Matthew 9:9 “As Jesus went on from there, he saw a man named Matthew sitting at the tax collector’s booth. ‘Follow me,’ he told him, and Matthew got up and followed him.”

Take a few minutes and put yourself in Matthew’s place. You are sitting at your desk, attending to customers, or working on some project. A man approaches. You recognize him because you have heard him speak before. You liked what he had to say, but you know that he is a controversial figure. The “establishment” is generally critical of him. He comes up to you and pauses. He looks you straight in the eye and says two words: “Follow me.” He means right now. He doesn’t ask you to put in your two-week notice. Put down your pen, or your tools. Leave the computer behind. Right here, right now, get up and follow Jesus.

Sound hard? This is the invitation Matthew faced. Here, in the middle of the business day, Jesus tells him to leave it all and follow him. So Matthew goes.

Jesus still invites us: “Follow me.” It doesn’t necessarily mean leaving your work behind. He looks us in the heart, not in the eye, when he calls. But the invitation is still right here, right now, in this moment, every moment, of our lives.

There are big implications to Jesus’ invitation. One is a call for trust. Look at what Matthew was leaving. He had carved out a lucrative career and luxurious lifestyle for himself. There were negative things about being a tax collector. Not only did they take your money, but they also cooperated with a foreign enemy who was trespassing on your land. Matthew was collecting taxes for Rome, not Jerusalem. His neighbors probably thought of him as a traitor.

People like Matthew traded popularity and acceptance for wealth. He had money. Now Jesus was calling him to leave the big money behind. And there was no promise of public popularity and acceptance to show for it. The respectable people like the Pharisees didn’t like Matthew even a little bit more for following Jesus. Matthew had to trust that there were good reasons to follow Jesus that didn’t have to do with a higher standard of living or more enjoyable life in the short run.

It’s still that way. The invitation to follow Jesus is always a call to repent. He wants us to leave certain things about our former lifestyle behind. It could involve money, if there was something less than godly about the way we were getting it before. If we have it, following Jesus will mean a willingness to give more of it away and spend less of it on ourselves. It could involve the kinds of words we use and the way we talk to and about people we don’t particularly like. “Love your enemies” is a big part of where Jesus leads.

This all calls for trust, because there is no promise our lives will be filled with fantastic new wholesome versions of the things we enjoy in place of our old vices in the short term. Keep in mind Jesus’ warning, “If the world hates you, keep in mind that it hated me first” (John 15:18). The invitation “Follow Me” implies a heaping helping of repentance and trust when we consider that we are leaving behind some things that we really liked.

So what do we get instead? Why is the trade worth it? Jesus is offering front row seats to the greatest love there has ever been. I once heard a pastor at a mission festival tell a congregation that there is a little two-or-three-feet-square patch of ground that is the most blessed little patch of earth in the world. It is the little patch of ground right behind Jesus when you are following him. From that patch Matthew stood and watched him give blind people their sight back, deaf people their hearing back, lame people the ability to walk again, dead people the ability to live and breathe again. He saw Jesus reach out to social outcasts. He heard him telling prostitutes the parable of the lost sheep and the lost son. When Jesus got up in the morning, his life was all love. When he went to bed at night his life was all love.            

Not only does Jesus loves others that way. He loved Matthew like that. He loves us like that. He makes his love a substitute for our own, providing the love God demands of us but we have always lacked. That is because we, too, are the objects of his love. It is the love in which we live when we follow him.

Jeremiah 20:11-13 “But the Lord is with me like a mighty warrior; so my persecutors will stumble and not prevail. They will fail and be thoroughly disgraced; their dishonor will never be forgotten. O Lord Almighty, you who examine the righteous and probe the heart and mind, let me see your vengeance upon them, for to you I have committed my cause. Sing to the Lord! Give praise to the Lord! He rescues the life of the needy from the hands of the wicked.”

Jeremiah gives us three descriptions of the Lord that give us courage for what we have to say. First of all, the Lord is with us like a mighty warrior: someone like Goliath, whose size and strength kept the entire Israelite army hiding until David came along.

Perhaps a more up to date picture for us would be an action-adventure hero. In one hand he carries a 20 millimeter machine gun, in the other a grenade launcher. He single-handedly wipes out the enemy. Our mighty warrior may not be very loud or very visible to us today, but he is with us nonetheless. Remembering that Christ stands behind us, and is going to vindicate us in the end, may make us feel a little less lonely when we need to take a stand.

Second, Jeremiah reveals that God has a purpose in letting us take some heat for speaking out against evil. He is the Lord “who examine(s) the righteous and probe(s) the heart and mind…” God is testing us and refining us when the world is taking us on. Our faith becomes purer and more certain when believing or doing what is right has been particularly challenging, and we have had to put our trust more firmly in the Lord and his word. We may not like it when our stands make us unpopular, but, like so many things that taste bad or feel bad, it’s good for us.

Finally, God be praised, for “…he rescues the life of the needy from the hands of the wicked.” If there is one thing we should never forget about our God, it is that he is the God who rescues. Bible history is one long litany of events in which he rescues his people. He rescues Noah from the flood. He rescues Jacob from Esau. He rescues Israel from famine. He rescues Israel from Egypt. He rescues David from Goliath, and Saul, and Absalom. He rescues Jerusalem from Assyria. He rescues Judah from Babylon. Finally, he rescues the world from sin and hell by letting his Son be crucified to death and rise again to life. God is going to return to rescue us from this world on the last day.

If our Lord has gone through all of that to rescue us as a people for himself, we don’t have to be afraid or ashamed to stand with him against the sin and deceit of the world in which we live. He will come to our rescue. In fact, he already has.

Jeremiah 20:10 “I hear many whispering, ‘Terror on every side! Report him! Let’s report him!’ All my friends are waiting for me to slip, saying, ‘Perhaps he will be deceived; then we will prevail over him and take our revenge on him.”

Rock star Frank Zappa once said, “When you see the little fish sign on the car ahead of you, you know you are looking at the enemy.” Perhaps it doesn’t surprise us when the non-Christian world around us rejects our faith, values, and warnings about sin. If anything, we might be surprised that they tolerate us as well as they do.

The world that rejected Jeremiah included some less likely figures, or so we might think. Jeremiah was not only a prophet, he was also a priest. In the first part of chapter 20, a fellow priest by the name of Pashhur had ordered Jeremiah beaten and put in stocks for preaching against the city of Jerusalem and its people. Here Jeremiah confesses that even his friends were plotting against him because of the things he said.

There is a great temptation for us here. Religion and relationships are deeply important to us. We would like to think that “men of God” are all deeply moral, deeply trustworthy people. But they are still fallible human beings. Sometimes they can be grossly on the wrong side of a moral or doctrinal issue. Don’t be overawed by how spiritual or well-educated they seem to be. Don’t be pressured to give up what God’s word clearly says.

And we may treasure our deepest relationships with family or friends. We may put a high priority on family and friends, but God’s word must be higher still. Jeremiah didn’t back off on God’s message even though it turned friends against him. Jesus still says to us, “He that loves father or mother more than me is not worthy of me, and he that loves son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me.” Don’t let the world’s rejection, whether it’s the world out there, or the world in here, or the world in your own home, stop us from speaking against the things that need to be confronted.

At the same time, we have Jesus’ promises to those who hold to his word faithfully. “If you hold to my teaching, you are really my disciples. Then you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free” (John 8:31). We are always on the right side when we believe and profess Jesus’ words. He himself continues to claim us as his own. He continues to provide the freedom of his grace and forgiveness. Human opposition cannot change his own approval and acceptance of those who remain faithful to him. “Whoever acknowledges me before, I will also acknowledge before my Father in heaven” (Matthew 10:32).

They crucified him for his teaching. It is no surprise that his teaching continues to attract hostility today. That may be a clear sign we are believing and speaking the right things.

Jeremiah 20:7-9 “O Lord, you deceived me, and I was deceived; you overpowered me and prevailed. I am ridiculed all day long; everyone mocks me. Whenever I speak, I cry out proclaiming violence and destruction. So the word of the Lord has brought insult and reproach all day long. But if I say, ‘I will not mention him or speak any more in his name,’ his word is in my heart like a fire, a fire shut up in my bones. I am weary of holding it in; indeed, I cannot.”

Jeremiah’s complaint can be broken down into three parts. First he seems to say, “I didn’t know I was getting into all of this.” “Lord, why didn’t you tell me how hard serving you was going to be?” He suggests that the Lord didn’t prepare him for the opposition he would face. Perhaps at first the title “prophet” appealed to him. He knew that he would serve an important purpose in doing the Lord’s work. He was a little naive about the trouble it would cause him.

Have you ever felt that way about your Christian witness or service? Not everyone accepts your Scriptural views. Your service to the church hasn’t been free from opposition, roadblocks, and setbacks. Like Jeremiah, we want to whine, “Lord, you deceived me. I’m not having fun anymore. I didn’t know the trouble this could be.”

The second part of Jeremiah’s complaint dealt specifically with the message he had to deliver. “Whenever I speak, I cry out proclaiming violence and destruction. So the word of the Lord has brought me insult and reproach all day long.” In essence, Jeremiah was saying, “I don’t like the negativity. I don’t like speaking against things all the time.”

And there was much for Jeremiah to be “against.” Idolatry, greed, child sacrifice, social injustice, Sabbath breaking, and false prophecies are only a partial list of the sins God sent him to confront. He had the unenviable task of preaching to a people who were about to feel God’s hand of judgment. Jeremiah was tired of it.

The list of sins that need to be confronted in our culture, our church, and ourselves is no shorter than the list before Jeremiah. The temptation is to tone down the talk about sin, emphasize the positive, and try to avoid offending anyone. It is for this reason that Church today seems to be losing its fighting spirit and is more and more willing to be swept along with the spirit of the times.

But who is served if we are ashamed to speak against the things that God’s word speaks against? Abortion kills children. Sexual license kills families and societies. Non-Christian religions and non-biblical teachings kill souls. Don’t be ashamed to be against such things.

In the last part of his complaint Jeremiah complains, “I can’t even stop speaking against evil when I want to.” “But if I say, ‘I will not mention his name,’ his word is in my heart like a fire, a fire shut up in my bones. I am weary of holding it in; indeed, I cannot.” It’s not that he didn’t try, but it was painful to try to hold his convictions in.

Do you find the same difficulty? If you do, it’s not just because you are naturally grumpy or suffer from a pathological need to be critical. The Christian recognizes that there is something vital at stake here. Unrepented sin condemns. We speak against the things God speaks against not to win arguments but to save souls. It is the necessary prelude to sharing the good news that God will completely forgive all sins for the sake of Jesus’ innocent sufferings and death on the cross.

Are you skeptical that being “against” things can work, that it can actually produce any good? Sometimes, like Jeremiah, we might think that all it gets us is ridicule. But God does get his work done this way. A retired pastor once told a convention I attended about a card he received with a picture of a family he didn’t recognize. The accompanying letter was from a lady whom he had confronted for cohabiting with her unbelieving boyfriend nearly two decades earlier. Though she had walked out of his office angry that day, she was thanking him for telling her the truth and not accepting her excuses. Everything he had predicted about where such an unholy relationship would end up came true. Now she had been led to repentance, received forgiveness, and had a new life with a godly husband and children.

Don’t be ashamed to be “against” things you know are wrong. God may turn our present day complaints into future reasons to rejoice.

1 Corinthians 12:7 “Now to each one the manifestation of the Spirit is given for the common good.”

I have to confess that when I get gifts from others for Christmas or my birthday, for Father’s Day or an anniversary, I usually think, “Thank you! This is for me to use or enjoy for myself.” That doesn’t mean I won’t share it, too. But I am thinking mostly of how I can use the gift to serve me. Sometimes even the giver will say, “Now this is for you. Don’t let everyone else enjoy it and not you.”

When God gives us his Spirit, and the Spirit gives us gifts, it works the other way around. Yes, we enjoy using the talents he gives us. There is a beautiful sense of satisfaction that comes from putting God’s gifts to work.

But the object, Paul says, is “the common good.” Any ability God has given to me isn’t so much so that I can glorify myself. It is so that I can serve my neighbor. I can use my gift to take care of others. It is an opportunity to love. You may lack what I have, so I can love you in this way. And I lack some things that you have, and you can love me in return. This way, the common good is served, and love grows, and God is glorified, all because he has given us his Spirit.

Isn’t that how Jesus used the gifts he possessed? How many times in the gospels do we read about him using his power to feed himself or heal himself? His whole purpose was to serve the common good. “Even the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many” (Mark 10:45). This resulted in forgiveness and salvation for all who believe.

When we use the Spirit’s gifts for the common good, we don’t get less. We get more. God himself is active in our lives. Our family of faith grows around us. These are greater blessings than the gifts themselves. Let’s not miss God’s purpose in the spiritual abilities he has given to us all.

1 Corinthians 12:4-6 “There are different kinds of gifts, but the same Spirit. There are different kinds of service, but the same Lord. There are different kinds of working, but the same God works all of them in all men.”

We are all unique. God never intended Christians to be clones of each other. He doesn’t shove us off an assembly line where every part is interchangeable, and good quality control means that each product looks exactly the same.

No, each of us is more like a luxury product that is hand-crafted and custom-made. “There are different kinds of gifts.” Of course, we already know this. We have always seen it in our natural lives. Musical, athletic, handy, artistic, quick-witted, strong, scholarly, empathetic, organized, inspiring, eloquent, steady–you probably see some of your own traits in the list, but not all of them.

Now Paul wants us to understand that sometimes there are supernatural gifts. The Spirit gives them. They all come from the same Spirit, but the gifts aren’t all the same. You are still unique, hand-crafted, and custom-made by the Spirit’s own design.

Why should he even have to say this? You might think it is self-evident. But even supernatural gifts given by God’s Spirit can be twisted by people into an opportunity for temptation and sin. Paul is just touching on the issue here, laying the groundwork for the discussion. Later in this chapter he exposes the terrible things the Christians in Corinth did with the particular gifts they had been given.

Sometimes we use them in a prideful and self-righteous way. The Spirit gives us a gift, an ability, that another person lacks. The idea occurs to us, “Everyone should be more like me. Why don’t other people have the Biblical insight I do? Why can’t they administrate work in the church like I can? Why can’t they teach or preach or help or give the same? What is wrong with them? Thank God this is right with me!”

Sometimes we may be guilty of envy. Some of the gifts the Spirit gives put a person on center stage, like preaching or teaching. Some are more in the background, like helping others and church administration. All are mentioned as gifts the Spirit gives, but we might wonder, “Why did I get such a humble gift?” We sulk a little like the little kid who opens his present on Christmas and says, “Oh. Socks. I wanted the game console.”

Remember, these are gifts. They are expressions of God’s grace. They are another way in which he is showing us that he has loved and forgiven us. His good things come to us not because we are entitled to them or worked hard. He doesn’t owe us. He is kind and generous.

I am reminded of the story I once read–a true story, I believe– of a woman who wrote letters to her several children shortly before she died. In each letter she told that child, “You were always my favorite.” Then she went on to list some of the special gifts and talents she appreciated about that child.

You can quibble, I suppose, about the way she used the word “favorite.” It usually suggests a comparison to others. But what she was trying to say is, “I loved you like no one else and you were special to me in your own unique way.”

God has given you his Spirit. And maybe the gifts he gives you seem humble. Maybe you are even struggling to see what they are. But I assure you they are there. They fit you perfectly. And with your particular gifts he is saying, “I have loved you like no one else. You are always special to me in your own unique way.”

1 Corinthians 12:3 “Therefore I tell you that no one who is speaking by the Spirit of God says, ‘Jesus be cursed,’ and no one can say ‘Jesus is Lord,’ except by the Holy Spirit.”

The man who wrote these words, the Apostle Paul, knew a thing or two about saying, “Jesus be cursed.” It was the theme of his young adult life. He hated what Jesus stood for: the end of do-it-yourself religion, and in its place God’s love and forgiveness available to all. He hated what Jesus had done to the traditional Jewish faith. He hated Jesus. So he cursed Jesus by teaching the opposite. He cursed Jesus by dragging his followers off to prison. He cursed Jesus by seeking the death of his disciples.

We may think that it is rare to hear people actually curse Jesus today. I don’t generally hear anyone raining down “f-bombs” on our Savior. Commentators on ESPN radio ridiculed NFL quarterback Russell Wilson and his girlfriend Ciara for abstaining from sex before marriage. Aren’t those Christians backwards!

Although she is a Christian now, this is how Rosaria Butterfield, a former lesbian feminist college professor, says she felt about Christians before she converted: “Those who professed the name (Jesus) commanded my pity and wrath…Stupid. Pointless. Menacing. That’s what I thought of Christians and their god Jesus” (Christianity Today, Jan./Feb. 2013). Perhaps it shouldn’t have to be said, but you can’t be Jesus’ enemy and be a friend of God’s Holy Spirit.

At the same time, the proof of the Holy Spirit’s presence in our hearts and lives is as simple as this: “No one can say, ‘Jesus is Lord,’ except by the Holy Spirit.” Anyone can mouth those words, but Paul is talking about a sincere expression of personal faith. You can’t say, “Jesus is Lord,” and believe it unless the Holy Spirit has changed you, and now lives in you.

Let’s talk a little about what that means. “Jesus is Lord” is more than a way to recognize his power and significance. Throughout history many nations have added the title “the Great” to the name of their most powerful and influential rulers. We have Alexander the Great in Greece, Peter the Great in Russia, and Charlemagne, or “Charles the Great,” in France. We may refer to kings and emperors this way, too, but that doesn’t mean we are fans or think that they were good people. We may even believe the world would have been better off without them.

“Jesus is Lord” means more than, “I am forced to do what Jesus says. He is the boss. He makes the rules.” It is true that those who believe Jesus is Lord will live a changed life. They will work to conform their lives to the things Jesus tells us. But that is not the primary emphasis of this claim.

“Jesus is Lord” is about a relationship of love and respect. Jesus rules in my life because he made himself my protector and deliverer. That is what a real Lord and Master does. He laid down his life to save me. When I was his enemy he opened his arms to me and forgave me. With his love and sacrifice Jesus has won my heart. I know I can trust him. Sometimes it is a struggle, but I want to follow him, I want him to direct my life. I know that Jesus’ way is better than my way, as much as my own way may still appeal to the selfish side of me.

This is not something we would have come up with on our own. The Holy Spirit changed our minds and hearts. Your faith that “Jesus is my Lord” is the whole proof that God has given you his Spirit.

1 Peter 5:7 “Casting all your anxiety on him, because he cares for you.”

You already know this, so let’s say it plainly: Worry is a sin. It wastes God’s gifts of time and ability. It accomplishes nothing. In the movie Bridge of Spies, lawyer James Donovan defends Russian spy Rudolf Abel during the Cold War. In the movie Donovan is awed by Abel’s complete sense of calm about his fate. “You could get the death penalty for being a spy,” he tells Abel. “Aren’t you worried?” “Would it help?” Abel replies several times as the story unfolds.

“Would it help?” Of course, the answer is, “No, it never helps.” It robs us of sleep. It makes us sick. It wastes our time. Worry never helps. “Who of you, by worrying, can add a single hour to his life?” Jesus says in the Sermon on the Mount. “Worry,” Jesus says, “is what the pagans, who don’t know they have a loving Father in heaven, do.”

Worse, worry is an obstacle to faith. It is a way of saying to God, “I don’t think your promises are any good. I don’t think you are as powerful as you say you are. And I don’t think you love me like you say you do. I think you may be a liar.” We might not have the gall to say those words to God out loud, but we don’t have to. Our worry says it for us. Worry is not something to hold on to.

Why not worry? “He cares for you.” If there is one thing our Lord has finally and definitely proved, it is the fact that he cares for you. What more could he do than to leave heaven; permanently dress himself in a human body; live among a people who not only didn’t like him, they were trying to kill him from the time he was two years old; surrender himself to the bullies who plotted his death; keep his mouth shut at his trial to ensure his conviction; let himself be executed by the most painful method available at the time on a cross; die with the responsibility for our sins on his back and set us free from their guilt and punishment at no cost to us? The cross is screaming at us, “He cares for you! He cares for you!” every time we see it. He was not afraid to humble himself to save us. What have we got to lose?

Isn’t this the story of the entire Bible? It describes every involvement God ever made in our world from beginning to end. “God cares for you” is a feature of every Bible account, and he is still caring for you as he unfolds the story of your life. It gives us the confidence to let worry go while we wait for this chapter of the story to close. In the one that follows, peace and glory never end.

1 Peter 5:6 “Humble yourselves, therefore, under God’s mighty hand that he may lift you up in due time.”

For a moment picture the young man in his late teens or early twenties. He is strong. He may not be the kind of physical specimen who could walk on to the football team at a major university without getting killed. But he is approaching the peak of his strength. He may be stronger than his father. Almost certainly he’s stronger than his grandfather.

It’s also likely that he has a competitive streak. He wants to win. He wants to be better than the next guy, whether it’s something athletic, or matching wits with someone over a game of chess, or proving his skill in the classroom, or in making things. If he is not naturally shy, then he may be a bit of a show-off. Sometimes he does things without thinking about how he is endangering his own safety. That is why we make these guys our soldiers, and we also charge them a lot more for car insurance.

Our young friend is also itching to be independent. He wants to lead. He doesn’t want other people telling him what to do. Because he has some insecurities, and he doesn’t yet know how much he doesn’t know, he may compensate by acting a too aggressive. He may come off as a little cocky. This is the age of rebellion.

I have painted a cartoon picture of sorts. These characteristics can apply to any one of us in varying degrees. Like Annie Oakley in Annie Get Your Gun, women also want to claim, “Anything you can do, I can do better.” So in our feminist age, women may not be so different, either. Thus the Apostle Peter has something to say to us all.

And it isn’t, “Don’t let anyone push you around.” It isn’t “Look out for number one.” It’s “Humble yourselves.” Humble yourselves. Don’t wait for someone else to come along and cut you off at the knees. Don’t wait for your flaws to expose you. Don’t wait for God himself to take you down a few notches. “Set aside the self-promotion,” he is saying to us. “Stop pretending to be someone you’re not. Let go of the need to be just a little bit smarter, a little bit more righteous, than everyone else. Stop the comparing and the competition, and accept what you are–warts, weaknesses, weirdness and all.

While Peter’s case for humility suggests that generally we need to take a lower view of ourselves, the Lord isn’t asking us to deny genuine gifts with which he has blessed us. But what do we have that is not a gift? I did not create my talents. God gave them to me. I didn’t choose my looks. It’s the way God made me. Even my faith and my Christian life, feeble and faulty as they are, aren’t something I invented. “It is God who works in you both to will and to act according to is good pleasure” (Philippians 2).

The encouragement to humble ourselves “under God’s mighty hand” also has something very positive to say. One of the reasons we resist humility is the fear that it makes us vulnerable. Others will walk all over us. We think we have to look tough and smart to survive.

Not if God’s mighty hand is hovering over us, ready to pick us up. The real case for humility lies in this promise: “he may lift you up in due time.” God has every intention of lifting us up. When we repent of our sins and confess them to him, he doesn’t stand over us with his hands raised in victory, like the prize fighter dancing over the guy he just knocked out cold. He lifts us up. He forgives our sins. He welcomes us into his arms. He restores us as his children.

When we embrace the reality that we did not make ourselves, and any strengths are gifts, then God doesn’t leave us trapped in a prison of shame and self-hate. No, that’s when he sets us free. Why concern myself with what I don’t have? My Father made me the way he wanted, for his purpose. This has a glory all its own. It far exceeds anything I had planned for myself.

And he has set me among his other children with different gifts and talents. Just because we fill in the holes and gaps for each other, there is a real opportunity to love and be loved in his family. At the proper time God will lift you and me up to fulfill our purpose, and to know his grace and love in his family of faith. That makes a powerful case for humility.