Why Sick Sinners Get Jesus and He Them | Matthew 9:9-13 | Pastor Neil McClendon

Neil McClendon, Lead Pastor
Grand Parkway Baptist Church

Why Sick Sinners Get Jesus and He Them
Matthew 9:9-13

1. Everybody moves towards God at a different pace, v. 9
Following Jesus involves two things:
a)glory orientation
b)experiences
Luke 5:27-28

2. New converts are the most intentional with the faith, v. 10
Ephesians 2:11-13
• no capacity
• no real Community
• nothing beyond you to look forward to
• positivity but no real hope
• a gnawing aloneness

B: Begin with prayer
L: Listen
E: Eat
S: Serve
S: Story

3. Our lives should require explanation, v. 11-13

Mental worship...
1. How do you expose your non-Christian friends to Jesus?
2. Are you more known for talking or listening?
3. If you were going to throw a party and all the guests were going to be people just like you, what kind of people would fill the room?
4. How do you serve the people you profess to love?
5. Does your definition of “great” come close to how God defines greatness?
6. How often do you eat with “tax collectors and sinners?”

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Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:00

Here's my concern, just cards on the table. Is it the church? Uh uh little C, not capital C, but but the church in America and religion, they teach you to be and become the type of person that Jesus did not come for. Okay? What is that person like? They're self-righteous and self-reliant, so much so that they appreciate Jesus, but they don't really need him. They're self-focused, uh, so much so that they perpetually, they're they're perpetually self-conscious. Uh, for them, hell is not a place you go when you die because you didn't believe in Christ. It's the experience of being embarrassed, and because this threatens your sense of self-sufficiency. And I just want to say to you very lovingly and with authority from God's word this morning that Jesus did not come for those kind of people, all right? Uh uh but but Jesus came for people who are sick and people who realize that they're sinners.

SPEAKER_01 0:51

This podcast is brought to you by Grand Parkway Baptist Church, helping people to know, enjoy, and glorify God. For more information about Grand Parkway, visit our website at grandparkway.org.

SPEAKER_00 1:06

Amen, amen, church. Let's pray together. Lord Jesus, those aren't just songs we sing, those are big fat chunks of soul candy that we get to feast on today. We say that we believe, so help our unbelief. We say that regardless of how good or bad our earthly father was, you're better. That's why the Bible says if your earthly father knows how to give good gifts, how much more your heavenly father. We're here to taste and see the how much more of our heavenly father. Lord, I pray for the for the cynic, for the unbeliever, for the agnostic, for the atheist, for the disenfranchised Christian, for the for the disillusioned Christian. Today, Lord, you'd speak a word from your word that that liberates them and loosens them from that which has got them bound up and tied down. You didn't come to put us in bondage, you came to set us free. Jesus, you said, We'll know the truth, and the truth will set us free. So we want to hear the truth right now and walk out of here, freer cats than we were when we walked in. This is our prayer, make it our experience. We ask for it in Jesus' name. And everyone said, Amen. You can have a seat. If you've got a Bible, I invite you to take your book to Matthew chapter 9. If you don't have a Bible, it doesn't mean you're a bad person. Don't sweat it. Everything I'll say, come up on the screen here behind me, okay? Uh, if you're new to our church or visiting today, we're preaching through the gospel of Matthew. We we teach and preach through books of the Bible. It's not a religious lecture, it's a reminder who Jesus is and who we can be because of who Jesus is. I want to talk to you this morning about why sick sinners get Jesus and He gets them. Why sick sinners get Jesus? They understand Jesus. When I say get Jesus, they understand Jesus and they respond to him in a way that other people don't. And he them. And here's my concern, just cards on the table. Is it the church, uh little C, not capital C, but but the church in American religion, they teach you to be and become the type of person that Jesus did not come for. Okay? Uh what is that person like? They're self-righteous and self-reliant, so much so that they appreciate Jesus, but they don't really need him. They're self-focused, uh, uh so much so that they perpetually, they're they're perpetually self-conscious. Uh, for them, hell is not a place you go when you die because you didn't believe in Christ. It's the experience of being embarrassed, and because this threatens your sense of self-sufficiency. And I just want to say to you very lovingly and with authority from God's word this morning that Jesus did not come for those kind of people, all right? Uh but Jesus came for people who are sick and people who realize that they're sinners, all right? And my simple goal is this I want you to see the kind of person Jesus came for, become that person, and then live like that person. Does that make sense? Say amen. All right, I want to read Matthew chapter 9. I'll start reading uh in verse 9. It says this. Now Jesus has just healed a guy that was paralyzed. His friends brought him, they duct taped him to a stretcher, brought him in the presence of Jesus. And the Bible says, we talked about this a couple weeks ago, when Jesus saw their faith, and so that has just happened. He he heals a guy. And it says, as Jesus passed on from there, he saw a man called Matthew sitting at a tax booth, and he said to him, Follow me, and he rose and followed him. And as Jesus reclined at table in the house, behold, many tax collectors and sinners came and were reclining with Jesus and his disciples. And when the Pharisees saw this, they said to his disciples, Why does your teacher eat with tax collectors and sinners? But when he heard it, he said, Those who are well have no need of a physician, but those who are sick. Go and learn what this means. I desire mercy and not sacrifice. For I came not to call the righteous, but sinners. Now, there's three things I want you to see in the text, okay? Uh, and the first one is right there in the very first verse, verse nine, and it's this that everybody moves towards God at a different pace. Everybody moves towards God at a different pace. It's easy to read this and miss the magnitude of what is happening here, because when you just read, I mean, here's verse nine again. Jesus passed on from there. He saw a man called Matthew sitting in a tax booth, and he said to him, Follow me, and he rose and followed Jesus. Now, on the surface, it sounds like Jesus just walked up to this random guy and said, Follow me, and the guy got up like he's in a trance and said, Take me to your leader. Uh, but in reality, if you read, and here's the beauty uh of actually reading the Bible, letting the Bible talk and say what it says, not just the preacher, uh, but like if you go back up earlier into uh, because a lot of people you hear that Jesus said, Follow me, and the guy got up and left everything and followed him. You're like, Why don't I do that? A little more involved in that. If you go up to verse one of chapter nine, it says, in getting to the boat, Jesus crossed over and came to his own city. He was referring to a city called Capernaum. That's where Jesus kind of his base of operation. Matthew lived in that city. If Jesus lived in your city, you knew about Jesus. You heard about Jesus, you may not be a Christ follower, but you were very aware who Jesus was, okay? It's kind of like if someone famous moved into your neighborhood, everybody, all the nosy neighbors would be on the neighborhood Facebook page, blowing it up. Can you believe Tom Brady's my neighbor? Like, yeah, hush. You can't help yourself, can't you? Boo, Tom Brady. It's like Jesus moved in. You're just kind of like, Why? I mean, so here's the thing I want you to see, okay? Uh Matthew knew about Jesus, he was familiar with Jesus, he'd heard about Jesus, but like many of you in this room this morning, when you've heard about God, you've been to church, but you don't have a personal relationship with him. He is not a priority in your life because you've yet to start following Jesus. Well, now then the question should become okay, well, how do you know if I'm following Jesus? Uh, there's two ways to know if a person's following Jesus. You should watch me. You should not believe if I you shouldn't think I'm a Christian just because I'm a pastor or because I say I am, okay? Because there's two things that happen. Following Jesus involves two things. Number one, your glory orientation, and number two, your experiences. Well, take the first one first. What do you mean, your glory orientation? Who gets the credit for your life? The Bible says it like this in 1 Corinthians chapter 10, verse 31. Whatever you do, whether you eat or drink, do all for the glory of God. This happens about five times a year. I, if you're visiting, I do a lot of counseling during the week. The rest of these people that work here just work on Sundays. I work every day of the week because our city is full of people that love sin. And so I'm talking to a young man this past week, and this is this about I get asked probably every two months this question hey, if they legalize marijuana in Texas, are you gonna smoke? Didn't you used to smoke in high school? Yeah, I smoked weed in 1982. The weed you smoke today is like infinitely more powerful than the weed my brothers grew in the attic at our house, but I digress. But this kid says to me, hey man, I mean, marijuana is just like alcohol. Alcohol is legal, so marijuana should be legal, blah, blah, blah. And I'm just like, here's the question: is it wrong to smoke weed if I do it in the privacy of my home and I don't hurt anybody? And I say the same thing every time. And here's what I say, because this is about your glory orientation. I say to the guy, hey, smoke all the weed you can for the glory of God. And then they're like, Oh, what? Smoke all the weed because the Bible says, you see, if you're oriented around yourself, then you'll give yourself permission to do anything you want to do. But if you're oriented around the glory of God, whatever you do, whether you eat or drink or go to the tenth grade, do it all for the glory of God. See, a Christ follower has a different glory orientation. They don't have to be watched, they don't have to be monitored because their heart is set on pilgrimage and they want God to get the glory. They don't want to care about them getting the glory. And so he's like, Oh, it's just like a I've met with a couple, and and they said, you know, we're gonna get married sometime next year. And I looked at the guy like, sometime next year. How long have you been telling that lie? Uh and they said, But we live together right now. And I said, I ain't hating on you. And they said, What do you think about the fact that we live together? I said, You think it's a bad idea or a good idea? I said, I don't think it's good or bad, I just think it's sin. And they're like, Excuse me. And I said, Yeah. And I said, Yeah, but we're gonna get married. You getting married, your intention to get married does not change the nature of sin. Sin is sin because God's who God said He is. God's a moral being. You cannot live an immoral life and be glorifying a moral being. You're smart people. And so they said, Well, I uh what should we do in the meantime? I said, In the meantime, have all the sex you can for the glory of God. That's what they did. And they were like, No, seriously. And I said, Yes, you should have all the students have all the sex you can for the glory of God. Stop asking what's too far on a date. Have all the sex you can to the glory of God. I wish you could see your parents' faces right now. Your parents are like, no, shut it, shut it, no, stop talking. You see, this is how obvious it is that we don't really have a glory orientation. We don't think about God's glory, we think about our own. But a person, here's how you know they're following Jesus. Not because they tell you they are, their glory orientation is different. And secondly, their experiences. What do you mean? You experience the life the Bible talks about. It's most easily described with by these nine words right out of the Bible: love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control. Now, if you've been to church a long time, you know those are called the what? The fruit of the spirit. In the book of Galatians, the Bible talks about, now look at me, church people get preachers are the worst. We read that list of the fruit, the fruit of the spirit means this. When you become a Christian, the Spirit of God comes to live inside of your physical body, okay? It's a beautiful, beautiful thing. And the Spirit of God causes you to be a more loving, joyful, peaceful, patient, kind, good, faithful, gentle, and self-controlled man. What the church does is the church comes along and says, We're gonna teach you how to do all that. That's not the church's job. That's the spirit's promise. Look at me. I am I'm a faithful man to my wife. Not because I'm a pastor, and if I cheat on my wife, I gotta get a divorce and then I gotta sell insurance or give trips to the Holy Land. No, look at me. I'm a faithful man, I'm a one-woman man because the Spirit of God inside of me says, This is your wife. All of the women in the world are off limits. Not just that, they're unnecessary because she is so satisfying. It's not hard to be faithful, it's not at all, it's very easy, and it's very enjoyable. That's her saying amen. Y'all are like, no, stop right now. Yes, everybody moves towards God at a different pace, okay? Why are you telling me this? Because Matthew, wasn't like Jesus walked up to a total stranger and said, Follow me, and he got up and was like, Now, by the way, also I gotta work through this. When I say Matthew, some of you, I brought a picture. This is what you think when I say Matthew. That's who you think Matthew is. You're like, oh, yeah, Matthew, I know that guy. He's kind of that autistic guy that follows Jesus. Oh, yeah. Yeah. Stop emailing me and asking me if Matthew was autistic. Look at me. He wasn't. They didn't have smartphones back then. No, no. You okay? I was like, I mean, church, we should not be laughing right now. If you're visiting today, we believe that you can learn and enjoy that process at the same time. Now, by the way, I get to ask, was Matthew autistic? I said, probably not. They take some artistic license, and then the next question, is it wrong to watch the chosen? Absolutely not. Enjoy the chosen. I like a Jesus with a personality. My kids love the chosen. My oldest comes home for Thanksgiving or Christmas, she always wants to watch the chosen. When I say watch the chosen, I don't mean one episode, I mean a season. I'm like, baby girl, I gotta go to bed. Why you gotta go to bed? Because I'm old. I read the book, I know how this ends. And she tells me, you know, next season they're gonna have the crucifixion. I was like, oh, you mean he dies? What? She's like, oh, shut up, dad, shut up. Uh I think they do a great job of capturing Matthew's reticence, but I think they attribute it to the wrong thing. Because here's the deal it's not his autism, it it's the fact that he's a tax collector and to give up his job, he could never get it back. Because tax collectors were some of the wealthiest and most hated people because they'd served the Romans. They were, it was like your friends, one of your friends became the tax collector, the tax was 4%. They charged six and kept the extra two. And everybody hated these people. They're just like, oh man, you weasels. We went to middle school together and you're sticking it to me now. What are you doing? And so Matthew was this person, he had a nice life. He belonged to all the right clubs, he had multiple vehicles, he was crushing it. So why did it take Matthew a while to follow Jesus? To see this clearly, you have to read the same story in Luke's gospel. Now, the I see the gospel, the first four books of the New Testament are named after men Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John. That doesn't mean they're written by men, like men just made up the Bible. It means they're recorded by men under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit. These men follow, they were followers of Jesus called the disciples, and they all recorded what it was like from their perspective. They emphasize different things. It doesn't mean that the Bible's contradictory. No, if we went and saw a movie and walked out and said, What was your favorite part? There's a good chance we would have a different part. Like, for example, the movie Top Gun Maverick, it was on this weekend. I thought it was my patriotic duty to watch it, and so I did. You know my favorite part? I got a little weepy in my house by myself. My wife's sound asleep. It's when Maverick goes home with the woman and then has to jump out the window. Remember that part? Yeah, y'all, you sinners. Yes, look at me. It's when he hits the ground and stands back up, and her little daughter's standing there in the kitchen looking at me, and she says, Don't break her heart again. I was like, Oh. See, you have a different favorite part. Like, my friends were like, Dude, did you cry, Top Gun Maverick? Yeah, yeah, just the part that little girl said, Don't break her heart again. I'm just like, that's the best part of the movie. My friends broke up with me after that. We think you're like some kind of closet homosexual. You cried at that thing, man. America, come on, we blow stuff up. No, no. Why did it take him a long time? Luke records the same thing with these words. Hear this, Luke chapter 5, verse 27. After he went out and he saw a tax collector named Levi, that was also one of Matthew's names, sitting in a tax move. He said to him, Follow me. Hear these next three words. And leaving everything, he rose and followed him. Matthew took a while. Why? Because he finally got to the place where he's ready to follow Jesus because Jesus is better than his everything. And unless you believe that Jesus is better than your everything, you will never leave everything. Now, am I saying, listen to me carefully, am I saying that when you become a Christian, you gotta give up your truck and your house? No. No. But your priorities do change. The way you think change. Who gets the glory changes. Your experiences change. Here's the second thing we see in the text. New converts are the most intentional with the faith. New converts are the most intentional. You said, Where do you get that? You notice we go from verse 9 where Jesus says, follow me, and then verse 10. And as Jesus reclined at table in the house, behold, many tax collectors and sinners came and were reclining with Jesus and his disciples. Like, wait a minute, Jesus says follow me. And the next thing you know, we're eating dinner in somebody's house. What happened? Here's what happened because new converts are the most intentional with their faith. Matthew is so blown away because he's been counting the cost, and he's like, you know what? Jesus is better than my any my everything. And so I don't care about my job, okay? I want to know and follow this Jesus. And because new converts are the most intentional with their faith, look at me. What Matthew does, he doesn't go to his friends and say, hey guys, you tax collectors are a bunch of sinners. You've been screwing people over financially, and you're gonna go to hell when you die. I can't talk to you anymore, so don't call me. No, he has a party at his house and he invites all these tax collectors and sinners, and Jesus is the guest of honor. Why? Because Matthew wants people, his friends, to experience the same God that they've experienced. Ask yourself this question: what do you do to introduce your unbelieving friends to Jesus? Because this is what Matthew does. Because he, see, some of y'all have been Christians so long you forgot what it's like to be lost. One of the ways we know that this is Matthew's house is because it's full of people who did what he did. They're tax collectors and they were sinners. Now, by the way, this past week someone asked me, they stopped by the church and they said, Well, is there sermon ready for Sunday? I said, Yeah, God's been gracious. I said, Some of it's not there yet, but we're friends, he'll tell me what we're gonna talk about. I said, We're gonna talk about Matthew and how he came to faith, and as soon as he did, he had a big party and invited all his sinner friends because he wanted them to meet this Jesus and follow this Jesus that he fought that he followed. And they go, Oh, what are you gonna do with that? I said, Well, one of the questions I'm gonna ask my church is this is if you were gonna throw a party and all the guests were gonna be people just like you, what kind of people would fill the room? And I'm gonna ask my people to go to the community groups and answer this question and say it out loud. If you threw a party and the only people who were invited were people that were like you, what kind of people would fill the room? And this person did not miss a beat. He said, You want me to answer? I said, Sure. And this person said, I wrote it down. This person said, fearful, neurotic, materialistic, competitive, backstabbing people. And some of you are like, ah, what a sinner. No, this is a person that Jesus comes for. And then the person said, Well, what do you do with that? And I said, Oh, you got to ask yourself two questions. Number one, is that the kind of person God created you to be? No. I said you said two questions. Yeah. Second question is simply this is that the kind of person Jesus died for you to be? So there's creation and redemption. Did God create you to be this way? And did Jesus redeem you to be this way? You see, because new converts, when I say new converts are the most intentional with their faith, I mean you don't have to give them a program. They experience a person and they are off with it. They take it from there. The problem with many Christians, as I said a minute ago, is that you've been a Christian for so long, you've forgotten what it was like. This is why you don't have a party invite tax collectors and sinners, because you forgot, you escaped, you don't sense this responsibility. But I want to let the Bible remind us. Let's allow the Bible to remind us hey, this is what it's like to not be a Christian, to not know God, and not experience this life Jesus came for us to experience. In the Bible, in John chapter 10, verse 10, Jesus says, I came so you could have life and have it to the full. There's a fullness to life that you do not experience apart from a relationship with God. This is the way the Bible describes in Ephesians chapter 2, verse 11. He says, Therefore remember that at one time you Gentiles in the flesh called the uncircumcision by what is called the circumcision, which is made in the flesh by hands. Remember that you were at that time. Now look at me. Now I know sometimes you read things in the Bible and you're like, what in the world does that mean? The Jewish people pride themselves on their circumcision, and the Gentiles, non-Christians, non-religious people, religious, non-religious, they made fun of these people. It's like, oh, you guys are you're dirty, unclean sinners. Get out of here. Now the Bible comes along and says, Hey, now that you guys are Christians, because you don't have to keep the rules, you don't have to get circumcised to be a Christian, you have to believe and have faith in Christ. He says, You remember what that you are what you were like. And then he says five things. He says, You were separated from Christ, you were alienated from the commonwealth of Israel, you were strangers to the covenants of promise, having no hope and without God in the world. But now in Christ, you who are once far off have been brought near by the blood of Christ. Now, I took those five things and I sat down and said, How would I explain that to somebody in 2026? And this is what I came up with. Number one, when the Bible says separated from Christ, that means no capacity. You can't make this life that you hear about happen because this is as good as it gets. I got a question for you. Ever wonder if one of the reasons vacations are a competitive sport in America is because we've relegated ourselves to manufacturing experiences that make us feel what only God and the gospel can make us feel. You say, I I don't know. My me and some friends have the experience we're kind of pulling our money because we have a friend that doesn't have a car. Car broke down, and somebody said, Hey, you know, and somebody made a phone call, and that person made a phone call, and I got a phone call, and blah blah blah blah blah. And the sensation that I got from being able to say, Absolutely, I want to help somebody get a car, it's better than a vacation, any vacation I've ever taken. And I've been to Hawaii five times. Mahalo. Yeah, yeah. You say, Well, what are you saying? I'm saying that you cannot manufacture because you don't have this capacity. When he says, secondly, they're alienated from the commonwealth of Israel. What does that mean? No real community. Nobody to count on. Nobody that rejoices when you rejoice and weeps when you weep. Thirdly, he says he comes along and he says they're strangers to the covenants of promise. What does that mean? Nothing beyond you to look forward to. Go home. If you want to get a fight started in your house, go home today, men. Look at your wife and say, hey, honey, this is as good as it gets. Because your wife would be like, uh, that's not encouraging. Now, and look at me, man. I'm not clowning on you. I'm just saying you should invite your wife into experience into an experience that is bigger than you. This is what the Christian life is. Okay? It's not rules, it's a relationship. And then he says, fourthly, he says, having no hope. They have positivity, but no real hope. And then he says, without God in the world, this gnawing sense of aloneness. I couldn't tell you how many times that I've I've stood in a hospital room or in a funeral home with somebody, and people look at me unsolicited and say this exact say this exact quote, Pastor, I don't know how people that aren't Christians go through this. I don't know how people without God go through this. How do they battle cancer without some sense of hope in the in the presence of God in their life? Now, by the way, what you'll see in Matthew is Matthew, he has, he comes to faith, he starts following Jesus, and then he throws a party. He doesn't say, Jesus, where are you preaching? I'm gonna bring bring my friends. And here's why. One of the things you'll see as we get into Matthew, now by the way, Marcy and I had dinner with some friends in our church on Friday night, and the lady said she couldn't help herself. I was there five minutes, and she goes, Okay, I gotta ask you a question. I know you're off the clock. And I said, No, I'm good. Ask away. She goes, How long are we gonna be in Matthew? I said, until Jesus comes. She goes, Okay, because we've been in Matthew a long time. Are we going verse by verse with the whole thing? Absolutely. We'll take a break here and there, but we're always gonna just see. Here's the thing: we teach the Bible because it's a reminder of who God is and who you can be. And if you teach topical all the time, you get overstimulated and undereducated, but I digress. Uh but what you see, and what you'll see as we get into it, I'll point to it, is that there's there's Jesus, there's things that Jesus did to engage people in ways that were meaningful to them, not just to him. And they're called blessed practices. Blessed practices. Back in 2016, 10 years ago, a guy named David Ferguson, sat down and read the New Testament, and he said, I want to understand the way Jesus engaged people, and I want me and my church to engage people this way. And he came up with what's called these five blessed practices, and they're in across the gets the word blessed. Here's what they stand for. The B is for begin with prayer. Jesus begins his ministry with prayer, he prays all night before he chooses his 12 disciples. He ends his time with them praying in the Garden of Gethsemane. And one of the last things he does from the cross is he prays for those who are who are crucifying him. And so to say begin with prayer sounds trite, I get it, but for Jesus it was never an assumption, it was always a habit. Never an assumption. Well, I guess all we can do is pray. It was always a habit. So begin with prayer. The eles for listen. It would help if you understood the difference uh between listening and hearing. Now, I hearing is a physical, physiological function of the ear. Listening is an emotional commitment to the person talking. Like, I can hear my wife and not listen to her. Okay? I'm just confessing today. I can hear her. And I evidence, and I think I'm doing her a favor because she's like, Are you listening to me? And I will recite back to her everything she just said because I'm a savant, okay? I clapped out a mensa. I'm like, yeah, and I'll just say, and she's like, that doesn't help me. And not only that, but my wife will start talking to me from two rooms away and walk into the room where I am and expect to have my undivided attention, like when I'm watching playoff basketball, like good godly men do. And she starts talking to her better. She comes down, hey, hey, and we need to talk about blah, blah, blah. And then she pauses, like. And I'm like, well, I was kind of in the middle of doing something. Yes, but I'm more important than whatever you're doing. That depends on the day, but okay, we'll go with that. No. And so now I'm so I've been I've been married 33 years. I'm so trained. I hear her voice, I reach for the remote. And I just pause the TV. Why? Because I do not want just hear my wife, I want to listen to my wife. You should, before you go to bed tonight, man, you should ask your wife, do I hear you or do I listen to you? You're welcome. Marriage counseling is available. Wade Burgess has openings. By the way, one of the reasons, this is free, I can't get into this. One of the reasons I think there's so much mental health issues in America is most people have never been really listened to. Begin with prayer. Listen, eat. The E is for eat. Jesus is always eating and drinking with sinners. So much so that they called him a glutton and a wine bibber. How about that for the theme of your women's weekend? Put that on a t-shirt. Gluttons and wine bibbers. You have to explain that to people. Jesus ate too much food and he drank too much wine. They're like, dude, get out of here. Think about it like this: three meals a day, seven days a week, that's 21 meals. I don't eat 21 meals a day, it's way too much food. However, we all have opportunities to sit down with people and eat with them. All right? The first S is for serve. Ask yourself this question: how do I serve the people I profess to love? Service is one of the few things that you can do, and no one calls you a hypocrite. Service is uh not about humiliation, but it's really about greatness. Jesus said, whoever wishes to be great among you, let him first become a servant of all. Hear that again. Whoever wishes to be great among you, let him first become a servant of all. When's the last time you had to explain to somebody why you serve so much? Because I just want to be great. I mean, the drive of my life is I just want to be great. Service, the last one with S is story. All these previous things earn you the right to hear someone's story. There's a story behind every face in this room. Some of you right now are thinking, is this about over? Some of you are like, oh, whew, this made me think about some things. There's a story. And what you'll see as we get into Matthew is that Jesus is always praying for people. He's always listening to people, he's always eating, not just with righteous people, but with sinners. And when sinners find out where he is, they just go invite themselves to dinner. Woman shows up with a box of just tootie fruity scented per Vaseline, smears it all over Jesus' feet, and she's behind him, and the religious people in front of him, and they're thinking to themselves, if he was really a prophet, he would know what kind of skanky hoe is touching him right now. This man surely can't be a prophet. And Jesus smiles because here's what ought to scare you. He knows their thoughts. He knows your thoughts. And he looked at them and said, Can I tell you a story? And they're like, Yes, Jesus. And he goes, All right. And it's like it's like inviting Eminem to your kid's birthday party. Two trailer park goals, go round the outside. And you're like, What? This is a kid party. Jesus says, I tell you what, a guy owed $50,000, okay? And the guy he owed the money to forgave the debt. And another guy owed $5, and the guy he owed five bucks to forgave the debt. Who's more grateful? And they go, Oh, Jesus, the guy that owed the bigger debt. Thank you for letting me show my religious knowledge. And Jesus kind of points at the woman and says, Hey, she loves much because she's been forgiven much. But Jesus could talk about you and to you at the same time. Because he's talking about these weasels. What he's saying is, you don't love much because you don't understand that you've been forgiven because you think you're righteous without me. And this woman who's been passed around like a bong at a foghead concert, she gets it. You don't. So Jesus ate with people. And when people found out where he was, like this woman, she crashed the party. Because she had to let Jesus just experience. I want you to know that I get it. Oh my gosh. And Jesus uses that opportunity to tell the religious people of the day, you guys don't get it. You're experts on the truth and dropouts on the way. The story. The story. Everybody has a story. By the way, the average American male over 40 doesn't have two people in his life that know the darkest parts of his story. And here's my question: what if we all started to be just intentionally implement the blessed practices once a week, just one a week this summer? Summer starts on Monday. It's official Memorial Day. What if we just all said, hey, we're gonna all implement one of these blessed practices at least once a week in our families, our neighborhood, our baseball team, our networks, our swim team, our experiences? Here's the last thing from the text. Are you still with me? Say amen. Here's the last thing from the text. Is that our lives should require explanation? Our lives should require explanation. Verse 11. And when the Pharisees saw this, they said to his disciples, Why does your teacher eat with tax collectors and sinners? When's the last time you had to explain something about what you did? I mean, they are like, What? What are you doing, man? But when Jesus heard it, he said, Those who are well have no need of a physician. By the way, that's why some of you, your prayers don't get answered. You're well. You don't really need a doctor. You're just talking. You're not praying. You're just, oh Lord, I think I'm not like other men. I vote Republican and watch Fox News. And these people who preach it, sister, these people's lives would get better, Jesus, if they were more like me. Jesus said, Hey, those who are well have no need of a physician, but those who are sick, go and learn what this means. I desire mercy, not sacrifice, for I came not to call the righteous, but sinners. So, see, if you're sick today and you're not well and you realize, hey, I'm not righteous, dude. I'm I thought when I walked in here this building would fall down on me. If you're a real live sinner and you are sick, look at me. Jesus came for you. He came for you. You said, What do you mean? What do I mean is simply this the Pharisees see only their failure, but Jesus sees their need. He sees it and he gets it, he understands it. This is why in verse 13 he says, I desire mercy, not sacrifice. Uh what is he saying? He's saying to these guys, they fasted twice a week, the Pharisees. He says, I don't care if you fast twice a week. Uh, you don't love sick sinners. That's mercy. I desire mercy, not sacrifice. I don't need you to do a bunch of religious behaviors. I need you to change the way you treat people. Again, all they saw was their failure, but Jesus sees their need. Let me ask you a question. When your kids put it in the ditch, do you see their failure or do you see their need? Do you see their failure? Or do you see their need? If you want your kids to respond differently, you gotta start seeing their need. Jesus said, in the latter part of verse 13, I came not to call the righteous but sinners. Break that sentence down and we'll be done. What does Jesus mean when he says, I did not come? Where'd he come from? The Bible teaches that Jesus left the sanctity of heaven and came to earth. Why would he leave heaven and come to earth? And for who? Well, uh, allow me to use recent happenings from the news. Uh uh, do you remember when the plane was shot down in Iran? Remember that? The fighter jet got shot down, and that and the pilot got rescued pretty much immediately. And then there's another guy in the back of the plane, he is known as the WSO. Uh, you say, Well, what is that? I'm glad you asked, because I I plunged on it because I'm I'm kind of a nerd. Uh he is the uh weapons systems operator. Uh, and and he was lost for a couple days, and then our president came out and said, We knew where he was the whole time. And then they came out and said, and here's why. This never before revealed technology called the ghost murmur. And anybody hear about the ghost murmur? Say yes. Okay, some of you, I hadn't. I heard it on TV and I was like, what? And then they started talking about it. And you know, I'm a nerd and I like documentaries, so I went and plunged. I got on the internet and I typed in ghost murmur technology, and it came up like Lockheed Martin Skunk Works, this top secret thing. And then I wrote this sentence down so I could read it publicly, okay? Uh it said ghost murmur. The system combines artificial intelligence with long-range quantum magnetometry. I just want to say those two words. Quantum magnetometry to detect, hear this, to detect the extremely faint electromagnetic signals of a human heartbeat. It is designed to isolate these biological rhythms from environmental background noise and to pinpoint an individual's location, wait for it. This is where I slammed my computer shut and said, no way. It is designed to lock in and pick up this little electromagnetic signal that comes off from a human heart when it beats from up to 40 miles away. Yes, and I was like, shut all the way up. So, you may be thinking, why why are you telling me this? Here's why. Because Jesus left heaven. Look at me. I don't care what you who you are, what you did, or when you did, I don't care if you did it last night. I'm here to tell you on the authority of God's word that Jesus left heaven and he came to earth because he had a lock on your heart. He knows what you feel like as you sit in this room, he knows what you felt like last night before you went to bed. He knew what you were thinking when you walked in this building today, and he didn't come to shame you, he came to invite you to a feast. He came to instead of say, Hey, you're a sinner, you're gonna go to hell. He came to say, Hey, you like ribs? And people were like, Oh my gosh, what do you mean? He came to pray for you, listen to you, eat with you, serve you, and hear your story. And he wants to do all of that because he created you for your life to play a role in his story. Your life and my life is the medium through which God's story, the gospel, finds expression. This is what Matthew came to believe, and it's why Jesus came. And this is why people that were sick, not well, and that were sinners, that weren't righteous, that weren't right with God, clamored. That's why they got Jesus. They just understood him. And he understood them. He'd walk in a room, and people would be standing off on the wall, and Jesus kind of winked at them, and they were like, I think he knows I'm here. Yes, because he left heaven. Because he didn't need ghost murmur technology. He knows what your heart, the condition of your heart, as you sat here. Now look at me. That shouldn't scare you, that should invite you into a relationship with this God. Let's pray together. If you're our guest today, just relax. Nothing scary is gonna happen. We like to teach the Bible, and then we give you some space to think it. Some questions will come up on the screen. That's for you just to think about. We talk about them in our small groups when they meet. But right now, you just be still and just ask God, God, what'd you say to me today? What's the one thing I need to remember when I walk out of this room here in just a few minutes? Just think about that right now. God, that's the great thing about you. Everyone's welcome to the table. You didn't invite us to a religious lecture, you invited us to a feast. And you picked up the tab on the cross. It's all paid for. We're not gonna be flippant with that, we're gonna be diligent about that and intentional towards it. And so, Lord, thank you that you came for sinners like me, people that are sick by nature and not right with you, but you came to make me right. You came to make everybody in this room right with you. So I pray for anybody. If they've never started following, today would be their day. Even now, in their head and their heart, just kind of quicken them to life and say, today's your day. Lord, thank you. The Bible makes us think and it changes how we live. For that we're grateful. So we say thanks in Jesus' name. And everyone said, Amen, amen, amen.

SPEAKER_01 38:48

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