Today's Scripture reading is from the book of Matthew, chapter 4, verses 12 to 25, and may be found on page 958, and the Bible underneath the seed in front of you. Matthew, Matthew 4, 12 to 25. When Jesus heard that John had been put in prison, he returned to Galilee. Leaving Nazareth, he went and lived in Capernaum, which was by the lake in the area of Zebulin and Natali, to fulfill what was said through the prophet Isaiah. Land of Zebulin and land of Natali, the way to the sea, along the Jordan, Galilee of the Gentiles, the people living in darkness have seen a great light, and those living in the land of the shadow of death, a light has dawned. From that time on, Jesus began to preach, repent, for the kingdom of heaven is near. As Jesus was walking beside the sea of Galilee, he saw two brothers, Simon, called Peter, and his brother Andrew. They were casting a net into the lake for they were fishermen. Come, follow me, Jesus said, and I'll make you fishers of men. At once, they left their nets and followed him. Going on from there, he sought two other brothers, James, son of Zebedee, and his brother John. They were in a boat with their father Zebedee preparing their nets. Jesus called them, and immediately they left their boat and their father and followed him. Jesus went throughout Galilee, teaching in their synagogues, preaching the good news of the kingdom, and healing every disease and sickness among the people. News about him spread all over Syria, and people brought to him all who were ill with various diseases, those suffering, severe pain, the demon possessed, those having seizures and the paralyzed, and he healed them. Large crowds from Galilee, the decapolis, Jerusalem, Judea, and the region across the Jordan followed him. This is the word of the Lord. Life is a mission trip. That's an idea that I've been having in my head ever since coming back from Mexico. A number of you were with me and we together went to Mexico to a little village called Kintana in the Yucatan Peninsula back in July and August. And as we were in that village, one of the things that really struck me was, hey, this ought to be the way Christians live every day. Whenever we were around in that little village, we were walking around, we were walking down the streets, we were dealing with the children at VBS, we were doing crafts with the kids, we were working with the villagers all the time. We were thinking, how can I be a blessing to these people? Our eyes and our ears were open, wide open, to opportunities that came our way. We were ready at the drop of a hat to minister to someone who just happened by. I mean, that's what you do on a mission trip, right? You're always available, you're always giving yourself to people, you're serving people, you are blessing to people. But the idea really hit home for me that this is the way every Christian is supposed to live all the time. Life is a mission trip. We're going to be beginning today a series of studies out of the book of Matthew that I've entitled Get Out, Living Missionally, Every Day. And my goal, our goal through this study, is going to be to see what living missionally really looks like, practically speaking in our lives. Right where we are, who we are, we can live missionally. Now, if I'm using a term that's a little bit new for you, let me just make sure you know that I'm not talking about missions as in foreign missions. Yes, God might indeed call some of you, I hope you will, to full-time vocational foreign missionary service. But that's not really what we're talking about when we say to live missionally. To live missionally does not require that you leave America and go live in a foreign country. Rather, I'm talking about living missionally today and every day in the places that God has already placed us. I'm talking about having our eyes and our ears, our hearts and our hands always open, always attentive, ready for finding ways to reach out and bless non-Christian people. So what we're going to do is study the book of Matthew together. And I want us to look at the life of Jesus from perhaps a little different angle than you usually do. I want us to observe how Jesus did mission. I want us to learn how He related to people, the way He used opportunities, the attitudes that He had as He approached the people that He met. And my goal being, as I said, to get us serious about living missionally every single day. It makes sense that we start our journey right here in Matthew chapter 4. It's the beginning of Jesus' earthly ministry. You'll notice that this passage has Jesus calling his first disciples. Peter, his brother Andrew, James and his brother John. So we're going to talk about calling and the way that Jesus called these men to follow after Him. Four things I want to bring to your attention this morning on this call. First, that it is universal. Second, it's radical. Third, it's practical. And fourth and finally, it's doable. So that's where I want us to go. Let's begin with the first point being that the call to follow Jesus is universal. Notice in verse 19 that you just heard, Jesus speaking to Peter and Andrew. He says to them, come follow me and I will make you fishers of men. And then down in verse 21, Jesus sees these other two brothers, James, the son of Zebedee and his brother John. He says they were, they were in a boat with their father Zebedee preparing their nets. And Jesus called them. Now, please underline or highlight that word called. That's our subject this morning. It's the Greek word collet, which sounds like called. And it means that Jesus gave them a summons. He called them to Himself. And I'll have more to say about that in a little while. Now, you can think about calling in maybe two different ways. First, there is that individual call or that specific call that God gives to people regarding their vocation. In other words, God calls some people to be husbands and wives, fathers and mothers. He calls people to be teachers and dentists and philosophers and politicians and engineers and construction workers and so on. That is that individual specific call that God gives us in terms of our vocation. And what we spend our time doing in order to make a living in order to make this world a better place and so on. It's my specific calling in life. My calling is to be a pastor. So what is yours? But that's not what we're talking about this morning. Rather, we're talking about the more general call that God gives to everybody. In other words, Jesus is called to Peter and Andrew and James and John and his other disciples was a general summons to every Christian to follow Him and to become fishers of people. See, Jesus wasn't just recruiting a few brave souls to turn the world upside down. He wasn't looking for the few, the proud, the marine kind of Christian, if there even is such a thing. No, Jesus calls all of us individually and collectively to live life like it's a mission trip. You remember what he said to Abraham back in Genesis 12? He said Abraham, I will make you a blessing to other people. I will bless you. I will make your name great and you will be a blessing to all peoples on earth. Now God blessed Abraham in order to be a blessing. If you are a believer in Jesus, the Bible says that you are a child of Abraham. You are a descendant of Abraham and God is still speaking that same thing to you. He is saying I will bless you that you might be a blessing to other people. And you see that unfolded throughout the rest of the Bible. That this universal call to bless us that we might bless others applies at all times in all locations. In Matthew chapter 5, for example, Jesus calls you and me the salt of the earth and the light of the world. In Matthew 28, he says for us to go and to make disciples of all nations. In 2 Corinthians 5, he speaks to us as Christ's ambassadors representing him here on earth. In John 20 verse 21, Jesus says as the Father has sent me, so I am sending you. Do you get the picture? There is this universal call that applies to all of us and it is the call to follow Jesus and to make fishers of human beings. To be a blessing to other people around us. The church you see is not just a building where people go to get spiritual food. The church is not a vendor of spiritual services where you pay certain people to do for you what you need spiritually. No, the church is a group of people who partner with Jesus in his redemptive mission in this world. I'll say it again, the church is a group of people who partner with Jesus in his redemptive mission here on this earth. That's why we're here. So the call to follow Jesus is first universal. Secondly, it's radical. And the call to follow Jesus is radical in at least two ways. It's radical because it's uncompromising and it's radical because it's often uncomfortable. First, let's talk about how it's uncompromising. Did you notice the response of the disciples in verses 20 and 22? Right after Jesus says to Peter and his brother Andrew, he says, follow me and I'll make you fishers of men. Verse 20 says at once, they left their nets and followed him. And after he says to James and John, come after me and I'll make you fishers of men in verse 22. It says immediately they left the boat and their father and followed him. Now you might be asking the question, does this mean that the call to follow Jesus requires me to forget about my responsibilities, to uproot, to leave my job, to forget about my family, of course not. God wants us to be responsible. He wants us to be loyal to our families. He might call you to leave your job and do another one, but your job might actually be part of your living missionally. You see, so no, it is not that that we're learning here. What it means is that you've got to be willing to leave your nets. What are your nets? What are the things that you rely on to bring security into your life? What are the things that you're trusting in that make you feel fulfilled, that give you sense of purpose? Is it something besides God's love for you? You'll be willing to leave your nets and put it all on him, trusting entirely in him, being willing to say, Lord your kingdom is my number one priority. I'm willing to go where you say go because I'm not trusting in my nets. I'm trusting in you. What it means practically is that every day when you wake up and on your way to work or school or when you're around the neighborhood or in your home, the prayer that's upon your lips is, here I am, Lord. Send me. Use me, Lord. I give you my time, my skills, my money, my resources. I give you my ambitions, my hopes and dreams. I give you my work, my eyes, my ears, my studies, my agenda. And, Lord, I ask you to use me for your glory. I'm at your disposal. Now, I know we all would say, right on. That sounds exactly right. That's exactly what we should do. But do you realize that many of us, we might know that up here, but we don't really live that way? George Barna did a study one time. He went around asking, born again Christians, people who said, I am a born again Christian. And one of the questions he asked them was to identify their spiritual goals. Only 10% said that one of their spiritual goals was to serve other people or have a personal ministry. Crazy. And then he asked them, again, born again Christians, what is the single most important thing you'd like to accomplish in your life? Only 7% said making a difference, helping other people. Twice as many, 14% of the people he asked said financial security, comfort, and retirement funds. If Jesus Christ were to come up to you today and say, come follow me, what would you say to him? Because he is saying that to you through his word in the lips of Jesus. Is Jesus and his cause your number one priority? Dietrich Bonhoeffer put it this way, when Christ calls a man, he bids him come and die. He bids him come and die. Leave your nets and follow him. So the radical call, it's radical because it's uncompromising. Secondly, the call to follow Jesus is often uncomfortable. Did you notice the groups of people to whom Jesus came that are listed in this passage of scripture? In verses 12 and 13, it says that when Jesus heard that John had been put in prison, he returned to Galilee. Leaving Nazareth, he went and lived in Capernaum, which is by the lake in the area of Zebulin and Naphtali. I don't know how long it's been since you've studied Bible geography. But what this is talking about is the northern part of what we call the Holy Land. Now down in the south was Jerusalem and Judea and Bethlehem where Jesus was born. Down in the south was the epicenter of Jewish religious life. Down in the south were the big cities. But Jesus lived for the most part during his three-year ministry and worked in Galilee. 200 different small little villages and towns, no big cities. And notice down in verse 15 what Galilee is called, Galilee of the, what, Gentiles. Galileeans were regarded by Jewish people as irreligious and as uncultured folk. Yet this is the place Jesus chose as his base of operations. That's where he spent most of his three-year ministry. Verses 23 and 24 say that Jesus went throughout Galilee, teaching in their synagogues, preaching the good news, healing every disease. News about him spread all over Syria and noticed this. People brought to him all who were ill with various diseases, those suffering severe pain, the demon possessed, the seizures, the paralyzed, and he healed them. Guys, these are not nice places. Jesus did the unexpected. He came not for the healthy but the sick. He came for the irreligious, the unhealthy, the aberrant, the broken, the poor, the hurting. Jesus came for the outcast, for the unimportant, for the addicts, for the unloved and the unlovely. Those were the objects of Jesus' affection. It's not comfortable to go to people like that, or to pray for them, or to relate to them, or to befriend them. But Jesus said that if you don't love them, you don't love him. So I'm going to ask you this question. Who are your Gentiles? Who are your uncultured, irreligious people? Who are the people that you find hard to accept, hard to love, hard to forgive? They may be on your street. Don't be surprised when God brings those people your way and asks you to love them. That's part of living missionally because Christ's call to follow Him is radical. It's uncompromising and it's often very uncomfortable. But the third thing I want us to learn is that the call to follow Jesus is practical. Now here's the good news. If you've been a little put off so far, be encouraged because this call is practical. Notice that Jesus' ministry consisted of three things there in verse 23. It consisted of teaching in their synagogues, preaching the good news, and healing every disease and sickness. In other words, Jesus' mission consisted of verbal witness and social witness. He ministered to the soul and to the body of human beings, and that's still the way it works. Some of you are better at one or the other. Maybe you're lousy at social witness, but you can really share with people from your heart. Maybe you can't speak a word and you don't know what to say given the opportunity, but you're good at doing things for people. Whatever it is, do it, whether it be sharing Christ by word or by deed, share Christ, and do it in the name of Christ. I came across a great list of eight practical ways to live missionally. You might want to jot these down. Look at these eight things. The first one is to share meals with non-Christians. Invite your neighbors into your home. Practice some hospitality with a non-Christian. Instead of going to lunch by yourself, go to lunch with a coworker. Secondly, walk and don't drive. Can you see why that would be a missional thing to do? Because you don't know who you might run into and strike up a conversation as you're walking. Thirdly, be a regular. Be a regular. Go to the same coffee shop and talk to the same wait staff and talk to the same cash register person at publics. And go to the same gas station and meet the same man who works behind the cash register. See, be a regular. What you're doing is you're building relationships. Thirdly, hobby with non-Christians. Do your hobby with non-Christians. Get to know the person next to you in that cycling class. Participate in a league sport. Join a book club or form a play group with other moms in your subdivision. Number five, talk with your non-Christian co-workers and fellow students. Show some interest in them. Pick out a few of them and pray for them every day. Number six, volunteer with non-profits. Maybe join up with building a habitat for humanity house. Talk with your life group about finding a way to serve your city. Number seven, participate in city or county events. Go to that festival. Go to that farmer's market. Hang out. Observe your culture. Learn about what makes them tick. Strike up a conversation. And finally, number eight, serve your neighbors. Dog sit for your next door neighbor. Mo, his or her yard. See if your HOA needs help with something. You see your neighbor out working on his car. Go see if you can help out or just be an ignorant bystander. See, here's the point. Mother Teresa said it well when she said, I am a little pencil in the hand of a God who is writing a love letter to the world. You can be a pencil and so can I. So let's be pencils in the hand of God. Let's break out of the Christian subculture and bless the non-Christians who live and work around us. Well, the last thing I want to tell you is that the call to follow Jesus is not only universal and radical and practical, but it's doable. This is not rocket science. God's not asking you to do the impossible. This is doable. Look at verse 19. Notice what Jesus says. It's easy to overlook this. In verse 19, he says, come follow me. That's different. See, Jesus is calling you to himself, not to a task. He's calling you into relationship with him. And then he adds this promise, I'll make you a fissure of people. I'll shape you and mold you. I'll cut out. I'll rough off your rough edges. I'll tweak you. I'll help you. I'll be with you as you go out into this world. Your job is to follow him. Spend time with him, talk with him, obey him. You know, if I'm going to follow somebody, I want to know that he's reliable, don't you? I'm not going to follow someone who's irresponsible, who is not dependable. Well, look at verse 22 again. Speaking of James and John, it says that they left the boat and their father and followed him. And I don't know. I just noticed this. I noticed that they left their father and followed Jesus because Jesus first left his father and came to them. They could abandon everything they knew for Jesus because Jesus abandoned everything he knew for them. He did that on the cross. He gave his life that you might give your life for others. We can follow a Savior like that. Let's pray. I want to ask you what your nets are. Just think about that for a moment. What are your nets? What are you hanging on to instead of leaving them to follow Jesus? What's the security blanket you're holding on to instead of saying, here I am, Lord, send me. Use me. I'm ready to go. What are your fears when you go to work tomorrow? Who is that person that you really don't like? That you resist being a friend to? What is that part of Orlando that you will have none of? Because it's Gentile territory. Father, would you help us to live missionally? Help us to respond to this universal radical call to follow Christ in the mission? Please give us eyes to look around and see people differently. Father, you're going to need to start with me. I'm so full of fears and apprehensions. I can talk a great talk but you know that when the rubber hits the road, I don't want to go talk to my next door neighbors.
Father, help us to practically serve non-Christians in the name of Jesus. And thank you that we can do this in the authoritative name of Christ through the power of your spirit. Lord, here are our nets. Here they are. In Jesus name we pray. Amen.