Episode Transcript
[00:00:01] Guys, I don't know if we shared this explicitly from the pulpits. Let me make sure I say this part of us sending Jim and the core team we did to plant Redemption Hill. One of the logistical things that came out of that is that we're continuing our partnership with Columbia and short term trips there. But Jim is going to be the one who's primarily coordinating those trips as joint trips between our two churches, which is exciting, right? But it also kind of left this piece where we said, okay, if they're running those trips and we just get to sign up and go to them, what's the thing we're going to lead out on? What's the missional expression our church is going to take the lead on? And as we prayed over that, around that same time, the Hargers reached out to us and just said, this group here has never had short term local trips from churches that support and. And we really want to prayerfully consider that and think about what that means to have short term trips with our partner churches. And so getting to send Kurt to this wasn't just, we want to get to know what's going on there. It was vision and prayer and going, what would it look like for five, six, eight of us to go hang out down there and sketch out what kind of things we could partner with them? And so I want to ask you guys to pray over that with us. Pray that we would get some vision and spark to go, you know, get a group of us to go down there and partner with the Hargers. What they're, what they're doing is such beautiful international ministry because of what Kurt said. They're not going down there to be Jesus and be saviors. They're going down there to partner with the local churches that are already in Peru and help disciple and raise up leaders so the churches in those places can plant healthy churches. One of the things they've asked us prayerfully to think about is I think one of their long term goals is to fundraise and purchase an eyeglasses clinic to be able to serve some of the more remote communities and things like that.
[00:01:52] And that can help them with doing short term trips and things like that. But just keep the Hargers in your prayers, man. They move their family there and they're still in adjustment mode and it's really important ministry and so we want to be good partners to them from over here in the States.
[00:02:07] Guys, it's such a joy to be with you. This morning we just got back from our retreat. We barely Made it.
[00:02:13] I pulled into the parking lot, and from the parking lot, texted Craig and said, and me and Jesse had a flat. You'll have to preach.
[00:02:20] And then we just sat there for a minute, gave it about 30 seconds to cook, and then we walked inside.
[00:02:26] Because I love Craig and I want to make sure his heart remains healthy at his age. So every now and then we do little shock.
[00:02:39] Anyway, I walked in, by the way he was prepped. He was like, we're good. You can go home.
[00:02:48] If you see around the room men that are sleeping or men that are in red shirts or both, it's because we just got back from our men's retreat, and, man, it was such a refreshing time. We got to partner with a local college ministry that our association is funding called Collegiate Impact. They have a ministry on Maryville's campus. We have been praying that God would give our church connections to Maryville since we planted his Emanuel and have started to build up a little bit of relationship with this man, Paul Carby, who runs that ministry. And so he brought some guys to hang out with our guys, and we got to go hang out in the woods and worship Jesus and be connected to the Lord. And listen, it was wonderful. We only got in trouble with the camp owners once, and it was because of bringing illicit explosives onto their property.
[00:03:36] We only had to dispose of one bomb by dumping it into the woods.
[00:03:41] It was a great weekend. There will be social media evidence of this later on in the week. As we go on, there may or may not have been effigies made of our pastors that were then shot with guns to blow them up.
[00:03:53] It was great.
[00:03:54] But the real thing is this. Some of the women are going. Our retreat sounds way better. That sounds like chaos.
[00:04:09] Yeah. Ladies, do you want Adam to come set up crossbow targets at your next retreat? He can. He can train you how to.
[00:04:19] They'll make that. You guys will also want the effigies of the pastors to shoot, I'm sure, to work. Work through some church aggression.
[00:04:27] Our. Our theme this weekend. If you haven't seen the back of the shirts, our. Our theme this weekend was hand to the plow.
[00:04:33] Hand to the plow. And this comes from Luke, chapter nine, actually a really intense passage where Jesus says, famously, anyone who puts his hand to the plow and then turns back is unworthy of me.
[00:04:45] It's a heavy phrase to build your hangout weekend on. Right. But the whole idea that we wanted to zone in on was this question of what does it mean for us, not just as the men of our church. But all of us as believers, what does it mean for us to take ownership and responsibility for our faith?
[00:05:05] What does it mean for us to be all in on this kingdom? God has actually called us to, to actually say, this is the center of my person.
[00:05:15] And so even though that was our theme this weekend, I just think it's good. I mean, we're, we're, we're, we're jazzed like, like we have to go get out in the woods with no cell phone reception and connect with the Lord. And so I think the guys coming back from this are just refreshed in the Lord. And we wanted to share our church, like, invite our church into what God has been doing in our hearts. And so I'm going to teach us a little bit on that theme today. A good friend of mine, Tim Bits, he's the pastor of Hazelwood Baptist Church, he came out and hung out with us to preach Third Street. We actually able to record the session. So I think we'll, we'll put those on the podcast later this week. So if you guys want to go hear them and hear how he taught. But I want to take kind of the big. The themes of this weekend and bring them together for us today. And we're going to do that by looking at Matthew, chapter eight.
[00:05:58] If you have a Bible with you, you can go ahead and turn there. Matthew, chapter eight is where we're going to be today. But it really is this idea. What does it mean to put your hand to the plow and not turn back? To be the kind of person where faith is at the center of your life, where you actually build your life on the call God has put on you as his child, as a member of his kingdom.
[00:06:25] And for us, like, we're landing this retreat out, but for you guys, we're inviting you in.
[00:06:30] And so I want to encourage you with this.
[00:06:33] Man, it is worth it.
[00:06:35] It's worth it to put your hand to the plow and give Christ your all. It's worth it. There's this weird thing that happens with church retreats. And by the way, it's a larger phenomenon than just church retreats, but it always happens with church retreats. And so I'll share this and then, and then we'll talk about how it kind of expands out, but this is always how it is.
[00:06:57] Your church announces a retreat. Hey, we're doing a retreat. It's this weekend. We're going to get away and connect with the Lord. And the first time you hear it, you go, that sounds Good. I should probably do that, right? And maybe even you sign up.
[00:07:10] But the closer the retreat comes, right?
[00:07:14] Like each passing week when they keep announcing it, you kind of have this, I don't know if I should do that. And I got a lot going on, and we're really stressed and we're really busy. And then when it's the week of and they send out the email with the packing list, you start thinking through, man, can I get out of this?
[00:07:32] And some of you were going, no, that's not true. This is 100% true. As someone who leads lots of retreats, it is. Every single time. Every single time, when you get right up to the wire, people find every single reason not to go.
[00:07:50] And as a spiritual leader, we have these moments where you just. You sit there and you go, all the people who should have been here, who needed this, who, like, I'm walking in their life, this is what they need in their life right now, are the ones who go, eh, I got this going on at work. Eh, I gotta work later. I'm stressed about this. And then they back out at the last second. And here's the thing. I'm not saying that.
[00:08:11] I'm not saying that to disparage you, because that's all of us.
[00:08:15] I do that. I'm leading the event. And when Thursday afternoon rolls around, I'm going, why did I do this to myself? All I want to do is sleep in on Saturday. Why do I have to go be at this event? Right?
[00:08:28] And by the way, can we be honest and admit that doesn't have to be an annual retreat?
[00:08:33] How many of you get to the end of your workday on Small Group Day, and you go, hmm, can I not go tonight?
[00:08:43] Will they know I don't have a good reason? If I text them and say, hey, I can't be there tonight, will they intuit that I'm just gonna sit at home and watch Netflix? Or will they think I have, right?
[00:08:53] Or if you're the host of Small Group, you're like, what can we justify to cancel tonight? Right?
[00:09:01] Or how many of you guys, on Sunday morning your alarm goes off and you go, you know, Kurt and AD have really been working on that live stream. It's getting better and better each week.
[00:09:15] Yeah, I'm gonna be real with you guys. And I don't wanna be like, over spiritualizing when I say this, but I think there's truth to this. I believe that's a universal experience because I believe there's genuine spiritual warfare involved, that some of that is just our flesh. Some of that is just our busyness, our stress, our anxiety. But I genuinely believe that we have a spiritual enemy whose name is Satan. And he delights when we are spiritually disengaged.
[00:09:45] And he delights when we are spiritually apathetic and when we allow our exhaustion and our anxiety to define our life rather than the Christ we follow. And I want you to hear this. This is not me trying to throw a weight on your shoulders because you're tired and exhausted and didn't go to a tr. That's not what I'm saying. That's not what I'm saying.
[00:10:05] But I do think. I do think there's a reality that we need to be aware that our flesh will not point us towards spiritual life.
[00:10:17] Right?
[00:10:19] The enemy of our soul will not point us and encourage us towards spiritual life. We were talking about this in the car on the way down, and Jesse said this amazing thing. He talked about the same experience where it's like it's the Friday of the retreat and you just got all the reasons in your head why you shouldn't go. And he said, you know, sometimes I just sit and I list out the reason, and I go one by one through all the things I should be doing this weekend. And I just go. Each one, I say it and I go, jesus is better.
[00:10:46] I should be doing this, but Jesus is better. And I have this going on. But Jesus is better. And there's something about that practice that just gives me, like, the containment, the closure to go, okay, all that stuff will be there. I can go. I can be present.
[00:11:01] Guys, that is.
[00:11:03] That may be a little cheesy. That's powerful.
[00:11:06] It's powerful.
[00:11:08] It's powerful because our flesh will never point us towards spiritual vitality.
[00:11:13] It's powerful because Satan will never point us towards spiritual growth.
[00:11:18] You have to be consciously aware of our bent toward allowing our brokenness and our anxiety and our isolation to lead us.
[00:11:27] It's important because we have to be reminded of the simple truth that Jesus is better than the things of this world. Amen.
[00:11:35] That's my point today. I don't have any slides because I got here at 10:30.
[00:11:39] But my point today, if you're someone who writes something down, is this.
[00:11:44] Jesus is better.
[00:11:47] Jesus is better. Jesus, beloved, is worth it.
[00:11:51] The life of following Christ is worth it. Putting your hand to the plow, chasing after Christ's call upon your life is worth it.
[00:12:02] It's worth it because Jesus is the only one, the only thing, the only person in reality worth Following. He's God. He's the real God, our real Messiah. He's actually the one who's in control of reality. He actually makes possible for you to follow him, to. To give your life to him.
[00:12:22] We find every reason not to do this in our life.
[00:12:28] It's not just showing up for church on Sunday or signing up for retreat. That's our spiritual disciplines. That's how we choose to engage our prayer life, our thought life, our relationship. We find every excuse and reason not to fall after Christ.
[00:12:44] Following after Christ is worth it.
[00:12:49] The plow, the work of the plow, the calluses of the plow. It's worth it.
[00:12:54] Jesus is worth giving your life to. Pray with me. And we'll jump into this text. Jesus, we need you this morning.
[00:13:03] We need you, Holy Spirit, to be our discipler.
[00:13:06] We need you to speak to us through your word.
[00:13:09] We need you to be the one who encourages us, who challenges us. Lord. For those of us this morning who are spent and exhausted, for those of us this morning who. Who are being driven and directed by our anxiety, by our hurts, by our isolation, Lord, I pray that you would break through the loudness, the noise of our mind, and that you would speak to us through your word. That you would remind us of the truths that drew us to you in the first place.
[00:13:38] That your yoke is easy, that your burden is light. That you are the life worth living.
[00:13:44] We love you. We trust you.
[00:13:45] Pray this in your name.
[00:13:47] Amen.
[00:13:49] Matthew, chapter eight. We're going to start in verse 18.
[00:13:52] If you don't have a Bible, they're under the chairs. Just grab one, because again, I don't have slides today.
[00:13:58] Matthew, chapter eight. Starting in verse 18, we read this.
[00:14:04] When Jesus saw a large crowd around him, he gave the order to go to the other side of the sea.
[00:14:10] A scribe approached him and said, teacher, I will follow you wherever you go. Jesus told him, foxes have dens and birds of the sky have nests, but the Son of man has no place to lay his head.
[00:14:20] Lord. Another of his disciples said, first, let me go and bury my father. But Jesus told him, follow me. Let the dead bury their own dead.
[00:14:29] Dang.
[00:14:31] So what are we.
[00:14:32] What's going on here? Like, what's the texture? We're picking up in the middle of a chunk of narratives that show us kind of a picture of Jesus's ministry in this region in the northern part of Palestine, Galilee. It's all centered around this chunk of water. Like, if you have a Bible that has maps in the back, you can see this and it'll show you. Most of Jesus's ministry was centered around the coasts of this area called the Sea of Galilee. This inland sea really kind of a, kind of a big lake, like volume wise, it's honestly about the size of Lake of the Ozarks, although it's not dragon shaped, it's egg shaped, but it's, it's volume wise about the size Lake of the Ozarks. And the vast majority of what you read about Jesus's life happens within a few miles of the coast of that area. The Sea of Galilee. Capernaum, where Jesus's home base was, sits right on the edge of the Sea of Galilee. Jesus found all his followers right there on the edge of the Sea of Galilee. And we need to understand about the Sea of Galilee for this text to make sense is that all the regions that were along the edge of it, they were all very interconnected and those societies kind of function together and they would move between them. And so what's happening here at this point in Jesus ministry is that where he is around Capernaum, where he started his ministry, he's grown such a following. The crowds around him are so huge that it has become impossible to live normal life.
[00:15:55] Like if you read the story in Mark, Mark tells it brilliantly. In Mark 1, 2, 3 and 4, you see this escalation of Jesus popularity where it gets to the point where people won't let them slee.
[00:16:06] People are crowding into the room. It says that the house where Jesus stays with Peter and his family, they have to literally pick up the dining room table and put it somewhere else. Because so many people are shoving into the house day and night. They can't get away, they can't eat a meal, they can't take a breath, they can't get any sleep. And so Jesus says, hey, let's load up the boat and go the other side.
[00:16:28] We gotta get away for a minute. And by the way, this is one of those things that we just kind of miss as modern readers. But if you sit down and read through any of the four Gospels, just as a story, what you'll find is that Jesus does this strategically, multiple times over the course of his ministry. When it gets too stressful, like he's got a buddy who owns a fleet of boats. And so he just goes, let's jump on the boat and go somewhere else. And that's what they do. And so, so our text is Jesus jumping in at Capernaum and they're going to get into Peter's boats and they're going to head over to this region on the eastern side of the Sea of Galilee called the Decapolis. And what's great about the Decapolis, Jesus did a lot of ministry there, but it was had a significantly lower Jewish population than Galilee, where he lives. Significantly lower. And so even though Jesus could do lots of ministry there, he wasn't as well known there. And so the crowds didn't get as big there.
[00:17:22] And so what happens is this is, by the way, right after Jesus preaches the Sermon on the Mount, and there's this amazing moment at the end of the Sermon on the Mount where he preaches all these famous teachings. And then at the end, everyone goes, this guy's different. This guy's wild. He doesn't preach like our preachers. He preaches like someone who has authority, someone who. Who understands the ways of God, right?
[00:17:47] There's something about what's going on in Jesus's ministry that is drawing people dramatically.
[00:17:54] And when you see the Sermon on the Mount, it's like. Like we know this because. Because we're reading it later, right? Like, we know Jesus is God. So of course he knows all this stuff. But they don't know any of that yet, right?
[00:18:04] To these people, it's just this new rabbi, and he's awesome. But what you see as it switches from the teaching to the narratives is that even though when Jesus teaches, there's something in his words that lights people up and draws them in, that really, the majority of the crowds, the majority of the huge amount of people hounding him like, they're not there for Jesus's teaching, they're there for Jesus. Miracles.
[00:18:28] Because when Jesus says miracles, people get stuck.
[00:18:32] Sound familiar? Right. When Jesus is preaching, he gives food to thousands of hungry people who don't have money to buy food.
[00:18:40] When Jesus is finished preaching, he heals people who are sick, who don't have access to health care or even the concept of certain things being healed, they just feel like permanent parts of life.
[00:18:52] And so these crowds gather around Jesus because he gives them good stuff, right? Very familiar, very human idea.
[00:19:02] And it's just too much, too much. It's hindering the ministry at this point. So Jesus, he's gonna get away.
[00:19:11] He's gonna load everyone up, he's gonna get away. He's gonna let the crowds disperse.
[00:19:16] And so he calls out to Peter and says, grab your boats.
[00:19:20] Let's jump across.
[00:19:21] Remember the first apostles that Jesus called? These are fishermen. They were connected to fishing business in Capernaum. They had access to these boats we have really good archeological evidence of the kind of boats the fishermen used in Jesus's time. A couple of them sank into mud and were perfectly preserved. And we have them. We can look at them. They're 15, 20 foot long. They're shallow bow boats. Kind of think in your mind like what you generically think a Viking boat looks like, kind of like that, but it's got a big old sail in the middle. And here's what's interesting about these boats.
[00:19:52] They're great for fishing. They have big old flat bows. You can take them out into 20, 30 foot deep water, get big old nets of fish and drag them in and bring them back out into the middle. But they're terrible for open water. They're actually very dangerous in open water. And the Sea of Galilee is interesting because it's not really a sea, it's a lake.
[00:20:10] And so for the most part, those boats are fine.
[00:20:13] But there is a chunk in the middle of the Sea of Galilee that is open water.
[00:20:17] It's really not safe for these boats to go out on. But the lake's so small, you know, think size of the Lake of the Ozarks, right, that these guys do all the time. They zip across when they think the weather's going to be good. But there's risk in that because when a storm comes across the Sea of Galilee and you're out in the middle of it, it's open water. And those boats are not safe in a storm, in open water. What they're supposed to do is hop along the coast from town to town to town. But Jesus doesn't want to do that. The people at all the towns know he's there, and the crowds follow him when he does that. He wants to zip across to the other side. And so he tells Peter, get the guys, get the stuff. Let's leave. And they start to load up, to leave.
[00:20:55] And what we see here is that as they're loading up, as they're getting ready to leave and end out this season of ministry, people start crowding around.
[00:21:06] They start crowding around. And then as he begins to separate out kind of his followers and just the crowds, these two guys step up and talk to Jesus. I think this part is interesting because remember, Jesus is surrounded by crowds who want the stuff he gives them, but he also has actual followers. People who are hearing his teaching, people who are zoning in, who want to be his disciple. And right now he's kind of doing a little bit of wheat and chaff, separating who's coming with me and who's staying here and these two guys step up and they're essentially saying, I want to come with you.
[00:21:41] Don't leave me behind.
[00:21:43] I want to be a part of this.
[00:21:45] Let's look at these two men. First we have a scribe.
[00:21:49] Now these kind of people were unique in first century Judaism. Remember, you have to remember most folk in this day and age in this culture are not terribly literate.
[00:21:57] Jews were pretty rare amongst the larger culture in the Roman Empire in that most of their young men were taught to read, but almost no one could actually write.
[00:22:06] Scribes were these sort of professional scholars who could both read and write. And in Jewish culture they were tasked with preserving both Jewish culture and Jewish theology.
[00:22:17] And so they not only preserved the scriptures, but they also preserved the teaching of the most well known and respected rabbis. They wrote down the teachings of the famous rabbis. And what's interesting about scribes is could teach in synagogues, they could take these with them and teach in the local congregations, but they couldn't teach their own teaching. Like they were seen as these keepers of the truth, these keepers of the teaching. So they could read the teachings of other rabbis and teach people with them, but they couldn't interject their own commentary or thought, right? These are kind of these professional scholars that existed in this day and had a really important role in a pre printing press society, right?
[00:22:59] Jesus isn't like the scribes.
[00:23:01] Jesus shows up and teaches and says, here's what it means, right?
[00:23:06] Remember back in the Sermon on the Mount, what does Jesus say over and over in the Sermon on the Mount? You've heard it said, but I tell you, Jesus gives commentary, he gives thought process. He's not like the scribes. He brings his own authority, his own thoughts. This scribe has heard enough of what Jesus is doing that he wants in.
[00:23:26] He wants to be a disciple of this rabbi Jesus. And here's the thing guys, it's easy for us to miss this because we don't study many ancient rabbis outside of Jesus. But this is actually the normal way a rabbi would get a disciple. They go out and they teach and people go, I like that. And they come up and say, I'd like to be one of your disciples. How do I apply? Jesus was pretty unique amongst ancient rabbis that he sought people out and handpicked them.
[00:23:53] There were a couple of the rabbis that did that, but. But not very many.
[00:23:57] And so Jesus has this scribe coming up to him doing something that's very normal in his day, but is also incredibly honoring in his culture. This is an educated guy this is one of the elites of Jewish society who's coming up to a Galilean, kind of a backwoods rabbi and saying, I want to be one of your followers. This would have been a really big opportunity for Jesus. That means all his teachings are going to be professionally preserved, which means they can be distributed, which means his author can grow.
[00:24:26] And that means Jesus's response to this guy is incredibly weird to anyone who would hear it in the moment.
[00:24:33] Jesus basically warns him against it. He says, I want to be one of your disciples. And Jesus says, just so you know, pretty rough out here, dude.
[00:24:43] Not going to be fun. Not going to be easy.
[00:24:45] And he uses this phrase, foxes have holes, birds have nests. I don't even have a bed, dude.
[00:24:52] This is not academia. This is not vacation.
[00:24:55] You show up, you're showing up to nothing.
[00:25:00] It's interesting. Interesting the way he phrases it, because before he can even answer, the text introduces us to this second disciple. This guy apparently has been following Jesus long enough that he's a disciple. I mean, he refers to Jesus as Lord, not Rabbi, but look what he says.
[00:25:19] He says he wants to go bury his father.
[00:25:22] Now, here's the thing. On the surface, that feels like an incredibly reasonable request, right? Like, if someone was like, hey, I want to come on this retreat. I have a funeral tomorrow. Can I do that first? And he said, no, get out of here. That would be very mean, right? But the thing you have to understand what's going on on the surface here is almost certainly. We don't know this 100%, but the text is written for you to see this.
[00:25:46] Almost certainly this guy's dad is still alive.
[00:25:50] Almost certainly. Maybe he was old, maybe he was ill. But the reality is Jewish burial rights were so specific and so strict that there's no world where this guy's dad is sitting at the morgue and he's like, give me, like, six hours to go to the funeral. No, no. This guy is saying, can you put leaving here on pause for two to nine weeks so that I can get some stuff taken care of, Right?
[00:26:15] And Jesus's response to him is, no. Nope, nope. Not gonna do that, man.
[00:26:21] Let them worry about it. Come with me or don't.
[00:26:24] That's pretty.
[00:26:25] It's pretty intense.
[00:26:27] He basically says, the kingdom of God's work, it's here and it's now. It's not gonna wait. Jump on it or don't, but don't ask me to wait for you, man.
[00:26:36] Don't ask me to wait for you.
[00:26:38] I think what's Interesting about this scene is that we are given no closure.
[00:26:44] No closure. This scene, by the way, is repeated in three of the four gospels. The varying levels of detail. Luke actually gives an extra guy in it, but it's the same scene and they never give actual closure.
[00:26:58] And so you're kind of left wondering, like, do these guys leave everything and follow Jesus the way Peter, James, John did?
[00:27:05] Do they walk away disappointed the way the rich young ruler did?
[00:27:09] The text doesn't tell us.
[00:27:12] Doesn't tell us. And I think there's a reason for that. I think Jesus is teaching us here about what it means to follow him. I think the point of the text is not actually these guys, but it's how their question relates to what's going on right now in Jesus's ministry.
[00:27:30] Jesus is teaching us through this narrative what it means to be a Christian, what it means to be his follower. And the reality is, to be Christian means uncertainty about the comforts of this world.
[00:27:46] Uncertainty about the comforts of this world.
[00:27:49] To be a follower of Jesus means stepping up and prioritizing the kingdom of God above everything, even the good things in life.
[00:28:02] Make no mistake, Jesus is giving a difficult teaching here.
[00:28:08] He's saying in no uncertain terms. It will be hard to follow him, and you must choose if you're willing to pay the cause.
[00:28:17] That's a big thing. Read over me in this text and see how this kind of wraps together. Verse 23.
[00:28:23] As he got into the boat, his disciples followed him.
[00:28:26] Suddenly, a violent storm arose on the sea. So the boat was being swamped by the waves. But Jesus kept sleeping.
[00:28:35] So the disciples came and woke him up, saying, lord, save us, we're going to die.
[00:28:40] He said to them, why are you afraid? You of little faith? Then he got up and rebuked the winds and the sea, and there was great calm. And the men were amazed and asked, what kind of man is this? Even the winds and the se obey him.
[00:28:57] Our scene shifts into a really familiar story, right? This is one of Jesus's most well known miracles. Whoever is following Jesus, whoever gives the yes, they jump in the boats and they head out.
[00:29:09] And as they're making their crossing, two things happen. I think they're both theologically significant for us. The first one is that Jesus falls asleep. And the second one is that a terrible storm blows up. Now, I'm not going to belabor this point because this isn't our point today, but some of the guys who went on the retreat specifically need to hear this today.
[00:29:28] Naps can be worship.
[00:29:29] Yeah, Naps can be worshiped. That's really important. There's nothing godly about working yourself to death. Naps are good in about 30 minutes. You don't need to do that right this second. You can hold off on that for just a little bit longer.
[00:29:43] Right now, they're bad. In 30 minutes, they're worship.
[00:29:49] Sorry, but I think this is important to see, right? Jesus has been working his tail off.
[00:29:56] The Gospels tell us he has been hounded by these crowds.
[00:30:00] And the minute he gets away and the boat's going along and the winds and the sails and the waves are going, he's out like a light.
[00:30:09] And there's something beautiful and worshipful about that.
[00:30:13] But then the storm whips up a really common thing in this region. You can go and read about it. The geography of how the Sea of Galilee is formed and the regions right there. The storms that hit the Sea of Galilee are sudden and they're big. They're outsized for how small the body of water is. It's why you shouldn't take these shallow bow boats straight across. You should go around, but they're going straight across. And so they're caught out in the middle of this storm, and it's bad.
[00:30:40] They are not built to ride these storms. Getting caught in deep water in a fishing boat in a storm, for most people in this day simply meant dying.
[00:30:50] Like, that's. That's a dramatic way to say it, but that is a hundred percent what's going on here. Like, you have to remember something here, right? The guys running these boats for Jesus are not hobbyists with a pontoon boat out like at the lake for the weekend. These are professional fishermen. They live their life in these boats on this water.
[00:31:12] And how do they respond to this storm?
[00:31:16] We're dead.
[00:31:18] That's their response. Oh, shoot. Bad choice. We're dying.
[00:31:22] This is it. We're done. The boats are swamping. They're sinking.
[00:31:27] That's terrible. And then they go and they wake Jesus up, which, by the way, is just really hammering in our original point. The fact that Jesus is sleeping through everyone dying while the storm is going on lets you know boy was working hard and naps are really good. But they do. They go and they wake him up. And what do they say to Jesus? They say, we're dying. Save us.
[00:31:51] Right?
[00:31:52] And look at Jesus's response here. His response is twofold. First, he rebukes their lack of faith.
[00:31:59] Now, we didn't get this because we didn't look at the whole chapter, but the way Matthew structures his book, he puts a chunk of Jesus's teaching together and a chunk of narratives together. And the individual narratives are supposed to tie together thematically the way the teachings are supposed to tie together. And if you were to go back a little earlier in chapter eight, there's the story where Jesus heals this Gentile centurion's kid. And he has this moment where he's talking to the Gentile and he says, I've not met a single person in all of Israel with as much faith in God as you have.
[00:32:29] Which we read that as Gentiles, and we're like, yeah, sick. But, but, but, but that was. That would have been strange to the people there, hearing that, hearing a Jewish rabbi praise the faith of a heathen, right?
[00:32:42] And so I think it's interesting, I think Matthew's connecting these dots here, because just a few paragraphs ago, Jesus was commending, honoring the faith of a gentile. And here, in this moment with his followers, not the crowds, not the people who just take from Jesus, the people who are all in with Christ, right? The people who said, yeah, fine, I'll get in the boat and I'll go. The people who were actually his followers. Jesus's first words to them when they wake him up in the storm and they're actively dying is he rebukes their lack of faith.
[00:33:13] Right?
[00:33:15] You have little faith. Really?
[00:33:17] Really. This is what gets you. And you imagine the moment the storms whipping. The boat's like, full of water, everyone's soaking wet. This is what's got you guys all worked up.
[00:33:26] And I don't know about you guys, but I'm reading that going, yes, Jesus, I'm incredibly worked up about this. This is my moment of death.
[00:33:36] And Jesus turns around and says, stop.
[00:33:39] And did you catch that, by the way, the phrase it uses? It says, he rebukes the storm.
[00:33:48] Rebukes the storm.
[00:33:50] I imagine it's that moment when you walk in the kitchen and you see, like, your cats jumped on the counter. Hey, get down. What are you doing? That kind of moment.
[00:33:58] Christ rebukes the storm and the storm shuts up.
[00:34:05] That's crazy. Like, this is one of those stories, it's one of Jesus's miracles that's so familiar to us. It's kind of embedded itself into our conscious, and we don't really think about that.
[00:34:17] But I want you to imagine the last time you weathered a big storm at your house, right? One of those, like, spring storms where you're hearing the tornado sirens go off all over. And because you're a good Midwesterner. You hear the tornado sirens go off, and you go. I think you look out the front door, right? You know what I'm talking about. And so you go, and you peek out and you're like, can I see a funnel cloud anywhere? Like that. That kind of thing, right? I want you to imagine that moment and imagine yourself walking out in your front yard and saying, hey, stop it.
[00:34:49] How silly that is, right?
[00:34:52] And yet that is precisely what Christ does.
[00:34:56] He rebukes the storm and the weather.
[00:35:01] And the waves obey Christ.
[00:35:06] They obey his words in this moment, as the wind is and the waves.
[00:35:15] And it just gets quiet.
[00:35:17] And all his disciples are still standing there. I can imagine the moment, like, the dudes are, like, bailing out the boat, and then everyone kind of freezes. And they're all sitting there soaking wet. The boat's halfway in the water, and Jesus is just like, this is what you woke me up for.
[00:35:33] And they all look at each other. I mean, can you imagine yourself in that scene?
[00:35:37] The winds. Just listen to him.
[00:35:41] Who the heck is this guy?
[00:35:43] Who is this?
[00:35:46] The text.
[00:35:48] So how does this all connect together? What does this have to do with what we just read about these guys that wanted to come with him, and Jesus is pushing them back, right? What's the thread that runs in this story today?
[00:35:59] I think there's something really important here.
[00:36:04] I think what we see in this text, beloved, is that Jesus is the Messiah actually worth following, actually worth following him.
[00:36:16] Don't mishear me when I say that it's not easy to follow him.
[00:36:21] It's not comfortable to follow him. It's not even necessarily pleasant at all times to follow him.
[00:36:29] But it is worth following him.
[00:36:34] Jesus looks at this wealthy, respected academic and says, bro, if you're going to come with me, you're going to be homeless.
[00:36:40] You down for that?
[00:36:42] And then he looks at this guy who's actually devout, who's actually listening to him, and says, bro, if you want to come with me, it's right now. Now or never. Pick family or me.
[00:36:51] Those both feel really intense.
[00:36:54] That feels really intense to put on someone.
[00:36:58] And I think what Christ shows us here is that the call of Jesus is intense.
[00:37:04] It is intense, but it's worth it.
[00:37:09] It's still worth it.
[00:37:12] Who do you know who in your life can rebuke the storm like a cat on the counter?
[00:37:21] Who in your life can sleep through the sinking ship and wake up and casually save everyone's life like nothing is happening?
[00:37:34] Who do you know like that?
[00:37:36] Only one Jesus Christ of Nazareth he's the only one, the only one who walks in this world. Like he owns it. You know why?
[00:37:47] Because he owns it.
[00:37:49] Because it's actually his.
[00:37:51] Because he actually has that authority. He actually has that power.
[00:37:56] He actually really does live in this world as the owner of it, as the supreme authority over it.
[00:38:05] Jesus is a real messiah.
[00:38:08] Messiah means anointed one, chosen one. He's a real messiah. He's a real savior.
[00:38:15] And hear this.
[00:38:17] He's a real king.
[00:38:19] We can elect people, we can vote, we can move parties back and forth and flip flop the house and do all the different stuff, but there is a king over this reality.
[00:38:29] His name is Christ.
[00:38:30] His name is Jesus.
[00:38:33] He can rebuke storms.
[00:38:36] Following Christ is not easy.
[00:38:39] It's not easy.
[00:38:41] Not convenient, not comfortable.
[00:38:45] It's not always pleasant.
[00:38:47] But beloved is. It is sincerely, completely and totally worth, is worth it.
[00:38:57] And here's the thing.
[00:38:59] The reason it's hard to follow Jesus, the reason it's difficult to follow Jesus is because he hears our excuses. He knows our excuses. And here's the thing. Not mean about it, not hateful about it. He's not guilting us about it.
[00:39:16] He's just not going to play that game with you.
[00:39:19] He's not about it.
[00:39:22] He's not gonna receive your excuses, not gonna guilt you for it, not gonna be mean, but he's not gonna do it.
[00:39:31] I need to go resolve these things. You know, if you could put off going there for just a few more months so I can get things in order, get my life in order. Nope.
[00:39:38] Nah, dude. Not doing that.
[00:39:39] Kingdom of God is right here, right now. Do it or don't.
[00:39:43] Well, Lord, if you let me come with, you know, I'm actually really well connected and I could do all these things and I could build it in ministry. No, I'm not worried about that.
[00:39:50] You gonna come or not? We're gonna be homeless, btw. No hotels, no per diem.
[00:39:56] Right?
[00:39:59] Christ is not willing to receive our excuses.
[00:40:04] Because Christ is not content to have pieces of you.
[00:40:08] He's not content with part of your heart.
[00:40:13] If you follow Jesus and you really follow Jesus, it means you have given all of yourself to Him. And that means something. That costs something. That means your real life is different.
[00:40:25] It's different in ways that can be painful.
[00:40:28] You will likely not experience the best comforts and pleasures this life has to offer because you will prioritize your time and your lifestyle to the things of Jesus.
[00:40:41] Can I say that again?
[00:40:43] If you give Christ your yes in 2026, in the United States of America. It means you will very likely not experience all of the comforts and pleasures of a normative life in this culture, because you will prioritize your time and your money toward the things of the kingdom.
[00:41:06] Foxes have holes and birds have nests, but the Son of Man has nowhere to lay his head.
[00:41:12] Do you want to come or not?
[00:41:15] That's a big thing.
[00:41:17] It's a big thing.
[00:41:21] But the dead bury their own dead.
[00:41:24] Beloved, you need to hear this. That means you don't get to put your marriage, your children, your parents, your siblings, your family on a pedestal above Christ.
[00:41:40] If Christ is your king, he's your king.
[00:41:44] And family is good.
[00:41:46] Family is a beautiful thing. Family glorifies God. Marriage is good.
[00:41:50] Marriage is a beautiful thing that glorifies God. Parenting is good. It's a beautiful thing that glorifies God. But Christ will not, will not bow his knee to your family for your marriage, your kids, or your sibling. You will not.
[00:42:08] Christ is your king. He's your king, and everything in your life bows its knee to him.
[00:42:17] And so, as you think about your marriage, if you are married or desire to be married, if you think about marriage in the context of being a Christian, it means this. Christ gets primacy in my marriage changes the people you're willing to marry, changes the way you form your marriage, changes the desires built into your marriage. It changes the goal of your marriage.
[00:42:40] You're gonna be a follower of Christ, and you desire. You're gonna have kids.
[00:42:45] You have kids differently.
[00:42:47] Changes the purpose, the vision, the meaning, having children. It changes the way you raise kids, the way you treat them, the place they live in your life. Tim, who hung out with us this week, and he brought his son with him, and he had this moment where his son's in the room and he just goes, I love my son, but he's not the center of my life. Do you know that son? We talk about that.
[00:43:08] His son's like nine. I'm like, gee whiz, man.
[00:43:15] But we talked about it afterward. He has that conversation with his kids.
[00:43:20] I love you guys.
[00:43:21] I love Christ. And because I love Christ, you're not the center of my life.
[00:43:26] There's truth to that. There's truth to that.
[00:43:29] When you're raising your kids as a Christian, you're raising your kids not trying to give them every single thing they want all the time. Not trying to give them every comfort and joy. You're raising your kids, pointing them toward Christ, prioritizing the things of the kingdom in your life.
[00:43:43] Beloved, Beloved.
[00:43:45] If Christ is Your king.
[00:43:47] Your life will look different.
[00:43:50] Your calendar will look different.
[00:43:52] Your priorities will look different.
[00:43:54] Your savings account will look different. Your purchase history will look different.
[00:43:58] Your life will reflect the values of the kingdom, will reflect the primacy of Christ.
[00:44:07] And the plain reality is we don't like that.
[00:44:10] Yeah, we don't like that.
[00:44:13] We don't like that because we love idols.
[00:44:17] We love all that stuff.
[00:44:19] I want to take awesome vacations. I want to spend all my money on all the things I want. I want to make my life centered around all the things I enjoy that give me pleasure and dopamine and make my life feel easy. I want comfort and ease all the time, right?
[00:44:33] So when you say, hey, follow Jesus, don't worry about any of that stuff, that's not a great sales pitch, right?
[00:44:44] We love idols.
[00:44:47] Do you remember Jesus's parable of the seed earlier on his ministry? You know that he goes and scatters seed, Four, different kind of seed, different kind of soil and all that different stuff. Remember that part?
[00:44:55] He talks about the seed of the gospel being planted in different kinds of soil. One of them, one of the seeds is in soil mixed with weeds and the plants are choked and they don't bear any fruit.
[00:45:08] And do you know what Jesus says about that part of the parable?
[00:45:12] He says that represents those who seek the kingdom of God but love this world.
[00:45:21] And because they love this world, because they love the pleasures of this earth, their life is choked and it bears little fruit.
[00:45:33] That's what Jesus tells us plainly.
[00:45:36] And so it leaves us today with a really important question.
[00:45:39] Do you, beloved of Christ, follow Jesus?
[00:45:44] Not Are you a good church going Christian?
[00:45:49] Not. Is your tithe of today it should be?
[00:45:51] Not. Do you attend Bible study? Not. Do you go to all the retreats? Do you, beloved of Christ, follow Jesus?
[00:46:02] Is he actually your king?
[00:46:05] Is he actually your rabbi? Is he actually your messiah?
[00:46:10] Do you really follow him?
[00:46:12] Are you a disciple?
[00:46:14] Are you part of the crowd?
[00:46:17] The crowd shows up because Jesus gives them good stuff.
[00:46:20] The disciples are all in because Jesus is their king.
[00:46:26] Some of us show up at church because we're of what? Because of what we're getting out of it.
[00:46:31] And by the way, that's not inherently a bad thing.
[00:46:35] You show up here, life's hard, you're beat up, you're exhausted, you're spiritually spent. And if that's you, you are welcome here.
[00:46:42] Come be beat up, exhausted and spiritually spent.
[00:46:47] And I guarantee that as you hang out here with other believers in Christ at this specific church, that you'll find connection.
[00:46:54] You'll find love that you'll. You'll find moments of feeling good. You'll find encouragement. You'll find people pouring into you and supporting you and helping you stand up and thrive.
[00:47:04] It's a beautiful thing.
[00:47:06] But the question you have to ask is, are you involved in a church like Emmanuel because it gives you those things?
[00:47:13] Are you involved in a church like Emmanuel because it glorifies Christ to wedge your heart to a local body of believers when Christ is your king?
[00:47:21] It's two different questions.
[00:47:24] It's good to receive the benefits of a church family.
[00:47:28] It's good. It's good. If our church isn't benefiting you, you're not receiving those things and something isn't inspiring. We need to deal with it.
[00:47:37] But are you here because of what you're getting out of it?
[00:47:40] Have you chosen your faith, chosen your church, the way you choose your cell phone subscription?
[00:47:47] How do I get the most amount of benefits for the least amount of monthly cost?
[00:47:51] Right?
[00:47:52] Or have you chosen this because it glorifies God and Christ as your king, and it glorifies him to wedge your heart to a family of believers, good and bad, right?
[00:48:07] Luke 14 is really instructive on this.
[00:48:09] Jesus says this, or it says this. In Luke 14, great crowds were turning to Jesus. This is around the same time, and he turned to them and he said, if anyone comes after me and does not hate his own father, mother, wife and children, brothers and sisters, yes, even his own life, he cannot be my disciple. For whoever does not bear his own cross and come after me can't be my disciple.
[00:48:29] For which of you, wanting to build a tower, doesn't first sit down and calculate the cost to see if he has enough to complete it. Otherwise, after he's laid the foundation and cannot finish it, all the onlookers will begin to ridicule him, saying, this man served to build and wasn't able to finish. Or what king going to war against another king will not first sit down and decide if he's able, with 10,000 troops, to oppose the one who comes against him with 20,000? If not, while the other, still far off, he sent the delegation and asked for terms of peace in the same way. Therefore, every one of you who does not renounce all he has cannot be my disciple.
[00:49:03] Assault is good, but assault should lose its taste. How will it be made salty again?
[00:49:08] It's only fit for the manure pile, so throw it away.
[00:49:13] Let anyone who has ears to listen hear what I say.
[00:49:19] Beloved, don't be Foolish.
[00:49:24] I know that's a good advice to hear from your pastor. Right.
[00:49:27] Don't be foolish.
[00:49:29] Don't be surprised by what kind of soil you actually are and what kind of fruit is actually born in your life.
[00:49:42] Consider it.
[00:49:44] Consider the state of your heart. Consider the longings and desires of your heart. Count the cost.
[00:49:51] Ask yourself, what do you love more?
[00:49:54] This world or your king?
[00:49:57] Now, if you're anything like me, the answer to that is, I don't know. It's kind of complicated.
[00:50:03] I do love Jesus. I do want to give my life to him. I do hear the gospel, and I receive these things from my church. And I go, yeah, I want all that. But I also really want my life to be easy and comfortable. And I hate being stressed out and anxious all the time. Right.
[00:50:16] And we go through seasons, in and out, where sometimes it feels like we get clarity. Maybe we go to a retreat or event or we have a discipleship relationship, or we have this moment of breakthrough with the spirit and we go, yeah, that's it. And we lock in. But then as we live our life and things get distracting and loud and busy and stressful, we slowly fade out. And then we find ourselves in this dry place. And you just kind of end up doing this with your faith. Right?
[00:50:36] Right.
[00:50:38] We all do that.
[00:50:40] It can be easy to hear a sermon like this and just think, man, I'm really bad at being a Christian.
[00:50:47] Like, what is the point?
[00:50:50] I am not going to get to where they're at.
[00:50:53] Right.
[00:50:54] I want to tell you something that I think is so encouraging. This is why I brought up the centurion thing earlier. Band if you want to come back up.
[00:51:01] I think the beautiful thing about this text is that Jesus rebuked the disciples for their lack of faith.
[00:51:10] Here's what I mean by that.
[00:51:13] The disciples were really bad at being disciples.
[00:51:17] They were really bad at it.
[00:51:19] They were really bad at understanding what Jesus said.
[00:51:23] They were really bad at changing their life to be more ethically, morally good people.
[00:51:28] They were really bad at actually obeying what Jesus told them to do.
[00:51:33] They were bumbling along, messing it up every step of the way.
[00:51:38] It's actually incredibly encouraging to sit down and do a character study of men like Peter or John. Because you just sit there and go, oh, okay, okay.
[00:51:47] Bar is not that high.
[00:51:52] But what do these men do? What is actually the difference between the disciples and the crowds?
[00:51:59] When the boat was sinking and they were dying, they turned to Jesus.
[00:52:04] When their efforts ran out, when their strength ran out, when they were sinking, when they were Dying.
[00:52:12] When they were scared, when they were hurting, when they were worried, when reality was crumbling around them, they turned to Christ.
[00:52:22] Even in their lack of faith.
[00:52:24] Right?
[00:52:25] Even in their lack of faith, they turn to Jesus and they say, save us.
[00:52:31] Deliver us.
[00:52:33] Beloved of Jesus, this is the gospel.
[00:52:40] Not that you are so spiritually disciplined and so tough and so able to forsake all your comforts and pleasures that God looks at you and goes, dang, like a tier A plus. You're really good at. Not. Not that. No, no, no.
[00:52:54] Not that we impress God with our asceticism and our personal discipline and holiness.
[00:53:01] The essence of the gospel, beloved, is that we can't fix what's broken in our lives.
[00:53:09] That we're really bad at being disciplined and godly and holy.
[00:53:13] That we have such shallow thresholds for pain and suffering that when life hits us, we crumble into pieces.
[00:53:22] And in the midst of our weakness and our brokenness and our lack of ability to fix what is broken in our own hearts, we can turn to Christ and say, save me.
[00:53:33] And he does.
[00:53:36] That's what it means to be a follower of friends.
[00:53:41] It is to bring your weakness to the feet of Jesus and say, I got nothing for this.
[00:53:47] And Christ says, cool. I do.
[00:53:50] I do love it. That's the invitation for us today. That's why.
[00:53:56] That's why it's worth it to follow Jesus.
[00:54:02] That's why it's worth it. Even though it's hard.
[00:54:05] That's why it's worth it. Even though we're bad at it. That's why it's worth it. Even though our faith becomes this emotional roller coaster of our battling against our flesh and winning sometimes and losing sometimes, it's worth it. Because when you're at the end of your rope and you fall at the feet of Jesus, he has nothing for you but love and grace and redemption.
[00:54:23] Come on, church.
[00:54:26] We follow Jesus who is able, who can rebuke the storms.
[00:54:31] And rather than being distant and angry and mean about our lack of faith, he condescends.
[00:54:40] He meets us in our mess.
[00:54:42] He saves us.
[00:54:45] That's what you're invited into.
[00:54:47] And so when we say, put your hand to the plow, we're not saying, get tough or be better.
[00:54:56] I don't know.
[00:54:58] We're saying, beloved, give your life to Christ. It'll be wild.
[00:55:02] And you won't live a life like your friends who aren't Christian but cost you something.
[00:55:07] But at the end of the day, you'll live a life worth living.
[00:55:12] You live a life with meaning. With purpose.
[00:55:15] You live a life with the creator of the universe, carrying you in your weakness, holding you up and sustaining you when you have nothing left.
[00:55:25] That's a life worth pursuing. Amen.
