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Welcome to the Bridge Church VB Podcast, your weekly source for uplifting and transformative Sunday messages! Each episode features insightful, practical teachings rooted in Scripture, designed to inspire and guide you on your spiritual journey. Led by our passionate Lead Pastors, Archie and Tangie Callahan, we strive to create a welcoming environment that encourages individuals from all walks of life to connect with the person, power, and purpose of Jesus Christ.
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Chiseled, built by Jesus.
And we're going to be looking at Matthew chapter 4, but our series text, our series verse is Ephesians 2.10, which says, For we are God's handiwork,
created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do.
Notice what it says.
We are God's handiwork.
Some translations say workmanship.
That word is a Greek word, poima, which we get our word poem.
We are God's poem.
We are God's work of art.
God is the artisan.
He created us in Christ Jesus.
At the moment, our spirit was recreated for what?
Good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do.
My mentor who is now in heaven once said this, God is constantly preparing you for what he has prepared for you.
Today we're going to talk about chiseled by the call.
There are a lot of ladies in here, when you married your husband, you married him because he was chiseled.
Right?
He was built.
So I heard a lot of amens on that, man.
Amen.
What happened?
Life happens, amen.
Life absolutely happens.
But I believe that God chisels us through his son, Jesus.
And one way he does that, he chisels us by the call, meaning that he calls us to himself.
Billy Graham, the greatest evangelist I believe to ever lived, was chiseled by the call.
He was a young teenager and he was confused and worried about his future, worried about what he would do in life.
But one night he went to a revival meeting where the evangelist Mordecai Ham was preaching.
Billy Graham says the atmosphere was electric.
It was powerful.
His words were energizing.
His words were effective.
His words were full of potent power.
And those words captured this young boy named Billy Graham.
And at that moment, Billy Graham heard the call, received Jesus and committed his life to the preaching of the gospel.
He was chiseled by the call that night.
And the rest is history.
Billy Graham circumnavigated the globe and preached the gospel to millions of people.
And because Billy Graham was chiseled, millions of people were chiseled by the salvation call.
They began their relationship with Jesus and continued to flourish.
That small little event at that revival did something big in the life of Billy Graham.
You know, the Bible says in Zechariah 4.10, do not despise the day of small beginnings.
Did you know everything big starts small?
When I was born, I didn't have a size 13 shoe.
or foot, it was small.
But somewhere in the seventh grade, my foot began to grow and became a 13 and my foot outgrew my body and my body had to catch up with it.
Everything big begins small.
And as we look at this series called Chiseled, we're going to look at the life of Peter, who was one of Jesus' disciples.
He became an apostle.
He became a leader in the church.
We're going to look at his life and how Jesus took an ordinary man and did something extraordinary with him.
We're going to see how Jesus took a fisherman.
He was a fisherman by trade, not a fisherman by hobby.
I don't even think Peter liked fishing.
It was the family business.
It was passed down to him through the generations.
It was what he did for a livelihood.
It was what he did to put food on the table.
He was a fisherman.
But Jesus saw something in this ordinary man that caused him to reach out to him and give him a call.
When you look at Peter, Peter was one of those guys you could never tell which Peter was going to show up.
You ever been around people you don't know what version you're going to get?
No.
Isn't that kind of like, you're almost like anxious.
I don't know who I'm gonna get today.
These people morph all the time.
You don't know who you're gonna get.
Peter was probably one of those guys who you didn't know if you were gonna get the calm Peter, the crazy Peter,
the Peter who was just loud and just out there.
You didn't know who you were going to get, but Jesus chose Peter.
Jesus reached out to Peter.
Jesus called Peter.
When you look at the character of Peter, you begin to understand that Peter was one of those guys who was real bold and outspoken.
He would say anything.
He would just reach over the top and grab words and
Spit them out of his mouth.
He didn't know what was coming out of Peter's mouth.
But Jesus still chose him.
Peter was very impulsive.
He just acted on a whim.
He acted before he even thought about it.
He would speak before he would think.
He was just impulsive.
He was a very impulsive person.
But in that, Peter was also loyal.
I think he was very loyal.
Even when following Jesus, even though he denied Jesus three times before.
that great day of crucifixion and all what was happening to Jesus, even though he denied Jesus, he was still a guy that was very loyal to Jesus.
He was brave, man.
He was full of bravery and he was willing to step out of the boat onto the water when Jesus called him out of the boat.
So we see that Peter was this kind of brave man and we need brave men in the day in which we live in.
Peter was human.
I know when we look at these Bible characters, we try to make them superhuman.
But Peter was human.
He was flawed.
How many of you know God doesn't choose perfect humans?
There are none.
Just look beside you and you'll realize that.
Look in the mirror and you'll realize there are no perfect human beings.
But Jesus chose Peter.
Peter.
And in that call, when he initially calls Peter, there is a chisel in the hands of Jesus and a hammer.
And he would use that metaphorically to chisel Peter's life.
And over the next four weeks, we're going to look at Peter's life, how Jesus chiseled him.
It was a very hard thing to do.
It was a very long thing in Peter's life.
And even Michelangelo, who chiseled the great sculpture of David
It is believed that it took him 20,000 to 25,000 hours to chisel his great sculpture of David.
That was anywhere from two and a half to three years.
We don't know how many times the hammer hit the chisel very meticulously.
It was arduous work.
People said that Michelangelo would not rest.
until he finished the sculpture of David.
Can I tell you today, God will not rest until he shapes and molds your life and chisels you into the person that he has ordained you to be.
He works day and night.
And sometimes the chisel and the hammer sounds like your spouse, right?
It sounds like your supervisor.
God uses people to develop you.
God uses your parents, young people, to develop you.
But you've got to hear the voice of God in the people that God has connected to your life.
And when you begin to listen, you'll realize that God uses people to shape and mold our lives.
But the very thing that God uses is sometimes the very thing we rebel against.
We rebel against parental authority.
We rebel against authority at work.
We rebel against authority in education.
We rebel against governmental authority.
And these are the things that God uses in our lives to shape us.
We rebel against pastoral authority or small group authority because we're not naturally built to like to submit.
No, we don't want to submit to nothing.
But God, if he's ever going to do something in our lives, we have to come and submit and surrender to his lordship.
When we look at Matthew, Matthew was also a disciple, became an apostle.
He was also called Levi.
He wrote the book of Matthew.
This book of Matthew is one of the synoptic gospels, Matthew, Mark, Luke.
The word synoptic means similar.
They tell the same stories, the similar stories from a different perspective.
All of you understand that if any five people in here today would see the same car accident, if it were to happen at the intersection of Indian River and North Landing, all of the five people who saw it would have a different story based on what they perceived what happened.
So when the cops come and they ask for the story from each individual, they understand that, but they get the whole story and put it all together because of the perception and the viewpoints of every person can come together like a puzzle.
And that's what Matthew, Mark, and Luke does.
It brings us a perspective of what Jesus did in his initial call to Peter.
In Matthew chapter 4 it begins with Jesus in the wilderness being tempted by the devil.
We understand that he fights the devil with the word of God.
Satan comes and tells him a half truth.
Jesus gives him the whole truth and he wins the battle in the wilderness over the enemy.
And the Bible says he returns to Galilee in the power of the Spirit.
Jesus leaves his town called Nazareth and goes to Capernaum and sets up his ministry.
Why would he leave Nazareth?
Nazareth was that place that was very familiar.
In fact, one of the writers said this, Can any good thing come out of Nazareth?
Meaning they became familiar with Jesus because he was the carpenter's son.
They viewed him as just a carpenter's boy.
They did not see him as the son of God.
Now when I said carpenter, many of you began to put two by fours and two by sixes and two by tens together.
You're thinking about remodeling your bathroom, so you're going to hire a carpenter.
You're going to hire a designer.
When we say Jesus was a carpenter, we're not talking about wood.
We're talking about stonework.
That Jesus understood what a chisel was, what a hammer was, because he was constantly fashioning limestone to build houses, to build structures.
So when you view Jesus as a carpenter, don't think about wood, think about stone.
Did he ever make a chair?
Probably.
Did he ever make a table?
Probably.
But the overarching understanding of carpentry during that day and the culture that he lived in was stonework.
How many of you know Peter says we are living stones?
How many of you know Jesus is working with living stones?
And some of us are stoned.
And he brings us back to sobriety.
Some of us are jagged.
Some of us are rough.
And so he's working with jagged and rough stones, hurt stones, unforgiving stones, bitter stones.
And we're all living stones.
And he's building a holy habitation in his church for himself so he can inhabit the praises of his people.
But he has to use flawed people.
He takes flawed people and he begins to mold and fashion them and chisel them into his image.
Into his image.
Now let's read chapter 4.
We're going to begin at verse 18.
It says this, As Jesus was walking beside the Sea of Galilee, also known as the Sea of Tiberias, saw two brothers, Simon and Peter,
Simon called Peter and his brother, who?
Andrew.
They were casting a net into the lake for they were fishermen.
That was their identity.
They were fishermen.
They took on that identity.
They took on the family business.
They took on the family occupation.
Look what Jesus says.
Come follow me, Jesus said.
And I will send you out to fish for people.
Some translations say, I will make you fishers of men.
And at once they left their nets and followed him.
Going on from there, he saw two other brothers, James, son of Zebedee, and his brother John.
They were in a boat with their father, Zebedee, preparing the nets.
Jesus called them.
And immediately they left the boat and their father and followed him.
They left the boat, the net, and their father, James and John, and followed Jesus.
Extraordinary words.
Dietrich Bonhoeffer once said in his writings, The Cost of Discipleship, when Christ calls a man, he bids him to come and die.
Now in our Western culture, we don't like that kind of discipleship.
We like the cozy discipleship.
We like the painless discipleship.
We like the discipleship that costs us nothing.
We like the padded chairs and the air-conditioned auditoriums.
We like that kind of discipleship.
We like discipleship until it makes us uncomfortable.
But the discipleship that Jesus was talking about was giving up your old life, dying to that way of life, and receiving a new life and new identity in Christ.
He bids us to come and die.
Now, in verse 17, right above verse 18, our text, the Bible says this was Jesus' message.
Repent, for the kingdom of God is at hand.
Now, we've got to understand what Jesus is saying there.
He's just calling these boys in the next verse.
So what does repent mean?
What does that mean?
Is it some term that says I need to come to the front of the stage and cry?
Does it mean that I need to get emotional?
Do you know what repent literally means?
It means to think after or beyond.
It means to think again.
It means to reconsider.
It means to change one's mind.
What Jesus was saying, I'm calling you not into a subculture, people.
I'm calling you into a counterculture.
How many of you know?
Politicians and political parties want the church to be a subculture to manipulate in order to get votes.
But Jesus never called you into a subculture.
He called you into a counterculture that's diametrically opposed to the world system, the way the world thinks, the way the world acts, the way the world talks.
He is saying, I am looking for a group of people that are weird.
So they will stand out in the world so when the world sees the church, it doesn't see a subculture.
It sees a counterculture that's totally different, that operates totally different.
And when the world sees the church, it should be so attractive because it's so different than what they're used to.
Yes.
That we have a new way of thinking.
What Jesus was saying, I want you to repent for the kingdom of God is at hand.
The reason he can say the kingdom of God is at hand because he embodied the kingdom.
He was there.
He said the kingdom of God is righteousness, peace, and joy in the Holy Spirit.
So he is representing a whole new way of living.
And that whole new way of living comes out of a whole new way of thinking.
He is saying, change your mind.
See things different.
And out of that revelation, that word repent there.
That word repent is a word that means to change your mind.
But the tense form there is present.
It doesn't mean that you do it one time.
It is a continuous ongoing action of discipleship and growth in Christ.
Meaning that I constantly change my mind because I'm coming into a revelation of what God's word says about the kingdom.
And I can't take old values and put them into a new kingdom.
So I have to change my mind.
That's why Jesus would come along and say it's harder for a rich man...
to get into heaven than it is for a camel to go through the eye of a needle.
Because the rich man oftentimes will not change the way he thinks.
He says, he says then for a camel to go through the eye of a needle.
Wouldn't that be hard?
But do you know what that really means?
within the context, in the city wall of Jerusalem was called a needle gate.
The needle gate was the gate that people went through after dark.
All the other gates were closed.
The needle gate was small.
So if a person riding a camel and the camel was loaded down with stuff, if they were gonna get into the fortified city, they would have to unload the camel, put the camel on its knees, and the camel would have to crawl through the needle gate.
Wasn't impossible, right?
They just had to get rid of some of the baggage.
When you come into the kingdom, you have to let go of the baggage.
And oftentimes the baggage is the way you think.
This is a new kingdom.
This is a new way of living.
This is a new way of behaving.
When I come into God's kingdom, he is saying, hey, I believe you can do this, but you're going to have to unload some stuff.
You got to move forward.
And so Jesus comes in his initial call to call Peter, Andrew, James, and John.
His whole idea was to create a church.
He knew he would have to die for that and shed his blood.
He knew he would start the church on the day of Pentecost and the promise of the Father would come to the church to start the church.
But this church that Jesus began to institute was called the Ekklesia in the Greek.
The word ekklesia means called out people, the assembly of the called.
We've been called out of darkness into his marvelous light.
We've been called out of death into life.
The word ekklesia in those days was not a new word.
It was a word that represented in the Roman world a ruling body.
Did you know the church, when it comes into its full authority, is a ruling body in the earth and not a subculture?
It's a counterculture.
Showing the world a new way to think.
Because Jesus has given us new life, new values, a new mission.
And so this church that Jesus was beginning to raise up was a movement that was mobile.
It was a body that would go into all the world and preach the gospel.
That's what Jesus said.
He said, go into all the world and preach the gospel.
Is he talking about geographical locations?
It can be that, but more than that, he's talking about spheres of life.
He is saying, wherever you are, wherever you work, wherever you live, wherever you shop, go into that world and preach the gospel.
If you are an educator, go into that world and preach the gospel.
If you are a doctor, go into that world and preach the gospel.
If you are a
carpenter, go into that world and preach the gospel.
If you are in politics, go into that world, even though it's hard, and preach the gospel.
If you go into the media world and you become an actor, you become a broadcaster, you become a podcaster, go into that world and preach the gospel.
Everywhere in this world and every sphere in this world needs to hear the gospel.
You are not a subculture.
You are a counterculture.
At the moment you become a subculture, you become manipulated by the world.
Amen.
You are a counterculture.
You have a new way.
And that's why our theme this year is strong and courageous.
You can't be weak and be contagious.
You've got to be strong and courageous if you're going to be contagious in the world.
If you're going to make a difference, you can't be weak-kneed.
You've got to be strong and courageous because there's all sorts of things coming at you constantly and manipulating you.
This world has twisted marriage.
It's twisted identity.
It's twisted the way people live.
And you have to stand up and say, no, not in this culture.
There's a new culture in the earth.
Repent for the kingdom of God is at hand.
Change your mind.
But if you don't understand that, you'll do like the Episcopal church just did and ordain a practicing lesbian.
That's strong.
That offends you.
I'm not sorry.
Why?
Because you're trying to bring a different way of living from the world into a new order, the kingdom.
And it doesn't fit.
It doesn't fit, folks.
I don't get to choose my values.
Christ has given me the values.
If you don't know the values, look at Matthew 5, the Sermon on the Mount, a part of it, the Beatitudes.
B attitudes, the toads of Jesus.
You got a toad, you got an attitude, you got to have the correct attitude.
Where does the correct attitude come from?
It comes from the way you think.
If you think wrong, you'll have a bad attitude.
That's why some of you, when you go home, time you step in the door and if you see things out of order, you begin to think somebody's not done their job.
And you get upset in your thinking and it creates a bad attitude and it impacts the atmosphere.
That's why many men sleep in a doghouse.
But I gotta roll.
So we look at Peter.
Jesus calls him.
Number one, Jesus meets Peter in ordinary work.
Someone once said, if you wanna get a job done,
Ask a busy, productive person and they'll get it done.
If you want a job done, don't ask a lazy person.
You say, well, they're not doing much and you give it to them and they won't do much.
I'm just, I'm just being honest.
If you want to get something done, you already asked somebody that's getting something done.
They are productive.
They're organized.
They understand what it takes.
And Jesus comes to him in ordinary work while he is fishing.
This is his livelihood.
And Jesus says, come and follow me.
Come and follow me.
And Jesus was beside the Sea of Galilee.
He saw two brothers, Simon called Peter and his brother Andrew.
And they were casting a net in the lake for they were fishermen.
Look, they were busy.
Jesus went to them because they were busy.
Jesus meets Peter in the ordinary work.
I'm telling you, Jesus wants to meet you in the ordinary work.
You don't have to get into a spooky church service for Jesus to meet you.
He meets you when you're driving down Indian River.
How many of us need Jesus driving down Indian River?
You better not be on that cell phone.
You'll meet him.
It's in the everyday life that I'm doing my work and I understand that when I do my work effectively, I'm worshiping God and he meets us there.
Number two, Jesus speaks authority into Peter's life or authoritatively into Peter's life.
Notice what he says.
He says, come, follow me.
Jesus said, and I will send you out to fish for people.
I will make you fishers of men.
Notice what he does.
He didn't say, I'm going to make you fishers of men.
First of all, he says, come follow me.
That's discipleship.
Wrapped up in discipleship are some other ships you need to climb aboard.
Lordship, fellowship, stewardship.
Come on.
That's all wrapped up in discipleship.
Some of us want to be like Jonah and get thrown off the ship.
Some of us want to jump ship.
Some of us don't want to get on another ship.
We're comfortable.
I'm a disciple.
I asked Jesus in my life 40 years ago and I'm sitting on my blessed assurance and I'm going to stay here until he comes.
Well, you might get left behind.
You got to keep moving.
Amen.
You got to keep growing in lordship and fellowship.
That's why small groups are important.
Sign up.
It's fellowship.
Yes.
Amen.
It's fellowship.
It's getting together.
If you don't know what group, man, you need to sign up for.
I teach one on Thursday at 630 a.m.
Like I said, you can't sleep till 11 and make it.
You got to get in there.
Amen.
You got to get in there and watch God do something in your life.
He says, come follow me.
Following Jesus was submission to his authority.
Being transformed by him, he said, I will make you.
I will make you.
God makes us as we follow.
Did you know studies have proven that people stop in their faith growing six months after their initial salvation experience?
They grow like a bottle rocket on the 4th of July.
They're whistling, they're joyful, and then they just get cozy.
Doesn't this feel good?
And they stop growing.
That was never Jesus' idea.
He said, I want you to come follow me.
I'm going to make you.
And then here's the mission.
I'm going to make you fishers of men.
Number three.
In this call, Peter leaves something behind to receive something higher.
Notice this.
Jesus says, come follow me.
What do they do with their nets?
They throw them down.
I'm tired of this junk.
I'm ready for a new experience.
And we just see it as a net.
But you gotta understand, that was their livelihood.
That's the way they supplied for their family.
That was a generational business, a generational occupation.
It had been handed down to them from generations.
That's all they knew.
But there was something, they didn't even know Jesus, but there was something in Jesus's voice that compelled them to let go of the net, to leave the boat,
Have you ever thought about that?
That there was something so compelling in the words of Jesus, in the tone of Jesus, that it would make them, hey, there's a call on my life, so if I'm going to follow the call, I've got to leave the net.
I don't know what net you've got to leave.
It might be the net of comfortability.
It might be the net of complacency.
It might be the net of unforgiveness.
It might be the net of bitterness.
It might be the net of fame or fortune.
Whatever net you got to leave.
It might be your family.
It might be your recreation.
It might be your occupation.
Whatever net you got to leave.
He's saying, I want you to come follow me.
He said, Pastor, if I leave all that, if I give it all up, what's going to happen?
That's honesty.
But I know this.
Jesus said, I will never leave you or forsake you.
I'll be with you to the end of the age.
But the first step is being built and being built is surrendering.
Am I willing to surrender my net?
Am I willing to surrender my boat that's so comfortable?
Am I willing to surrender my family?
What it says in verse 24, 25, Matthew 16, then Jesus said to his disciples,
Whoever wants to be my disciple must deny himself, take up his cross, and follow me.
The one who does not take up his cross and follow me is not worthy of me.
He's not worthy of me.
Surrender.
Peter and Andrew surrendered the net and the boat.
Peter and John had to surrender the net, the boat, and the father.
A familiar relationship.
When Jesus comes to even James and John, he says, come follow me.
It also says they threw down the net, left the boat, and left the father.
I don't know about you, but I think that dad was...
People are like, what?
Who just stole my workforce?
Who just stole my employees?
They walked away from everything.
They gave up everything.
They left the nest, their livelihood, the boat, their workspace, their workplace, the father, their family obligation, showing complete commitment to Jesus.
I remember that.
When I was 18 and a half, almost 19, sitting in my freshman year of college, I went to a private Christian college as a music major.
I loved music.
Grew up playing music.
Being in worship teams.
God used that.
But after my first semester in college, God began...
to speak to me.
Are you willing to lay that down?
I'm like, Lord, that's what brought me here.
No, I brought you here.
Well, I thought that's what you wanted me to do.
No, that was just to get you in this college.
Are you willing to lay that down?
And for two weeks, I wrestled with God.
I couldn't sleep.
I was miserable.
I hated life.
He said, are you willing to lay that down and follow me and preach the gospel?
I didn't like preaching.
I didn't like speaking.
I didn't like public speaking.
I took zeros for it.
I could play, but I couldn't speak.
We wrestled, man.
Until I finally gave in and said, Lord, I remember the day laying or lying in my bed and saying, yes, with tears running down my face, I surrender.
That day, I died.
And if you're ever gonna do anything great for God, there must come a moment in your life where you say, Lord, not my will,
but your will be done.
From that moment to this day, I've never regretted it.
Not one time.
Not one time.
Luke 18, 29 and 30 says this.
Truly I tell you, Jesus said to them, who?
His disciples.
No one who has left home or wife or brothers or sisters or parents or children for the sake of the kingdom of God will fail to receive many times as much in this age and in the age to come eternal life.
How does that happen?
Because God is so powerful, what you let go of...
fades and that new reality becomes so sweet and precious.
I believe if I would have hung on to a music idol in my life, I probably would have never met my wife, Tangie.
And I definitely wouldn't be up here.
I wouldn't have three beautiful girls and a great son.
Daughter-in-law, two son-in-laws, three grandchildren that are beautiful and one son-in-law on the way.
Lord, help me.
Two weddings for girls in one year.
I'm like, Lord, I take this to really, I'm taking it literal.
Receive many times as much in this age.
I need the much, much in this age.
I think it would all been forfeited.
Could God save me?
Yes.
Would I have gone to heaven?
Yes.
But that initial call to step out of music into learning his word and becoming a pastor would have been forfeited.
And my effectiveness would have been limited because I chose not to follow him.
And that's when life becomes miserable.
When we don't surrender.
I want you to stand.
What do you need to leave behind to answer the call of God on your life?
Call of Jesus.
We're chiseled by the call.
Not just the call, but our response to it.
God doesn't do it by himself.
Jesus doesn't do it by himself.
He partners with people.
partners with everyday ordinary people, just like Peter.
I know a lot of people that rejected the call.
I have family members, friends that rejected the call.
They're still living, but they're not living.
They're just existing.
So sad to see.
Now I'm not saying God's going to call you to be a pastor.
That's not what I'm saying.
But wherever he calls you and when he calls you, the principle is the same.
I've got to surrender.
Maybe the call is business.
Maybe the call is medicine.
Maybe the call is missionary work.
Maybe the call is leading a small group.
Maybe the call is serving in the local house.
Whatever that call is, it's just as important as the call that's on my life.
Because there are no big I's and little U's in the kingdom.
We're all significant, whatever role we play in the kingdom.
Let's bow our heads.
Lord, I just thank you for your work in our lives today, Lord.
God, that we, in the hands of Jesus, can be chiseled by his grace and become everything that you've ordained us to be.