Matthew 4 (Part 2) :12-23

says when Jesus heard that John had been put in prison he returned to Galilee leaving Nazareth he went and lived in Capernaum which was by the lake in the area of Zebulun and Naphtali to fulfill what was said through the Prophet Isaiah land of Zebulun and land of Naphtali the way by this or the way to the sea rather along the Jordan Galilee of the Gentiles the people living in darkness have seen a great light on those living in the land of the shadow of death a light has dawned from that time on Jesus began to preach repent for the kingdom of heaven is near or at hand your Bible may say this passage in Matthew so so far here tells us that Jesus began his earthly ministry really in earnest after the arrest of John Matthew doesn't give us any details here about that arrest it will come later on in the book but Jesus went to the area of Galilee where he had been raised and although once again Matthew doesn't give us the details we know that he went first to Nazareth and there he sat or stood up in the in the synagogue it's interesting they would stand to read the word and then the rabbi would sit down to teach that was just the tradition so he read a passage out of Isaiah which said the spirit of the Lord is upon me he has he has anointed me to preach the good news and he read the whole passage and then he rolled up the scroll and he set it aside and he sat down to teach and he said in your hearing this day the scriptures are fulfilled place just absolutely went berserk and and they essentially kind of ran him out of town for all intents and purposes it says that he was only able to do a few miracles I always thought that was kind of a funny passage I always kind of thought any miracles was cool but he could only do a few small miracles because they're there of their faith and their familiarity with him having been raised they even said isn't this the carpenter's son isn't his mother and his brothers and his sisters living here among us then where did this man get this you know all this stuff and and this is they took offense at him so so Matthew tells us here that Jesus went on to actually kind of live for a season we don't know how long it was probably not long but for a while at Capernaum and and because of his being there in that region of Galilee Matthew believed that there was a passage from Isaiah that was being fulfilled and that was Isaiah 9 verses 1 and 2 which he quotes here saying Galilee of the Gentiles you've seen a great light and because the Lord has been among you he goes on in verse 18 to kind of explain why Jesus came to that region and it is as he says as Jesus was walking beside the Sea of Galilee he saw two brothers Simon called Peter and his brother Andrew and they were casting a net into the lake for they were fishermen come follow me Jesus said and I will make you fishers of men or I will I'll I'm gonna make you fish for people and at once they left their nets and followed him going on from there he saw two other brothers James son of Zebedee and his brother John they were in the boat or in a boat rather with their father Zebedee preparing their nets and Jesus called them immediately they left the boat and their father and followed him and so we see one of the reasons why Jesus went up into the region of Galilee and that was to call these men to a place of following him and and and and we we want to look at this passage and look at basically three things from it about the calling of the Lord and I'm going to put these on the screen for you and first of all the kind of people God calls is the first thing that we're going to look at the second thing is the way he calls and the third thing is our response to the call of the Lord as we start with the kind of people God calls have you ever felt like God could never use you I mean be honest some of you been through some hard stuff some of you been through some really really hard stuff I mean your lives have been one challenge from from the get-go others of you you just kind of feel just totally ordinary I mean you're just average you're just you consider yourself the average you know maybe nothing special you're not you know up up or down you're just kind of right as the joke goes you know you're so average you buy your pants an extra medium you got to kind of think about that one for a little bit but anyway the the point is that's the way you know eventually most of us begin to understand our lives or see our lives it's kind of funny when we talk about these men that Jesus called into the ministry when we think about them and we don't think so much about what they were we think about what they weren't because there's frankly more to think about when we talk about what they weren't what they were was fishermen but what they weren't was they weren't men of influence they weren't men of power they weren't men of wealth that's not to say they were necessarily poor fishermen actually made a respectable living back in that day but they were not they were not schooled men they were not you know they've been they've been raised on a boat they learned how to fish at an early age and and you know they knew how to read and write and stuff like that but they weren't scholars by any stretch of the imagination they weren't the kind of people that you would look at and you'd say wow I think that person has an amazing future ahead of them I mean you would not look at a man like Simon Peter and think that 2,000 years we're going to even be naming his name let alone remembering the things that he did I mean this guy is extra ordinary not extraordinary just extraordinary these men are simple everyday hard working blokes and nothing to write home about necessarily just people those are the kind of people that God calls that's the kind of people just like just like you and me those are the kind of people he calls let me show you a passage from 1st Corinthians chapter 1 look at this brothers Paul writes to the church of Corinth think what you were when you were called he says not many of you were wise by human standards not many were influential not many were of noble birth but God chose the foolish things of the world to shame the wise God chose the weak things of the world to shame the strong he chose the lowly things of this world and the despised things and the things that are not to nullify the things that are so that no one may boast before him and you so here here we are isn't that just a great description of you and me it's just like here's here's us and welcome to us you know we're kind of those you know not too many wise among us you know not very many influential not anybody here by the way of noble birth I don't know maybe some of you've done some searching into your background and you found that you know you're great great great great great great great grandmother was you know the queen of a little island you know where five people lived or something you know God bless you you're noble you know but you know for the rest of us you know we're just all we're just all ordinary people you know nothing special about us at all in fact we're not strong you know the longer I walk with the Lord the less I think of myself in positive terms the more I walk with the Lord the more I see myself as I really am and I'm not really impressed to be honest with you I'm just but that's okay because I'm not all impressed with you either so it's kind of an even sort of a thing you know but that's kind of that's who God calls so don't sit there today and think God wouldn't call me to either be a follower of his or to do something in the ministry or something like that because you are exactly who he'd call you are precisely who he would lay his hand on and call you into some area you know first of all he calls you just to be a follower doesn't he that's the first thing we do we just come to follow Jesus but then as we follow him and we begin to serve him we find that he calls us into particular areas of ministry and forth now let's look at the next point that we're going to be covering here on our list if you're taking notes that's the second one is the way that that God calls us did you notice as you read through those verses there you know here in in Matthew 4 did you notice what was happening how Jesus actually called them here here are these this pair of brothers and they're working in the boats or at least on the shore in one case but they're there in one case the brothers are throwing their nets out in just just throwing their nets out in the water and Jesus comes by and he goes you Peter Andrew come on and then he comes up to James and John who he referred later on as the sons of thunder remember because they were kind of hot-headed you know dork heads but I mean they just they were kind of just weird guys that anyway and they're in the boat mending their nets which it was a comp and you know The thing they had to do, fishermen, constantly snagging them on rocks, breaking them, too many fish or whatever. So there are many, and Jesus comes along and he says, you guys, come on, let's go. Come follow me. Kind of interesting, isn't it? I mean, that's…we look at that and we say, in both of these situations, there was a characteristic to the calling that we find interesting, and that is that it involved leaving, right? Peter and Andrew left the net probably out in the water. They're like, and Jesus says, come follow me, and they're like, okay. And James and John are there with their dad and they're mending the net, and Jesus comes along and says, follow me, and they get up and they go. And in both cases, in both situations, these men are leaving something. And, you know, whenever we're called to leave something behind, there's almost always a cost involved in that. Are you aware of that? Pretty much every leaving involves some kind of a cost. In this case, these guys are leaving their fishing jobs. James and John are leaving their father, and so forth. Now, what has God called you to leave? Well, one thing we know that we're all called to leave behind is, of course, the old way of life. Let me show you another passage from 2 Corinthians 5, verse 17. It says, therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he's now become a new creation, and he is to leave the old life because the old life is gone. And he's to understand that the new life, the new spiritual life of walking with Jesus is now paramount in his life, and so the old life needs to be left behind. Paul also writes in Ephesians chapter 4, I'll put this on the screen also, he says, you were taught with regard to your former way of life, the way you lived before you met Jesus. He said that you're to put it off, and to put off the old self, he says, which is being corrupted by its deceitful desires, and you're to be made new in the attitude of your minds, and to put on the new self created to be like God in true righteousness and holiness, and so forth. So we all have this in common, you see. We're called to put off the old way of life. You can't carry it with you into your walk with the Lord. You've got to put it aside. There's a cost, you know, but you and I are called to put it off. Now, in addition to that, some people, you know, as I've kind of watched people over the years when they're called into a walk with the Lord, I've observed some of the things that people have been called to leave behind, to let go of, and so forth. In some cases, it's friends, good friends, sometimes even extended family members who are tempting you back into the old life, and you know that by spending time with them, you're just constantly being tempted to go back and do the things that you used to do before you knew Christ. And so, there comes that point when the Holy Spirit convicts you that in order to really follow Jesus, you've got to leave that behind, you know. Just like these guys are having to leave their fishing careers, leave their father even in this situation to come and follow Jesus. Other people I've seen have had to leave where they previously lived. God calls them to live in a new area of the world even sometimes. Sometimes it's just another town, and it's for various reasons. I've seen people called to live in a different place because to get away from sin, you know, sometimes they were part of a group of people, there was kind of a...maybe they were in the drug culture, and they were entrenched in the drug culture. And so, now they came to Christ, they accepted Jesus as their Savior, and God calls them to go and move to another town so they can just start over fresh, you know, and not, you know, be so connected because they always got people coming over. Here they are living for Jesus, and they got people coming to their door wanting to buy drugs, you know, or wanting to sell them drugs constantly. Sometimes people are just called to live in a different area simply because God calls them to live in a different area to serve, you know. I want you to go serve there. But in order to do that, you got to leave where you were. And once again, this whole concept of leaving things behind to follow the Lord, you know. I've seen some people leave their job, sometimes even a good-paying job, but to leave it because whatever reason God may give for that, but, you know, sometimes it happens. I've even seen people leave their old church affiliation. Maybe the church their family, you know, went to when they were a child, they were raised up in, and they started hearing about the things of the Lord, they started being open to the Lord, and they went back to that old church affiliation they were raised with, and they realized, there's nothing going on here. It's dead. There's no...the Scriptures aren't being taught. Jesus isn't being, you know, exalted. There's no mention of the cross ever. And then God calls them to leave those things behind. They need to go to a new church where they're going to get fed, where they're going to be, you know, encouraged in the things of the Lord. But again, with every leaving, there's a price to pay. There's always a price to pay. Some of you guys could, if I gave you the time, you could stand up, and you could give testimony of the things that God has basically called you to leave while you, you know, when he called you to follow him. Some of you could talk about the things that were very painful, and you can talk about, if you had the opportunity, like family members that harassed you or friends who harassed you, said, what are you doing? What are you doing going to that church? That's not what we were raised in. Or what are you doing, you know, letting go of that good-paying job and taking this lower-paying job? Why are you doing that? Well, you know, it's hard to explain, isn't it, to somebody who doesn't know the Lord? But, you know, you're basically just, this is what God's called you to. And that calling often encompasses the whole idea of leaving, you know? And Jesus knew that. He talked about it. He talked, actually, about leaving quite a bit. So the way that God calls, don't be surprised, guys, if the way that he has called you involves the issue of leaving something, someone. Obviously, now, God's not going to ask you to leave your spouse, okay? So don't, I'm not suggesting that. And, you know, when you're married and you come to the Lord and your spouse isn't a believer, you're still married, and God wants you to honor that commitment. But there are things that you are completely within your rights to leave, and God may call upon you to do so. And your continued obedience and willingness to follow the Lord in that is going to be very, very important. And then the last thing we'll put up here on the screen, the last point of the things that we're looking at here is the third point is our response to his call. And here in this passage in Matthew chapter 4, we have a very positive response to the call of the Lord. It's these two men, or two groups of men, rather, who hear the voice of the Lord, come follow me, and they just, they're like, boom, they're right there, you know? They set aside what they're doing. And by the way, that wasn't the first time they met Jesus. They had heard him. They'd connected before. The other gospel accounts tell us that, that these men had actually had encounters with Jesus previous to this particular calling. So they knew, at least to a degree, what they were getting into. At least they knew who they were kind of following. You'll remember that Andrew was one of the ones who was previously a follower of John the Baptist, and heard John say, when Jesus walked by, there goes the Lamb of God. There he is, the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world. Andrew heard that out of the mouth of John the Baptist, so he knew. And he actually went and got Peter and said, you know, hey, guess what? We found the Messiah, and so forth. And so these guys were familiar with Jesus, but now is the time, that point in time when Jesus calls them personally, speaks to them by name. You remember the time in your life? When Jesus came along and called you by name, said, you, you, you, you, I want you, come, follow me. So what are some of the responses? Well, you know, like I said, the response here in Matthew 4 is a very good one, but it's not always that way. And it isn't always characterized in a positive light necessarily throughout the course of the New Testament. There's that very well-known passage from Luke chapter 18, which I'll put up on the screen here for you, where we deal with that rich young ruler, remember? It says a certain ruler had asked him, good teacher, what must I do to inherit eternal life? This guy thought eternal life was something he had to do for God. And so Jesus says, why do you call me good? Jesus answered, no one is good except God alone. You know the commandments. Do not commit adultery, do not murder, do not steal, do not give false testimony, honor your father and mother, and so on and so on. All these I have kept since I was a boy, said the guy, which kind of proves that, you know, is not really hitting on all cylinders, because we know that we can't keep all the law all the time. In fact, what's the purpose of the law? Paul tells us in the New Testament, the purpose of the law is to expose our sinfulness, isn't it? And to lead us to Christ, lead us to the Savior. That's why the law was given. The law was never given for you and I to look at the law and go, Oh, yeah, I can do that. I got that dialed in. No problem. And that's kind of the attitude this guy had He says I've done all that. So Jesus is going to test his devotion to God and he says this He says it says when Jesus heard This he said to him you still lack one thing sell everything you have and give to the poor and you will have treasure in heaven then come follow me and And it says here that when he heard this he became very sad And And the other gospel accounts tell us that he went away in his sadness. Why because he had great wealth now Here's a man who came up He bumped up against the call to follow and remember that call is Characterized by leaving something and in this particular case Jesus challenges this man to leave his wealth Now I don't believe that this is something God tells everyone to do I think God Wealth may not meet that much to you and you might think yourself quite righteous for having left all of your wealth If he called you to do that and so forth when in fact that isn't really the thing that really holds you down but this guy it was and Jesus knows exactly what probably is the most challenging thing for you to give up or for you to leave behind And so he says to this man in this very personal challenge, okay, here's the thing that you lack you lack devotion You you you are you are tied to your wealth young man in a way that you don't even understand So here's the deal the call of the Lord on your life is Such that it involves leaving. So here's what you need to do. You need to take your money and leave it behind and then come follow me and the man went away sad and He basically said That's too expensive The cost is just too great and Over the years. I've seen that happen over and over and over again where people have been confronted with something related to their following of Jesus that just costs too much and it's just Sorry, Jesus. You just stepped over it buddy You just asked too much of me, you know, I was willing to play the whole way up until now and you just You know somebody Somebody comes to the Lord could be could be a person, you know it could be someone you're dating who isn't a born-again believer and you came you came to Christ and you start walking with Jesus and And and God the Holy Spirit starts to speak to you from the word about not being unequally yoked You know with unbelievers and that sort of thing and and he starts laying it upon your heart that this is something you need to leave if you're really gonna follow him with a whole heart and and some people and it happens they just come back and they're like Nope, I Would do anything except that So you see it it happens like this sometimes Jesus just asks too much At least for our sensibilities And we're not willing to leave those things behind and then we wonder why we're not growing as a believer And we wonder sometimes why we don't have the same passion that maybe this person over here has man I just really wish I had that kind of passion, you know But the fact of the matter is I'm dragging my fishing net behind me Can you imagine if these guys would have done that these fishermen? Can you imagine them jumping out of their boat or or? Throwing the net into the water and then hearing Jesus call and saying hang on and they grab the net and they just drag it Those things were huge by the way they were usually big circular nets with weights on them to go down and then they pull the thing up and and and Can you imagine trying to pull that along and there are Christians who are doing that? They've taken their past Life or something that God has called them to leave and they're dragging it with them and they're wondering why there's no joy in their walk With the Lord and they're wondering why there's no diet dynamics and no excitement and no passion and it's like, you know This this following Jesus thing is kind of a drag no pun intended Because you know, but what they don't realize is they haven't jettisoned to the past They haven't understood that the calling of the Lord, you know is is characterized by the leaving of things What have you what have you been called to leave? What have you been called to leave behind? Well, like I said before we're all called to leave behind the old life But beyond that God may be speaking to you about things that if you don't get rid of your walk with the Lord is going To just be this burdensome Trudging along where you're trying to make headway, but you're just not going anywhere Maybe it's because you came up against something that the Holy Spirit spoke to you about and you said no But you keep coming to church, you know this rich young ruler thing. We're thing you guy that we're talking about here. He I know the type He looks really like he's Got it. I mean look he comes right up to Jesus, you know, he's got the initiative come, you know master Tell me good teacher. What must I do? To have eternal life. I mean he's thinking about eternal life. He's thinking about eternity He's thinking about what happens, you know after this life And so he's got his direction is his vision is kind of seems to be in the right going the right way He and he's asking, you know He seems to be asking the right questions, you know and so forth, but there's something that you don't see Jesus sees it You and I we wouldn't necessarily see it. We'd say well, I Think he'd be a great asset in the church. I'm in good grief with all that wealth We could probably do some building projects and we could do some things like that and we could use a guy like that Come on, brother. Come on, Jonah Sort of thing and there by the way, there's an offering box and and sort of a thing and we're gonna you know We're gonna but Jesus goes right to the matter of the heart right to what's really, you know Gonna stop this guy from really truly being a follower And he says, you know you you look really good on the outside you got good questions You got good zeal, but the minute I push down on this one single nerve Which is the which is the one in your life that that you know, it seemed is the most important boom You're just instantly depressed and you walk away and say well, you know, I tried That Jesus character man, he just asks way too much I Went to go talk to that guy. Whoo. What a weirdo Wanted me to sell everything that I have does he even have a clue how wealthy I am How much money and how much Administration that would involve and selling and giving it to the poor whoever heard of such a thing I can do much better job serving the kingdom of God right now my you know Monthly tithe checks or whatever and and being a you know Benefit, you know a benefactor for other people and so forth and you know And and and all the while all the while he's dragging this net behind him. He's dragging this weight behind him Because he didn't understand The concept of what it means to leave to follow the Lord You know, there's another there's another time in the ministry of Jesus where he was having some really challenging conversations with the people some were disciples some were religious leaders It's it's all captured for us in the sixth chapter of John. I won't make you turn there this morning You can maybe if you're making mental notes or physical notes, you can write that down but Jesus is saying a lot of hard things and And the people are not just they're not getting it and And I want to show you just one verse out of this from John chapter 6 It's verse 66 and it says from this time many of his disciples turned back and no longer Followed him now notice who turned back. They were those who were previously his disciples, but they turned back and they no longer followed Because he was saying things if you read that this statement in context with the rest of the chapter You'll see what I mean These this is the chapter where Jesus is saying just a lot of hard things Like if you don't eat my flesh and drink my blood you have no life in you and they were just getting all Weirded out about that and they and and and they were stumbling over their understanding and so because they just didn't get it They turned away So you see it's not always because of things that Jesus asks you to give up sometimes it's the thing Jesus asks you to accept or to under or just to to to to believe and It just goes against our sensibilities or it or we just lack the understanding and so we just kind of say you know what? I Don't I don't know. I think I think that's a little too much for me, and I'm just gonna kind of back off You know this whole thing about Christianity it works a lot better when you don't get radical about it You know I mean these people that go to church every week I think that's just kind of going a little overboard don't you I? Mean I think more like the once a month once every five six weeks. That's probably a little more moderation everything in moderation and We kind of just settle back Into a mediocre Sort of a you know relationship with God You know last Wednesday We showed a video that was a testimony of pastor Greg Laurie who pastors at Church, Calvary Chapel, it's actually called Harvest Christian Fellowship down in Southern California, one of the first Calvary chapels to spin off from Costa Mesa, one of the first. And Greg Laurie was a young boy in his teens who was kind of caught up in all of the same weird hippie strangeness that was happening around this country and particularly in Southern California back in the late 60s and early 70s. And he got involved in all the rest of that, but also was searching, he really was searching, had a bad family life, mom had been married multiple, multiple, multiple times, guys that treated her horribly and so he, you know, got into his upper teenage years and did just like most kids during that period did, you know, and got into drugs and the whole thing. But eventually, he tells how he was going to high school and he came onto the property and there were these kids sitting on the grass and they were reading the Bible and stuff and he stopped and he kind of just, he wanted to kind of hear a little bit, but he didn't want to be close enough that anybody might think he was part of the group. So he kind of stood back at a distance and he said, I remember thinking at the time, these kids look ridiculous. I mean, I'm embarrassed for them from doing all this and yet he was strangely drawn to what was going on. So suddenly, this young man stood up and started speaking and Greg said, before I knew it, I was walking over to that crowd and I was asking them to pray for me because I wanted to receive Christ as my savior. And he said, you know, it was weird, I didn't feel anything that day, I didn't feel anything special, but I prayed the sinner's prayer and I accepted Christ into my heart and over a period of days and weeks that followed, Greg Laurie heard the call of the Lord. He heard the calling of Jesus, calling his name to come and follow. And for those of you that have seen the video, it's called Lost Boy, by the way, if we don't have some in the bookstore, we're getting more and it's a great video, there's even a book that goes along with it, but it is so incredibly powerful and the people who watched the video were visibly moved. And I had people come up to me after the video this last Wednesday and it was not uncommon for people to say something that went like this, why isn't my life like that? There wasn't just one person that expressed that kind of a comparison. You know, it's a very natural thing for us to compare ourselves with the lives of others. But there's kind of this recognition that the passion, the level of passion that we saw portrayed in this young man as he accepted that call to be a follower of Jesus Christ and as he began to walk that out is significant and in fact different many times from the call or the way that we've responded to that same call. And we wonder sometimes, and some people even verbalized it, where, where's that passion in me? Why don't I have that same kind of passion? But what's interesting to me is that I don't think they caught some of the things that went on during the video. For example, after Greg got saved, he just wanted to know more about God. And because Calvary Chapel Costa Mesa back then was having Bible studies literally every night of the week, he said he went to a Bible study every night of the week. Now he was single and freewheeling and he had that freedom to do that. But even so, that speaks of just that, that desire to know, you know, and then he began to find ways to serve. He was actually good at art and he was sitting and listening to Pastor Chuck Smith teach about the woman at the well, that story in the gospels about Jesus meeting the Samaritan woman. And he suddenly got the idea that he could draw that story out on like a comic strip type form. And and so he started drawing it out and he took it to Pastor Chuck and said, hey, what do you think of this? And Chuck said, that's great. We should print these up and give them away. So they printed up 10,000 copies. And they on a Monday night, they sent all the hippies out to just go pass these things out. And in one night they got rid of 10,000. So they said, oh, we better do more of that. So they printed 100,000 of them. And over the years, it was just, you know, and so Greg started. He said, I got a taste of what it meant to serve the Lord, to respond to the call by beginning to serve. And he said, I liked it. And then he's having a he's sitting and having kind of a little Bible study. He's not leading it, but he's having a little Bible study was from some people. They were down at the ocean just sitting on the beach. And he really felt called. He felt led to share something with the group. And so he said, do you guys mind if I kind of share something that the Lord put on my heart? And they're like, yeah, sure. Go for it. So he started sharing, you know, and after he got done. And of course, he was pretty excited about that. After he got done, some of the girls from the group came up to him and said, pastor. They said, yeah, they said, we'd like to be baptized right now, right here in the ocean. He's like, oh, you don't understand. I'm not a pastor. I'm just I'm just one of you guys. And I, I, I'm not qualified. And they said, well, we really want to be baptized. And so he got to thinking about it. He thought, well, why not? You know, they want to they want to be immersed in Christ. So here's some water. Let's do it. So he thought, OK. So he takes them out in the ocean, you know, a little ways and, you know, baptized. And then he looks up and he realizes there's a bunch of people standing up along this bluff watching this whole thing. So he turns up to those people and he says, you guys are probably wondering what we're doing down here. And he starts telling them in the gospel and some of those people get saved and come down and get baptized in the ocean. It's crazy. But, you know, he just started serving. You see, your response to the call of God on your life, you need to understand that if you're dragging your feet and if things aren't, if the passion isn't there and you're kind of like coming to church once in a while, but it's like you got to drag out of bed and go, you got to go to church or you got to go to this or whatever. And maybe it's because there's a difference as long as we're making comparisons. You know, there's nothing that makes walking with Jesus more exciting than serving the Lord. And if you haven't plugged into some kind of service, you need to do that. I just got an email and I won't tell you who it's from. I want to explain for all I know that could be watching on the webcast. But one of our families who not that long ago moved away and I was communicating via email with this couple and they were saying to me, you know, now that we've gotten away from our family there at Calvary Chapel and we're having to start over again, we really wish we would have served more. We wish we would have done more. And it's funny how, you know, you get out of a situation and then you start to realize how much you miss. And I think that there's probably this idea that there's always somebody else that's going to do things. But you know what? If you're going to really start growing in Jesus, if you're going to take hold of that calling, OK, and you're going to do something with it. Just instead of just coming to church, there's all kinds of things to do. So respond to the call with willingness, with obedience and with service. Why not give him your time? Why not start teaching a Sunday school class? Why not start helping out in some other capacity? There are a myriad of ways just around here. How about sharing your faith in the workplace? Thinking about how you can share your faith at school or wherever God has you. The point is, let's start doing something. We look at a guy like Greg Lurie and we say, how come I don't have that kind of passion in my life? Well, it's because sometimes it's because we're sitting on our hands and we need to get busy. Well, I don't know what to do. Well, just do something. You know, I mean, Greg started off drawing comics. He didn't keep doing that, by the way. He's pastoring this, you know, church. And now he does these harvest crusades down in Southern California and around the country that have, I mean, it's just thousands and thousands of people have come to Jesus Christ through this man's ministry. And he is just like you. But there was something about Greg's life that he responded to the call. Yes, Lord. I mean, this guy was so passionate about Jesus. You know, when he finally got serious with a girl who eventually became his wife, he even said to her, listen, don't you ever get in the way of my relationship with Jesus Christ? Because if you do, this thing's off. When's the last time you heard somebody say that? Most of the time, we're willing to sacrifice Jesus for the relationship, not the other way around. This man said, it's Jesus first. It's Jesus first. And then he got busy. And that's why God began to do things through this man. Not because he's incredible. I mean, when you when you watch that video, you find out the kind of life he came from, the kind of family situation he came from. He had like a dozen marks against him. And he was on his way probably to being a drug addicted criminal for the rest of his life. Had God not intervened and called him, but then Greg responded to the call. Yes, Lord. I'll put it on the screen. that away. I'll leave that. I'll leave that situation. I'll leave the drugs behind. I will leave this. I'll leave that. I'll leave this. And I'll walk with you. And I'll serve you. And I'll live my life for you. And I'll learn of you. I'll grow in my walk with you. So you see the response on your part is huge. It's huge. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.