Sold Out For Jesus Series

INTRODUCTION

• What is it in your life that you have sold yourself out to 100%?

• To be sold out means that you are all in, no plan "B,” and you are never looking for another option?

• It takes courage and trust to sell oneself out to something or someone.

• In all my years of ministry, I have seen Jesus cause radical changes in many people's" lives.

• Jesus has radically changed my life also.

• On the other side of the coin, I have seen as many, if not more, folks that the change does not seem very evident, or the change is more walk than talk.

• When we are baptized into Christ, we are a new creation, so given that fact, why are not all who come to Jesus radically changed?

• I believe we all want to be sold out for Jesus.

• I believe we all want to be radically changed by Jesus.

• Today we will begin a new four-week series that explores the lives of people who had profound, life-changing encounters with Jesus.

• As we examine these people, we will look for things that will help us experience the transformation and dedication we seek.

• When it comes to Jesus, if we are not willing to go all-in with Him, we will never experience the full blessings that God wants us to enjoy.

• Those blessings are not material; they are not a problem-free life, but rather, on top of eternal life, Jesus offers us the peace that surpasses all understanding.

• When we try to live with one foot in with Jesus, and the other foot in the world, we will never fully know what it is to live for Jesus and the joy that comes with it.

› The BIG IDEA for the message today is that Jesus calls all of us to follow Him wholeheartedly, to be sold out to Him!

• Let's turn to Matthew 10:1-4.

• This passage is the calling and the sending out of the Apostles into the world as a group.

Matthew 10:1–4 (NET 2nd ed.)

1 Jesus called his twelve disciples and gave them authority over unclean spirits so they could cast them out and heal every kind of disease and sickness.

2 Now these are the names of the twelve apostles: first, Simon (called Peter), and Andrew his brother; James son of Zebedee and John his brother;

3 Philip and Bartholomew; Thomas and Matthew the tax collector; James the son of Alphaeus, and Thaddaeus;

4 Simon the Zealot and Judas Iscariot, who betrayed him.

SERMON

Selling out for Jesus requires:

I. The courage to answer the call.

• The thought behind this point is the call to leave it all behind.

• Before this moment in the Gospel of Matthew, Jesus had called these men (in small groups or as individuals) (Mark 2:14-19) to drop what they were doing to follow him as disciples.

• During this particular snapshot, we see Jesus now calling them as a group to follow him.

• This moment would never have happened if they had not previously had conversations with Jesus about leaving their professions to follow him.

• Sometimes, God asks us to leave our day job—or our plans for a day job—and follow him vocationally.

• Jesus always asks us to follow Him.

Luke 9:57–62 (NET 2nd ed.)

57 As they were walking along the road, someone said to him, “I will follow you wherever you go.”

58 Jesus said to him, “Foxes have dens and the birds in the sky have nests, but the Son of Man has no place to lay his head.”

59 Jesus said to another, “Follow me.” But he replied, “Lord, first let me go and bury my father.”

60 But Jesus said to him, “Let the dead bury their own dead, but as for you, go and proclaim the kingdom of God.”

61 Yet another said, “I will follow you, Lord, but first let me say goodbye to my family.”

62 Jesus said to him, “No one who puts his hand to the plow and looks back is fit for the kingdom of God.”

• The call of Jesus is serious, and it is costly.

• The call is a big ask.

• The benefits are worth the cost, and for one to have the courage to be sold out for Jesus, they must trust this fact is true.

• For those whom Jesus called his disciples, a decision had to be made without the benefit of seeing how things would play out, of reading church history, or knowing how Jesus would ultimately display his kingship.

• The disciples had to decide to follow him as their leader by faith.

• The disciples risked a great deal.