Follow Me

When Jesus walked along the shores of the Sea of Galilee, He didn't find men looking for a new career. He found ordinary fishermen with jobs, responsibilities, and plans. Yet with two simple words,"Follow Me", everything changed.

In this message from Matthew 4:18-22, Pastor Jason Barnett explores how Jesus still interrupts ordinary lives and calls ordinary people to extraordinary purposes. Discover why following Jesus isn't about having the whole map, but trusting the One who is leading.

If you've ever felt too busy, too broken, too ordinary, or even too late, this message is for you.

Jesus still walks along the shores of ordinary lives and calls ordinary people to extraordinary purposes.

Linkoln shares his story on why he started coming to Ravenna Church of the Nazarene and shares why you should consider doing the same.

Ravenna Church of the Nazarene
530 Main Street, Ravenna, KY 40472

Transcript

Pastor Jason 0:00

Four fishermen had jobs, families, and plans for their future. Then Jesus walked by and interrupted ordinary life with two simple words. Follow me. Are you willing to drop everything, leave it behind, and follow him? I'm Pastor Jason Barnett, and this is the Dirt Patcherman Podcast. Life has a way of filling our schedules with responsibilities, plans, and expectations. And most of us, we're not looking for major changes. We're just trying to make it through another week. But what happens when Jesus interrupts ordinary life and calls us to something more? Now, whether you're listening on your commute, listen sitting on a porch or just catching this episode between a hundred other things, I think this message is an important reminder that Jesus always had a habit of meeting ordinary people in ordinary places. And if you've ever wondered whether you're too busy, too broke, and too ordinary, or maybe even too late, then I think this message is for you. So grab your Bible if you have one, and let's head to the shores of the Sea of Galilee and see what happened when Jesus simply said, Follow me. Now last last week I didn't realize this at the time, but it was kind of an important milestone in my life. Well, kind of an anniversary of a milestone. Last Sunday marked my four-year anniversary of me ordaining an elder in the Church of the Nazarene. I completely didn't miss it until last week. I looked and kind of like, oh man, that's been four years already. I mean, it took 20 years to get to that point, but we're four years in. That's a journey that began 23 years ago when I was just 16 years old. And that's, you know, before that point, you know, I told you I was 16 years old, and like every 16-year-old, I had my life figured out at that point. I knew exactly what I was gonna do. I was gonna go to college, I was gonna get a degree in education, I was either gonna teach history class or English. Somebody might laugh at the English one, but I do like to write. You know, so it was one of those two. But that wasn't the real objective. Teaching wasn't the real objective. I thought if I can get a degree in education, then that's gonna get me don't worry where I can coach football. That was the goal. And so that's why I was preparing my life for up to that point. That was the plan, that was the dream, but God interrupted that plan. And I might say I'm not here to tell you that you know Jesus appeared to me on the road to Dunkin' Donuts, or or I heard this audible voice telling me to tell me that this is what he wanted me to do. There was this steady pressure in my life where I knew what God was telling me he wanted me to do. And I I I wish I could say I accepted it right there in the spot. I said, Yeah, God, yes, here I am, send me out. That's not me. I said, God, you've got the wrong person. There are other people that are smarter than me. There are other people that are that are bolder than I am. There's people that are more spiritual than I am, and there are people that actually like other people more than I do. But that call wouldn't go away, no matter how much I tried to step it down. And I might when I say when I said yes to Jesus, said, Yeah, I will go and preach your word. Yes, I'll be a pastor. I wish I could tell you, Jesus handed me a roadmap and said, Here you go, this is what your life is gonna look like. But you didn't. I had no idea that, you know, it's been 12 years since I left my hometown. I didn't realize that leaving then I was going to live in four different states and minister in seven different churches. I could I would have never seen any of that come. And I probably would have said, God, you know, I'm a person that doesn't like change, so I'm not doing that. Okay? You're not gonna send me someplace and stick me there for a while, I don't want any part of it. But God didn't give me any itineraries, He just said something. All he said to me was, follow me. Now, the good news is that I I'm not alone in that experience, and so that the gentleman we're gonna talk about in our message today in our passage come from Matthew chapter 4. And they were very much the same way. Jesus, they are going about their ordinary lives, doing their ordinary jobs, and Jesus comes in and interrupts it. And that's what we're gonna be looking at today, Matthew chapter 4. I'm gonna be reading verses 18 through 22. It says, as Jesus walked alongside the Sea of Galilee, he saw two brothers, Simon, who is called Peter, and Andrew, throwing nets into the sea because they were fishermen. Come, follow me, he said, and I will show you how to fish for people. Right away they left their nets and followed him. Continuing on, he saw another set of brothers, James the son of Zebedee, and his brother John. They were in a boat with Zebedee their father repairing their nets. Jesus called them, and immediately they left the boat and their father and followed him. This is the word of God for the people of God. Thanks be to God. Now, if you've studied the Gospel of Matthew at all, maybe you haven't, but this passage falls in a really interesting place in the Gospel of Matthew. So, you know, Matthew opens with this big long genealogy at chapter one, and it talks about Jesus, how Jesus was coming into the world. But then you skip ahead to four, Jesus is baptized and then immediately led into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil. That's how Jesus started his earthly ministry. When Jesus starts his earthly ministry, and the verses just before this, it tells us what Jesus preached. Jesus' message was very simple. He said, or he said, repent, for the kingdom of God is near. And what's really funny about that is Jesus is the kingdom of God. So he says, the kingdom of God is near. It's like he's saying, it's standing right here in front of you. Then immediately in the next chapter after our passage is the famous, Jesus' famous Sermon on the Mount. And there's been many sermons preached on this one sermon that Jesus preached. That's Matthew 5 and 7. And actually, what Jesus is doing in that Sermon on the Mount is he's sitting down and he's teaching these same disciples that he calls in Matthew 4. Other people gather around to listen, but the disciples he has to sit down and pay attention. So that's kind of where we're at here. But what's interesting is before any of the teaching happens, before any of the understanding happens for the disciples, this passage that we just read is what takes place. Jesus calls these four to be his disciples before they understand what being a disciple of Jesus is all about. So here we go. Matthew chapter 4. In verse 18, it describes Jesus discovering Peter and Andrew. It's almost like Jesus just on a nature walk by the sea, right? And he sees these two brothers there. Again, uh Peter and Andrew, their life was not described as simple, right? There's nothing simple about going on. Matthew doesn't give us much of a description at all, except for that these two men were fishermen. And that they were dropping their nets in the water, doing what fishermen do, which is trying to catch fish and creating stories to tell about the ones that got away. That's what fishermen do. These are just two brothers busy with ordinary life. Matthew gives us no reason why Jesus noticed them. Or why he beg he called these two brothers. He just simply says, Follow me. Jesus comes into their life and he interrupts their everyday normal activity and says, Follow me. And he begins building God's kingdom with these two common people. Now here in Sunday school this morning, I kind of stole my thunder on this part, but that's okay. Verse 19 it tells us Jesus says, Come follow me and I will show you how to fish for people. This was unusual. This wasn't how things normally usually when a young man wanted to uh wanted to be taught more, wanted to learn from a rabbi, he would go the rabbi and follow the rabbi around. That's not what happens here. Peter and Andrew, they weren't looking for a teacher, they were looking for fish. And Jesus comes along and says, Come follow me, and I'm gonna teach you how to fish for people. It was Jesus who pursued them. These ordinary fishermen. Again, Jesus doesn't say, hey, go get your life for it, clean yourself up. Hey, here's the here's the church manual, read it, memorize it before you fly. He doesn't say that, he just says, Follow me, and I will make you fishers of men. I will show you how to fish for people. Jesus, instead of giving him orders, he says, he gives him a promise saying, I will show you how to do it. Follow me. In verse 20, Matthew tells us that right away, there's no hesitation, there's no stopping to consider the consequences, there's no counting the cost. Peter and Andrew simply drop their nets and follow Jesus. That's crazy. These ordinary people, this teacher that they didn't even know that they wanted to file. They see it. There's something about Jesus that says, you know what, I'm gonna trust this high enough to leave it all behind. Let me go on to verse 21. It says that Jesus was not done with on that shoreline yet, was he? He already called two. He said, Peter and Peter and Andrew, come follow me, but he wasn't done. He's still walking on that shoreline. In verse 21, it says he sees two more brothers sitting in the boat with their dad. Now they're fishermen, but they're not fishing yet. Their nets are messed up, so they gotta fix it. I'm one of the things it was those bait gasters that are famous for fishing now. Then they gotta use your thumb to slow it down. I'd love to figure one of those out. You know, and if you don't do it right, you get this big old crow's nest. And then you gotta cut all the line off and start over to fix it. That's why I don't use those. So I'd like to think that's what was happening. But they're sitting in their boat with their dad, and Jesus sees them. And one of the things we know about James and John is these were these were sons in somewhat of a wealthy family because their dad didn't just have some of the other gospels that tells us they didn't just have one boat, they had boats. They had several. These were sons in a wealthy family, and that that man in this culture that they they were expected to carry on their family name. Their dad Zebedee had a reputation, they were expected to live up to that reputation. They had an inheritance in that family, they had boats waiting for jobs lined up, expectations, their identity was already established for them. But again, they're common people, just doing what they did every day, and they intended to do the next thing until Jesus came along. Jesus interrupts their lives and calls for them to follow. And these two brothers leave behind their father, leave behind their guarantees of the future, and these good things in their life for something better. All because Jesus looked at him and said, Follow me. Right? When you come to place your faith in Jesus, it's not I I I'm gonna keep doing life, I've always done it, I'm gonna add Jesus on top of the pile. That's not the way it goes. When you hear Jesus calling your name, he's coming to interrupt your life as you know it. Jesus still walks along the shores of ordinary lives and calls ordinary people to extraordinary purposes. Jesus hasn't changed. He still does the same thing. They're not off gambling, they're not off doing these simple things, they're just doing what working people do. Doing their jobs. But Jesus came to them interrupted in life and said, follow me. And something about that, something about Jesus saying, follow me, and something about the promise Jesus gives him of I will show you what how to do, I will transform you. Something about that gave Peter and Andrew, James and John enough trust to get out of the boat and leave everything behind and follow Jesus. We realize those we focus on those four people in the story. Do you realize there's five? Five people in that story? There's Peter, Andrew, James and John, and then there's Zebony. Zebony's the father. So many times we read this and we gloss over Zebony's being there. But Zebony is there in the same way that Andrew and Peter are in the same way that James and John are there. In the same way that James and John, Peter and Andrew hear Jesus say, Come follow me. Zebede heard the same thing. Now the scripture doesn't tell us, it just says he came to call them. It could be implying more than just the boys. It could be implying Zebedee the father, Zebedee who had amassed this wealth, who built this great reputation. This Zebedee who had built a life and a career for himself. Jesus could have been coming to him the same way as the other boys saying, Come follow me. But other than unlike the sons, unlike Peter and Andrew, Zebedee doesn't get up and leave. Because the cost seemed too high to him. See, we have a choice whether or not we're gonna follow Jesus. And the question is, do we trust him enough to do so? Peter and Peter, Andrew, James, and John, they left their boats, they left their father, they left their expectations, they trusted Jesus enough to do so immediately, without hesitation, without considering anything. They said, Yes, yes, you are enough, I'm gonna follow you. Now, most of us, we're not fishermen by trade, right? We supposed to go fishing, we found worms at the watering hole. And you know why it's called fishing, right? Because if you actually caught a bunch of fish, it'd be called catching. Well, most of us here, we are we're moms and dads. We're grandparents and grandkids. Our lives are spent teaching in classrooms, working in fields, working in factories, working in offices. Maybe we're retired, maybe we're not, but we are busy people with plans and responsibilities. What do you do with that? Again, Jesus is saying, Follow me because he's not expecting you to add him on top of the pile of everything. If Jesus says to him, follow me, it's interrupting your life as you know it. He's saying, we are here to reorder things and put things in order. Why? Because Jesus is the same God that spoke into the nothingness, right? And it tells us in Genesis that in the beginning there there was God. And then there was this nothingness, but there's chaos kind of in this void. If God speaks into that chaos and he brings order out of it, that is our life. And Jesus is saying, Follow me, because your life, I'm going to bring order out of the chaos that is your life. But the only way that's gonna happen is if you put your trust in me and put me at the center of everything. That's what it means when it says put when the Bible tells us put God first, put Jesus first. It's not like first on the checklist, the number two. It's it's it's a it's the idea of proton. God has a little concern about that. It's a an idea of a proton which is at the center of a of a an atom. And everything goes around it. That's what we're called to do. We're called to put Jesus at the center of everything and orient our lives around him. See, but the problem is we've convinced ourselves that we are too ordinary to do that. That Jesus doesn't pick people like you. That's what I said, right? You don't want me? I don't like people. You think we're too ordinary. We think all our grades weren't good enough. Believe me, if I can do it, anybody can do it. You think we're too busy, right? Like I just have too much in my life right now to do this whole Jesus thing. And like Zebody, right? Like, let me just find like I've got these votes, right? I've got all these people that's I'm employing that they're dependent upon me. I can't go anywhere. Sometimes we say, I'm too broken, I am just too messed up for God to take and use my. You say I'm too old to be useful. Really? Daniel was in the 70s when the book of Daniel was written. You think all those things about ourselves, especially when it comes to building God's kingdom, right? We think, I can't do it. I'm just too ordinary. I'm too broken. All these different things of why we can't do it. We're kind of like Moses, right at the burning bush. God says, I want you to go tell Pharaoh, let my people go. Moses, like, I can't even talk to him. And God's like, I don't care. Here, I'm gonna send somebody to help you along the way. But but you're going. Jesus has never been looking for extraordinary people. He's not looking for the people that have it all figured out. He's not looking for the people that have all the answers. He's not looking for the perfect fit for a perfect situation. Jesus saying, follow me, and I will make you fishers of men. Follow me and I will show you how to do it. Jesus calls ordinary moms and dads. He calls grandpas and grandmas, kids and teens to follow him. See, the same Jesus who walked beside the Sea of Galilee still walks with his people. He walks in our midst. And just as Jesus called fishermen, he calls those of us who are sinners. He says, Follow me. The one who went to the cross and died for us, is still saying to people, like you and me, follow me and I will show you how to do it. I will make you fishers of men. Now again, I'm talking a lot about being called to ministry, but this passage is about more than that. It's just about saying, Yes, Jesus, here I am. It's about letting go of all the things that might hinder you and keep you from seeking and doing what God is calling you to do. You can come up with all the excuses. You can sit down. I'm a guy that'll make out pros and cons lists and figure out, hey, is this worth the effort? But here's the thing when God tells me to do something, if it doesn't matter what's on the con list, it means if God's calling you to do it, you trust Him with it. God will meet you in it. That's what God did when I the second church I was a youth pastor at. I was moving from Colorado to Pennsylvania. In Colorado, I was paid pretty decent. At least I had a paycheck, right? When we moved from Colorado to Pennsylvania, the only guarantee we had was that they had a house. They had a parson and we could live there. That was it. That was the only guarantee. When I interviewed, the only tease in that church were the pastor's dollar and two others. And I'm looking at this situation, I'm trying to call, this makes no sense. Why would we go here? And I tried looking for all these different opportunities, but God kept pulling us back to this one, and the stupid senior pastor wouldn't leave me alone. We went there and God did amazing things. He took that youth group from three kids to 40. And oh, those 40, I gotta tell you this story because it's incredible. So I I told you I've been celebrating four years of ordination. When I went before the ordination board, got approved for it. Sitting in that room at the table to vote on my ordination was the pastor who preached the kids revival at kids' camp that led me to Jesus. Only God could orchestrate that. I tell you that because now, best for us, I used to pass for this group of kids, and I had this girl, and she's a cheerleader, and she's she's your typical cheerleader. A little bit boy crazy, a little bit crazy all around, right? Kind of awkward, kind of shy, but kind of not, you know. Don't think much of it. But we just work on her, we love her for Jesus. We're there, she goes through some ups and downs. Well the coin, I learned this week that she is leading the Pittsburgh District Kids Camp. Of all the kids, I would have picked to do that. She was not the one. But Jesus did that. Wasn't Pastor Jason, it was Jesus. When she said, Yes, guy, I'll do it. Not only that, she's a special education teacher now, too. I'm just so proud. Remember, when you hear Jaden sing, I'm picking on Jaden, I don't know where she's at, but when you hear Jaden sing, one of her favorite people is Tori. Because she would watch, growing up, she would watch Tori play the piano, dance, and sing for the church. And that inspired and encouraged her. Why did God do that? Because I'm not saying God had to use me, but God, God blessed him with that opportunity, right? Because why we said yes and we went to a situation that didn't look like it made any sense. We just said yes to you, so I'll follow you. Jesus promises, I will make you into fishers of men. And I think that's important for us to know. Whatever Jesus is calling you to, he's not expecting you to figure out how to do it by yourself. He's not expecting you to do that. Jesus is saying is you just get out of the boat, you just drop the net, you come follow me, and the stuff you need to know, the transformation in you that needs to take place, guess what? I'll do it. That's my response. Your transformation is not your responsibility. Your transformation is Jesus' responsibility. But Jesus loves you, Jesus cares about you, he has a plan for you. He's not gonna abandon you to what he's telling you to, he's not gonna send you out to do it alone. He's going to go with you. Yeah, as I was preparing this message, I also thought about another friend of ours. And he shared this story with us recently. He said he was called to preach when he was 18 years old. It's a little bit older, but 18 years old, he's called to do that. But he didn't do it. He didn't do it. He said, God, that's not that's not for me. And so he went off and he lived his life and he he taught in school for like 40 years. He had a family, he retired. And when he retired, the voice of the Holy Spirit came back and said, Hey, remember that conversation we had when you were 18? And he fought it. He said, No, God, I'm too old now, I'm past it. That's that's long, God. But Jesus said, I didn't I didn't ask whether you were ready. I didn't ask if he thought you messed your life, but I said, Will you follow me? And this man, after he's retired, after his kids are grown, he accepted God's call in his life. Now he's pastoring the church and he's calling Nicole and I asking us questions to prepare for his ordination interview. That's what God did. So again, if you think I've messed my life up, there's no way God can use me. I have beautiful news for you. You're not that powerful. Jesus can still take you, He can still transform you, He can still use your life, even when you've said no, even when you run away. And when you run away, Jesus is not meeting it. I told you so speech. He's not waiting to bump you, and he said, guess what? Let's get started. It's about the willingness to get up out of the boat. Jesus, he called four fishermen, ordinary people. 23 years ago, he he just called a 16-year-old who wanted to coach football. Jesus called a man who denied his call and retired. And today Jesus is still calling people, and he's still calling people here in Ravenna and Estel County. He's still calling people, saying, Hey, here I am, follow me. The same Jesus who gave his life for you, the same Jesus who is doing a good work in your life, he's transforming you, he's saying to you today, follow me. But here's the big question Are you willing to drop everything and follow me? Now again, I'm not asking you to quit your job and move to Timbuktu or Deep Duck Daniels Africa unless God's telling you to do that. That's not what I'm saying today. What I'm saying is whatever it is that's whatever, whatever it is you're saying, why I can't do it, whatever is standing between you and getting out of the boat, whatever net you're holding in your hand, are you willing to let it go and get up and walk out of the boat and follow Jesus? It's scary, right? There's no itinerary, there's no plan about it. It's just, do you but do you trust Jesus enough? Do you trust that Jesus who loved you enough to die on the cross for you to get up out of the boat, to let go of what you're holding on, and follow him? Whatever good things Jesus has placed in your life that you're clinging to, saying, God, I'm just so afraid if I let these go, well, it's gonna happen to him. But Jesus is saying, Do you trust me enough to let go of the good things for the better things? Are you willing to drop everything, leave it behind, and follow Jesus? Maybe for you, that just means coming to salvation. Maybe it means repentance about something. A grudge of bitterness you've been carrying. Jesus saying, What you got about? You've been carrying all of this out of bitterness for long enough. I want you to drop it. Maybe it means finally saying yes to what Jesus has been telling you to do all along. Funny story. When we were in Manonga Hill, just before we left, we had a Mother's Day service. And give in mind, I'm an associate, but I'm still, as an associate, I was still as malving then as I am now. And I love Raymond to death, my senior pastor. And he's kind of like a he's the guy I call when you knew that dad conversation, you know. But he asked me to go sit in the nursery and work with the kids for this mother's. Like, nope, I won't do it. He's like, but I'm I'm your boss, I'm telling you, it's like, I don't care if you're my boss, I'm not doing it. You can fire me. And I had already announced my resignation. It's like we gotta just move me out here. Fast forward. The same guy who said no to working in the nursery and working with the kids program is leading kids from here on 30 days. It's saying yes to what Jesus is telling you to do. He's not asking you to have it figured out. He's not even asking you to be good at it. He's just saying, will you trust me enough to get out of the boat? Will you follow me? Maybe he's telling you asking you to finally say yes to something he's been speaking to your heart about for years. But whatever it is today, take the first step out of the boat. That first step is the hardest. Whether it's for salvation, whether it's for repentance, whether it's for whatever you're saying yes to, it's being willing to step out and say, Jesus, I trust you. Drop the nets you're holding on to. Because here's the thing: Jesus is walking the aisles of the sanctuary today. We can't see him, but his presence is here. His presence is here. He's going up and down the aisles. He's walking along the shorelines of our lives, and as he's walking, he's saying to us, follow me. He's saying, Follow me. It seems so simple. But Jesus calling ordinary people like you and I to extraordinary purposes, but we don't we don't get to the extraordinary purposes. We don't get to see what Jesus has for us until we drop what we're doing, stop what we're carrying, we yell about and we follow him. As you've been listening, maybe you spent this whole message thinking about what Jesus might be asking you. Maybe he's been speaking to your heart about salvation. Maybe he's calling you to repentance somewhere. Or maybe there's something he's been stirring in you for years, and you've just kept saying someday. Here's the thing. You don't have to have the whole map figured out. Peter and Andrew didn't. James and John didn't. They just took the next step. So whatever net you're holding on to right now, whatever boat you're sitting in, maybe today is the day to take the first step. You don't have to become extraordinary before you answer. Jesus always called ordinary people and then done extraordinary things through them. So if Jesus speaking to your heart today, don't ignore him. Get out of the boat, drop the net, and follow him. Let's pray. Lord Jesus, thank you for loving ordinary people like us. Thank you for walking into our lives and inviting us to follow you. Give us the courage to trust you with our future, our fears, and our plans. And whenever you are speaking to our hearts today, help us to respond with faith and obedience. Teach us to trust you one step at a time, knowing that you are faithful to finish what you have begun in us. And in your name we pray. Amen. Well, thank you again for joining me on this episode of the Dirt Paths from a podcast. If this message encourages you, I'd love to hear from you. Uh you can message me. There's all kinds of different ways. There's a message, send us a message button somewhere in the show notes. You can click that. You can send you can connect with me on the Dirtpath Facebook page. Or you can just simply email me at dirtpathpastor at gmail.com. Again, that's dirtpathpastor at gmail.com. I would love to hear from you. Um no matter what is that's going on. Uh it could be this message or can be any any of the other messages. And also consider sharing this sermon on your personal Facebook page or with somebody else. Maybe this message is something that they're they've been needing. Um and also don't forget about uh I uh if you follow me, follow me on TikTok, Facebook, and things like that, because I share daily devotional videos under the Dirt Path Pastor. Um so every morning we spend a few minutes finding practical wisdom for everyday life through God's Word. So you can find those through the Dirt Path Pastor as a WordPress site as well as well as a TikTok and all that and all those things. Um and I also like to extend you the compassion of Jesus or I'm sorry. Uh if you're interested in supporting this show, one of the ways you can support this show is by hitting the subscribe button. And you can become a supporter and you can give an email you want to, but just no, uh, whatever you give, it's definitely the money going to me personally. This money is going to be given to uh it's given to the Nasrin compassionate ministries. That's a part of the Church of the NASDAQ that finds a life of Jesus and life's darker moments, and we we specifically are giving to their disaster relief uh so that way they can help those people in the darkest moments by carrying Jesus with them through the different needs. So if you want to partner with this partner with this show, give to this show, just know whatever you give, 100% is gonna go to the Nazarene Compassionate Ministries. Now remember, friend, Jesus still walks along the shores of ordinary lives and calls ordinary people to extraordinary purposes. You don't need to know every step ahead. You just need to trust the one who is calling you. Until next time, grace and peace to you in the name of Jesus. Thank you for listening to this episode of that smart podcast. It's recorded live, the Rebinat Church and that screen located at 533. If you'd like to send me a message, I'll just if we could use the link.