SPEAKER_00: There we go.
SPEAKER_00: We're on.
SPEAKER_00: How we doing?
SPEAKER_00: Let's ask again.
SPEAKER_00: How we doing?
SPEAKER_00: Good?
SPEAKER_00: Look to your neighbor and say it's good to see you.
SPEAKER_00: Y'all were waiting for the other side of that, weren't you?
SPEAKER_00: I got in trouble for that this week.
SPEAKER_00: Somebody didn't like it.
SPEAKER_00: I'm like, all right, we won't do it.
SPEAKER_00: Hey, it's good to be in the house of the Lord this morning.
SPEAKER_00: I know it's a long weekend.
SPEAKER_00: It's a good weekend.
SPEAKER_00: A lot's happening, but there's no better place to be than in the house of God with the people of God.
SPEAKER_00: Amen.
SPEAKER_00: There's not a better place to be.
SPEAKER_00: Not a better place to be.
SPEAKER_00: And I'm excited because we're back in our series.
SPEAKER_00: And hey, just so you know, our goals 50 for the 50 of 50.
SPEAKER_00: You answered.
SPEAKER_00: We have 36 that have signed up.
SPEAKER_00: We got 14 slots left for anybody else that wants to be a part of this mission, okay?
SPEAKER_00: You're more than welcome to join in at any time.
SPEAKER_00: But we can't say big enough a huge thank you to everyone that did respond.
SPEAKER_00: Give yourselves a round of applause for that.
SPEAKER_00: I think that's awesome.
SPEAKER_00: Thank you so much for your giving.
SPEAKER_00: Thank you so much for believing in our young people and what God's doing.
SPEAKER_00: Uh, I would you know be remiss if I did not uh acknowledge my uh in-laws are here this week.
SPEAKER_00: My mother-in-law's here with us this morning, so it's always good to have her uh when she comes up and visits the family because it just makes my wife's life better and my kids' life better, which makes my life better.
SPEAKER_00: Amen.
SPEAKER_00: That's how I go.
SPEAKER_00: So, yeah, we're glad she's here.
SPEAKER_00: Um we're getting back into the series here about the 12 Jesus chose.
SPEAKER_00: Now, I highlighted at the beginning of this series, we've talked about it, about, you know, we hear about Peter and we hear about John, but do we really know much about the other disciples?
SPEAKER_00: Do we really understand who these men actually were?
SPEAKER_00: And we've walked with some of them already, you know.
SPEAKER_00: We've talked about James, we've talked about Peter, we've we've talked about these disciples, these men that were ordinary men, but called by God.
SPEAKER_00: And why would God choose people like them?
SPEAKER_00: Why would he want to uh surround himself with people like them?
SPEAKER_00: And today we're gonna be kind of breaking down the life of Matthew.
SPEAKER_00: Okay, Matthew, originally called Levi, Jesus changes his name though.
SPEAKER_00: And Matthew is a very interesting man, but he is a very scarred man.
SPEAKER_00: He is a man that has dealt with most of his adulthood people hating him, which isn't easy, because for you to see yourself differently, oftentimes your reflection is the way that you feel treated by others or are seen in community or society.
SPEAKER_00: And this is a man that went through a lot of hardships, although he was the wealthiest of the wealthy because he was a traitor, he was a thief, and you know, Matthew does not enter this story as a fisherman, he doesn't enter as a brother in the inner circle of a James or a John or a Peter or a man with a religious resume.
SPEAKER_00: In fact, Matthew was as far from a religious resume as you could get.
SPEAKER_00: He didn't enter into any of these things.
SPEAKER_00: He enters as a tax collector sitting at his booth.
SPEAKER_00: The identity of when people had to go to the tax collector, it wasn't like their favorite thing to say in the morning.
SPEAKER_00: Like no one woke up and said, I'm so excited to go to the tax booth today.
SPEAKER_00: Okay, I think you probably feel the same way with the IRS, don't you?
SPEAKER_00: No one's excited about that idea.
SPEAKER_00: And here is Matthew sitting at his tax booth and in first century Israel.
SPEAKER_00: That job put him on the wrong side of almost everyone, including his hometown, including his own people.
SPEAKER_00: Tax collectors, I've mentioned it before in the past.
SPEAKER_00: They worked for Rome, they took more than they should, and were treated as traitors and sinners.
SPEAKER_00: Yet Jesus walked up right to that booth, looked at a man of the community, and one that his own community had written off, and said two words, the same two words that he said to the fisherman.
SPEAKER_00: Follow me.
SPEAKER_00: Matthew's story is not about thunder and ambition, like the brothers, you know, that we previously mentioned.
SPEAKER_00: You know, the sons of thunder, you know.
SPEAKER_00: He's not, he's not like them.
SPEAKER_00: It's about a man with a stained reputation who discovered that Jesus was not afraid of his past.
SPEAKER_00: And this morning, I want to start out by telling you that Jesus is not afraid of your past.
SPEAKER_00: He's not.
SPEAKER_00: He's not afraid of it.
SPEAKER_00: He knows exactly where you're at, he knows exactly where you are.
SPEAKER_00: He has a plan for you.
SPEAKER_00: And so this morning we're gonna go to Matthew 9 9, and I'm gonna go through a few scriptures here.
SPEAKER_00: And forgive me, I have a sinus infection that's working through me, but with God's help, we'll get through this.
SPEAKER_00: But if I cough, you know why, and I'm sorry in advance.
SPEAKER_00: Point one is this that Jesus calls people that other people avoid.
SPEAKER_00: I think this is very important.
SPEAKER_00: And as we'll read in the scriptures, this is what we find.
SPEAKER_00: As Jesus went on from there, he saw a man named Matthew sitting at a tax collector's booth, and he said, Follow me.
SPEAKER_00: And Matthew got up and followed him.
SPEAKER_00: This is very good.
SPEAKER_00: Because for most of us, if you knew who Matthew was and what he was doing, you would know that you did not want to be near him, nor did you want to see him.
SPEAKER_00: And in these moments of our community and in the church world and everything else that we live in, there are people in our community that we look at that we would prefer to avoid.
SPEAKER_00: We'd prefer to avoid.
SPEAKER_00: Whether you have a good reason or not, the same condition lies down at the basis of the very fundamental belief that you are avoiding them for some reason.
SPEAKER_00: And the reality of this is that Jesus does not avoid anyone.
SPEAKER_00: In fact, to the people that you avoid, he loves so much that he goes to.
SPEAKER_00: It's in Luke 5 28 that it says that Levi, which is Matthew, before his name was changed by Jesus, and Levi got up and left everything and followed him.
SPEAKER_00: Now, this is important for us to understand because there is no recorded speech, no delay, no cleanup period.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus did not wait for Matthew to resign.
SPEAKER_00: Matthew did not put in a two week's notice.
SPEAKER_00: He did not do anything right from the custom of repaying people immediately.
SPEAKER_00: Matthew got up immediately and followed Jesus, the same Jesus that you say you love, the same Jesus that you say you're passionate about, the same Jesus that you say that you follow.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus walked up to the worst of the worst, and he looked at him and said, Follow me.
SPEAKER_00: You're good enough for me because I'm going to make you worthy.
SPEAKER_00: I'm going to make you worthy.
SPEAKER_00: And at some point in our lives, and I don't know if you've caught the flow this year or the gist of the grace of God this year and understanding who Jesus really is and how he really sees people.
SPEAKER_00: But it's the people that you avoid that you think are the worst of the worst, that Jesus says they belong to me.
SPEAKER_00: They're a part of me.
SPEAKER_00: And if you can't love them, then you need to understand that you can't love me.
SPEAKER_00: And it's a hard word, isn't it?
SPEAKER_00: Because when we think of Matthew, it's a cute story in the Bible that we read.
SPEAKER_00: But when it's actually our brother or our sister, we look at him like, yeah, dude, I want to avoid them at all cost.
SPEAKER_00: No delay, no cleanup period.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus calls him.
SPEAKER_00: And this is what we find out that Jesus called Matthew while he was still sitting in the very place that defined his shame.
SPEAKER_00: I love this.
SPEAKER_00: Because oftentimes it's the people who are doing the worst things that are sitting in their shame, believing that no one like Jesus would ever love them.
SPEAKER_00: And what we find out about Jesus is that he doesn't wait for you to get yourself cleaned up.
SPEAKER_00: He actually comes and meets you right where you've always been in the booth with the shame.
SPEAKER_00: This is the Jesus Christ of Nazareth that we preach.
SPEAKER_00: His power and his goodness.
SPEAKER_00: This is how grace works.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus does not recruit from the approvalists, he walks into the places respectable people avoid.
SPEAKER_00: Tax booths.
SPEAKER_00: It's what he does.
SPEAKER_00: The call of Jesus isn't limited to people with a clean reputation.
SPEAKER_00: And this is the hardest thing for religious elites to even comprehend or to become okay with.
SPEAKER_00: Because while you're trying to look like you do everything right on the outside, there's people that know what their outside actually is, that have a more sincere, clean heart than those who are trying to do everything right on the outside, but know what's deep inside of their spirit, but yet they're too afraid to admit it because they won't come clean because of what other people think of them.
SPEAKER_00: You know what?
SPEAKER_00: Give me a Matthew who knows he's dirty, who knows he's messed up, and knows he's in need of a saving, that is one that's sitting in his shame, that when he actually meets the God of God in his face, he says, Yeah, you're right, I'll follow you.
SPEAKER_00: Give me that over people who every week come into the church and pretend they've got it all together and that they're better than others and that they're more religious and they got all the answers, but when they go home, it's a mess, it's a disaster.
SPEAKER_00: Give me that.
SPEAKER_00: Give me someone that can't get a sentence without a cuss word, but knows they're in need of a savior.
SPEAKER_00: Give me that person.
SPEAKER_00: I don't need it all together, and neither does he.
SPEAKER_00: And at some point, you need to understand, and I need to understand, that the call of Jesus is not limited to people that don't have a clean reputation.
SPEAKER_00: See, this is the challenging part of the scripture.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus did not call Matthew after he left his booth.
SPEAKER_00: He called him while he was still in it, why he was still stealing, why he was still lying, why he was cheating for Rome, why he was being a traitor of his own people.
SPEAKER_00: While he was in it, Jesus called him and said, Follow me.
SPEAKER_00: And the same Jesus who walked by fishermen also stopped at the desk that everyone else crossed the street to avoid.
SPEAKER_00: And your past may explain how people see you, but it does not decide whether Jesus can use you.
SPEAKER_00: And that is something that has to be built deep into your soul.
SPEAKER_00: Because here's the truth the world is going to judge you, it's going to hate you, it's going to come against you, especially when you've been called by Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: But one thing you have to understand is that your past and hymn cannot define you.
SPEAKER_00: Because just like the scripture said today, brother, today, brother Jeff, he said it, the old is gone, the new has come.
SPEAKER_00: There is no condemnation for those in Jesus Christ.
SPEAKER_00: The moment that Matthew chose to get up from the table and leave everything that he had and follow Jesus was the very next moment that his name would go from Levi to Matthew, because the whole world may explain the way that they see me, but the blood of the cross is what's going to define me.
SPEAKER_00: At some point, you've got to understand this man named Jesus and the way he loves to operate.
SPEAKER_00: Point two is following Jesus means opening your house, not just changing your job.
SPEAKER_00: Matthew's first recorded act after following Jesus was not preaching, it was hospitality.
SPEAKER_00: This is it.
SPEAKER_00: It said that while Jesus was having dinner at Matthew's house, many tax collectors and sinners came and ate with him and his disciples.
SPEAKER_00: You know what?
SPEAKER_00: Let's just change the verse for a second, all right?
SPEAKER_00: I know we don't add or take away from the Word of God.
SPEAKER_00: We're not doing that.
SPEAKER_00: But let's just change the verse for a second, okay?
SPEAKER_00: While Jesus was having dinner at Matthew's house, many liars, thieves, traitors, and sinners came and ate with him and his disciples.
SPEAKER_00: That's what they were.
SPEAKER_00: That's what the world knew them as.
SPEAKER_00: That's what their community knew them as.
SPEAKER_00: And the religious people couldn't deal with it because it was very hard for them why Jesus Christ, who proclaims to be God manifested in flesh, would choose these people to eat with.
SPEAKER_00: And here's what we learned in this moment.
SPEAKER_00: That when the Pharisees saw this, they asked his disciples, why does your teacher eat with tax collectors and sinners?
SPEAKER_00: Okay?
SPEAKER_00: Why does he do that?
SPEAKER_00: And on hearing this, Jesus said, It is not the healthy who need a doctor, but the sick.
SPEAKER_00: But go and learn what this means.
SPEAKER_00: I desire mercy, not sacrifice.
SPEAKER_00: For I have not called to call the I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners.
SPEAKER_00: Now, some of you may think that this scripture means that he didn't come to save righteous as if they were righteous, okay?
SPEAKER_00: But here's the thing no man is made righteous except that of the blood of Jesus Christ.
SPEAKER_00: There is no one called good except he the Father.
SPEAKER_00: There is none that is righteous.
SPEAKER_00: There's only people that think they're righteous.
SPEAKER_00: And God did not come for people like that.
SPEAKER_00: People that thought they had it together, people that had it all figured out, people that have it all the answers.
SPEAKER_00: And for some reason, for some reason in our world today, and in our country today, in our communities today, we have this belief that we are righteous and that we have it figured out.
SPEAKER_00: And we go home and we judge the person that we pass, but yet we can't figure out why we sing the songs, but yet we still feel empty.
SPEAKER_00: We don't understand why we say the prayer at the dinner table, but we're still angry.
SPEAKER_00: We wonder why our lives haven't actually changed.
SPEAKER_00: And maybe it's because you've put yourself up on a pedestal.
SPEAKER_00: In reality, you have to start looking at yourself with a humble posture before God of saying, holy, holy is the Lamb, for he alone is worthy.
SPEAKER_00: I am not, I'm a sinner, I mess it up, I can't get it right, I can't figure it out, and every week I will preach it to you because the true reality is until you desperately need Jesus more than ever, you'll never comprehend the goodness of what he wants to do for you.
SPEAKER_00: That's it, that's it.
SPEAKER_00: And so at some point, it has to be less of me and more of him.
SPEAKER_00: But I love this about Matthew because we were talking about it in Sunday school, brother Jeff.
SPEAKER_00: Matthew did not hide his old friends.
SPEAKER_00: You know, this is one thing that I always love.
SPEAKER_00: When somebody does come to the cross of Jesus, and look, I understand we know sociology one-on-one, it is what it is.
SPEAKER_00: But I understand that when I become saved, there's things I don't want to do anymore.
SPEAKER_00: There's things that I don't want to say anymore, there's places I don't want to go anymore.
SPEAKER_00: You know?
SPEAKER_00: But the whole purpose of following Jesus and and allowing him to do a work in your heart and pursuing his kingdom is not to get away from people, but it's to allow him to use you to change the very people that he pulled you out of.
SPEAKER_00: You know that, right?
SPEAKER_00: And in this moment, Matthew doesn't act like he's bigger and better everybody.
SPEAKER_00: Hey man, I can't hang out tonight because I'm reading the King James Version, man.
SPEAKER_00: Like, don't be dumb.
SPEAKER_00: You ever you ever met people like that?
SPEAKER_00: Like they go to one church service and now they're like holier than thou?
SPEAKER_00: No, just me?
SPEAKER_00: Okay, whatever.
SPEAKER_00: I see it all the time.
SPEAKER_00: I've witnessed it, I've experienced it.
SPEAKER_00: Like, hey, slow down, fuck.
SPEAKER_00: Alright?
SPEAKER_00: Slow down.
SPEAKER_00: Slow down, chill out.
SPEAKER_00: I know God's doing a work in your heart and praise God for that.
SPEAKER_00: But now let's not begin that it wasn't just last night that we were doing things that we shouldn't have been doing.
SPEAKER_00: Now he pulls us out away from that.
SPEAKER_00: Praise God.
SPEAKER_00: But also don't think that you've got it all figured out now because you don't.
SPEAKER_00: And guess what?
SPEAKER_00: Next year you won't, and the year after that you won't.
SPEAKER_00: It's going to be a slow, gentle walk of obedience in the right direction.
SPEAKER_00: Do you understand that?
SPEAKER_00: And there's days you're gonna mess up, and there's days you're gonna be mad at your wife, or your wife's gonna be mad at you, and there's days you're gonna stump your toe and say that word that you said you never say again.
SPEAKER_00: There's gonna be days where that person cuts you off in traffic, and her attractor cuts you off in traffic, and you wanna let them know.
SPEAKER_00: You know what I mean?
SPEAKER_00: Quit acting like you're holy than now, man.
SPEAKER_00: There's only one that's holy, there's only one that's good.
SPEAKER_00: And it's in this moment that Jesus is saying, I've not come to call you fakes.
SPEAKER_00: I've called to call the sinners.
SPEAKER_00: Now, now this is this is this is awesome because Matthew did not hide his old friends.
SPEAKER_00: He brought them to the table to be with Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: He brought them to the table.
SPEAKER_00: You know that's what I love to do.
SPEAKER_00: I tell people when people say, Hey, I have someone that I want you to meet, I say, Great, get them to the table.
SPEAKER_00: Let's get some good food, let's get them to the table, let's hang out.
SPEAKER_00: You want to know why?
SPEAKER_00: Because the moment you bring them to church for the very first time and they meet me, they want to stay as far away from me as they can.
SPEAKER_00: It's just reality.
SPEAKER_00: And then it's even worse if we sit down and then they ask me what I do, and I tell them I'm a pastor, and then that conversation's dead, except for the fact I just learn about every sin that they think they're convicted of.
SPEAKER_00: I don't want that.
SPEAKER_00: Listen, Levi, Matthew, has just had an encounter with Jesus, and instead of trying to act better than his friends, he said, Hey guys, I want to introduce you to someone who called me today.
SPEAKER_00: I want to introduce you to someone who changed my life today.
SPEAKER_00: I want to introduce you to someone that made a difference in my life today.
SPEAKER_00: And this is what we know the gospel does not pull you out of your old life, it often sends you back into it with a new purpose, a new purpose.
SPEAKER_00: Greater is he that's in you than he that's in the world.
SPEAKER_00: So why are you afraid of the world in the world?
SPEAKER_00: If you have the Spirit of God, the Holy Spirit living inside of you, why do you think that you are not the perfect weapon for God to go back to where he just pulled you from to do a greater work?
SPEAKER_00: He said, Greater things than these shall you do.
SPEAKER_00: Speaking of what the disciples had seen in the miracle, signs, and wonders, he said, Greater things will you do?
SPEAKER_00: Why do you think he pulled you out in the first place?
SPEAKER_00: For you to be able to sit up on your high horse and be like, Yeah, I go to Grace Bible Church now, man.
SPEAKER_00: It's pretty awesome.
SPEAKER_00: I'm a part of the club.
SPEAKER_00: No, nobody cares.
SPEAKER_00: You want to know what they care about?
SPEAKER_00: Who is this Jesus that you've encountered that has changed you, that has put a smile on your face, that has radically done a work in your life that we cannot explain.
SPEAKER_00: Before you were miserable, now you have joy.
SPEAKER_00: Where did that come from?
SPEAKER_00: And it's in this moment that Matthew doesn't want to just hoard the gospel for himself, but he wants his friends to know it.
SPEAKER_00: And it was Matthew who said that I still know where I come from, and I still know who I associated with, so I want the same for them too.
SPEAKER_00: And guess what?
SPEAKER_00: So did Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: I want to share a story with you guys.
SPEAKER_00: This young couple right here.
SPEAKER_00: Oh, skin and bones back in the day they were.
SPEAKER_00: The woman on the left.
SPEAKER_00: We were in a revival, and I've shared this story with some of you, but we were in a revival, and God was moving, the Holy Spirit was falling, and this woman, this woman came in and she sat on the back pew.
SPEAKER_00: And this picture that was taken was about a couple months after the fact, but they were skinnier then, but she came and sat in the back pew, and the Spirit of God moved radically, and this woman was at the altar crying out her eyes, and and God moved and touched her.
SPEAKER_00: And when she got up from praying, she said, My husband will never come.
SPEAKER_00: She said, He'll never come.
SPEAKER_00: Now, now David was a drug dealer in our community and very well known.
SPEAKER_00: He was a big drug dealer.
SPEAKER_00: Um, David did not care about God, had never really met God, and stayed as far away from God as he could.
SPEAKER_00: He was a real problem, actually, in our community.
SPEAKER_00: And the next Sunday night, or the next night of the revival, not only did his wife walk in, but David Poe walked in.
SPEAKER_00: And she sat in the back row the same as she did the night before, and he sat in the back row with her.
SPEAKER_00: And I remember God moved in that service again, and I remember watching her take him by the hand and lead him down that side wall like that one.
SPEAKER_00: And he came to the altar and he gave his life completely to God.
SPEAKER_00: In that one moment, a drug dealer, horrible, not good, problem in our community.
SPEAKER_00: And I remember over the next weeks, she would tell testimony after testimony of how she lost three children and she was looking for something and she was hungry, but she didn't know where to find it.
SPEAKER_00: And David would say he couldn't believe that the church would actually accept him, knowing what he's done and what he's been doing and all the wrong things.
SPEAKER_00: And you know, I remember, I remember waking up early at the trailer and hearing a knock on the door, and it was David, and I was just a young, a young teenager at the time, and uh when I wasn't even a teenager yet.
SPEAKER_00: And I remember he knocked and and my grandmother answered the door and he said, Is Tyler here?
SPEAKER_00: And she said, Yeah, he said, I wanna I want to take him door knocking with me.
SPEAKER_00: I'm like, Yeah, dude, let's go.
SPEAKER_00: And I remember we went door knocking, and I'm like, where are we going?
SPEAKER_00: And he said, To every person that I know that I've sold drugs to.
SPEAKER_00: I'm like, dude, I don't know if my grandma would have let me win.
SPEAKER_00: Like, like, this is Tom Bluff, baby.
SPEAKER_00: This is bad.
SPEAKER_00: We're going to Dollar Waste side, too.
SPEAKER_00: And so I remember every every door we would go to, man, he would get out.
SPEAKER_00: Get out.
SPEAKER_00: And he would knock.
SPEAKER_00: And they would come to the door and they'd be like, David, what do you want?
SPEAKER_00: He's like, Man, listen, I know I've sold you drugs over the years, but man, I've got a new drug for you.
SPEAKER_00: He said, I found Jesus, and or Jesus found me.
SPEAKER_00: He said, I'd like you to come to church with me.
SPEAKER_00: And they were like, Well, man, we're just not really interested in that.
SPEAKER_00: And they close the door and said, go to the next one.
SPEAKER_00: And we go and we go and we go.
SPEAKER_00: And I remember watching this man.
SPEAKER_00: I remember watching him show up every Sunday, every Sunday night, every Wednesday night.
SPEAKER_00: A new community.
SPEAKER_00: They lost three daughters.
SPEAKER_00: They had every right to be angry at God.
SPEAKER_00: I watched him.
SPEAKER_00: He gave his life to Christ and everything that he had.
SPEAKER_00: And you know what?
SPEAKER_00: For every daughter they lost, God gave him, God gave them three back in return.
SPEAKER_00: David is now the pastor in Star City, Arkansas, and has led so many people to God over the last 20 years.
SPEAKER_00: And this is what God does when he shows up in people's tax boosts.
SPEAKER_00: Amen.
SPEAKER_00: This is it.
SPEAKER_00: When you surrender and you don't allow what people to see you as in your past to be the calling that Jesus has upon your life.
SPEAKER_00: How can God take a tax collector?
SPEAKER_00: How can he take a drug addict?
SPEAKER_00: How can he take someone in a community and take their moments of impossibility and turn them into his signature of authenticity?
SPEAKER_00: That's the kind of God we serve.
SPEAKER_00: And that's how good he is.
SPEAKER_00: True conversion does not isolate you from broken people, it gives you a reason to bring them to Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: Every chance Brother Poe had, he was bringing people to Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: I know what I did in my past, I know what I did, I know what I saw, but let me bring you to Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: And here's what we know Matthew did not throw a dinner to impress religious people.
SPEAKER_00: He threw a dinner so sinners could sit with Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: That's all I want to do.
SPEAKER_00: You know?
SPEAKER_00: Like, I don't got this thing figured out either.
SPEAKER_00: You don't got this thing figured out either.
SPEAKER_00: All I want to do is create a space for people to encounter Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: Because I have my own tax booth, guys.
SPEAKER_00: I have my own place, guys.
SPEAKER_00: I have my own shortcomings, guys.
SPEAKER_00: I have my own failures.
SPEAKER_00: But he says, follow me.
SPEAKER_00: The first evidence of Matthew's new life was not a better reputation, it was a full table.
SPEAKER_00: It was a full table.
SPEAKER_00: Oh, they still talked about him.
SPEAKER_00: They still told they they all he's just a crook.
SPEAKER_00: He's a fake.
SPEAKER_00: He's not real.
SPEAKER_00: He's not authentic.
SPEAKER_00: He'll never, he, he ain't, he ain't like us.
SPEAKER_00: No, he's not.
SPEAKER_00: And I hope he never becomes like you.
SPEAKER_00: But his evidence of a new life was a full table.
SPEAKER_00: God give us full tables in our home, give us full tables in our community.
SPEAKER_00: Let those who are judged listen to me.
SPEAKER_00: I don't care where they come from, I don't care what they identify as.
SPEAKER_00: I don't care what they think or what you think.
SPEAKER_00: Here's what I know that God gave you the Spirit, the Holy Spirit inside of you, not to push people away, but to open up a seat at your table.
SPEAKER_00: That's what he did.
SPEAKER_00: And you let him do the work and you shut your mouth.
SPEAKER_00: You let him do the work and you let him work it because he'll do better than you ever can or that I ever can.
SPEAKER_00: And this is what we learn.
SPEAKER_00: In 10 3, this is what I love, and I'm hurrying up here, guys.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus can take a compromised life and turn it into a witness.
SPEAKER_00: Oh, how could he use someone like that?
SPEAKER_00: Matthew is later listed among the 12.
SPEAKER_00: This is what I love because when he lists the 12, he lists Matthew the tax collector.
SPEAKER_00: I don't know if you've ever read that or ever thought about that.
SPEAKER_00: He says Philip and Bartholomew, Thomas, and Matthew the tax collector.
SPEAKER_00: James, son of Alphaeus and Thaddeus, and it goes on.
SPEAKER_00: But out of all of them, he names Matthew as the tax collector.
SPEAKER_00: Like, why didn't the other guys get the like I would have been a little offended if I read that as Matthew?
SPEAKER_00: Like, why they why do I get a why do I get the title still, but they they don't?
SPEAKER_00: Matthew the tax collector.
SPEAKER_00: You know?
SPEAKER_00: Notice this when you read it in 10 and 3.
SPEAKER_00: The man who once handled Rome's money became the man who wrote down the words of the king, the one who had been known for taking from people, became a witness who gave the church one of its four gospels.
SPEAKER_00: I want you to keep that in mind.
SPEAKER_00: And this is why when we read Matthew 10 and 3, that I believe that he is listed as a tax collector.
SPEAKER_00: You ready?
SPEAKER_00: Here's why.
SPEAKER_00: Because Jesus did not just forgive Matthew's pass, he put his pass in the story so others would know no one is too compromised to be called.
SPEAKER_00: Do you understand that?
SPEAKER_00: Matthew the tax collector.
SPEAKER_00: Who's my disciples?
SPEAKER_00: Well, I've got Peter, I've got James, I've got also I've got Matthew the tax collector.
SPEAKER_00: Hold on, hold on.
SPEAKER_00: Matthew the thief.
SPEAKER_00: Matthew the liar.
SPEAKER_00: Matthew the traitor.
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, he's mine.
SPEAKER_00: He's mine.
SPEAKER_00: And I've changed his name from Levi to Matthew, but everybody knows him because of what he used to do.
SPEAKER_00: But but he's mine.
SPEAKER_00: But he's mine.
SPEAKER_00: How scandalous is that?
SPEAKER_00: But he's mine.
SPEAKER_00: If Jesus can make a gospel writer out of a tax collector, he can make a witness out of you, ladies and gentlemen.
SPEAKER_00: I don't know what it is that you've done.
SPEAKER_00: I don't know where you've been.
SPEAKER_00: I don't know what you've suffered with.
SPEAKER_00: I don't know what you've seen.
SPEAKER_00: I don't know.
SPEAKER_00: But here's what I do know.
SPEAKER_00: If that a tax collector was proudly, proudly supported by the King of Kings, and he left his booth and he made a witness out of him, you have no reason to believe that he cannot make a witness out of you.
SPEAKER_00: Out of you.
SPEAKER_00: This is what I love.
SPEAKER_00: And I'm closing.
SPEAKER_00: Worship team, you can come up.
SPEAKER_00: The Bible says on 1 Corinthians 1 27 that God chose the foolish things of the world to shame the wise.
SPEAKER_00: That God chose the weak things of the world to shame the strong.
SPEAKER_00: This is how He operates.
SPEAKER_00: People say, Well, I don't have it together.
SPEAKER_00: I don't, I don't have it.
SPEAKER_00: Good, you're a perfect candidate.
SPEAKER_00: Welcome.
SPEAKER_00: People say, Well, I don't have a good family.
SPEAKER_00: Great.
SPEAKER_00: Welcome to the family.
SPEAKER_00: People say, well, my addiction's too great.
SPEAKER_00: No, no, no.
SPEAKER_00: You've just not met Jesus yet.
SPEAKER_00: But soon.
SPEAKER_00: Welcome to the family.
SPEAKER_00: People say, well, I don't have a last name.
SPEAKER_00: Great.
SPEAKER_00: Even better.
SPEAKER_00: Welcome to the family.
SPEAKER_00: People say, well, you don't know my past.
SPEAKER_00: No, but he does.
SPEAKER_00: Welcome to the family.
SPEAKER_00: You have to make the decision.
SPEAKER_00: See, it's in 2 Corinthians 2, 1 through 10.
SPEAKER_00: This is what I love.
SPEAKER_00: Paul says it this way.
SPEAKER_00: He says, I must go on boasting.
SPEAKER_00: Although there is nothing to be gained, I will go on to visions and revelations from the Lord.
SPEAKER_00: And Paul's trying to say this as humbly as he can because he's talking about visions he's had.
SPEAKER_00: But he says, I know a man in Christ who 14 years ago was caught up to the third heaven.
SPEAKER_00: Whether it was in the body or out of the body, I do not know.
SPEAKER_00: God knows.
SPEAKER_00: And I know that this man, whether in the body or apart from the body, I do not know, but God knows.
SPEAKER_00: Verse 4 was caught up to paradise and heard inexpressible things, things that no one is permitted to tell.
SPEAKER_00: This is Paul talking about his experience that he had.
SPEAKER_00: He said, I will boast about a man like that, but I will not boast about myself, except about my weaknesses.
SPEAKER_00: Why my weaknesses?
SPEAKER_00: Because even if I should choose to boast, I would not, I would not be a fool because I would be speaking the truth, but I refrain.
SPEAKER_00: So no one will think more of me than is warranted by what I do or say.
SPEAKER_00: Or because of these surpassingly great revelations, therefore, in order to keep me from becoming conceited, I was given a thorn in my flesh, a messenger of Satan to torment me.
SPEAKER_00: What?
SPEAKER_00: Keep reading.
SPEAKER_00: Three times I pleaded with the Lord to take it away from me.
SPEAKER_00: But he said to me, My grace is sufficient for you, and my power is made perfect in weakness.
SPEAKER_00: Therefore, I'll boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses so that Christ's power may rest upon me.
SPEAKER_00: Oh, Paul got it right.
SPEAKER_00: That is why, for Christ's sakes, I delight in weaknesses and insults and hardships and persecution and difficulty.
SPEAKER_00: For when I'm weak, he's strong.
SPEAKER_00: You know what I've learned over the years?
SPEAKER_00: Oh man, it's the thorns in my side that lead me down to my knees.
SPEAKER_00: God, I can't do it no more.
SPEAKER_00: God, I can't take it.
SPEAKER_00: God, I know I shouldn't have done that, but I didn't.
SPEAKER_00: It's what everybody thinks about me.
SPEAKER_00: It's what everybody says about me, but God, if I can just reach your throne, if I can just have a moment with you, I know that when I'm weak, God, then you are strong, and therefore you make me strong.
SPEAKER_00: It's in that moment that everything changes.
SPEAKER_00: The world may fall, the earth may shatter, they may persecute and they may say lies, and they may attack me, they may hurt me.
SPEAKER_00: Oh, but I've learned that he's given me a thorn in my side to keep me close to him.
SPEAKER_00: But even more than that, he's given me his grace, which is sufficient for the things that I do deserve, he doesn't give me, but the things that I do deserve, he keeps from me.
SPEAKER_00: My God, what kind of grace is this?
SPEAKER_00: It's in this moment, it's in this moment that we begin to understand a little story about Matthew in this creator, and it's this Matthew left a desk full of other people's money and gained a seat at the table.
SPEAKER_00: And that's what happens when Jesus calls a sinner, and a sinner actually gets up.
SPEAKER_00: Oh my god.
SPEAKER_00: If you'd actually get up, if you just get up.
SPEAKER_00: See, a lot of people keep just saying, Well, this is all that I am, this is all that I'm gonna be.
SPEAKER_00: No, it's not.
SPEAKER_00: All you gotta do is get up, leave the booth.
SPEAKER_00: Who cares about what they say?
SPEAKER_00: Who cares about what people think?
SPEAKER_00: Who cares what people shout?
SPEAKER_00: Just leave the booth.
SPEAKER_00: Leave the booth.
SPEAKER_00: You've got your children's future on the line, you've got future generations on the line, you got people coming, people you don't even know yet that are dependent on you to get up and leave the booth.
SPEAKER_00: Quit the alcohol, quit the cocaine, quit the drugs, quit all the things, quit the lust, quit the booth, get out the booth.
SPEAKER_00: You need help, come find me, we'll get you help.
SPEAKER_00: If you need a brother, lean on me.
SPEAKER_00: I won't tell anybody.
SPEAKER_00: I'll be the closest friend, not closer than him, but I'll be a friend.
SPEAKER_00: Listen to me.
SPEAKER_00: We don't got it figured out, but he does.
SPEAKER_00: And all we have to do is get out of the booth.
SPEAKER_00: It's the 12 that Jesus chose.
SPEAKER_00: He chose a guy like Matthew.
SPEAKER_00: So maybe you'd realize that he'd choose somebody like you, that he'd choose somebody like me, that he'd choose somebody like David.
SPEAKER_00: He loves you because he loves you, because he loves you.
SPEAKER_00: And it's until that you understand that you don't have to get.
SPEAKER_00: I heard somebody this week tell me, I say, you know, I just don't always get it right.
SPEAKER_00: Sometimes I say a word that I shouldn't.
SPEAKER_00: I say, hey, that's a thorn on your side.
SPEAKER_00: Keep close to the Lord.
SPEAKER_00: Keep searching toward him.
SPEAKER_00: We don't make excuses for sins, we don't.
SPEAKER_00: But guess what?
SPEAKER_00: I know that I need him every single day.
SPEAKER_00: And if I don't have him, I'm never gonna make it.
SPEAKER_00: I'm never gonna make it.
SPEAKER_00: We're gonna take communion here in a moment.
SPEAKER_00: I'm gonna invite the steward up here in a second, a deacon.
SPEAKER_00: But I want to pray over you right where you're at to prepare your heart, because I don't I don't know where you're at this morning.
SPEAKER_00: But I want you to know that you're worthy because he made you worthy.
SPEAKER_00: He's worthy of the praise and honor, and he's made you worthy.
SPEAKER_00: You get to choose this morning to get up from the table.
SPEAKER_00: You get to choose this morning to not allow that flesh, to not allow the thorn in your flesh to dictate your response to him, but let his grace be sufficient for your life.
SPEAKER_00: Oh, in the insults and the persecution, oh, in the hardships, oh, in the struggles of flesh and despair.
SPEAKER_00: Oh, let him be the grace that's sufficient for your life.
SPEAKER_00: Let him do it, let him do it, let him do it.
SPEAKER_00: You get to choose that in this very moment.
SPEAKER_00: Dear Father, we thank you for allowing us to be in your presence.
SPEAKER_00: Thank you for your spirit.
SPEAKER_00: God, I don't take that for granted.
SPEAKER_00: Lord, thank you for your love, for loving someone like me, for loving someone like us.
SPEAKER_00: God, thank you for your church, thank you for your kingdom, thank you for going to Matthew's tax booth.
SPEAKER_00: Thank you for going to Him.
SPEAKER_00: Lord, I can't wait to see Him in heaven.
SPEAKER_00: Oh Father, I thank you that you take the foolish things of this world, you take people like me, and you do the impossibilities.
SPEAKER_00: God, I pray for every person right now that's searching in their heart, that's wanting to choose you, but they've not let the past go.
SPEAKER_00: They're not, they the hell is echoing in their ears just constantly, and they feel like they can't overcome it.
SPEAKER_00: God, give them the spirit, the love, the comfort right now to let them look in the mirror and see you and not themselves.
SPEAKER_00: For you love them.
SPEAKER_00: For while they were still yet sinners, you died for them.
SPEAKER_00: So I speak the blood of Jesus right over them right now.
SPEAKER_00: God, it speaks a better word.
SPEAKER_00: It speaks a better word.
SPEAKER_00: God, we thank you for that.
SPEAKER_00: Let them fall into your grace.
SPEAKER_00: We don't fall from grace, we fall into it.
SPEAKER_00: Lord, we thank you and we worship you in Jesus' name.
SPEAKER_00: Amen.