This transcript was generated by whisper.ai.

I want to welcome you to day five, our last day of the third week of our study
through the book of Matthew. We're looking at chapters three and four this week.
We talked these last few days about Jesus' hope for our temptations, God's way
out in our temptations, and now we're going to see Jesus calling His disciples.

In many ways, this time of preparation of John is over as we end this chapter.
John's going to move off the stage, and Jesus is going to take the whole focus.
Listen to verses 12 to 17.

When Jesus heard that John had been put in prison, He returned to Galilee.
Leaving Nazareth, He went and lived in Capernaum, which was by the lake in the
area of Zebulun and Naphtali, to fulfill what was said through the prophet
Isaiah, "Land of Zebulun and land of Naphtali, the way to the sea along Jordan,
Galilee of the Gentiles, the people living in darkness have seen a great light.
On those living in the land of the shadow of death, a light has dawned.

" From that time on, Jesus began to preach, "Repent, for the kingdom of heaven
is near. " So He takes up the message of John, the message that John had
prepared the way for because John was preaching the message that Jesus was going
to first preach. At this beginning of His ministry, He's been announced at His
baptism, "This is My Son.

" He's been baptized, He's been tempted, and now He calls disciples to serve
with Him. Disciples who He's going to pass the ministry on to when He goes to
heaven. Listen to verses 18 to 25 and what happens.

As Jesus was walking beside the Sea of Galilee, He saw two brothers, Simon
called Peter and his brother Andrew. They were casting a net into the lake, for
they were fishermen. "Come, follow Me," Jesus said, "and I will make you fishers
of men.

" At once, they left their nets and followed Him. Going on from there, He saw
two other brothers, James, son of Zebedee, and his brother John. They were in a
boat with their father Zebedee preparing their nets.

Jesus called them, and immediately they left their boat and their father, and
they followed Him. Jesus went through Galilee teaching in their synagogues,
preaching the good news of the kingdom and healing every disease and sickness
among the people. News about Him spread all over Syria, and people brought to
Him all who were ill with various diseases, those suffering severe pain and
demon possessed, those having seizures and the paralyzed, and He healed them.

Large crowds from Galilee, the Decapolis, Jerusalem, Judea, and the region
across the Jordan followed Him. So people are starting to follow Him. Tells us
here that He specifically called some to follow Him.

They're going to be His twelve disciples, but then it says He began to do
ministry and many began to follow Him. Tells us here that Jesus had His ministry
to the crowds and His ministry to the disciples. And I want to focus for a
moment on His ministry to the disciples.

In the call to the disciples, in the way He called them to begin to serve, we
learn some very important things about commitment. Now these are truths for your
life. If you want to grow in commitment, these are things you need to
understand, but they're also true in leading others to commitment.

If you want to help your children to grow in commitment, or people in your
ministry to grow in commitment, or someone in your discipling to grow in
commitment, you have to understand the nature of commitment. And Jesus teaches
us what commitment's all about here. Look at these five truths we see about
commitment in the way that Jesus called His disciples.

Truth number one is you must ask for commitment or you won't get it. You have to
ask or you won't get it. Sometimes I think that people will just sort of
automatically want to be committed.

They'll just knock on our door someday and say, "You know what? I've been
thinking about it. I want to make this huge commitment of my life.

" No, you have to ask. Look at Jesus. Did Jesus ask for commitment?

Did Jesus ask? He said, "Follow me. " Now if the Son of God in human flesh had
to ask for commitment, who are we to think that it's just going to sort of
automatically occur to people?

Now God needs people out there who are asking people to make a commitment of
faith to follow Jesus, to become followers. And then He needs people out there
who are asking people to follow on in that commitment of faith, to do more and
more in following Him. And you might think, "Who am I to ask?

" And that's the right question. Who are you to ask? You struggle with your own
commitment.

Who are you to ask? You're a servant of God. You're someone who's following Him.

And as long as you're one step ahead of somebody else in some area, you should
be asking them, "Hey, come along. Watch what it means to serve people. Watch
what it means to love people in this kind of way.

Watch what it means to pray in this kind of way. Watch what it means to let
God's Word sink into your heart in this kind of way. " You've got to ask for
commitment or you won't get it.

The second truth that we learn from the way that Jesus called His disciples is
this. The greater commitment you require, the more people will respond. Now,
sometimes we think that's not true.

We think in order to get more people to respond, we have to ask for less and
less commitment, water it down more and more, and then people will respond. But
that's not the way that it works. Actually, people are looking to make great
commitments.

People will make the greatest commitments to things like following a sports team
or being involved in a sport or following some movie star or their commitment to
some favorite movie. They're looking to make great commitments. So you don't
think, "What's the least I could possibly ask?

" You think, "What's the most that I could possibly ask? What's the greatest
thing that I could ask this person to do? " Now, I understand that sometimes you
could ask for more than a person can do.

You can't ask a five-year-old to understand certain parts of the Bible or to do
certain things that a five-year-old couldn't do. You can't ask a five-year-old
to lift a hundred-pound rock. If you really were committed, you could do that,
but you could ask them to help you carry rocks, something more than they could
do in order to help build a wall that would help a community.

They could be a part of that. They don't need to just be sitting and watching.
Why don't you carry a few?

Let's make it 10. If you carry 10, you'll be a part of this. What you do is you
ask for the greatest thing that a person could possibly do spiritually,
physically, maturity-wise.

That's what's going to get people to make commitments. Third thing that we
learned from Jesus is that there are two secrets to motivating commitment. The
two secrets to motivating commitment are be specific and show the benefits.

You be specific and you show the benefits. Jesus said, "Follow me and I'll make
you fishers of men. " Be specific.

Follow me. That's what he wanted them to do. He didn't say, "You know, someday
you might want to make a spiritual commitment of your life.

Someday you might want to get more spiritual. " No. He said, "Here's what I want
you to do.

Stop what you're doing and start doing this. " And then he said, "Here's the
benefits. I'm going to make you a fisher of men.

" We often talk about evangelism. It means being a fisher of persons or a fisher
of men. Remember the people that Jesus first asked to do this?

They were fishermen. So he was drawing for them a comparison. He was showing
them, "You're fishing for fish right now and that's a good business, but I've
got a greater calling in your life.

I've got something that I want to do in your life. I want to show you how to
fish for people, to reach people, to see a difference happen in people's lives.
" So when it comes to children or people in your business or people in your
ministry, if you want to help them to make a commitment, you have to be
specific.

You have to show the benefits. And the benefits are always in the Bible, by the
way. They're in God's promises for us, not some benefits that I make up.

They're the promises of God for us. They're the joy and satisfaction and
eternity that God has for us. And how about your life?

What specific commitment is God asking you right now? Maybe you've been
resistant to it. Maybe you need to look at the benefits, what God wants to do in
your life through that commitment.

There's a fourth thing we learned how Jesus called his disciples, and that is
people want to be committed to something that gives their lives meaning. They
desperately want to be committed to something that gives their lives meaning.
That's why when he says, "Follow me, I'll make you fishers of men," the Bible
says immediately they dropped their nets.

They followed him. Fishing for fish is one thing. For people, that gives my life
meaning.

That's what I want. Now it's interesting here. They had to leave their job in
order to fish for people.

But many of you, you need to stay in your job in order to fish for people. I
know a lot of people think, "I'm going to leave my job. I'm going to go work for
the church, and then I'll be a better evangelist.

" But the truth of the matter is, you're a far better evangelist by being out
there in that workplace, in culture, where people can see your love for Christ.
They can see your integrity. That's where you're the best example of all.

So this idea that you have to leave your job to fish for people. They had to do
it because they were the first disciples. They had to spend three years with
him.

And God may be calling you to do that as well. But most of you, he wants you to
stay where you are in order to be able to give your life meaning. You think,
"I'm on a meaningless job.

Where's my life going to have meaning? I'm fishing every day, and I don't like
fishing. " Well, the meaning is going to come from the people in that job.

And if nothing else, you can start praying for those people. You can start
praying for their salvation, for hope, for healing in their lives. And that's
where the meaning is going to come from.

People want to be committed to something that gives their lives meaning. And
then a fifth truth we learned from the way that Jesus called people. You build
on commitment rather than towards commitment.

Now let me tell you what I mean by that. You build on a commitment that
someone's already made and not towards a commitment that you hope might
eventually come. There were a few times in Jesus' ministry when Jesus called
somebody and they said no.

A rich young ruler type who would say no and walk away. And Jesus didn't chase
after them. He didn't chase after them and say, "No, no, I really want you to
follow me.

" He'd be a great follower, so let's talk about it some more. Let's talk about
what it means. He didn't get caught up in these conversations of somebody who
had already decided they weren't going to make the commitment.

He called everyone to a commitment, but then he built into the lives of those
who had made that commitment. Now this might sound obvious, but I have to tell
you honestly, some of my biggest mistakes in ministry have come right here at
this point, where I could see someone's potential. I could see what it would
mean for them to come to know Christ or to grow in Christ.

And instead of spending time with the people who had already made a commitment,
discipling them so they could grow, I spent too much time trying to get a
commitment out of somebody who kept saying no. If someone said no, they have the
right to say no. And I have the responsibility to keep loving them, but I can't
build into their lives until they've said yes.

I can't make happen what they're saying no to happening. In fact, that just
makes them more and more resistant. So you build on commitment in people's
lives.

Now as you look at this, this truth about commitment, the questions are, first,
what commitment is Jesus asking of me? What commitment maybe is he asking in
your life right now that gives your life meaning? You've been caught up just in
the routine of life.

There's something he's asking you to do. What is it? What is it?

And then the second question is, how can God use me to motivate commitment in
other people's lives, in my family, my work, my church? Let's take a minute to
talk to him together. Our Father, we bring our hearts to you right now and we
say we want to live a life of commitment.

We want to say yes to you. Yes to you in this area of spending time in your
Word. Yes to you in this area of prayer.

Yes to you in this area of integrity. Yes to you in this area of saying yes to
you in light of that temptation. We want to say yes to you.

We want to live that life. You made us to live that life, to give life meaning.
We want to say yes to you in the midst of a boring job by praying for the people
that are there, serving the people that are there.

So Lord, we want to live with commitment, but we also pray you would help us to
encourage others to live with commitment, with our example and with our words,
in our family, at our work, in our church, in our ministry. Lord, use us to
encourage godly commitments in other people's lives, not because we're perfect
but because we're following you and we want to help other people to follow you
too. Use us, we pray, in Jesus' name, amen.

Make sure to join us next week. We're going to begin looking together at the
Sermon on the Mount. We'll begin by looking at what makes us truly fulfilled.