THE GREAT INVITATION
Matt 4: 18-22 (p677) April 21, 2013
INTRODUCTION:
I have been invited to do some really cool things in my life…Melvin Richardson’s son Joe invited me to fly with him in a P51 Mustang…”Yes I took him up on the invitation…and yes, It was as fun as it sounds!!! (Show Picture)
I was invited this last year to have the introductory prayer at the Nicole’s Place Banquet where Josh McDowell was speaking…He’s one of my favorite authors…and I felt honored and excited to be part of that evening...I got to meet Josh McDowell, spend some time talking with him and he gave me a signed copy of his new book…His life’s testimony….”Undaunted”
I’ve been invited to parties…revivals…funerals…weddings…all sorts of events…some have been fun…some have been dull…some have been, a mixture…
But for me it’s always about the person who invites me…or at least that makes a big difference to me. (And anyone who says it doesn’t…is a big fat “not talking the truth-er”)
When the invitation comes from someone I know, love and trust I almost immediately start planning on how I can say yes…last year my roommate in college Burt (before I upgraded to a much better roommate name Kari) called and asked if I could come and speak at their homecoming celebration in Morgantown, IN…I was saying yes before I’d even checked the calendar, because I wanted to be with him…I wanted to accept this invitation because I love the one who invited me.
That’s the essence of Christianity…and many are prone to miss it if they think they are the ones doing the inviting instead of Jesus…When we describe being a follower of Christ in terms of “Inviting Jesus into our lives” or praying that “Jesus be our personal Lord and Savior” it seems like we’re almost doing Him a favor…like we’re inviting Him to our party.
But the reality of the gospel is that we do not become God’s children because of any initiative in us! And Jesus does not come to our salvation party. Instead, before we were ever born, God was working to adopt us...while we were dead in our sin; God was planning to resurrect us to new life. And the only way we become part of the eternal celebration party is through His love…a love entirely beyond anything we can imagine…Christianity does not begin with our pursuit of Christ, but with Christ’s pursuit of us…Christianity does not start with an invitation we offer to Jesus, but with an invitation Jesus offers to us
I DEAD PEOPLE DON’T INVITE
Peter, Andrew….James and John were the four originals to receive Jesus invitation ….”Follow Me”.
“Come follow me and I will send you out to fish for people.”
Like we said last week Jesus invites these 4 men to leave behind their professions, possessions, dreams, ambitions, family and friends, safety and security.
“If anyone is going to follow me, he must deny himself, and take up his cross…! Jesus would say this to the disciples repeatedly….
The world says, “Promote, Pleasure and Comfort yourself” Jesus says, “Deny yourself…Slay yourself”…
What kind of invitation is that? Hey, come follow me, and die!!!”
And they did…Stephen Curtis Chapman wrote
(READ VERSES THEN CHORUS)
We will abandon it all for the sake of the call
No other reason at all but the sake of the call
Wholly devoted to live and to die for the sake of the call
Nobody stood and applauded them
So they knew from the start
This road would not lead to fame
All they really knew for sure
Was Jesus had called to them
He said “come follow Me” and they came
With reckless abandon, they came
Empty nets lying there at the water’s edge
Told a story that few could believe
And none could explain
How some crazy fishermen agreed to go where Jesus lead
With no thought to what they would gain
For Jesus had called them by name
And they answered.
We will abandon it all for the sake of the call
No other reason at all but the sake of the call
Wholly devoted to live and to die for the sake of the call
The sake of the call
Drawn like the rivers are drawn to the sea
There’s no turning back, for the water cannot help but flow
Once we hear the Savior’s call, we’ll follow wherever He leads
Because of the love He has shown
And because He has called us to go
We will answer…
We will abandon it all for the sake of the call
No other reason at all but the sake of the call
Wholly devoted to live and to die
Not for the sake of a creed or a cause
Not for a dream or a promise
Simply because it is Jesus who called
And if we believe we’ll obey
We will abandon it all for the sake of the call
No other reason at all but the sake of the call
We will abandon it all for the sake of the call
No other reason at all but the sake of the call
Wholly devoted to live and to die for the sake of the call
For the sake of the call
We will abandon it all for the sake of the call
No other reason at all
We will abandon it all
No other reason at all
We will abandon it all
“Simply because it was Jesus who called”
It’s not an invitation to fly in a P51, but its more exciting, it’s not an invitation to speak at a convention, it’s a call to confess His name wherever you are to whoever you’re with. It’s not an invitation to pray, although without a true prayer life, you will dry up like an old branch…
It’s an invitation to come and die, to abandon it all…wholly devoted to live and to die, for the sake of the call…
And this call come to dead people…whether they are 4 fisherman by the sea, a rebellious violent Pharisee out for blood, a High School dropout looking for his next high, or a super successful, rich athlete.
The Apostle Paul writes:
Eph 2; 1-5 (p814)
Whether you are a Jew who knew the law of the God, or a gentile who had no history with the one true God…you’ve sinned, your heart is filled with a desire to rebel and sin…and you listened to it, Satan played you and me like a marionette. He put out the bait we gobbled it up all of us.
And each of us thinks…”Well, I’m not as bad as that guy”….But sin doesn’t measure itself by US….Sin measures itself by who it hurts…who it’s against…
If you sin against a log it’s no big deal…Sin against a person it’s a big deal…Sin against the ruler of your land real big deal…Sin against the perfect, creator of the entire universe and the consequences are deadly…
And because we’ve all done this we run from Him, there is nothing in is that could get us to grasp the level of our sinfulness…None of us seek God….at the core of who we are we are His enemies…we have no real desire to have a relationship with Him…We’re dead spiritually speaking…all of us, not just the really bad ones…All have sinned and missed God’s glory”
We might try to make a quick fix of sin if we get caught or in trouble, but even then the motive is selfish…Hear Paul’s’ humbly testimony as he summarizes this very truth.
Romans 3: 10-18 (p 783)
Our problem isn’t that we’ve messed up a little and need some assistance…our problem is we are sinful to the core and unable to turn towards God…People who are dead can’t invite someone else to give their life!
Someone whose heart has flat lined doesn’t invite the EMT’s to resuscitate him!
In our death we need someone else…who is completely outside of us…to call us to life and enable us to live. How can that happen?
II GOD’S GRACIOUS INVITATION
It’s what we see God do over and over again in the Bible. In the midst of massive evil…God calls Noah and saves him from the flood…In the middle of pagan Ur….God calls idolatrous Abram and invites him to become Abraham…the father of a great nation…
While the Hebrew work as slaves in Egypt God calls the Murderer Moses from the pastures of Median to lead them out of slavery. Upon their deliverance God tells them Why!
Deut 7: 7-8 (p 150)
God chose to set His love on the Israelites not because of ANY merit in them…but solely because of the mercy in Him.
He chooses people to be recipients of His grace to demonstrate His power, not theirs!
So it’s not surprising we see four sinful Jewish fisherman standing by the sea…There is nothing in them that draws Christ to them…it’s not their “fishing skills” that moves him to call them…it’s His heart…He calls them in spite of who they are…not because of who they are!
[IT IS the wonder of my heart…every time I think about this truth it brings me to tears…”Who finds no real answer other than grace, which makes no human sense…Hey, I’ll pick this Holy
Spirit dropout, you know the stoner, the rebel…the waste of life…I’ll call Him to salvation…I’ll begin to soften his heart and when it’s cut wide open I’ll show Him the cross…I’ll show Him my unlimited mercy and grace…I’ll use his story..]
Every person who has truly been saved knows that truth…No one has ever been saved from their sin because they pursued Jesus but because He pursued them…what he told the 4 fishermen is still the truth (you did not chose me, but I chose you and appointed you”) ( John 15:16)
God, the King came Here…It wasn’t time for another flood…He’d shown us “the shadow…the copy…in His great love for the Israelites….He’d sit the stage, He primed the pump…
But mankind was still in a reckless sprint away from Him, Jew & Gentile alike…But God can run faster than us…He can demonstrate His love better than we can deny it… He is completely holy in all things. So how can God be perfect in His righteousness …His wrath towards Sin and His Holy perfect love toward sinners at the same time?
That is the climactic question of the bible and the answer…AT THE CROSS OF CHRIST…God showed the full expression of His wrath toward our Sin and saved us in His great love at the same time.
You see, at just the right time, when we were still powerless, Christ died for the ungodly”…God demonstrates His love for us in this. While we were still sinners Christ died for us.” (Rom 5: 6, 8)
Who determined the right time…God did! We don’t just sin; we are sinners…powerless, lost… God intervened---God sought…God knocked on the door…God goes to extraording lengths searching after his children.
[I’ve seen the gospel story paralleled several times over the past year or so…LuAnn and Steve Johnson’s adoption of Peyton showed me a great deal…How LuAnn said, “She knew in her heart that Peyton was hers”…they initiated the adoption process not Peyton. Jeff and Jessica Hale did the exact same thing with Maylee…Jeff and Johnna Hale’s granddaughter…they initiated the process for Maylee to become their daughter…
And Brian & Jennifer Clark…with Cracie whose 10 and Piper whose 8, I remember the first time they went to Ethopia to see the girls…How hard it was to come back without them…I remember being in a leadership with Brain, he was trying to make a decision about when they should go back…one the girls VISA hadn’t been approved…He asked for prayer and we laid loving hands on his shoulders and prayer for he and Jennifer and their family…for wisdom, for discernment…for God’s timing to be clearly evident…it hurt them for Craice and Piper not to be with them…Folks this adoption began because of a parent’s love…that love drove this couple to fly thousands of miles…go through foreign court proceeding, sacrifice time, money, ….fundraisers, yard sales, sheets…whatever it took….All to bring their daughters home…these precious beautiful little girls had no idea all that has been done, so that they could be cherished and loved…it’s beyond then imagination…Craice and Piper did not pursue Brian and Jennifer…Brian and Jennifer pursued them…
That is a picture of God’s love, He took the initiative to love and pursue us. It is His Holy
Spirit who witnesses the signing of the our adoption papers…someone asked me…how can you know that you are God’s child and my answer was simple…His Spirit…His spirit testifies to this truth…from when He changes us, daily…our sinful, rebellious nature can only be changed…transformed by the renewing of our minds, our thoughts are transformed, and because of that our desires, our will is surrendered for His glory…changing our
