 00:15:32,880 --> 00:15:37,480 Jesus is on a mission to bring light to dark places, and He 236 00:15:37,480 --> 00:15:39,360 does that by going there himself. 237 00:15:40,440 --> 00:15:45,640 This is where Jesus is going, and this last part of our 238 00:15:45,640 --> 00:15:49,240 passage from verses 23 on tells us how he does that. 239 00:15:50,120 --> 00:15:53,160 In verse 23, we learned that he's travelling around Galilee 240 00:15:53,160 --> 00:15:56,880 doing three things. He's teaching and proclaiming 241 00:15:57,120 --> 00:16:02,000 and healing. He's revealing the truth, He's 242 00:16:02,000 --> 00:16:05,840 calling people to believe the truth and he's transforming 243 00:16:05,840 --> 00:16:10,920 their lives in all these ways. He's bringing the light of God 244 00:16:10,920 --> 00:16:13,600 and he's bringing it to everybody there. 245 00:16:15,720 --> 00:16:17,560 He's bringing it to the marginalized, so those who like 246 00:16:17,560 --> 00:16:21,680 agency to the oppressed, and he's bringing it to both Jews 247 00:16:21,920 --> 00:16:25,520 and non Jews. Verse 24 is so striking to me. 248 00:16:26,320 --> 00:16:29,080 We learned there that his fame spread not through all of 249 00:16:29,080 --> 00:16:32,120 Israel, but through all of Syria. 250 00:16:33,720 --> 00:16:36,920 Syria was a much larger and it was a predominantly Gentile 251 00:16:37,280 --> 00:16:41,920 Roman province. And it was these Gentiles that 252 00:16:41,920 --> 00:16:47,480 brought their sick and lame and oppressed to Jesus, and Jesus 253 00:16:47,600 --> 00:16:52,680 healed them. Jesus is on a mission, and this 254 00:16:52,680 --> 00:16:56,080 mission is we're seeing here to everybody. 255 00:16:56,280 --> 00:17:00,160 Everybody needs to come to Jesus to find the light. 256 00:17:00,240 --> 00:17:05,319 Everybody can come to Jesus to receive his light. 257 00:17:07,880 --> 00:17:11,520 Now, by attending to this description of where Jesus is 258 00:17:11,520 --> 00:17:16,920 going, we start to get a picture of what it means to be a Fisher 259 00:17:17,119 --> 00:17:21,359 of men. By himself going into these 260 00:17:21,359 --> 00:17:25,680 places, Jesus is bringing light and life and hope and 261 00:17:25,680 --> 00:17:27,520 restoration to people who need it. 262 00:17:27,520 --> 00:17:32,360 And so for us to be fishers of men, we must do the same thing. 263 00:17:32,520 --> 00:17:36,880 We must bring people not to ourselves, but to Jesus, to the 264 00:17:36,880 --> 00:17:40,960 light itself. Only he has the light. 265 00:17:41,080 --> 00:17:46,040 Only he has the power. We must bring people to Jesus 266 00:17:48,160 --> 00:17:52,560 and the only way that we can do that is by following Jesus. 267 00:17:53,280 --> 00:17:56,520 Now look with me again at verse 19 and see how Jesus phrases 268 00:17:56,520 --> 00:17:59,440 this call. It's it's very careful what he's 269 00:17:59,440 --> 00:18:05,040 doing here and it's phrasing. He says follow me and I will 270 00:18:05,040 --> 00:18:11,600 make you fishers of men. Jesus doesn't actually command 271 00:18:11,600 --> 00:18:16,520 us to be fishers of men. That's not a command He commands 272 00:18:16,520 --> 00:18:21,400 us to follow. And then He promises that He 273 00:18:21,400 --> 00:18:24,880 will mold us to be able to reach people. 274 00:18:25,920 --> 00:18:28,360 Everything starts with following Jesus. 275 00:18:29,120 --> 00:18:31,560 We want to be a people on a mission, don't we? 276 00:18:31,560 --> 00:18:35,640 We want to be active. We want to change the world. 277 00:18:36,960 --> 00:18:40,560 Jesus, even in the next chapter, will say that we are the light 278 00:18:40,640 --> 00:18:42,680 of the world. Yes, Amen. 279 00:18:42,880 --> 00:18:48,960 But Jesus challenges us here to start by following Him, and that 280 00:18:48,960 --> 00:18:54,520 means knowing Him, spending time with Him, slowing down your life 281 00:18:54,520 --> 00:19:00,120 to walk with Him. And when you do that, He will 282 00:19:00,120 --> 00:19:03,960 shape you. He will mold your heart and your 283 00:19:03,960 --> 00:19:07,800 life to make you effective for the Kingdom. 284 00:19:08,520 --> 00:19:14,600 My friends, are you doing that? Are you spending time with Jesus 285 00:19:14,720 --> 00:19:19,760 daily, or are you just so active that you don't have time? 286 00:19:21,440 --> 00:19:23,800 Maybe you've thought about doing the Christian formation cohort 287 00:19:23,800 --> 00:19:25,760 that we're going to be doing during Lent, but then you 288 00:19:25,760 --> 00:19:27,960 figured, I don't really have time for that. 289 00:19:28,520 --> 00:19:31,600 It's too much. These disciplines are too much. 290 00:19:31,600 --> 00:19:36,200 Have you thought that are you so intent on fulfilling the mission 291 00:19:36,200 --> 00:19:41,560 in your life that there is no space to spend time with Jesus? 292 00:19:42,560 --> 00:19:45,040 Friends, we must be careful here. 293 00:19:46,400 --> 00:19:52,320 Walking with Jesus is essential if we are to be effective for 294 00:19:52,320 --> 00:19:54,720 His Kingdom. Whether in our homes, with our 295 00:19:54,720 --> 00:19:59,480 families, or at our work or in our neighborhoods, we must be 296 00:19:59,480 --> 00:20:04,160 spending time with Christ. We must actively be following 297 00:20:04,160 --> 00:20:08,400 Him. In a word, we must worship him 298 00:20:08,600 --> 00:20:13,920 every day. Call of action and personal 299 00:20:13,920 --> 00:20:17,600 mission can be so strong. Perhaps, in a sense, now more 300 00:20:17,600 --> 00:20:20,320 than ever. The events of the last week and 301 00:20:20,320 --> 00:20:23,160 even the last 24 hours in our country have been jarring. 302 00:20:23,320 --> 00:20:27,400 Regardless of your political stance, we live in a city that 303 00:20:27,400 --> 00:20:31,720 wants to act, and we are in a time that feels like it's just 304 00:20:31,720 --> 00:20:35,920 calling out for action. But before we act, we must 305 00:20:35,920 --> 00:20:41,160 remember our first call. Your first call is not to change 306 00:20:41,160 --> 00:20:44,560 the world. Your first call isn't to reach 307 00:20:44,560 --> 00:20:47,960 the World. Your first call, the call that 308 00:20:47,960 --> 00:20:52,680 must come before everything else, is to follow Jesus. 309 00:20:53,160 --> 00:20:58,960 It is to walk with Him, to get to know Him, to sit with him, to 310 00:20:58,960 --> 00:21:03,600 learn from him, to worship him. That's why we've been so 311 00:21:03,600 --> 00:21:05,040 insistent on having church today. 312 00:21:06,240 --> 00:21:10,440 There is nothing more important than spending time with Jesus, 313 00:21:10,440 --> 00:21:13,200 and worship is the primary way that we do that. 314 00:21:15,440 --> 00:21:21,240 In this worship, this following Jesus first sets the pattern and 315 00:21:21,240 --> 00:21:24,040 even the rhythm for the rest of our lives. 316 00:21:24,120 --> 00:21:29,160 Christians are to be active. We are to be on a mission to the 317 00:21:29,160 --> 00:21:33,560 world to proclaim Christ, but we are to be constantly returning 318 00:21:33,560 --> 00:21:38,320 back to the well of Christ, to be drinking deeply of his waters 319 00:21:39,440 --> 00:21:45,200 and to be refreshed. There's this pulsating quality 320 00:21:45,240 --> 00:21:48,080 you could even say to the Christian life, like the rhythm, 321 00:21:48,080 --> 00:21:49,800 almost like the rhythm of breathing. 322 00:21:50,880 --> 00:21:56,400 We inhale by coming to Christ, finding life and joy and hope in 323 00:21:56,400 --> 00:22:00,120 him. And then we exhale by going out 324 00:22:00,120 --> 00:22:02,920 into the world, calling people to him. 325 00:22:03,480 --> 00:22:09,320 Inhale, Exhale time with Jesus mission into the world. 326 00:22:09,800 --> 00:22:16,000 Inhale, Exhale Jesus mission. Jesus mission, my friends, if 327 00:22:16,000 --> 00:22:21,280 you stop inhaling, if you stop coming back to Jesus and 328 00:22:21,280 --> 00:22:28,040 following him, there is no exhaling, there is no mission. 329 00:22:29,920 --> 00:22:37,480 You stop breathing, you die. Let me close by inviting you to 330 00:22:37,480 --> 00:22:45,520 consider how this rhythm shapes us more and more deeply, and how 331 00:22:45,520 --> 00:22:49,360 it shapes our lives and and by extension, the people around us. 332 00:22:49,360 --> 00:22:52,600 What if we were shaped and defined primarily not by our 333 00:22:52,600 --> 00:22:57,160 work or our family or our tribe, but by Christ? 334 00:22:58,400 --> 00:23:01,800 What if Christ were the organizing and animating 335 00:23:01,800 --> 00:23:06,600 principle in our lives more and more and more, and the city were 336 00:23:06,600 --> 00:23:09,560 filled with Christians more and more who were constantly 337 00:23:09,560 --> 00:23:13,680 returning to Him to be refreshed and revived? 338 00:23:15,440 --> 00:23:18,960 Now this rhythm, it shapes us and shapes us in a particular 339 00:23:18,960 --> 00:23:23,320 way. It makes us both less anxious 340 00:23:24,360 --> 00:23:30,480 and more principled because we are following Jesus. 341 00:23:30,880 --> 00:23:34,920 We aren't overwhelmed by the latest outrage, no matter how 342 00:23:34,920 --> 00:23:39,400 outrageous it is. When we watch the headlines on 343 00:23:39,400 --> 00:23:42,000 the New York Times or The Washington Post, as many of us 344 00:23:42,000 --> 00:23:47,440 have been doing, we are driven to prayer, and most obviously, 345 00:23:47,440 --> 00:23:53,240 the prayer of the Psalms, not the explosive outrage that we 346 00:23:53,240 --> 00:24:00,040 see everywhere around us. We aren't swinging from cause to 347 00:24:00,040 --> 00:24:02,440 cause. Instead, we're marked by peace 348 00:24:03,120 --> 00:24:08,960 and grace and patience and frankly, level headedness, even 349 00:24:08,960 --> 00:24:12,440 when everything around us seems to be spinning out of control. 350 00:24:12,720 --> 00:24:18,920 We grieve injustice. We must grieve injustice without 351 00:24:18,920 --> 00:24:23,480 being devastated by it. Because no matter what is 352 00:24:23,480 --> 00:24:30,800 happening, King Jesus is still on his throne and we are still 353 00:24:30,920 --> 00:24:37,960 following him. So we aren't overwhelmed, we can 354 00:24:37,960 --> 00:24:41,360 be less anxious, but at the same time, we are principled and even 355 00:24:41,360 --> 00:24:46,680 more principled. We don't have to hold on to jobs 356 00:24:46,720 --> 00:24:50,280 that violate what Christ calls us to or that compromise our 357 00:24:50,280 --> 00:24:53,480 mission. We are able to stand up and say 358 00:24:53,480 --> 00:24:56,680 with a resolute calmness, this is wrong. 359 00:24:57,760 --> 00:25:01,000 Even if it means that we lose friends, connections, or 360 00:25:01,000 --> 00:25:04,960 opportunities. We work diligently at our work 361 00:25:04,960 --> 00:25:06,440 so long as the Lord has us do it. 362 00:25:06,440 --> 00:25:10,440 But knowing that the Lord calls us not to follow our work 363 00:25:11,040 --> 00:25:15,120 wherever it leads, He called us to follow His Son. 364 00:25:16,600 --> 00:25:21,240 We can hold on to our networks, our friends, our family, and the 365 00:25:21,240 --> 00:25:25,680 city more loosely, precisely because we are holding on to 366 00:25:25,680 --> 00:25:31,560 Christ more tightly. My friends, just imagine. 367 00:25:32,240 --> 00:25:35,640 Just imagine what would happen if our city and our country were 368 00:25:35,640 --> 00:25:38,960 filled with more and more people like this. 369 00:25:40,120 --> 00:25:46,360 Principled and yet patient, calm and yet certain of what is true 370 00:25:46,360 --> 00:25:51,800 and good, level headed while simultaneously longing for 371 00:25:51,800 --> 00:25:55,960 justice to run down like water. Imagine how our rhetoric would 372 00:25:55,960 --> 00:25:58,360 change. Imagine how our policies would 373 00:25:58,360 --> 00:26:01,000 change. Imagine how neighborhoods and 374 00:26:01,000 --> 00:26:04,680 workplaces and our families and our homes would change. 375 00:26:06,000 --> 00:26:10,440 My friends, this is what can happen when people follow Jesus. 376 00:26:11,280 --> 00:26:16,360 Jesus has been transforming lives for 2000 years and he's 377 00:26:16,360 --> 00:26:19,840 calling every single one of you to go out and to help reach 378 00:26:19,840 --> 00:26:22,680 people for him. But my friends, we cannot offer 379 00:26:22,680 --> 00:26:27,600 what we do not have. We must remember our first 380 00:26:27,880 --> 00:26:32,760 calling. We must follow Christ ourselves 381 00:26:33,000 --> 00:26:36,240 first. My friends, let's be a people 382 00:26:36,240 --> 00:26:39,320 who do that. In the name of the Father and 383 00:26:39,320 --> 00:26:41,160 the Son and the Holy Spirit, Amen.