What Are You Willing To Leave To Truly Live

A quiet shoreline. Two words. A life reset. We open Matthew 4:18–22 and step into the ordinary workday where Jesus interrupts routine with a royal summons: Follow me. What begins as a simple invitation becomes the pattern for all discipleship—relationship first, then transformation, then mission. We talk candidly about why grace must precede growth, how proximity to Jesus changes what we love, and why “I will make you” lifts the burden of self-improvement from exhausted hearts.

From there, we explore the surprising scale of purpose. When Jesus promises to make fishers of men, he repurposes familiar skills and redirects them toward rescue. The sea’s symbol of chaos turns into a canvas for redemption, and everyday tools become instruments of hope. We share practical ways your background—training, temperament, and even wounds—can serve others when placed in the King’s hands. This is not about busier calendars; it is about lives that move outward with clarity, compassion, and courage.

We also face the cost head-on. Matthew’s repeated immediately exposes the tug between comfort and allegiance. Nets, boats, and even family expectations represent control and identity. Following Jesus reorders them all, not to diminish their value but to dethrone them as masters. And yet the deepest comfort arrives here: the King never asks more than he gives. They left nets; he carried a cross. They stepped from boats; he stepped from a grave. Our surrender is response to a greater love, and our obedience becomes the path into a larger, freer life.

If this conversation stirs you to take a next step—sharing the gospel with a friend, serving beyond comfort, or simply drawing closer to Jesus—lean in with us. Subscribe, share this episode with someone who needs courage today, and leave a review to help others find hope on the shoreline where purpose begins.

Transcript

Walking The Shoreline

SPEAKER_01 0:02

Pastor Tim from the church in 1991 reminder. Your word is a lamp to my feet and a light to my path. Let's join Pastor Tim now as he lets God's word illuminate our lives and guide us into his truth today. This message is from the King and His Kingdom series.

The Summons To Follow

Grace Before Growth

Purpose Beyond Yourself

I Will Make You

Repurposed Skills And Stories

SPEAKER_00 0:24

This new series, we're working our way through the Gospel of Matthew, the first book in the New Testament. We're in Matthew chapter 4, verse 18 through 22. Matthew chapter 4, verse 18 through 22. We are in this series, we're calling this study of the gospel of Matthew the King and his kingdom. Now we pick up in verse 18 this morning, and we will go down through verse 22. So hopefully you found it by now. The Bible says in verse 18, And Jesus, walking by the Sea of Galilee, saw two brothers, Simon, called Peter, and Andrew, his brother, casting a net into the sea, for they were fishermen. Then he said to them, Follow me, and I will make you fishers of men. And they immediately left their nets and followed him. Going off from there he saw two other brothers, James, the son of Zebedee, and John, his brother, in the boat with Zebedee, their father, mending their nets. He called them. And immediately they left the boat and their father and followed him. We'll stop here. This is God's word. You know, I think if Jesus were recruiting a leadership team today, he probably wouldn't start with resumes or references or a background check. He probably wouldn't do that. He probably wouldn't post an opening online. He probably wouldn't ask for a five-year ministry plan. In fact, when Jesus began building his kingdom, he started, he didn't start in a synagogue, he didn't start in a palace, he didn't start in a seminary or a classroom. He started on the shoreline. On the shoreline. Matthew tells us that Jesus was walking here by the Sea of Galilee. It's really a very large lake. Sea of Galilee. He's not rushing, he's not performing miracles, he's just walking. And as he walked, he stepped into the ordinary workday of a few fishermen who were doing exactly what they had done the day before and expected to do again tomorrow. They weren't seeking a Messiah. They weren't asking deep theological questions. They weren't trying to change the world. They were working their nets. I believe this is often how the call of Jesus comes. Not in dramatic moments necessarily. Sometimes, yes. But not in dramatic moments all the time. Sometimes the call of Jesus comes in very ordinary moments. Ordinary ones. Not necessarily when life feels spiritual, but when it feels routine. The king steps in to the middle of everyday life and speaks a word that changes everything. And what Jesus does here, I think, tells us something important about how the kingdom of God advances. It doesn't necessarily move forward through impressive people with impressive spiritual resumes. It advances through very ordinary people who are willing to respond when the king calls. And so when Jesus calls, he doesn't merely offer advice, he doesn't offer inspiration, he actually issues a summons. And he speaks with authority. He calls people to follow him. He calls people to trust him and to leave behind the life that they thought they were building for the life that God intends them to have. Very much what John and Chandler are doing. Matthew chapter 4, I think, shows us the beginning of discipleship. Not a theory, not a strategy, even, but real people responding to a real call from the real king. I hope to show you, by God's grace and by his help, I hope to show you three truths that will shape discipleship today, in your life and in my life. Those three truths are the fact that Jesus calls us into a relationship with himself. Jesus gives our lives a purpose greater than ourselves. And Jesus calls us to surrender what we once depended on so we can truly follow him. Because the king is still calling. He's still calling. And the most important question any of us will answer is not whether we hear his voice, but how we respond to it. So are you ready? When the king calls you, he's calling you into a relationship, not a religious upgrade. He's calling you into a relationship, not a religious upgrade. That's verses 18 and 19. Matthew tells us here that as Jesus is walking by the Sea of Galilee, he saw two brothers. Simon, called Andrew, and Peter. They're casting a net into the sea. The Bible says, for they were fishermen. Now that's a very simple description, but it's rich with meaning. Jesus here doesn't call them in a spiritual vacuum. He calls them in the middle of real life. They're not praying, they're not studying scripture, they're not seeking questions about the kingdom. They're working. They're just working. And Jesus walks into their work day and he speaks a sentence that changes their future. And he says, Follow me. Follow me. That's important. Jesus didn't begin by giving them instructions. He didn't begin by giving them rules. He didn't even begin by giving them any further expectations beyond follow me. He begins by calling them to himself. Before there's a mission, there's a relationship. Before there's obedience, there is attachment. Salvation does not begin with behavior modification, it begins with a person. And I think it's also worth noting here what Jesus doesn't say. He doesn't say, improve yourselves. He doesn't say, clean up your act. In fact, he doesn't say, go study for a while and then come back when you're ready. He doesn't say that. He simply says what? Two words. Follow me. That's it. Follow me. And that's because discipleship isn't about upgrading your religious life, it's about surrendering your life to the King. And there's authority in his voice. Jesus does not present himself here as an option to consider. He speaks as one who has the right to be followed. Follow me. And so I said something similar to this last week, and I want to remind you of it again this morning. When the king calls, neutrality is not an option. You either follow or what? You don't. You either follow or you don't. Neutrality is not an option. But here's where the gospel begins to shine in this moment. Peter and Andrew do not follow Jesus because they already fully understand who he is. They don't yet know about the cross. They don't yet understand the resurrection. And for those of you who have read the story, you know they will stumble. They will stumble. They will fail. Peter himself will one day deny the very king that he is now starting to follow. And yet Jesus calls them anyway. Why? Why does Jesus do that? It's because of this. Because grace always comes before growth. God's grace always comes before growth. Jesus does not call the finished product. I'm thankful for that. He forms it. He forms it. The call to follow me is not a call to prove your worthiness, it's a call to trust his grace. These men will be shaped not by their own strength, but they'll be shaped by their proximity to Christ. Their proximity to Jesus. Walking with Jesus, following Jesus, will change how they think. It'll change how they love. It'll change how they respond. And it will ultimately change who they become. That's what a Christian looks like. That's what the Christian life looks like. And that's still very true today. I think some of us, there's probably at least someone in this room. You think you need to get your life together before you can really follow Jesus. We tell ourselves, once I fix this, whatever the this is, or once I deal with that, or once I'm more consistent, then I'll begin to take discipleship seriously. But you need to understand this morning, Jesus never calls people who are already put together. You don't believe me? Look around you. They're not put together. They're faking it if they're trying to show you that they're put together. They're not. And for some of you, this is the heart of the message. You've been trying to improve your spiritual life while Jesus is actually calling you into a relationship with Him. Well, what's been happening is you've been adding Christian activities instead of actually following Christ. You've been busy, but not close to Jesus. And Jesus' call today is not complicated. Because in the same call that he spoke, it's the same call that today that he spoke on that shoreline when he said, follow me. Not follow a set of rules, not follow a religious system, not follow a church culture, follow him. And so the gospel reminds us that we follow Jesus because he came for us first. He stepped into our world, into our brokenness, into our ordinary lives, and called us by grace. And now he would later go to the cross for our sins. He would rise from the dead for our salvation and invite us into life with him. But discipleship begins right here. Hearing the King's voice, trusting his grace, and taking the first step to follow him. He calls us into a relationship with him. When the king calls, he's not calling you into some kind of religious upgrade, into a relationship. Secondly, when the king calls you, he gives your life a bigger purpose than yourself. When the king calls you, he gives your life a bigger purpose than yourself. He said, And I will make you fishers of men. So he doesn't stop with follow me. He immediately adds this promise, and I will make you fishers of men. That single sentence changes everything. Because Jesus is not calling, not only calling Peter and Andrew from something. He's calling them to something. Discipleship, becoming a Christian, becoming a follower of Jesus, discipleship is never just about what you leave behind, it is about the new purpose that the king gives you. Now I want you to notice the order here. Jesus does not say, become fishers of men and then follow me. He doesn't say that. He says, follow me and I will make you. I will make you. Transformation follows relationship. Purpose flows from walking with him. You know what I like about what Jesus said here? It's this Jesus takes responsibility for our transformation. He takes responsibility for our transformation. Those words, I will make you, are filled with gospel grace and gospel power. He doesn't say to them, try harder and you will become fishers of men. He doesn't say, be better and you will become fishers of men. He doesn't say, figure it out, and then maybe you'll become fishers of men. No, he assumes responsibility for who they will become. And the same is true for us. Now they had to obey. We'll touch on that. But I want you to understand this morning that the Christian life is not powered by self-effort, but it's powered by the work of Christ in us. By the work of the Holy Spirit, his grace, his power in us. Peter will fail. Andrew will misunderstand. We see that later. He will misunderstand. And all of them ultimately will stumble all along the way. I mean, I hope you do know that James and John, the other two he calls, later on in another scene, they want to call fire down from heaven and kill people. They won't take them out. I mean, they want to go shocking awe and go scorched earth on people. That's the guys Jesus called and said, follow me. And yet Jesus already knows all this. And still he says, I will make you. I don't know about you, but I think that's good news for very imperfect disciples like me. Because if following Jesus depended on only on my consistency and my discipline and my spiritual maturity, I wouldn't have made it very far. And believe it or not, I know you think you're so self-righteous, but you wouldn't have made it very far either. If it was all dependent on your own consistency, your own discipline, and your own spiritual maturity. Because probably if you think you're like super spiritually mature, you're probably not. If you think you still don't have a ways to go to be the kind of person Jesus is calling you to be, then you're not very spiritually mature. You're not humble. You're doing the exact opposite of what the Apostle Paul said. The apostle Paul said, you really ought not to think more highly of yourself than you ought to. Yeah. But discipleship is fueled by grace, the power of God's grace in your life. See, here's what happens: Jesus shapes us as we walk with him, as we follow him. Now, if you ain't following Jesus, he's not going to do any work in your life. But if you're following Jesus, he will make you. He'll do the work. And what happens is he works in us over time. He changes our hearts. Now there's an initial change, yes, but then he continues to change our hearts. He continues to change our desires. He continues to change our direction. Those are evidences of whether or not you're truly a follower of Jesus. The gospel is not something we graduate from. It's the power that keeps forming us over and over. And look what he does: he gives a rescue-focused purpose. He gives a rescue-focused purpose. You might say, I wish God would just show me what my purpose is. Well, you're getting a glimpse of it right here. He'll say it in different ways, other places in the Bible, but you're getting a glimpse of it right here. Here's your purpose. When Jesus says, fishers of men here to these guys, he's using language they understand, but he's pointing to something far greater. In Scripture, fishing is often, not always, but it's often linked to rescue because the sea represents danger and chaos and death in the Bible. So to fish for people is to rescue them from destruction and bring them into life. And so Jesus is calling these men to join his mission. This is not about religious activity. This is about joining his mission. This is not about filling schedules and maintaining programs. This is about joining the king in his saving work. Now, Jesus will ultimately go to the cross to rescue sinners like us. Praise God for that. And he will step into the waters of judgment on our behalf. And he will bear sin and he will defeat death and he will rise again so that people trapped in darkness can be brought into the light. And now he calls his followers to join that rescue mission. Now I want to remind you, we don't save anybody. We don't change hearts. We don't control outcomes. We simply proclaim the gospel. We do that, though. The good news of what King Jesus has done, and then we trust Jesus to do the saving. And you know what else he does in our lives? Is he repurposes what we already know. What do I mean by that? What did Peter and Andrew know? They knew fishing. They knew fishing. So Jesus doesn't ignore their background. He redeems it. He takes what is familiar and he redirects it for eternal impact. That's how God has always worked. Moses had a staff, David had a sling, Esther had influence, Matthew had a pen and a ledger. He was a tax collector. And this morning, every single one of you sitting in this room, you have experiences, you have relationships, you have gifts, you have wounds, you have stories that God intends to use. I want you to know today that your past is not an accident, your personality is not random, and your journey is not wasted. But it's the gospel that gives it all meaning in your life. Because Jesus does not just save you from sin, he saves you for something. And what he does is he reorients your life away from yourself and toward others. That's what he does. Your life becomes a tool in the hand of a gracious king. So there's some really practical application here for us. And I think that application is this following Jesus always turns us outward. Here's a simple test of discipleship. See if you pass or fail. Simple test of discipleship. As you follow Jesus, do you find yourself caring more about people who don't yet know him? As you follow Jesus, do you find yourself caring more about people who don't yet know him? This isn't about pressure. It's not about guilt. I'm not trying to do that. It's really about transformation. Because when the gospel grips your heart, it reshapes what and who you love. And I'll tell you what begins to happen. You begin to see people differently. Oh, they'll still get on your nerves, they'll still aggravate you sometimes. You won't approve of what they do. But you actually begin to see people differently, not as interruptions anymore, but as image bearers. Not as problems, but as souls. And I would say today that a disciple, a professing disciple of Jesus, a so-called follower of Jesus who does not care about lost people is not necessarily a bad Christian, but at the very minimum they are an unformed one. An unformed Christian. Because Jesus is still saying today, I will make you. He is still shaping his followers. And so for some of you in this room this morning, this means sharing the gospel with a friend or a family member. For others, it means actually stepping into service when you've stayed comfortable. For some, it means praying for boldness you've never had. But for all of us, it means remembering this truth. I said it several weeks ago in another message. Remembering this truth. That the gospel that saved you is the very same gospel that's meant to flow through you to other people. Jesus did not call you to follow him so that your life could remain small and inward and self-focused. He called you to a kingdom mission that will echo in eternity. And when the king calls you, he always gives you a purpose greater than yourself. Well, thirdly, verse 23-22. When the king calls you, following him will cost you. Following him will cost you. But not following him will cost you more. And twice he uses a very interesting word. He uses the same word. That word is immediately. Peter and Andrew immediately leave their nets. James and John immediately leave the boat and their father. I think that repetition that the Holy Spirit inspired Matthew to write is intentional. The Holy Spirit of God, through Matthew writing here, is seeking to show that the call of the king demands a decisive response. Following Jesus is not casual. It's not theoretical. It's not following Jesus is not something we pencil into our already busy lives. Because when the king calls, he calls for allegiance. What did they do? They left what once gave them security. The Bible says Peter and Andrew leave their nets. You need to know that these nets were not just tools, they were incomes. They were stability. They were their safety net. Their safety net. So nets represented what they trusted to provide for them. And so to leave their nets was to relinquish control. It was to say, to leave their nets was to say, Jesus, I'm trusting you more than what I can see or what I can hold. I'm trusting you more than what I can see or what I can hold. The truth of the matter is this morning we all have nets. All of us. We all have nets. Things we rely on for security. Things we cling to when life feels uncertain. Things that maybe quietly compete with your trust in Christ. Sometimes it's money, sometimes it's comfort, sometimes it's routine. I mean, some of you just pretty much break out in hives when your routine gets interrupted. I'm looking at you, David Ernest. Guilty as charged. But you're that some of you are that way. That might be the very thing that, you know, is competing with your trust in Christ. My routine. I can trust my routine. This divine interruption, that's not from God. I need my routine. He wouldn't do that to me. He knows how much I like control. Maybe it's money, maybe it's comfort, maybe it's routine, maybe it's control. And Jesus still calls his disciples to lay those things down. Not because they're always sinful in themselves. Sometimes the routine does us good. We need that consistency. That's not the point. Or other things. We need money to live. On and on. Those things are not always sinful in and of themselves. But here's the thing: they cannot rule our hearts. Nets make terrible saviors. Nets make terrible kings over our lives. They left. They left what once shaped their identity, and even what once shaped their expectations. They left those things. But I gotta share one more thing, though. James and John left not only the boat, but they also left their father. This was a family business. They left their daddy. Their future was already mapped out. Expectations were already in place. Walking away would mean disappointing someone. Right? It meant breaking from what others assumed their lives would look like. Parents, let me just meddle here for a minute. If you have adult kids, you need to stop trying to control them. You say, well, I know what's best for their life. Well, actually, maybe God does. Maybe God does. You need to pray for them if they want counsel and they ask you, give it to them. But if they have by the way, the marriage standard in God's word is this the husband is to cleave to his wife and do what? Leave his parents. Yeah. You're not in control over them anymore. You need to lay that down. Your relationship might actually improve. Well, that's where somebody needs it. That's not my notes. Because here's the thing: following Jesus often touches the deepest parts of our lives. It affects our relationships, it affects our priorities. If following Jesus has not affected your priorities, then you're not following him. You're not living for him. You're just hoping you get to heaven because you prayed a prayer one day and you're kind of a Christian now. If you're not following Jesus, if you're following Jesus, it affects your priorities. It affects the expectations of others, but also and sometimes the expectations that we even place on ourselves. Jesus is not asking them to dishonor their father. But honoring their father does not equal obeying their father as an adult. He doesn't ask them to dishonor their father. What he's showing here is that allegiance to the king must come first. Yes, family is a gift. Praise God for it. Family is a gift, but it is not ultimate. In fact, I don't have time to get into this morning. Jesus said something like this if you don't hate your mother and your father and your brothers and your sisters, and yes, even your own life, you can't be my disciple. I don't have time to explain that this morning, but Jesus said it. So that is telling us that compared to our love for him, our allegiance and love for everybody else in our life ought to look like hate. Because our love for him is so great and so intense. He uses that hyperbole to get a point across. Family is a gift, but it's not ultimate. Identity is found not in lineage or approval of family, but identity is found in belonging to Christ and following him. I mean, let's be honest. Following Jesus costs something. I mean, really, if you're following Jesus, it'll cost something. It may cost comfort, it may cost reputation, it may cost control, it may cost relationships, it may even cost the life you thought you were going to live. But here's where the gospel changes everything. Because the king who calls them to leave everything will later give everything to them. They leave nets, he carries a cross. That's quite a comparison, huh? They leave a boat, he enters a grave. They leave their father, he is forsaken by the father in their place. Jesus never asks his disciples to surrender something that he himself is unwilling to surrender. But he goes further. He gives more, he pays a greater cost. Discipleship is not about earning salvation through sacrifice, it's about responding to salvation with surrender and faith. We lay down things because he laid down himself first. That's why we do.

Outward-Facing Discipleship

SPEAKER_01 28:39

Thanks for listening to Foundations of Truth with Pastor Timothy Mann from Providence Church in Ormond Beach, Florida. The grass withers, the flower fades, but the word of our God stands forever. Until next time, keep building your life on God's Eternal Truth.