Call Me Maybe
September 30, 2012
Mark 1:16-20
New International Version (NIV)
Jesus Calls His First Disciples
16 As Jesus walked beside the Sea of Galilee, he saw Simon and his brother Andrew casting a net into the lake, for they were fishermen. 17 “Come, follow me,” Jesus said, “and I will send you out to fish for people.” 18 At once they left their nets and followed him.
19 When he had gone a little farther, he saw James son of Zebedee and his brother John in a boat, preparing their nets. 20 Without delay he called them, and they left their father Zebedee in the boat with the hired men and followed him.
"Call Me Maybe" is a song recorded by Canadian singer-songwriter Carly Rae Jepsen for her EP Curiosity (2012). The song was written by Jepsen and Tavish Crowe as a folk song, but its genre was modified to pop following the production by Josh Ramsay. It was released as the lead single from the EP on September 20, 2011, through 604 Records. After Canadian pop singer Justin Bieber and his girlfriend actress/singer Selena Gomez tweeted about the song, it gained international attention.
SOURCE: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Call_Me_Maybe
The song has become wildly popular in the United States and is played over and over on contemporary radio stations. Now many of you listening this morning have probably never heard of the song, but trust me people who listen to this genre have heard it so many times you might wish it would go away. It’s one of those songs that just get stuck in your head and replays continually until you can find something to take its place.
Musically it’s not a masterpiece. Jepson wasn’t well known, or popular before writing this song. She didn’t have a large following or previous claims to fame other than placing third in the 2007 Canadian Idol television program. She released an album following that victory, but she didn’t become a household name until releasing “Call Me Maybe”
The lyrics are simple, and it’s really just one section that has captivated the world and sparked heated debate among music lovers. They read as follows:
Hey, I just met you,
And this is crazy,
But here’s my number,
So call me, maybe?
Now we aren’t here to debate popular music, or even to find hidden or overt meanings in the lyrics of songs. We are here to talk about a call. We are here to look at the ultimate call, the call of Christ on our lives.
Matthew 22:14 says:
"For many are called, but few are chosen."
Many receive the call of the Lord and choose not to follow Him. Today we are going to look at what it means to respond to that call, and the journey we choose as we practice faith and obedience to The Way.
What Is The Call?
The King of Kings, the Lord of Lords, was looking for a few good men. He was in search of the men He wanted to follow Him and form the core of believers that were going to rock the world. He sat down with a consultant, drafted a list of specific requirements, maybe even a list of preferred degrees from acceptable universities and set out to find the most highly qualified candidates. Right?
No!! Of course not. Jesus extended His call to follow Him to ordinary fishermen. They were not the religious elite, nor were they highly educated scholars of the Torah.
16 As Jesus walked beside the Sea of Galilee, he saw Simon and his brother Andrew casting a net into the lake, for they were fishermen. 17 “Come, follow me,” Jesus said, “and I will send you out to fish for people.”
He could have reached out to anyone, but He chose to seek people that were ordinary working people just like you and I. It was not their skill set he was looking for, it was their willingness to follow Him.
Henry Blackaby once wrote,
“When God was ready to judge the world with a flood, He came to Noah. When He desired to build a nation for Himself, He turned to Abraham. When He heard His children groaning under Egyptian bondage, He appeared in a burning bush to Moses. They were three of the most ordinary of men. But God had work to do, and He knew just who to do it with. God has always given His people assignments that are too big for them to handle alone, so that a watching world can see—not what we can do—but what God can do.”
That is one of the most exciting aspects of following Christ. Over and over we see God using ordinary people to get His will accomplished. We must never neglect the call of the Lord because just maybe we think we don’t have what it takes.
Not only were these fisherman ordinary people, they were busy people. There are many reasons we may think we are too busy to answer God’s call. Some of those reasons may even be legitimate reasons as opposed to excuses. We all recognize the importance of spending time with God, but there just doesn’t seem to be enough time.
No matter how busy we get, we must never be too busy to worship. We must never be too busy to be obedient. We must never neglect the call of the Lord because we think that maybe our schedule doesn’t permit it.
The story goes that Mark Twain loved to go fishing, but he hated to catch fish. The problem was he went fishing to relax, and catching fish ruined his relaxation, since he had to take the fish off the hook and do something with it. When he wanted to relax by doing nothing, people thought he was lazy, but if he went fishing he could relax all he wanted. People would see him sitting by the river bank and they would say, “Look, he’s fishing, don’t bother him.” So Mark Twain had the perfect solution: he would take a fishing pole, line, and a bobber, but he wouldn’t put a hook on the end. He would cast the bobber in the water and lay back on the bank. That way he could relax all he wanted and he would be bothered neither by man nor fish.
Mark Twain is like a lot of Christians I know. They have their pole in the water, but there is no hook on the end. They are not fishing; they are relaxing. Do you think this is what Jesus had in mind when he said, “Come, follow me, and I will make you fishers of men”? (Matthew 4:19).
The call from the Lord is specific, and it is positive. It is a positive challenge. It is not a call to escape a life we are tired of. It’s not a call to try something different. It’s not a call to receive blessings. It is a call, a command, to follow Christ. He told the fisherman to drop what they were doing and follow Him.
Following Christ is a choice of commitment. We must be all in, and to follow where He leads. When we follow Christ, He makes us into what He wants out of us. Just maybe, if we are listening close enough, we too can hear that call of the Lord upon our life.
Who Makes The Call?
17 “Come, follow me,” Jesus said, “and I will send you out to fish for people.”
Last Sunday the Green Bay Packers were playing the Seattle Seahawks in a hotly contested game. It was down to the last seconds and both teams were in the end zone scrambling for the ball. Whichever team gained possession could (and ultimately did) end the game, leaving the opposition wishing for more time.
In the call heard around the world the replacement NFL referees ruled the catch a simultaneous catch and under the rules of the league that meant that the passing team retains possession, and in this case it was ruled a touchdown just in the nick of time.
All across the nation football fans broke into spontaneous debate, it was the topic of news shows on every channel the following morning, and fodder for sports shows throughout the whole week. Ultimately the NFL ruled that they would stand behind the call of the referee and issued a final ruling that Green Bay had won the contest.
Armchair quarterbacks from coast to coast were incensed and outraged. However, it didn’t matter how outraged they were, it didn’t matter what they thought of the call, it didn’t matter because once a ruling is given there is nothing more to say. Why? Because on the field the final authority is the referee. His ruling is law.
When Jesus went those guys out on the boat and said “Follow me” it was said with all the authority of the Messiah. This directive to follow came from Christ Himself!
Unlike Ms. Jepson, who timidly handed out her phone number to a stranger in an effort to get him to ring her up Jesus knew exactly what was going to happen. He spoke with the authority of someone who knew that He was going to be obeyed.
You see Jesus isn’t just some mere man. He was not just a prophet, or a social worker. He was not a priest, teacher, or rabbi. He was not the king man next door, or the guy on the interstate that lets us merge in front of him. No, Jesus was extraordinary! Jesus was the very son of the Living God!
Roger Staubach who led the Dallas Cowboys to the World Championship in ’71 admitted that his position as a quarterback who didn’t call his own signals was a source of trial for him. Coach Landry sent in every play. He told Roger when to pass, when to run and only in emergency situations could he change the play (and he had better be right!). Even though Roger considered coach Landry to have a "genius mind" when it came to football strategy, pride said that he should be able to run his own team.
Roger later said, "I faced up to the issue of obedience. Once I learned to obey there was harmony, fulfillment, and victory."
The call of Christ on our lives is to be greater than any other consideration.
18 At once they left their nets and followed him.
19 When he had gone a little farther, he saw James son of Zebedee and his brother John in a
boat, preparing their nets. 20 Without delay he called them, and they left their father Zebedee in the boat with the hired men and followed him.
At ONCE they left their nets and followed Him. So compelling was Christ’s call they walked away from the only life they had ever known to follow this man whom they had just met. They left their livelihood to walk with Jesus throughout the countryside. Their possessions were left abandoned as they obeyed the call.
Family was even on the table, as we learn from other accounts that they were to walk away if their family was unwilling or unable to answer the call. Jesus was not saying that family was unimportant, instead He was teaching that following Him in obedience takes precedence over all other things.
This call of Christ comes to ordinary people with an extraordinary authority. Jesus doesn’t say “Call me Maybe”, instead He said to the fishermen, and He says to us today “Come Follow Me”.
