Welcome to ECB's weekly sermon podcast. ECB is an international church in Bangkok, Thailand,
with dozens of nationalities worshipping together. We invite you to connect with us from wherever
you are through our website, ecb.asia, or our mobile app. And now we pray that you are blessed
by this week's sermon. Almost 12 years ago, Lord invited us to Thailand. At the time,
I was working as a director of a discipleship program at a college university in Canada,
and we came to Thailand. And while I was here, something that the Lord had started when I was a
teenager, just after coming into faith, non-Christian home and family, had a sleepover
with a buddy of mine who invited me to sleepover. Then they invited me to church, so I went to
church. There's a promise of free French fries if I memorize scripture. So I memorized it,
said it, got my coupon, went and got my French fries and came back. An invitation to a sleepover
in church and free French fries led to an invitation to know Jesus. And I said yes. And
then that led to trying to understand who God is. What does it mean? At first, I thought it meant
that instead of saying like four-letter words, then I'd replace them with like Christian
versions like fric and shoot and gosh. And so I changed all my vocabulary and thought that
that's what it meant to follow Jesus. And by his grace, I discovered that it's a little bit more
than gosh and heck and those kinds of words, that there's a lot more depth to knowing him.
But it began with an invitation. And today, I want to talk about perhaps one of the greatest
invitations we can get and probably one of the easiest things that we can do as human beings,
that Christ modeled for us in his person as a hundred percent man and a hundred percent God.
And it's found in the scriptures. It's found in Mark chapter two and it's also found in Luke
chapter five and it's the Gospels. And the crazy or cool part about this is actually the story that
we're going to read about is about a guy named Levi who later becomes Matthew and he actually
writes one of the Gospels named Matthew. And so if you're like, who is this guy? This is the guy.
And what does it have to do with me? A lot. And so I just wanted to, as I'm jumping in,
give a quick shout out to our young adults that are here. They woke up. That's always a miracle
of the Lord. They made it to Sunday. Way to go. And someone told me I should expect some heckling,
but they're mature young adults. And so it's going to be a good morning. But Lord, thanks for your
word and how black and red or whatever color letters on our screen or in front of us in your
word, you tell us that it is alive. And so this morning would we encounter the alive word of you.
Thank you, Holy Spirit, that one of the things that you do is you lead us to truth. You help us
understand truth. And so this morning through my words, Lord, would people hear you more than me?
God, would you get into a heart? Would you get into a mind? Would you do something in someone's
hands this morning? We pray. Amen. So the big idea. Hospitality can turn a liar. We'll read it
together. Hospitality can turn the liar, the cheat, and the sinner into a follower and a friend.
And so we've just come out of Christmas and we're talking about treasures. And one of the things
that's a treasure for me is the invitational nature of Jesus. And so we're going to look at that. But
so the world was expecting a Savior to come. There's a giant star, wise men, shepherds, the
whole story of Christmas, love, joy, hope, peace, great expectation found in the person of Jesus,
a babe. Some people were so scared of this idea of a Savior coming as a baby that they tried to
destroy all the young boys of that time. We know through the story of nativity that that's not what
happened. Jesus survived and he grew up. And then we have the account of his last few years of his
life in the Gospels. And as we open the book of Mark, we encounter the person of Jesus who people
keep saying, man, he teaches with such authority. Whoa, he teaches with such power. Then he forgives
sins. And people are like, whoa, whoa, whoa, how can a man do something like this? Then he heals
somebody. And they're like, how can he do that? Just a couple of verses before this story, we've
got some friends who believe who this Jesus character is making himself out to be is actually
the Messiah and has the power to change lives. So they drag their friend who can't walk on a
tarp or something, they pull back a roof, they drop him down. I don't know, like original
pulley system of the first century into the presence of Jesus for an encounter with him.
And so this is what's happening. And then Jesus is going from place to place. And rather than
showing up as a rabbi would in this time, and being known for their great wisdom and their
interpretation of Scripture, and waiting for these young people to come and say, can we follow you
and be your student? Jesus flips it upside down. And he begins to go to like the B team, the
people who weren't chosen by other rabbis who didn't have a career. So they'd entered into what
their parents were doing, and they become fishermen. And he goes to them, and he invites them to
follow him. And on this journey of upside down invitation, we read that he makes his way out
and up from the sea to this town and he encounters this person named Levi. And Levi is a tax
collector. And tax collectors at this time, really, were somebody who had chosen as a Jewish
person to sympathize with their occupiers. So he said, rather than hanging on to my own culture
and family and what I know to be true, I'm going to sell that all out for money and wealth, I'm
going to cheat, I'm going to steal, and I'm going to make as much as I can off my mom, my dad, my
brothers, my sisters, and my neighbors. And so some people believe and even like old Jewish
texts would suggest that tax collectors were seen on the same level as a thief and as a murderer.
They were expelled from the synagogue. If you touched them or talked and engaged in conversation
with them, the thought was that you were unclean and your home was unclean. And so this person was
seen as somebody who had chosen to side with the enemy. This is Levi. And so once again, Jesus is
beside the lake and a large crowd comes to him. And he was teaching them. And as he passed by, he
saw Levi, the son of Althea, sitting at the tax booth and he said to him, follow me. And Levi got
up and followed him. And as he reclined, and so it's seen changes, as he reclined at the table of
his house, many tax collectors and sinners were reclining with Jesus and his disciples, for there
were many who had followed him. And the scribes of the Pharisees, when they saw that he was eating
with sinners and tax collectors, said to the disciples, why does he eat with tax collectors
and sinners? And Jesus heard it, awkward moment, and he said to them, those who are well have no
need of a physician. Read it with me. It is not the healthy who need a doctor, but the sick. I have
not come to call the righteous, but the sinners. A few years ago, there is a group of people who
crowd sourced and began trying to produce a series called The Chosen. Has anyone ever watched any
episodes of The Chosen? It gives an incredible depiction of what they understand or have
interpreted, perhaps some of the most fond stories of the Gospels to look like. And in episode seven,
I believe, of the first season, we encounter the story of Levi. And when I watched it, there was
part of me that just welled with emotion because I felt as though I was drawn into the storyline.
It's not hard to watch something like that and see the intensity of the moment of what's going on.
Jesus, God in flesh, making eye contact, knowing the name, the person, all of the decisions that
this guy had made and choosing to look at him and say, come and follow me. This is incredibly
scandalous. I mean, it was enough that he had gone to some disciples or students that were like
fishermen, but at least they were good people. But then he comes to like some of the most despised
people of the land at that time, a tax collector, the worst of the worst, an enemy collaborating for
the sake of money, a cheat, a thief to their own person. This is difficult to wrap our minds
around. And yet Jesus looks at him and says, follow me. I mean, what would Levi have felt in
that moment? Like had he heard what was happening leading up to this moment? Did he know some of
the rumblings that were going through the land that this was a rabbi that had called the unqualified,
that had called the unworthy, a man that was preaching the forgiveness of sins was healing,
was forgiving, and now had crowds of people following him? Had he heard, did he know? I mean,
I wonder if Levi sitting in his booth felt despised and alone, getting rich and all the while
feeling emptier and emptier at some point had something in his heart begin to burn and wonder,
could it be? Could what has been for others actually be for me too? Does it apply? Does the
message of hope and forgiveness matter for me too, or am I too far gone? Have I crossed over the
line? Am I even worth saving anymore? And here comes Jesus walking along the shore, looks at him,
dead in the eye and not with anger of a mad dad. I know what that feels like sometimes, or mom,
because we're imperfect. Not with the hatred of a cheated neighbor, but with the love of a savior,
he invites him in and includes him in. Maybe, maybe there are some of us that are in this place
right now that have sensed a burning in our own chest and heart. We've heard, we've seen stories,
we've heard about this good news, and it's maybe not if we wonder, if we don't believe, but we
wonder if it actually applies to us too. Or maybe we think, man, maybe I'm too far gone too,
that we've messed up too much, that we're past this point of return. But I can tell you with
guarantee, and you can look around this room, and you can know that there is person after person
after person that are not too far gone, where God has reached into this stuck place because of a
label that somebody else has put on them, that we've convinced ourselves of the narrative in
ourselves of, that we've messed up too much, that there is a line that we've crossed. But the gospel
in Christ says that there is no line that we can cross where Jesus says, no, too far, you're too
far gone, no more. No, he's willing to come after you, whatever your past is, we've heard it said,
hopefully not once, we'll say it again, but your future is not defined by your past. Because Jesus
can enter in now, he takes great delight in making something ridiculously beautiful out of our mess.
We sing songs about it, we look at art about that, we read books about it, because it's true. Look
around you, story after story in this room, Jesus reaching in, delivering us from something that we
thought we were stuck in for the rest of our lives. Things we never imagined we were worth
being rescued from. And he does this. And as a result of that, story after story in this space,
person after person, never forgetting it. So maybe for some of us today, right off the cat,
today's the day where we need to respond to follow him. But he never forces himself into Levi's life,
and he's never forced himself into our lives, of those of us who have said yes to him. And he's not
forcing himself into your life today. We got a choice. But we do need to be reminded that you,
that I, that we are invited. We're invited by Christ. And so Jesus calls Levi, Matthew, the tax
collector, and essentially Levi, Matthew, as we saw and hear says, yes, the sinner, the traitor,
the thief, now the follower of a living God, and then he throws a dinner party.
Well, Jesus is having dinner, we read it, many tax collectors and sinners were reclining with Jesus
and his disciples, for there were many who followed him. And then the Pharisees enter the picture,
and the scene changes. We got a problem at this moment about who Jesus is eating with. I mean,
the term Pharisees in itself actually means the set apart one. So they're supposed to be set apart.
And so they believe that salvation, or you being saved, and the forgiveness of sins,
happen through separation. So you are saved by separating yourself from something. Like,
that's really not the gospel. But they believed it. And they thought that in order to be saved,
you need to separate yourself from sinners and tax collectors. And if you got a little bit too
close, then you could become unworthy. You could become unclean. You could become unholy. You could
become contaminated by the people that you surrounded yourself with. Sorry to the front row
people getting my spit. So by practice then, the Pharisees separated themselves, and now
they were frustrated because Jesus wasn't doing his part. He was too close to them. You can't sit
with people like that. You can't eat with people like that. You're unclean. And now we got to
perform ritualistic ceremony in order to clean this place up and everybody else who would sit
and touch and smoke with these people. You can't do that, Jesus. He was doing something as personal
as sharing a meal with them. I mean, at this time, it would be difficult to underestimate the
importance of a meal because in first century times, being welcome at a table was seen as a
purpose of eating with one another to begin to develop friendship with others. And so Jesus
was a place of friendship. It was a place where intimacy and unity happened. This wasn't like
nothing big. A meal, unity, intimacy. You hear what I'm saying? Friendship. And it went even as far
as being if you had an issue with somebody in your life, you would invite them into a meal with you
because over the meal is where you reconcile differences. So this wasn't just aromai. Is it
no, no, no. This is like deep, meaningful, intentional relationship community. Meals were
purposeful. And Jesus wasn't just having an aromai meal with people. He was sitting, reclining,
eating, touching, asking questions about life. And the Pharisees who were the most religious people
who knew the Old Testament scriptures better than anybody else, who had set their lives apart to be
different and holy, were not okay with this. Sorry. It's a bit upsetting. Think about it. Even meals
today for us, there's something that unite us together. When you meet somebody and you want to
get to know them, you don't just say, hey, let's go sit and look staringly and longingly in each
other's eyes. No. To make the time a little bit less awkward, you put some food between you. And
so then when you look at each other, you can look at the food from time to time and it feels a
little bit less awkward. Meals are important. I mean, meals are so important that this university
in Oxford that conducted a study that called Break the Bread, the Functions of Social Eating,
and they found that communal eating actually increases social bonding and feelings of well-being.
So you as a person are better as a result of eating with other people. And not only that,
but people generally feel more content about their lives and they feel embedded in the community.
So whether it's a feast or a snack, meals are important. And that's why one of the things that
I think is fantastic about our young adults and then our life groups are here is that we focus
over and over again about eating together because something happens over a meal. So if scripture
shows us that meals are important and the University of Oxford thinks that meals are important,
then sometimes if you're like me, I think there's nothing transcendent amazing about a meal.
Sometimes it's actually quite dysfunctional if you've got three kids who don't like food you
introduced me. Sometimes a meal doesn't feel all mushy, gushy, and you're just wandering rapidly
getting through. Sometimes some of us, we've got like PTSD to some specific meal because there was
like a dramatic encounter that happened at a dinner table or a restaurant as a kid or a young
adult or an adult where we're like, oh, like eating together with people scares me because it means
that I have to connect. And one time when I connected, this happened. I just don't do that.
And so we choose isolation over community. And yet meal times for some reason seem to be one of
Jesus' favorite places to do ministry. Eugene Peterson, a professor and pastor and writer of
the translation, The Message, he writes, perhaps the primary venue for evangelism in Jesus' life
was the meal. But as I said, it's not the fact that Jesus was eating, it's who he was eating with
because he had this reputation of eating and drinking with some of the most unexpected people.
And that's what's happening here. The Pharisees couldn't handle the fact they thought that
holiness meant separation. Holiness meant separation. One more time, holiness meant separation.
And I repeat that three times because I think all of us has probably fallen trapped to that thought
or idea at some time or another. And though it might have led us to some really good things,
it has the potential to keep us from community at the same time. Jesus embodies the reality that
the kingdom is built on community. And sitting at a table with candles and crusty bread and a drink
in his hand, he enters into ordinary life conversations with ordinary people and the
Pharisees are floored. Maybe, maybe this shows us that Jesus is curious about others, about me,
about you, but the Pharisees aren't having it. They think that transformation should precede
invitation. Another repeat. Transformation should precede invitation. What do you mean?
Well, you should get your stuff together before Jesus invites you in. You can't be in relationship
with Jesus if you're saying four-letter words. You can't have a relationship with Jesus if
you're still spending money on packs of cigarettes. You can't spend time with Jesus if you're watching
R-rated movies. And so we think you need to be separated before you can respond to the
invitation of Jesus. But wake up to the reality here. Jesus hasn't asked anything of Levi in
this moment other than to follow him. And so he's still like neck deep in all of his mess
as he meets Jesus. And then we know because he writes a book about Jesus that his life gets
turned upside down and he doesn't keep living the same way that he once lived. And so if we're all
up on our pedestal being like no holiness precedes invitation, we got to get off it right now.
Because the model that we have in Jesus isn't that. Actually meeting Jesus leads to life
transformation. The way we think is different. The way that we speak is different. The way that we
live is different. The way we view our sexuality, our relations, conflict resolution. Man, read the
rest of the story. Get to Matthew. Read the Sermon on the Mount where he begins to talk about all the
different radical ways that we begin to look and live in life different as a result of being in
a relationship with him. So if you're scared by the fact that Jesus invites us to be in relationship
with him before he tells you to get your clean, clean your life up. This is scary things for you
to read. Or it's the opposite. It is like I need that. This is great news because it means that
we're invited to the table exactly as we are. That you're invited to God's table exactly the
way that you are. And what happens next is transformation. So pull up a seat before you
believe. Before you behave, pull up a seat. Pull up a seat while you've got questions. That's why
there's an announcement up here about this thing called Alpha. Alpha's a great place to pull up a
seat and be like, this thing kind of seems a bit crazy to me. Pull up a seat. You just sat through
a like Christian ceremony where we talk about drinking the blood of Jesus and eating his body.
Come and ask those questions. Jesus isn't thrown by them. Your doubt doesn't suspend his desire
to be in relationship with you. I think it actually excites him. He's like, great. Somebody was
actually asking questions about who I am rather than being a Christian my whole life, got it all
together. Holiness, holiness. No. Pull up a seat. You're welcome. Come with your doubts. Come with
your questions. Come with your mess if you've got it. Jesus welcomes all of us and he's not threatened
by it. But what about our favorite people, the Pharisees? They're sitting there thinking this
means that if Jesus is here welcoming everybody, then he must not care about sin and he must not
care about our behavior, which is not true. I already talked about that. It's not true.
Read the rest of the gospels. Figure out what happens with everybody else who is living in
ridiculously perverted sin. They meet Jesus. His kindness leads them to repentance. That's also in
here. It says that. His kindness leads us to repentance. Being in the presence of Jesus and
his kindness begins to change the way that we begin to think. So Jesus' table always, always,
always preaches a radical message of inclusion. God's inclusion. Which means if God invites you
and he invites I to his table, then part of our responsibility as followers who have been invited
is to start inviting other people. Invite others to taste and see what is good. That's also in here.
And one of the easiest places to do that is over a meal. Even when it's inconvenient, which
oftentimes meals usually are and takes time, which we know it often does, we keep doing them.
We keep gathering around tables with family and friends and we bring our broken selves just as
we are to Wednesday evening, night dinners and Saturday breakfasts and work lunches. Why? We keep
pulling up chairs wherever with whoever live in our lives in close proximity with others, knowing
that by doing that, they might get a little bit of mess on them from our life and we might get a
little bit of mess on them on us from their life. But we do that because we, this is the Jesus way.
We do that because we keep on entering in to not stay far off, but to enter in with others because
he did it with us and he keeps on doing it. So the Pharisees are mad. Jesus knows it and this is the
awkward dinner party moment. I don't know if you've ever been guilty of gossiping or talking about
someone else and when you're like talking about them, all of a sudden they enter into the room
and look at you and you're like, Oh my gosh, do they just hear what I said? But like Jesus is sitting
down eating and I don't know how these guys got an invite. That's kind of the funny part of the story
to me actually, because it tells us that like Matthew Levi is hanging out with all of his best
buddies. He's invited all the other tax collectors of the town. So all the other tax collectors of
the town, like the most hated, disrespected people are sitting there and somehow the Pharisees get an
invite to the party. That's comical. And then they've got an invite to the party and they're
sitting on the outside being like, I can't believe that Jesus is hanging out with disciples. How can
he's doing this? And Jesus, I'm imagining like looks up and if you watch the chosen, it's kind of funny,
like watch how he ends up engaging them. They're outside looking in saying this. He hears them.
He hears what they're saying and then he begins to address it. So
if I was Jesus, I would have had different words telling you that, but on hearing this, Jesus doesn't
say, no, I'm not even going to go there. He says, it's not the healthy who need a doctor, but the
sick. Come on. I mean, no, he didn't say that. He was probably kinder. I've come not to call the
righteous, but the sinners. And this was like a well-known proverb of the day at the time. It wasn't
like a new revelation for them. They would have known this, but here Jesus is saying for those who
don't quite get that I'm the doctor. I'm the doctor and I've come for those who are sick
in their soul. I've come for those who feel far, far from God. I've come from those who know they
are sick. And for those who think they're well, that's kind of those who are sick and those who
think that they're well, he's come for the unrighteous. He's come for the self righteous.
And the story shows us that we don't have to come, that we don't have to come. It's optional, which
is kind of crazy. I think growing up, like as I become an adult, sometimes I just wish that people
would make decisions for me that I didn't have to choose things. Right? Like sometimes when we get
to crossroads in life, we're just like, and someone says, you just need to pray and ask the Lord for
his will. I was like, I don't want God to say choose. I just want him to say this. But as I
grow up, as I'm maturing in my spiritual life, I'm discovering that a lot of times as I'm growing
closer to God, he's actually giving me more and more choices. Kind of like I've got kids that are
becoming teenagers and preteens and whatnot. I don't tell them what to do all the time. I give
them freedom to make a choice. And so this is one of those moments when you're making a choice as
to whether follow Jesus or not. He's not standing behind you, twisting your arm, being like, you
better make a decision for me. If you don't make a decision for me, it's going to be the worst
decision of your life. You're like, Oh, mercy, mercy. And then he's like, great decision. No,
that's not how it goes. He gives you a choice. And for us, we could be like the Pharisees. We
could actually be bad and be like, I'm really sick, but I don't need your help. Imagine that knowing
you're sick, but then refusing the help that you need to get better. We could be like that. Or we
could be like, I'm not sick at all. What? Like, yeah, you're good and everything's together, but
like nobody stays well forever. Even people who are well still need to be better. And so the irony
of this story is that the bad guys Levi and all of his contaminated homies or friends are sitting
at the table with Jesus. What? The bad guys are reclining at the table with Jesus and the good
guys are choosing to refuse the invitation to sit with him. But still, what does that tell us about
Jesus? Everyone's welcome. The good and the bad and the bad had to make a choice and the good
have to make a choice. All we need to do is bring our need. And so to be clear about this, I don't
know if I keep saying the same thing for Jesus. Ultimately, what he's asking you is, will you let
me heal you? Will you let me heal you? Will you let me enter into your life? Levi did, but the
Pharisees said no. And so we have the same choice. Jesus comes to us and he says, I have come for
those who are sick with sin. Now imagine with me for a moment, church. The term church is also an
interesting one. Actually comes from the term ecclesia. And ecclesia means the sent out ones.
So church wasn't necessarily a place that you went. Actually, part of Jesus' work coming was to make
sure that church happened everywhere. And so it's happening right now here. But it gets to happen at
the bus stop and at your work when his sent out ones go and create connections points with Jesus
and other people. And so imagine for a moment if church, this building, was like a place that you
go for a job interview, option t nun, or a place that's more like a hospital waiting room, option t
song, option number two. So waiting room for a job interview, all right? Imagine you were coming for
a job interview today. Most people are coming for a job interview, come in and you're here to put
your best foot forward, you're dressed for success, you've got nice shoes on, whatever it is that you
can afford in that moment. And you're feeling this pressure to perform, pressure to put your best
foot forward, highlight the strengths, minimize the weaknesses, or just completely hide them.
You're in a room and the people that are around you, come on, look around, these are your competitors,
okay? They're not fellow patients like you'd find in a hospital room, they're competitors. There's
somebody that you got to beat, there's somebody that, you know, they're not people that you want
to actually help meet their needs. This is like anti-thesis to authenticity, it's anti-thesis to
vulnerability, it's anti-thesis to humility, and since these are all the kinds of things that would
be required in order to actually have an environment of community, a waiting room for a job interview
is the last place that we would hope to feel community. It's the kind of environment that's
the enemy, as I said, to all of those things. Option T-tone, over here. Now imagine this is a
hospital room filled with patients. Look at the sick people around you, come on, look at them,
yeah? Sick people around you, everyone's waiting to see a doctor, everybody's sick and has a bit of
a different need, but we know that we're all sick. Nobody's pretending not to be sick. Like you don't
go to a hospital and I'm like, I'm not sick. No, not unless like your spouse tells you, you've been
sick for a long period of time and you go and then you like try to be really like, I've got it all
together and then the doctor opens your mouth and they're like, you've had something wrong with you,
how long have you had this for? Like 16 days, they're like 16 days, true story, okay? Trying to
hide our sickness, but in this waiting room, not the case. We're not pretending to be sick, these
are other patients who need to see a doctor. There's no room for pride, there's no room for one
upmanship, or at least not here in the Canadian healthcare system where I'm from, like you want
to be the worst sick person so you can be seen first and so only in places with private and public
healthcare are things a little bit different. Okay, anyways, the point is, is that no one is pretending
that they don't need help and this kind of environment then leads to authenticity, it leads
to vulnerability, it leads to humility and this is the kind of environment that the gospel begins
to create, a hospital-like environment. That's the kind of church sent out once, people of God, that
I want to be part of. That's what we're trying to be here, the one we aim to be like because the
reality is, is you're sick, I'm sick, we're all sick and we're all in need of a doctor and sometimes
we're really well and the only way to stay well is to continue to make healthy choices and rethink
the way that we think and act and are physically. Doctors give us the skills and tools that we need
in order to maintain a healthy lifestyle, so a great synonymous metaphor for a relationship with
Jesus. And so God comes, he comes in and he rescues us through Jesus and he invites you, he invites me
in. If, we'll let him. And so that message that Jesus comes with is this, that he loves you, that
he forgives you, that he loves me, that he forgives me and this is a better message than the message
that we often hear that says, you're just fine the way that you are. Ever heard that one before?
You're just fine the way that you are. Listen, we want to affirm what's good and precious in other
people and we don't want to talk about sin sometimes because we're a little bit worried
that it's somehow going to produce shame in the other person and I think like that's fair but
let's get something straight. There is toxic shame and this is the kind of shame that minimizes your
value as an image bearer of God. This is the kind of shame that turns the worst maybe small thing
about you into the only thing about you. But then there's healthy shame, the kind of shame that can
actually be a catalyst for change and I like to call this conviction. It's conviction that causes
us to wake up to the reality of the decision we made. Healthy shame comes as a result of bad
behavior. Conviction comes as a result of things that we do. Like for example, if I cheat on my wife
I should be ashamed of that. If I steal I should feel ashamed or conviction that shouldn't be good.
If I gossip about my friends I should feel ashamed. I should feel convicted about it. Sin
naturally produces this inside of us but here's the good news. Whether it's toxic or whether it's
healthy, the gospel declares over you, over me, over all of us shame off of you not shame on you.
Do you hear me? The gospel declares over your life shame off of you not shame on you. Amen?
So it's only good news though if we're willing to admit that there was ever shame on us in the first
place. Amen? Amen. So to say shame off of you or that your sins are forgiven is actually better
than you're just fine the way that you are. No you're not. No I'm not. No you're not said
any parent to their child ever. So friends we're not fine but we're deeply loved.
We're not fine but we can be forgiven. We're not all well but God can heal us.
None of us have earned a seat at his table
but he invites us anyways. He invites you anyways. He invites me anyways and just like he did with
Levi with all prior knowledge of the very worst things that he did and with all prior knowledge
of the very worst things that I have done he knows he already knows and he invites you me we us
anyways and that's good news. So this is the story that Jesus table has always been telling both then
and now and the rich thing about this story is that it's not just a piece of history or a great
literary narrative to teach a really nice lesson it actually happened and today you're standing in a
space you're sitting in a space you're held in the emotion of a space where Jesus is sitting
of a space where Jesus reaches through history time emotion story into the heart into the mind
of people sitting all across this room right now. On three I just want you to say your name out loud
okay with me so I'm going to count to three and then you're just going to say your name out loud
okay one two three Zach he says your name and then he makes a statement come follow me
and what's cool about this is that it's alive and it's living and so though it was written
in thousands of years ago it has the ability tells us to cut through flesh bone like right to the
deepest parts of where we are and please come in any time we open this we're asked three questions
minimum what does this tell us what do we just read today what does it tell us about the person
of Jesus a lot number two what's to tell us about ourself a lot there's a lot that's asked of me
in this am I a Pharisee am I Levi am I like Jesus am I an inviter am I a gossiper am I a lover
am I kind do I require separation before responding to invitation am I all about holiness
but no acceptance asked a lot of me then asked what does it tell us about other people huh
tells us a lot about other people sometimes that's an easier question to answer but the last question
that I want to leave you with today and it's both for you me individual but it goes beyond us then
whenever we open this scripture asks us who needs to hear this and so maybe there's somebody you're
like that was really good know that made the decision to respond to the invitation already
thanks yep should probably should have missed that Sunday no who have you shared that story with
who needs to hear it and so we're going to pray and then we're going to be bold because there's
some people who need to ask the question of their own heart maybe throughout today or even before
he came in here you knew like I have been being invited by the kindness of Jesus into relationship
with him and today's the day that you make a decision to say yes to continue following him
into that process of growth and development in him becoming all that that you can become in him
all that he's created you to be maybe you're like got it but you got to be somebody who remembers
that the invitation to your life didn't stop with you that he's invited you to invite other people
into that and that's what you got to step into over the next couple days the next couple weeks
being an invited person who invites other people so all of us have a choice to respond today
so ask you guys with me to close your eyes I want to pray for you and I want to begin
with the question is there anybody in this space who hears who feels the burning in their heart
that Jesus is calling to them by name saying come and follow me and you want to take a step
today to begin to follow him I just invite you to put your hand up is there anybody here who
feels like Jesus is saying come follow me the second question I want to ask you and again I
ask you to raise your hands because sometimes obedience in our own heart needs to be expressed
in a physical action is there anybody who feels in their heart today that Jesus is saying I need
you to become somebody who invites other people and shares the story with someone if you feel like
he's saying to you it's time for you to share this story with someone else I just want you to
raise your hand and I want to pray with you and join you in that as well and so Lord thank you
that you hear that you see and that you know not just those who raise their hands Lord but every
person in this room you've invited them into relationship with you and I pray that through a
reading of your word today that there would be a deeper understanding towards who you are
and to what it is that you've called those who are saying yes who are saying yes to relationship
with you and to to forgiveness of sin to new life in you and Lord to those who have said I feel
called into being a person of invitation that's a part of my life but I've just laughed I've kept
the invitation to myself I need to open it up Lord I pray for courage and boldness in those people
this week in the year ahead we're at the beginning of January to be people who courageously invite
others into the story of hope and life transformation only found in the person of Jesus
so thank you that you speak I pray that you would help our hearts and our physical ears if that's
what's needed God to hear you thank you for your word amen thank you for tuning in to the
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God bless you