Gods Kingdom - Luke 5:27-39

Sunday July 5, 2026

Luke 5:27-39      New American Standard Bible 1995

Call of Levi (Matthew)

27 After that He went out and noticed a tax collector named [a]Levi sitting in the tax booth, and He said to him, “Follow Me.” 28 And he left everything behind, and got up and began to follow Him.

29 And Levi gave a big reception for Him in his house; and there was a great crowd of tax collectors and other people who were reclining at the table with them. 30 The Pharisees and their scribes began grumbling at His disciples, saying, “Why do you eat and drink with the tax collectors and [b]sinners?” 31 And Jesus answered and said to them, “It is not those who are well who need a physician, but those who are sick. 32 I have not come to call the righteous but sinners to repentance.”

33 And they said to Him, “The disciples of John often fast and offer prayers, the disciples of the Pharisees also do [c]the same, but Yours eat and drink.” 34 And Jesus said to them, “You cannot make the [d]attendants of the bridegroom fast while the bridegroom is with them, can you? 35 But the days will come; and when the bridegroom is taken away from them, then they will fast in those days.” 36 And He was also telling them a parable: “No one tears a piece of cloth from a new garment and puts it on an old garment; otherwise he will both tear the new, and the piece from the new will not match the old. 37 And no one puts new wine into old wineskins; otherwise the new wine will burst the skins and it will be spilled out, and the skins will be ruined. 38 But new wine must be put into fresh wineskins. 39 And no one, after drinking old wine wishes for new; for he says, ‘The old is good enough.’”

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 53:08

Amen.

SPEAKER_02 53:09

If you would remain standing and turn your Bibles to the Gospel of Luke, Luke chapter 5, we're going to remain standing on a reading of God's Word. Luke chapter 5, beginning in verse 27. Luke chapter 5, beginning in verse 27. After that he went out and noticed a tax collector named Levi sitting in the tax booth, and he said to him, Follow me. And he left everything behind and got up and began to follow him. And Levi gave a big reception for him in his house. And there was a great crowd of tax collectors and other people who were reclining at the table with them. The Pharisees and their scribes began grumbling at his disciples, saying, Why do you eat and drink with the tax collectors and sinners? And Jesus answered and said to them, It is not those who are well who need a physician, but those who are sick. I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance. And they said to him, The disciples of John often fast and offer prayers. The disciples of the Pharisees also do the same, but yours eat and drink. And Jesus said to them, You cannot make the attendance of the bridegroom fast while the bridegroom is with them, can you? But the days will come and when the bridegroom is taken away from them, then they will fast in those days. And he was also telling them a parable. No one tears a piece of cloth from a new garment and puts it on an old garment. Otherwise, he will both tear the new and the piece from the new will not match the old. And no one puts new wine into old wineskins. Otherwise, the new wine will burst the skins and will be spilled out and the skins will be ruined. But new wine must be put into fresh wineskins. And no one, after drinking old wine, which is for the new free says, the old is good enough. Would you pray with me, please? Laura, I thank you for your word, and I thank you for what you've done, what you're doing, and what you're about to do. In Christ's name we pray. Amen. Thank you. Please be seated. Now, before you get too terribly comfortable, I want to make sure that everyone has one of the, I call them the one and done, the elements for the Lord's Supper. They were passing them out as you were coming through. If you want to participate in communion with us this morning, um, if you don't, I respect that. But if you you need one of these, we've got folks who'd be glad to help just raise your hand as you're coming through. We don't ask that you be a part of this local fellowship, but we do ask that you be a part of the body of Christ, that uh you partake with them. And what will happen as you get this in just a few moments, I'm gonna review some scripture and then we're going to take it together. Um, just raise your hand as they're coming up and down. I appreciate their willingness to help us make sure that everyone got that. Um not that this is personal experience or anything, but don't open it yet. Just just wait. Just uh just hang on and just put it to the side. But um, it's just very nerve-wracking, especially if you're wearing lighter colors. Don't don't do that. All right. We got we got everybody covered. It's always a privilege to be able to come to the Lord's table. And one of my responsibilities and our responsibility as members of the body of Christ is to remember that this is the Lord's table. It's not our table, it's not our activity, it's not something that we do and say, I want to do it this way, I want to do it that way, or it's not something we say we tag on to the end of a service just so that we can be sure that we've done it a number of times to make it legit. This is very much the Lord's table. And when we talk about him being in charge and him being the one who leads us, who guides us, provides for us, I don't ever want to take that for granted. I want us to continually, regardless of the passages that we draw from, I want us to always come back to the fact that he's commanded us to do this as his followers, that this is our our joy, this is our responsibility, this is our blessing. As we're going through the Gospel of Luke, we're getting to the point now in Luke chapter five where there's going to be a shift. And we're not we're not quite there yet, but we're almost there where there's going to be a shift. And what he is doing is Dr. Luke is helping us understand that Jesus is going to draw a line in the sand. Um, I I don't know. This has occurred to me. I'll never know where that came from. But I like to think about when I think of drawing a line in the sand is the whole scene from the alamo, or you if you're with us, come over here. If you're against us, go over there. But that's exactly what that's exactly what Jesus is doing. He's saying this is the way things are now. When I was growing up, the phrase that uh that would often come across would be something along the lines of you're gonna you need to either fix or convey. You either need to get with the program or you need to get out of the way. You're either a part of the problem or you're a part of the solution, but you can't both be in both camps. You're either a gatherer or a scatterer. And what Jesus is doing here as he's transitioning and talking to the disciples and the miracles that he performs and the way that he proclaims the kingdom of God, is he is saying, now that the kingdom has come, now that I am here, you have to make a choice between the new life, God's kingdom, and the old life. That's still the decision, by the way, today. We still have that opportunity as followers of Christ to decide whether or not we're going to stay with him or we are going to revert back to the old ways, whether we're going to do it the way that we've done it before, or whatever that is. So coming to the passage, let's begin in Luke chapter 5, verse 27. And let me show you what he's talking about, what happens. Luke chapter 5, verse 27. He says, After that, he went out and noticed a tax collector named Levi sitting in the tax booth. That's Matthew, by the way. That we've got his Greek Greek name versus Hebrew name. Hebrew is Levi, the Greek is Matthew. Levi sitting in the tax booth, and he said to him, Follow me. And he left everything behind and got up and began to follow him. And Levi gave a big reception for him in the house, and there was a great crowd of tax collectors and other people who were reclining at the table with them. What do you think about this? The new life called by God's grace. You have you were in slavery, you were condemned, you were in bondage, you were against God, you were in the old ways, but now we've got the new ways. Now we've got the new life. And I know I know it's easy to just sit here and just hear that and say, Yeah, that sounds good. That's fine, that's fine. But you've got to understand, when Jesus called you, when he puts his stamp on you, the earnest of the Holy Spirit, when he makes you his own, this is not this is not something small or insignificant. It's life-changing. It means everything's different now. It means the way that you see things and understand things and live out your life is different now. This is not an addendum, this is not a compartment, this is not a part of your life, this is the new life. And things cannot be as they once were. And what's beautiful about what Matthew does, what Levi does here in Luke chapter 5 is that as Jesus sees him in verse 27, he calls him, says, Follow me, and he leaves everything. Verse 28. All of his wealth, all of his temporary security, all the things that he was counting on. He realized they were they weren't going to make it, but Jesus is everything. He got up and he began in verse 28 to follow Jesus. And then in verse 29, as evidence not to gain his discipleship, but as evidence of his following Jesus, he threw a party. You know, there's a story years ago about uh a revival. Uh uh they were they were holding a tent meeting or something, and it was back in the day of trains. You remember trains, trains, planes, on you remember in the old days, that's how they would travel. I'm being facetious of trying and failing. But they would have, they would have, they would transport by trains, and the the group from the church was supposed to meet the visiting preacher at the train station. And as as they're watching the people get off the trains, the train, um, they're they're coming off the platform and they're looking and looking, and and and they see one gentleman who is darkly dressed, you know, it's kind of the style, and uh he's he's coming off the platform and he's got a real scourge look on his face, you know, just very, very serious, very, you know, almost uptight. And they they they run up to him and say, Brother so-and-so, we are so glad that you were here to lead our meetings, to be a be a part of our fellowship and help us with this revival. He says, No, no, no, that's not me. I just got a stomach ulcered, I just don't feel that good. We tend to think, we tend to think that being a follower of Jesus Christ is supposed to be solemn and there is seriousness to it. That it's supposed to be um a downer, depressing. You can't have fun if you're following Jesus, you can't have life if you're having a follow you're a follower of Jesus. The first thing that Matthew did after Jesus called him out is he threw a party. But it wasn't it wasn't a party to revel in himself, it was a party to celebrate Jesus. It was a party to say, you know, all these things that I had before. I had a I have a boat. Let's say, for example, I don't, but let's say, for example, I have a boat. It's a nice boat, and I like going out on the boat, and I like fishing on the boat. Then I met Jesus. Now that's Jesus' boat, and I want to use that boat to help people know Jesus. What Matthew did is he changed everything that he was, and everything that he had came under the submission of Jesus Christ, this new life. He left everything, not half-hearted, not sort of, well, if I have to, I have to, I guess, if it's got to be that way. His heart full of shame for his guilt, but also full, fully open because God is working in him. It's not, it's not following Jesus, and you just gotta act depressed and look sad. It's you've left everything that's so insignificant to everything that Jesus is. The gospel changes everything. And what Jesus is giving us, this new life, is no longer the old kingdom, old Judaism, the Pharisees' understanding of what it means to live morally or to be ritually clean. There's some elements of truth in that, and there's some things that we flesh out as we walk with Jesus, but he doesn't abolish the law, he doesn't dismiss it. But he he says this new kingdom, the barriers that you had before, they're no longer there. The things that you were you were so concerned with to protect, whether it be economically or socially or ethnically or or or racially, whatever it is, those barriers, those those walls, those are going to be demolished. Because now you are in the new kingdom. Now you are part of the family of God. And what he does over the next few verses is he he talks about this contrast and he he gives us some things to consider. So here's the first consider the physician. Starting in verse 30. The Pharisees and their scribes began grumbling at his disciples, saying, Why do you eat and drink with the tax collectors and sinners? And Jesus answered and said to them, It's not those who are well who need a physician, but those who are sick. I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance. It is absolutely true that he was at the party with those that the old system would say we don't we don't affiliate with, we don't associate with, we don't get in their their areas, we don't even want to be in the same zip code with them. We want to stay separate, we want to be, we want to be clean, we don't want to have anything to do with that dirtiness, with that depravity, with that that unholiness. And the the scary, sad thing is, is that the very people that were casting judgment on those who were unclean and unholy and living unrighteous lives, they were living unrighteous lives as well. So all of us, all of us need Jesus, all of us need a doctor to come into this situation, someone who sees that we're truly sick. And the irony and the sad part of this story of what happens in the gospel in Luke is that those who needed the doctor, the scribes, the Pharisees, the religious leaders, they didn't realize that they were sick. And in their self righteousness, they thought they were okay, that they were better than okay, that they were going to make it just fine. They needed a physician. Just like those who came to the party. Jesus, as Levi has that reception with the crowd of tax collectors and other people who are with him reclining at that table, the physician comes, and when he walks in in the old kingdom, you could follow all of the rules to the best of your ability and still be sick and not even know it. But now in the new kingdom, in God's kingdom, we realize we all need a doctor. We all need healing. We all need someone to help us, to provide for us, to love us. We need new life. He comes, he calls us, he saves us, and if we trust him, we have this new life in him. I gotta tell you, this doctor, he not only diagnoses perfectly, he heals completely. He doesn't just identify the problem, he also gives us the perfect solution. He doesn't just say, hey, listen, this is this is all the things that are wrong with you. Good luck with that. He becomes the just and the justifier. He takes the sickness, the disease on himself so that we can be well, so that we can be healed. This is the Jesus we worship. This is the Jesus we serve. He's the doctor who writes out the bill and says, for my time and for the medicine and for for all the supplies, you owe this much, and then he takes it back and he pays the bill himself. He's the physician, he's the doctor whose cure is perfect and complete, and there is none other. Like Jesus. Now, in case you thought we were done, he's gonna keep going. In verse 33, they said to him, they're still looking for ways to grip, or to complain, to be upset. If you look for a problem long enough, you'll find one. Verse 33. They said to him, the disciples of John often fast and offer prayers. The disciples of the Pharisees also do the same. But yours, eat and drink. Yours, eat and drink. See what Jesus is going to do now, he's going to transition. He's going to say, I'm going to give you, I'm going to tell you not just about the new life. I'm going to tell you about the new relationship. See, what's happened is the disciples of John, the disciples of the Pharisees, the fasting in the old way, the old kingdom, would be similar to the fasting around a funeral, where you would be, you would be grieving and you would be aching for there to be something coming. And there's an element of that in modern fasting, in the new kingdom fasting, but but at this moment in the time of Jesus' ministry, it's not fasting as you would in a funeral. It's fasting in the new kingdom as you would with a feast. It's not saying, I'm so sad that all these bad things are happening, and where is the Messiah? Now we are celebrating because the Messiah is here. He's bringing new love and new joy, he's bringing hope. And this relationship that we have with him, this life that we have with him, is enabling us to enjoy him and to be with him. And what he's going to do is, just like with the physician, he says, I want you to consider, consider the bridegroom. And he picks it up in verse 34. Jesus said to them, You cannot make the attendance of the bridegroom fast while the bridegroom is with them, can you? But the days will come, and when the bridegroom is taken away from them, then they will fast in those days. So it's not, it's not saying, don't ever fast in terms of remorse or grieving or mourning. He's saying in this season, at this point, you're with me. You're celebrating me. You get to know me. So come back to this idea of this being the Lord's table. See, in just a few moments, you're gonna you're gonna carefully uh uncover the elements. You're gonna you're gonna drink and you're gonna eat, and and it's going to be it's going to be a time where you get to partake as the body of Christ. We get to do it together. But you understand that if there's not a communion with him, this communion means nothing, right? You you know that, right? I'm not trying to insult your intelligence, I'm not trying to tell you something you already know like you've never heard it before. What I'm suggesting or what I'm trying to reiterate is the fact that you and I can't come to his table if we haven't come to him first. That if you don't know him, and and by know, I'm not talking about knowledge, I'm not talking about just an understanding of his identity. We can read the Bible, we can get who he was, fully God, fully man. We can see the virgin birth, we can see the taking all the sin upon himself, we can see all the facts and the figures, we can go through all of the biography, we can we can see the testimony about him from other people, including Dr. Luke. We can do all of that and we can know about him, but I'm not using those words. I'm saying the scripture, when it says no, it's talking about an intimacy, it's talking about a relationship, it's talking about where you have a bond where when you walk away, you grieve, you miss him, you wish you were with him again. It's it's it's that close connection. And what Jesus is doing, talking about the bridegroom, he's saying, Why would we throw a funeral when the bridegroom is standing right there? This is a wedding. Why would we spend time depressed when we should be so excited about him being with us? So, yes, the Pharisees fast, and yes, John's disciples fast, but this is not the time for that. You know, it kind of reminds me of the Old Testament when Nehemiah and Ezra and rebuilding of the walls, and they opened up the Word of God, and it was time for them to celebrate, but they were also so overwhelmingly convicted by their sin, both their personal sin as well as the nation's sin, that they started to weep and they started to wail because the word of God does what the word of God does. It pierced them to the heart. And as they're weeping, as they're wailing, Nehemiah says, What are you doing? Yes, there is a time for that. But today, today, the joy of the Lord is your strength. Today we celebrate. And today, brothers and sisters, as we come to this table, you have junk. And I'm not, I'm not telling you that because I read your mail. I'm telling you that because we all have junk. We all have things, we all have issues, no matter how long you've been walking with Jesus, no matter how much you've learned, how much you've experienced, as we progressively get holier and holier, we all have things that He is dealing with us in our lives. But just for a moment, just for a second, in the midst of us confessing and trusting and repenting and believing and all of that, when we come to the table, this is the parting. This is the relationship. Because as you take those elements, what you're doing is you're saying in faith, Lord, I don't understand everything that's happening to me right now. And honestly, I don't really like a lot of what's going on. But Lord, you and me, I'm in you. We're together. And the things happening in this season, good, bad, ugly, anything in between, they're temporary. But the relationship you have with Jesus Christ, the faith you have with him, that's forever and ever and ever. So he does one more new life, new new relationship, and then finally, new covenant. New covenant. Just a few moments we're going to be reading out of 1 Corinthians chapter 11, where he says, in the same way he took the cup also after supper, saying, This covet this cup is the new covenant in my blood. Do this as often as you drink it in remembrance of me. You see, we don't live in Judaism and Judaism anymore. We don't live in the ways of the Pharisees anymore. We don't live in the old kingdom. Now we live in the new. And because we have this new covenant, because we are going out of the old into the new, it means, according to the Bible, that we have been buried with Christ and we're raised to walk in newness of life. It means that we have this identity with him, where he truly is the Messiah. He truly is God. And because of that, we have a reason to come to the table, not as a meaningless ritual, not as just a religious activity. But this is our, this is our pledge of allegiance. This is our covenant renewal. This is our do this in remembrance of him, where we we bring our hearts, however soft or hard or anything in between, and we come to him and say, I want to be with you. I want this more than anything or anyone else. I want you. We take this moment, this solemn assembly, this, this, this review and renewal and confession and repentance, and we say, Yes, again. It's like the wedding anniversary where we come regularly and we say, I am celebrating the fact that I've come into this covenant, that I am a part of the body of Christ, that I get to be here with him right here and right now. Thank God for 250 years of this country. Thank God for July 4th. Thank God for those who have laid down their lives for our freedom. Thank God for all that we have and we've been blessed with as a country. And the point of that is thank God for that. And because if he's given that to us, we worship the one who's going to give us much more than even this country and the blessings of it. He is giving us new life, this new covenant that we have in him. That's why we come to the table. That's why we're celebrating. That's why we're doing this. Hebrews chapter 8 says, when he said a new covenant, he has made the first obsolete, but whatever is becoming obsolete and growing old is ready to disappear. So what he does over the next few verses, he's going to give us two examples. The first, consider the garment. Consider the garment. Verse 36. And he was also telling them a parallel. No one tears a piece of cloth from a new garment and puts it in an old garment. Otherwise, he will both tear the new and the piece from the new will not match the old. I am way out of my depth on this. I am related to people who understand these things. I do not. So I'm going to take your word that you guys know what we're talking about much more than I do. But evidently, when you when you take a patch of clothing and you try to mix it with another patch, there's some issues that hurts both pieces of clothing. So consider the garment. But then he he continues, and in verse 37, he's going to talk about consider the wineskin. And he says, No one puts new wine into old wineskins, otherwise the new wine will burst the skins and will be spilled out, and the skins will be ruined. But new wine must be put into fresh wineskins. And the no one, after drinking old wine, wishes for new, for he says, the old is good enough. So this it's the same idea, use two different illustrations, two different parables. You've got the old and the new. And he twists it out, he fleshes it out a little more in the second one. But let's just look at that for just a second. Verse 37, when he's talking about the wineskin, they would take the goat skin or sheepskin or whatever they would have, and they would have that as a container for the wine, and the wine would grow old with the skin, but it would become brittle. It would become static, it would become no longer pliable, so that if you were to put new wine into it, the gases alone, the fermentation, all the things that would happen would destroy the old wineskin from putting new wine into the old wineskin. Now, what he does, I think is fascinating. Just bear with me for just a second. Looking at the passage, in verse 36, I mean verse 37, he says, otherwise the new wine will burst the skins and it will be spilled out, and the skins will be ruined. So you'll lose everything. Just like with the cloth, just like with the garments, everything will be ruined. You can't mix them. You either have to fish or cut bait, you're either with him or against him. You can't do both end. You can't live in Judaism. You can't you can't follow the rules of the law, expect salvation from that, and also be a follower of Jesus Christ. You've got to trust him for your righteousness. But he continues in verse 38, but new wine must be put into fresh wineskins. And that sounds pretty good. I'm okay, all right, that makes sense. So new with new, old with old. Then he says something in verse 39, and this is where we're going to start wrapping this up. He says, and no one after drinking old wine wishes for new. For he says, the old is good enough. And I was like, wait a minute. I thought we wanted the new, right? New covenant. So why are you saying the old is good enough? But I guess from what I've been told, wine is better with age. So is that is that what we're just doing here? Is it just a matter of that he he's is he mixing metaphors? What's he doing? And I got to thinking, it's always dangerous, but here's what I thought. What if you get really comfortable in your old ways? I mean really comfortable. What if your walk with God becomes stale and brittle and rigid? What if you trust the process more than the person? What if you become more religious than you are in relationship? What if you really like the old stuff? That's good enough. Let me just go to church. Leave me alone. Let me just endure the preacher, whatever he's talking about. Just leave me alone. You want me to read my Bible when? You want me to pray how? You want me to share with who? You want me to do what? With what? When? You want me to give? And serve? And submit? And join? And live? I don't want to do that. Because the old. The old's good enough. The old, you know, sending your ways. Human wisdom. Tablets of law. As long as I don't obviously commit adultery. Obviously murder anyone. As long as I don't obviously say negative things about someone. Of course, if it's in the it couched in a prayer request, then it's it's legit. But otherwise, as long as I as long as I'm a nice person, as long as I just go through the motions, as long as I just keep my head down, exist the best I can, leave everybody alone, don't rock the boat, and let everybody do their own thing. What's good for you is what's good for me. And what's good for me is good for me, what's good for you is good for you. It's fine. It's fine. It's fine. It's fine. It's not fine. It's not okay. To be new means that the old things no longer are needed. It means that the things that got you here aren't going to keep you here. It means that following Jesus Christ means that there is a daily denial of yourself, so that as the struggles continue on this side of glory, the victories also continue. It means that we get to celebrate Him and be with Him. And when we're tempted to say, I really, I don't like being uncomfortable. I don't like getting outside of what I'm familiar with and my programs and my pragmatism. I don't want to be that way when we get hard and brittle and stoic and serious and dead. He says, No, no. It's new wine, it's new garment. This is this is the new tablet, God's Spirit writing on our hearts, his word, making us like Jesus. This is where we have Him working in us both to will and to wish, to want, to obey, where we get to come, and He works in us. Toward the very end of the Bible in Revelation chapter 21, Jesus says this, he who sits on the throne said, Behold, I am making all things new. And that is exactly what he's doing. That's what he's doing with you, that's what he's doing with me. That is what he is about. Revelation 21, verse 5. I am making all things new. I want to ask you this morning before we take the elements. I want to spend a few moments giving you an opportunity to respond. The altar will be open, pastors, deacons will be available. But maybe, maybe this morning, maybe you just need to sit and just think about a couple of things. Think about your relationship with Jesus. Examine your heart. Ask God to help you search your heart. And I want to give you just four thoughts in terms of this covenant, this new covenant. Many of you have heard this before. This is going to be old news. Many of you, this is no big deal, but I gotta tell you, one of the things I love about studying things like this is there isn't a time that I don't go through this and I get something fresh and new because that's the way God is. So if you'll just bear with me for just a moment, I want to bring us to the table. I want to do it by this invitation. The next steps, if you will, of focusing on this covenant. So let me tell you what I mean. To be in a new life, a new relationship, a new covenant with Jesus Christ means that you have repented of your sins and you've trusted in Him as your Savior and Lord. Now I know those are Bible words, and I know those are words that maybe you've heard before and never really thought about what they mean. So let me put it in a little bit more common vernacular. You aren't going to trust in your education, in your experience, in your DNA. You aren't going to trust in what church you go to, who you know, or who you've known. You aren't going to trust in your parents' religion or your grandparents' religion or your great-grandparents' religion. You're going to trust in the one true God who's revealed in Scripture, Jesus Christ. And by trusting in him, it means that you proclaim with your mouth and believe in your heart that Jesus Christ is who he says he is. And in the process of trusting, believing, there is also the other side of the coin of repenting, of saying, Lord, you've shown me my sin, and I want to be free. I want to be pardoned. I want to be forgiven. And that is salvation. And it may be that some of you here this morning, you've never gone through that. You maybe gone to church all your life and you've heard this over and over and over again. But today, for for God knows why, and I mean that literally, he is working on your heart, and you need that true relationship of repentance and faith with Jesus Christ. And can I tell you a secret? It's not a big secret, but it's one that we evidently forget all the time. This idea of repentance and faith, it doesn't stop until you get to glory. You will continually, day by day, need faith to walk with Jesus and repentance of your sins. It doesn't mean you're getting saved day after day after day. It means in the midst of your salvation, you are being saved. And in that salvation, you get to totally trust Him anew, fresh every morning, repenting of your sins and trusting Him. There'll never be a day where you don't need to walk by faith and repent of your sin. All right, that's the first one. And it could be that many of you here this morning have already accepted that. You've already joined the family of God. Notice I did not say you got it down perfectly. This church is not a place for perfect people because none of us would belong here. This is a place where we as broken sinners need to come to find healing, the physician. So it could be that you've you've received this, you're here, you know Jesus. But the Bible is very clear that salvation is only what matters, it's what gets us to heaven, it gets us in relationship with Him. But there are also points where He says, as a follower of mine, I want you to do this. And the very first step of obedience, an outward expression of an inward transformation, is what the Bible calls baptism. It might be that you are a follower of Christ and you've thought to yourself, well, that baptism thing is optional. That baptism thing is not optional. Not if you're a follower of Christ. You see, come back to the relationship. I love my wife. If you didn't know that, I'm gonna tell you right now. If it's a surprise to you, I got a lot more work to do, but here we go. I love her well enough to know what she wants and doesn't want. Where she likes to eat, where she doesn't like to eat. Do you think maybe even on a greater, grander scheme of things, if I say that I love Jesus, I should do what Jesus wants me to do? And so he says the very first thing is to go and be baptized. Not to receive that salvation, but as obedience. Because what you're doing when you're being baptized is as Romans 6 talks about, you're demonstrating, physically demonstrating, it's a part of your faith. It's physically taking that step of faith, saying, I am buried with Christ, going into the water, and I'm raised to walk in newness of life. It doesn't get you into heaven. I get that. That's not what I'm saying. What I'm suggesting to you is that it's impossible, not improbable, impossible to grow in your faith if you're not obedient in your faith. You can't say, Jesus, I'm gonna follow you 93%, but that 7%, that's on me. You can't do that. You've got to follow him wholeheartedly. And we know from Scripture baptism is one of is the very first thing that he calls us to do. All right, so it could be that this morning you're feeling convicted that you need to be baptized. And I'm I celebrate in that because we're here for you as the body to help you take that next step. There's two more. You okay? Everybody good? Alright, we're gonna make it. Next steps. In this day and age, church membership is treated as an alternate or alternative because we don't like to think about signing our name or or belonging to a group or being committed to being a part of this or saying you're gonna expect me to be here so many times and give so much money, et cetera, et cetera. Back away from the preconceived notions and just hear what the Bible says. When you are a follower of Jesus Christ, you already belong to the church. And what we do locally is a way that we express that membership in the body by saying that we are going to belong to a local body of believers. And by belong, we're not saying you're just gonna sign a card and you're gonna say you're a member of this church. Because if that's all it was, we got hundreds of members of this church. What we're saying is that as a follower of Jesus Christ, you're willing to come into covenant with those others into this fellowship. And see, this is what's happened, and this is to my chagrin and my shame, and I am by the grace of God, I am working on this. But what has happened is we've treated membership as a nice alternative instead of a commitment to a covenant. And if we if we use the word covenant instead of membership, would that help? Because that's what we're talking about. And so what we're doing is we're saying that we want to come in covenant with our brothers and sisters in Christ in this local fellowship. Now, there's a fellowship just a few blocks away that way and a few blocks away that way, and a few blocks away that way. We're still brothers and sisters in Christ with all the other Christians in our community. We aren't breaking covenant with them. What we're saying is, as a follower of Christ, this is the local body that I feel called and compelled to be affiliated with, to support, and to grow with. Because here's the bottom line: you will not grow in your faith if you are not accountable according to Scripture. And the church membership is how you and I grow because we have brothers and sisters who come alongside us. And let me be frank, as opposed to Ralph or George, they get in your business in the best possible way. So if you stop coming to church, they call, they reach out, not because they want you sitting next to them so they have somebody to talk to on Sunday, but because they care about you. Because they want your faith to grow just like they want their faith to grow. They want to hold each other accountable, to know Jesus, to be in covenant with him, so that you're a part of the body of Jesus Christ. Now, I've heard the argument, and I'm gonna talk about this more in days to come. This is not the whole, this is not the whole intellect. I just got you hungry for lunch. Here we go. But I got I gotta tell you, there isn't a verse, chapter and verse that says, Thou shalt join First Baptist Emverness. But there are numerous verses talking about be faithful to one another, to be hold each other accountable, to love one another. And our modern, contemporary way of translating faithfulness to that those commands, those one another's, is we do it by church membership. And if you may, you may, you may, in conviction of spirit under the word of God, you may say, That's that's I just don't believe that's what I need to do. I respect you for that. But if your reasons aren't based upon the scriptures, I would really ask you to start examining why you're not willing to commit. Because this is what happens, and you may not be familiar with this, but it happens. We start to treat the building and the programming and the preaching and the music and the classes like we would something that we pay for, a country club, and we feel like we're entitled to get what we get because we paid for it. This is still his church, it's still his body, still his people. And part of being a part of the body of Christ, membership is understanding that we come in covenant with him, and so we come together and we celebrate Lord's Supper together. We celebrate membership together. There's one more life her. But you think I can just do my own thing, and I don't need to be accountable. You could say that church membership is you stepping forward and saying, I'm going to be submissive to what God wants me to be submissive to. Church family, church discipline, church accountability. And you could say that life group is how you and I get to be in fellowship, living together, and we don't always do it right, and we've got room for improvement. But the idea is that you come together with brothers and sisters that you can be transparent with, open with, vulnerable with, that you can pray with, you can support. I don't know if you know this or not. This is me about to be sarcastic, but it's really hard to know everybody else in this room on Sunday morning. And it's really easy to know eight to twelve people on a weekly basis. This is how we keep each other accountable. This is how we grow in our faith. And it could be that this morning, in any of these salvation, baptism, church membership, life group, that you were thinking, maybe it's time for me to think about this. This isn't the end of the conversation. This is just the beginning. It could be that this morning you you want to talk more. I'm open for that. Pastor Adam, Pastor John, Pastor Matt, you want to sit down with us, you want individually or corporately or whatever, please, let's do that. But the reason I'm bringing this up this morning is because in just a few seconds, and I mean that literally, we're not not much longer. In just a few seconds, we're going to celebrate Jesus. He's being a part of his family. And that's why we talk about covenant. That's why we talk about salvation and baptism, church membership and life group. Now, for the next few moments, I'd like you to spend preparing your hearts to come to the Lord. Would you pray with me, please? Thank you for for this. Thank you for the the joy of knowing you, belonging to you, and belonging to your church. Thank you for how you you give us ways to be in covenant, to live out our faith. And this is a precious way. Lord, we we pray for the old and the new. Thank you for the new life, new relationship, new covenant. But Lord, it's possible that there are some things in our lives that because of routine or habit or stubbornness, we just don't want to give up. We want to do it the old way, we like the way the old wine tastes. And out of that brittleness, out of that rigidity, out of that staleness, we think we're actually pricking something we're not. Father, I pray you as you open our hearts, open our minds. Help us to come to the table in a way that is working. In Christ's name we pray. Amen. Take your elements. We'll do the bread first. If you've already opened the deuce, I am so sorry. First Corinthians chapter eleven, verse twenty three. And the scripture says, For I received from the Lord that which I also delivered to you, that the Lord Jesus in the night in which he was portrayed took bread. And we had given thanks, he broke it and said, This is my body which is for you. Do this in remembrance of me.

SPEAKER_00 1:37:01

Thank you.

SPEAKER_02 1:37:03

Thank you, Lord, for this. Thank you for what you've done, what you're doing. We celebrate you this morning. In Christ's name we pray. Now taking your cup. Removing the lid. First Corinthians chapter eleven, verse twenty-five. In the same way he took the cup, also after supper, saying, This cup is the new covenant of my blood. Do this as often as you drink it in remembrance of me. For as often as you eat this bread and drink the cup, you proclaim the Lord's death until he comes. Would you pray with me, please? I thank you, Lord, for what you give us. I thank you that it's more than enough. And I pray that we be respectful and joyful and expectant. In Christ's name we pray. Amen. Would you stand with me, please? We're going to sing Blessed be the tie, and then Pastor Adam's going to come and close us and pray.

SPEAKER_01 1:39:13

It's a blessing this morning to hear that message. Amen. What a great reminder. We have freedom in Christ Jesus. Here in just a moment, we're going to be dismissed in a word of prayer. And if as you were listening to Pastor Byron go over those next steps, you felt pricked in your heart, convicted that one of those next steps needs to be taken. As Pastor Byron said, reach out to one of us and let us speak with you and answer any questions you might have. We'd love to help you walk through that. We'll be up here at the front after the service. Also, just a couple of things as we part. If you are one of the VBS teachers, please get with Miss Anne to get your VBS material. And we're very excited about VBS. Be in prayer for that as it's coming up. And we're very excited for that. Also, speaking of freedom, if you uh have it heard, there's a special day after the service, we'd love to invite you to stay for that. We in the fellowship hall. Not only are we celebrating the heritage of our country 250 years, but we're celebrating the heritage of this church. Those here that are 90 years or old or older, and those that have been married for 50 years or more. So we'd like for you to stay with us as we celebrate our country and also our brothers and sisters. So let's go ahead and have a word of prayer, and then we'll be dismissed. Heavenly Father, we thank you so much for this day and what a wonderful service. Hearing what you've been doing, how you're reaching your bride throughout the whole world. Lord, thank you for the mission lab team being able to reach out and give the gospel. Thank you for the encouragement that we've been giving of how we can reach out in our own community and in our own lives. Be with us now as we go, Lord. You know I pray. Amen.