February 23, A Life-Decision, Matthew 4:19
PART ONE
a life-decision, Matthew 4:19
“Come, follow me,” Jesus said, “and I will send you out to fish for people.”
Today, we have a desperate need to understand Jesus’ words, “follow me.” A 2018 Gallup Pole revealed that most people in our nation have some belief in God. I’ve spent time scrutinizing the statistics from within our culture concerning how people respond to Jesus. In a short summary from Barna Research Group’s David Kinnaman, many Americans claim to have faith in Jesus (150 million), but most of the research reveals that dedication to Jesus is a different story. In Kinnaman’s terms, dedication to Jesus is “a mile wide and an inch deep.” And the frightening statistic? Every younger generation shows less numbers than the previous generation concerning making a commitment to follow Jesus. So, we have in this present culture not a believing problem as much as a “following” problem. David Platt writes,
“We have reduced following Jesus to the “idea of following Jesus.” We do this in all sorts of ways. We rationalize Jesus' demanding teaching by making such false conclusions as, ‘Of course, Jesus wasn't actually telling you to abandon your family. And of course, He wasn't really saying to leave everything behind to follow Him.’ While it's true that Jesus didn't-and doesn't-require everyone to leave their father and their occupation to follow Him, He does require absolute obedience and commitment. Rather than joyfully embracing His call, we have the self-serving tendency to water it down to a theoretical sacrifice and hypothetical abandonment. We want to follow a Jesus that doesn't require anything of us. In essence, we've redefined Christianity. We've given in to the dangerous temptation to take the Jesus of the Bible and twist Him into a version of Jesus we're more comfortable with. It's a Jesus who's OK with our materialism, fine with nominal devotion that doesn't require any sacrifice, and pleased with a brand of faith that requires attendance on Sunday but no real commitment in day-to-day life.”
In Matthew 4:19, Jesus said, “follow me.” Of the 12 original disciples, 7 of them are actually recorded in the Scriptures, and each received the invitation from Jesus, “follow me.” Their call was to respond to what they knew of Jesus at that very moment. This invitation represents the only suitable response to Jesus. To present the call to follow afresh and anew, consider two very simple but necessary teaching points: (1) the story; and (2) Your place in the story.
To hear the full sermon, follow the link below and the podcast dated August 2, 2020.
