Pastor Michael Kelly..."More Than Directions"

I heard we're in a series what's it called everybody jesus said jesus said so when as soon as jesus said so pretty much what they said is I can preach it on anything that has red letters in the Bible and so that's what we're gonna go ahead and do so if you do have your Bible I'd love for you to turn to Matthew chapter 9 if you've got your Bibles let's look at Matthew chapter 9 and I want to just be challenged from the Word of God with just a very very simple text in the Bible something that Jesus did say and we'll see how that goes so Matthew chapter 9 and we want to start at verse 9 and that's really where I want to spend my time so what you have it can you say I got it here's what the Bible says as Jesus went on from there he saw a man called Matthew what was his name Matthew sitting in the tax collectors booth and he said to him what'd he say follow me and then here's one of my favorite parts of this story and the Bible says he got up and what'd he do and he followed him so with your prayers and God's help I really want to preach under the subject more than directions I want to talk to you about more than directions let's go ahead and pray father in heaven we are just honored and tickled that you have seen fit to wake us up this morning and to allow us to get past the fog or dangerous highways and byways and bring us to this place which means God that there is something that you have in store for us here today so god we know that the devil tried to prevent this moment from taking place but greater is He that is within us than he that is within the world and so father we just submit ourselves in the next few moments to you that whatever worries and concerns that we have in our lives will just be alleviated so that we can focus on the Word of God so this is our prayer in Jesus name then everybody say Amen and amen y'all be still as we get to know each other one thing you'll know about me is I'm horrible with directions I get lost you know all the time it doesn't matter where I mean I still need directions to get home some from church that's how bad it is for me GPS on the way up here even though I've been up here several times I'm GPS in it all the way and so you can imagine I don't know what we did during that time or you can imagine what I had to do when there was no GPS y'all any I'll remember the time when there was no GPS yeah this is some of you I'm looking at y'all like what would that be like right but but we would do something really interesting we would do something crazy we would take a piece of paper and we would actually write out the directions on the piece of paper now that was cool but but but for me again for someone who's bad at directions that wouldn't work particularly the way that some of the people would write out the directions they would say okay go about 1.3 miles and then exit southeast now that's I'm sorry I don't understand what is South East you know I'm ghetto directions I'm like you know go a couple blocks in and make a left at the liquor store like that's you know that's kind of a you know how I was so I would get the directions and I would still end up being lost sometimes because I couldn't understand the way to somebody wrote the directions other times because people's directions weren't exactly clear other times because when you have these directions you they have someone talking to you but you had to actually sit there and look at them and then look up and see exactly where it was that you were going and so even though I had directions there are a lot of times that I would still end up being lost because the directions weren't always clear they didn't always make sense and as we're in this series this idea of Jesus said if we really look at this thing called Christianity right we are not here because we're simply wanting to listen to good music we're not here because we want good preaching but we're actually here because we're crazy enough to believe that there is a destination called heaven that we're all trying to get to right like hopefully I hope y'all try and get there right because I don't know about you but I'm sick and tired of cancer and I'm sick and tired of of death and school shootings and all that kind of stuff and we believe that one day we're gonna go to this place called heaven and we're not gonna have to deal with all of that but here is what we also believe as but people trying to be Christians we believe that God has given us some directions right to make it to this place called heaven and here's what we believe that if we could just understand the directions if we could just get everything that's being said inside of this book we'll be able to get to our destination right and so we believe called heaven but if we're honest with ourselves I will be honest with the Word of God today the directions are confusing let's be real you have God I in order for me to preach the directions they had to teach me Greek and Hebrew written in a different language sometimes the directions are so confusing the thees and the thous and the arts and all that different kind of stuff sometimes the directions are so confusing you actually need a pastor to help you understand the directions more so and then there's not just one version of directions it's not like the King James Version then you've got the new International Standard Version of the directions and the new American Standard Version of directions and the NASB and the all different kinds of versions and by the time that you're finished reading all of these directions sometimes people are more confused and more lost than when they ended up starting that's why people question the Word of God don't they they look at it to see there's this thing really relevant does this thing really make sense to my life and and if we're real it is so interesting because some of this stuff that you reading here you wonder can you actually really do cuz it's tough and the directions are hard and there are some of us who have had directions for a good portion of our lives or maybe just started to get them and we found out that they are extremely confusing and they're difficult and so one of the things that my friends would do is they wouldn't just sit there and say yo here's some directions write them down and them having me having to follow the directions and try and get to where I was going but my friends would do something different they would write something down but then they would look at me they said I might follow me is this our give you directions but here's I want you to follow me when I make a left you make a left when I make a right you make a right when I move you move just like that right that's they said to do and so that they understood something very clearly that while I gave Michael the directions I also wanted to give him some body that they could follow y'all gonna get that in just a minute while I just gave him directions I wanted to give them somebody that he could follow and so what I want to let you know that I love about our God is he says you know what I'm not just gonna send people a bunch of directions but I'm gonna give them a person named Jesus Christ that they can follow and so it's not gonna be just a bunch of rules that they look at inside of an amazing book that has incredible directions but no they're gonna have a personal walk with Jesus Christ and if they understand what it means to walk with my son even though they've got this directions they're also gonna have Jesus does that make sense everybody and so what God wants to be able to do with this idea in this thing called Christianity is God says I don't need you to simply sit up only under preachers and I don't simply only need you to sit here and follow rules in a book I need you to have a relationship with a person called Jesus Christ and here's a reason why because this is an amazing quote and listen what it says here it says you seek to be godly that means we want to be godly we want to be godly people by submitting yourself to external rules and regulations and by conforming to behavior patterns imposed upon you by the particular Christian society that you have chosen and in which you hope to be found acceptable in other words what this author is saying is hey look you are part of a Christian society you look at the different rules of that society different places they say you need to do this so you need to do that and in order to be acceptable I'm gonna do this I'm gonna wear this I might not drink this I'm gonna do this or do that but here's what he says you will in this way perpetuate the pagan habit a practicing religion in the energy of the flesh and in the very pursuit of righteousness commit idolatry in honoring Christianity more than Christ see here's my problem with the church and here is the people who are not yet in here their problem with the church we know a lot about the Bible but we don't know a lot about Jesus and it's evident in a lot of the way that some of us notice I didn't say you but some of us live our lives because if we truly were following Jesus then our relationships would be different wouldn't they if we were truly following Jesus and the way we treat other people would be different if we truly following Jesus than the way that we dealt with each other with our problems and forgiveness would be different but our issue is we know how to follow rules but we don't know how to follow Jesus and what Jesus is inviting us to is something a little different Jesus isn't inviting us to simply follow rules in a book but Jesus is inviting us into a relationship that is gonna do something to our lives and that makes sense to me you say Amen so what my friends would do is it would say Mike you know do me a favor I want you to just follow me but I told you I'm bad at directions so the same thing would happen I'd have the directions in my hand and I would have someone to follow but I still end up getting lost and so I remember one time I was following my boy he wasn't driving too fast or anything I just was Laurita here trying to look up reading here trying to look up ended up losing him so what I did is I just pulled over to the side of the road I didn't try and get there on my own and so I sat there and I said you know I spike I'll be about 15 30 minutes before this dude comes back and recognizes I'm not behind him two minutes later he shows up pulls up next to me rolls down the window says Mike come on follow me and I was like dude I said how did you get to me so fast he said well Mike that's pretty easy he said the entire time I had my eyes on you in the rear view mirror and so the moment that you made the first wrong turn I stopped to look to you turn it was there to pick you back up and he said you know I'm like I'm glad that you didn't do I'm glad that you didn't try and figure it out by yourself I'm glad you just sat there and waited for me to come pick you up so you could follow me again and here's the thing that I love about Jesus when it comes to this idea of following him there's gonna be a lot of times where you're gonna have the directions you might even be walking with Jesus but in your life you are gonna make mistakes and God says don't try and fix it on your own just pull over in your brokenness pull over in your mess just know I'm about to hook a u-turn and what I love about our God is he doesn't roll down the window and say you had the directions you were following me how did you still get lost Jesus and says I don't care how you got there I just want to make sure that you follow me and you're gonna keep on following and that's why it's important to follow Jesus you see your zonemail helping us understand directions can't help you when you can't follow them properly but only a relationship can and so what Jesus is calling us to is a deep intimate relationship with him and that's where I only want to talk to us about because there's this incredible story here in the Bible and it's there's actually a true story it's it's it's amazing where where Jesus rolls up to the tax collectors booth at this point Jesus is looking for his disciples and it's amazing what Jesus is doing he passes all the the seminaries he doesn't call the elders he doesn't call the righteous doesn't call these holy people but what Jesus does is he goes to the tax collectors booth now some of us are like a tax collector we've heard that there's some bad people now these are some real trifling people I mean these are the individuals who what they would do is they would bid on money to see what the Romans rather would bid on money to where they could go to a particular area and collect taxes and so then what they would do is they would go to an individual who lived in that particular area who was amongst the people and would hire them to collect taxes amongst their own people and so what Matthew really was is he was more than just a tax collector but he was really a sellout because he was over taxing his own people and so he's going to the doors and he's living in the better houses than his own people and so nobody at all like math he was a liar he was a cheat and so Jesus Christ this blows my mind rolls up to a dude just like that and it says at the tax booth which means Matthew was in the very act of sinning no change had taken place in his life and Jesus looks at him and says follow me and the Bible says that Matthew when he hears Jesus say this when Jesus says follow me the Bible says that Matthew doesn't debate but he gets up and follows Jesus now here's what's interesting about what Jesus doesn't do Jesus doesn't look at Matthew and say hold up dude I didn't know that you were really gonna be serious CEO before you can really follow me you gotta get this tax collecting thing taken care of you gotta stop your tax collecting and get your life in order a little bit and then you could go ahead and follow me no no Jesus says no man it's all good follow me because here is a difference between Jesus and the religion of his day bitchen says change and then you can join us Jesus says join us and I'll change you and that's why following Jesus becomes so incredibly important because what Jesus calls us to you it says where you are and how you are that's just how I want you and so God is not waiting for us to get our stuff together before we begin this intimate deep relationship with Jesus he's not waiting for you to stop drinking he's not waiting for you to leave the club he's not waiting for you to stop having sex Jesus says come with me now and through the process of our relationship your life will change and so here is the thing that we've got to understand that being in an intimate relationship with Jesus and staying the same is impossible because a relationship with Jesus Christ changes you through the process of relationship are y'all following me you see the reason that we you see people who can go in and out of church and read the Bible and be people quote-unquote of the word and have nothing happen in their lives is because change Jesus understands happens as we are following him in an intimate relationship with Jesus Christ and so if you're wondering why haven't I got victory over this thing yet why isn't this thing happened here in my life it could be because you're not following Jesus so I want to talk to you a lot of what that comes with this idea of following Jesus because I think some of us have missed that so I want to go through three main points and there have little sub points with it just really simple today just really simple today Jesus said follow me and that's what we're called to do is follow him point number one being a sinner does not disqualify you it's a prerequisite being a sinner does not disqualify you from following Jesus it is a prerequisite number one Jesus only invited sinners to follow him he invited them before they got better and I love this or even committed to do so you see there are some people that are in this place in their lives and they're not even sure if they want to do better you might not even be sure if you want to be better and Jesus says that's okay even if you don't have a commitment to be better he says I still want you to follow me even if you don't know if you want to change if you want to be different I still want you to vomit follow me he invites people who know they are not all that they ought to be and not sure they are willing to be he invites people who know something's wrong but aren't sure what to do about it and remember Jesus offers invitation to follow him even before there was a relationship it's know that some people are like no no my life needs to get better it needs to get in order and Jesus like no it doesn't I'm gonna get you in order and the only way I can get you an order is if where you are right now in your life you just make one commitment I don't need six I don't need seven I need one commitment and that is for you to truly follow me that's all I need that's all I need the second thing that we understand about Jesus Christ is the invitation to follow is an invitation to relationship it's an invitation to what everybody relationship Jesus went home with Matthew to fellowship before Matthew made any changes and here's what blows my mind the changes that Christ wants to take place in your life life will only take place in the context of a relationship now why that's Biggs I remember when I first got married and you know I was a bachelor clearly before then and you know I used to hang out with my boys I remember I was in seminary getting my my master and we would still hang out where I went to college to get my masters it was a town with one stoplight so it wasn't a whole lot you could do but you know I had my own apartment so I just wanted to be grown right it's not hang out two o'clock no more just hanging out my boys who would ever I got married and you know wife was at home one night and I was out with my buddies I said you know do what always you come back at two o'clock in the morning and so you know I'm married now so there's certain things married folk can do so you know I came back at two o'clock in the morning and you know she seemed to be a little awake and so I cuddled up close to her but she did not want any part of me that night and she looked at me and she said have you lost your mind I said what do we have on lost my mind she says you gonna come in here at two o'clock in the morning and think that everything's all right she's all what do you think that you sure not matter what are you talking about I said it's fine she said no it's not okay for you to come home and two o'clock in the morning on it just a regular night I was like she told me like my mom write that on a school night right I said I and something was this like I was just like often that thing there I mean it was different now do you think I came home at two o'clock in the morning ever again no I never did that but let me tell you what she also didn't do she didn't give me a curfew she didn't write down what time I needed to be home as a matter of fact she didn't even ask me to change my behavior here's what took place I saw what my behavior did to that relationship and because the relationship was important to me I changed my behavior are y'all following me and see here is a thing that I think is missing with us when it comes to this idea of Jesus and why this idea of having a relationship with Christ and so important because when you're in a relationship you can see how your behavior affects the person you supposedly love here's the thing that gets me just about us if we're truly in this loving relationship with Jesus then I actually don't need rules to govern my behavior my relationship governs my behavior which is why first Timothy says that the law is for an unrighteous person because the righteous person says this God you don't need to give me ten rules but I am walking so closely with you that when my behavior starts to affect the relationship we have I'm so bothered and upset by that that I no longer want to do that behavior and because I know I can't do it on my own I go to you and say god I cannot stand how this is affecting us I can't stand the fact that that god when I'm out here and I'm with these individuals that I'm not the person that I know you called me to be and I can see that when you're looking at me god then it hurts you and it breaks your heart and because I don't want your heart broken and there's only one reason I don't want your heart broken because I'm in love with you I'm in a relationship with you and so God by the grace and power of your Holy Spirit can you help me stop hurting you but you see we can't have that without a relationship and that's why the we can continue this is why we can continue and some of the stuff that we continue in because we don't have that deep intimate connection with Jesus Christ where when this stuff is going on in our lives we don't see how it hurts the one we're supposed to be in love with and this is why Jesus says I need you to follow me he's looking like a Pharisees rules I told them a bunch of stuff and they found their little loopholes around it you know if my wife had given me a curfew I would have found a way to kind of get right up to that line and and see how close I could get without technically breaking the rule but there was a spirit there there was a principle there that if I love her there's certain things I do and don't want to do and that's why Jesus says you won't get that by simply coming to church you don't get that by simply listening to a sermon he's all you get that went on Monday and Tuesday and Wednesday and Thursday and Friday and Saturday you're following me you're spending intimate time with me and we become connected in such a way that what breaks my heart now begins to break yours and now where I'm getting to the point in my life you and I'm not there yet I start to view my behavior and I ask myself this question if I do this how will that affect us and I wonder how many things during your week would be different if before you got involved in it before you maybe turned it on before you went with it before you got in it if you ask the question Jesus if I roll this way how's that going to affect us Jesus understands change only happens in the context of a relationship and that makes sense me to say Amen then finally here's what I like when I'm following Jesus it forces me to focus on where I am rather than where you are not I want to say that again following Jesus forces me to focus on where I am rather than where you are not the more conscious I am of the work that God has yet to do in me the less critical I am of what he has yet to do in you as long as I'm focused on where Jesus is leading me I have little time to judge people regarding where Jesus hasn't led them you see that's one of the issues sometimes in our lives is that we have a lot of time and energy to look at where other people are don't we it's kinda see how they're you know what are you doing well you know how can you say this to me because you know you got this going on and and I even look at some of these individuals that go and they're picketing in the name of Jesus and calling out people for their stuff and all that and that's a clear sign that they're not following Jesus because let me tell you something that's amazing when you follow Jesus it's amazing and it's absolutely scary the closer you are to Jesus the more messed up you see you are that's real talk see it's the opposite see some people think oh the closer I am to Jesus you know I understand the holier I am and all that no no the closer you get to absolute perfection the more imperfect you see that you actually are and when I recognize how far I have to go I'm more cognizant of having more grace with where you are in your walk as a matter of fact I'm gonna tell you where I am I am so clear on the issues that God has revealed to me in my life I ain't got time to worry about y'all's issues I don't have time to worry about who you sleeping with and where are you going out and what you got going on and where you and how you did this in church but how you do this outdoors I don't have time for that because God has got to work in me Psalms 139 search me O God and see if there is any wicked way in me and then lead me in the path of righteousness and so when I'm truly following God I'm aware of where I am I'm aware of what my issues are why because God is constantly through our relationship saying Michael I'm seeing this in you I'm seeing this in your character and here's how we want to fix it and so if I see that in my character I don't have time to point out the flaws in yours and so I can't say well since you've gone here yet shouldn't your journey lead you here yet no no I can't do that because I'm like I've got my journey and I've got my walk and I'm following Jesus and I wish you would follow him too and as you grow God is gonna work on one area in your life that might not be the same he's working on mine but here's the common thread that we have as long as he's working somebody ought to say Amen you see when you take your eyes off of how far you have to go you will begin focusing on how much further you've come than those around you I want to say that again when you take your eyes off of how far you have to go you will begin focusing on how much further you've come than those around you when you're in follow mode you are so aware of what you have yet to become that I see very little difference between me and those who may be behind me you see that that's the thing that's amazing about following Jesus when we're in that place all ground is level at the foot of the cross we don't have this comparing me to you and all that kind of stuff no we're just comparing ourselves to Jesus and when we compare ourselves to Jesus we always all fall short so Jesus has a simple invitation as invitation for a deep intimate personal relationship with him because he says that's what it's like to follow me and so here's my question I want to leave you guys with Jesus said follow me are you like Matthew and when that invitation has come have you just let go what you're doing and say God let's go do this but I found it's the reverse there are too many of us that don't follow Jesus but we asked Jesus to follow us and we say God you know I want to go do this and Jesus I want to go do that so why don't you come with me and make sure I'm okay but that's not what Jesus is calling us to Jesus said very simply follow me and the question you have to ask yourself this morning is will you follow Jesus I didn't say will you come to church I didn't say will you sing in the praise scene will you listen to a sermon I said will you follow Jesus because following Jesus is a day by day hour by hour moment by moment walk with this guy who is so in love with you that he was willing to risk heaven so you can have it and that God is saying you know what every day of your life I just want to be in it we mean God you want to help me pick out your clothes yes I want to be with you I want to be in every fabric of your being because Jesus says I just love you so much that I want to be I want to be with you and I want you to get to this place Jesus says where you love me that much that wherever I'm going you're willing to follow and if that means like math you have to leave behind a fortune if it means you got to leave behind some friends if it means you got to leave behind some stuff you're like you know what it's worth it because there's something about this person Jesus and so my invitation for somebody today as your heads are bowed from a moment your eyes are closed you've been doing Church get that you've been doing Church but you haven't followed Jesus yet like you come here and that's great and that's awesome and I applaud the fact that God has brought you into this place but I think God through this series and I know there's been some other things is calling you to something a little bit deeper and he's come by your tax booth he's come by your Club he's coming by your bed he's come by wherever you are and he said you know what [Music]

Channel: Life Church

Views: 6,906

Rating: 4.8461537 out of 5

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Id: fxdQkz6M1vE

Length: 29min 9sec (1749 seconds)

Published: Mon May 21 2018