Leaving Things behind and letting them go to become what he calls us to be
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Matthew 4:18–22 (NKJV)
18 And Jesus, walking by the Sea of Galilee, saw two brothers, Simon called Peter, and Andrew his brother, casting a net into the sea; for they were fishermen.
19 Then He said to them, “Follow Me, and I will make you fishers of men.”
20 They immediately left their nets and followed Him.
21 Going on from there, He saw two other brothers, James the son of Zebedee, and John his brother, in the boat with Zebedee their father, mending their nets. He called them,
22 and immediately they left the boat and their father, and followed Him.
Mark 1:17 (NKJV)
17 Then Jesus said to them, “Follow Me, and I will make you become fishers of men.”
God’s responsibility
It is God’s responisbilty to make us become what he wants us to be. We can not make ourselves fishers of men only Jesus can.
We must not doubt the ability of God to make us what he want us to be , it is in his power to change our lives to be the people of his glory.
Psalms 138:8 “8 The Lord will perfect that which concerns me; Your mercy, O Lord, endures forever; Do not forsake the works of Your hands.”
Our responisbilty
letting things go, leaving things behind
The desciples were able to immediately let go of things to be what he calls them to be.
This is why he chose them, they did not argue with christ or even have second thaughts about the things that they had to let go.
There are things that they have picked up from the world, learned from the world, been exposed in the world, that they will need to let go as they follow Christ to be the person he is calling them to be.
If they were able to easily let go and leave it behind to follow chirst, when God reveals to them more things that they need to leave behind it wont be diggicult. if in the way they pick up things that is not of God and Jesus tells them to let it go, it is not going to be difficult.
The Lord Chooses those who are willing to let go of everything to follow him, because it is dangerous to begin a journey with Christ without the ability to quickly let go and leave things benind for his calling
61 And another also said, “Lord, I will follow You, but let me first go and bid them farewell who are at my house.”
62 But Jesus said to him, “No one, having put his hand to the plow, and looking back, is fit for the kingdom of God.”
Jesus emphatically stated that anyone who is not willing to quickly let go of things to follow him, is not fit for the kingdom of God.
Hosea 14:9 “9 Who is wise? Let him understand these things. Who is prudent? Let him know them. For the ways of the Lord are right; The righteous walk in them, But transgressors stumble in them.”
When you begin a journey to become what Christ has called you to be, a journey to the promise land.
There will be something that you will try to take along with you, things that belong to the place God has called you out from ( world)
There will be things in your life that is displeasing to God, contrary to God that God will have you to let go.
This can be anything, it can be people, it can be material things, it can be behaviours, attituteds, mindset and perceptions, and desires that it outside God’s will and belongs in the world.
when God reveals those things to you and you are not willing to let them go, those things will become snare to you in the paths of God and cause you to stumble.
Therefore you have a heart that quick to let things go, things that displease God, things that is contrary to the will of God.
NOTE; I am going to let the holy spirit do the specifics, but when i mean things, i mean anything that is displeasing to God, things that belong to the world. This can be people, material things, attitudes, behaviours, mindsets and perceptions, desires and things of that nature.
The People of Israel as an Example
The People of Israel as an Example
There were things that the people of israel took along with them when they left to Egypt (things that belong in Egypt) which they were not willing to let go, which eventually became a snare
The ornaments
In Genesis 35:1-5, Jacob and all his household, buried they ornaments (earings) in the terebinth tree
In the below verse they are told to remove their ornamnets before God consumes them. Why?
3 Go up to a land flowing with milk and honey; for I will not go up in your midst, lest I consume you on the way, for you are a stiff-necked people.”
4 And when the people heard this bad news, they mourned, and no one put on his ornaments.
5 For the Lord had said to Moses, “Say to the children of Israel, ‘You are a stiff-necked people. I could come up into your midst in one moment and consume you. Now therefore, take off your ornaments, that I may know what to do to you.’ ”
6 So the children of Israel stripped themselves of their ornaments by Mount Horeb.
They were stripping themsleves of the ornaments that they had on which they took up from Egypt because it has caused them to stumble in the way.
IN Exodus 32, the ornaments had become a source of idolatory by which they displeased God, as a result many of them died.
God had to tell them to remove their ornamnets after the trouble those ornaments had brought into their life. if there was no earing there would not be a calf.
The mixed multitude
37 Then the children of Israel journeyed from Rameses to Succoth, about six hundred thousand men on foot, besides children.
38 A mixed multitude went up with them also, and flocks and herds—a great deal of livestock.
(mixed multitude) people that were double minded, they have a divided heart
The people Israel left Egypt with people that belonged in Egypt, they taught that they could make it to the promise land with this people
This mixed multitude become a snare and cause Israel to stumble in the way
4 Now the mixed multitude who were among them yielded to intense craving; so the children of Israel also wept again and said: “Who will give us meat to eat?
The Bible says that they were destroyed of the destroyer.
It is not enough to let go of things from your life but you have to let them go from your heart
The people of Israel did not let go of many things that belong to Egypt from their heart.
when going got tough, they began to remember the pleasures of Egypt and complain and weep.
5 We remember the fish which we ate freely in Egypt, the cucumbers, the melons, the leeks, the onions, and the garlic;
6 but now our whole being is dried up; there is nothing at all except this manna before our eyes!”
they murmured and complained remembering the pleasures of Egypt
they gave themselves uo to their lust , and as they indulged in those things were stricken with a plague.
the plague came because of their lust, their lust came because they had not forgotten the pleasures of Egypt from thier heart.
Lots wife
31 “In that day, he who is on the housetop, and his goods are in the house, let him not come down to take them away. And likewise the one who is in the field, let him not turn back.
32 Remember Lot’s wife.
Lot’s wife though she had left the things of sodom nad gommorah behind, she had not removed the things of sodom and gommorah from her heart. she still had a soft spot for the place where she came out from, the things she had left behind.
this gave the bemy an opprtunity to lure her into the past so that she would turn from the paths of salvation into the path of destruction.
What soft spot do you have for the place where you have come out from. if you don’t completly uproot the things of Egypt from your heart, it is going to become a snare for you
15 And truly if they had called to mind that country from which they had come out, they would have had opportunity to return.
Let it not be in your mind or heart, the place where you have come out from.
Abraham
Abraham
Genesis 12:1–4 (NKJV)
1 Now the Lord had said to Abram: “Get out of your country, From your family And from your father’s house, To a land that I will show you.
2 I will make you a great nation; I will bless you And make your name great; And you shall be a blessing.
3 I will bless those who bless you, And I will curse him who curses you; And in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed.”
4 So Abram departed as the Lord had spoken to him, and Lot went with him. And Abram was seventy-five years old when he departed from Haran.
Abraham took lot with him, and for a while lot did not cause him trouble, he taught that he could inherit the promise of God with lot with him.
Abraham picks up Hagar from Egypt
Genesis 13
Abraham separated from lot
Genesis 13:7–9 (NKJV)
7 And there was strife between the herdsmen of Abram’s livestock and the herdsmen of Lot’s livestock. The Canaanites and the Perizzites then dwelt in the land.
8 So Abram said to Lot, “Please let there be no strife between you and me, and between my herdsmen and your herdsmen; for we are brethren.
9 Is not the whole land before you? Please separate from me. If you take the left, then I will go to the right; or, if you go to the right, then I will go to the left.”
Lot chose the east (the plain og Jordan, sodom and Gommorah) and they separetd from each other
The Lord appears before Abraham
Genesis 13:14–17 (NKJV)
14 And the Lord said to Abram, after Lot had separated from him: “Lift your eyes now and look from the place where you are—northward, southward, eastward, and westward;
15 for all the land which you see I give to you and your descendants forever.
16 And I will make your descendants as the dust of the earth; so that if a man could number the dust of the earth, then your descendants also could be numbered.
17 Arise, walk in the land through its length and its width, for I give it to you.”
now God extends his promise “to make” to his descendants.
When we let go of what we suppose to let go, God’s promise will trickle down to our offspring
Hagar and Abraham
Genesis 16, Abraham has a child by her called ishmael.
Genesis 21:10–12 (NKJV)
10 Therefore she said to Abraham, “Cast out this bondwoman and her son; for the son of this bondwoman shall not be heir with my son, namely with Isaac.”
11 And the matter was very displeasing in Abraham’s sight because of his son.
12 But God said to Abraham, “Do not let it be displeasing in your sight because of the lad or because of your bondwoman. Whatever Sarah has said to you, listen to her voice; for in Isaac your seed shall be called.
There was fighting in Abraham’s house, Sara with Hagar, and Ishmael with Isaac.
The Lord supported Sarah, Hagar and Ishmael do not belong in Abaram’s tent.
Jacob
God speaks to Jacob to return to the promise land and he will be with him
3 Then the Lord said to Jacob, “Return to the land of your fathers and to your family, and I will be with you.”
Rachel had stolen her fathers Gods
Genesis 31:18–19 (NKJV)
18 And he carried away all his livestock and all his possessions which he had gained, his acquired livestock which he had gained in Padan Aram, to go to his father Isaac in the land of Canaan.
19 Now Laban had gone to shear his sheep, and Rachel had stolen the household idols that were her father’s.
Therefore Laban pursued Jacob because Rachel had something that belongs to him.
The enemy wil pursue you if you have something that belongs to him
Genesis 31:27–36 (NKJV)
27 Why did you flee away secretly, and steal away from me, and not tell me; for I might have sent you away with joy and songs, with timbrel and harp?
28 And you did not allow me to kiss my sons and my daughters. Now you have done foolishly in so doing.
29 It is in my power to do you harm, but the God of your father spoke to me last night, saying, ‘Be careful that you speak to Jacob neither good nor bad.’
30 And now you have surely gone because you greatly long for your father’s house, but why did you steal my gods?”
31 Then Jacob answered and said to Laban, “Because I was afraid, for I said, ‘Perhaps you would take your daughters from me by force.’
32 With whomever you find your gods, do not let him live. In the presence of our brethren, identify what I have of yours and take it with you.” For Jacob did not know that Rachel had stolen them.
33 And Laban went into Jacob’s tent, into Leah’s tent, and into the two maids’ tents, but he did not find them. Then he went out of Leah’s tent and entered Rachel’s tent.
34 Now Rachel had taken the household idols, put them in the camel’s saddle, and sat on them. And Laban searched all about the tent but did not find them.
35 And she said to her father, “Let it not displease my lord that I cannot rise before you, for the manner of women is with me.” And he searched but did not find the household idols.
36 Then Jacob was angry and rebuked Laban, and Jacob answered and said to Laban: “What is my trespass? What is my sin, that you have so hotly pursued me?
Jacob was echoing the commitment of God to the enemy, that is, the enemy has the right to go about The Lord tent to find what belongs to him and take it. And whomsoever has what belongs to him in the tent of the Living God, if he choses to hold on to it, the enemy will take him along with it
Genesis 35:18, She died in Child labour
Jacob’s daughter Dinah
Genesis 35:1–5 (NKJV)
1 Then God said to Jacob, “Arise, go up to Bethel and dwell there; and make an altar there to God, who appeared to you when you fled from the face of Esau your brother.”
2 And Jacob said to his household and to all who were with him, “Put away the foreign gods that are among you, purify yourselves, and change your garments.
3 Then let us arise and go up to Bethel; and I will make an altar there to God, who answered me in the day of my distress and has been with me in the way which I have gone.”
4 So they gave Jacob all the foreign gods which were in their hands, and the earrings which were in their ears; and Jacob hid them under the terebinth tree which was by Shechem.
5 And they journeyed, and the terror of God was upon the cities that were all around them, and they did not pursue the sons of Jacob.(They did not pursue because they had nothing that belonged to them in the tent of Jacob)
Things you allow tolerate in your tent, can take the life of your children
Jonah
1 Now the word of the Lord came to Jonah the son of Amittai, saying,
2 “Arise, go to Nineveh, that great city, and cry out against it; for their wickedness has come up before Me.”
3 But Jonah arose to flee to Tarshish from the presence of the Lord. He went down to Joppa, and found a ship going to Tarshish; so he paid the fare, and went down into it, to go with them to Tarshish from the presence of the Lord.
4 But the Lord sent out a great wind on the sea, and there was a mighty tempest on the sea, so that the ship was about to be broken up.
5 Then the mariners were afraid; and every man cried out to his god, and threw the cargo that was in the ship into the sea, to lighten the load. But Jonah had gone down into the lowest parts of the ship, had lain down, and was fast asleep.
6 So the captain came to him, and said to him, “What do you mean, sleeper? Arise, call on your God; perhaps your God will consider us, so that we may not perish.”
7 And they said to one another, “Come, let us cast lots, that we may know for whose cause this trouble has come upon us.” So they cast lots, and the lot fell on Jonah.
8 Then they said to him, “Please tell us! For whose cause is this trouble upon us? What is your occupation? And where do you come from? What is your country? And of what people are you?”
9 So he said to them, “I am a Hebrew; and I fear the Lord, the God of heaven, who made the sea and the dry land.”
10 Then the men were exceedingly afraid, and said to him, “Why have you done this?” For the men knew that he fled from the presence of the Lord, because he had told them.
11 Then they said to him, “What shall we do to you that the sea may be calm for us?”—for the sea was growing more tempestuous.
12 And he said to them, “Pick me up and throw me into the sea; then the sea will become calm for you. For I know that this great tempest is because of me.”
13 Nevertheless the men rowed hard to return to land, but they could not, for the sea continued to grow more tempestuous against them.
14 Therefore they cried out to the Lord and said, “We pray, O Lord, please do not let us perish for this man’s life, and do not charge us with innocent blood; for You, O Lord, have done as it pleased You.”
15 So they picked up Jonah and threw him into the sea, and the sea ceased from its raging.
Briefly describe the three types of storm A
Storm A, example Jonah and the ship going to tarshish.
Storm that comes because you have somethings inside you boat that is outside the will of God. that is displeasing to God. Abraham, Jacob experienced this storm and it only stops when you throw out the thing that is conrary to the will of God.
Storm B, Example of The descibles in sea of galilee
The storm that comes because you don’t have Jesus in your boat, and it only ceases when Jesus enters your boat.
Matthew 14:32 (NKJV)
32 And when they [Peter and Jesus] got into the boat, the wind ceased.
When God want to enter in certain areas of our lifes that he is not welcomed, he will send a storm
It is not enough to welcome Jesus into you liounge room, you have to let him in to your bedroom aswell. You have to let him in to every room of your life
4 Scarcely had I passed by them, When I found the one I love. I held him and would not let him go, Until I had brought him to the house of my mother, And into the chamber of her who conceived me.
4 Draw me away! We will run after you. The king has brought me into his chambers. We will be glad and rejoice in you. We will remember your love more than wine. Rightly do they love you.
Storm C, storm that you have to submit and endure so that it can direct you to the purpose of God.
Acts 27
They were sailing to pheonix and ultimately to Rome, but there was an unknown island called Malta that God wanted the Gospel to be preached.
God sent a storm to lead them to that island, they only needed to submit themsleves and endure the storm until it brings them to their destination
30 And as the sailors were seeking to escape from the ship, when they had let down the skiff into the sea, under pretense of putting out anchors from the prow,
31 Paul said to the centurion and the soldiers, “Unless these men stay in the ship, you cannot be saved.”
Back to Jonah
Jonah 1:1–15 (NKJV)
1 Now the word of the Lord came to Jonah the son of Amittai, saying,
2 “Arise, go to Nineveh, that great city, and cry out against it; for their wickedness has come up before Me.”
3 But Jonah arose to flee to Tarshish from the presence of the Lord. He went down to Joppa, and found a ship going to Tarshish; so he paid the fare, and went down into it, to go with them to Tarshish from the presence of the Lord.
4 But the Lord sent out a great wind on the sea, and there was a mighty tempest on the sea, so that the ship was about to be broken up.
5 Then the mariners were afraid; and every man cried out to his god, and threw the cargo that was in the ship into the sea, to lighten the load. But Jonah had gone down into the lowest parts of the ship, had lain down, and was fast asleep.
6 So the captain came to him, and said to him, “What do you mean, sleeper? Arise, call on your God; perhaps your God will consider us, so that we may not perish.”
7 And they said to one another, “Come, let us cast lots, that we may know for whose cause this trouble has come upon us.” So they cast lots, and the lot fell on Jonah.
8 Then they said to him, “Please tell us! For whose cause is this trouble upon us? What is your occupation? And where do you come from? What is your country? And of what people are you?”
9 So he said to them, “I am a Hebrew; and I fear the Lord, the God of heaven, who made the sea and the dry land.”
10 Then the men were exceedingly afraid, and said to him, “Why have you done this?” For the men knew that he fled from the presence of the Lord, because he had told them.
11 Then they said to him, “What shall we do to you that the sea may be calm for us?”—for the sea was growing more tempestuous.
12 And he said to them, “Pick me up and throw me into the sea; then the sea will become calm for you. For I know that this great tempest is because of me.”
13 Nevertheless the men rowed hard to return to land, but they could not, for the sea continued to grow more tempestuous against them.
14 Therefore they cried out to the Lord and said, “We pray, O Lord, please do not let us perish for this man’s life, and do not charge us with innocent blood; for You, O Lord, have done as it pleased You.”
15 So they picked up Jonah and threw him into the sea, and the sea ceased from its raging.
The first thing they did was to try to remove the cargos that was on the surface of the ship.
Superficial removal won’t stop the storm
The real culprit was deep within the ship.
Many time the thing that cause our stop are things that are outside the will of God and are rooted deep within our heart
The second thing they did, once they knew who was the problem, they tried to save the ship through other means, it did not work , in fact it became worse.
if we let go of the things that is displeasing to God, then we will not be moved. We will not stumble in the way
23 Search me, O God, and know my heart; Try me, and know my anxieties;
24 And see if there is any wicked way in me, And lead me in the way everlasting.
May the lord search our hearts today, and may he remove things in our life
