- Welcome to the Willow Ridge Sermons Podcast.
This is where you can find audio
from Sunday morning messages and more.
Make sure you're subscribed
so that you don't miss future episodes
and thanks for listening.
- If you're curious, New Life Baptist Church
is a Hispanic church that we partner with in Queens.
We've been partnering with them now,
where's Brent at, for about three years now.
Two to three years that we've been going up there
and we've been doing things from Coates to the city.
Our student ministry went up there
for the first time this summer.
We got future trips planned and you just love that.
I got our house when we get a thank you note.
I remember we hadn't been married long
and we got a thank you note in the mail
and I got the mail and I opened it
and I read the thank you note and I threw the note away.
And then Erin came home and she opened up the trash can
to throw something away and she saw a thank you note
sitting right there and she's like,
why did you throw that away?
I was like, well, 'cause I read it.
And she's like, yeah, and I bought the gift.
And so she's like, no, no, when someone writes
us a thank you note, we both wanna,
we wanna be able to read that
and we wanna be able to see that.
And so just so grateful for them
and just to be able to say thank you,
not just to our youth or not just to our adults
who've been there, but us as a church.
And it truly is a partnership,
which is just so beautiful and so wonderful to see.
I'm speaking of partnerships at the beginning
of September, September 1st,
I know that's a holiday weekend,
but you're gonna wanna be here.
Pastor Sam will be with us from India that morning
and he's gonna open up God's word and he's gonna preach.
And I'm excited about that and be able to hear him
and be a part of that service.
And so you'll wanna make sure that you're here
as him and his lovely wife, Susan will be here,
traveling all around the state of South Carolina,
North Carolina, Texas, Illinois, Indiana, and Ohio
to share with partnering churches,
but also to develop some different partnerships
of what's there.
So be in prayer for them as he is speaking
for the next two months, pretty much every Sunday morning,
Sunday night and Wednesday night,
he will be at various churches.
And so be a wonderful time, September 1st.
Well, if you have your Bible and I hope you do,
I want you to join us in Matthew chapter four,
Matthew chapter four.
So here's what we're gonna do today.
We are going to usually I take a passage of scripture.
You guys know this, you've been around me for a while
and we just kind of like hang out on these handful of verses
and we really try to break down and understand
what God is teaching us and what God is telling us
from that passage of scripture.
And I think it's important that we study scripture
and we teach scripture that way.
However, for the next few weeks, the next three weeks,
what we're gonna do on Sunday morning
is gonna look a little bit differently than that.
We're gonna look at our structure,
what defines us as a church as we look at God's word
and examine that and answer the question,
why do we do what we do here?
Why do we do what we do here?
You can go and you can look,
there's not a shortage of churches around.
Chances are you drove past a church to get to this church
unless you're one of the handfuls that live right around,
like here, you're like, no, but we can hit a golf ball
from our house to the church, right?
But for us, I know this morning I passed six or seven
churches to come here.
And so what I want us to see is why do we do what we do
and then why do we do what we do here?
Because I feel like sometimes what has happened
is a church becomes a church
and then when a church moves off of God's word
to what they do and why they do what they do,
they begin to look at things differently
and then they flirt with, they become threatened by,
they have a risk of danger of walking away
from being a church to being something else.
We're not a daycare, we're not a school,
we're not a political organization,
we're not a social club, we're a church.
And I'm not saying that churches that have some of those
aspects aren't churches, I'm saying that above everything,
they better make sure that they're being a church
and that what the ministry of the church
and the heart of God drive what's there.
And so if you ever wonder, you're like,
well maybe I like what we do here
or maybe there's even some aspects and you're like,
yeah, I don't really care for this aspect
of the things that we do.
I want you to know the why we do what we do
because I believe when it comes down to church,
I read a book years ago called Simple Church.
God in my name, Tom Rayner wrote it.
Simple Church.
And what I began to understand is that in order to have
a simple church, it could be a complicated process.
But that the church that God was calling us to
was in fact a simple church when we look at God's word
and when we are the simple church that the Bible
calls us to do, we can become a powerful church.
I said this a few weeks ago and surprised some of you,
maybe you were newer and maybe not knowing about my past,
but very rarely does somebody decide at a very young age
that they're gonna grow up and be a pastor.
That was definitely not my journey in life.
I had a lot of things that I thought about doing.
But my lifelong dream from a very young age
was to be a football coach.
I wanted to be a football coach.
Very specifically, I wanted to be a college football
offensive coordinator.
That's what I wanted to be.
One of my coaches that I coached under
when I was a college student, he came to me and he said,
there's a coach that's up in the Midwest that he knew
and if I could get my grades in order,
if I could study hard, if I could finish college on time,
he said he's an up and comer, we really believe
that he'll be able to do great things in football
and I know him and we could possibly set you up
with an internship with this coach.
And then he said his name and years later it hit me,
Nick Saban.
And Michael Brewer would have lost credibility for me
as an Auburn fan.
But there's this opportunity.
And so I coached football for years as a non-believer.
I coached high school football.
I loved every minute of it.
I coached offensive line was the position that I coached.
I had the opportunity of calling plays.
I learned how to break down film.
I learned how to do these things.
I would go to clinics and learn and I took in so much
about what it meant to coach college football.
I was able to serve under what I believe
one of the greatest offensive coordinators
in South Carolina high school football league history.
I'm able to learn so much.
And then God called me into ministry
and I walked away from coaching football.
And I'd been about four years in ministry
and we were living in Sumter, South Carolina
and I got a phone call one day from a guy named John.
John was the interim youth pastor at First Baptist Sumter
and he called me and he said,
"Bo, John was an insurance salesman."
He called me, he said, "Bo, I got a favor to ask of you."
I said, "Sure, John, what favor do you have?"
And he said, "I'd like to ask you if you would help me out
"and if you would be willing to coach football again
"just for one season."
He said, "I know you're busy, I know you got a lot going on
"but I'd like to see if you'd be willing to coach football."
I said, "Where do you want me to coach football at
"with you, John?"
He said, "Well, I'm one of the offensive coordinators
"at Wilson Hall, it's a private school
"there in Sumter, South Carolina."
And he said, "If you'd be willing to come
"and be our offensive line coach, I'd really appreciate it."
And I said, "Sure, I'd love to."
He said, "All right, we'll be there at practice
"at three o'clock today."
I said, "John, would you mind, so I can come out there
"and be ready, could you email me your playbook?
"I'd like to look over some things,
"I'd like to understand your base offense
"of the things that we're trying to do."
And he laughed.
He said, "Just come out to practice first."
So I came out to practice.
Had my gym shorts on, right?
I had my T-shirt on, I had a Wilson Hall hat
that I went and bought, I was ready to go,
I was ready to inspire men,
just ready to see some heads knock around,
just ready to see some people just really go at it.
And I see the varsity on one side of the field.
And I see the JV on the other side of the field.
And then I see another group of kids.
And I see John walking up to me.
He's got this big smile on his face.
He's like, "You ready?"
I said, "Sure."
He's like, "All right, man, you're the offensive line coach
"for the fifth and sixth grade team."
It's like, well, this is gonna be an experience.
I said, "John, what do I need to know?"
And he said, "Bo, here's what you need to know.
"We only do three things.
"We got three plays that we run, that's all we run,
"but we're gonna run these three plays
"over and over and over again,
"and we're gonna run 'em to perfection
"so that as these boys move up,
"they'll be able to grow and they'll be able to understand
"and they'll be able to diversify.
"But Bo, at Wilson Hall, we're committed
"to doing these three things."
And then he shared with me what those three things were.
And then over the course of the next about eight weeks,
I had the most fun I had ever had
in my coaching life getting these fifth and sixth graders
just to fire off the line and hit the person next to 'em.
And it was so remarkable, whether it was a win
or whether it was a loss,
it was just, "Hey, coach, where are we stopping
"for dinner afterwards?"
It didn't matter, and just the simplicity of that,
that's there.
Here's my point of telling you guys this story.
I think sometimes as a church, or as a church as a whole,
we begin to reach out and think through
all of the different things that we can do,
all of the different things that we can start,
all of the different aspects that are there,
and what we become.
And I don't think it matters if you're a church
of five or if you're a church of 5,000.
I don't think it matters.
What we become is because we become exhausted
for two reasons.
Number one, we're doing things that we're not ready to do,
or number two, we're doing things
that we're not supposed to do.
And so when I look at Scripture and see
there are three main aspects, and this is what we do,
and this is what we focus in on.
When we're sitting there and we're having our staff meetings
and we're talking through leadership,
we believe that these are the three things
that we need to be about, that we need to do
to make sure that we're being the church
that God's called us to be.
And they're discipleship, fellowship, and worship.
Those three things.
Discipleship, fellowship, and worship.
And then everything that we do is gonna come
from one of these aspects.
So discipleship, just a very brief definition,
discipleship is to grow more like Christ.
That's what we wanna do.
So if you were a part of one of our classes earlier,
there was classes of teaching you how to read the Bible
more effectively, there was women's studies,
there was men's studies, there was my study in here
where we talked about the Holy Spirit.
The goal in the discipleship aspect
is to help you grow more like Christ.
And so whether it's our small groups,
I met here, I believe we had four different small groups
meeting on campus, we got small groups
that are meeting in homes pretty much every night
of the week, we got men's groups, we got women's groups,
scattered all over Lexington.
The goal in those is to grow more like Christ.
That's discipleship, we're gonna look at that
in a second a little bit more.
But we also, we wanna come from discipleship
to fellowship, to fellowship, right?
And in fellowship, to love the body of Christ.
We don't always wanna be a part of something, right?
Like people say, I wanna be a part of something,
man, I wanna be a part of something,
I wanna love being a part of something.
And so what fellowship is designed to do,
we're gonna look at this next week,
is that fellowship designs us, it wires us,
it brings us into a special kind of relationship
with one another as we're brought under the banner
of Jesus Christ, we're brought into a relationship
with one another through the saving work of Jesus Christ,
and then what comes out of that through fellowship
is that we love each other.
And then the last is worship.
Worship, to exalt the name of Christ,
and in two weeks, we'll talk about that.
But it is what we are doing right now,
and it's what we just did, and I'm so grateful
and thankful for Joel and our worship team
and what they do, I love that.
I want you to notice this, that when we sing songs,
I want you to look at it and see who is the subject of that?
Who is the subject?
And the subject is God, over and over and over again,
of who we exalt and who we praise,
and all of this comes from a heart of worship.
So discipleship, fellowship, and worship,
and you're like, well, Bo, are you missing something?
Are you missing something?
Are there pieces of this that you're like,
well, there's important things that the church
is also called to do that you didn't list in there.
There's even things that you see that we do
that you didn't list in there.
And I would say, well, there's things
that I didn't just list, but it doesn't mean
that I don't believe that they're not a part,
because I do believe that they're a part.
So if you talk to me, like evangelism, right,
which is important, which evangelism is sharing
the gospel of Jesus Christ with those who do not know him.
Evangelism, sharing the gospel of Jesus Christ
with those who do not know him.
I believe that evangelism comes from discipleship.
That as I'm discipled, more to be like Christ,
the more that God burdens my heart for lost people,
and I'm willing to go and I'm willing to share,
and I'm willing to tell people my story,
and I'm willing to listen to their story,
and I'm willing to point them to Jesus,
because of the heart and the work of discipleship.
I believe that missions come from discipleship.
I believe that serving comes from discipleship.
I believe that giving, right, comes from a heart
of worship.
I believe that community, and as important as that is,
we gather together as these different groups of people,
and we wanna be able to share things and do that.
Like I believe that comes from fellowship.
Fellowship isn't an aspect of community.
Community is what fellowship,
or fellowship is what community's all about.
As we gather together and we do this.
So if you're new here, let me kind of explain,
but if you've been here, you'll see this.
It's what we try to do,
and it's what we try to grab a hold of,
in the busyness, in the chaos,
in the craziness that is your world.
When we come here as a group of individuals
on Sunday morning, we say, "Let's take this time,
"and let's make sure that we do this together."
What we do on Sunday morning is not,
as I prayed through this, it wasn't a strategy
for us to think through, like, how do I boost attendance?
How do I get more people to arrive?
What will guilt people into giving more?
What will create for more people opportunities
or their willingness to serve?
The heart and motivation behind why we do what we do
is how can we take these three things that we believe in,
and we believe that everything pours from these,
and so we built our structure,
the flow of who we are on Sunday morning,
so that you have the opportunity to engage in that.
So at nine o'clock, there's discipleship.
At 9.50, there's fellowship.
At 10.15, there's worship, right?
So that this is our vision, so that you as an individual,
that you as a family can come alongside,
and that we can join together as a unique body and do that.
And then the beauty of that is there's still more.
There's still more.
And on Sunday nights, students will gather back in here,
and students will open up God's word together,
and they'll fellowship together,
and they'll experience discipleship together,
and they'll worship together.
And in homes, couples and individuals will gather,
and they'll open up God's word,
and they'll talk about it, and they'll study it,
and they'll break it apart,
and they'll challenge one another,
and they'll hold each other accountable.
But the beauty of that is in the chaos
of everything that's going on,
we have this snapshot of what we're able to do
and what we're able to be
as we gather together on Sunday morning.
And it's why I love being here.
I love the nine o'clock vibe
as people are getting here.
It was crazy.
This is really crazy, especially around here.
We got people getting here at 8.15, right?
And they just love to come and be a part.
And then we get done, and in the chaos,
trust me, I know that is having everybody in here
with orange juice and coffee without lids, right?
But we give moon pies out,
so that balances it out, you know?
And we can gather together and have those opportunities,
and then we can get in here together,
and we can worship together.
The beautiful picture of what we do.
So this is why this is our vision.
So I want us to look at and see,
like, what is the biblical evidence of this for us?
What is the drive?
Why isn't this just some crazy scheme
that we come up with on a whiteboard one day
and then try to implement to grow our kingdom
instead of understanding the heart of God
and try to bring glory to his name
and grow the kingdom, right?
So we ask ourselves two questions,
and so I want us to look at this by looking at scripture.
The first is, what are we supposed to do?
What are we supposed to do as a church?
What are we supposed to do?
So just kind of leave there Matthew four.
I promise we're gonna jump there at the end,
but two verses, you've heard these
over and over and over again.
Matthew 28 and Acts one, we're looking at Matthew 28 verse,
"Jesus came and said to them,
"all authority in heaven and on earth
"has been given to me.
"Go therefore and make disciples of all nations,
"baptizing them in the name of the Father
"and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit,
"teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you,
"and behold, I'm with you always to the end of the age."
The Great Commission, you've heard it
over and over and over again.
But then there's also Acts one eight,
"But you receive power when the Holy Spirit
"has come upon you, and you will be my witnesses
"in Jerusalem and Judea and Samaria
"and to the ends of the earth."
So we look at these two and we ask ourselves,
like what are we supposed to be doing?
And we can draw from these verses what God has for us.
What God has for us as a church,
what God has for us as an individual,
how am I doing this away from here,
how am I doing this in here?
And he tells us very simply what we find here
is to go, to go, that our faith is a mobilizing faith
that we have, that's why what we do every single week
as we come together is we're gathering together
to go back to my football language and my football mind.
This is our huddle that we have
where we're coming together to be reminded of the play,
to be reminded of what we're supposed to do
so that we don't at the end of it go high five
and then I don't do anything.
It's so that we leave from here,
we leave from this gathering
and we scatter all over the place,
all over the place to go, to go.
It's not just so I've had a tough week
so I need to come in here to be encouraged.
And trust me, if you've had a tough week,
there's no better place than to be in your church
to hear the truth of God's word.
But as we do that, the goal is so that I can go
out of here and live for the name of Jesus.
That that word go, when we take our translation,
it's actually the word like as we go.
So it doesn't as much speak to a destination
that we need to get to, but it speaks to the journey
that we're going to go in an everyday moment.
The grocery store, the school, the home,
the neighborhood, go.
And go with a purpose and go for the reason.
To make disciples.
That's it, that's it, make disciples.
Not make really good dads, really good moms.
Not make rich people, not make humble people.
To make disciples.
That is the job that we have.
And within that, baptizing them
so that we've shared the gospel,
they've come to faith in Christ, right?
We see the evangelism and the missions
of the calling that we're called to.
And then teaching them to obey all that I've commanded you.
So that's it.
That we're called to go, you and me
and everybody in between.
That we're called to go and to do something.
To make disciples.
And we get to celebrate that together.
We get to celebrate that last week with Patrick.
It's a 12 year old boy, comes forward and says,
I'm a follower of Jesus Christ
and I want to share it with everyone.
We get to celebrate that.
So we go and we make and then the important part,
and this is why we've got Acts 1:8 that's in there,
is what we understand is that it's a spiritual work.
It's a spiritual work that we're doing,
but you will receive power, Jesus tells us.
You'll receive power when you learn enough.
Nope.
But you'll receive power when you've got
the right outline written down.
Nope.
But you'll receive power when you can learn
what the original languages are of the Bible.
Nope.
But you'll receive power when the Holy Spirit
has come upon you.
And he is calling us into a spiritual work
as he's working, as he's moving,
he's inviting us, he's calling us,
he's commanding us into the game.
My first year coaching, we had a running back,
it was a pretty special running back.
If you're a Clemson fan in here, you'll know this name.
His name was Reggie Merriweather.
Reggie went, left from North Augusta
and played football at Clemson.
I'll never forget, our plays were basically
run Reggie right, run Reggie left,
Reggie go run and we'll throw the ball to you, right?
We were playing Silver Bluff High School one night.
Silver Bluff was beating us.
We were trying to spread the ball around.
The head coach looked at me as the offensive coordinator.
He said, "Stop getting the ball to everyone else.
"Just give it to Reggie."
Called timeout, Reggie was our running back.
Went out there onto the field.
I looked at our wide receiver.
I said, "You're about to play running back.
"Just stand there.
"And if anybody gets past the line, hit 'em.
"Reggie, you're gonna go play wide receiver."
Reggie said, "What do you want me to do?"
I said, "Just run as fast as you can."
And I looked at our quarterback, I got him Clark Mullins.
Clark's the baseball coach at Gilbert High School now.
I said, "Clark, I want you to wait
"until Reggie's 30 yards down the field.
"And then I want you to throw the ball up in the air
"as hard as you can and Reggie, go catch it."
And Reggie did it, scored the touchdown.
We won the game, I looked brilliant.
It was all Reggie, it was all Clark, all right?
But one day, Reggie got hurt.
Reggie got hurt, Reggie had to come out.
Reggie never got hurt, never got pulled out of a game.
And we had a kid who was his backup.
And being the backup for Reggie Merriweather
meant this kid didn't ever get in the game.
Reggie was a durable player that never got hurt.
And I looked at this kid and I said,
"Get your helmet, you gotta go in.
"We've gotta pull Reggie out for one play."
And he looked at me and he said,
"Coach, I don't know where my helmet is."
(congregation laughing)
I said, "How do you not know where your helmet is?"
He said, "I've never played,
"I didn't think I was gonna play.
"I'm just happy to have the jersey, right?"
Right?
Put on your helmet and get in the game.
Too many of us standing on the sidelines
and God's called us and he's given us the power
and he's given us the ability,
not by who we are, but by who he is.
And so this is what we're about.
This is why we do what we do.
Because we're called to go, we're called to make disciples,
and we understand it's a spiritual work of God
of what he is doing.
And I don't understand it.
Why someone who says, "I'm on the team,"
doesn't wanna play in the game.
Second question.
It's not just what are we supposed to do,
but who are we supposed to be?
Who are we supposed to be?
It's an interesting question.
You ask any football team, you ask any business,
you ask any band, right?
They find this identity.
It influences the music that they play,
the plays that they run,
the services they provide as a business.
Well, this informs us as well as a church
of who are we supposed to be.
And when we look at Acts chapter two,
we get this, and so it'll be on the screen there.
I want you to read along with me.
Acts chapter two, verses 42 through 47.
It says this, "And they devoted themselves
"to the apostles' teaching and the fellowship,
"to the breaking of bread and the prayers.
"And awe came upon every soul,
"and many wonders and signs were being done
"through the apostles.
"And all who believed were together
"and had all things in common.
"And they were selling their possessions and belongings
"and distributing the proceeds to all as any had need.
"And day by day, attending the temple together
"and breaking bread in their homes,
"they received their food with glad and generous hearts,
"praising God and having favor with all the people.
"And the Lord added to their number day by day
"those who were being saved."
See, this is a very beautiful picture of this church.
This is the church in Acts two.
Acts two is not far from Acts one.
This is the early gathering of believers.
Some who saw Jesus in his ministry on the earth,
some who hadn't.
And this is who they were.
And the heart of simplicity within the body of the church,
as complicated as it can be sometimes,
is to look at this and say,
okay, well, this is who we are supposed to be.
Like what we see in the book of Acts
is this historical explosion
of men and women coming to faith
and Jesus Christ as their Lord and Savior.
It's where we see the book of Acts,
sorry, it's where we see in the book of Acts
the gospel spread across language barriers,
across socioeconomic barriers.
In the book of Acts, we see the gospel
move out of one city and explode
into Asia, into North Africa, into Europe.
We see this movement of the work of God
like we've never seen before.
And what we find here is this beautiful model
that God gives us.
This isn't a model for a small group,
it's not a model for discipleship class,
it's not even a model for worship.
This is the church.
If we were able to go to, right,
their website, their piece of paper,
they're pointing to this is what we're about,
come be a part, this is what you can expect,
this is what we would see.
And so what this does for us is it drives
who we are as a church, why we do what we do,
what we're trying to press onto
as we are trying to create disciples of Jesus.
That's the goal, the disciples of Jesus.
We're not trying to create any part of you
just to be better for your sake or my sake.
We're not trying to create something
that is a Willow Ridge brand.
We're trying to create in the power of the Holy Spirit
men and women and children
who gather together to be disciples of Jesus.
And so we see this.
We see in their theological worship,
they devoted themselves to the disciples' teaching.
And so what we provide, what we wanna be a part of
is theological discipleship where believers
come together to grow in right understanding
of the word of God.
That's the goal.
That's what we're pushing toward.
So that you and I, regardless of our education level,
regardless of our experience,
regardless of our time being saved,
that we can gather together
and not just simply answer this question,
what does this mean to me, which can be dangerous.
But answer the question, what does this mean?
What does this mean?
Not so that my mind grows,
but so that my mind grows
so that I will grow in right understanding
of the word of God,
so that I'll grow in right understanding
of the mission of God.
We see in here relational discipleship in Acts chapter two.
We see this beautiful aspect that believers came together
that there was the pressing together of lives.
There was the mingling of one another.
And we see in the early church, it got messy sometimes.
It got messy as people were leaving others out,
people were excluding one another,
cliques were starting to happen.
Like what we see oftentimes take place in some churches,
takes place in the churches that we see back there,
but there was this mingling of this relational discipleship
where people come together
and what is beautiful that I like
about relational discipleship
is you come together again to grow
in personal relationship with one another
as you grow in your relationship with God.
And so it's the opportunity for men and women and kids
to gather together in rooms,
to gather together in homes,
to gather together across studies,
and open God's word together and walk with one another
and encourage one another and correct one another
and challenge one another and in doing so,
growing in relationship with one another
as we grow in relationship with God.
And I love hearing the stories of that.
Hearing the stories where there's someone in a group
who's hurting, who has need,
and watching the group, not because they have to,
but watching the group because they care,
engage in these relationships.
And then the other aspect of missional discipleship.
We see in here the very last line,
the very last sentence in verse 47,
"And the Lord added to their number day by day
"those who were being saved."
Missional discipleship,
where believers come together in their community
to share the truth of Jesus
with those who are not followers of Christ.
So that we as a church, we as individuals,
we as small groups are mobilized
to go out into this community
and not hold dear to us this holy secret
that you've gotta stumble across
so that you can be into the club,
but so that we're going out and sharing the password,
sharing the hope, sharing the secret
with everybody that we can
because we wanna see the family of God grow.
Now our minds, and I think this is what happens,
our minds can intellectually agree with discipleship.
Our minds can say, "I know that's important.
"I know that's good.
"I know that's right."
And then we put a dangerous word after that.
"But, but, but."
We can intellectually agree with discipleship.
We can look down, we can check all the boxes,
we can say, "My mind agrees that this is correct."
But at the heart of discipleship,
it is just that, it's a heart check.
It's a heart check.
When we see Jesus define discipleship,
and this is where we'll be in Matthew four,
we're gonna look at four, very quickly,
passages of scripture.
What we find is that discipleship is about devotion.
Discipleship is about devotion.
We think, and I talked about this,
that discipleship is about someone
that's committed to growth.
But discipleship, growth, comes from the process.
That when we look at Jesus challenging those,
inviting them to be a disciple of Christ,
what he's challenging them on is devotion.
Matthew four, 18 through 22.
While walking by the Sea of Galilee,
he saw two brothers, Simon, who was called Peter,
and Andrew, his brother, casting a net into the sea,
for they were fishermen.
Let's pause here really quickly.
That doesn't mean that they liked to go fishing.
That means that they provided for their family
by the career of fishing.
Verse 19, and he said to them,
"Follow me, I will make you fishers of men."
Verse 20, immediately, they left their nets and followed him.
And going on from there, he saw two other brothers,
James, the son of Zebedee, and John, his brother,
in the boat with Zebedee, their father,
mending their nets, and he called them.
Immediately, they left the boat and their father
and followed him.
It's first disciples Jesus called.
And here's what I want us to see.
With whatever you've placed on the other side,
Bo, but, this is what I've got.
Bo, but, this is who we are.
But Bo, but, this is what we struggle with.
Being devoted, I mean, this is Jesus's works,
but being devoted to Jesus means
leaving your earthly security behind.
It means giving of my time.
It means giving of what I've deemed to be the priority.
It means giving up what I deem to be the most important.
It means giving up any of those things
that I've elevated to this status.
This group of men, they left it all behind.
They left the nets, they left the boat,
they left the fish, they left the dad,
they left the business, they left the 401K.
Because nothing was more precious.
Nothing was more valuable.
Nothing was more important than following Jesus.
Jump over to Matthew nine.
Matthew nine, starting in verse nine.
It says, "As Jesus passed from there,
"he saw a man called Matthew sitting at the tax booth.
"And he said to him, 'Follow me.'
"And he arose and followed him."
Let's pause there for a second.
When I was reading this this week,
I kind of like pictured when tax season comes up
and you go to Walmart and you see the tax people there,
right, and then that's not it though.
It's not like pay your $25 and I'll do my taxes.
Matthew's the guy that would cheat, that would steal,
that was taking, and the funds that Matthew was raising
would be the funds that would keep Matthew's own people
in prison to roam.
And he would have been wealthy
because of his sinful living.
But he arose and followed him.
And as Jesus reclined at the table in the house,
behold, many tax collectors and sinners came
and were reclining with Jesus and his disciples.
And when the Pharisees saw this,
they said to his disciples,
"Why does your teacher eat with tax collectors and sinners?"
But when he heard it, he said,
"Those who are well have no need of a physician,
"but those who are sick.
"Go and learn what this means.
"I desire mercy, not sacrifice,
"for I came not to call the righteous, but the sinners."
Being devoted to Jesus means leaving
your sinful life behind.
Discipleship says I lay it down.
I think there's two reasons that you and I
have a hard time with that, two reasons.
First reason is because we like it, we like it.
We find that the enslavement and the death
that is our sin is home 'cause it's comfortable
because it's all that we know.
But the beauty of it is that the life with Christ
is the only life that is satisfying,
with purpose and with meaning.
But the second, and I think this is probably
where most of us find that we fall.
The reason why we have such a hard time
leaving our tax collector booth and following Jesus
is because we think he couldn't love a sinner like me.
We think he's not bigger than the sins that I've committed.
We think that he can't fix what is broken in me.
Jesus says, "But those who are well have no need
"of physician but those who are sick.
"For I came not to call the righteous but the sinners."
Here's the thing.
When you lay it all before him,
you're not unveiling some secret that he doesn't know.
He knows, he knows.
And he loves you just the same.
And he's calling you to lay it down.
Being devoted to Jesus, being a disciple of Jesus
means leaving your sinful life behind.
Look at Matthew 16, 24 and 26.
When Jesus told his disciples,
"If anyone would come after me,
"let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me.
"Forever he would save his life, we'll lose it.
"But whoever loses his life for my sake, we'll find it.
"For what will it profit a man if he gains the whole world
"and forfeits his soul?
"Or what shall a man give in return for his soul?"
Being devoted for Jesus means leaving it all behind.
All the good, all the bad, all of the ugly.
And locking our eyes into him to follow him.
If you're a disciple and you heard this,
it seems like a very, very complex but simple.
Keep our eyes on Jesus, follow him,
but I gotta deny myself and I've gotta take up my cross.
And what does that look like?
What does that look like?
Now jump, last passage you're gonna read, Matthew 19.
Matthew 19, verse 16.
So someone comes to Jesus.
Jesus has been going to everybody, all that we've just read.
But now someone comes to Jesus.
The MVP, the person you want on the team.
The person that you would say this is who we're shooting for.
Says, "Behold, a young man came up to him saying,
"Teacher, what good deed must I do to have eternal life?"
And he said to him, "Why do you ask me about what is good?
"There is only one who is good.
"If you would enter life, keep the commandments."
Verse 16, he said to him, "Which ones?"
And Jesus said, "You shall not murder,
"you shall not commit adultery, you shall not steal,
"you shall not bear false witness,
"honor your father and mother,
"and you shall love your neighbor as yourself."
Jesus locks in on these commandments
with how we interact in relationship with other people.
And the young man said to him, "All these I have kept.
"What do I still lack?"
Let's pause there for a minute.
It's debated about the sincerity
of this young man's answer.
It's debated about was this,
obviously we know that he hasn't fully done these.
We know this.
I believe that in his answer, he believes that he has.
I believe in his answer, he believes, "I'm a good guy.
"This is what I'm about.
"This is what I've done.
"Look at who I am."
Verse 20, the young man said, "All of these I have kept.
"What do I still lack?"
Verse 21, "Jesus said to him, 'If you would be perfect,
"'go and sell what you possess and give to the poor,
"'and you will have treasure in heaven.
"'Come and follow me.'"
What Jesus does here in this moment
is he moves him to what this young man holds the most dear.
It's his possessions, it's his money, it's his wealth.
The bigger piece is Jesus is saying, "What's that idol?
"In order for you to be my disciple
"that you intellectually agree is the right thing
"that you're supposed to do,
"what are you placing after the butt?"
Verse 22, "When the young man heard this,
"he went away sorrowful, for he had great possessions."
Can I tell you how I would translate that in our context?
For he had a good reason.
He had a reason that when he said it,
"Jesus, here's why I can't be your disciple,"
people went, "Oh, I mean, that makes sense."
That is a little too extreme for Jesus to ask.
Yeah, we understand.
But he walked away sad because in that moment
what he said no to was not a class,
was not a small group.
He said no to Jesus.
Being devoted to Jesus means seeing that unfortunately
not everyone will.
Our call for discipleship,
our heart for what we see from the truth of God's word
is not so that we can look at a piece of paper
at the end of the day and say, "How many people did we have?"
I'll be honest with you.
We track attendance.
I don't want you to think that we don't.
We do.
You're a small group leaders.
If they do what Dave has asked them to, they take roll.
So that Dave can know and see
and help reach out and connect to people.
Can I tell you something?
I don't know how many people were here this morning.
I won't find out this week
how many people were here this morning.
I don't know how many people were here today
because what we're doing is not just a motivation
of how can we get more people in the seats.
The motivation in the heart behind why we do
what we're doing as we gather together
is because there's a call to go out into this world
and share the gospel of Jesus Christ
with people who don't know.
And the end goal of what Jesus calls us out to go and make
is not church members, is not faithful attenders,
it is disciples.
And the question that I have for you is this.
Are you walking on the plateau of your spiritual life?
Are you stuck in the mud of where you've always been?
Is Jesus calling you into a depth of relationship with him?
And not what you're telling me,
not what you're telling your friends,
not what you're telling others around,
but as Jesus calls you into that,
what you answer with him is Jesus but.
Jesus but my fishing net provides for my family.
But Jesus, I'm a tax collector
and they'll never welcome me in
and you can't work in my life.
Jesus, the call to take up my cross
and follow you to keep my eyes on you,
to die to myself daily,
but Jesus, that's too much.
And we walk away sad,
rejecting what he has for us.
A rejection of discipleship
is not rejecting simply a call for an adjustment of time,
priorities, or schedule.
But it's laying down of idols.
And say Jesus, none of this matters.
None of this matters other than becoming more like you
and knowing you.
Would you pray with me?
God, I thank you.
Lord, what a beautiful joy it is
to gather together.
Lord, to see brothers and sisters in Christ.
And Lord, to spend time with one another.
God, I pray for us,
for all of us,
that none of us in here have arrived.
None of us in here have got it all figured out.
None of us is the perfect disciple.
All of us, Lord, all of us have room to grow.
All of us have a step of commitment to take.
All of us have sins to repent of.
All of us need to grow in our desperation for you.
And so God, I pray, I pray, Lord,
that by the power of your Holy Spirit,
for whatever step you're calling us to take,
Lord, whatever but we wanna insert in there,
Lord, that we would stop and just say yes, Jesus.
Yes, Jesus.
Jesus, what do you have for me?
What do you desire for me to do?
Who do you want me to become?
What do I need to walk away from?
What security do I need to lay aside
in understanding that it is temporary
and the only security, Lord,
is found in relationship with you?
Lord, what sin do we need to lay down
at the foot of the cross and know,
Lord, that you've died for?
You've forgiven us,
and through your power we can overcome.
Lord, what's stopping us from picking up that cross,
locking our eyes on you,
and saying, Jesus, what do you have for us today?
Lord, speak to our hearts.
What's stopping us from becoming the disciple
that you've called us to be?
God, may this not be about a program.
May this not be a message
that's filled with selfish motivation of the heart.
But may this be, Lord, in the power of your spirit,
to speak to our hearts
so we can evaluate ourselves,
for what you have for us.
Jesus, we love you.
We praise you.
It's in your name we pray, amen.
- Thanks again for listening,
and be sure to check back next week for another episode.
In the meantime, you can visit us at willowridgechurch.org
or by searching for Willow Ridge Church
on Facebook, Instagram.