We All Start Somewhere

Intro

Hey Guys, if you haven’t met me or my wife yet, I’m Tim. I’ve been here for a a few months now and I’m excited to tuck into our new series called “Level Up”. So, if you can, get ready with your paper bible or your smartphone app, we are going to be in 2 spots in scripture today. We are going to be in Philippians 1:6 as well as in Mark chapter 2. Before we get started today I want to pray that God will allow us to hone on on what he has for us thing morning and that God will allow me to say what it is He wants me to.

Prayer

“Lord, I pray that you would be with us in this room this morning. God please allow us to have hearts to hear your voice! Teach us from your word, give me words to speak and give us soft hearts to listen to your word. Amen.

We have been conditioned to “Level Up”

From the moment you are born, everything around you is geared towards leveling up. When you are born you are all cute and mushy, then you level up to a two year old poised to wreak destruction on the world. When you enter school you start in k5 - I grew up calling it “Prep” and you “Level Up” to grade 1, from eating paste to eating crayons and wondering why the scissors the teacher gave you cut paper but not fingers. You buy a game, you start out bad at the game and a few hours and quite a few dollars of your parents money you have a crazy amount of armor and you get the picture. We are told, by everything around us that where we are today is not where we should be. But the idea of “Leveling Up” isn’t new. Let’s read our passage today.

Philippians 1:6 ESV

And I am sure of this, that he who began a good work in you will bring it to completion at the day of Jesus Christ.

This passage, in the book of Philippians was written by a guy, inspired by God himself, but penned by a man named Paul. Paul is a hero of the faith, and someone that we are going to be talking about a lot over the next few weeks. But Paul is writing a letter to the church at Philippi to encourage them in their faith and to instruct them in the ways of God. Right in the beginning of that letter, Paul says something to them that is the underpinning of our whole series. “… He who started a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus” .

What he is saying here is that once you accept Christ, something amazing happens. Jesus, via the Holy Spirit living inside you, begins to change you from the inside out! Jesus begins to make you more and more like him and less and less like your sinful self. This changing is called “sanctification”. The proper definition of sanctification is “The process of making something holy”.

That’s what Paul is talking about here in Verse 6. He is basically saying. I’m sure of this: The Holy Spirit inside of you, is working daily to make you more Holy, and when Jesus comes back to end sin once and for all the process will be complete!

“Sanctification” is a spiritual “Leveling Up”

Sanctification, or becoming more sanctified is literally becoming closer to Jesus, and running away from the way that you were and the sin that used to grip you. Every person in this room that has accepted Jesus as Lord in their life is at some point in their sanctification process. Much like everything else in life. The process for me to become more like Christ is going to look a lot different from you to Liz to Julia to Cassi to Trevor to You and You.

Before I go any farther, I want to make sure that we have some truth established. There are things that I want to make sure we all know beyond a shadow of a doubt.

1. Sanctification is a “Holy Spirit Process”

Sanctification is a “Holy Spirit Process, not a me process. “He who started” not “you who started”. When we walk through this series it will be easy to be lured into the idea that if we do a few things differentially or better or more often, we will automatically be able to become closer to the Lord and become “better quickly”. Here is the deal, throughout this series we are going to be looking at biblical characters, what they did wrong and what they did right to try and give us a template on how we should operate. Please know that there is no magic bullet. Your relationship with God will look a bit different than anyone else. The thing is, God isn’t a robot where you push the right buttons and He dispenses a blessing. God is a real being in-fact, the bible says in Genesis that we were made in His image, all our emotions and complexity as people come from him. Just like my relationship with liz looks different than your relationship with her. Your relationship with God will and should be different!

2. “It’s not Working”

“Tim, I’m reading my bible and praying and it’s not working” Please - don’t say this to me at all. Because it’s not true! If you are praying and reading daily, something is happening. At the end of the day, reading God’s word is a command, as is praying. So at the very least, you are doing what God has asked you to do. Here is the deal: Jeremiah 17:9 says “The heart is deceitful above all things, desperately wicked, who can understand it”.

If you aren’t “feeling it” know that you are in great company. There is a hero of the faith called David and he often wasn’t feeling it. But Philippians 4:8 says this:

Philippians 4:8 ESV

Finally, brothers, whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is commendable, if there is any excellence, if there is anything worthy of praise, think about these things.

If you are struggling with your relationship with Christ, talk to one of us about it. We would love to point you to truth in scripture because the fact of the matter is that you aren’t going to “feel it” all the time. There are going to be seasons in your life that you are going to have to “trust it” because it’s in scripture and it’s the truth.

3. It’s a process!

There is this term that floats around the Philly Sports Market. It’s been dubbed “the process”.

Basically, the 76ers were laughable. I know a youth pastor that used to get $1 tickets to see the 6ers play. So the team obviously wasn’t happy with that so they began “The Process” like 5 or 6 years ago. They basically started rebuilding a team that wasn’t trash. It took years for them to begin to see results, and some would argue that they aren’t there yet. For us, a year feels like a WHOLE YEAR. But we have to remember that God is outside time, so to him a year is fleeting. No issue. So you becoming closer and closer to God is a lifetime “process”.

Paul even warns of this!

Completion happens when? At the Day of Christ! Jesus’ return!

We’ve been conditioned to see instant results, that’s not how this works. We are going to be on this journey for a long time.

4. It’ll take honesty.

Part of the “Leveling Up” process for anyone is being honest with where they are. If you told me that you wanted to be better at speaking, I wouldn’t just assume you were ready to preach and throw you up here. If you wanted to lead worship on Sunday Morning, Mark wouldn’t just say “sure” and chuck you a mic. No! We would ask good questions to determine your level of readiness and develop a plan for you.

You can’t get better, or closer to the Lord without being honest about where you are. There is no shame here. We are all different and that’s okay. Let’s just all be honest where we are so that we can continue our sanctification journey.

The Bible doesn't have a verse or a passage that lays out a “scale of sanctification” or a “Grade of Closeness”. So that being said, I have had a look at a few different characters in the bible and compared them to what we in the 21st century would see on a scale of 1-10+. No one can be perfect right? So 10+ is for those of us who are topping the scale and growing everyday.

Today, I want to discuss the 0-1 group of people.

When thinking about who these people are, I would assume that they have either decided to reject Christ, God and the teachings of the bible (0) or they haven’t made the decision to reject the bible, but they don’t really care either. They are just out here, in these streets, living their best life.

That brings us to our story today, the story of the calling of Matthew. Let’s read

Mark 2:13–17 ESV

He went out again beside the sea, and all the crowd was coming to him, and he was teaching them. And as he passed by, he saw Levi the son of Alphaeus sitting at the tax booth, and he said to him, “Follow me.” And he rose and followed him. And as he reclined at table in his house, many tax collectors and sinners were reclining with Jesus and his disciples, for there were many who followed him. And the scribes of the Pharisees, when they saw that he was eating with sinners and tax collectors, said to his disciples, “Why does he eat with tax collectors and sinners?” And when Jesus heard it, he said to them, “Those who are well have no need of a physician, but those who are sick. I came not to call the righteous, but sinners.”

Unpack

What you have here is a dude named Levi-Matthew chilling, out here, in the streets doing his thing.

The bible says that he was at the tax booth. That’s because Matthew was a tax collector.

I’ll never forget the first time we went to the toy store when we got back to America. My brother knew that he had $20. So he went stalking the isles looking for the best toy $20 could buy. He of course found it, it was $19.99 and he was like 8 so I’m sure it was a crappy toy, but he took that thing to the register and proudly plopped that thing on the counter. The person rung him up and declared to this young boy, beaming with excitement, “That’ll be $20.80!”. My brother had made a fatal error, he forgot that the Great Empire State wanted 4%! Sales tax is added AFTER the purchase in America. Back in Aus, they add it on the price tag. My brother was broken, he was not to play with the toy he selected! The state wins again! Except it was like 80 cents so my mum covered for him...

But the story is this, no one likes taxes. Back in the day, they really didn’t like them, and to make matters worse, it was common knowledge that the tax man in those times would cheat. Everyone had to pay taxes, and the tax collector knew this, and would often add a little to the top saying it was going to Cesar, but it was just going into his pocket.

The bible doesn’t say anything about his former life, or what he was thinking. Just that he was going through the motions, and we can infer because of what we know about Tax collectors, that those motions were a bit ordinary, a bit shady.

We then know that Jesus asked him to “follow me”

Levi-Matthew then follows, and has a meal with Jesus and the disciples. So now we have a Holy Man, Jesus, eating with literally the worst people ever. To put it into todays terms, Jesus is having a meal with a bunch of high class drug dealers.

Here is something interesting as well, Jesus is then challenged by the religious leaders of the time. They ask him “why are you chilling with these thugs?” Jesus’ response is incredible.

“Those who are well have no need of a physician, but those who are sick. I came not to call the righteous, but sinners.”

Jesus said, I’m not here for those who have it all together. I’m here for those of us who need healing, and guidance!

I would say that this man, described in this passage was likely a 1. He didn’t decide that God was not for him, but he wasn’t doing anything about it either. Jesus said “come here” and he went. He then had his heart softened by the Lord, so much so that he introduced Jesus to his friends!

I just want to make a few points here as we wrap up today.

Jesus’ message was simple “Follow Me”

Jesus didn’t have a complicated 10 step program for being a better person. Jesus didn’t try to sell a product or a life style. Just “follow me”. We as humans will try and complicate the process, because it’s what we are good at. Further, the enemy Satan will lie, cheat and steal to have you wander from Jesus or miss the mark. He’ll do that by complicating things. But the reality is that it’s just “Follow Me”.

Matthew’s Action was Decisive

Matthew didn’t stop and ask questions or hem and haw or tell Jesus I’ll wait till tomorrow. He just went. Remember how I said that we were all different? Well you might be different, you may still have some questions. Well, Jesus is big enough for all your questions, and me and the other leaders here will do our best to answer them for you and point you to scripture. But when Matthew had heard enough, we went for it. He actually followed. Matthew was maybe a 1 in his spiritual health/walk but to get to that next level he knew he had to do something decisive so he did. He followed.

Matthew was ready to hear

Matthew was sitting at that booth, but I would venture a guess to the fact that he was ready to hear something. When we put our head down and just “do life” life has a way of numbing us and causing us to ask the question - “is this all there is?”. That’s because you were made with a God shaped hole in your heart. Humans naturally need “something” and have been looking for it for since forever. We’ve tried food, money, drugs, stuff, people, kingdoms, religions, crazy religions. etc for as long as forever and the only thing that has been found to truly satisfy is the saving knowledge of Jesus Christ.

Matthew was ready and open to hear that message. Are you?

Here is the thing. There is someone else in the bible that I want to talk about for 20 seconds. His name is Pharaoh. Pharaoh I would say was a 0. He made an active decision to reject God. God showed him many signs and wonders and Pharaoh was Nahp! I don’t need it!. The bible goes on to say that Pharaoh went on to have a hard heart and that ultimately cost him dearly. If you are in the room and you feel like you just don’t believe any of this. That’s okay, I get it. It can seem a bit fantastical and a bit campy. There are also lots of questions about, well, everything. But I want to encourage you. Your teachers and the people around you including us, would never want you to make a decision without having all the facts. So if you’d say you’re not at all interested and you’d maybe describe yourself as atheist or maybe a disinterested agnostic. Or even Buddist, or Pagen or any of the other religions. Do me a favor, lets together go on a fact finding mission! Let’s put effort this school year in to learning as much as we can about the God of the bible, so that if you’re a “fill in the blank” you can stand on that decision with confidence! Don’t have a hard heart. It wasn’t good for Pharaoh, he lost his first born son. Go on a fact finding mission. Discover what we here at Point Harbor Believe.

If you feel like you could relate to Levi-Matthew here. You’re doing your thing but you don’t have much direction, and you know you need “something”. I have good news for you. Jesus sees you and loves you. Jesus wants to know you. John 3:16 says that God loves you so much that he sent Jesus to die for you and your sins. You can, like Matthew, answer the call and accept Jesus. If you would like to accept that call, you can do that today. We would love to walk through that with you! If you want to accept Jesus today and “Follow Him” Please bring that up in small group, or talk to your small group leader after group is over. We would LOVE to talk to you about it.”

Let’s Pray