Answering God’s Call Amos 7:12-15; Mark 1:16-20  1/3/10 Being a Disciple, Making Disciples

                Kay and I went to see the movie “The Blindside” over the holidays.   The story focuses on Michael Oehr, now an offensive tackle with the NFL’s Baltimore Ravens.  Before Oehr was nine, he had failed first grade, second grade, and had lived in eleven different homes in Memphis.  His mother was a crack cocaine addict, his estranged father was murdered.  Michael eventually was admitted to a Christian School which was the beginning of his life-turn.  But he was still homeless.  One cold, rainy night, he was walking away from the school and the Tuohy’s, a wealthy Memphis family, saw him, and asked him where he was going and where was he staying.  He eventually admitted he was going nowhere- so they invited him into their home.  A few months later they adopted him.  The rest of the story is he became high school player of the year in Mississippi and an All American at the University of Mississippi, and now makes about two million dollars a year from the Ravens.
                This raises the question- what if Michael said, “I don’t want to change schools?”  What if Michael did not respond to the Tuohy’s invitation to stay in their house?  At the end of the movie it showed headlines of some of Michael’s neighborhood friends who were athletic but didn’t get out of the neighborhood.  Some were shot, some just continued to waste their lives going nowhere.

                Jesus issued a call to Peter and Andrew, James and John- who were all fishermen.  His call meant leaving their old way of life and entering into a new way of life.  I believe this is a call for all of us. This is, in one way a call specifically to the apostles- for they became full time followers.  But it is also a call for all of us. The Call involves- Dropping our nets, Following Christ, and fishing for people.

I. DROP OUR NETS- They did not stop fishing in a vacuum.  John records that Andrew and John were disciples of John the Baptist and heard him point to Jesus.  It even record Andrew’s encouraging Simon Peter to join him in following Christ. 

A. MAKE CHRIST A PRIORITY- Eugene Peterson, Presbyterian pastor and translator of the Message version of the Bible, says that a lot of people look at faith as tourists.  We view Christianity as an attractive site to be seen at our leisure. We go to church, he says to gain a new experience, to see some new personality, hear some new music. Gore Vidal describes our age as passionate for the immediate and the casual. Someone in my rotary club told me as a pastor I was in the middle of “tourist season” when people just come by for a look at Christmas (and Easter). We are not called to tourists, but disciples who learn, and pilgrims who persevere through the journey of life, ever going upward toward God.

B. DO NOT BE SO EASILY ENTANGLED

The world does not applaud us when we drop our nets.  When we make a decision to follow Christ and be his disciple- old friends may greet us with agnostic indifference and a yawn and perhaps some passive hostility. The scriptures do not tell us, but I can imagine

Ira Sankey worked for his father, had a secure government job, and was married with a child.  But Dwight Moody heard him sing at a meeting and went up to him and told him he needed to quit his job and begin singing for him.  Sankey would not.  Later Moody got him to stand on a barrell outside a factory as people were leaving.  A great crowd gathered around to hear him sing, and then Moody spoke and many came to Christ. Moody and Sankey were synonymous.  It was said that Moody sang as if someone was coming to Christ between each note.

II. FOLLOW- Being a Disciple means being a learner, a follower. It means being an apprentice to the Master, imitating Him.

A. GO WHERE HE GOES- They followed first Christ the man, without knowing of Christ the doctrine.  It was not a creed they were following, but a life. We do not need to know everything in order to make a decision for Christ- all we have to know is Christ- and hear his call to follow.  Elders and deacons- you are called first and foremost not to follow some ideology, but to follow Christ as close as you possibly can- asking- what would He have me do.

B. LISTENING- They first listened to his call so they could later listen to his teachings. They did not come for curiosity or for entertainment. Tell me; I'll forget. Show me; I may remember. But involve me and I'll understand. 

III. FISH FOR PEOPLE- Jesus was making the change as smooth as possible. The patience, the casting out, the perseverance, the facing of the storms all prepared them for the spiritual fishing. Being a Disciple means not keeping the good news to yourself.

A. MULTIPLYING THE GOOD- Reproduction- fruitfulness is a sign of life.

The truest sign of conversion is a desire to see others converted.  It is not so important about the gifts God has given us naturally, but what God does with us- he sends us to be fishers- Matthew says he will make us into fishers of people.
B. DISCIPLING MEANS MAKING A DISCIPLE- EVEN MAKING DISCIPLEMAKERS.  One of the last things that Jesus said was to go into all the world and make disciples. Christians are called not just to help the poor and the needy physically, but to help the spiritually needy too. I have always been amazed that Jesus delegated to the disciples.   They did not do as great a job as he did.  They often doubted, feared, failed, sank, betrayed, and ran away.  Yet without the disciples, we would not be here today.  Someone had to take the torch.  We should see it as more important to multiply our faith than to worry about how it might be misinterpreted or even abused.  One of the most important things Jesus did was to choose the twelve.  Of these twelve (besides Judas) they all suffered.  All were martyred except for John who was in exile so long, they didn’t martyr him.  Jesus chose frail people.  We should never say, “I am too frail or weak to be chosen.”  God chose uneducated, simple, unknown people and He changed the world with them. But the very first step was saying, “Yes.”  Moody once said, “It is better to train ten people than to do the work of ten people. But it is harder. 
                Kierkegaard, the Danish philosopher, told a story about a goose who was wounded and who landed in a barnyard with some chickens. He played with the chickens and ate with the chickens. After a while that goose thought he was a chicken. One day a flight of geese came over, migrating to their home. They gave a honk up there in the sky, and he heard it.

   Kierkegaard said, "Something stirred within the breast of this goose. Something called him to the skies. He began to flap the wings he hadn't used, and he rose a few feet into the air. Then he stopped, and he settled back again into the mud of the barnyard. He heard the cry, but he settled for less."  God is calling us

¹² Then Amaziah said to Amos, "Get out, you seer! Go back to the land of Judah. Earn your bread there and do your prophesying there. ¹³ Don't prophesy anymore at Bethel, because this is the king's sanctuary and the temple of the kingdom." ¹⁴ Amos answered Amaziah, "I was neither a prophet nor the disciple of a prophet, but I was a shepherd, and I also took care of sycamore-fig trees. ¹⁵ But the LORD took me from tending the flock and said to me, 'Go, prophesy to my people Israel.'

 ¹⁶ As Jesus walked beside the Sea of Galilee, he saw Simon and his brother Andrew casting a net into the lake, for they were fishermen. ¹⁷ "Come, follow me," Jesus said, "and I will send you out to fish for people." ¹⁸ At once they left their nets and followed him. ¹⁹ When he had gone a little farther, he saw James son of Zebedee and his brother John in a boat, preparing their nets. ²⁰ Without delay he called them, and they left their father Zebedee in the boat with the hired men and followed him.