Get Out of the Cage & Walk With the Wise

Getting Out of the Cage :: Now What?

BIG IDEA: Following Christ takes radical trust and the ability to turn from sin and go the other way. How do we say no to sin and yes to Jesus and keep going?

MAIN TEXT: Mark 2:13-17 (NLT)

13 Then Jesus went out to the lakeshore again and taught the crowds that were coming to him. 14 As he walked along, he saw Levi son of Alphaeus sitting at his tax collector’s booth. “Follow me and be my disciple,” Jesus said to him. So Levi got up and followed him.

15 Later, Levi invited Jesus and his disciples to his home as dinner guests, along with many tax collectors and other disreputable sinners. (There were many people of this kind among Jesus’ followers.) 16 But when the teachers of religious law who were Pharisees saw him eating with tax collectors and other sinners, they asked his disciples, “Why does he eat with such scum?”

17 When Jesus heard this, he told them, “Healthy people don’t need a doctor—sick people do. I have come to call not those who think they are righteous, but those who know they are sinners.”

Jr High Mar

LEVI - Tax Collector

Likely tax collectors felt guilt and shame and loneliness like us when caught in sin

READ MARK 2 Passage

LEVI left his “cage” in the tax collector booth

Leaving old patterns behind never returning to them

everything in his life changed

how he spent his time

where he went

what he did

and how he was know

in the middle of the crowd Jesus noticed him

a hated and rejected man

extending him friendship despite his brokenness

JESUS WAS IRRISISTIBLE

even if his job as a tax collector was safe and powerful and gave him things

gave up for Jesus

WHY WAS HE WORTH IT???

LEVI “repented” - Turned the other way toward Jesus

Matthew 4:17 (NLT) 17 From then on Jesus began to preach, “Repent of your sins and turn to God, for the Kingdom of Heaven is near.”

Following Jesus means REPENTANCE

Turning from our sin and dedicating ourselves to GOD

not just ADDING to our lives we already have, but starting over WITH Him

WHY WAS HE WORTH IT???

God’s love is far better than anything we leave behind that is only momentary

Like abandoning the booth - LEVI

We will need to leave behind the places and things from our old lives

places, people, activities, apps, entertainment, technology...

Many must have noticed the change in Livi

Questioned it

tempted him

You will be too

NEW MAR in High School

ASK GOD FOR THE STRENGTH AND PEOPLE AND PLACES to help stay out of the “cage”

PEOPLE!!!!

LEVI KNEW he needed to immediately surround himself with Jesus and the disciples

He wanted to be like Jesus and them

Mark 2:15 (NLT) Later, Levi invited Jesus and his disciples to his home as dinner guests, along with many tax collectors and other disreputable sinners. (There were many people of this kind among Jesus’ followers.)

He began spending more time with Jesus and Christ-centered friends

to keep from being tempted back

wanted to remain changed

ACTIVELY invited them over and into his life

Proverbs 13:20 “Walk with the wise and become wise, for a companion of fools suffers harm.”

Like it or not, YOUR FRINDS WILL SHAPE YOUR FUTURE

“SHOW ME YOUR FRIENDS AND I WILL SHOW YOU YOUR FUTURE”

Pursuing acceptance and approval form others is trouble

Keeping parts of your life hidden from wise, godly people prevents them from actually helping and walking WITH you

MAKE CHANGES TO YOUR FRIEND GROUP in order to stay out of the cage of your old life and in your new life with Jesus

Surround yourself with Christ minded and centered people

Join a small group

say NO to people and activities that get you in trouble

DELETE apps and chats that are not good for you!

find other Christians at your school

5 closest people in your life you become like

WHY IS THIS ALL IMPORTANT

Ephesians 4:22-24 “You were taught, with regard to your former way of life, to put off your old self, which is being corrupted by its deceitful desires; to be made new in the attitude of your minds; and to put on the new self, created to be like God in true righteousness and holiness.”

GOSPEL TURN

John 15:13 “Greater love has no one than this: to lay down one’s life for one’s friends.”

JESUS is the ultimate friend

JESUS laid His life down for us, his FRIENDS

John 1:12 “Yet to all who did receive him, to those who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God—”

Revelation 3:20 “Here I am! I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will come in and eat with that person, and they with me.”