Matthew 4:18–22Scripture
This might be one of the most challenging portions of Scripture that we've run into in a while. Of course, we haven't been in Romans for a while. So, there's that because like the whole book of Romans was a challen. It felt like it especially chapter 8 through 11 just almost made some of us have a nervous breakdown. But verses 18–22 why this is so challenging is we live in a very mecentric society and much of that honestly is a product of our own making.
The reality is we want to point our finger to the powers that be maybe technology, but the reality is we're sinners and we just kind of like to focus on oursel.
I mean, when you wake up in the morning, your number one priority and aim is to take care of yourself, right? I mean, everything in life centers around you. From getting the eye boogers out of your eyes to going to the restroom to making sure your hair looks good, if you have some, and all of that stuff, you know what's offensive to me?
Since J.R.'s giving me a hurrah, what's offensive to me is there are some of us that are, you know, we're lacking in the hair department.
And then there are people like him who are my friend who he actually cuts extra hair off because he has so much. That's offensive. Like he goes to the barber and he gets hair cut off because there's too much of it. Rude. Rude. Right. All right. What am I talking about? We're meentric. Like even like that giving examples turns towards me.
Introduction
The reality is we don't even know how to relate in life and with other people and in the world. And
We even have difficulty relating with God unless we bring God down to a version of us that mirrors us.
Pastor Shawn Gray · 2:10
So we can't even engage a holy God because we need him to be like us to understand him. So then when we get to texts particularly texts like this in the Scripture we need to understand that it is our duty to wrestle with the text and the we and the way that we often wrestle with the text is by setting oursel aside to see what truly is being said in that Scripture.
The reality is we have to filter through a bunch of us to get to the truth about a thing. And I wrestle with this. I don't know if you did. And maybe you'll pick up on some stuff. Maybe I'll shoot some I'll take some pop shots at maybe some of the things you walked away understanding. And I'm not meaning it to do I'm not doing it to frustrate you or to make you feel like you're not a Bible scholar or any of that.
I think that part of the job of a Bible scholar is to realize that the first time you read it, you might not get it.
And we have to wrestle with a thing for a little while. Matthew 4:1 18-20 says this, "While walking by the Sea of Galilee, he saw two brothers, Simon, who's called Peter, and Andrew, his brother, casting a net into the sea, for they were fishermen." So now we see a set of brothers here. Jesus is walking by the Sea of Galilee and he saw them.
Isn't it good? And we talked about of course Matthew is that the king has come. He's come he's come to you and for him to be able to see you, he comes to you now. And I love that. So he draws near.
I think it's important to understand that when God draws near, everything doesn't necessarily get better in your perspective.
Pastor Shawn Gray · 4:07
Everything changes. Everything gets better according to his plan. But may maybe everything doesn't get better according to your plan. Because when God draws near, it sounds wonderful. It sounds loving. It sounds compassionate. It sounds like he cares about you. He draws near to you and that's wonderful. That's where you can get your hug on. But the reality is once the hug is done, he commisss you into something that may cost you your life.
And so he draws near. Sounds exciting. And Andrew and they were casting their sea for they were fishermen. And he said to them, "Follow me." That's the key, right? Follow me and I will make you fishers of men. So who makes them fishers of men? Just say it real quick. Jesus does. Not you. You don't make you. You follow.
Now, don't get this convoluted because many of us will begin to try to make a list of all the things we need to do to be made into fishers of men. We'll actually extrapolate out the text and lift up and glorify being fishers of men.
We will begin to take a specific call and make it a global call to all men. You know why we do this? Because we live in a mecentric society. And the call that he gives to these specific, he doesn't give to the whole 12. He gives to these specific. This is a specific call to these men. Don't get it convoluted.
So to extrapolate the truth out of this, don't take and apply what was for one man to you. If you want to take something global, let me tell you the global thing.
Follow and I will make you what I intended you to be.
Pastor Shawn Gray · 6:08
Okay, let me just pause here for a second. Some of you are mothers. You're raising up children.
That's your call. Some of you are fathers. You're providing for your family. That's your call. Are you with me? And everyone has a specific call. And we currently live in a society today that wants to neglect what God had intended and purposed for our lives.
We live in a generation that even who he's designed us to be naturally, we reject. God says, "I get to determine what I make you. You don't get to choose what you make you. I had an initial idea of how I would design you and how I would use you in the world and I get to make you.
Your job is to follow me." Now, this should unbburden us to some degree because following him that unburns us from making ourself, right?
Many of us spend our whole life trying to be somebody, become somebody, do something of value in the world.
And the older you get, the more you begin to evaluate your life, and you begin to question, what have I accomplished with the time that I have been given?
But the reality is, you don't accomplish it. You follow God, and he makes you what he wants you to be.
Pastor Shawn Gray · 7:38
That's a fact. That's the way it is. And back in the south we they would say that's a fact, Jack.
So that's that. All right. And he said, "Follow me and I will make you fishers of men." Immediately they left their nets and followed him. And going on from there, he saw two other brothers, James, the son of Zebedee, and John his brother, in the boat with Zebedee, their father, mending their nets.
And he called them. He called them right out from underneath the father's ambition for them. I'm going to get to my notes, but just track with me here for a second. There's an earthly father and there's a heavenly father.
But notice when the ambition of the earthly father runs in conflict with the heavenly father, look who wins.
Pastor Shawn Gray · 8:35
Track with me. Young people up in here today, you do not get to blame all of your life choices based on what your father wanted or did not want for you.
It is your responsibility to acquies to the heavenly father. For his ambition for you is greater than your earthly father. You don't get to cop out and blame your earthly father for what you did or didn't do. Here we have Zebedee sitting in the boat wanting them to take up his occupation. But the heavenly father draws near and you have dueling ideas of what should be done in the lives of these children.
And notice where the children lean. What do you do when your father wants you to do something that is against your heavenly father? What do you do when you feel called to ministry and your earthly father thinks that's crazy, wants you to be a doctor? What do you do? How do you obey your heavenly father and honor him when it's not exactly possibly in line with what your heavenly father wants?
Zebedee the father mending the nets and he called them immediately. That was it used twice in here. They left the boat and their father and they followed God or Jesus.
Okay. When God speaks, stuff happens.
Right. Is this. So, have you ever been in a like So, Pastor Jr., have you ever been in your house because you got enough kids to start a battalion?
Have you ever been in your house and you ever got to a place where you're talking but people aren't listening? Every day. Every day. Have you ever been in a conversation with somebody and it's late and you love each other and you adore each other? Like I've been in conversation with my wife. She's engaged and she cares and she really does just hang on every word that falls out of my mouth and she loves me and adores me and thinks I'm just so wise and wonderful.
But although all of that is accurate and true, there are moments where we're talking and she's in her chair, she drifts off into slumber. And here I think I'm, you know, saying the most wonderful things that will move heaven and earth and she's sleeping. You ever been there, folks?
But when God speaks, people don't slumber. When God speaks, the dead come back from the grave.
Pastor Shawn Gray · 11:31
When God speaks, heaven and earth shake and tremble at his voice. When God speaks, the mountain melt like wax before his presence. When God speaks, the whole earth trembles.
When God speaks and returns and speaks one day, every knee will bow and every tongue will confess that he is Lord.
Pastor Shawn Gray · 11:54
When God speaks, when God speaks, out of the darkness and the void of life comes life.
When God speaks, he casts with his voice creatures in the sea and in the sky and on the earth. And they roam and they breathe and they function. Plant life comes to life just by his voice. There is no rebellion of nature against what he says. When he commands something, it happens.
Notice that this is not a question or a recommendation.
Pastor Shawn Gray · 12:39
Notice when he comes to the disciples, he comes and he says, "Follow me." There ain't no question mark there.
This is not up for debate. This is a call. Now, here's the trouble. Because we have God's sovereignty on one hand when he speaks. He's God. He gets what he wants. And on the other hand, we have human responsibility. It isn't that they just were robots did what they were involved. They were involved. They followed. They dropped. They did that stuff.
But God, the same voice that makes mountains melt like wax, command men.
This is important to understand because God is developing something here that will establish his church.
And he's speaking and calling with more authority than what like you might want to grant him. Are you with me today? If everything rises and falls on you acquiescing or agreeing, good luck with God getting what he pleases.
Are you with me today? So there has to be some element in life where God gets what he wants in spite of you. Otherwise, this would remain a fallen world. God is authoritative. And it's one thing that we really have a problem with today. We don't like to interpret Scripture that way. We don't like to read this way.
But listen, I don't believe the power is in the immediately dropping. I don't believe the power is in the following. I believe the power is in the call.
Pastor Shawn Gray · 14:25
Why is it today that we want to move the authority and the power out of the call and into the hands of men? Why do we feel the need to do that?
Because we think we make a man and the call doesn't. And this call is specific. It is not what we refer to in the church as an effectual call. This is not about salvation. This is a specific call based on purpose. He is doing something. He says follow me. He did not give them a job description. He did not promise them that they what they would become per se.
He simply called them to himself.
It's not like he's saving sinners here. He is summoning servants.
Pastor Shawn Gray · 15:29
He's not calling them to become fishers of men. Track with me. You're like, "Yeah, he did. I just read that." He's calling them to follow. Okay, track with me. The call is not to become fishers of men. The call is to follow.
And God will make you what he wants. He just so happened to tell them what he's going to make them. The call is not to be fishers of men. Don't contextually get it out of place. The call is to follow. You can do this wherever you're at. You can do this in your house. You can do this in your car.
You can do this at your work. Follow him. That's the call.
The power is not in what you will do. The power is in who he is. When Jesus calls, the seas still, hearts move, and lives change.
Pastor Shawn Gray · 16:33
The power is his. The call is to follow. Are you with me? Did I say that enough? Number one. So, let's talk about if the call is to follow, let's talk about what this call does in our life.
So, you should be able to expect what if God calls me, what is this call going to do to me? I'm glad you asked. I'll be happy to tell you.
Point 1The call disrupts everything
Number one, the call disrupts everything. Yay. Love it when my life is disrupted, my plans are disrupted. Have you ever felt like you're going one direction and you really believe in it and you've given everything to it, you've thrown everything at it and you're going down the road and God intervenes and then calls you another direction.
You ever been there? It's kind of awesome and irritating all at the same time, right? Because when God shows up, everything you used to do, so all of a sudden, many of those things no longer feel like the right path, like the narrow path. It just doesn't feel right anymore. When God captures a heart, he tends to turn and soften a heart towards the things that he wants.
He begins to make you into the creation he wants you to be. And what you used to do and what you used to believe in and how you used to live no longer feels right anymore. You feel out of place, like a square peg in a round hole. And God is trying to move you into what he wants you to be.
While walking by the Sea of Galilee, he saw his two brothers casting net in the sea, for they were fishermen.
Listen, the call of God does not fit into your plans. It disrupts them.
Pastor Shawn Gray · 18:30
Doesn't mean you should sit around all of your whole life and never make a plan because God's going to disrupt your plans. Notice that they were about they were going about doing business.
They were doing something.
See, I believe that God can mess up plans and he can mess up movement. He has a hard time helping a couch potato.
Pastor Shawn Gray · 18:50
Are you with me today?
It's easier to redirect movement than to initiate it.
Pastor Shawn Gray · 19:04
Some of you aren't doing anything. Some of us come to an encounter with God. We sit on a big holy throne and we make an excuse to do nothing because we think we might dis he might disrupt what we're doing.
It's a guarantee that if you do something, he will disrupt that something you're doing because there's always a better way to do it.
It disrupts your plans and not only disrupts them, but it rewrites them. Brooke wanted five kids. She got two. God gives a measure of grace for each. And the measure of grace he gave us was for two children because that's how many we had. Kirk's measure of grace is much bigger than my measure of grace. Can I get an amen?
Because they got a bunch of children. I guess he's more spiritually manly than me. I don't know. He has more grace. I just know that we should begin to find joy and happiness and what God has granted us because he does the making and we do the following. Are you with me today? But he will disrupt your life.
He will disrupt your life. How many of you can testify today that God has disrupted your life on some level, right? Some of you are scared to raise your hand. I get it because you don't want him. You're like that. You're like, I hope the teacher doesn't see me because he had disrupted it yet. And I don't don't call on me, man.
He'll disrupt your life. One of the greatest disruptions of my life was seeing Brooke on a volleyball court. You know, matter of fact, I said, "I'm going to college and women, I will avoid them like the plague."
And then Brooke showed up and she pursued and she pursued and she pursued and she pursued and I broke up and she pursued and I dated her and broke up and she pursued and she was relentless, man.
She was relentless, but she was God's plan for my life. Track with me. I believe we can do life with lots of people, but I believe God sent her to me. And the way that she has assisted me in my calling has been beautiful, but Brooke has been a disruption.
Don't get it convoluted. She's a blessing, but she's a disruption. Are you with me today? A beautiful disruption, but a disruption. Listen, I like I'm the guy who likes to sit in the house with all the blinds closed and you know, and it's quiet and people don't talk. I'm the guy who rides in the car. And please don't turn on the music.
Let's listen to the beautiful orchestra of silence up in here. It's beautiful. And Brooke Disruption. Disruption. Landon and I are not morning people. Ashton and Brooke are morning people. Disruption. Every morning. Brooke's like, "Hi, Landon. How are you doing this morning?" "Oh, aren't you glad it's another day?" And he's like, and walks out the door.
And we love her. And
She is a disruption because even wonderful things can be disruptive.
Pastor Shawn Gray · 22:56
Are you tracking with me here today? And although God is wonderful and although it is magnificent that he has drawn near and although he has a purpose for us and although he has a plan for us and although he is near enough to us that he can hug us and the kingdom has come close enough as the right hand, it is still a disruption.
And beautiful as it is, it's a disruption. And many of us, if you've been in the church any amount of time, and you've walked with the Lord any amount of time, the reality is that you have at some point in your walk with the Lord been disrupted enough to wonder if you want to continue this relationship.
But the reality is, if he's called you, good luck making that one happen, cuz he has put you in his hand.
Pastor Shawn Gray · 23:40
And no one, not even you, snatching it out.
Point 2The call develops
And that's good news. Number two, the call develops. Now, I'm happy about this because I need some developing, ladies and gentlemen. As much as Brooke is a disruption to me, I'm a disruption to her. The reality is I don't always say the right things. I don't always do the right things. I don't always feel the right things. Am I in good company here today?
And I need some development. And he said to them, "Follow me and I will make you. I will develop you. I will develop you into what I want you to be." The call does not only disrupt, it develops.
And Jesus says, "Follow me and I will make you." That word make in the Greek is poet. It means to form, to shape, and to craft. This is fascinating considering he is the potter and we are the clay. Be careful to not think you're the clay and you're going to make yourself because clay don't do that. The potter does that.
All right. The potter does that. It forms. It shapes. It crafts you.
He is not inviting them to perform. He is promising to transform.
Pastor Shawn Gray · 25:04
This is not the call to achieve. It is a call to formation.
Pastor Shawn Gray · 25:15
He does not tell them what they will be. He tells them who will do the making. I will make you. This is where the divine craftsman goes to work.
He takes rough fishermen and begins to carve out apostles. He takes callous hands and gives them kingdom purpose.
Pastor Shawn Gray · 25:37
Development happens when we follow, not before but during and after.
Pastor Shawn Gray · 25:47
You cannot be developed if you will not move. He says follow me. The Greek word here is some word. It's ao. I can't even pronounce it right. I tried to listen to it 50 times and I still can't say it right. It means to walk in the same path as another. It means when he turns left, I turn left.
When he stops, I stop. It means to move in rhythm with the master. Ain't it crazy? Because when whenever he says he's going like to follow him, we're like, "Make me. Make me. When are you going to make me something? Make me do something. Make me something." Notice how long they followed him. Notice how long he develops them.
And notice that the making is never final. It's always in development. And the more you follow, the more he develops. Because development is a process. Can I get an amen on that one? Because if it wasn't a process, then I would begin to wonder if I'm being developed.
He does the making. You do the moving. The call develops because the one who calls is also the one who crafts.
Pastor Shawn Gray · 27:11
Point 3The call disciples
Number three, the called disciples. Immediately they left their nets and they followed him. And now we move from what he does in us develops us into what we do for him.
And development is the inward shaping. Disciplehip is the outward following. Disciplehip begins when attachment ends or where attachment ends. Just write this down. Disciplehip begins where attachment ends. Notice they had to drop something.
They dropped what they were holding to hold on to him.
Pastor Shawn Gray · 28:01
See, some of you some of you are not his disciples because you want to profess him in name while holding on to everything you were.
Drag with me here today. And you can't have two masters. The Bible says some of us call ourselves his disciples. I am a disciple of Christ. He is my Lord. But you've dropped nothing. You're holding on to attitudes of the past and language of the past and behaviors of the past and sometimes people of the past.
You can't reach and hold on to Christ without letting go of those things.
Pastor Shawn Gray · 28:55
And I'm not saying it happens overnight, but it does happen. Are you with me? And I'm concerned about people who want to hold on to everything from yesterday, all the parts of the old man, while claiming to hold on to Christ.
Disciple begin. Disciplehip true disciplehip begins where attachment ends. They drop what they're holding and they hold on to him. Their nets represent their comfort, their provision, their identity.
It's amazing how much people's identities attach to their sinfulness.
Pastor Shawn Gray · 29:33
The reason why people have so much of a difficult time dropping addictions and behaviors and attitudes and all of these things is because they have attached their identity to those things.
And to lose those things is to lose me.
But God is trying to give you a new identity that's found in him.
Pastor Shawn Gray · 30:05
It's found in holiness. It's found in something different than what you currently hold on to. Be careful to not attach your identity to what you do, what you say, and how you act, and how you live because it will be even more difficult to drop those things there.
Nets represented their comfort. You'd be amazed at how many people are comforted by anger by just constantly having a problem with something.
You ever been in seasons where you just found like somebody had accidentally nudged a grumpy button on you and you just kind of like stayed in that grumpy season for a week or two or three or a year?
Are you with me today? And you found yourself going from one grumpy moment to another and now you can't even ride in the car without complaining or being grumpy about something. Can I get an amen up in here? Like describe with me here. You ever been there? The reason we do that is because we find comfort in the weirdest things.
We find comfort in pain, comfort in trouble. Some of us, some of us have been in a fight so long. We've grown up in families that are always fighting, always disgruntled, always having a problem. And we don't know how to live in a healthy relationship. So then when we get into healthy relationship, everything is a fight. Track with me.
I'm trying to teach something up in here. I'm trying to teach what I've lived. Just track with me. So now we don't even know how to come out of fight mode. And the reality is we would never say it this way, but we're comforted by a fight. So if a fight ain't there, we'll make one. Track with me.
Because now we've we identify with this. We've lived in it so long we don't know how to live out of it. But God is trying to lead you out of a life that you thought you were going to live and into a life of his making.
And his making is different than the world's making. It's amazing to me when you see the statistics of people who were abused in their childhood who become abusers in their adulthood. I don't understand that. Do you understand that? How does somebody who is abused and understands the gravity and the disgust of abuse become an abuser? How does that happen?
Did you know that you can live in something so long that it becomes who you are?
Pastor Shawn Gray · 33:03
And God is calling you out of a life that once would disgusted you but now pleases you and comforts you.
God is calling you to be his disciple. And to do that, you got to let go of one thing and embrace him and follow him.
Point 4The call defines you
Number four, the call defines you. It defines you. This is the most offensive word in my sermon to our culture today. It defines you. Notice that he didn't give them three options of what they be could become and then them pick the best option. This ain't a college course or a major you're picking for yourself. Let me see what do I want to do for a living.
No. No. He tells them, "Follow me and I'm going to make you something. I'll just give you a sneak peek of what I'm going to make you." And I didn't ask your opinion. Are you with me today? Now, I know that's offensive. Well, where's the free will, Sean? I think I said one point. Nah, I won't say that.
He makes you. Why are we so offended that he's made a decision on what he going to make us when what he makes us is better not only for us but for the world around us.
You've been the author of your life all the way up to the point where you met him. Tell me about that. How much better was that for you? Notice he gets to define what's holy and he makes you holy. That's offensive. I just want to be partly holy and then partly not on Saturday and Friday night. Are you with me today?
So tell me about the version where I get to be holy on Sunday and a hell raiser the rest of the rest of the week. Give me that version. I want him to make me that. Only make me holy on Sunday. We have people come to church that are like that. Well, not here, of course. And then the rest of the week they live like a hellraiser because you think you make yourself.
You get to choose what holiness is. We relegate holiness down to a location, a geographical location than our life and everywhere we go.
God is trying to make you something and he didn't ask your opinion about it. He defied he's trying to make you holy. And in case you didn't know, he's already lined out what holiness is and what he expects from you. Well, why didn't he involve me in deciding what was going to be holy? How come he didn't poll us and do a church vote?
Because only God is holy. Why do we need unholy people determining what holy things are? Amen.
See, the problem is not free will. The problem is arrogance because we think we know something when we are immensely unholy.
Pastor Shawn Gray · 36:24
We think we can determine what holiness is. So we want to be invited into the conversation. We want to sit at the board table and we want to give our opinion as if we think we actually think we're holy enough to give our opinion about what holiness should be and what we should do.
And the reality is this is an immense amount of arrogance happening in the church today. Where is the humility? Where is the meekness? Where are those who are poor in spirit? Where are them? Jesus is about to talk about those people because he sees a lack of that too.
Development is his work in you. Disciplehip is your walk with him.
He forms your heart. You follow his steps. That's the holy partnership of the call.
Pastor Shawn Gray · 37:23
Follow me and I will make you. He will make you if you follow him. The call defines I think this is the last issue. I'm going to be quick. Saw the two brothers, James, John, Zebedee, blah, in the boat with Zebedee, his father, mending their nets.
And he called them. He called two pairs called James and John, the sons of Zebedee. They were mending their nets, fixing what was torn, preparing for another good day of work. But Jesus called them. And the moment he called them, their identity shifted.
They were no longer known by their father's name, but they became known by their master's mission.
Pastor Shawn Gray · 38:07
They would no longer be identified by their work, but by his word.
When Jesus calls you, he defines you. You're no longer who you were. You are who he is making you to be.
Pastor Shawn Gray · 38:22
The call of Christ refineses you by the voice that summons you.
You're no longer what the world calls you. You are what the word calls you.
Pastor Shawn Gray · 38:34
The call defines you.
Point 5The call deploys you
And last, the call deploys you. Immediately they left their boat and their father and they followed him. They were deployed into their predetermined mission.
The call begins with follow me, but it never ends there. Jesus calls them to himself so that he can later send them for himself.
Pastor Shawn Gray · 38:59
Don't don't let that be lost on you. Listen, Jesus calls them to himself so that he can later send them for himself.
People want to be sent for Jesus without coming to Jesus.
Pastor Shawn Gray · 39:19
And don't forget too quickly what coming to Jesus requires. Trust in his authority. Trust in his power. Trust in his sovereignty. Dropping what was and embracing what is and following him step by step while he does the making.
The call that gathers also sends. He calls you close so he can send you far.
Pastor Shawn Gray · 39:46
They left the boat. That's leaving their career. They left their father. That's leaving their comfort. They followed him. That's embracing their calling. They left the boat. They left a career. They left their father. They left their comfort. They followed him. They embraced their calling.
The call deploys because it allows moves from intimacy to influence. He draws you in so he can send you out.
If you will follow him in obscurity, he will use you in authority. If you will obey him in the quiet, he will trust you in the crowd.
Pastor Shawn Gray · 40:17
Let me just for a moment.
Your development is not what happens on the stage.
Pastor Shawn Gray · 40:32
Your development is what happens in the shadows. I had a conversation with my son last night. We were driving home from getting our arms ripped off in a tournament in St. Louis. We were talking about disciplehip. We were talking about several things. We were talking about education and I value education in here. The reality is when I started this church, I didn't have a bachelor's degree.
I did have enough hours therefore however to have a doctorate. When I called to finish up my bachelor's while being here a pastor here, they looked at how many hours I had and they said, "Sean, you have enough hours to be a doctor. Have a doctor already. You're the first educated you're the most educated uneducated person we have ever encountered."
And so I value education. And when I went back to school, got my masters and now I'm working on my doc my doctorate or whatever demen or whatever. That's all very valuable and I've learned a lot. I've been educated a little bit and I've learned some stuff. But some of my greatest learning has happened in shadows, the quiet conversations with other men growing up in a home of parents who loved the Lord and followed in Jesus' footsteps.
Some of my greatest disciplehip mo moments and most defining moments, okay, listen, happened while following those who followed Christ. I think the Apostle Paul said it, "Follow me as I follow Christ." That's it, guys. That's it. It's not fun to find somebody that you can trust to follow who's following Christ.
Because you'll begin to see yourself for as you are. So typically we live in isolation. We want to follow Christ and the version we have made of Christ for oursel versus the person who's following Christ and being made by him.
Ultimately follow Christ and his word. But you need to find somebody that you trust that you can be discipled by. Are you with me today? And that is not easy. For some of you, that might be your parents. For some of you, that might be a pastor. For some of you might may be a friend. Some of you need to get in a small group.
And you need to find some people who are in hot pursuit of Christ. And you need to watch how they follow him. How he develops them. Every tree call, every tree call ends in commission.
Every disciple becomes an ambassador. Every follower becomes what he makes them to be.
Pastor Shawn Gray · 43:33
Not because the person sought it, but because the maker saw them and called them.
I'm closing. Listen, there are some people in here today that are trying to figure out this whole There are people in here today that are in here and you're not even sure why you're here.
This is not an accident. There are some of you in here today. You don't know why you're here, but you do know that the life you have been living is not so great.
There's got to be something more to this than this. And the call just doesn't come to them. The call comes to us. And I understand there's an effectual call. And I understand that this specifically is not talking about an effectual call for salvation. God does call each of us effectually. And he does so through the establishment of his church and through these disciples who he makes fishers of men.
And some of you will be reading the Scripture and he will call. And the call is this. Ladies and gentlemen, just listen to me.
Follow me. Don't worry about what you'll be made. That's God's business. Just worry about whether or not you'll follow. That's your business.
Pastor Shawn Gray · 44:56
It's your business.
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