(soft music) (soft music) (soft music) (soft music) (soft music) (soft music) (soft music) (soft music) (soft music) (soft music) (soft music) (soft music) (soft music) (soft music) (soft music) (soft music) (soft music) (soft music) (soft music) (soft music) (soft music) (soft music) (soft music) (soft music) (soft music) (soft music) (soft music) (soft music) (soft music) (soft music) (soft music) (soft music) (soft music) (soft music) (soft music) (soft music) (soft music) (soft music) (soft music) (soft music) (soft music) (soft music) (soft music) (soft music) (soft music) (soft music) (soft music) (soft music) (soft music) (soft music) (soft music) (soft music) (soft music) (soft music) (soft music) (soft music) (soft music) (soft music) (soft music) (soft music) (soft music) (soft music) (soft music) (soft music) (soft music) (soft music) (soft music) (soft music) (soft music) (soft music) (soft music) (soft music) (soft music) (soft music) (soft music) (soft music) (soft music) (soft music) (soft music) (soft music) (soft music) (soft music) (soft music) (soft music) (soft music) (soft music) (soft music) (soft music) (soft music) (soft music) (soft music) (soft music) (soft music) (soft music) (soft music) (soft music) (soft music) (soft music) (soft music) - Good morning, church family.
Happy Lord's Day. I'm glad all of you made it safely here through the rain. As we sing this first song, I wanna just call attention to the song, "We Fall Down." Just a reminder, as we come before our God, this song talks about a posture of humbleness and reverence before our God.
Isaiah chapter six, we know when Isaiah is confronted with God and who he is, he falls face down, that we come with an understanding that that's the God who we approach. We come with reverence and we come with joy and that desire to honor him. So as we sing this song, I hope and pray that we may be reflective of that.
(soft music) ♪ We fall down ♪ ♪ We fall down ♪ ♪ We lay our crowns at the feet of Jesus ♪ ♪ The greatness of mercy and love ♪ ♪ At the feet of Jesus ♪ ♪ We cry holy, holy, holy ♪ ♪ We cry holy, holy, holy ♪ ♪ We cry holy, holy, holy ♪ ♪ Is the lamb ♪ ♪ We fall down ♪ ♪ We lay our crowns at the feet of Jesus ♪ ♪ The greatness of mercy and love ♪ ♪ At the feet of Jesus ♪ ♪ We cry holy, holy, holy ♪ ♪ We cry holy, holy, holy ♪ ♪ We cry holy, holy, holy ♪ ♪ Is the lamb ♪ ♪ We fall down ♪ ♪ We lay our crowns at the feet of Jesus ♪ ♪ The greatness of mercy and love ♪ ♪ At the feet of Jesus ♪ we cry Oh Oh Oh Oh Oh Oh Oh Oh Oh Oh Oh We cry We cry Oh Oh Good morning and welcome to bring community church Let me just jump into our announcements first of all as you guys know our Bible study weekday Bible study in Galatians Inductive Bible study is starting again At the end of the month in August 30th if you've never attended our Bible lab Which is gonna be happening on September August 27 through September 10th, which is three Sundays I think starting from next Sunday and then three Sundays from two to three Basically, this Bible lab is to help you do the inductive Bible study, which is what we're doing in home groups in small groups So if you've been in the Bible study and you had a hard time, you know You don't quite understand what's going on or you having a difficult time doing the inductive Bible study This class was created to help you along So and if you've never attended before and you're new to the church I strongly strongly recommend that you take you take this class because it'll help you to Jump into the Bible studies that we're in so our inductive Bible study basically is we have a text in Galatians or whatever text that we're in and we ask you to go Home and really dissect the text and come prepared So that when you come to the groups you're there to share not just to have the pastor prepare the message and then just give You like this is what it just means is we're asking you to come prepared for to do that So if you're not used to do an inductive Bible study, and maybe you've never even heard the term before this Bible Lab is for that purpose So pastor mark is leading this class from 2 to 3 for 3 Sundays And we do this each time before we start the Bible studies and so to kind of help you along So again, even if you've taken it before and you need a refresher, he'll go through the text the word study, you know context outline and Good questions to ask and this will definitely help you to jump in to be able to get the most out of the Bible study So again, the regular Bible study is starting in not this week But the week after that and then the Bible lab is also going to be happening starting from next Sunday Okay, men's ministry.
We have a quarters men's ministry that's happening on September 9th at 9 a.m. This is a Saturday morning I'll be going over what it means to be accountable. So men especially for men Accountability and that's the subject that we're going to be covering So we have like breakfast that we're gonna be eating at 9 and then we have lunch fellowship So it's a good time for the brothers to get together Share a meal get to know other guys that the people that we're running with So if you haven't signed up for it, I will strongly recommend you sign up The cost for the meal is going to be $10.
And again, we're going to be having light light breakfast and then a lunch afterwards One last thing a family ministry community groups are starting again in the fall And so it's gonna be starting on September 10th, October 8th, November 5th. So three times so if you're a part of the family ministry and You want to meet other people and fellowship with them if you sign up for this?
They'll put you into small groups. And then the whole purpose of this is so that you can fellowship and get to know the other People who are coming into the church people who are in the church. And so it's an opportunity to to fellowship together So all of these things you can find on our church app So if you don't have the app, I strongly recommend you download the app if not on our it's not on our Facebook page But it is on our church website somewhere I think okay So if you go looking for it again, the best place to do this in the app So I so look for that and that's where the signups would be If you have a hard time finding any of this go to our newcomers table and they'll help you out with that.
Okay? All right. I think that's it for the announcements Let me pray for us and give you a minute to give your offering and then after our worship time Our sister Kim Ramos is gonna come and give our testimony be baptized this morning So again, if you have a physical offering again, there's a box out there as you're going you'll see to your right.
Okay, let's pray Father we thank you for your blessing. We thank you for All the things that you are doing that we are aware of the things that you do behind the scene To make all things work together for good Help us Lord as we have gathered together to corporately worship you That we would not simply put in our time But that you would stir in our hearts a reminder of what it is that we have in you So that our worship may truly be an overflow of the tremendous grace and work that you have given us May this time be a blessing to our congregation to you May your name be exalted that even in this giving help us to give with a cheerful heart and may it be multiplied 3030 60 a hundredfold for the purpose of your kingdom in Jesus name.
We pray. Amen (piano music) (piano music) (piano music) (piano music) (piano music) (piano music) (piano music) - Church family, let's all stand together as we worship. (piano music) My hope is built. ♪ My hope is built on nothing less ♪ ♪ Than Jesus' blood and righteousness ♪ ♪ I dare not trust the sweetest frame ♪ ♪ But wholly lean on Jesus' name ♪ ♪ On Christ the solid rock I stand ♪ ♪ All other ground is sinking sand ♪ ♪ All other ground is sinking sand ♪ (piano music) One darkness.
♪ When darkness veils His lovely face ♪ ♪ I rest on His unchanging grace ♪ ♪ In every high and stormy bed ♪ ♪ My anchor holds within the veil ♪ ♪ On Christ the solid rock I stand ♪ ♪ All other ground is sinking sand ♪ ♪ All other ground is sinking sand ♪ (piano music) (piano music) His oath.
♪ His oath is covenant, His blood ♪ ♪ Support me in the whelming flood ♪ ♪ When all around my soul is wet ♪ ♪ He then is all mine ♪ Yes, on Christ. ♪ On Christ the solid rock I stand ♪ ♪ All other ground is sinking sand ♪ ♪ All other ground is sinking sand ♪ (piano music) (piano music) Sing it together, when He shall.
♪ When He shall come with trumpet sound ♪ ♪ All may I that in Him be found ♪ ♪ Trust in His righteousness alone ♪ ♪ Fallest to stand before the throne ♪ ♪ On Christ the solid rock I stand ♪ ♪ All other ground is sinking sand ♪ ♪ All other ground is sinking ♪ On Christ.
♪ On Christ the solid rock I stand ♪ ♪ All other ground is sinking sand ♪ ♪ All other ground is sinking sand ♪ (piano music) ♪ O Lord, as we come to You ♪ ♪ To receive the food of Your holy Word ♪ ♪ Take Your truth, plant it deep in us ♪ ♪ Shape and fashion us in Your likeness ♪ ♪ That the light of Christ might be seen today ♪ ♪ In our acts of love and our deeds of faith ♪ ♪ Sweet O Lord, and fulfill in us ♪ ♪ All Your purposes for Your glory ♪ (piano music) ♪ Teach us ♪ ♪ Teach us Lord, true obedience ♪ ♪ Holy reverence, true humility ♪ ♪ Test our thoughts and our attitudes ♪ ♪ In the radius of Your purity ♪ ♪ Cause our faith to rise, cause our eyes to see ♪ ♪ Your majestic love and authority ♪ ♪ Words of power that can never fail ♪ ♪ That they should prevail over unbelief ♪ (piano music) ♪ Sweet O Lord ♪ ♪ Sweet O Lord, and renew our minds ♪ ♪ Help us press the heights of Your plans for us ♪ ♪ And truth unchanged from the dawn of time ♪ ♪ That will echo down through eternity ♪ ♪ By grace we're one on our promises ♪ ♪ And by faith we'll walk as You walk with us ♪ ♪ Sweet O Lord, 'til Your church is built ♪ ♪ And the earth is filled with Your grace ♪ ♪ And by grace we'll stand ♪ ♪ And by grace we'll stand on Your promises ♪ ♪ And by faith we'll walk as You walk with us ♪ ♪ Sweet O Lord, 'til Your church is built ♪ ♪ And the earth is filled with Your glory ♪ (piano music) Emmanuel be sated.
Good morning, Church. My name is Kim, and I'll be sharing my testimony with you all today. (silence) It was challenging to grasp the concept of familial love while I was growing up. At the age of five, I witnessed my father leave us after years of struggle in a failing marriage.
He left a home filled with broken people. A broken wife, broken sons, and a broken daughter. Like a damaged pot, cracks will only grow bigger and deeper with time. And surely enough, as I grew older and the cracks grew bigger, I was sure that happiness was never going to be an option unless I created it for myself.
(silence) Being emotionally, physically, and sexually abused show me how sinful people can truly be. As I was raised in this environment, I concluded that I could have the same type of power they hold over me if I also participated in the same sin. People I had allowed in my life had only served as a means of survival.
Friendships and relationships were solely transactional. I became a faceless, hollow shell masquerading in many masks. Eventually, perfection was no longer a beneficial result of my accomplishments. It was the only exception in my life. How I dressed, walked, talked, the accolades I collected, I had to be impressive and spotless and perfect in every single way.
I was completely blinded by my greed, pride, callousness, arrogance, fear, shame, and a deep sadness that resulted in clinging onto the world even more. After graduating high school, I sunk even deeper into my own depravity. While I postured myself as a perfect person, I covered up my depression and filled the most empty parts of myself through substance abuse.
At this point in my life, I wanted power, control. Yet it was my own fleshly desires that controlled me instead. I was bitter, angry, hopeless, and lonely. Quick fixes through my addiction and risky behavior was what kept me going. I didn't have a father to guide me growing up, so I clung onto unhealthy relationships and sought validation from men.
At this point in my life, I figured if people could so easily use me and abuse me, then there is no reason for me to care. While I was struggling with doubts of throwing my life away, my brother became more active in attending church again. As he continued to grow, he started to consistently invite me to Bible studies held at his church.
At first, I took his persistence as pestering, but I was curious. I witnessed his heart change so much, and our relationship had improved so well. And it led me to wonder what had been working through his heart. Eventually, I started going to Bible study. And while I was still worldly, it sparked a curiosity to know more about the Lord.
One day, I went to a party, and while everyone else was drinking and partying, I saw a guy playing guitar by himself, not participating in anything. Intrigued, I approached him, and he was playing the only Christian song I knew at the time, "Oceans" by Hillsong. Ironically, we started having a conversation about faith at that party.
He then invited me to his church's communion night, a Q&A that their church holds once a month. There, I asked the pastor a lot of questions, and while I approached him with aggression and my own worldly sense of justice, he chose to answer with truth and met me with so much patience, love, and care.
It was after that instance with that pastor that my desire to chase the Lord grew. I started attending a different church after that for a couple of years, and though I thought it to be with good intentions, my walk toward Christianity was imperfect. I eventually became a professing Christian, but I still sought validation from the world.
Christ was not my center. I seek validation and comfort from Christian people, but not from Christ. After facing challenging circumstances and growing doubts about the theology I was learning at a previous church, I started to question the validity of my own faith and home. But in my distress, I continued to pursue the truth fervently.
While I cannot pinpoint the specific moment I knew I was saved, I do remember one day last year, laying in bed in prayer, in my loneliness and in my tears, feeling the weight of God's sovereignty over my life, the awareness of my own fleshly wretchedness, and how unworthy I truly was to be in his mercy.
Second Corinthians 12:10 states, "Therefore I am well content with my weaknesses, with insults, with distresses, with persecutions, with difficulties, for Christ's sake, for when I am weak, then I am strong." Even in my weaknesses and at my lowest, through his grace, God has given me strength, even though I knew fully well that I am not deserving.
Hebrews 4:16 states, "Therefore let us draw near in confidence to the throne of grace, so that we may receive mercy and find grace and help in time of need." I now rejoice in my past hurts and in my present pain, but it is through my struggle that I am drawn most closest to him, and through his grace I am able to overcome.
I choose now to stand here before you all, to be baptized in front of the congregation, in order to proclaim my devotion to our Father. My body is no longer my body, but through unity with Christ's death, my body now belongs within the body of Christ. Even though my worldly father left me, my Father in Heaven was always with me, imperfect just as I am, yet he still chooses to love me so deeply.
Thank you. Kim, do you understand when you go into the water, you're being united to Christ's death, and then when you come out, you're being united to his resurrected life? I do. And I baptize you in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. All right, thank you, Kim, for that powerful testimony.
If you can turn your Bibles with me to Luke 6. Again, we are continuing our series in the choosing of the 12 disciples. We are going to be, again, in the same text, but let me just pray for us, and we'll jump into the message this morning. Heavenly Father, we ask for your blessing over this time.
We know, Father God, that there is a world of difference of just studying the Bible, understanding the text and the context, than when you illuminate our hearts, you open our ears and soften our hearts. Lord, we want to know more than just information. We want to understand your heart.
We want to know you. We pray that your word would be a means for us to come and draw closer to you. We pray for your blessing. We pray for your spirit's guidance. In Jesus' name we pray, amen. As you guys know, we just came back from our retreat, and every time that we have our all-church retreat, the debate is, are we going to do this again?
And I know for a lot of people, I mean, for myself included, it's a huge blessing for me because not only am I enjoying the retreat and the teaching, but at the retreat you get to meet a lot of people, spend time with people that I've known for many years but haven't had fellowship with for a while, or met a bunch of new people that some of you have been here for a while and I've never had any contact, so the retreat was an opportunity to kind of fellowship and get to know you better.
And hopefully that that will overflow into the life of the church as well, the people that you've met that hopefully the church feels a little bit smaller to you after you come back from the retreat. But every time we come back from a large retreat like that, people say, "800-some people went up to a retreat.
Your church is crazy. Is that possible?" You know, like logistics. And yes, and everybody who was involved, they worked so hard, and every time it's like, "Okay, this is going to be it. This is the last one." Because so much energy, time goes into prepping and running and doing all of this stuff, especially the children's department.
Last time we went up two years ago, I think we had about 100 kids, and this time we had over 200. So just in two years, the number of children just grew exponentially. So I cannot guarantee that we're not going to do this again, but again, every time we do that, the reason why that debate is because it is so hard to run things with the number of people.
Can you imagine? I can't imagine. This is just 800 people, but some of you guys have been to conferences where there's thousands of people. I've been to large conferences where there's over 10,000 people. I've been to mission conferences where they had 20,000, 30,000 people. So I can't imagine the work that goes into the gathering of these things.
So now, I mean, with the Internet and the advertisements, and I get emails all the time. It's like, "Hey, there's this new conference coming in our denomination. There's a pastor's conference. There's a leader's conference. There's a mission's conference." And some of them are small, just local, maybe gathering of maybe a couple hundred people, and then some of them are gigantic.
We had thousands and thousands of people coming from all over the world. Whenever I receive these advertisements, the first thing that I look at is who is coming. Who are the guest speakers? Who are the keynote speakers that they've gathered together? And so immediately, you'll recognize. At least somebody in this group is like, "Oh, okay, these guys are coming." It's a huge conference, so they got big names to come and speak and encourage the group.
But every once in a while, you'll have a conference, and I don't recognize a single person in this chart. They have like 15 names, and I don't know a single person. Immediately, I was like, "Okay, this probably is not for me because I don't recognize who they are." If you're going to put that kind of money and energy and time into putting an event that's that big together, one of the first things that you think of is who are we going to come and address this group?
Now, the reason why I start my message with this is because, can you imagine people who are coming to Jesus that they're asking, "Who are his disciples?" And you don't recognize a single person? That this is the greatest event that has taken place in Israel's history. This could be the Messiah that they've been waiting for for hundreds of years, and then they're going down the list of who he chose as his disciples, and there's not a single person of significance.
There's no scholar among this group. There's no Pharisee. There's nobody working at the temple. There's no filthy rich person. There's no aristocrat. Not a single person. The majority of them were just common blue-collar workers, fishermen, and you had a zealot in there, and we have some people that we pretty much, you know, as we're going down the line, the next few groups of people we know almost nothing about.
It's like, why would they gather these people for the greatest thing? I mean, can you imagine, this is the greatest thing, greatest event that happened in Israel's history, and the people that Jesus surrounded himself with, there's not a single person that was recognized. In fact, out of all the people that Jesus gathered around him, the most controversial was Matthew.
Now, we know that in retrospect, now that we have the knowledge of what Judas did, it was a betrayer, and we'll talk about him at the end, but at this point, when Jesus is collecting his disciples, the most controversial person was Matthew. In fact, the choosing of Matthew himself, many people would have just disqualified Jesus, saying, "How can he be the Messiah and have Matthew as his disciple?
That makes no sense. How can he be the Messiah?" You have to understand just how controversial this decision was to choose Matthew. In order to understand why they hated Matthew, you have to understand that at this particular period of time, the Romans have spread their kingdom so vast and wide that they had a very difficult time controlling rebellions that may break out.
And so one of the key things that they did was they put puppet kings. In Israel, they put the Herodian dynasty. They weren't even Jews. They were Idrumeans. Basically to control the population of Israel. So they were more loyal to the pagan nation Romans than they were to Israel.
That's why the Israelites resented the Herods. They gave some religious freedom. So just so that you can think that you have some religious freedom, as long as you acknowledge Caesar as the ultimate king. So they would establish statues of Caesar, whatever temple that people would be going to, and bow down and acknowledge Caesar before you go into the temple.
But of all the things that Rome did in order to control and to subjugate the nations that they conquered, where the people felt the most tangible place where the rubber met the road was with the taxation. The way that Rome, because of all the roads and many things that they were doing, they had to collect enough money to do that.
And they knew that if they sent Roman soldiers knocking at the doors, that it would incite bitterness and anger toward Rome. So they had an idea that they were going to recruit from their own countrymen. And they would sell like a franchise that whoever bid the highest money, that they would give it to them and they would have the rights to go and collect taxes.
So the people that they would be angry with, would be with their own countrymen. So you can see how this would become a huge problem for anybody who took this position. That you literally had to sell out your nation. But in particular, we're talking about Matthew. The way that the Romans collected taxes was they had what was a fixed tax, which was real estate and also a poll tax.
Whoever was born, that they would every once in a while go back to your hometown, they would do a head count and based upon how many members are in your family, they would have a flat tax for the people who are in your family and they would have a flat tax for your property.
Those are the fixed tax, so you can't mess with that. So you owe that every once in a while and you have to pay it, right? And then you had the duty tax. The duty tax is where we ran into problems because people who collected the duty tax basically created taxes wherever they were at.
So they would tax the road, they would tax the cart that you were on. If you were a fisherman, they would tax the fish. And then they would tax when you sold something, there would be a separate sales tax. Basically, they could create whatever tax that they wanted to collect.
So the way that the Rome would make money was Rome would say, "We need this much tax collected," and then the tax collectors would come and get that amount and then whatever extra that they collected would be their own money, right? So you can see why somebody would want that position because it was the easiest way to become wealthy.
But they literally had to sell out their country to do that. That was Matthew. Matthew was somebody who was universally hated by every Jew. In fact, the worst group to put together would have been the fishermen and this tax collector because Matthew was from the same region that Peter and the other disciples came from, which means that Matthew was the one who knocked on the door.
Matthew was the one, if they had a great catch and brought it in, he would have been the one standing there waiting as they're counting the fish. He would have been the one. You know, every time we have a retreat or we have small groups, we spend hours wrestling over the small groups, right?
And those are guys who went to the retreat and especially the singles. You guys shared four per room. And every time we make those rooms, sometimes you ask, which is easy, and then those of you who don't ask, we have to sit there like, oh, are they going to fit together?
Is this person going to feel left out? Do they have some drama in the past and we can't put them together? So we have to think through all of these things to make sure that we're putting people in the right place. And that's just a small group of any four or even Bible study of six or seven.
I mean, you're gathering 12 people and seven of them, or they have a history of having their money embezzled by one of them, and he chooses to put them together and travel together for three years. And these were the guys. I think most of us would have predicted this is not going to work out.
Matthew is going to die, basically, when Jesus goes up to sleep and then goes to pray. And by the time he comes back, they're going to have 11 disciples. You wouldn't predict that because that's kind of hatred that they had toward Matthew. The question that we ask is why was he chosen among them?
We understand that he didn't choose the aristocrats. He didn't choose the big names or the wealthy people or have a good track record. OK, we understand. He chose plain people. But to have somebody that was literally taking their money, you have to understand that this wasn't simply just taken from wealthy people.
You know, some of these guys are just wrestling to pay their bills, and you see a tax collector coming knocking on their door. They say, "Hey, you know, you're giving milk. Where'd you get that milk?" And he could tax that, right? If a mother's carrying the baby to go to the hospital or wherever they're going to give birth or to get medical attention, they can tax that, the fact that you're on their road.
So this guy was considered the worst of sinners. In fact, a tax collector is often equated either the worst of sinners or tax collector or a what? A prostitute. And they were used simultaneously as the worst of the worst of the worst. And that's how the nation viewed them, but even more practically, the disciples.
This was not just a traitor for our nation. This was a guy who was taking our money, our milk money. This was the bully. And because they were going around taking money that people didn't want to give, they had to hire local thugs. They needed strong men to be able to go around and force people to pay the money.
So this guy, again, I mean, I'm not exaggerating. This is how much they hated this guy. So why was he chosen? This morning, I want to give you two things that are pretty obvious in this text. One, Matthew was chosen deliberately for the purpose of challenging the religious system of that time.
Remember when John the Baptist, when he came out to baptize and he was preparing for the way of Christ, he came out of Jerusalem. So anybody who wanted to hear from him, that clearly he's a prophet. For hundreds of years, nobody has come. Everybody is saying that this guy is speaking for God, but he's not speaking at the temple.
He goes way out. So even the Pharisees were curious, what's going on? Is he truly a prophet? They had to leave the epicenter of Judaism to go out to listen to him. And then when Jesus comes, he takes it to the next level. Everything about his choice was to challenge the religious system.
He wasn't simply coming and saying, "Hey, you guys need some reform." The way you're running the temple, collecting money, making disciples, how you're worshiping God, what you think is right, you know, we're going to have to do some tweaking and bring some revival into the system. He actually challenged the whole system itself.
The whole system had to be torn down and he needed to start over. And that's what the choosing of Matthew was. Remember in Romans 12, 2-3, those of you guys who remember the study of the Book of Romans, Romans is a challenge against the Jews because they had such a hard time opening up the kingdom of God to the Gentiles.
So the whole Book of Romans is challenging the religious system of the Jews. That the kingdom of God is not just for the Jews, but that God has opened the door for the Gentiles as well. So Romans 12, verse 2 says, "Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind so that you may prove what the will of God is." In other words, the Jews were having a hard time thinking of what they thought righteousness was.
And he said, "Your whole understanding, your whole paradigm has to change. You have to understand the will of God, that which is good and acceptable and perfect." And then he says, verse 3, "For through the grace given to me, I say to everyone among you, not to think more highly of himself than he ought to think." He's challenging the religious system because the Jews thought that they were ahead of the game of the Gentiles.
Those are sinners. Moses is our father. Abraham is our father. So we're a little bit ahead of the game. And so the whole letter of Romans is to challenge that thinking, "No, all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God." Those who are under the law will be judged under the law.
Those who are without the law will be judged without the law. All have sinned and fall short of the glory of God. So he's saying, "Your whole paradigm of how you understand your righteousness has to change." The choice of Matthew would have completely challenged what they thought righteousness was.
Because they thought if the Messiah came, he would choose one of the Pharisees. Pharisees were the ones who were keeping the law. They were the ones who were teaching other people. They were the ones who made sure that everybody followed the law. And none of them were chosen. Not only were they not chosen, this worst of sinners, the tax collector, he was chosen to be one of his disciples.
See, that's why the Scriptures tell us the first thing that a Christian must do before he can add anything or do anything is he must die. The Bible says if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has gone, behold the new has come. The old has to die.
Because if you retain your paradigm of what you had before you met Christ, everything you learn you put into that same bucket. If you are a materialist, which is the whole world wrestles with this, a materialist is somebody who sees blessings through the eyes of material things. So, we talk about the health and wealth gospel people.
They're materialists. So whenever they hear the gospel, the good news is that if you are faithful to God, if you are righteous, God is going to bless you. And you're going to be healthy. You're going to become wealthy. And you're going to live, again, a long life. Because they're hearing the gospel through the lens of a materialist.
But we don't have to go to Joel Osteen's church to hear the false gospel. Because you can be here hearing the same gospel, but if you have the same paradigm as a materialist, you thank God, "Oh, thank you for the grace that you've given me because I didn't have a job and now I have a job." "Thank you for the blessing that you've given me.
I was sick and I prayed and then you made me well." "Thank you for being kind to me because I did my best to be faithful and I prayed and then you answered my prayer and I'm able to have a better retirement." You don't have to go to a false gospel teaching church to be a materialist.
If we're not careful, we hear everything through the lens of a materialist. If we're not careful. We're thankful when things are going good, just like the eyes of the world. And when things aren't going good, it's like, "Oh, what did I do wrong? Maybe I didn't pray enough. Maybe I didn't do this enough." And that's because the old self has not died.
The old religious system still lives in us. That everything that we hear goes into that bucket. If you're an atheist, you hear the gospel and you say, "Oh, these are a lot of good teachings." "Do unto others as you desire to do unto them, the golden rule." Right? And so you hear everything as an opportunity.
It's like, "Oh, he was a good man who set a good example." "You want to learn good morals, the church or religion is the place to go." If you're a theist, you hear that and say, "Oh, religion is good for society." "It has a sanctifying effect on people." So religion is good, whether you're a Buddhist, whether you're a Muslim, whether you're a Christian.
As long as you believe, right? You're a man of faith. And that's a theist. A humanist will hear the gospel through the lens of how does it affect man. So everything you hear the gospel is, "Oh, God loves us unconditionally." "There's nothing you can do. God loves you no matter what." And so the worst sin that you can commit is have somebody offended in the church.
The worst sin that you can do is somebody come in and say, "I was discouraged." "Oh, we got to change that." Because that's a humanist mentality. A legalist is somebody who hears the gospel and the first thing that they run to, "Okay, now what do I do?" Right? "What do I do?
What do I do to become better?" "What do I do to become more disciplined?" "What do I do so that I can earn my way and be discipled into the next level?" The Pharisees saw their whole religion as a system of do's and don'ts that they need to climb up this ladder.
And in this ladder, the Pharisees were on the top and the tax collectors were on the bottom. So the fact that Jesus asked tax collector to be one of his disciples, they just couldn't fathom. Because it challenged their whole religious outlook. Just kind of like if you're a materialist and you're coming to praise God and you become a Christian and all of a sudden you get sick.
All of a sudden you lose your job. All of a sudden you experience foreclosure or bankruptcy. It's like, "What?" "I followed you. I became a Christian. What happened?" And it completely destroys your paradigm of what you understand as a blessing from God. Jesus chose Matthew because it completely challenged the fundamental core of what they believed was right and wrong.
I mean, I can go on and on about the response that the Pharisees and the scribes gave in Luke 5.30. It says, "The Pharisees and the scribes began grumbling in their disciples, saying, 'Why do you eat and drink with the tax collectors and sinners?'" Luke 15.1-2, "Now all the tax collectors and the sinners were coming near him to listen to him.
Both the Pharisees and the scribes began grumbling, saying, 'This man receives sinners and eats with them.'" I mean, they were bothered and triggered just the fact that Jesus was hanging around them. Jesus just went to their house and they're like, "What kind of a Messiah, what kind of a man of God is that?" So can you imagine if it triggered them for Jesus to be eating with them?
Can you imagine how it must have triggered them that Jesus chose one of them to be his disciple? How much they were stirred, how angry they were. That in and of itself, like he's disqualified. Because he doesn't fit. It wasn't just the fact that he didn't go and conquer Rome.
Even his choosing of the disciples disqualifies him because he went against everything that they thought. That's why they kept on asking, "How come they don't keep the Sabbath? How come your disciples don't fast?" Because that fit into their religious system. In fact, they hated the tax collectors so much that by their law, the tax collectors were banned from the synagogue and the temple.
They weren't allowed to come in. In fact, in their Talmud, in their law system, they actually said, "It is righteous to lie and cheat a tax collector." Because that's what he does for a living. Since he does that for a living, it's only right that we treat him the way he deserves.
So by their law, tax collectors, you can lie to them. You can cheat them. Again, can you imagine how much this must have triggered? In fact, not only does he choose them as his disciples, as they kept on challenging Jesus, in Matthew 21, 31, Jesus turns the table around and says, "Jesus said to them, 'Truly, truly, I say to you, that the tax collectors and prostitutes will get into the kingdom of God before you.'" So if they were angered that Jesus was eating with them, hanging out with them, and then even choosing them as his disciples, can you imagine how much this would have angered them?
Not only are you wrong about all of this stuff, but they're actually more righteous than you. They're going to enter the kingdom before you. These were the guys who dedicated themselves to be religious pure. They kept the law meticulously. They were the ones who tithed even the minute details of their income.
I mean, on the surface, they did everything righteous, and then can you imagine Jesus saying, "No, the tax collector, who's a traitor to the country, who's embezzling people, taking money from poor families, he will enter the kingdom before you." So imagine how paradigm shifting this is. In 1 Corinthians 1.18, it says, "The word of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to those who are being saved, it is the power of God." So we can understand how, if you're not a Christian, you don't understand the gospel, why this would be so offensive.
That's just utter foolishness. Why would somebody who dedicated his life to embezzle other people get in the front line? And why would the people who were religious leaders who dedicated their lives to study the Torah and then to disciple other people be in the back of the line? Everything that was doing it was to challenge the core of what they believed to be right and wrong.
But the reason why he needed to do that was not simply to slap them and say, "Hey, your whole system is wrong." The reason why he did that was because they needed to first die. Their whole paradigm needs to be shifted in order for the gospel to come in.
Because the gospel is not going to make any sense to a Pharisee. The gospel message, the whole reason why Jesus came, isn't going to make any sense to a Pharisee who his whole system of righteousness is, "We're going to keep the law. We're going to be good enough. We're going to climb this ladder." And then all of a sudden Jesus comes and says, "Your righteousness is based on faith, not by your works." So he needed to make sure that they understood that I didn't come to bolster up your system.
I came to challenge your system and then to highlight the new gospel, the good news. In fact, 1 Timothy 1, 15-16, it says, "It is a trustworthy statement deserving full acceptance that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners. Among whom I am foremost of all, yet for this reason I found mercy, so that in me, as the foremost, Jesus Christ might demonstrate his perfect patience as an example for those who would believe in him for eternal life." We look at Apostle Paul, right?
If we were to choose, right? If we were to choose based upon human ability, Apostle Paul would have been at the top of that list, right? So you say, "Why didn't he choose Paul to begin with? Why the disciples and, you know, like the tax collector? They should have chose Paul to begin with.
He's a Roman citizen. He's one of the top scholars of Israel. He already has a prominence, right? And he has zeal, Pharisees. That's the law, it was perfect. So that guy fit every quality that you would think was necessary in order for him to be an apostle of Christ.
But just so that you and I don't understand that we focus our attention on the wrong thing, Paul says, "No, that's not why I was chosen. Because I was the worst of sinners." I was the worst of sinners. For what? So that, for what reason? That his perfect patience, his perfect patience as an example for those who would believe in him for eternal life, that if that guy, if that guy who was trying to murder us, that guy was so wrong about Christ that he murdered people, persecuted.
That first persecution happened under him. If he can come into the kingdom and he can be used to highlight the mercy of God. You know, oftentimes we hear people say that we're kind of diamonds in the rough and we're in the dirt. And so God has perfect vision and so he knows our potential better than us.
So he finds a diamond in the rough and then he touches us and cleans us up so that we can live up to the full potential. That's not what the scripture says. Scripture tells us that it's not the full potential that he's releasing because the purpose of the cross is to highlight Christ.
What he's done. He's given unworthy people, a tax collector who deserve nothing, for what purpose? To highlight his mercy. To highlight his glory. Not our potential glory, but his glory. And that's why Paul says, "When I am weak, he is strong." The goal of a Christian life is not to tap into our potential.
The goal of a Christian life is in our weakness to point to Christ. That if somebody like Apostle Paul, somebody like Matthew, can be forgiven of their sins and used for his kingdom. See, Matthew's choice as a disciple gives hope to the prostitutes. It gives hope to the other tax collectors.
It gives hope to sinners. It gives hope to the poor, the insignificant. It gives hope to people who have no hope. I don't have any access to education. I don't have any access. I'm not this and I'm not that. You don't know my history. Jesus is just the choosing of his disciples just turned the table upside down.
What was good became bad and what was bad became good. In Luke 5, 31, 32, "And Jesus answered and said to them, 'It is not those who are well who need a physician.'" And this was a rebuke against the Pharisees because they didn't know that they were sick. But he had no problem with the Pharisees.
Remember the parable that he gives in order to rebuke the Pharisees? He said, "You had two people go up and the Pharisee was bragging about how I'm not like this and I pay tithe and I keep the law." "Thank God I'm not like the tax collector." "The tax collector was beating his chest," he says.
He couldn't even lift his head. "Forgive me for my sins." And Jesus says, "Whose sins was forgiven? The tax collector." You know what's interesting about that parable? Matthew was there. Matthew heard what Jesus was saying. Matthew was there. You think Jesus didn't know Matthew was there? He was rebuking the Pharisee but he was confirming for Matthew.
Matthew went up there and he's beating his chest because that was Matthew. Why would he choose me? I already sold out my country. This nice house that I'm living in, I took it away from that poor family. He knew his sin. He's the guy who was beating his chest.
There's no way that he would choose me. And Jesus tells him, "Whose sins were forgiven? Who became righteous?" It was Matthew. Matthew was there when he was telling that parable. He wanted to rebuke the Pharisees but he also wanted to encourage Matthew. "Matthew, your sins are forgiven." This is the gospel that he was trying to highlight.
You know what's interesting? Matthew becomes the author of the gospel of Matthew, obviously. What's interesting about the gospel of Matthew is that it contains more Old Testament quotes than any other gospel. In fact, 99 separate times. He quotes from the Psalms, he quotes from the historical books, he quotes from the prophets.
All throughout the Old Testament, 99 times. That's more than all the other gospels put together. And the reason why is because the highlight of Matthew's gospel is to connect the dots between the old prophecies about Christ and how Jesus fulfills. And so, every gospel highlights a certain aspect of Christ.
Luke describes his humanity. John's gospel highlights his deity. Mark's gospel emphasizes his miracles, his works. Matthew's gospel highlights his kingship. Which is ironic because Matthew was the one who rejected Israel. He was the enemy of the state of Israel. He was the one that empowered the pagan nation to rule over Israel.
And yet, Matthew was the one who was chosen to remind the nation of Israel that he's the king. He's that king. So if you were an unbeliever, you would look at that and say, "Matthew, I can't read a word that Matthew said. How is this traitor of our country?
How is he going to tell me who the king is?" But to those who are being saved, the highlight wasn't about Matthew. It was that even somebody like Matthew, God can save. And use him as powerfully as he can. So the highlight wasn't about Matthew. It was about the gospel of Christ.
Matthew knew he was a sinner. You know what's interesting was when Jesus calls Matthew, his sin wasn't way behind him. It's like, "Oh, that guy used to do this. How can we forgive him? I remember 10 years ago he used to do this." Remember when Jesus called Matthew what he was doing?
He was at the tax booth. He was at the tax booth. He was in the middle of collecting his taxes. So can you imagine the other disciples walking with Christ and pointing to Matthew and saying, "Matthew, come with me." Matthew doesn't hesitate. He drops everything. He follows Jesus. You know what's interesting about that?
That Matthew could not have possibly been educated in the synagogue because he wasn't allowed to go there. He could not have gotten any formal education about the Old Testament because he wasn't allowed. Which means that all the things that he knew about the Old Testament, Matthew probably was studying by himself, but he probably knew he's the worst of sinners, but there was a hunger for God that he couldn't join the regular community.
But can you imagine when Jesus said, "No, you come with me," that in his heart, even in the middle of his sin, he was searching for God. I don't know about you. I don't know about you. But I know if you've been a Christian for any period of time, you know exactly how that feels like.
In the middle of your struggle, in the middle of your compromise, in the deep sense of your heart, you know you want God. But you're wrestling with your sin. Can God forgive me? Even after all these years, I'm still struggling with this. Can God still forgive me? And it is our own sense of justice that keeps us away from his grace.
I think that was Matthew. That Matthew was very interested in the Messiah. And that's why he knew so much about the Old Testament. But he couldn't possibly fathom, "How can I possibly go to him? Why would he possibly choose me?" And yet, Jesus said, "Come." And the Scripture tells us that he dropped everything.
Immediately, he went to him. You know, the Scripture says, "Those who have been forgiven much also love much." Matthew, I bet you, the whole time he was with Jesus, loved Christ deeply. That every time the Pharisees, like, "He's with that tax collector? He's eating with him? He's walking with him?
That guy?" Because I don't think anybody ever let Jesus forget or let him forget who he was. And every time there was an indictment against Matthew, he remembered, "Only by the grace of God. Only by the grace of God." He loved Jesus. Even though he—you know, what's interesting about Matthew's gospel is Matthew rarely mentions anything about himself.
He's just in the background. He's just keeping the record, "This is the king. This is the king. This is the king." And outside of what he pens about Jesus, we know nothing about Matthew's personality, character, nothing. All we know is he does—he writes this awesome gospel, but he's just in the background.
That's Matthew. This is a state of a humble sinner who's been saved by the grace of God. And that's you and I, every single one of us. None of us—I don't know, man, how much Bible you know, how much accolades or experiences. None of us are here by even an ounce of our own righteousness.
It's because while we were yet sinners, Christ called us. In fact, in Romans 5, 6 through 10, it says, "For while we were still helpless, at the right time Christ died for the ungodly." Verse 8, "But God demonstrates his long life toward us. While we were yet sinners, Christ died for us." Verse 10, "For while we were enemies, we were reconciled to God through the death of his Son." While we were helpless, while we were sinners, while we were enemies, Christ chose to love us and called us.
See, the core of our worship is recognizing this grace that you and I are under, and we come to Christ to worship him, to celebrate him. That's why the Bible is so clear about grumbling, because a grumbling person cannot be worshiping God. You know, what's interesting is, you know, recently somebody won $1.5 billion.
I forgot where it was, right? I don't know if some of you guys were watching to see where this was going to happen, but I think it was second to the largest lottery ever. You know, what's interesting is whenever the lottery is won, there's always an article that follows saying, "Well, he doesn't actually get $1.5 billion." If you consider the taxes and the payment that he gets, and if you calculate all the things that he has to do, it actually only comes out to $470 million.
So, it's not $1.5 billion, right? He hasn't really won $1.5 billion. He's like, "Are you serious?" You know who's not doing that? The guy who won $470 million. I bet you that guy is not calculating. "Oh my gosh, they took almost a billion dollars. What kind of injustice is this?
What kind of a taxation is this? We need to fight the system. I got to get that billion dollar back." I bet you he's going home, "I won $470 million." Every single Christian is a Matthew who did not deserve the grace of God, who was chosen to spite. As a result, we live the rest of our lives celebrating and thanking him, praising him for what he has done.
The moment that we forget that you and I are Matthews, and we revert back to our old system, we've become grumblers, complainers. "Yeah, I got $1.5 billion, but why did you take that much money? I could have done so much more with $1.5 billion instead of $470 million." As ridiculous as that sounds, that's what it must sound like in the ears of our God.
"I gave you my son. I gave you my son, and you're complaining because you don't have enough money? You're complaining because you don't have enough friends? You're complaining because of this and that?" The whole reason why Matthew was chosen was to nullify the world system and to bring in the good news.
I pray that every single one of us in this room recognize every week in a deepening fashion what it is exactly that we have in Christ. That as Jesus said to the Samaritan woman, "There's going to come a time whether you worship in this mountain or that mountain, that that's not going to be the primary concern, that our God is searching for people who will worship him in spirit and in truth, and that that would become our primary goal in life, the primary reason why we gather, the primary reason why we study the Word of God, to be worshipers so that God would receive what he deserves for his sacrifice.
Let's pray. As our team comes up, I want you to read the lyrics of the song that we're going to sing as our closing praise. It says, "O come, all you unfaithful, come weak and unstable, come, know you are not alone. O come, barren and waiting ones, weary of praying, come.
So what your God has done, see what your God has done, Christ is born, Christ is born, Christ is born. O come, bitter and broken, come with fears unspoken, come, taste of his perfect love, O come, guilty and hiding ones, there is no need to run, see what your God has done, Christ is born, Christ is born.
He's the Lamb who was given, slain for our pardon, his promise is peace for those who believe. He's the Lamb who was given, slain for our pardon, his promise is peace for those who believe. So come, though you have nothing, come, he is the offering, come, see what your God has done." Heavenly Father, we come with empty hands.
Help us, Lord God, to remember that we were sinners, unworthy of what you've given us. That every day that you would fill our hearts with praise and thanksgiving, that your name may be magnified, that you would renew the life that oftentimes is suffocated because we have fixed our eyes on things that don't matter in eternity.
Help us, Lord God, to become true worshipers, that we would celebrate as Matthew did when he was chosen. May your name be honored, may your church be filled with true worship. In Jesus' name we pray, amen. Let's all stand up for the closing praise. "Oh come, all you unfaithful, come, weak and unstable, come, know you are not alone.
Oh come, barren and braiding ones, weary of praying, come, see what your God has done. Christ is born, Christ is born, Christ is born for you. Oh come, bitter and broken, come, with fears unspoken, come, taste of his perfect love. Oh come, empty and hiding ones, there is no need to run, see what your God has done.
Christ is born, Christ is born, Christ is born for you. He's the Lamb who was given, slain for our pardon, his promise is peace for those who believe. He's the Lamb who was given, slain for our pardon, his promise is peace for those who believe. So come, though you have nothing, come, he is the offering, come, see what your God has done.
Christ is born, Christ is born, Christ is born for you. Christ is born, Christ is born, Christ is born for you. Let's pray. Isaiah 55, verse 1, "Everyone who thirsts, come to the waters, and you who have no money, come, buy and eat. Come, buy wine and milk without money and without cost." Lord, we pray that a deepening understanding of the glory of the gospel of Christ would penetrate so deeply in our hearts that all that we do and say would be an overflow of the tremendous grace that you've given us.
Help us, Lord God, to have an eternal perspective, knowing that what it is that we have in Christ, that we would enter your courts with thanksgiving in our hearts, that we would become more and more each week, worshipers who will worship you in spirit and in truth. Help us to be a church that celebrates your grace, that practices this grace, that we may live up to this grace that you've given.
So we pray, Father God, for guidance. Send us, Lord God, that we may be the aroma of Christ wherever you send us. In Jesus' name we pray, amen. God sent his Son. They called him Jesus. He came to love. Heal and forgive. He lived and died. To buy my poverty.
An empty grave is there to prove my Savior lived. Because he lives, I can face tomorrow. Because he lives, all fear is gone. Because I know he holds the future. And life is worth the living just because he lives. We thank you for your grace. We thank you for your grace.