Speaker 1: Hey, what up.
Speaker 1: It's Mark Carter.
Speaker 1: I'm the pastor of Fierce Church.
Speaker 1: Welcome to our podcast.
Speaker 1: I'm so pumped that you're able to join us today.
Speaker 1: I hope this encourages you, inspires you, strengthens you, gives you hope to keep pressing on, and it's my prayer that this sermon gives you a more expansive view of God's love for you.
Speaker 1: Enjoy the message.
Speaker 1: We're going to jump right in Matthew 9.
Speaker 1: We'll talk about it in a second.
Speaker 1: We're just going to read it first.
Speaker 1: Matthew 9, 9 through 13.
Speaker 1: As Jesus was walking along, he saw a man named Matthew sitting at his tax collector's booth.
Speaker 1: Follow me and be my disciple, jesus said to him.
Speaker 1: So Matthew got up and followed him.
Speaker 1: Later Matthew invited somebody say invite.
Speaker 1: Matthew invited Jesus and his disciples to his home as dinner guests, along with many tax collectors and disreputable sinners.
Speaker 1: But when the Pharisees this was a particular religious party that was kind of in power they had lots of opinions about stuff.
Speaker 1: When the Pharisees saw this, they asked his disciples why does your teacher eat with such scum?
Speaker 1: When Jesus heard this, he said healthy people don't need a doctor, sick people do.
Speaker 1: Then he added now go and learn.
Speaker 1: He says here's the answer.
Speaker 1: Now you all have homework.
Speaker 1: Go and learn the meaning of this scripture and he quotes Hosea 6.6.
Speaker 1: I want you to show mercy, not offer sacrifices.
Speaker 1: That's an Old Testament prophet.
Speaker 1: He brings up.
Speaker 1: That was his message to his time.
Speaker 1: Jesus brings it up to speak it to these people right then, for I have come to call, not those who think they're righteous, but those who know that they're sinners.
Speaker 1: Matthew is writing this.
Speaker 1: This is Matthew's moment.
Speaker 1: He just decides to say yes to Jesus.
Speaker 1: We don't know how long Matthew had been watching Jesus.
Speaker 1: He's a tax collector In that time.
Speaker 1: A tax collector is kind of like to many people, especially the Jews, is like a villain.
Speaker 1: They're a person who is really a traitor to the people.
Speaker 1: They work for Rome.
Speaker 1: Now they help keep the people under Rome's boot and they come and they collect taxes, but it's not like today.
Speaker 1: There's really no laws they have to follow about how much they can take, so they just take whatever they want.
Speaker 1: They can make themselves rich, and so a tax collector and their buddies are probably, in the eyes of Jews, yeah, very disreputable sinners.
Speaker 1: And they're watching Matthew.
Speaker 1: Matthew is one of these guys and he just says I've known about Jesus long enough.
Speaker 1: I see him.
Speaker 1: Maybe it was instant, maybe it was several months.
Speaker 1: He's watching Jesus.
Speaker 1: I'm going to follow him.
Speaker 1: That follow means I'm going to be his disciple.
Speaker 1: I'm going to relationally attach to him.
Speaker 1: I'm going to not only just like geographically go where he goes.
Speaker 1: I want to mimic him.
Speaker 1: I want to know him.
Speaker 1: I want him to be a part of my situation.
Speaker 1: And nobody could have guessed that Matthew, this guy, is actually going to be the one who pens the book of Matthew.
Speaker 1: This is going to become one of the apostles and he writes the very book that we're reading out of right now.
Speaker 1: No one would have guessed that.
Speaker 1: No one would have guessed hey, see this scumbag.
Speaker 1: He's going to be the one that God uses to communicate God's word for millennia after this.
Speaker 1: Nobody saw it coming, except for Jesus.
Speaker 1: We can get this wrong sometimes.
Speaker 1: We can look at the people around us, the people in your life, the people in my life, people at your work, the people at your Starbucks, the people who are on your online community, and we're like you know, I don't know.
Speaker 1: I think they're a little bit too far gone.
Speaker 1: There's some people, but not them.
Speaker 1: They're especially disreputable.
Speaker 1: They're the kind that probably Jesus is just trying not to throw lightning bolts at because he's so angry at them all the time.
Speaker 1: We can all do that, we can judge by appearance, but God looks at the heart.
Speaker 1: God looks at the inner person and we just see what's on the outside.
Speaker 1: I wonder if we would ask the question what would God do through us if we knew some of the people around us were little baby Matthews?
Speaker 1: They just hadn't come out of their shell yet.
Speaker 1: They're in there and God has put us around them.
Speaker 1: And are we going to act like these overly religious, snobby, don't even give them a chance type of a people like the Pharisees?
Speaker 1: Or are we going to be much more like those who are rolling with Jesus and his entourage that day and we were way more open to having a party with some folks Jesus calls Matthew to leave everything, and we've got to understand this.
Speaker 1: Leave everything.
Speaker 1: This isn't like turning over a new leaf.
Speaker 1: I've turned over a new leaf.
Speaker 1: You've turned over new leaves.
Speaker 1: Everybody does this every New Year's.
Speaker 1: It's not like well, I think I'm going to try to drink less or drink none at all.
Speaker 1: It every New Year's, okay, it's not like well, I think I'm going to try to drink less or drink none at all.
Speaker 1: It's not like I really got to work on my diet.
Speaker 1: I'm going to turn over a new leaf and really try to get this down.
Speaker 1: Or I need some new friends.
Speaker 1: I'm going to try to get some new friends.
Speaker 1: I'm going to do something new.
Speaker 1: I'm going to change my habits, change my location.
Speaker 1: I'm going to just try something new, maybe to say Jesus, I'm with you, wherever you go, I'm going, whatever you do, I'm doing and whatever you've got your eye on in my life that you're like I'm going to be like, yeah, I don't know.
Speaker 1: We need to get rid of this, jesus.
Speaker 1: I need your help to get this out of here because I don't want anything in between you and me.
Speaker 1: And then one day, snap, he's just like I'm in, I'm going.
Speaker 1: I can remember that day for me.
Speaker 1: Now, you wouldn't have known it was going to be happening if you'd seen me four months before, because, honestly, for many years I was kind of known guys.
Speaker 1: I was kind of a punk.
Speaker 1: Like I would point myself out now and say see that punk, that's a punk, that's what a punk is.
Speaker 1: That was me.
Speaker 1: I was kind of hard.
Speaker 1: I was kind of like, you know, just insecure and tough.
Speaker 1: You know you want to fight, or something like that.
Speaker 1: You know not quite that that was the tone, though I wouldn't say that, but that was the tone.
Speaker 1: But people were praying for me and I was slowly being exposed to the ways of Jesus in a deeper, more meaningful way than I had just through life.
Speaker 1: I began to see what he was claiming in his word and there was something even though I was doing a lot of stuff that you'd be like he ain't no Christian there were still components in my heart.
Speaker 1: There's fireworks going off.
Speaker 1: I'd be like this Jesus though man, wow, he's something.
Speaker 1: I really liked this guy.
Speaker 1: And then one night I'm at a little small group with one of my buddies and some other kind of new friends, and one girl said some of you, you've been putting this off too long.
Speaker 1: She wasn't a theologian, she wasn't a teacher, she was a 19 year old student.
Speaker 1: And she said you've been putting this off too long.
Speaker 1: If you're ready to give your life to Christ, get on your knees right now.
Speaker 1: And I was like Jesus I'm ready.
Speaker 1: I was just ready.
Speaker 1: I was ready.
Speaker 1: God had done enough that I was ready, and it was.
Speaker 1: I'm going with Jesus Now.
Speaker 1: It didn't mean I did everything right.
Speaker 1: It didn't even mean I tried to do everything right, but it meant something shifted.
Speaker 1: I know that he's the man for me and I need to.
Speaker 1: It might take a while for him to clean some stuff up.
Speaker 1: It might take 25, 30 years before he cleans some stuff up.
Speaker 1: But I know the trajectory of my life has to go different now because he got me.
Speaker 1: Somehow.
Speaker 1: He got a hold of me the same way that he got a hold of Matthew that day.
Speaker 1: You just never know, dude, four months before that, if you would have looked at me, you wouldn't have thought I bet you that guy's about to get saved.
Speaker 1: You wouldn't have thought that I wonder if there's people, there's little Matthews in your life right now that you look at and be like, no, I've known them for a while.
Speaker 1: It ain't happening.
Speaker 1: But God is full of surprises and for you it can seem it will look instantaneous, even though God's been working behind the scene for years.
Speaker 1: It just happens and they're like, oh Jesus, I'm ready.
Speaker 1: What would it be like if we were a part of that situation for people?
Speaker 1: What could God do, through you and through me, at our work, at the places you frequent, at the playground, with the women and the dads who hang out there.
Speaker 1: What if God would use you there?
Speaker 1: What could God do through us if we just began to believe that maybe he could?
Speaker 1: There's alarm bells going off for these Pharisees, though, because they're like okay, first of all, there's this Matthew guy.
Speaker 1: What is Jesus?
Speaker 1: You're partying with him.
Speaker 1: Then he's bringing all of his friends and you're going with them.
Speaker 1: We're not so down with that.
Speaker 1: See, our version of religion is all about boundaries.
Speaker 1: Our version of religion is about okay, keep all the bad people and stuff out and away, get them distant, and then, from here, you can rightly and perfectly serve God.
Speaker 1: That was their understanding of how religion was supposed to go, and Jesus is flipping that upside down and he's saying actually, I want this.
Speaker 1: I want you to go learn the idea of mercy and compassion and kindness toward people who don't necessarily deserve it, and I want you to shift how you think about what it means to be gods.
Speaker 1: I want you to shift how you think about what is pleasing to God.
Speaker 1: See, pharisees, have a moment right here.
Speaker 1: They could join in the party.
Speaker 1: They'd be like doggone.
Speaker 1: You hear what he did.
Speaker 1: I'm amazed by that.
Speaker 1: I want to be a part of that.
Speaker 1: They could have gone, but they didn't.
Speaker 1: Instead, they pulled back.
Speaker 1: Is it possible that sometimes there's things in our lives where God's even trying to move in certain people or in certain ways and we're like, ah, that's bad, I can't have anything to do with that, and yet God is moving right there and he's inviting us right into it?
Speaker 1: If we can just remain open, and maybe it's not all about our pristine, perfect holiness as much as it's about a heart that beats for people that are hurting and lost, what is God doing?
Speaker 1: What's God doing at your school?
Speaker 1: What's God doing on your team?
Speaker 1: What's God doing in your family?
Speaker 1: What's God doing with that relative that you're like I don't know man, but yeah, it's that one that they haven't said anything to anybody, but there's stuff going off inside of them and they're getting closer and closer and closer.
Speaker 1: Wherever you are, jesus is doing stuff.
Speaker 1: But if we're going to be a part of that thing, if we're going to be a part of what Jesus is doing, here's two things we got to do.
Speaker 1: We learned from this text.
Speaker 1: We got to rethink righteousness and invite the uninvited.
Speaker 1: We've got to rethink righteousness and invite the uninvited.
Speaker 1: We've got to rethink righteousness.
Speaker 1: That's what the Pharisees needed to do and we need to invite the uninvited To join in what Jesus is doing.
Speaker 1: Here's number one we need to rethink righteousness.
Speaker 1: Why does your teacher eat with such scum?
Speaker 1: Now Jesus is doing something very provocative right here, like this is a statement.
Speaker 1: This would be all over social media.
Speaker 1: Jesus eats with scumbags.
Speaker 1: Like that's what it would be like.
Speaker 1: He's definitely making a statement and they're like Jesus.
Speaker 1: You should not be doing this.
Speaker 1: Now we got to know about these guys that he's doing with.
Speaker 1: Sometimes we think Jesus is he's only interested in, like the especially hurting and weak, and he is interested in all of them.
Speaker 1: But check this out these tax collectors guys, these were the self-sufficient, rich folks.
Speaker 1: These weren't like the poor.
Speaker 1: You know, jesus is always after the one who's.
Speaker 1: They're outcasts, but they're a different kind of an outcast.
Speaker 1: They just don't get.
Speaker 1: They're invited to lots of parties, just not the religious people parties.
Speaker 1: These people have plenty of money.
Speaker 1: Just people parties.
Speaker 1: These people have plenty of money and sometimes that can put up a barrier in our thinking of like dude, they've got everything.
Speaker 1: They clearly don't think that they need God and yet sometimes it's those very people who are very much more aware of the emptiness of all that they have and they're way more open than we might think, if we can keep an open spirit.
Speaker 1: So Jesus doesn't reject them.
Speaker 1: Rethink righteousness.
Speaker 1: When we talk about righteousness, it's more than just let's define terms here for a second.
Speaker 1: Sometimes in the Bible, in the New Testament especially, it's clear righteousness means we are made perfect.
Speaker 1: We're given the gift of Jesus's obedience.
Speaker 1: We have his righteousness because ours is just not enough.
Speaker 1: Our righteousness is really a righteousness that is in debt.
Speaker 1: It's kind of anti-righteousness.
Speaker 1: In order for Jesus to be in fellowship with us, he has to give us his record.
Speaker 1: He invites us into God's righteousness.
Speaker 1: When you hear somebody say I'm like Paul said, I'm the righteousness of God in Christ, that means I have God's righteousness because of what Jesus did for me.
Speaker 1: It's not of myself, it's of him.
Speaker 1: Now there's another kind of normal righteousness Maybe you want to think about it this way more and it really just means improve your behavior.
Speaker 1: It means like progress.
Speaker 1: It means become more moral with regard to certain things, and that's what we mean when we say rethink righteousness.
Speaker 1: That's actually the one we're talking about here.
Speaker 1: Jesus is saying guys, you've got a wrong picture of what it means to be right with God.
Speaker 1: You've got a wrong picture of what you think God is primarily concerned about.
Speaker 1: You think he's primarily concerned about getting all the details correct and keeping all the baddies away, and that is a wrong way to think.
Speaker 1: Now, most of us in here, most of us watching online, you would not say you think that, but we often think it subconsciously, like if you think about your walk with, if you've got to walk, like if you think about your walk with, if you've got to walk with God, and you think about your walk with God, I bet you, for a lot of us, we're thinking about what.
Speaker 1: Okay, let me not do some stuff wrong and let me do a little bit more right and I'll feel good about myself.
Speaker 1: And we need to rethink that, because the truth is, if you've been given the righteousness of God in Christ, you already been given the righteousness of God in Christ.
Speaker 1: You already have all the perfection anyway.
Speaker 1: And maybe that's because something else needs to take center stage, and that something else is other people.
Speaker 1: Rethink righteousness, Rethink what is commendable in Jesus' eyes.
Speaker 1: Is it just being perfect or is it being burdened to get everybody to the party?
Speaker 1: Is it being burdened that I've got friends, I've got chums, I've got people that I used to roll with.
Speaker 1: Matthew used to roll with all these people.
Speaker 1: These are his tax collector friends.
Speaker 1: They get together and you can bet you know not everything that goes on is perfectly holy, but he's like but these are my guys, I've been with these folks.
Speaker 1: I want them all to.
Speaker 1: I want the old crew to meet the new crew.
Speaker 1: Let's get them together, because I've been so impacted by this.
Speaker 1: And what is he doing?
Speaker 1: He's thinking about the people he loves.
Speaker 1: He's like I got Jesus and my next natural thought is but what about my own friends?
Speaker 1: What about the people that aren't knowing this Jesus, the way I am?
Speaker 1: What if there's something there for them?
Speaker 1: And he says go and learn, guys, pharisees, go and learn this.
Speaker 1: Go, hey, here's your assignment.
Speaker 1: Go and learn that.
Speaker 1: You're missing a piece.
Speaker 1: Go and learn that you don't quite understand.
Speaker 1: Let me give you some perspective.
Speaker 1: Jesus says there's this prophet, hosea, and he's at a time of spiritual decline.
Speaker 1: And he says to his people and now notice, this is in the Old Testament.
Speaker 1: So when you hear somebody say, well, the God of the Old Testament is just angry and he's just judging everybody, and now notice, this is in the Old Testament.
Speaker 1: So when you hear somebody say well, the God of the Old Testament is just angry and he's just judging everybody and he's always mad.
Speaker 1: This is Old Testament and this is the same God.
Speaker 1: He says I desire mercy, not sacrifice.
Speaker 1: And Jesus is pointing to him and saying he's really my father, he's the real God and he's the one who sends us on the mission.
Speaker 1: And Jesus clarifies the mission for these Pharisees and everybody listening.
Speaker 1: He clarifies the mission and he says I feel like maybe you're not getting something.
Speaker 1: I'm here to heal and forgive sinners.
Speaker 1: That's why I'm here.
Speaker 1: That's the mission.
Speaker 1: I'm here to get people that are sick, not people who think they have their act together.
Speaker 1: I'm thinking about all these people that still need me and are variously at levels of being aware that they need me, but I'm thinking about them.
Speaker 1: I'm not thinking about polishing the outside of the cup.
Speaker 1: I'm thinking about drawing people in so they take a look at what's in their cup and ask me to fill it with myself.
Speaker 1: Instead, he's much more thinking about the interior and these Pharisees are much more thinking about the exterior.
Speaker 1: And here's the deal.
Speaker 1: Man, jesus is right.
Speaker 1: They're not sure he's right, but he's right.
Speaker 1: He's saying the big deal is inclusion.
Speaker 1: I'm trying to include people that do not yet look initiated.
Speaker 1: I'm trying to get them around.
Speaker 1: You might not think that they belong here.
Speaker 1: Jesus says I belong with them and if you want to be with me, I'm going to be around them because they're what's important to me.
Speaker 1: I need a version of religion you Pharisees that is humble and merciful and has the heart of God.
Speaker 1: But it's the heart of God for people that don't know God at all.
Speaker 1: Don't act like it, don't seem like it, don't talk like they care about it.
Speaker 1: That's the religion.
Speaker 1: Jesus says that I want you to get off around on people and if you have a different religion, if you don't care about that, if you don't have that version, then at best you have a very wimpy, weak version of Christianity and at worst you don't have it at all.
Speaker 1: Because Jesus is right.
Speaker 1: Somebody say Jesus is right.
Speaker 1: Jesus is just right.
Speaker 1: It's easy.
Speaker 1: When you're Jesus, he's always right.
Speaker 1: What does that mean for us?
Speaker 1: That means sometimes we just have to do some evaluation of like.
Speaker 1: What did you learn and where did you learn it?
Speaker 1: What was the message that you received?
Speaker 1: Because, even if you have someone that you genuinely like, you respected and they seemed like they were really powerful and they knew what they were talking about.
Speaker 1: But they taught you that primarily it's about the pharisaical holiness.
Speaker 1: Do not touch and stay away from everybody and everyone else bad, bad and everybody in the circle, good, good.
Speaker 1: If you learn that it's wrong, that's not right, jesus is right.
Speaker 1: Let that go.
Speaker 1: Rethink righteousness.
Speaker 1: Get your mind off that garbage, because that's really what Jesus is.
Speaker 1: He said guys, you don't even get it.
Speaker 1: You're supposed to be the ones who all you're experts, you know all the law and you know all the prophets, and you don't get this.
Speaker 1: You've got the wrong interpretation of your religion.
Speaker 1: You need to redefine what is commendable.
Speaker 1: And you have Jesus's record.
Speaker 1: If you're a Christ follower, if you've trusted Christ, you've made him the leader of your life and the forgiver of your sin.
Speaker 1: He's given you his record of obedience.
Speaker 1: You and I have that record so that we can care about the people that he cares about, not so that we can just sit there and polish the record that you didn't do anything to get anyway, other than trust the master.
Speaker 1: Now, what you're going to find you know this, I know this You're going to find that not everybody likes that.
Speaker 1: You're going to find there's Pharisees in your own life.
Speaker 1: They're like, what are you doing?
Speaker 1: What, what they're?
Speaker 1: They're challenged by that because you're talking about this, this free gift of life and forgiveness, and they're feeling like, what about me?
Speaker 1: I've got religion, don't?
Speaker 1: I have the right stuff?
Speaker 1: And all you can do is invite them to the party.
Speaker 1: But if they have a fair sake of latitude, all you can do is pray for them and try to encourage them to reconsider and rethink righteousness.
Speaker 1: But what you can't do, you can't let it stop.
Speaker 1: You Don't let anybody talk you out of what Jesus has already taught you.
Speaker 1: Jesus is right, you can be gracious, you can love them, but you can say, yeah, I hear you, but I've got to follow Jesus.
Speaker 1: For me, I can't go off your version of Jesus.
Speaker 1: I need to follow the Jesus I see depicted in scripture.
Speaker 1: Somebody say, amen, rethink righteousness.
Speaker 1: And then it's the only other point.
Speaker 1: Number two invite the uninvited.
Speaker 1: Invite the uninvited.
Speaker 1: I love this man.
Speaker 1: Matthew invited.
Speaker 1: It's like he started following Jesus and then he invited Jesus and his disciples to his home as dinner guests, not to teach his old friends you guys are bad and I need you to see the good guys now.
Speaker 1: No, he just wanted them mingling, he wanted them to have.
Speaker 1: What he has now and what he has is relief.
Speaker 1: He has relief from the burden of his own guilt Maybe that he did not always know that he even had.
Speaker 1: But he's been learning, he's been hanging out with Jesus and suddenly he's aware of this, this heavy pack of his own sin on his back.
Speaker 1: He's like, oh my gosh, this is getting heavy and it's heavier and heavier.
Speaker 1: And then he realizes Jesus will take that off of you and you don't have to carry that anymore.
Speaker 1: You don't have to carry that guilt, you don't have to carry that shame.
Speaker 1: Jesus will just take it right from you.
Speaker 1: And it's not just a mechanical thing, though.
Speaker 1: It's a relational thing.
Speaker 1: So you've probably been in situations whether it's a spouse, whether in situations whether it's a spouse, whether it's a sibling, whether it's a friend where you had major drama or static, or something was wrong in that relationship and it even felt wrong, it felt weird.
Speaker 1: You're like, uh, I don't want to see them.
Speaker 1: If I think about them at all, it feels nasty in my heart.
Speaker 1: It's like, oh, the relationship isn't good.
Speaker 1: And then, hopefully, you've had an experience where and then it got better, like that was gone, all the bad was gone and you're back together Like, oh, now we can talk again, everything feels great.
Speaker 1: That feeling, when it feels great again, that's what Jesus is offering.
Speaker 1: He's offering you didn't know that you were in a fight with God.
Speaker 1: God's always done right to you, but you've always done consistently not everything but stuff wrong toward God and you've been in a fight you didn't know about.
Speaker 1: And Jesus is slowly turning on the volume to say oh, I'm aware your sensitivity is increasing.
Speaker 1: Oh, I'm aware that I haven't done everything right for God, I'm aware I'm in a fight, but there's a way out of a fight and that is I'm going to trust Jesus.
Speaker 1: I'm going to trust this it sounds weird, but it's true this waterfall of blood to cover me and free me and bring me back to that relationship.
Speaker 1: So now it's all perfect and all I need to focus on is my heavenly father delights in me.
Speaker 1: Can everybody get that Like?
Speaker 1: It's not just that he likes you, it's not just that he puts up with you, it's that he delights in you, like you're the apple of his eye.
Speaker 1: He's like I am all in on this one.
Speaker 1: You know, for those of you who have kids, you know how you would brag about your kid If your kid did something awesome.
Speaker 1: You'd be like my kid.
Speaker 1: Everybody listen to this.
Speaker 1: My kid, god, thinks that about you all the time.
Speaker 1: That's how he feels about you and it's the blood of Jesus.
Speaker 1: It's the relief of letting go of our sin into Jesus' arms to carry, that we finally get the relief, and that's the relief Matthew wants his buddies to know about.
Speaker 1: I want you to have the relief.
Speaker 1: I want you to have the relationship with Jesus that I have.
Speaker 1: And my friends, if you look at these Pharisees and their law, all that does is put up boundaries and keep people away.
Speaker 1: All it does is defend and condemn, and the gospel, all it does is invite.
Speaker 1: So are there people in your life right now who might seem a little bit on the outskirts?
Speaker 1: Are there people who maybe it's the new student, they're going to be new this fall and they're not going to know anybody.
Speaker 1: But God put them around you.
Speaker 1: Maybe it's the new intern at work and they don't have the relational connections that you have.
Speaker 1: They don't have a social network here.
Speaker 1: They don't have anybody because they just moved here.
Speaker 1: Who is it that is in your life?
Speaker 1: That is kind of they're out there.
Speaker 1: They don't have all the benefit that you have, they don't have all the ease that you have.
Speaker 1: And it's possible that God is saying I want you to invite the uninvited, I want you to demonstrate that I care about them.
Speaker 1: Now, if you do this, I'm almost done.
Speaker 1: If you do this, you're going to know you've seen this before.
Speaker 1: I want you to go and learn this.
Speaker 1: Learn.
Speaker 1: I desire mercy, mercy, mercy's hard man.
Speaker 1: Mercy requires some flexing.
Speaker 1: Some of you who are runners, or maybe you lift, you work out.
Speaker 1: You know this.
Speaker 1: If you do the same routine all the time, it stops helping.
Speaker 1: Really, it might help you maintain, but you're not necessarily progressing.
Speaker 1: We can be around the people in our lives and it requires with the humans that you know in your relational circles.
Speaker 1: It requires a certain amount of mercy, but you're kind of used to that level of mercy.
Speaker 1: You're like, oh, that's their deal, I'm just going to bear with it and all that.
Speaker 1: If you start asking Jesus to make you an inviter of the uninvited, you're going to see things at the Matthew party that you're like whoa, I need to raise my mercy level quite a bit.
Speaker 1: I'm being exercised to lift harder.
Speaker 1: I'm being exercised to run further, because now this is fresh needs for mercy.
Speaker 1: These people are rubbing me in a way that totally surprises me and I've got to be extra merciful.
Speaker 1: And that's my friend.
Speaker 1: That's not weird, that's not annoying, that's the call, that's what it is.
Speaker 1: Get around people.
Speaker 1: They're going to do stuff.
Speaker 1: That part of you is like whoa, that's a little insane.
Speaker 1: But then let the other part of you remember, maybe who you once were and how you maybe did things 10 times crazier.
Speaker 1: Can somebody say amen, come on man, this will change somebody's life.
Speaker 1: What can we do?
Speaker 1: Here's what we're going to do.
Speaker 1: It's what you and I can do, and then what we can all do.
Speaker 1: We can have Matthew parties.
Speaker 1: You can have Matthew parties in your home.
Speaker 1: A Matthew party is where you're just doing what Matthew did.
Speaker 1: You're getting some friends that aren't necessarily around Jesus much.
Speaker 1: They may not think of God much, it's not that they even have necessarily opinion.
Speaker 1: They're just not around much with some of your friends that are around much and you're just going to let them mingle.
Speaker 1: And there's no agenda, no one's trying to save anybody.
Speaker 1: You're just trying to teach the folks who are coming to the party.
Speaker 1: These people are not insane and they're not scary and you can be around them and it's okay and relational connections can happen.
Speaker 1: That's how I came to know Christ was through a pizza party.
Speaker 1: I mean that was one of the first steps.
Speaker 1: That was a catalyst into everything else that happened afterward.
Speaker 1: My friend and I were hungry.
Speaker 1: We're like I'm hungry, let's go get a pizza.
Speaker 1: There's a weird religious group holding a pizza party, let's go to that.
Speaker 1: So we went and we met some people and we saw, oh, there was a next step.
Speaker 1: Oh, this person is having a little small group where they discuss the Bible.
Speaker 1: Oh, okay, let's go to that.
Speaker 1: That sounds good.
Speaker 1: And so we went and that was one thing led to another.
Speaker 1: You can have that and you don't have to take responsibility for perfection or how that goes.
Speaker 1: It doesn't have to be a regular thing, it can just be a thing you decide to do.
Speaker 1: That's a Matthew party, so you can do that.
Speaker 1: There doesn't have to be a format to it.
Speaker 1: We've done Star Wars versions, we've done 80s versions.
Speaker 1: You can do.
Speaker 1: I'll tell you, one of the best versions to do is the food version.
Speaker 1: Have food at all of them, because most people will come for food.
Speaker 1: You can do the boat version.
Speaker 1: You can do any version.
Speaker 1: All you have to do is just earnestly invite people, and here's the way we do it as a church let's throw up our big day slide.
Speaker 1: Let's throw up our big day slide.
Speaker 1: This is what we call big days.
Speaker 1: Around the calendar year, we do big days that are really just giant Matthew parties.
Speaker 1: Therefore, if you're a regular attender, you're a member here at Fierce, this is for you to invite your tax collector friends to come hang at church.
Speaker 1: It's stuff that's kind of easy and intuitive, okay.
Speaker 1: So it's Christmas.
Speaker 1: Pool is a big party about Christmas after church lots of kids, fun and games.
Speaker 1: It's Christmas Eve, it's Easter.
Speaker 1: It is Boobash that's coming up this coming fall.
Speaker 1: It is the family festival, which is next weekend.
Speaker 1: All this is is a giant Matthew party.
Speaker 1: In other words, guys, we're not doing it because we just like to party.
Speaker 1: We do like to party, but we're doing these Matthew parties because we want to be in on what Jesus is doing, if he would do it with us.
Speaker 1: So what do we do?
Speaker 1: You can go and just do your own.
Speaker 1: You can help us do this next one, meaning you go to it and then you sit down at a table.
Speaker 1: You're like, well, they don't need me.
Speaker 1: No, we need you.
Speaker 1: We need you to go.
Speaker 1: Next weekend we're going to have church, then we're going to have it, and then you go to a table and you sit down and you're just.
Speaker 1: You Just talk to people, become friendly with folks and just let them know that you're not insane, don't act insane.
Speaker 1: Okay, as long as you don't act insane, it's going.
Speaker 1: You can go to level two and invite somebody, say hey, man, I've been thinking about you.
Speaker 1: I've been thinking about this event that's happening in my church.
Speaker 1: I'd love for you to just come hang with us.
Speaker 1: It's gonna be fun.
Speaker 1: We're some food.
Speaker 1: It's super low stakes, not committal to anything.
Speaker 1: Just come hang out with us now, if they don't want to come this coming weekend.
Speaker 1: Here's what you know.
Speaker 1: You know there's five other times throughout the year that you already know about that.
Speaker 1: You can start poking at them right now, prayerfully poking at them.
Speaker 1: That's what I call it, prayerfully poking at them.
Speaker 1: Hey, this boobash thing, remember?
Speaker 1: I said that a couple months ago.
Speaker 1: It's coming up.
Speaker 1: Just remind you.
Speaker 1: Oh, it's a month later.
Speaker 1: I'm reminding you guys about boobash man.
Speaker 1: Your kid's going to have so much fun, a lot of candy.
Speaker 1: It's going to be great Parents.
Speaker 1: You're always looking for something into them about the Matthew party.
Speaker 1: You're not taking responsibility for what happens for the rest of their life.
Speaker 1: You're just saying I'm going, would you come with me?
Speaker 1: And then, finally, guys, you can support it by giving and packing.
Speaker 1: The giving part is you give generously to your church so that we can do more of this.
Speaker 1: The way we largely get folks there is through invites, yes, but also through Facebook invites, digital invites through Facebook, through Google.
Speaker 1: Those are not cheap, just so you know, but we do it because Jesus cares about these people.
Speaker 1: You can support by giving big with regard to this.
Speaker 1: But there's another thing you can do and that is help us pack a backpack.
Speaker 1: Next.
Speaker 1: Some people are amazed that churches care about people because their experiences that churches don't.
Speaker 1: We want to teach them something different.
Speaker 1: So we're packing backpacks in a couple minutes together here in the auditorium, in the sanctuary.
Speaker 1: We're doing this so that we can give them away next weekend.
Speaker 1: So parents who maybe can't afford that, they can come.
Speaker 1: They can come get their backpack and Jesus is genuinely helpful to people and, by the way, they might enjoy the Matthew party as well.
Speaker 1: We want to make a difference, not just make a point.
Speaker 1: Hey, thank you so much for joining us today.
Speaker 1: If you don't have a home church and you're looking for a Bible preaching community that has its heart set on passionately knowing Jesus and being his witness in our generation, check out FierceChurch.
Speaker 1: We'd love for you to join us, either digitally or in person.
Speaker 1: Also, if you're looking for leadership development-related content, don't forget to check out the Fierce Leadership Podcast, available wherever you get your podcasts from.
Speaker 1: Special thanks to those of you who give generously to support this ministry.
Speaker 1: It's because of you that this is possible.
Speaker 1: You can click on the link in the description to give now, or visit fiercechurch for more information.
Speaker 1: If you enjoyed this podcast, why not subscribe?
Speaker 1: Share it with your friends, click on the share button, take a screenshot and share it on social media or wherever you would share such things.
Speaker 1: Whatever challenges you're facing, I know you can make it.
Speaker 1: Don't give up.
Speaker 1: Hang on to Jesus.
Speaker 1: He won't let go of you.
Speaker 1: Jesus loves you so much and we love you.
Speaker 1: I hope someday we get to meet in person.
Speaker 1: Thanks again for listening.