(7.5.26) Sermon | The Invitation | Patrick Hardy

Sermon from 7.5.2026

Title: The Invitation 

Series: Follow Me

In this opening message of the Follow Me series, Pastor Patrick Hardy looks at Jesus’ calling of Peter, Andrew, James, and John in Matthew 4:18–22 and asks what it really means to be a disciple of Jesus. Using the contrast between being a sports “fan” and being a committed follower, Patrick argues that discipleship is more than attending church, completing a class, knowing the Bible, or avoiding certain sins. Jesus calls ordinary people where they are, sees their God-given potential, and invites them to leave their old lives behind and follow him.

Patrick develops four aspects of Jesus’ call: Jesus sees you, Jesus calls you, Jesus forms you, and Jesus sends you. Following Jesus is a lifelong process of being transformed into his image, taking up our cross daily, and ultimately being sent to help others follow him. The message challenges listeners to consider whether they are merely fans of Jesus or genuine followers—and, if they are followers, to ask the next question: Who are you helping to follow Jesus? Drawing on Matthew 4, Luke 9, Matthew 9, and the story of Hagar in Genesis 16, Patrick concludes with an invitation to “get out of your boat,” follow Jesus, and become a disciple-maker in the ordinary relationships and places God has already given us.

Transcript

Copy Transcript Copied

SPEAKER_00 0:00

Well, good morning, good morning. It's good to be with you today. If you don't know who I am, I'm Pastor Patrick. I'm the lead pastor here on staff, and it's a blessing to get to be together. It's so good that you're here on this holiday weekend. You could be so many places. You could be at the lake. Uh, you could be in the ER getting your hand put back together, but you're not. You didn't burn yourself down, which is good. Um this morning I do want to take one moment just to slow down and remember that that we actually join millions of Christians across the globe who are worshiping in churches uh this morning. And for us, we woke up and we rolled out of bed, we got our cup of coffee, and the biggest obstacle to us being at church today was probably just the fact that the fireworks kept us up a little bit later last night than normal. And today I just want to take a second for us to remember, just as Americans, as as Christians, the blessing that it is that we get to live in a country where we can freely worship and gather together this morning, that you can go and take your faith and you can share it with anybody without fear of persecution. Um, and that's just a blessing that we get to live in this country for that. We get the freedom to worship, to gather, and to share a faith. Uh, and we also thank all of those who serve uh in public service, in our military, that that allow us to have these freedoms by putting their lives on the line for us each and every day. So, you know, Jesus, he's not about just the flourishing of the United States, he's for all people of all nations of all tongues. But that doesn't mean that we don't live a blessed life that we get to live in the freedom that we have here in this country. So this morning, I just want to take a second that for us just to honor that and just be thankful for the freedoms that we do have. Um, as many of you know, uh, I am a huge Boston sports fan, not just not just sports, but Boston sports in particular. You see, my dad he grew up in the inner city of Boston, he was a city kid, and then I was born in New Hampshire, so I was brainwashed from a very young age that this was who I was and this is who I was supporting. So I'm a huge Patriots fan. I've even preached in a in a Patriots jersey. I think those are my holiest messages I've ever preached. Uh I hate watch the Red Sox because they're cheap and they won't spend money. Uh, and I love the Boston Celtics. And and this past week in the NBA, there was this thing that started, it's called free agency. And this is where players have the ability to switch teams when their contracts end and teams get to get to sign other players. And in my Boston Celtics, they were in the news and the rumor mill this week because one of their best players, Jalen Brown, stick with me if you hate sports, stick with me. I'm going somewhere with this, I promise. He was he was being traded, uh, or at least being shopped to be traded. So all week, what did I do? I listened to podcasts, I had ESPN on in the background everywhere I went. I'm scrolling Twitter, I'm refreshing it over and over because I wanted to be in the know. I wanted to know what was gonna happen with my favorite team. And unfortunately, I put my phone down for maybe one hour this week, and that was the moment that Jalen Brown got traded to the Sixers. I've I opened my phone and I have 20, 30, 40 text messages from people saying, What is going on? Did this happen? And I'm like, I don't even know what's happening. I'm trying to scroll back to see what has happened. Uh, you might not understand any of the words I just said. I'm speaking a foreign language to you. Here's what I need you to know. Uh, this ruined my week. I was absolutely heartbroken about this. One of my favorite players was traded to a team that was a rival of my team. You see, my fandom for the Celtics, the Patriots, the not really the Red Sox right now, but that's okay. My fandom goes past fandom. I am a follower of these teams. I don't just watch the games if I have a chance. I plan my days around them. Wins and losses, they affect my mood for weeks. Off seasons are not off-seasons for me. I gotta stay focused to make sure my team's making the right move so we win games next year. I may not be on the team, but I'm as invested into my teams as I possibly can be. In 2016, there was this pastor, he released a book, his name's Kyle Eidelman, and he released a book called Not a Fan. And churches across the country started doing these series about what does it mean to be not a fan of Jesus, but a follower of Jesus. And he writes this he says, the goal of Christianity isn't to create bigger crowds of fans, it's to form committed followers who look more like Jesus every day. In the fall, you can go to a bangles game and you're gonna be surrounded by a lot of people who are cheering, who are enjoying the environment, but not every person who's in that stadium is really a follower of the bangles. On Sunday mornings, there are churches that are filled to the brim with people who are singing the songs, they're hearing the messages, they're friendly with one another. But Eidelman challenges the Christ follower that it's more than just merely fandom. Is following Jesus just merely going to church on Sundays? Is discipleship just finishing a class and getting a certificate? Is discipleship really just like you get to the end and you know your Bible really well? Is it all about just serving on a team at church? Is it about just avoiding certain sins? The truth is all of these things are really good and they matter in our faith journey, but none of them make disciples on their own. If discipleship was all about attending activities, then I'd argue that Jesus picked a terrible strategy for his ministry. Jesus, he had no building, he had no classes, he had no programs, and yet I would argue, and I think you'd agree, that he's the best disciple maker of all time. He never had a membership course, he never built a classroom, he never handed Peter any curriculum. We walk in with our own preferences and past experiences as to what this word discipleship should look like, especially in church. I mean, it's like a buzzword at this point that carries so many assumptions depending on who you're talking to. But what if when we talk about discipleship, we stopped talking about the how and we started talking about the outcome that Jesus desires in our lives. To form committed followers who look more like Jesus every day. So for the next six weeks, we're gonna go on a journey together where we're gonna be walking through how Jesus equipped, how he called, he equipped, and he sent his disciples in a series called Follow Me, and hopefully we become more like Jesus through this series. What if discipleship is more than classes, it's more than programs, it's more than curriculums. Jesus has called his disciples and showed us what discipleship is really all about, and that's what we're gonna try to discover through these next six weeks. So if you've got your Bible this morning, opened up to Matthew chapter four. We're gonna be in verses 18 through 22 this morning in just a moment. If you don't have your Bible, all of our scripture texts will be up on the screen for you to follow along. But let me set the scene for you of where we are in this story. You see, Jesus, he's begun his ministry. Jesus is going from town to town, city to city, and he's preaching this message: repent, the kingdom of heaven is here. And Jesus now, he's walking along the Sea of Galilee, and that's where our story picks up. If you've been here the past several weeks, you know we we've been going through this Sermon on the Mount series where we talked about his message on the Sermon on the Mount was the continuation of the repent, the kingdom of heaven is here. Actually, our passage today sits right in between the two. So right above it is Jesus going town to town, city to city, and right below it is the Sermon on the Mount. And Jesus has begun his ministry, but now he's beginning the movement by calling his first followers to leave their lives behind and to follow him. Now, if if I were in Jesus' shoes and I wanted to start a movement today, I would start with the most powerful, successful, and influential people that I could get to follow me. If I could capture those people, then I could really gain some traction in the movement I'm trying to get off the ground. I may even hire some social media influencers and tell them to put out posts about how awesome this movement is and how people should join in. I get the word spreading in the biggest and most effective ways. But that's not who Jesus calls. He doesn't call the religious leaders, he doesn't call the political elites, he doesn't call the wealthy. Instead, Jesus calls some fishermen out fishing to come and follow him. So, with that being said, would you stand with me out of the respect of the reading of God's word? We're gonna read Matthew 4, verses 18 through 22 this morning, and it says this. Simon called Peter and his brother Andrew. They were casting a net into the lake, for they were fishermen. Come, follow me, Jesus said, and I will send you out to fish for people. At once they left their nets and followed him. Going on from there, he saw two other brothers, James, son of Zebedee, and his brother John. They were in a boat with their father Zebedee, preparing their nets. Jesus called them, and immediately they left the boat and their father and followed him. This is the word of God for the people of God. You may be seated this morning. So Jesus, he's out, right? He's going city to city, town to town, and he's preaching this message, and then while he's on this journey, he's walking along the Sea of Galilee, and he sees these two brothers, Simon, who we know as Peter, and his brother Andrew. And Peter and Andrew, they're out on their boat and they're casting their nets over and they're fishing. Now, these two brothers, they weren't just enjoying their Saturday afternoon, blowing off some steam, going to catch some fish together. No, these two brothers, they were fishermen. This was how they made their living. And when Jesus sees them on the boat and he sees these two men working really hard to make a living, he sees them and he calls out to them. As Jesus is walking by, he probably saw many other fishermen, I would guess. He probably saw many other people, but these two men, these two fishermen, stood out to him and he noticed them. And for whatever reason, Jesus sees Peter and Andrew and he takes notice. While these two men are out there fishing, Jesus calls out to them and says, Hey, you two on the boat! You two fishing. Come, follow me. Peter and Andrew, they're out there working. They're making their livelihood. They're trying to catch some fish. They needed to work in order to make a living. The call of Jesus to come was not just for some afternoon. This wasn't a call to say, hey, come join me for a little bit and check it out. This isn't an interest meeting Jesus is putting on. No, Jesus is telling these two men who did not know him to drop everything in this moment, to leave their life behind, and to follow him. I'll tell you what, Jesus needs a way better sales pitch than what he had here. That's not getting me out of my boat. But wrong. Peter and Andrew, they drop everything in that moment and they jump out of the boat and they come to follow Jesus. Then we have this ragtag trio, and they're walking along the Sea of Galilee, continuing when they see two other brothers, James and John. And James and John, they were also uh fishermen, but they were a part of the family business. And these two, they're sitting on the shore preparing their nets with their father when Jesus approaches them. And Jesus calls James and John the same way that he called Peter and Andrew. There's no fancy sales pitch, there's no convincing, and yet these two brothers, they get up, they leave their father, and they follow Jesus. Jesus' call to uh call to Peter, Andrew, James, and John to abandon their livelihoods was more than just a career change that he's calling them to. But he's also calling them to completely change their identity since they are leaving their families as well. According to Dr. Craig Keener, he says that family businesses would have been common in this time, and keeping money in the family was economically as well as socially profitable. These four boys, they weren't abandoning their Saturday afternoon plans. No, these four men were leaving their family business. They were leaving their security and family in order to follow a man that they did not know. Why would they do that? All day we could sit here and try and analyze what's going through these guys' heads, why they would make this such seemingly reckless decision. But I think Matthew is actually telling us less about these four men and trying to show us more about who Jesus is. You see, Jesus is the God who sees you. While going from town to town, city to city, Jesus saw thousands of people. He could have called anybody, and yet he sees Peter, Andrew, James, and John and calls out to them. Have you ever met somebody and you thought that they had no idea who you were? Maybe you were like in your office at work and one of the upper-level bosses came in for the day and you assumed that they had no clue who you were as a lowly worker. Or maybe you you met someone that you look up to or aspire to be. Or maybe it's just someone around town that you've known of for a while. And when you met that person, you expected them not to have any clue who you were, but they looked at you, they called you by name, and they said, I know who you are. There's something powerful about a moment like that. A moment where you are seen and known by someone that you look up to. It's one thing for your spouse, your close friends, or family to say, hey, you're doing a great job, but it almost means more when it comes from someone who's unexpected, who's taken notice of you. For me, I mean, it means a lot when Alyssa says I preach good, um, but I think she's just trying to get me to continue to do the chores around the house. It means so much more when there's a pastor who took the time to sit down to watch my message and to reach out and say, hey, you're doing a really good job. And the same is true for things in your life as well. When we are seen and noticed, it communicates that we are valued. And Jesus sees these four very average, ordinary, stinky fishermen. And when he notices them, he calls out to them. Jesus is communicating to them that they are valuable. Everyone else saw these as fishermen for who they were. They were ordinary people, but Jesus sees them for who God has created them to be and calls them to take a leap of faith and walk into their full redemptive potential to follow Him. You see, the call to follow Jesus starts with Jesus seeing you right where you are, but Jesus and the God of the Old Testament is the same God. In in Genesis 16, we see Hagar, who is Abraham's mistress. She was abandoned, she was alone and hopeless, but God sees her in her pain and meets her there. God sees Hagar in full, not the image that she was presenting to everyone around her, not the best picture she was putting on for everyone else. Instead, Jesus, God sees her for who she is. And Genesis 16, 13 says this about Hagar. She gave this name to the Lord, who spoke to her, You are the God who sees me. For she said, I have now seen the one who sees me. Hagar calls God Elroi, which means the God who sees. The God of the universe saw Hagar. Jesus saw the fisherman, and Jesus sees you here today and calls you valuable. You have a God who sees you and calls you. Everybody else saw a fisherman. Jesus saw disciple makers. Everyone else saw ordinary people. Jesus saw people who could change the world. So Jesus, he sees Peter, Andrew, James, and John, and when he sees them, he calls out to them and says, Come, follow me, asking them to abandon everything in their lives. And Matthew only gives us a handful of verses to describe this story, but as you can imagine, there's a lot more detail of what's going on here. And as I was thinking about this, I think of these two brothers being told to come and follow me. And I can imagine them looking across and going, Is he talking to us? Like, is it us? Are we actually gonna do this? Are we gonna get out of this boat and follow him? And I wonder if, in the same way that we would question Jesus' selection of his first disciples, if if these fishermen were confused as well why Jesus was calling out to them. They were merely fishermen who caught fish. If Jesus wanted to catch people, there must have been better people out there suited for this job. And Jesus begins by seeing the men, but then he calls them to step outside of their comfort zone and to follow him. Jesus is the God who calls you. On Monday nights, right now, we have a men's softball team. Uh, and last year, Alex he asked me if I wanted to participate and play on this softball team. And I thought to myself, Alex, you've got the wrong guy. I play golf, I don't swing a baseball bat. And every time I step on that field, I feel like I am a fish out of water. I'm standing in right field and I'm just praying, please hit it to left. Please hit it to left. Brian, please strike him out. Please don't let it come to me. And when I step up to taking at bat, I stand up there with the bat and I tell myself, just make contact. Just make contact. Don't strike out. They're throwing it slow. Just make contact. I am so outside my comfort zone, and I apologize to everyone for the errors and the outs that I make. But when Alex asked me to play softball, although I was unqualified, probably more unqualified than he realized, in the same way, Jesus calls you to join his team and to follow him. We look at ourselves and we see our past, we see our shortcomings, we see our inadequacies, and we can find all the reasons why Jesus should just call somebody else, and yet he calls you anyways. People look at the outward appearance, but the Lord looks at the heart. While people judge on the outward appearance, Jesus looks at our hearts, and he also doesn't call us for who we are right now. Jesus is the ultimate scout. He sees all of our potential and he calls us to step outside of our comfort zone to get out of the boat, to follow him so we can experience the fullness of life that he has for us. Jesus is the God that calls you. So Jesus, he sees these two sets of brothers, he identifies them as people that he wants on the team and he tells them to come, to get out of the boat, to leave their lives behind, to leave the family business and to follow him. But don't you think that they should have been given a little bit more information before they gave up everything in their lives? I mean, they had just left everything, and the only command that Jesus had given to them was to follow him. And if they follow him, then they will become fishers of men. It's only through following Jesus that they would then discover the fullness of the call that they had just committed to. They didn't know what they were getting themselves into when they got out of that boat. There was no instruction manual handed to them. But if they follow Jesus, he would transform them into who he had called them to be. Jesus is the God who forms you. I remember as a as a young high school kid, I was assigned being a crew leader at vacation Bible school, which means I had a group of kids that I was responsible for getting from one station to the next. And it's like herding sheep in order to be able to do this with a bunch of kids. So I decided that we would play follow the leader, and from each station to the next, I would give a kid the role of you're the leader, and we'll all do whatever it is that you do. So the kid would start to hop, and all the kids would hop behind and I'd hop with him. Then the the kid would start to skip and we would skip following him. Then the kids would start to bear crawl and I'd say, I'm out. I'm not bear crawling with you, I'll walk behind. And unlike me as a VBS leader, my undesire to bear crawl behind the leader, Jesus' call to follow the leader is not one that we get to pick and to choose. The call to discipleship is to follow Jesus, it's to leave everything behind, to abandon our ways of life and to follow him at all cost. Jesus says it like this in Luke 9 23 Whoever wants to be my disciple must deny themselves and take up their cross daily and Follow me. Here's what's interesting about this right here. We know the end of the story. We know that eventually Jesus is going to go to the cross and he's going to die for you and for me. He's going to take our place. But when Jesus says this to his disciples, they don't quite know yet that Jesus is going to die on the cross and be crucified. When he says, take up your cross daily, he's actually foreshadowing that the same call that he's calling his disciples to take on is the same thing that he will do in an even bigger reality in the days to come. You see, in this time period of the Roman Empire, people understood that the part of crucifixion was that part of it was the criminal would have to carry their cross to the spot where they would eventually be nailed to it and to be crucified. This cross that they would carry was heavy. It was a burden, and it was leading to a literal sacrifice. To be a disciple of Jesus means that in the same way Jesus carried the cross for us, we are to take on the burden of following Jesus, leave everything behind in order to follow him. Peter, Andrew, James, and John, they didn't leave their jobs for a day. They left their family businesses to follow Jesus. They left the life that they knew for the unknown life of following him. And the call to discipleship for us as believers is not one of ease and comfort. But when we do take up our cross daily, we let Jesus transform us from the inside out. What we find is a life of purpose, fulfillment, and new life. It's through daily laying down our lives, taking up our cross, denying our desires that Jesus forms us into his image. Discipleship is not a class that you complete with a certificate that you get at the end that says, you are good to go now. To be a disciple of Jesus is to daily submit to him each day and to be formed into his image until one day down the line we'll look back and go, whoa, look at what he's done to my life. Discipleship is not a destination, but a journey of becoming like Jesus. So Jesus, he sees Peter, Andrew, James, and John. He calls them out of their new life into out of their old life into a new life. He says, Follow me, and through following me you will be transformed. But Jesus connects the process with the final outcome for them. When you're in college, they give you a syllabus, and the syllabus is everything that you need to know for the course. It's got all the assignments, it's got all the details, it's got the due dates, it's got the readings, it's your lifeline for that class. But there's a section of that syllabus that I would always skip over. At the beginning of the syllabus, there will be a description of the course, but then just below it, there will be the outcomes of that course. At the end of this course, you will know, you will be able to. This is what you will achieve. You see, without the desired outcomes, the work doesn't have a direction. You don't have a why for what's going on. Having defined outcomes changes how the professor teaches, the work they assign, and gives you a why for taking that course. When Jesus calls Peter, Andrew, James, and John, he gives them the desired outcome of discipleship that any good professor would give. I will send you out to fish for people. Jesus sees you, he calls you, he forms you in order to send you to do the same for others that Jesus has done for you. Jesus is the God that sends you. What if the work Jesus has done in your life was not merely for your sake, but was for the sake of others around you? When discipleship is merely a class, a program, or a curriculum, it leaves us thinking that there's a spot of completion, of accomplishment, when really it's to equip and to be shared with others. In Matthew 9, 37, Jesus says, the harvest is plentiful, but the workers are few. And when Jesus says this, him and his disciples, they were walking through a crowd. And Jesus had compassion on those in the crowd and said that they were harassed and helpless. They were like a sheep without a shepherd. And it's in that moment that Jesus reminds his disciples that what's going on in this journey, that they're on together, is not for their sake, but it's for the sake of those who are lost in the world around them. He says, Hey, lift up your eyes and see all these people. They are in need. And I'm sending you to help them. Jesus wasn't just having disciples to follow him around in order to back him up in case the crowd got a little bit too rowdy. Jesus was preparing them to go out into the harvest and to be the hands and feet of Jesus to those who were lost. Did you know that there are more people who do not know Jesus than can possibly come to Generations Church? There are not enough seats for all those people. There are more lost people than all of our churches here in northern Kentucky can have seats for. We do not have enough programs for all of them. I do not have enough hours to have coffee with every single person who is lost and in need of Jesus. God has seen you. He has formed you for more than just inviting people to church. He's been working in your life so that you too could become a disciple maker in your family, in your workplace, in your community, with anyone that you come in contact with. You want to know how the disciples, how you make disciples when you feel unqualified or ill-equipped? You see others as valuable as Jesus saw you. You call out the potential that you see in them. You invite them into your life to walk alongside you and to share what Jesus is doing in your life. And then you send them to go do the same for others that they know. What is discipleship? Discipleship is responding to Jesus' invitation to follow him so that he can transform you and send you to help others follow him. You don't need a seminary degree. You don't need to know everything about the Bible. You don't even need to run a big program at a church. No, you can be a disciple maker in the life that Jesus has placed you. All you have to do is allow Jesus to transform you into his image through taking up your cross daily and then share what Jesus has done in your life with others around you. If you have been seen by Jesus and He has worked in your life, then He has also sent you for the sake of others around you. So as we get ready to close and the band comes on up, I want to ask you a question. Are you a follower of Jesus? Or are you merely a fan? Because a fan, they admire Jesus from a distance. Followers, they leave their nets in order to follow him. Fans, they fit Jesus into their schedule. Followers rearrange their lives around him. Fans know about Jesus. Followers know him personally. That's the invitation that Jesus gave on the shore of the Sea of Galilee. And it's the same invitation that he's giving to you and I today. Jesus is calling out to each and every one of us, come and follow me. Get out of your boat, abandon your life, because I have something better in store for you. And here's what I love about what Jesus does in this story. He doesn't walk up to Peter and say, Peter, once you get your life together, then come and follow me. He didn't say, once you've learned enough, once you've cleaned yourself up enough, once you're qualified, then I'll use you. No, Jesus walked into the ordinary day, found ordinary people, and invited them into his extraordinary story. That's exactly what he's done for us. We say around here all the time that your story matters. Your story is a part of our story, which is a part of God's story. And it's when you take your story and you put it inside of God's story that you truly find the meaning in life that you're looking for. You see, the gospel isn't that we went searching for Jesus and found generations church. No. The gospel is that Jesus is searching for you. He saw us in our sin, he saw us in our brokenness, he saw us in our shame. And instead of walking past us, he noticed us. He called us to get out of our boat and to follow him. Jesus left heaven, he took on flesh, he carried the cross that we deserve to carry, he died the death that we deserve to die, and he rose again, and anyone who puts their faith in him can have new life, can have a fresh start. And the invitation to follow me is only possible because Jesus came first. So maybe today you've never taken that step in your life. You've been hanging out in your boat, you've been fishing, doing your own thing. Maybe you've gone to church, maybe you've believed in God and a higher power. You've tried to be a good person, but you've never truly surrendered your life to Jesus. And today, his invitation to you is the same as those four fishermen. Come, follow me. He sees you, he knows you, he loves you, and he's inviting you into his story. But today, many of us, you've already accepted that invitation of Jesus to surrender your life over to him. And I want to ask you a question. Who are you helping to follow Jesus? Because Jesus didn't say, follow me, stop there. No, he says, follow me, and I will send you. There's an outcome attached to follow me. If Jesus has seen you, if he has called you, if he has worked in your life, then he has also sent you. There are people in your home, people in your workplace, people on your street, people on your ball team, people at your school who may never walk through these doors, but they know you. They'll come across you. What if Jesus wants to reach them through you? Church, the goal of this series isn't that in six weeks that we would know more about discipleship. The goal in six weeks is that we would be activated to get outside of our comfort zone, to step outside of our boat, to share our story with the world around us so that there'd be more people that would come to know Jesus, that we would become disciple makers. Imagine what would happen if every person in this room simply said, Jesus, I will follow you and I will help someone follow you too. You see, discipleship, it doesn't happen in sanctuaries, it doesn't happen in classrooms, it doesn't happen through programs or connection groups. No, discipleship happens when the people of God take what Jesus has done in their life and shares it with others in relationships. I believe that the way that Jesus has seen, called, formed, and sent his very first disciples is what Jesus is calling us to do in our community as well. So this week, don't be a fan. Get out of your boat, be a follower.