Jesus’ Call to Follow Him

[00:00:00] Let's go to the book of Matthew, chapter four. [00:00:07] We're going to pick up where we left off before our soul refresh meeting in the book of Matthew, chapter four. Last time we were in Matthew, we were looking at the temptation of Christ. [00:00:20] And so we'll pick up right after that in the text. [00:00:25] Matthew, chapter four. [00:00:29] And I would like to read verses twelve through verse number 22. Verse twelve through verse 22. [00:00:39] The Bible says this. Now, when Jesus had heard that John was cast into prison, he departed into Galilee. And just so you know, the place where John was baptizing was near the river Jordan. And of course, the river Jordan spans from the sea of Galilee down to the dead Sea, which is the area of Judea. And so when Jesus was at the place where John was, and apparently he tarried there for some time. Of course, as you know, the chronology of where Jesus is at every point in time is not exactly clear based upon the four gospels. But I think it's evident that he was there with John for some time due to everything we've seen about John and his ministry there. But he leaves that area and he goes into Galilee. Of course, the Lord grew up in Galilee in Nazareth, verse number 13 says. And leaving Nazareth, he came and dwelt in Capernaum, which is upon the sea coast and in the borders of Zabulon and Nephtalem, that it might be fulfilled, which was spoken by Esaias, the prophet, saying, the land of Zabulon and the land of Nephtalem by the way of the sea beyond Jordan, Galilee of the Gentiles, the people which sat in darkness saw great light, and to them which sat in the region in shadow of death, light is sprung up. Now, that's interesting. We will not spend a lot of time here, but it's interesting that this is an Old Testament reference from Isaiah, chapter nine, verses one and two. And this area in the north of Israel, which was originally settled by Joshua with the tribes of Zebulun and Naphtali, were near the sea of Galilee in the northern part. But over time, they started to integrate with the other peoples of the land. And so that's why it's called Galilee of the Gentiles. That is not a term of endearment, okay? To say the least, that was an insult to think that there would be gentile dogs mixed in with the people of Israel. And this is from the Old Testament, an old testament prophecy. [00:02:57] And furthermore, in verse 16, it describes those people as opposed, of course, to those down in the southern part of Judea who were considered to be enlightened. They had the law of God. They were pure seed, right? But the people of Galilee are not even in the prophecy, but especially now at this time in history, they are not considered to be a pure seed. And they're far from the religious purity, if you could say it like that, of those down in Judea. [00:03:30] And this is where our lord came from. [00:03:35] You think that was by chance that he. We already saw. He's from Nazareth and that was not a good thing, right, by how people considered it. And he came from a place and grew up in a place that was dark, where the light was not found prophetically and literally. And this is where our lord came from. And with that reality. Okay, let me ask you, and you'll understand this immediately, we have a lot of people from the north in our church. A lot of it didn't used to be like that, but Brother Stewart brought them all. [00:04:10] He did. [00:04:12] He did. [00:04:14] That's true. Sides of the north. [00:04:16] I mean, you got the Harrises, they're from the north. The marks. Miss Judy from Illinois. Ugh. Man. Huh? [00:04:27] Brother Ari lived up north, you know. [00:04:32] All right, raise your hand if you were not raised in the south. [00:04:35] Okay. I mean, that's like, that's like probably a slight majority in here. Okay, so how many of you understand, and I'm a child of the south, right? I'm a child. You could tell by the way I talk. But how many of you have perceived and picked up on the fact that southerners with our accent and draw are considered by the larger world to be kind of ignorant? How many of you have picked up on this reality? I'm not going to ask how many of you believe this reality, but, okay, I have picked up on it. You know. You know, when you think of when George Bush, he was from Texas, right? George W. Bush, he had the southern draw and he was just mercilessly criticized. And, I mean, he graduated from Harvard and yet the accent just. He was, he was an ignoramus. That's just the way, you know, the way it goes. [00:05:23] Misunderest. That's good. That's good. [00:05:26] So now think of that times ten. [00:05:34] Remember at the, after the arrest of Jesus, you know, one of the people, because Peter, as we'll see, Peter was from Galilee as well. And one of the little ladies that was there in the middle of the night recognized Peter's accent and said, ah, you were with Jesus. Because your accent. [00:05:54] I can hear it. I can hear the draw. You know, Jesus had an accent, right? [00:06:02] He was from a place where immediately they knew he's from Galilee, and that was not a good thing when it comes to, you know, people judging him immediately. That was our lord. So you see, I mean, spiritually, but even physically and literally, he was a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief. He was a man of low esteem. Right? And you see that in this prophecy, he came from a place that was not a place of light down in Judea, in Jerusalem, but a place is called a place of darkness in the. [00:06:35] In prophecy, verse 17. From that time, Jesus began to preach and to say, repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand. Just as a note, how many of you remember this? It hasn't been long since we heard this the first time. And who was preaching it? John the Baptist. Jesus literally takes the very same message of John and begins preaching it. Because John's in prison, right? [00:07:01] They had one message. One message. The message of the kingdom. Now, the nature of that kingdom is going to be a big subject of debate, but the Lord is preaching the same message as John is. Now go to verse 18. This is where we want to look today. And Jesus, walking by the sea of Galilee, saw two brethren, Simon called Peter and Andrew his brother, casting a net into the sea, for they were fishers. [00:07:30] And he saith unto them, follow me, and I will make you fishers of men. [00:07:36] And they straightway left their nets and followed him. [00:07:40] And going on from thence, he saw two other two brethren, James, the son of Zebedee, and John, his brother, in a ship with Zebedee, their father, mending their nets. And he called them, and they immediately left the ship and their father and followed him. [00:07:57] Let's pray together. Thank you, lord, for your word. Thank you for lord being in your humility, arising out of a place of darkness. Thank you, lord, that you identify with us. [00:08:13] Lord, thank you for being our light. [00:08:16] And as we look at your word today, I pray that the light of your word would shine in our hearts, and you would give each person here an understanding of what your word says. And, lord, you have the ability to apply it to each one of us individually. [00:08:34] And I pray that you would do that, and that your will would be done. And, lord, that your people, and even those among us that might not be your people, would respond to what you have said. In Jesus name we ask. Amen. [00:08:50] Let's go back to John, chapter one, if you would, and we will return to Matthew four in just a minute. [00:08:57] John, chapter one. [00:09:02] Just now we read the call of Peter and Andrew and James and John, two sets of brothers. [00:09:11] But that was not their first interaction with Jesus. [00:09:16] Remember, when you read the Gospels, you're not getting the whole picture on purpose, right? You're not getting, this is not a, the gospels are not a historical, a detailed historical account of every matter that happened to Christ in chronological order. That is not what it is. The gospels have a purpose outside of the historical part. That's kind of secondary, although it is true. [00:09:38] So as you read Matthew, you get the impression that perhaps this was their first interaction. Jesus is walking by the sea in Capernaum, and he sees these guys casting a net into the sea. He sees these guys in a ship with their father fishing, and he sees them and he says, hey, there's two guys follow me. And they just, like, drop everything and leave. But that is not the first interaction. So I want to look at that and kind of see the context a little bit. John, chapter one. Look at verse number 29 in the context of this is when Jesus is revealed to John the Baptist. This is where they're baptizing. Okay. [00:10:15] John 129 says, and the next day. The next day, John seeth Jesus coming unto him and saith, behold the lamb of God, which taketh away the sin of the world. [00:10:24] This is he of whom I said after me that cometh a man, which is preferred before me, for he was before me. [00:10:33] And then verse 34, I'm just skipping down for time, and I saw John says, and bear record that this is the son of goddesse. This is why John the apostle John wrote the book of John, to reveal Jesus as the son of God. Verse 35. Now follow this closely again the next day. All right, pause. Follow it. So it's Monday. [00:11:00] It's Monday. Jesus is going. Is around John. He's in the vicinity, right? Maybe. He's probably, he's probably already been baptized, but he's hanging around. That's what we see. He's hanging around John and John's ministry because there's people there, and he is for what John is doing. And so he's hanging around with John, and he's listening and watching and observing what John is doing. And John sees him, and John says, behold the lamb of God. And it's Monday. And other people hear John say that, most specifically, John's own disciples, because John had disciples as well. [00:11:32] So now it's Tuesday, the next day, after John stood and two of his disciples, and looking upon Jesus as he walked, saith, behold the lamb of God. [00:11:46] And the two disciples heard him speak and they followed Jesus. All right, so because of John's testimony of Jesus, these two men, they leave following John and now begin following Jesus. Man, I bet John is happy because he said he must increase, but I must decrease. John is excited because people are following the Lord Jesus. [00:12:09] Is that not what we want? We talked about evangelism this morning, right? Brother Jim, he goes and does prison ministry and street ministry, and he does a lot of ministry like that. Brother Jim, you don't want them to follow you, right? You want them to maybe listen to you, but ultimately follow the Lord Jesus Christ. And that's kind of what we want. [00:12:29] I don't want people just to follow me around. [00:12:33] So they leave, these two disciples of John. Leave John, begin to follow Jesus, verse 37. Then you get to verse 38. Then Jesus turned and saw them following and saith unto them, what seek ye? In other words, in our language, you would say, can I help you? What are you looking for? [00:12:50] And they said unto him, rabbi, which is to say, being interpreted, master, where dwellest thou? He saith unto them, come and see. We should never be hesitant to allow people into our inner life and our inner circle. Our Lord was not. [00:13:08] Our Lord was not. You know, that's. I'm going to take a shot here. That's one aspect of southern culture, christian culture, that is not good. This facade in front, this spiritual front that we put up, right. That we gotta. You know, but when somebody comes over, we panic, and everything's gotta be just so. Cause we gotta present the face. Well, our Lord's like, come and see. [00:13:35] He didn't go home and vacuum. He didn't go home and clean. He didn't put away all the stuff. He's not supposed to be out, not supposed to be, you know, visible to people. No, no, no. Come and see. [00:13:45] So they followed him right to where he was staying. Verse 39. They came and saw where he dwelt and abode with him that day. They stayed at his house, for it was about the 10th hour. [00:13:57] Now follow verse 41 of the two which heard John speak. So remember, there's two disciples that were disciples of John and are now following Jesus because of what John said, the lamb of God. Okay, everybody still with me? I'm not losing, am I? [00:14:15] One of the two which heard John speak and followed him? Washington. Who? [00:14:21] Andrew? [00:14:23] Now you see the connection. [00:14:26] Andrew is related to another guy who's pretty important, I would say, in the Bible, right? Which is Peter. He's Peter's brother. [00:14:35] One of the two here is Andrew, Peter's brother. Notice they already know Jesus, right? This is not in Galilee yet. This is by Jordan and notice what it says here. One of the two which heard John speak and followed him was Andrew, Simon, Peter's brother. He first findeth his own brother, Simon, that's Peter, and saith unto him, we have found the messiah. So at this point, Peter has never heard of Jesus, right. And Andrew is introducing him to Jesus. [00:15:08] The principal, the people closest to us are the ones that we should make a priority to introduce them to Jesus first. It'll also be the most difficult ones that you introduce to Jesus as well, which is being interpreted. The Christ. Verse 42. And he brought him to Jesus. Amen. [00:15:29] And when Jesus beheld him, he said, thou art Simon, the son of Jonah. Thou shalt be called Cephas, which is, by interpretation, a stone. [00:15:39] All of this happens by Jordan. [00:15:42] They're not in Galilee. Remember, Andrew and Peter are from Galilee, which is way up north. [00:15:48] But at this point, they're following John. They went to get baptized by John. They heard John say, this is the lamb of God, which taketh away the sin of the world. [00:15:58] And they have believed in Christ because of the message of John. Everybody with me? [00:16:05] So when we get to Matthew four, they're up in Galilee. [00:16:09] They're fishing at the sea of Galilee. They already know Jesus. [00:16:14] This is not their first interaction. See, the interaction in John is like the verse says, behold the lamb of God, which taketh away the sin of the world. The interaction in John is when they first are introduced to the Lord Jesus Christ, they recognize who he is. He is the lamb of God, which taketh away the sin of the world. And for certain, all of the gospel had not been yet revealed. But what they had and what they understood about Jesus and who he was and what he would do was understood, and they believed it. So you might say the interaction in John chapter one is the interaction whereby a person comes to trust in Jesus Christ for the remission of their sins, for the forgiveness of their sins. And every one of us, every one of us has to be brought to Jesus in this way. That's what's happening in John, chapter one. And it has nothing to do with the water of baptism of John. It has to do with the message, behold the lamb of God, which taketh away the sin of the world. Prove that. Well, how do you know? How do you know? Because we've already studied the baptism of John. It was a baptism of repentance in preparation. [00:17:16] But when Jesus shows up, well, now it's time to believe on the Lord Jesus Christ. [00:17:22] Now go back to Matthew, chapter four, if you would. [00:17:34] Matthew, chapter four. Now, that then hopefully kind of resets the context when we read this passage, does it not? Verse 18. [00:17:45] And Jesus walking by the sea of Galilee saw two brethren, Simon called Peter, and Andrew, his brother, casting a net into the sea. For they were fishers. Did Jesus know them? I don't mean in the omniscience, but he knew them personally. He knew Peter. They stayed at his house. He knew who they were. Did they know this man walking by the sea of Galilee? [00:18:09] Yes, they knew him. They believed in him. At this point, they already have trusted in Jesus. [00:18:17] They are now disciples of Christ. Everybody with me. [00:18:23] Verse 19. He saith unto them, follow me, and I will make you fishers of men. [00:18:31] And they straightway left their nets and followed him. And going on from thence, he saw other two brethren, James, the son of Zebedee, and John, his brother, in a ship with Zebedee, their father, mending their nets. And he called them. And they immediately left the ship and their father and followed him. So this call is not the call of salvation. [00:18:55] This is a different call. You see it? The call of salvation has been done. [00:19:01] Back when they were at Jordan with the Lord and with John, they heard about Jesus. Peter. Andrew introduced Peter to Jesus. They believed in Jesus. They stayed with Jesus. They are now believers in Christ. Right. Now, here's what has happened. [00:19:17] They left that. I don't know how long of a time it was, but they left down by Jordan, down near Judea, and they went back home. You know why? Because Peter's married. [00:19:29] Peter probably has children. [00:19:32] Probably other disciples are married. They have a life that they have to live. And so they believe in Christ. And I think there were many, many people in Israel that were like this, to be honest with you, over time, they believe in Christ, but they gotta go back. Cause they have to live and they have to work, and they have to provide for themselves and for their family. So they go back to their business. You know what? That's fine. That's good. [00:19:58] And so where do they go? They go back to the sea because they're fishers. That's where they're from. Capernaum, to be specific. [00:20:07] This call, then, is not the call of salvation, but this call where Jesus calls. Notice in verse 18, he called Simon Peter. And in verse 21, James and John. [00:20:22] The end of verse 21, he called them. This is a call to follow Jesus, which is different. Which is different. [00:20:30] The danger is if we mix the two. [00:20:34] And this is a nefarious little devil that gets into and mixes up christian doctrine. [00:20:43] When you believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, you are not making a decision to follow Christ. [00:20:50] You are turning to the one who bled and died to save you because you're drowning in sin and you will perish. [00:20:58] Now, yes, there is an acknowledgement that Jesus is the Lord of all and you are bowing and yielding to him. Him. And you're saying, I don't want my sin, I want the Lord. There's a repentance in that, right? But there is repentance. [00:21:14] But this call here is a separate call. This is a call to follow the Lord Jesus Christ. And if you say, well, if you and I've heard it done, I've heard it done, I've heard it done. The gospel presented, come and follow Jesus. [00:21:28] What about your sin? [00:21:30] What about the path you're on? [00:21:33] What about the fact that you're dead in trespasses and sins? What are you going to do about that? You think following Jesus is going to change that? No, it's not going to change it. You're still in your sin. You try to follow the Lord, your sin, it remains. [00:21:47] You have to have your sin forgiven first. And that's what happened in John, chapter one. Now the Lord comes and he knows these men and he calls them. So I want to look at this call, because these two calls of Peter and Andrew and James and John are. [00:22:05] They repeat the same things. If you pay attention to them, there's aspects of them that repeat. So first of all, I want you to look at the character of the call. [00:22:15] The character of the call. [00:22:17] The Lord Jesus called them himself. [00:22:22] He called them himself. [00:22:24] This call to follow Jesus came from the Lord himself. It was not prompted. Now remember, James and John have left the place of baptism where John was. They believe in him. But they're up near Galilee. They're working. They're doing their career, their business, their livelihood. [00:22:40] So they didn't look at Jesus and say, man, this is a good opportunity to find wealth or honor or praise. I can serve Jesus and I can have all these things and be promoted. No, this call was not a call done by some human being, but it was a call from the Lord of glory himself. And this call was to follow him, even though they already believed. [00:23:03] Not only that, but this call was a call that was specific and it was personal. [00:23:09] Did Jesus call everyone he met in this way? [00:23:14] He saw Peter and Andrew. He saw James and John. That's what the Bible says. Look at what it says. Don't just trust what I say. Look what it says. And Jesus walking by the sea of Galilee. This is verse 18. Saw two brethren go down to verse 21, and going on from thence, he saw other two brethren. He knew them. [00:23:35] He specifically called their name. [00:23:43] Maybe not everyone the Lord met was called in this way personally, but here's what I do know. [00:23:51] Without question, there were others that were called by the Lord to follow him in this way, in the same way, believers now who did not answer in this same way, there definitely were. [00:24:11] And I would say to you in our congregation, among God's people, among believers, people who have trusted in Jesus to take their sins away. That's John, right? That's the lamb of God. There are many who the Lord personally calls. Now, it won't be like this, because our Lord is not on earth anymore. And we, you know, he's gone back to heaven. He sent the comforter to us. But still, in clear terms, he calls you and he says, adam, I want you to follow me. Sam, I want you to follow me. Josh, I want you to follow me. [00:24:50] He calls to us to follow him. [00:24:55] And by virtue of him calling out to us to follow him, you know what he's doing? He's forcing a decision upon us. [00:25:01] What are you going to do with your life? [00:25:07] How are you going to spend your life? [00:25:14] He calls us personally. [00:25:17] Now, it will be in the quiet of your heart. It might be by means of a preacher or a verse of scripture that you're reading alone in private. It might be through many means. But the Lord Jesus is going. He still, to this day, calls people to follow him, to do more than just believe in him, but follow him. And I'm afraid there's a far more people that he is called to, to follow him than that are actually doing it. Look at Luke, chapter number nine. [00:25:47] Luke, chapter nine, verse, verse number 57. [00:26:00] I know for a fact that they were those who the Lord called to and said the same words, follow me. And they said, eh, verse 57. And it came to pass that as they went in the way, a certain man said unto him, lord, I will follow thee whithersoever thou goest. And Jesus said unto him, foxes have holes, and birds of the air have nests. But the son of man hath not where to lay his head. [00:26:27] But he, Jesus said unto another, follow me. Same words. See that? [00:26:33] But he said, lord, suffer me first to go bury. To go and bury my father. And Jesus said unto him, it sounds very callous to us, but this is what the Lord said, let the dead bury their dead, but go thou and preach the kingdom of God. [00:26:56] Now, it doesn't say anything else but the indication, because there's no follow up is that. That was just too much. [00:27:04] Next verse. Verse 61. And another also said, lord, I will follow thee, but let me first go bid them farewell, which are at home at my house. And Jesus said unto him, no man, having put his hand to the plow and looking back, is fit for the kingdom of God. [00:27:24] They said there was some other thing, some other consideration or some other thing that we loved that caused us to say, no, I'm not going to follow you. And of course, they would never, of course, we spiritual people would never frame it like we're telling Jesus. No, but we are. [00:27:49] Other things took priority in these verses, in Luke over the call of Christ, to follow him. [00:27:59] Now go back to Matthew, if you would, please. [00:28:04] I want to look at something as the response of the call. [00:28:10] I told you there, these two calls are pairs. It's a pair. All right. Look at verse 18. [00:28:18] I'm sorry. Verse 19. He saith unto them, follow me and I will make you fishers of men. Verse 20. And they straightway left their nets. [00:28:26] Verse 22. James and John, they immediately left the ship. What's interesting for those nerds of you out there, the word straightway and the word immediately are translated from the same word. That's the benefit. By putting one word here and one word there, we understand both words. [00:28:44] But in both cases, what did they do? [00:28:48] They immediately responded. Now, the fact that they immediately responded shows that they could not have thought through what this meant. There was no time for them to think through. Well, what does he want us to do? Where is he going to go? Where do I need to go? I don't. There was no. There was no thought about their career. There was no thought about anything. There's no way they had time to think about the future. [00:29:09] So then they responded immediately based solely upon a single question. [00:29:19] Why did they respond immediately? [00:29:21] Because of the person that had called them. [00:29:30] You know, as you, as a child of goddess, how can we say no or hesitate when the Lord Jesus calls to us to follow him? [00:29:49] Is not the Lord Jesus Christ always and ever worthy of our immediate answer to his call to follow him? [00:30:01] He is worthy of that because of who he is, because what he has done for us. He is worthy of an immediate answer without forethought of what that might mean or where it might take us or what it might cost, we respond. And that's the beautiful thing. If you have said yes to that call of the Lord in your life to follow him, if you have said yes, you likely said yes without thinking through all that, that might mean because of the person who called, he is worthy of our immediate answer. [00:30:38] The third thing I want you to see is this, the cost of the call. Verse number 18. Notice what it says. I'm sorry. Verse number 20. And they straightway left their nets and followed him. Verse number 22. And they immediately left the ship and their father and followed him. You see that? [00:30:56] They left something behind in order to follow the Lord Jesus. And in this context, there are actually two things. Number one, they left behind their livelihood and their family. [00:31:11] Their livelihood and their family by leaving the nets in the ship. In both cases, that was their livelihood, and the father was in the ship. So that's one of their family members. [00:31:24] Now, we need to make sure we temper. I need to make sure I temper what I say here. But listen, we know that Paul, the apostle, the missionary, he worked on the missionary as a missionary. He worked and he made tents, did he not? He was a maker of tents. [00:31:42] And he was also with other servants of the Lord who also were. Who had said yes to following Jesus, Aquila and Priscilla, who also made tense. So this broad idea, if we use this verse and we try to say, well, we want to denigrate somebody who works a job or somebody who has a career as a person who doesn't follow Jesus, that is not. That is a misuse of this passage. I want to make that clear, because there's some. Listen, even preachers, there's some preachers that have this crazy idea that these verses, the fact they leave their nets and the ship, indicates that working a job is somehow beneath them because they have decided to follow Jesus. [00:32:23] That's crazy. That's crazy. [00:32:27] These are false interpretations. Remember, our Lord himself had a trade. He was a carpenter by training. [00:32:35] However, the cost of the call, the nets, the ship and the family, speaks to priority. [00:32:48] Imagine this matter literally, okay? The Lord Jesus says, follow me. And I know we think we spiritualize that, and for good reason, because, you know, Jesus is not here and he says, follow me. We're talking about that in a spiritual sense in our life, right? But when Jesus said, when Jesus said this to Andrew and Peter, there's no way to know what he meant. So they took it literally, and they literally dropped what they were doing. In that case, they were supporting themselves in their livelihood. They dropped it, and they began to follow Jesus, like, physically, literally. And they didn't know that the Lord had other meanings, too, but they responded immediately. [00:33:35] And this does show their priority, because Jesus, the Lord of glory, is saying, at this moment, follow me. And so all other ambitions, all other relationships must listen now, please. All relationships, all family ties, all relationships and all ambitions must immediately take a second place to the Lord Jesus Christ. No one. Listen now. No one in our lives, no one in my life, not my wife, not my children, and not any of you are to take priority over my following of the Lord Jesus Christ. No one. [00:34:19] That is a sacred place that only he occupies, or that's the way it should be. [00:34:26] And if we follow him, all the other things will fall into place because he speaks to every other point. Every other point but this, the fact that they immediately leave the nets because jesus calls them, what is he going to say? Well, my dad's here, but my dad, who is more important, the Lord of glory or the one who is your father, or the Lord of glory, who is saying at this moment, leave and follow me now, we might not understand all that. We might say, well, what if he's not honoring his father? But Jesus knows, okay? [00:34:56] He knows. [00:35:04] Matthew 624 says, in fact, we're already here. Just peek at it, if you would. [00:35:12] Matthew 624. [00:35:15] No, Matthew 624. No man can serve two masters, for either he will hate the one and love the other, or else he will hold to the one and despise the other. Ye cannot serve God and mammon. You see that? Does that mean, well, you shouldn't have a job. No, this is priority. [00:35:41] This is priority. [00:35:44] This is which one has. Has preeminence. Because if money or a job or family or whatever has preeminence, then you're trying to serve two, and it does not work. You must have but one master. I must have but one master. Because whenever there is conflict and there always will be between those divided loyalties, the greater must be obeyed. [00:36:11] And listen, parents, and I know the family thing is sensitive. As a missionary, I saw that Cambodia is a culture where the family child relationship, there are a lot, there are many, many expectations. I mean, even in Cambodia, they actually use the word worship one's parents. It is actually a word that they use. Twa, bangko, mopok, madhai. That's a word they use. [00:36:37] So parents are parents demand that children raise them to the place equal with God. And it creates a big problem because those come in conflict. When Jesus says, follow me. [00:36:50] So I say to the parents of, let's never put our children in a place where they must choose between us and following Jesus. [00:37:02] That is not the thing we should do, because the right answer is to follow Jesus. [00:37:13] The next thing I want you to see in Matthew four is the context of the call at this moment in time, at the beginning of the Lord's ministry. Remember Jesus? He's not even really. He just barely started preaching. This is at the very beginning, right. [00:37:35] Peter, Andrew, James, and John have no idea, no concept whatsoever of what the future will hold for them as apostles, that is. And what you don't see here is you do not see Jesus saying, follow me, and I will make you an apostle, and you'll have great, you know, you'll be remembered for all of human history. No, all it says, he says is, follow me. They have no concept of what that might be or what might happen in the future. None whatsoever. [00:38:05] They are responding to a single thing in the call, and that is to follow Jesus. What that includes is not yet known to them. And the Lord for us also does not lay out the plans for all of our future. Listen, as a child of God, when he says, come, follow me, he will not lay out the plans for all the rest of your life. Or what are you going to be doing, who you're going to marry and how it's going to go, and where are you going to do and how are you going to serve him? That is not what's going to happen. I promise he is not going to do that. He didn't do that here. You know why? Because when his call comes to you, and when his call comes to me and it came to me, when that call comes to you, we are required by the Lord to respond to that call without knowing all the rest. Because responding to that call, to follow Jesus, is an act of faith. [00:38:54] We are entrusting our future to him. [00:38:58] Furthermore, we're entrusting that. Now. Think I'm almost finished, but please think with me. [00:39:08] Think about literally following Jesus. Josh, come here, please. [00:39:14] Imagine we're walking. I know this is a little cliche, but imagine Josh is Jesus, okay? [00:39:22] And we're walking on a dirt road or maybe a sandy beach, and Josh is walking down the road. [00:39:30] And I'm one of the disciples, Peter and Andrew. And I'm following him. There's footsteps, right? [00:39:38] Literally, there's footsteps, right? Thank you, Josh. [00:39:42] And my job, in the literal sense, is to go where he goes, and I know where he's going because of the footsteps that he's going. So I am literally walking where he is walking and going where he is going. Now, spiritually, of course, that's also the same. We're mimickers, right? We're imitators of the Lord Jesus. That's what Sunday school is all about, right? That's what we spent the whole time talking about. [00:40:05] So we are walking where he is walking in front of us. [00:40:11] There's trust in that. [00:40:13] Because when Jesus says, follow me, he didn't tell you all the other stuff. He don't tell you where you're going to go because he doesn't tell you where he's going to go and what he's going to do. [00:40:22] See that? That means you have to respond in faith, and I have to respond in faith and say, and this. Listen, what I'm talking about is Romans, chapter twelve, one and two. [00:40:35] I beseech you, brethren, by the mercies of God, that ye present your bodies, a living sacrifice wholly acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable service. It is by saying yes to the Lord Jesus. Consciously, affirmatively, yes, Lord, I will follow you. You don't know where that might lead, but you must say, yes. You have to the Lord. He's worthy of no less. [00:41:05] You don't know where those steps are going to go. [00:41:11] You're entrusting the specifics to him. [00:41:15] And this is what the disciples did when they decided to follow him. [00:41:20] A couple more and we'll be done. [00:41:23] The next thing I want you to see is the course of the call. [00:41:28] It's the word follow. [00:41:30] I just hinted at it a minute ago. [00:41:34] Two things we can see from the word follow. [00:41:36] First thing is this. [00:41:39] Jesus did not say, do. Aren't you glad, Brother Rob? Aren't you glad the Lord didn't say, do what I tell you to do? [00:41:47] No, he said, follow me. [00:41:52] What that means is that no matter where we go in pursuit of the Lord, he will be there no matter where, because we have merely followed his footsteps to that place. So he is there. [00:42:11] That should give our hearts comfort when we're afraid. What am I going to. How am I going to support myself? How am I going to, who am I going to marry? What happens if I don't do this? Don't do that. [00:42:21] He's there. He is with us. Whether that path leads into suffering or the other side of the world, with the hardship that might come from that as a missionary or whatever the case might be, his footsteps have walked through that very thing. The second thing, though, is that you know, once you say yes, I will follow you. And you begin to follow the Lord Jesus. [00:42:49] You know, because you are following him and he is in front of you, that wherever you are is exactly where he has brought you. And you have not independently ended up in this place. [00:43:02] He brought you there. [00:43:05] There's comfort in knowing, even in the midst of serious suffering and hardship, there is. And those of you that have lived this know what I'm talking about. There is great comfort in knowing that in the midst of serious suffering that you are nevertheless exactly where the Lord wants you to be. That gives you peace and stability, because, you know, you're not wandered off. You are. You are in his. Listen, if you can see the footsteps of the Lord Jesus in front of you, you know, look, if you visualize the footsteps going this way and you look backward and the footsteps going that way, and you're standing in the footsteps, listen, you are where he wants you to be. And you, you are not facing this difficulty without help. He knows about it. [00:43:56] He brought you there. [00:44:02] And the last thing I want you to see is this, the implications of the call. [00:44:17] Remember the footsteps, right? [00:44:22] Literally following Jesus like these disciples did, both physically, literally and spiritually walking, seeing the footsteps of Christ ahead of them, seeing the footsteps of Christ and their own footsteps behind them. [00:44:36] Wherever those footsteps go, that's where they're going to try to go, right? [00:44:43] So let me ask you a question then. [00:44:47] Are we following Jesus footsteps into a club, into a bar? [00:44:57] Would Jesus footsteps go into a place like that? [00:45:03] Are we following Jesus footsteps looking at porn at night? [00:45:10] How can we say we're following Jesus and we're walking in the steps that he has walked in front of us doing that? [00:45:20] Are we following Jesus in a private room to gossip? [00:45:25] Is that where Jesus footprints lead? [00:45:29] Are we following Jesus and his footprints go days and weeks and months without even opening the Bible at all? [00:45:37] Or these long periods of time? Did Jesus footsteps never spend any time in prayer whatsoever? Is that where the footsteps of Jesus lead? [00:45:51] Did Jesus footsteps guide us to scream at our wife and our children? [00:45:59] Are we following the words of Jesus when we speak foul language or laugh at wicked jokes? His footsteps aren't going there. [00:46:08] Are we following Jesus committing sin with someone who's not our spouse? I don't see Jesus footsteps going up to the adulterous bed. [00:46:19] Are we following Jesus example when we're lazy and indolent and don't give our full time at our job like we're supposed to? [00:46:30] Is it Jesus footsteps that lead us to cheat others and to be dishonest? [00:46:35] No, definitely not. [00:46:39] Is it Jesus footsteps that lead us to watch immorality and cursing and perversion on television? [00:46:47] Are Jesus footsteps standing in front of the tv when that trash is on? What's the answer? You know the answer. You know it implicitly. Listen, there are multitudes of people down in the south and I'm a son of the south. But there are multitudes of people down in the south that tell you they're following Jesus. And to believe them is to believe that the footsteps of Jesus walk up and do those kinds of things, and it is a lie. [00:47:14] If that's the case, you are not. You are not following Jesus. [00:47:22] I am not following Jesus. [00:47:27] To say, oh, I'm following Jesus is not a nice little thing that makes us feel good about ourselves patting ourselves on the back. That is a serious decision. And you know what? It has implications. [00:47:39] It affects the direction of our life. [00:47:43] We dare not, we dare not say that we are following the Lord Jesus Christ lest we defile his footprints to say that he is leading us to do those things. And here's the thing. You say, well, no, yeah, I might do those things, but that's not the part where Jesus is leading me. Then that means his footprints over here and you're over here. You know what that means? [00:48:07] You're not following him. [00:48:12] So this is serious business. [00:48:16] So the invitation to you is, have you heard Jesus call? Many more have heard him call follow me than have responded immediately. [00:48:31] We saw that. [00:48:34] Have you responded to the Lord Jesus and his call to follow him? [00:48:40] And if you haven't, I would invite you to come down here, wherever you're at seated. I would invite you to bow your head and talk to the Lord and say, lord, I have no idea. I don't know all the implications of what I'm saying here. [00:48:57] But, Lord, I will follow you. [00:49:03] Trust him. [00:49:05] Trust him to follow him. [00:49:07] Let's pray together.