Prayer and Fasting this week, actually, I'm going to go a little sidestep just a little. Because you guys are tired of hearing about prayer and fasting. That's what I hear. I'm just, I'm just playing, I'm actually I've got something on prayer, I'm gonna share it next week. But it's will be slightly different this week, because the Lord just had it on my heart to talk about how important it is that we do this together. I titled this message, Jesus didn't do it alone. I was thinking about this all week long, a lot that God in his infinite wisdom in his plan for mankind, in his plan for sending His Son to bring redemption and reconciliation, His kingdom on the earth, all this stuff. He Jesus, in part of that plant was Jesus not doing it by himself, straight up, like, and so what I want to do is kind of talk about that I got this picture up here first this morning, because as I increasingly go out and meet people in bars, or the gym or whatever, I've noticed this over the last several years, but just so much lately, that in our culture, isolationism is, so it's huge, like, it's just, it's, it's massive, that so many people are simply looking for friends, like they don't, we don't really have friends we have or our friends or just just a few of few people, we don't really spend a ton of time with them. And like, it's just been incredible. It's been incredible to meet people who we go and we talk to and you know, as disciplemaking, we try to see if they're a person, that piece and they don't got anybody else in their in their community. Like it's all the time it's constantly happening, happening left and right. And then you go the next slide, if you want. And I really been pondering to like with the advent of social media in particular, right? Like, this just takes us even deeper into this, like isolationism. That was reading studies this week about they've done a lot on adolescents and social media and how I mean it studies show, I mean, there's, there's ones that conflict, but overall, they show that depression is linked, like a bigger chance for depression is linked with adolescents who are on particularly social media, more than others. I read one, I read one this morning about social media versus TV. TV, actually, this one boosted a little bit, as long as you didn't watch too much of it. It was but when hit a certain threshold, and beyond it, TV started making you depressed as well. But there's something about social media, with the whole idea, the whole idea of I mean, you see all the pictures, everything perfect, you know, you there's cyberbullying, there's all these things that are coming against adolescents in particular, and it creeps in to us as well. But our society is becoming increasingly increasingly increasingly isolated. And that happens in the church, right? Like, think about it, we have places that we can go and that have 2000 member churches, and we're just as sad and just such as isolated, excuse me, even depressed sometimes, because you can just go and sit down and you can never talk to anyone. You can do it here. You can do it at 50% Church, you can well maybe, I think will bombard you don't you think? Like someone that stones river is gonna say something to you. But, um, yeah, I mean, if you're bigger than they don't know if you're new or not, right? So that's not a bash on bigger churches, but it's the reality of like, what's going on in our culture. And so today, I want to talk about that about how important this idea of prayer and fasting together is. And that Jesus, again, didn't do it alone. So if y'all want to turn to Matthew chapter for him, pull the next slide, Kyle, if you want to verse 12, right? Yeah. Um, I'm actually going to go like last week, one of the passages that we looked at was the temptation of Jesus, right? Let's talk about what happens right after that, at least in Matthew's record, Matthew, Luke, they're really, really similar. Alright, Matthew, chapter four, verse 12, to people I want to focus on today, I want to focus on Jesus, and how we built community and focus on Peter. And the way Peter was called in the people who were actually influencing Peter, to follow Jesus.
All right, verse 12, when he had heard that John had been arrested, this is Jesus, he withdrew into Galilee. He left Nazareth and went to live in component by the sea. In the region of Zeppelin enough Tali. This was to fulfill what was spoken through the prophet Isaiah, land of Zeppelin and land of Naftali, along the road by the sea beyond the Jordan, Galilee of the Gentiles, that people who live in darkness have seen a great light. And for those living in the land of the shadow of death, a light has dawned. If you wanna go the next slide, if you don't mind, figure out this kind of put us in this. So we understand what he's saying here real quick. Before we get into his call of Peter and Andrew. This is a map of the 12 tribes of Israel. Alright, this is Isaiah chapter nine is what Matthew is quoting right here. So if you look where Zeppelin and Neftali is, you can see that we got I've got arrows or I found an image with arrows pointing to those tribes. If you see Capernaum, that's where Jesus was headed. That little c is the Sea of Galilee. Right there. Okay, so he hearing that John has been arrested. Jesus is going about as far away from Jerusalem as you can stay in Israel, almost like he's really gone out. But here's the thing, the prophets have already prophesied about that. All right, if you go to the next slide, you can actually see how beautiful the Sea of Galilee is. you've ever seen it, John, I bet you guys loved it. It was just absolutely amazing. And so this is where he's at. There's a lot of Gentiles here. There are absolutely Jewish people that around the Sea of Galilee. But this is where Jesus goes after he's been tempted. Alright, here's John's arrested, he's been tempted by the enemy, he overcomes that. And he heads out to this region. Okay. Verse 17, gives us insight into what he's doing, what he's proclaiming, from then on, Jesus began to preach or to proclaim, repent, because the Kingdom of Heaven has come near. What's so interesting about that is if you read more of Isaiah chapter nine, we're going to be quoting that in a month, probably, For unto us a child has been born and his son has been given and what happens the government does what rests on his shoulders, right? That's the same passage of this idea that he's talking about the people in the region of Galilee are going to going to see this great light. So it's makes perfect sense that Jesus goes to Galilee. Sure, he knows what Isaiah saying, understanding his calling in his proclamation as what God's kingdom has come near the government of God has come near to the people. Right, pretty cool, right? What does he do next? What is What are like, what are practical steps because like, that seems huge to me. I just stopped for a second, the idea of God's Kingdom to these people, like they're under Roman oppression, you know, right, like, the idea that, that this kingdom that's supposed to be restored to the people of Israel is going to is coming near. That's like, a pretty big statement is a monster, a statement actually is huge. And so Jesus takes his throne, and proclaims that he is the king. Actually, he walks up to some fisherman. I think this is intriguing. As he was walking along the Sea of Galilee, he saw two brothers, Simon, who was called Peter and his brother, Andrew, they were casting a net into the sea. They were fishermen follow me, he told them, and I will make you fish for people. Immediately they left their nets, and followed him. So Jesus with this huge idea of the kingdom of heaven, the kingdom of God has come near walks up to two fishermen who I know I've shared this before, but they probably quit schooling around the age of 12 and took up the family trade. They probably had Elementary, maybe middles, their, their country bumpkins, somebody might say that have never had a lot of education, but they know how to do their trade really well. Not the type of people that become disciples of rabbis, right? It's not the reality. Jesus decides to choose them. Pretty interesting, isn't it? I love it. It says they laughed immediately. And he also says that I'll make you fish for people. So Jesus, His invitation to follow him was include mission was included with that. It wasn't like Jesus didn't say, Pray this prayer. He said, No, come on with me and I've got a mission. I've got a plan for you. You're going to go fish for people now. You have something to do. Going on. From there, he saw two other brothers James the son of Zebedee, and his brother John, remember last week we read the passage where I wonder when this happens if James knows, in a few years, he'll be dead for the sake of Christ. Pretty sure he chose the right move, because he gets an eternal reward.
But I wonder if in this moment, he even considered his mom it considered at all that he would be martyred for the sake of this, following this rabbi, James the son of Zebedee, his brother, John, they were in a they were in a boat with Zebedee, their father preparing their nets, and he called them immediately. They left the boat in their father, and followed him. So Jesus with his whole huge idea of the Kingdom of Heaven has come near understanding or knowing the plan of God. His one of his first moves is to build community like is to bring other people alongside like he understood the plan of the father wasn't just for him to go because he could have done that, right. I mean, God can do whatever he wants. He could have came and did a solo mission. He could have come and just went around preaching by himself and not inviting other people around proclaiming the kingdom of Gods here that is I am the King and the Kingdom of God, he chose not to do this. I mean, it's it's crazy. I mean, he only stayed here for, you know, in ministry for three something years or so Right. Like we've said that, like, he goes around doing this. And his first move is to just form community. And it really hit me when I thought about that this week, is that when Jesus is calling Peter and Simon Peter, and James and John and Andrew, he's calling them to follow him. And he's following them, calling them to community with one another. Right? He didn't just say, you and me, you can follow me like he's recognizing that he is building a brotherhood right here of people who are going to come together and do life together. And what do they do argue with each other, they fight with each other. But what holds them together, it's their following their Jesus is what holds them together. We live in this culture where man, it's like, increasingly, I was talking to Seth the other day, because he, he deals with a lot of younger people. And I think it's worse among them. He's like, people don't know how to deal with confrontation. Like, they just don't know how these run away from it. Or come tell me they're always snitching to me. He's like, I'm just so he's like, they don't know how to, like, go up to each other and go, Hey, I have this issue. And not like, in like, just deal with it, you know. But Jesus calls us to do that he calls us to deal with it with each other to grow with each other, it's gonna be there's gonna be times where it's gonna be, it's gonna struggle, we're gonna be upset at one another. That's okay. Let's get through it. Let's keep following Jesus. But I've read this so many times. And oftentimes, you know, we've probably read this thing where he goes up to him and says, Follow me. And I'll make you fishers of people. We went, wow. They just dropped their nets and followed him what's the deal with that, like, but there's more to the story, actually, a lot more turned to John chapter one. Like, as you're turning there, I'm thinking of Peter, and I'm thinking of the day of Pentecost, and how he is proclaiming this message with the other disciples about the Kingdom of God and try and explaining why the spirit is falling on them. And some people think they're drunk and all these things these plant uses proclaiming this message. And these 3000 people, some odd people come to know Jesus as Messiah and Lord and King. But I wonder without other people involved, this is I'm just trying to share how important community other people evolved. Peter probably would have never been there. He may have never been there. This wasn't just a thing where Rabbi walks up to me says, Hey, follow me. There's a lot there's more to the story. There's other people that were involved in it. So if you go to John chapter one, there, you already got it there. No, I got a turn there. Alright, I'm going to start a verse 35. But in context, John is talking about how he saw the Spirit fall on Jesus rest on Jesus whenever he baptized Jesus. And it says, in Verse 35, the next day, John was standing with his disciples, with two of his disciples, excuse me, when he saw Jesus passing by, he said, Look, the Lamb of God. So whether you realize this chain of events or not, John the Baptist played a role in Peter deciding to follow Jesus. Alright. You'll see it. So here's John the Baptist proclaiming, again, look, the Lamb of God. The two disciples heard him say this, and follow Jesus. I'll pause for a moment because in verse 14, it says, one of the two of them was Andrew, who assignment Peters, brother. Okay, we'll go back. So to the two disciples hear this, and it says they follow Jesus, when Jesus turned in notice them following him, they're following him. Why? Because they hear John's proclamation. This is the Lamb of God.
Jesus, or he asked them, What are you looking for? Ah, Jesus, his response is so different than I think we think it is. Yeah. Hey, I'm just so glad that you're following me and just, let's just let me give you kisses and the Lord loves you. There's nothing wrong with the Lord loves us all. But Jesus, like, what are you guys doing? Like, what do you want? We're not being like, sometimes I wonder if we would have loved Jesus's preaching as much as we. Oh, he said amazing things. But he was also pretty blunt a lot of times, right. Like, I thought to myself about this. And for some reason, on my mind, this morning was when Jesus is like, talking about the cost of following him. And he's like, how many of you build a tower and before you build a tower, you don't, you know, you just go ahead and build it without counting the cost. Because if you do that, basically, he says, You're gonna look stupid, and people are gonna make fun of you. If you can't finish the tower. I mean, that's basically what Jesus says. In today's day and age, it would be like, how many of you are going to go build a house without even figuring out if you have enough money to build it right? What do we do? We go figure out if we don't have a lot, how much a lot is what's going to cost? lay the foundation do the footing. Okay, if I do a 20 2100 square foot home or a 1500? Or this okay, what is the price? Was the framing gonna cost me kind of fixtures about gonna put? Am I gonna put granite in this thing? I don't know if I can afford granite, you know, and you start looking at all that stuff. And then at the end, you're with a contractor or a builder, whatever. And they really listen all day and then they go, this is the price and then you decide to build it. We don't just say, let's just go for it. Buy a plot of land. I don't know, Mike, have you dealt with that yet? I know your real estate. No one's just said, well, let's just lay that I got a few bucks. Let's go ahead and lay that foundation and we'll just see what happens. But Jesus is saying like that. We don't That's what He wants us to do if we choose to follow him, right? Like when he's telling them what are you looking for? Like? That's he saying, like, look like count the cost. This is like this cost you everything. This is this is a big deal. He wants to know, hey, guys, what do you want? So they said to him, Rabbi, which means teacher, where are you staying? That's a pretty simple request, I think, Huh? I love how deeply relational this and just casual this kind of exchanges. Jesus turns them, it says I need you to recite this creed. And sign off on our vision and mission statement for the ministry. Didn't sorry, that's not in there. I'm not against those things, either. But no, he says in response to them, Come and you'll see, he replied. So they went and saw where he was staying. And they stayed with him that day. It was about four in the afternoon. Our God is deeply relational. Like his response to them was just simply come on, let's go. Like, it wasn't like, let me teach you something here. It was like, Come on, just hang out with me. Let's go spend some time together. Isn't that amazing? Like when he calls the disciples He doesn't say I use as follow me like, come on. Let's go. Let's do if you if if you're interested. What do you want? If you want something, let's go come on. God is love how incredibly Invitational God is and how important our relationship with God and with one another is. It's it's hugely important. And these people go together with Jesus. Okay, I'll follow you. I'll follow you see what happens. It says Andrew, Simon, Peter's brother, was one of the two who heard John and followed him. So what do you say Simon? Peter, Andrew, excuse me, Peter's brother heard this proclamation of that John made. Look, the Lamb of God.
He was one of the two and he followed him. So Andrew is just really interested in the sky and what what he's proclaiming what he's what he's doing. Who is this? Who is this Jesus? So let's he's curious. And Jesus invites him to just Alright, let's come on. You'll see. He first found his own brother Simon, and told him we have found the Messiah, which is translated the Christ. And he brought Simon to Jesus. Do you guys know that? So Simon, Peter did not come to know Jesus. He wasn't just fishing myself. And that wasn't the end of the story. Like, one of the reasons that Simon the reason that Simon comes to Jesus here is why because of his brother Andrew, because Andrews curiosity in the Lord because Andrews deciding to go follow and come and see who this guy is, who this Messiah is. And it says, When Jesus saw him, he said, Simon, you are Simon, son of John, which will be called surface, you will be called surface, which is translated Peter. And I flashback to that moment, to that time at the day of Pentecost. And I wonder, would Peter have been there? I don't know what he had been proclaiming this message would he be talking about the kingdom and the spirit? If his brother Andrew hadn't followed in followed Jesus and came to him and said, We found the Messiah. And I begin to think of how important it is that that we all work together in this like John had a message about the puzzle pieces that come together for our city, right? Everyone's not a Peter. And that's a really good thing because they probably drive us all stinking insane if everyone was like, Peter. Some of us are Andrews. Some of us are ones that at least in this situation, help prop up the Peters and bring it in help them walk in the calling that God has for them in their lives. Like sometimes we read about Peters stuff, and we don't realize man, this wasn't done in a vacuum. This was a community thing that took place in because of Peters relationship with Andrew and Andrews relationship with John the Baptist, and Jesus coming up to him and talking to him. All those things working together, brought Peter to that moment, and I just I think that's incredible. I think it's just beautiful. And I love again how it is. It is Jesus. It is God who's inviting us all to come and see together. He's inviting us to come together as community into come and see What he wants to do, and that's what we're, that's what we're saying over this season of prayer and fasting is let's come and look at Jesus. Let's gaze on Jesus, let's listen to Jesus. Let's spend time together as we listen to what he's saying. So that we can make sure that we are following him the best that we can because guess what, there's a mission that God has for us all. There absolutely is. I just wanted to end today, and this is kind of a short message. Um, but I just felt like short and sweet by just sharing a real quick story that happened recently. And that is with Mike Stroud. You all know Mike Stroud, most of you, Timothy network, if you don't discipling kind of organization. Several months ago, Mike met a lady named Melissa. You know that story, John? Yeah, he met a lady named Melissa, who was incarcerated. Her husband had gone, I got I think she got life in prison. He got excuse me life in prison for drug trafficking. Well, she's left alone with her kids, as he doesn't know how to make money except for drug trafficking. So she chooses to do the same thing. I can't remember where she was living at the time. But she was driving through Tennessee, and got caught. Big time thing. So she gets caught. And she goes off to prison. And I can't remember how many years she was in prison for this. But a couple 2019 She came out of prison. Didn't know what to do. She gave her life to Jesus in prison. She said, she got a degree from Lipscomb actually in prison. So that was pretty cool. And then she just started going back to her own things. Like this is very common when it comes to folks who have been in prison or jail for a really long time, like you come back in the world never stopped. Like everyone just rolled without you just the reality of, of what takes place. And not only that, but then you can get institutionalized as she said she was institutionalized. She was just used to the way things have gone because she was in there for so many years. And so she comes back, without having a community to come to, like not having people to come to and what happens to her, she falls back into her own ways. I'm telling you, isolationism almost always leads to sin. I mean, like, whenever you become totally isolated, you guys, you all know what I'm talking about. The enemy just really can can lay ahold of you.
There was some kind of clerical error. And she had to go back to jail for a few months or two months or something like that. And they found out that it was an error. I don't know what all that was to do with, but she sees it. I saw it as the grace of God, because she said I was headed down the wrong path. And going back there, kind of got me back on track. Well, she came out, she got involved with some kind of ministry that got hooked up with Mike. And then Karen, his wife, Tracy, Patti, like several people, there's a lot of people that were surrounding her. And and she really got her life back on track. And this was like recently, this is just this year, if you put to the next slide. This was a poem that she wrote, she just she recently wrote, I'll just read it for me you paid for my sins at a hefty price. So you are bound to that cross for me Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Thorns crown your head, great drops of blood began to drip for me, you took every lashing from the whip said, is possible this cut be taken from me, is it possible, you cried, but then said if it was your father's will, you would abide seven inch nails were maliciously driven into your hands, you suffered so much, this is hard for me to understand. For me, you gave the the ultimate sacrifice your death so I can be washed of my sin and serve you, my Lord till my last breath. And this is that lady who had been in prison for such a long time. And I met her on it. We did a prayer thing on Zoom. And I met her at nukes a month ago, maybe a little more than a month ago. She's probably late 40s, early 50s. I got a message a few weeks ago, she died. She had a heart attack, I think for something that she passed away. And I think of that last line that she wrote, you know, and one of the first things that I that came to my mind was thank God for people like Mike was thank God for community was thank God for people who said, You know what? Let me tell you something. It was messy with her. Like, there were things were like, we get frustrated and challenged and stuff like that. And I'm like, Where would she what? Where would she be? You know, would she be forever separated from God, like in this moment, if it hadn't been for people who had just been willing to like lay themselves down together? They did it together. It was a community thing. And she had no idea. I think like I said, I think maybe she had a heart attack or something that she and she passed away. We can make an incredible difference in the lives of our neighbors and the lives of the people. All around us just like Mike did, and I just I just I just wanted us to meditate and think about that this morning as we take a few moments where take a couple minutes to just listen to the Lord and just recognize that every single like I'm this guy that's got this big I want to see this whole city come to know the Lord and all that stuff and I do but like it's these individuals everyone's a person you know what I mean? Like these life stories this is real. There's this is eternal things in the balance, you know what I mean? These are lives that are, that are can be healed and be restored and all these all this amazing stuff. If we'll just come together, we'll just say Jesus says, Hey, come and see and we say, okay, let's let's come and see let's follow, but let's follow together because that's what he called us to do. He called us to follow together so we'll do what we've done the last month or so and just take a few moments and just listen, listen to the Lord.
Does anybody have anything they feel from the Lord they would like to share? Or wait a few moments? There's no rush. There is there is if there's not, there's not. Yeah, there's that? Was there a hand?
I don't want to talk about baseball. But the Braves did win last night. But more important than that was something that happened after the game.
Young man Danby, What's his last name? Swanson, who played his college ball at Vanderbilt, and is now in the pros playing for Atlanta hit a home run. They interviewed him after the game when something he said just really touched me. They asked him how you felt about all this? He said, Well, you know, it's exciting. Yeah. But he said God has a plan for each one of us. And if we trust Him, that plan will be where we're supposed to be. God does have a plan, Louise. Bobby wasn't here last week and she was not part of the community prayer that we had for Louise and Lonnie. And she has requested that we do that again so she can be part of it. So if any of you want to gather around Louise Amani, back there.
Lord, we're so thankful that you do have a plan for our lives. And we ask you to give us the faith to trust in that plan to believe that you know what you're doing in our lives and that we can commit our lives to you. We pray for our sister Louise and for Lonnie, as they face a rather scary situation. But not just for them. We pray also for all of us who are facing frightening challenges in our lives, but just give us the understanding. The understanding that your plan for our lives is what really matters. Give us the faith and the strength to put out hopes and your promises and to believe that you will do what you say. We ask for healing. We ask for strength and comfort. And we thank you for a community who is willing to say with me, in Jesus name, Amen.
