Follow Me

This podcast episode delves into the calling of Matthew, the tax collector, highlighting how Jesus' invitation to follow Him interrupts the ordinary and leads to extraordinary change. 

• Jesus calls sinners, offering hope for redemption 
• Matthew’s life illustrates how seemingly ordinary moments can lead to divine encounters 
• Following Jesus requires action, not just passive listening 

Chapters

• 0:15 Redeeming Love Bible Broadcast
• 14:41 Following Jesus
• 20:11 Invitation to Grace Baptist Tabernacle

Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:15

Greetings and welcome once again to the Redeeming Love Bible broadcast. Phil Duddy, here evangelist with Grace Baptist Tabernacle of King, north Carolina, here evangelist with Grace Baptist Tabernacle of King, north Carolina. Glad to have each and every single one of you with me, thankful to the Lord that you are here on this broadcast, joining us today. As always, reach out to us at redeemingthelost at icloudcom. We would love to hear from you. I want to take a moment at the top of the program here to welcome Trinidad, sweden, saudi Arabia and Israel. I am very, very, very thankful to the Lord that you are joining us on the program today. It always amazes me to think back on this program, because the whole way that it started was absolutely of the Lord. It's simple, it was clear. I was walking in the little city of King it's about 7,000 people and it was this really, really beautiful spring evening in the month of May and this was several years back now in the month of May, and this was several years back now and looking for someone to share Jesus with, looking for someone to witness to. I'm out there, walking the streets, looking for folks to talk, to share the Word of God with, and beautiful spring night evening, sun hadn't quite gone down yet and there is not a single person on the sidewalk or walking the street or even on the front porches you know, I've witnessed people on their front porches before but there's not a single person out. And I'm asking the Lord well, how do I get behind those closed doors? How do I, you know, do? And he said go ahead and start the broadcast, start a podcast. That's a little bit different from traditional podcasts, but you know you can call it that if you want, but go ahead and start broadcasting. And that's where it started. The first ones were recorded in a tiny little office and then from there moved into actually one of the bedrooms in our house. About a third of that bedroom had this little tiny computer and a monitor that flickered and a microphone. That wasn't so great and we started it and folks started to listen in America. We started to see some folks pop up in. You know cities. You know Michigan and California, you know the Southwest area of the country, a few in North Carolina and the first international nation, the first international listeners we had that we saw on our end, were the Philippines. And now it's grown to almost 60 nations outside of America and we're thrilled and amazed and thankful in the Lord to see it grow, and thankful to each and every single one of you out there who listen and who support the program and who share this program in your cities and in your nations and in your cultures. We are thankful and we continue to pray for you. Let us know how we can pray for you particularly and specifically. Just reach out to us, send us an email and, yeah, redeemingthelostedicloudcom is the address. That's the best, quickest way to reach us here and we look forward to hearing from you.

Speaker 1: 4:04

Now, today, as we turn to the scriptures, we are going to be in the book of Matthew, chapter 9, verse 9. And let me just go ahead and read it Just Matthew 9, 9, matthew, chapter 9, verse 9. And this is what the Word of God tells us. And as Jesus passed forth from thence, he saw a man named Matthew sitting at the receipt of custom and he saith unto him follow me. And he arose and followed him. And this is powerfully simple and it's amazing and profound on a number of levels. And what do we see here? We see a man named Matthew and Matthew is sitting at the receipt of custom. He's a publican, he's a tax collector and he's going about his business and he's going about his day and he's going about his time and Matthew is simply at this moment. You know, right when Jesus walks up to him, matthew is just being Matthew, he's being Matthew, he's not doing anything different, he's not doing anything outside of the norm for Matthew. And then we have Jesus, you know, passing, you know, through that area and he sees Matthew and he sees Matthew sitting in his booth and he goes up to Matthew. And I want you to notice something Matthew was just being Matthew.

Speaker 1: 5:47

Jesus is the one who initiated this, jesus is the one who went up to Matthew. Jesus is the one who spoke to Matthew and Jesus had two words. You know, we translate it into English and it says follow me. Jesus says follow me, jesus says follow me and hallelujah. That's a miracle, my friend. Humanly speaking, that is a miracle in itself To have the Lord interrupt you, to have the Lord come into you know, your situation, come into your life. You're just going about your day, you're just being yourself, because you can't really be anyone else. You're just being yourself and you're doing what you do and going about whatever it is you're doing, and to have the Lord. Come into that and get a word to you directly from him. To get a word to you from him, my friend. That's how salvation begins.

Speaker 1: 6:56

That is how salvation begins because, humanly, we go about in our sin. We, you know, humanly, apart from Jesus, apart from the Lord, apart from being born again before you are born again, before a person, a man, a woman or a child is born again, before that, all we have is our sin. All we have is our own ideas about what is good and what is bad, what is good and what is wicked, what is good and what is evil. We have our own judgments on that and that's. Apart from the Lord, all we have is the lust of the flesh and the lust of the eyes and the pride of life. That's all that we have Before being born again. We are lost and in the truest lust of the eyes and the pride of life, that's all that we have Before being born again.

Speaker 1: 7:53

We are lost In the truest sense of the word. We are lost. We are alienated from God. We are far away from God. We are far away from Adam and Eve before the fall, when there was no sin hindering that relationship. There was no sin hindering Adam's relationship with Eve, eve's relationship with Adam. No sin between Adam Eve and God. And there's just living in God, there's just walking and talking with him, there's just, you know, hearing him and loving him and being loved by him and receiving what he gives, receiving his provision, receiving his word, and there's no sin in between that. And that's why we say you know, people apart from the Lord, people who are not born again, people who are yet in their sins, that's lostness. That's lostness because you're alienated from God. You're alienated from the Father and the Son and the Holy Ghost. You're alienated from holiness, you're far away from them. And so what does the Lord do? What has the Lord done and what does he do today? We've got a picture of it here in Matthew.

Speaker 1: 9:07

Matthew is a tax collector. Tax collectors were not known for being honest. Some of them were known for being violent. They were known for theft. They were known for extortion. They were known for cruelty, for cruelty.

Speaker 1: 9:35

And yet we have Jesus going up to a man who is in his sin. Matthew is sitting behind a table, he's sitting in a booth and Jesus goes up to him. Matthew doesn't go up to Jesus. No, jesus goes up to him. And my friend, that is what the Lord does today. And he does that through the church, as we who are born again, blood-washed, spirit-filled, jesus-loving people, jesus-preaching people, we preach the Word of God and all of a sudden that person's not interacting with us per se, but the Lord starts to move in that interaction and the Lord starts to draw people to salvation. And he draws people to salvation who need to be saved, and we've always got to keep that in sight. And we've always got to keep that in sight. The Lord draws people to salvation because people need to be saved. You know, if you go down a little bit further in this interaction, go down to verse 13. Part of what Jesus says. He says I am not come to call the righteous but sinners to repentance. This is what the Lord does.

Speaker 1: 10:50

The Lord interrupts the life of a sinner. He interrupts the life of a liar. He interrupts the life of a thief. He interrupts the life of a fornicator, an adulterer, an adulteress, a whoremonger, a whore. He interrupts that. He interrupts, you know, someone who's into drunkenness, who's into idolatry, who's blaspheming. You know who's even cursing his name, and the Lord interrupts that.

Speaker 1: 11:21

The Lord, in a sense, and we've got a human picture of it. You know Jesus is in the flesh. You know he's on his way to the cross and he humanly goes up to Matthew and he humanly speaks to Matthew. Now that interaction happens today. It happens in the spirit, we don't. You know Jesus is seated at the right-handed father and Jesus is coming again. And yet, humanly, jesus didn't come up to me. No, there was a man preaching a message and the Lord, through that message, spoke to me in a way that I could not shake off anymore. And maybe he's doing that as you're listening to this broadcast. He's going. He's saying you know, I know about the sin.

Speaker 1: 12:07

I am holy, I am good, I am just, I am love and I love you. I know about your sin, I love you and I want to save you. I don't want to see you in hell. I don't want to to to you know, um, to see you spend a moment in hell. I don't want to see you spend a moment with my wrath being poured out on you. But I love you. You are in your sin right now. I love you. I went to a cross for you, I died for you. I became your sin, I bore your wrath. I took hell in your place. I died the death that you should die, and I'm risen again and I'm here telling you.

Speaker 1: 12:55

I want you to be with me. I want you to be under my grace. I want you to be forgiven. I want you to be healed. I want you to be born again. I want you to be out of your sin. I want you to be in relationship with me. I want to make you new. I want to walk with you, talk with you, lead you, be your Lord, be your King, be your Savior, and I want you to be saved. I want you to be born again and I want you to be forgiven. I want you to be with me. Are you going to come? Are you going to believe me? Are you going to come? Are you going to believe me? Are you going to believe on me? Are you going to call upon me? Are you going to call upon me?

Speaker 1: 13:37

And if you want that today, if Jesus is showing you that and you want that today, call upon his name. Call upon his name. Ask Jesus to be saved. Ask Jesus to be born again. Let that need and that desire and that yes, lord, in your heart come out into some words to him. Call upon the name of the Lord. That's what we, you know, and that's a glorious thing, my friend. And what we see in Matthew. We see someone. Jesus says follow me, and Matthew arose. He arose and followed him. Matthew was not only willing to listen, but Matthew believed, and that belief led to some action, in a major way. Matthew just walked away from collecting taxes and he joined with Jesus and he followed him as a disciple.

Speaker 1: 14:41

And folks, you know, when Jesus speaks, folks either follow him or walk away from him. People either follow him or resist him. People either follow him or argue with him. People, you know, there's one or the other, but it's in a way, you know, being willing to sit down and listen is really only a starting place. It's amazing and it's good and it's awesome.

Speaker 1: 15:15

And yet, when Jesus says something, it's not about just hearing it with our ears. It's not about just hearing it with the ears, but what goes on in the heart, what goes on in the will, what goes on in you personally when Jesus speaks to you, is it an excited and an amen and a glory and a hallelujah and a yes, lord, and a let's go, lead on, lord, and lead me. And we're following and we're acting and we're moving, and humanly that's, you know, in many, many cases certainly in my case it did but it requires major human changes. It might require you moving from one place to another. It might require you going from one job to another. It might require you know some major require you going from one job to another. It might require you know some major major changes in your home, in your family.

Speaker 1: 16:12

You know, in just day-to-day life, but if Jesus is calling you, you know, you're believing and you're hearing and you're excited and you're following. Is that what goes on in you? Or is there this argument and resistance and, you know, maybe even a frustration or this ungodly fear comes up. What goes on in you when Jesus speaks? What goes on with you when you interact with him and hear from him? And may it be following, may it be believing, may it be that you know the Lord wants that and I want that for you, amen.

Speaker 1: 16:50

And if it's not, you need to see that and see it in love and know that the Lord loves you and the Lord is speaking to you and he is King of kings and he's Lord of lords. He is the highest authority there is. There's none equal to him and certainly none higher than him, not in heaven or in earth or below the earth or anything like that, but Jesus is Jesus, the Father is the Father, the Spirit is the Spirit, the Lord is the Lord and he's the highest authority that there is and, in addition to that sort of you know, all rolled into that, if you will he is love, he speaks in authority and he is love and he is holy and he is good and he is pure and he's just and he's precious and he's wonderful counselor. Mighty God, he's Prince of Peace, he's Lord. Mighty God, he's Prince of Peace, he's Lord of Lords, he's Everlasting Father. And this is the Lord who's speaking to you. This is the Lord who's speaking to you and he's good and he's faithful to every promise that he ever has made and every promise that we have in this word of God.

Speaker 1: 18:28

That is not. It's still in the process of coming to pass, but we haven't seen the fulfillment of it yet. You know, even our salvation is that way. We have been saved and we are saved, and yet scripture says we are going to be saved and we don't yet have a new body. We don't yet see Jesus face to face. We haven't sat down at the marriage supper of the lamb yet, but, my friend, it's coming. My friend, you know the Lord is bringing it to pass. He's bringing it to pass in our day and he's bringing it to its fullness. You know, from our perspective it's in the future and this is the God who's talking to you. He's not an idol, he's not deaf and he's not mute. You know he's not impotent, he's not mute, you know he's not impotent, he's not vain, but he is the living God and he's the one who's speaking to you and he's speaking to you in a position of, you know, holy, authoritative love and absolute, perfect goodness. He's the one who's saying follow me, and may you follow him today, and amen and glory.

Speaker 1: 19:50

You know, I want to thank you again for being a part of this program today. Thank you for sharing these again in your cities, in your towns, in your countries and in your cultures. Thank you for helping us reach so many people around the world. Please continue to do that. Interact with us. Redeeminglostatichloudcom.

Speaker 1: 20:11

We are a ministry of Grace Baptist Tabernacle and we're a local church in the city of King, north Carolina, and you can see our website at gbtministriescom. Gbtministriescom Service times and service locations are there and we would love to see you in those services, as the Lord calls you. We would love to see you in those services even if you've got across a lot of miles, even if you've got across an ocean or two to get here. But we want you to know that you're not only welcome but you're also expected, and so come and interact with us in person. Come and meet us in person. You'll find our address there gbtministriescom. And thank you again for being a part of the program and I look forward to our next broadcast and in the meantime, may the Lord continue to richly bless all of us. Amen, thank you.